USA > Virginia > The planting of the Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia : prior to the organization of Winchester Presbytery, December 4, 1794 > Part 2
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3. Every mention of Potomack Church in the Minutes of Presbytery is attended with circumstances which show that it must have been there or in that vicinity.
4. The mention of it in the Governor's letter agrees with this theory of its location better than with any other.
4. The fact is of no little significance that, as soon as the name of
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IN THE NORTHERN NECK OF VIRGINIA.
Shepherdstown is introduced into the Presbyterial Records as designating a church, the name Potomack disappears.
6. But besides this strong presumptive evidence as to the location of "Potomack," we have this further testimony that is direct and positive: A gentleman residing in Winchester, Va., in 1891 and nearly ninety years of age, but in full possession of his mental faculties, whose youth was spent near Shepherdstown, testified that, in his boyhood, the common name for the village, through the surrounding country, was "Potomac."
These considerations and facts would seem to be conclusive in deter- mining the location of the church called "Potomack, in Virginia." And if, as seems so probable, this name is another and the correct one for "Po- tomoke in Virginia," then it determines the long-mooted question as to the location of "the people" who in 1720 were reported by the Rev. Mr. Mc- Gill to have been "put into church order" by him ; and it also fixes the place where the second duly constituted Presbyterian Church in Virginia was planted.
But to this conclusion it is objected that any testimony that would lo- cate "Potomoke" anywhere in the Valley of Virginia "is inadmissable, because there were no white inhabitants of the Valley anywhere along the Potomac or Shenandoah previous to about the year 1733" (Foote's Sketches, Vol. I., p. 357). If this statement is correct, our conclusion must, of course, be abandoned. But the statement not only affirms more than the facts will justify, but what the facts themselves actually contra- dict. The early historians of the Valley evidently thought that the first settlements made were on the headwaters of the Opecquon. And it is probably true that there were no white inhabitants there "previous to about the year 1733." But it by no means follows that there were none nearer the Potomac. It must be remembered that the emigration to the Valley was from the North, crossing the Potomac. And no sufficient reason has ever been given, and none can be given, why the first settlers should pass over the beautiful, fertile and well-watered lands of Jefferson and Berkeley Counties-" the finest in the world"-and select lands fifty miles or more further south that offered no superior advantages in respect either to productiveness or beauty, if those more accessible and better lands were still unoccupied.
But there is authority for saying that these sharp-witted men were not guilty of this folly. Evidence is not wanting that much of that land was already claimed. A considerable body of Quakers had settled about the Ross (now Washington) Spring, 6 miles north of Winchester, and had
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THE PLANTING OF PRESBYTERIANISM
built the "Hopewell Meeting House" several years earlier than the settle- ment on the upper Opecquon. There has been preserved the certificate, or record, of the marriage of John Ross to Lydia Hollingsworth at the Hope- well Meeting House, Orange County, Va., October 11, 1735 ; and to this certificate are signed the names of 47 witnesses. This number is very sig- nificant. That there should have been so many present (adults, of course) as certifying witnesses to a marriage, indicates a much larger population than could probably have been gathered in one community in the space of only two years. Morgan Morgan and his company had made their homes on Mill Creek, in Berkeley County, not later than 1726. Norris, in his History of the Lower Valley, gives uncontradicted traditions of various settlements still nearer the Potomac before the immigration flowed over into Frederick County. It is certain there were settlers on the Maryland side of the Potomac as early probably as 1720. Dr. Cameron, of Prince- ton University, has the deed for mill property lying opposite Shepherds- town, purchased by his ancestors in 1726. The mill had been used for some years before the purchase was made. Of course, there were people there whose wants the mill was intended to supply. And with only a nar- row and fordable river to be crossed we know of no reason why the settle- ment should have been confined to the Maryland side.
