USA > West Virginia > Memorial of the centenary celebration of the French Creek Presbyterian Church : August twenty-third & twenty-fourth nineteen hundred and nineteen > Part 1
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Gc 975. 401 UF7VA
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DEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 00068 7175
Gc 975. 401 UF7VA VANCE, HARRY W. MEMORIAL OF THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF THE FRENCH CREEK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
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MEMORIAL
of the CENTENARY CELEBRATION of the FRENCH CREEK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
AUGUST TWENTY-THIRD & TWENTY-FOURTH NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN
Compiled and Edited by HARRY W. VANCE
1 Library
REV. LOYAL YOUNG, D. D.
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REV. S. HALL YOUNG, D. D.
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The price of this Memorial Booklet is one dollar; five cents additional when postage is required. Extra copies may be secured from HARRY W. VANCE French Creek, W. Va.
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PREFACE
ARLY in the nineteenth century several families of New England Yankees moved in wagons drawn by horses and oxen into the wilderness region of what is now Upshur County, West Virginia. The families came from Massa- chusetts, Connecticut and Vermont and settled in the forest, at the end of the road, on the waters of a small mountain stream known as French Creek. The first family to make the journey was that of Zedekiah Morgan, who came from Connecticut in 1801. In 1808 Aaron Gould came from Charlemont, Mass., and three years later (1811) Robert Young and Gilbert Gould came with their families from the same stale and joined the little settlement. From 1814 to 1816 there arrived the families of Elijah Phillips, David Phillips, Nathan Gould, Jonathan Alden, and Daniel Haines, all from different points in Massachusetts. In 1816 Rev. Asa Brooks joined the colony, having been sent as a missionary from Halifax, Vermont, by the Central Association of Hampshire County, Mass.
In 1819 the people of the community organized the French Creek Presbyterian Church, under the leadership of Rev. Asa Brooks, with fourteen members. Aaron Gould and Robert Young were elected as Ruling Elders on July 5th of that year. A house of worship was constructed of logs, but a few years later this was replaced by a more substantial frame building. During the Civil War, Union soldiers encamped in the church accidentally set the building on fire, and it was burned. Another house was soon thereafter erected on the same site and this still stands as a place of worship and community center.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the church, which was in the year 1869, Rev. Loyal Young, D. D., the pastor and a son of Robert Young, one of the first Ruling Elders, preached an anni- versary sermon entitled "Fifty Years in the Wilderness." This sermon was printed in pamphlet form and is a historic document of great local value.
On August 23 and 24, 1919, the centenary anniversary of the church was celebrated by one of the most remarkable gatherings that ever assembled at French Creek. The people mel in the grove of oak and hickory trees which surrounds the church early in the afternoon of Saturday, August 23. From a platform which had been erected in the grove addresses were made by the pastor, Rev. A. C. Powell, and by a former pastor, Rev. W. J. Hazlett. On the following Sabbath morning the centenary sermon was preached by Rev. S. Hall Young, D. D., a son of Dr. Loyal Young who preached the semi-centennial sermon of the church. The sermon was delivered by the son from the same pulpit used by the father and a choir composed of persons who heard the semi-centennial sermon rendered "How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord," with Mrs. Almira Brooks Moore as organist.
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In the afternoon addresses were made by two former pastors, Rev. Roy F. Miller and Rev. Earle A. Brooks. D. D., and by Rev. Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., Director of Church and Country Life Work for the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
The weather for the occasion was ideal and long intervals were given between services for old friends to meet and visit in the grove. The register was signed by more than seven hundred persons, many of them visitors from other states. The following pages contain the addresses of the various speakers and other matter of interest connected with the great celebration.
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ADDRESS OF WELCOME Bu REV. A. C. POWELL
T affords me great pleasure as the pastor of this church to welcome you one and all in behalf of this church and the citizens of this community. It matters not what your church relations may be you are welcome to help in this Centennial and to participate in its blessings. To our sister congrega- tion of this place we doubly welcome you. You are a part of this com- munity and we could not get along without you.
