USA > West Virginia > A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia > Part 3
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"For many years I have been importuned, from time to time, to exercise the right of ordaining part of our traveling preachers. But I have still refused; not only for peace' sake, but because I was determined, as little as possible, to violate the established order of the national church to which I be- longed.
" But the case is widely different between England and North America. Here there are bishops who have a legal jurisdiction. In America there are none, neither any parish ministers; so that for some hundred miles together, there is none to baptize, or to administer the Lord's Supper. Here, therefore, my scruples are at an end: and I conceive myself at full liberty, as I violate no order and invade no man's right, by appointing, and sending laborers into the harvest.
"I have accordingly appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. Francis Asbury to be joint superintendents over our brethren in North America; as also Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey to act as elders among them, by baptizing and administer- ing the Lord's Supper. And I also advise the elders to ad- minister the Supper of the Lord on every Lord's day.
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
"If any one will point out a more rational and scriptural way of feeding and guiding those poor sheep in the wilder- ness, I will gladly embrace it. At present I cannot see any better method than that I have taken."
The appointed merely of Mr. Asbury does not seem to have been deemed sufficient to bestow upon him any new powers, and accordingly we find him receiving such ordination to the offices of deacon and priest as Dr. Coke could bestow, and afterwards obtaining from the same hands, what was deemed a consecration of the episcopate. The use of the phrase, superintendent, was ere long discontinued, and that of bishop (which has ever since been retained) was substituted for it. The separation between the Church and Methodists, was made entire by the circumstances just related, and it is not here necessary to pursue further the history of the latter; there are, however, certain facts connected with the transac- tion which form a part of its true history, and which, there- fore, it would be wrong to withhold.
The plan of ordination and Church government, which Mr. Wesley so appropriately termed new, does not appear from the account given by Dr. Coke, to have been communi- cated by Mr. Wesley to the conference prior to its execution; he declared his intention simply of sending Dr. Coke and other ministers to America. In fact, we are elsewhere told that information of its actual execution was never given to the conference until 1876, before which time, probably, in- telligence of the act had reached them from America. It was, therefore, the act of Mr. Wesley alone.
It was an act, upon the propriety of which he took no counsel with his intimate friends. His brother, Mr. Chas. Wesley, in a letter to Dr. Chandler, written in 1785, thus ex- presses himself :-
"I can scarcely yet believe, that in his eighty-second year, my brother, my old intimate friend and companion, should have assumed the episcopal character, ordained elders, con- secrated a bishop, and sent him to ordain the lay preachers
16
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
in America. I was then in Bristol at his elbow; yet he never gave me the least hint of his intention. How was he sur- prised with so rash an action? He certainly pursuaded him- self that it was right."
The reasons assigned for this act, by Mr. Wesley were not at all times the same. In his letter, as published by the con- ference, he stated that his scruples were at an end, and he considered himself at full liberty, because America was desti- tute of bishops and belonged not to the jurisdiction of any English prelate. On another occasion, when, at the request of Jones of Nayland, inquiry was made of him whether it was true that he had invested persons with the episcopal character, and sent them to America; after some hesitation, he admitted the fact, and assigned as a reason for his con- duct, that after the revolution each denomination was mak- ing efforts to swell its members, and the Baptists particu- larly were greatly increasing to the injury of the Church. [Life of Bishop Horne, by Jones of Nayland. ] He had, there- fore, taken the step with the hope of preventing further dis- orders.
If the object of Mr. Wesley was to secure to America, the episcopate, the course pursued was rendered unnecessary by existing circumstances. Dr. Seabury of Connecticut, had been nearly two years in England soliciting episcopal consecra- tion, and, in consequence of difficulties arising entirely from the English law, was on the point of going to Scotland to be consecrated there, at the very moment when Mr. Wesley laid his hands on Dr. Coke, and it cannot be supposed that Mr. Wesley was ignorant of these facts, particularly as we find them to have been well known to his brother Charles.