But there is additional proof that there were "white inhabitants in this Valley previous to about 1733," Governor Spottswood, the ablest of all the colonial Governors of Virginia, signalized his term of office by earnest efforts to secure settlements on his western frontier, and thereby afford protection to Eastern Virginia against the incursions of the Indians. His success was probably not commensurate with his efforts. And yet his "Letters" show that as early as 1712, twenty years before Hite crossed the Potomac, there were settlers west of the Blue Ridge; and before the "Knights of the Horseshoe" crossed the mountains no inconsiderable num- ber of people had made their homes along the Potomac River, and "in the mountains of the Northern Neck," and even in "the fforks of the Po- tomac." The Baron De Graffenreid on his visit to "the fforks of the Po- tomac" had informed the Governor ( "Letters," pp. 152-3 and 161-2 and 8) that he had obtained important information as to the resources of that country from the people whom he met; and that one man particularly, Mr. Mitchell, a Swiss gentleman, who had traveled through all that country some years before, was convinced that it abounded in valuable minerals. The Baron himself, who had experience in mining, was persuaded that "The Forks," where he had intended to settle, was rich in mineral wealth;
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but he was discouraged from taking his colony there, by the conflicting claims to the ownership of the land made by the agents, respectively, of Lord Baltimore, the Lady Fairfax, and the British Queen. Moreover, in 1722, Governor Spottswood effected a treaty with the Indians, which, while imposing no restrictions whatever upon the movements of the whites, bound the Indians, under the severest penalties, not to cross the Potomac or the Blue Ridge, in either direction, without special permission. In the treaty itself the reason for making it is given. It was for the protection of "the, Anglo-Saxon race," which, as Charles Campbell, in his History of Vir- ginia, p. 433, says, had “ gradually extended itself, like a vapor, beyond the western base of the Blue Ridge, and collisions with the native tribes had begun to ensue." Evidently there were white inhabitants west of the Ridge and south of the Potomac at that date. Further evidence is fur- nished by the Act of Assembly of 1738, forming the county of Frederick. In that Act, the reason explicitly given for the erection of the new county is, that "great numbers of people have settled themselves of late x x on the northwest side of the Blue Ridge, whereby the strength of the col- ony, and its security, and its revenues are like to be increased." At that day, five years would not suffice for such a large increase of population as this Act acknowledges.
And there was a reason for this increase in the population of the Shen- andoah Valley, even while the Cumberland Valley was still sparsely settled. The presence of the Scotch-Irish was not welcomed in Pennsylvania. They were regarded as a "pugnacious " people, and undesirable neighbors. In 1724, James Logan, secretary of the Province, wrote of them, " It looks to me as if Ireland is to send all its inhabitants hither; for last week not less than six ships arrived x x x The common fear is that if they thus continue to come, they will make themselves proprietors of the Province. It is strange that they thus crowd where they are not wanted." Accordingly, while others were treated with kindness, these were often driven from their settlements, their cabins burned, and they told to move further on in the wilderness. Thus ejected, not a few of them moved southward, and found in Virginia that freedom from molestation which was denied them in the Province of William Penn.
But there is still more convincing evidence of an early settlement here. In the old graveyard on Elk Branch, 5 miles south of Shepherdstown, where, more than a hundred years ago, stood the ruins of a Presbyterian Church, is a tombstone, the German inscription on which, until within a few years past, was quite legible, though now, since the stone has fallen and
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THE PLANTING OF PRESBYTERIANISM
been trampled over, the inscription is partially effaced. It was erected to the memory of Katarina Beierlin, a Christian woman, and states that she died in 1707. The correctness of these figures can hardly be disputed. The Rev. Dr. John A. Scott, pastor of the Elk Branch Church in 1869, says that, in company with three other persons, he had the old stone cleaned of lichen and washed, and was then able, very satisfactorily, to · read the inscription and date of death, 1707. He further testified that three intelligent persons had previously examined the stone, and their read- ing agreed with his. Persons residing in the neighborhood have known of the existence of this stone for more than fifty years, and their understand- ing has always been that the date it gives of the woman's death is 1707. This must be taken as certain proof that white people resided there at least as early as that date. The grave of a woman, carefully marked, can mean nothing else.