To the Presbyterian congregation of Buckhannon we would say that while that church is a child of this church you are simply perform- ing your duty by coming home. You are always welcome at home.
And now to the former pastors and sons of this church as well as others who are on this program, we extend to you a brotherly greeting and a hearty welcome. We do not consider you in the light of strang- ers in a strange land, for your fame has preceded you and in our homes your names are known in connection with your accomplishments, and the noble work you have done in your field of labor. We have endeavored to arrange matters in connection with this celebration so as to make your stay with us a source of pleasure and recreation as well as a feast of spiritual things. We feel that the cause of your mutual relationship to this church, and your sympathy with its future progress as well as the kind and helpful words you will speak to us, will inspire us to greater efforts in the continuation of the noble and glorious work of this church. Not only the speakers but many of you have come home and the review of a hundred years of this church and community will bring to your memory things of your childhood that will stir your emotions that will give you joy or sorrow. There is no other balm for the soul that is equal to an occasion like this, when parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and loved ones, shed tears mingled with joy and sorrow as they greet each other. This has been your home, the spot your infancy knew. Here is where you received your early train- ing which made life worth living, here is where many of you were inspired to form ideals of life which have not only been a blessing to you but to the world because of the life you have lived. This is the world of your activity that will furnish you material for your dreams in later life. The following lines may suggest the sentiments of your minds during your stay with us:
"How I would like to go back if I could,
Back to my boyhood once more if I could,
Back to the days when I roamed in the wood
Free as the squirrel that grinned on the tree,
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Saucily squinting and blinking at me. How I would like to go back if I could, Just for an hour to live in the wood, Live a boy's life and roam in the wood, Feel the keen joyance of light heart and free; The chipmunk and groundmole my fast friends should be ; Answer the cricket and treefrog again, Mimic the throstle and wild warbling wren, No such keen pleasures I've had all these years, And fond recollections rise almost to tears, As I think of the days when I roamed in the wood; And my long lost companions I had in the wood.
And Oh for the days I spent by the brook, Fishing for minnows with bent pin or hook ; How I would like to go back to the brook To gather white pebbles, for clam shells to look, To watch the fish play and the kingfisher dive; Oh how I would like to go back to the brook, Where often in Springtime my journey I took, Just to catch minnows with bent pin and hook!
How I would like to go back if I could, Back to the house that stood far up the lane, And find all the things there exactly the same, The woodpile, the wellsweep, the garden so trim, The home of my childhood, both outside and in, And mother lo greel me, as often I came, Trudging fool-sore and weary up the long lane, That dear sweet young mother, who long years ago So tenderly loved me, (she oft told me so) ; When twillight would gather she lucked me in bed, And see, "Now I lay me" was properly said; O God! I would give all I am or shall be, To be one more night at that dear mother's knee;" Author, ISAAC C. KETLER.
How I would like to go back if I could Back to the place where I heard from the book, Back to the church that stood on the hill ; Where many have learned to do the Lord's will; The pastor to greet me, the teacher to lead me, The music to inspire me, the word to enlighten me, Just to sit in my seat so quiet and still, To listen to the Spirit as he my soul would fill, With a knowledge of Him who taught me His will, Oh! how I would like to go back if I could, Back to the church that stood in the wood.
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We welcome you because by your presence we can more fully accomplish the object and purpose of this Centennial, and you coming from all directions of the compass will carry the good tidings to the ends of the earth.
In the deliberations of this occasion we must find the secret which made it possible for our fathers to live such noble Christian lives, and for a century continue the noble work of Christ's Kingdom in this church. Here in this place God's people have been made "To sit to- gether in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show forth the exceeding riches of His grace." We are fully con- vinced that the early settlers having come from the New England states brought with them the creed and sterner qualities of the faith of the Pilgrim Fathers. It is true that, "The blessings of God upon the fathers shall be visited unto the third and fourth generation of them that love Him and keep His commandments.'