The latter gentleman in the letter to Dr. Chandler, already referred to, speaking of the American Methodists, uses this language :-
"How have they been betrayed into a separation from the Church of England, which their preachers and they, no more intended than the Methodists here? Had they had patience
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
a little longer they would have seen a real primitive Bishop in America, duly consecrated by three Scotch Bishops, who had their consecration from the English Bishops, and are acknowledged by them as the same with themselves. There is, therefore, not the least difference between the members of Bishop Seabury's Church and the members of the Church of England. I had the happiness to converse with that truly apostolic man, who is esteemed by all that know him as much as by you and me. He told me that he looked upon the Meth- odists in America as sound members of the Church and was ready to ordain any of their preachers, whom he should find duly qualified." In point of fact, Bishop Seabury had re- ceived consecration on the fourteenth of November, whereas the conference assembled in Baltimore on the twenty-fourth of the succeeding month.
1784 - 1825.
The controversies, in regard to the ecclesiastical affairs in Virginia, were practically settled by the act establishing re- ligious freedom, passed the 26th December, 1785.
The General Convention, in Philadelphia, September, 1785, had from Virginia the Rev. Dr. Griffith and John Page, Esq.
Rev. Dr. Griffith having resigned his election as Bishop, on the assembling of the convention of 1790 in Richmond, the Rev. Dr. Madison, President of William and Mary College, was elected. That year on the 19th of September, he was con- secrated in the Chapel at Lambeth, by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London and Rochester. So, after an existence of one hundred and eighty-four years, the Episcopal Church in Virginia for the first time saw a Bishop within her borders. In 1792, Bishop Madison made his first visitation. In five parishes confirming upwards of 600 per- sons. He found the outlook somewhat better than he seems to have anticipated, although, there was still much cause for discouragement in the generally low state of religion among the people. Bishop Madison died in March, 1812. The Rev. Richard Channing Moore was elected to succeed him, and was
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THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
consecrated in May, 1814. Among other faithful men, were four of the clergy whose names deserve a place in the rec- ords of the Virginia Church, and who should be held in hon- orable remembrance, as instruments of God in aiding Bishop Moore to revive the prostrate Church. These gentlemen, were the Rev. Dr. Wilmer, the Rev. Mr. Norris, the Rev. Mr. Dunn, and the Rev. William Meade.
A great impulse was given the Church in Virginia from the very beginning of Bishop Moore's episcopate. Interest everywhere revived. In his first year he ordained three to the ministry and enrolled four candidates for orders. No less than ten new churches were reported as in process of erec- tion, while eight of the old ones were undergoing repairs. A society was formed for distribution of Prayer Books and Tracts; a fund was commenced for the support of the Epis- copate; the Education Society was also formed at this time, and it continues its good work to this day. During this peri- od also, we date the founding of the Theological Seminary.
1825 - 1835.
The exemption of the Bishop from parochial cares, became an object of increasing concern. At length in 1828, when Bishop Moore was in his 67th year, although infirmities of age had not disabled him, it was determined to give him an assistant; and in 1829 Rev. William Meade, D. D., was elected.
Writing in 1836, Dr. Hawks says, in concluding his book, the present condition of the Church in Virginia is one of grat- ifying prosperity. With more than one hundred churches, some of them the fruit of reviving zeal in parishes which once flourished, but have long been almost dead, the Diocese now numbers more than seventy clergymen; and with a mis- sionary fund, unemployed in part, because missionaries are not to be had, the Diocese is laboring to supply, in some meas ure, its necessities by means of its Seminary at Alexandria. Of this institution, it may be said, that it has afforded in- struction during the last three years, to sixty candidates for orders, and has given thirty-six clergymen to the Church.
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
CHAPTER II.
The Episcopal Church in America and in the Diocese of West Virginia.
The Episcopal Church in America.