Beyond all reasonable contradiction, then, there were white inhabitants in this lower Valley many years prior to the settlement of Hite on the Opec- quon, or of the Friends around Hopewell Meeting House, or of Morgan on Mill Creek. These inhabitants may have been "squatters," they probably were; but they were there. And as this fact meets and removes the only objection that is offered to the conclusion we have reached, it is not unrea- sonable to insist that that conclusion ought to be accepted as probably cor- rect. While we dare not affirm its absolute certainty, or claim that the location of " Potomoke in Virginia " is hereby established beyond all possi- ble dispute; yet we do modestly insist that, as no other location has been found for it, and as all the evidence known to us is in support of the location we have given it, until its existence in some other place is positively proven, we must be allowed to believe that the "Potomack in Virginia," of the Presbyterial Records, is the " Potomoke in Virginia," of the Synodical Rec- ords; and that the long-sought-for locality in which, in 1720, "the people of Potomoke were put into church order," is to be found at, or near, Shep- herdstown in West Virginia, and within the bounds of the Presbytery of Winchester.
Before concluding this discussion of an earlier settlement of this Valley than Kerchival allows, notice should perhaps be taken of the alleged absence of any documentary evidence of such settlement. Against our con- tentions it is claimed that there are no title deeds earlier than Hite's. This claim is disputed; but, if true, it amounts to nothing. It is based upon an entire misapprehension of the conditions then existing. For fifteen years after Hite came there were no land offices west of the Blue Ridge, from
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IN THE NORTHERN NECK OF VIRGINIA.
which titles could be obtained; and the early pioneers did not concern themselves about legal formalities, where no officers were present to enforce them. Without putting themselves to the trouble and expense of a tedious journey to a distant Court House, or to the Capital, they just took possession of any unclaimed land that suited them, and attended to securing a title afterwards. For the present, what was called a "tomahawk right " was sufficient. This consisted in girding a few trees near a spring or stream, and cutting the claimant's name in the bark. This, of course, was no right in law; but it was generally respected by other settlers, and deeds were usually given for what was claimed. When a colony, like that of Hite, was about to migrate, requiring a large tract of land, the formalities of the law were complied with, and a special grant secured, either directly from the Crown or from the authorities at Williamsburg. But when the settlers were only a family or two, no such expensive procedure was thought of. In fact, the laws of the colony provided that many classes of people could, without any expense to themselves, claim a tract of 50 acres, and when that was " planted and seated "-i. e., when any portion of it was cultivated and a building erected-they were entitled to 50 acres more. Under these conditions no very early title deeds could be expected.
And now, conceding that we may date the origin of Presbyterianism in this region as far back, at least, as 1720, what has been its history since? For a period of about seventy years it is not possible to trace this history in detail with absolute certainty. Only this is clear, that the Presbyterian population, when once immigration began, rapidly increased; and the inference is fair, and, in fact, is sustained by such meagre records as we have, as well as by uniform tradition, that these early settlers brought their Bibles and Catechisms and Confessions of Faith with them; and no sooner was a settlement effected, than measures were taken to provide themselves with the ordinances of religion. The sacrifices which this required did not deter them. Commissioners were sent hundreds of miles, at great cost of time and money, "supplicating " Synod and Presbyteries to supply them with the ministrations of the Word of God. And both Synod and Presby- tery were diligent in meeting, so far as their limited resources would enable
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THE PLANTING OF PRESBYTERIANISM
them to do it, the appeals which came to them for help. These appeals came from widely distant points; indeed, the early Synodical Records, and those of Presbytery as well, show that almost all the ministers of that day were engaged about half their time in evangelistic work; their field of labor extending from the banks of the Hudson to those of the Savannah. A few years ago, while trying to get at the early history of our church in this Lower Valley, I was asked to help prepare the history of the church in which I was born and raised-the old " Wallkill " (now " Goodwill ") church, the oldest, but one, west of the Hudson in New York. While en- gaged in this work, it was to me a matter of much interest, and also of surprise, to find that many of the ministers who assisted at the organization, and were the early supplies of the Wallkill church, were the same who visited this Valley, and preached at Opecquon, Cedar Creek, Bullskin and elsewhere.