A few thoughts of the Pilgrim Fathers will be sufficient for our purpose. The Pilgrim Church at Leyden numbered about three hun- dred souls-A Gideons Band. Through the influence of the Calvin- istic doctrines the Pilgrims renounced the Church of England, and in the strength of the creed continued loyal to the reformed party at Leyden. Calvin in their minds was the greatest of the reformers --- a veritable Jupiter of Europe. His doctrine of Predestination was a menace to all theories of the divine right of kings, and by consequence his teachings were exceedingly obnoxious to the ruling classes. The emphasis that Calvin gave to the sovereignty of God and the parity o. man made his creed a large political factor in Europe. This was their creed, a faith predestinate to sway the world: These are the words of the late Isaac C. Ketler, President of Grove City College:
"These were God fearing exiles, thrice three years and two, in refuge from the wrath of catchpool-Priests, (a British breed of free- dom loving men), anon to hear God's voice in Leyden, "Out of Egyp; have I called My Son."
Bring crowns!
For held they not the truth a higher boon
Than life, and left their native lands, with ties
Of hearth and home, to save sweet liberty?
Bring mitre and tiara, tripple crown,
The fadeless fillet, (cap of sovereignty),
The votive incence, which bespeaks the choice
Of men greater than earthly kings to high
And holy services: and bring withal.
Green oaken wreathes and iron crowns, for they
Were strong! For they were unblanched by fear of man,
They stood for God, let come the worst, had armed
Themselves withal the armor of God's word:
Had girt their loins with truth, had crowned their heads
With helmets of His saving grace; had shod
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Their feet with the swift tidings of His peace. With breast plates of the righteousness of God, With shields of faith and flaming swords of His Eternal truth they dared resist King James, His venal Church, with prelates, bishops, priests, And hangdog crew.
These beautiful lines protray to us the life and character of the Pilgrims. The early missionaries who were sent to this place no doubt, put into practice much of the program of the Pilgrim fathers. These people had noble ideas and did their best to work them out. There is evidence here today of the fact that our fathers early in the history of this community put stress upon the development of the Fourfold life. physical, intellectual, social and religious. The religious was pre- eminent and became a guide and a protection for the other three. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you." This commandment has been largely obeyed. The doctrines of the Presbyterian church, and the traditions of the fathers have been guarded and promulgated with jeolous care. The three special means of grace for the Christian believer, study of the word, prayer and church attendance have been open channels to the members of this church. By the constant use of these channels of blessing, God has been able to do much for this community. Prayer, and faith in the answer to prayer has been a special source of power.
For more than a century the people of this community have been a praying people. In simple faith they have through the years asked God's watchful care over the health of the people and the schools and churches of the community, and in loving kindness God has raised up among the direct descendants of a single one of the first Ruling Elders of this church, no fewer than nine physicians, sixty-five school teachers and seven ministers of the Gospel. They have asked God to bless the growing crops and the business interests of the community and in a hundred years there is not a record of one person being sent to the county poor house from French Creek. They have asked God to bless the boys and girls who grow up here, and so many of our boys and girls have gone forth into the world to fill high places of honor and service that those who stay in the old home are often put to it to keep alive the interests of the community. They have asked for temporal and physical blessings, and we have no blind, no deaf and dumb and few distressed cripples. Of course death and sorrow, which are the lot of man, come to the people here as they do elsewhere, but how merciful God has been in shielding us from pestilence and scourges of disease and death. When the influenza, small-pox, diphtheria and typhoid have swept away the inhabitants of other places, how relatively few of our people have been taken? From our churches and from a hundred homes prayers have ascended for our soldiers, and in the recent war only one from this immediate locality died upon the field of battle, and most of our boys have come home stronger and better than when they went away. Who will say that God has not heard
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and answered the prayers of our people from the days when this church was first conceived even unto the present time?