There are, no doubt, many of our readers who are some- times puzzled to understand how it is that the Episcopal Church, which today claims the allegiance of so large a pro- portion of English-speaking people throughout the world, should still be, in America, so much smaller in numbers than some of the other Christian bodies around us. A careful reading of the following "Historical Sketch of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America," will throw much light upon the subject. It is from the pen of the Bishop of Iowa, and was published in much greater detail in Whittaker's Almanac for the year 1884:
"The close of the struggle for national independence brought to the Churchmen who had sympathized with the principles of the Revolution problems of grave interest. Prior to the war the centre of unity for the Clergy and Laity of the Church of England in America, had been the recognition of the Bishop of London as their Diocesan, and the use by Minister and people alike of the same formularies of devotion and the acknowledgment of the same symbols of belief.
"The Prayer-Book remained, indeed, when the war broke out, but its use was practically interdicted. The presence of the State prayers rendered it unacceptable to those who sym- pathized with the revolt, while the 'loyalists,' rather than omit these supplications from the accustomed forms, prefer- red the closing of their churches and the cessation of all pub- lic prayers. But the allegiance due to the See of London was
20
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
wholly destroyed. The Clergy could no longer depend upon the license of a foreign Bishop for induction to American Parishes. The laity no longer regarded a foreign prelate as empowered to administer discipline and exercise oversight in the case of their wayward priests, or give the valid com- mission to their aspirants for Orders.
"The Church had felt, in every quarter, the effects of the war. In the interruption of services, the removal of the Clergy, the suspension of grants from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and from the crown, and the odi- um attaching in the revolted States to everything derived from and dependent upon the hated mother-land, the Church sunk to the lowest depths of depression, and in some quar- ters, seemed well-nigh extinct. The leading Clergymen of the North had warmly espoused the cause of the King, and al- though, in the Middle States and the South, the Clergy were, in general, in sympathy with the popular side, still in the minds of the multitude, both in the North and South, the Church was regarded as closely connected with the tyranny from which, at a great cost of blood and treasure, the land had been freed. Even the Church buildings were, in many cases, despoiled and destroyed, and the end of the struggle found the Church existing only in a few of the centres of population, or else where the piety and popularity of patriot- ic Clergymen had enabled its adherents to weather the storm of prejudice and ignorant hate.
" There had been attempts to secure the Episcopate, and earnest prayers for this coveted completion of the order and government of the Church in the colonies, dating back for upward of a century. But still the close of the war found no Bishop in America, and but few Clergymen scattered throughout the independent States. Even where the Church had been established, it had suffered depletion in numbers and the spoiling of its goods and glebes. In Virginia, where prior to the Revolutionary struggle, there were upwards of one hundred and sixty churches and chapels, with nearly a
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
hundred Clergymen ministering at their altars, the close of the contest found ninety-five Parishes extinct, and of the re- mainder nearly one-half were without ministrations. Less than thirty Clergymen remained at their posts when the war had ceased. Many of the Churches had been closed or con- verted to other uses or else destroyed. The sacramental ves- sels even had been, in many cases, taken by sacrilegious hands and devoted to unholy purposes. Here, as elsewhere the Church was well-nigh extinct.
"But there were those, both of the Clergy and Laity, who were alive to the necessity of organization and the creation of a fresh bond of unity. To accomplish these purposes, meetings were held in various parts of the country-in Con- necticut, in Maryland, in Virginia, in New Jersey, in Penn- sylvania, in New York. At length, in 1784, the Rev. Dr. Sea- bury received consecration at the hands of the Bishops of the Church in Scotland as Bishop of Connecticut; and then, in 1787, the Dev. Drs. White and Provost were consecrated in England as Bishops of Pennsylvania and New York, re- spectively, and, in 1790, the Rev. Dr. Madison was also con- secrated in England as Bishop of Virginia.
"The period of organization was, however, succeeded by one of depression. The death, one by one, of the older Clergy who had, to a large extent, come from England, found few prepared to take up the ministerial work. The lesson of self- sustention was to be learned, now that the stipends, freely dispensed by the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, were withdrawn.