And here let me remark, that when the standard of our faith and worship was first erected here, the Presbyterian Church in America was yet in its infancy. It assumed its ecclesiastical form in the latter part of 1705, or the beginning of 1706, by the organization of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. In 1716 this Presbytery had become so large that it was divided into four, viz: Philadelphia, New Castle, Snow Hill and Long Island, and the " Synod of Philadelphia " was constituted. Four years later the general statistics of the church, so far as known, were one Synod, four Presbyteries, and twenty-seven ministers. The number of churches and their membership cannot be given with any claim to accuracy.
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From the time of its introduction the growth of our cause in this region was steady, if not rapid. Two years after "the people of Potomoke" had been " put in church order," viz: in 1722, another representation was made to Synod, "of the earnest desire of some Protestant dissenting families in Virginia " for church privileges, " together with a comfortable prospect of the increase of our interests there;" and the Synod responded by sending three ministers to visit severally said people, and preach four Sabbaths each to them (p. 74). These ministers fulfilled their appointments, and the next year (1723) further representations were made from Virginia, and additional supplies were sent them (p. 76). At the same time "a Letter of Address" was sent by the Synod to the Governor of Virginia, evidently on behalf of these Presbyterian people.
Now, it is not said from what part of Virginia these early applications for supplies came; but from all the facts recorded it appears almost certain that they came from the Northern Neck of Virginia and possibly from this
-
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Lower Valley. They were evidently new settlements, rapidly increasing in population, and composed largely of people of Presbyterian faith, that sent the " supplications;" and these facts point almost unmistakably to the ter- ritory accupied by this Presbytery. But while we meet with some sugges- tive hints, nothing very definite-owing to loss of the New Castle Records -can be found after 1723, until about the time the colonies of Hite and Hoge settled in Frederick County. In the meantime (viz: in 1732), the Presbytery of Donegal was erected in the Cumberland Valley, and upon it, as territorially near, the supply of the destitutions here, principally, though not exclusively, devolved. This duty engaged the active attention of that Presbytery as early as 1736, though there is evidence that some of its min- isters made missionary journeys through this region earlier than that. From this time, through a period of several years, distinct record is made by both Presbytery and Synod of supplications "from different societies of our persuasion in Virginia," being taken under consideration.
It is about this time, viz: 1737, that we first meet with that expression, which, after this date, becomes familiar in both the Presbyterial and Syn- odical Records-" a supplication was received from the back parts of Vir- ginia." The expression, I think, has very generally been misunderstood. It has been supposed to designate chiefly, if not exclusively, the region now covered by our Presbytery. And as it is manifestly used with refer- ence to people who have just settled, or are just about to settle in these " back parts of Virginia," I could not see how the theory of an earlier set- tlement of this Lower Valley, than that held by Kercheval and others, could, consistently with such a meaning of this phrase, be maintained. But there are certain facts in the Record itself which show conclusively that it is Augusta County and not Frederick, that the phrase is meant to designate. In the first place, "the people of Beverly Manor," which is known to have been in Augusta, are expressly located in " the back parts of Virginia." In the second place, the supplies, sent in answer to these supplications, are directed to preach at Bullskin, Opecquon and elsewhere on their way to "the back parts of Virginia." And in the third place, the ministers sent as supplies are men who are known to have labored at that very time in Augusta County. But twenty years before Rev. John Craig, their first supply, began his labors in the Upper Valley, Rev. Daniel Mc- Gill had preached at Potomoke and "set the people in church order;" and in 1722 and I723 Rev. Hugh Conn, John Orme, William Stewart and the celebrated Johnathan Dickinson had been sent as itinerants through these lower counties.
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The first Presbyterian minister, however, west of the Blue Ridge, of whose history and fields of labor we have distinct and unquestioned knowl- edge, was Rev. Samuel Gelston, who preached at Opecquon in 1735. Mr. Gelston was born in Ireland in 1692, came, a Licentiate, to this country in 1715, was ordained in 1717, and settled at Southampton, L. I. Ten years later he removed to Maryland, where he fell under the censure of his Presbytery (New Castle). Going into the Highlands of New York, evil reports of him came back to his Presbytery, and he was suspended; but the suspension was soon removed by a commission of Synod, and he came in 1735 to Virginia. The next year application for his ministerial services was made to Presbytery "from both parts of Opekan"- i. e., from Opecquon proper, and Cedar Creek, which two churches for nearly a hundred years were associated in one pastoral charge. In answer to this application, he was appointed to visit "the new inhabitants near Opekan." If he filled this appointment it was only for a brief period; for in the fall of the same year he was dismissed from his Presbytery. He died October 22, 1782, aged 90 years.