Now what shall we say about the present and the future? It is always a temptation which grows stronger the longer we live to look backward instead of forward, to bemoan the past, and thus deride the present and distrust the future. We must not forget our present bless- ings, the love we still possess, the gracious influences that remain. The presence today of the sons and daughters of the early saints of this church who are filling their places of honor and duty, and fathers. mothers and children, of the present generation, and those who have come from other communities and united themselves with this church are in a very able manner continuing the noble work of Christ and His kingdom in this place that was begun by our forefathers a hundred years ago. We are today standing upon the same foundation of faith and doctrine. We have the same regard for the divine institutions, the home, the church, the state. There is nothing left undone to pro- tect and continue the blessings of these institutions. During the great World war of the last four years this whole church was burning with the fire of patriotism and love for the welfare of humanity. Our hearts went out in extensive love and sympathy to the ends of the world, and our gifts of sacrifice followed them. Five of our sons enlisted in the service of their country, two of these crossed the sea, one became a Lieutenant and two reached the rank of Corporal. God in His provi- dence saw fit to return to us all of the boys sound and uninjured. The whole congregation from the least to the greatest contributed in some way of their means and service to humanity. Every member of the Sunday School and Church belonged to the Red Cross, and contributed toward its support, and in many other ways made their influence felt.
The church in the last year has more than doubled its contribu- tions for benevolent purposes and met the requirements of the New Era movement of the church-at-large. The church is thoroughly or- ganized; a strong Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society, a live Christian Endeavor, a fine Young Ladies' Guild and a frontline school with class and department organizations, five organized Bible classes of which four are adult. We have the Hall Young class for the men and the Hazlett class for the women. We have a permanent teacher training organization. The present class consists of fourteen scholars. The school has a strong and efficient corps of teachers, and is doing excellent work.
The congregation maintains the high standard of education for its children. Among the families of the church and their children there are thirty-five school teachers, seven doctors, two ministers, thirteen graduates of colleges, seven of the children are in college, and twelve are teachers in active service. The Young Ladies' Guild a few years ago had fourteen members and twelve of them were school teachers.
The future of the church as to a large measure in membership is not so encouraging, but as to quality and efficiency for the future work of this church is very bright. I think we are all aware of the fact thai
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a strenuous future lies ahead of us. In the desert the heart much reach forward to the promised land and not back to Egypt. The Christian faith is for the future, because it believes in the God of the future. The world is not a lumber room, full of relics and remembrances over which to brood.
We are asked to remember the beautiful part which was ours, and the beautiful lives which we have lost, by making the present beautiful like it, and our lives beautiful like the'rs. It is human to think that life has no future, if now it seems "Dark with griefs and graves." It comes to us like a shock when we think of the fact that this beautiful Centennial day, with all of its emotions memories of past events will have past into history by the setting of the sun, and by the rising there- of. We come in contact with the hard world again, and live our common life once more. The Christian learns to do it, not because he has a short memory, but because he has a long faith. The voice of inspiration is heard oftener through the realities of life, than through vain regrets and recluse dreams. Let our future life be like our Master's, luminous with His hope and full of love and devotion to our Father's work. Let our watch word be faith, prayer and work.
The world is old, but the heart is young, And its sweetest songs are yet unsung. Earth's richest treasures are yet unsought ; Earth's bravest battles are yet unfought. As we slowly mount earth's heights sublime, We read these words on the wall of time:
"No room in the age for the drone to shirk-
For the end of the world is honest work."
With a disc of glass in His careful hand, As He fashions a lens, see the Master stand ! His work is finished, and mounted on high A mighty telescope sweeps the sky. Then work and win, for the world is wide, And its doors will open on every side. Look not on the past with a vain regret, For "The best things haven't happened yet."
MRS. ANNA S. SMILEY.
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RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME By REV. W. J. HAZLETT .
M R. PRESIDENT, I thank you for such a hearty welcome. It should indeed be a special privilege to me to respond to your very cordial welcome. And in the matter of being here, I am reminded of an incident in the family of one of our Home Missionary fields.
The missionary had received a call to a field much more to the comfort of his family, but was debating with himself as to the accept- ance of the call. A neighbor asked one of his little boys if his father would accept the call. The answer the boy gave was this: "Papa is praying about it, but mamma is packing up our things."
Now as to my being here today, I'll not say anything about the praying, but there was one who was packing up the things.
This is a great occasion-a Presbyterian Church centenary. Many worthwhile things could be said of any of our Christian denominations. But I know that none of you will think it unbrotherly if, today, we will largely speak of the Presbyterian and the things which the Presby- terian denomination stands for.
This is briefly stated in the answer to the second question in The Shorter Catechism. "The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him!"
The Presbyterian Church sets a high estimation on the child. Our forefathers in French Creek, then the Wilderness, had high ideals as to the education of the child, both as to secular and spiritual things. Was it not in the log dwelling house of Robert and Lydia Gould Young that the first day school was held, the teacher, one of their sons, a lad of twelve or thirteen years. We must believe that the boy had a good assistant in his mother. You remember the answer Benjamin West, the famous colonial painter, gave when asked how he attained such eminence in his art. It was, "My Mother's kiss made me a painter.'
The church and the school house together is the idea of Presby- terians.
It has been said, "Were you at the North Pole you would find a Presbyterian, and find him educating the North Pole."
A local incident is well worth recording, coming in the life and experience of the lamented Hon. Thomas E. Hodges.
It being known that his parents were moving to come and live in French Creek, one speaking of it to the boy said it was a great place for schools and Presbyterians. . He did come to French Creek. He did learn scholastic studies; but he also learned of the Savior and some thirty-five years after this on one occasion when he came back to
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REV. A. C. POWELL
REV. E. A. BROOKS, D. D.
REV. W. O. PHILLIPS
REV. W. J. HAZLETT
REV. S. HALL YOUNG, D. D.
us to delici a lecture, he and his son. Charles, a boy ten years old, and the writer came to look into the Presbyterian Church during the afternoon. We did not have the key with us, but we crawled through a window. I know it was with much interest that he stood and looked over the inside of the sacred place. And while there he pointed out to me the seat to which the late Richard Young brought him the night he took a stand for Christ. Those who have known him, know what a stand he took, how well he stood, with what emphasis and rever- ence he would say, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.'
The noted historian, Froude, not too much spiritually minded, has said, "For the first two hundred years of colonial times, every school and every institution of learning were built and sustained by Calvinists." See the Constiution of the United States; how largely it is modeled after the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church.
What a multitude of martyrs and confessors, who, from the very earliest ages, have professed, defended and suffered for the Scriptural Doctrine and Order known as Presbyterianism !
As late as 1681-1724, in what is now Maryland and Virginia, the Reverend Francis McKamie of County Donegal, Ireland, who came at the appealing call of the lonely immigrants, suffered imprison- ment and payment of heavy costs for preaching in a private house and baptizing a child.
"Let children hear the mighty deeds Which God performed of old, Which in our younger years we saw And which our fathers told.
"Thus shall they learn on God alone Their hope securely stands That they may ne'er forget His works But practice His commands."
Psalm 78.
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q Dr. S. Hall Young delivering the Centennial Sermon from the same pulpit used by his father, Dr. Loyal Young, in delivering the Semi- Centennial Sermon.
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ONE HUNDRED FAITHFUL YEARS (1819-1919) CENTENARY SERMON :Bu S. HALL YOUNG, D. D.
M Y FATHER, Loyal Young, of all the men I have known, has always stood forth as, in my judgment, the closest type of a perfect Christian man. At my ordination lo the Gospel Ministry forty-one years ago the fifth of May, during the meeting of the Presbytery of West Virginia at Buckhannon, he delivered the charge to the candidates. i-le used no words of his own except the changing of a few proper names. He simply read the most of the Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy.
I remember my own sense of unworthiness mingled with exaltation of spirit as father solemnly read, "I, Loyal, a minister of Jesus Chr's! by the will of Cod, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, to Samuel Hall, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day : having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lydia, and thy mother Margaret; and I am persuaded in thee also."
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