Mr. Gelston was followed by Rev. James Anderson, one of the most distinguished of the early Presbyterian ministers in America. Born and ordained in Scotland, he left there in 1709. After preaching for brief periods at different places, he became, in 1717, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in the city of New York; but difficulties arising in his charge, he, in 1726, accepted a call to Donegal Presbytery; and eleven years thereafter (1737) we find him visiting Opecquon. This visit was made memorable by the fact that either in that year, or within the next two years, he organized our "old Opecquon Church."
From 1735 the claims of the settlers on this side the Potomac engaged the attention of the Presbytery at every session. At first, however, a se- rious bar to its efforts was found in the hostility of the Virginia Govern- ment to the worship of the "Dissenters." East of the Ridge they were persistently persecuted; and west of it they were barely tolerated. There- fore, in 1738, the Synod, at the request of Presbytery, sent a deputation, with a letter to Governor Gooch, soliciting his favor on behalf of the Pres- byterian interests of the colony. This action was taken at the instance of John Caldwell, a Ruling Elder of Chestnut Level, Pa., and the great grand- father of John Caldwell Calhoun, of South Carolina. The Rev. Mr. An- derson was deputed to bear the letter of the Synod. He was kindly re- ceived by the Governor, and his mission resulted very satisfactorily.
We can readily imagine, however, that a reason much more potent
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than the simple justice of the request, should have induced the Government to grant it. It would tend to the encouragement of immigration along the western frontier, and so contribute to the security of the older settlements. Those hardy immigrants would serve as a defense against the incursions of the Indians; and, therefore, no questions would be raised in reference to their ecclesiastical faith and order. As Gillett says, "If they could handle a rifle, or plant along the western forests a line of protection against the in- roads of hostile savages, they were sufficiently orthodox. Their distance, moreover, prevented any umbrage being taken at a dissent that did not at- tract notice, or give offence." (Vol. I., p. 106.)
Presbyterianism being thus left to plant itself west of the Blue Ridge without serious molestation from the State Church on the tidewater, more earnest efforts were made to supply these western settlements. Rev. John Thomson, the pastor of Elder Caldwell, who had visited this Valley and preached at Opecquon, proposed to his Presbytery that an 'itinerant should be sent to this region; and his brethren appointed him to this duty. But he was afterward's excused "because of the severity of the winter and the scarcity of provender." The same year (1738) "both parts of Opecquon supplicated for him;" and it was his wish to become their pastor, but his Presbytery would not consent. The next year (1739) another supplica- tion came "from the back parts of Virginia" (i. e., from Augusta County) and five years later (in 1744) Mr. Thomson made his home in the Upper Valley; and, with Messrs. Black and Craig, was entrusted with the over- sight of all missionary operations in that part of Virginia.
Meanwhile the interests of this Lower Valley were not neglected. Be- sides the services of Rev. William Bertram, Presbytery appointed, Novem- ber 16, 1739, Licentiate John Craig "to supply at Opekan, the High (Hite ?) Tract and other societies of our persuasion in Virginia, at his dis- cretion." He spent the summer in this region, and the next year was set- tled in Augusta as first pastor of the "Triple Forks of Shenandoah."
The Presbytery of Donegal, April 1, 1740, appointed Rev. James Anderson to "write to Upikin" (another of the multitudinous spellings of Opecquon) and the next day ordered "that Mr. Caven visit Bullskin on the third Sabbath of this instant, and at Upekin the Friday before." Rev. Samuel Caven was one of the most active and efficient ministers of the Presbytery. He came a licentiate from Ireland; his ministerial labors were given mainly to the settlements in the Lower Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania, serving churches in Mercersburg, Chambersburg, Greencastle and elsewhere; but was often sent to visit the settlements and churches
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