"Besides a hatred and dread of things English, and a wide- spread adoption of the manners and disbelief of the French, reduced religion to a low ebb, and made the Church, though no longer, even by name, a dependent of England, yet dis- trusted and disliked. It was still a day of small things as far as the influence and increase of the Church was concerned. But soon tokens of revival began to appear. The names of Bishops Hobart of New York, Griswold of the Eastern Dio-
22
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
cese, Moore of Virginia, and Chase of Ohio, will always be associated with this period of our history. Nor must we omit the name of Bishop Meade of Virginia. He was ordained in 1812, and in 1829 was consecrated as assistant to Bishop Moore. It was largely through his abundant labors that the Church was revived in Virginia. In 1821, the Constitution of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Church was perfected, and in 1835, the epoch of the great develop- ment of the missionary spirit in the Church, Bishop Kemper was sent forth to this Missionary Episcopate, comprising the 'Northwest,' and in 1838 Bishop Polk was sent to the South- west.
Since these days of revival, the progress of the Church has been steadily onward. The excitement of the civil war did, indeed, involve a temporary suspension of the friendly relations existing between the Northern and Southern Dio- ceses. But, with the return of peace, came the glad return of unity, and since the Church was united, its advance has been more rapid than before. Its missions, at home and abroad, have been multiplied. Its literary institutions have taken root on every side. Its Dioceses have increased by the erection of new Sees and the division of the older and larger ones. Its charities have reached a magnitude and importance claiming and receiving the praise of all philanthropists, and the Episcopal Church in America enters upon its second cen- tury with a new vigor and promise. Giving proof of its ad- aptation to all classes and conditions of men, its future bids fair to be as its past, only more abounding in influences for good."
The Diocese of West Virginia.
A division of the Diocese of Virginia was agitated as early as 1821, but the first practical move made in the matter, was at a Convocation of the Clergy in Western Virginia, some seven in all, held in Charleston, Kanawha, in 1851. The Rev. Jas. D. McCabe, of Wheeling, had prepared a memorial look- ing to a division and it was presented, but Bishop Meade, who was present, opposed the move, and the paper was withdrawn.
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
The next meeting looking in this direction was held in Clarks- burg, August 24, 1865, but as there was no guarantee that a new Diocese could be supported, the effort came to naught.
The subject was, however, from this time continually agi- tated, and on November 15, 1872, at a Convocation held in Charleston, Kanawha, Major A. T. Laidley was appointed to open correspondence with the Vestries and to report at a Convocation to be held in Volcano, April 23, 1873. The re- sponse from the Vestries was so meagre and incomplete, that although the meeting was held, nothing could be done.
On January 19, 1874, at a meeting of the Vestry of St. John's, Charleston, another effort was made to get a full expression of the people in behalf of the new Diocese, but the effort failed, it may have been chiefly on account of the oppo- sition in the eastern counties.
In the autumn of 1875, Bishop Johns expressed himself in favor of the division, provided the support of the Diocese could be secured, and on April 19th, 1876, at the twentieth annual session of the Convocation of West Virginia, held in Wellsburg, steps were taken to bring the matter formally be- fore the annual Council of Virginia, meeting in Alexandria in May. That Council recommended the calling of a conference of the Clergy and Laity of the Parishes and Congregations within the limits of West Virginia, to furnish such informa- tion as might enable the Council at its next session to act in- telligently on the subject.
This Conference met in Parkersburg on April 18th, 1877. Two sessions were held; they were well attended and the best feeling prevailed. The Conference adjourned to meet in Staunton on May 16th. The result was the request to set apart West Virginia as a separate Diocese. The request was granted by the following vote:
Ayes-Clergy, 91; Laity, 94. Noes -- Clergy, 4; Laity. 10
Bishop Whittle having given his consent, the matter was brought up before the General Convention, meeting in Bos- ton in October, and by them ratified. Thus the Diocese of
24
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Virginia was divided, and the new Diocese of West Virginia created. The primary Convention was held in Charleston, De- cember 5, 1877, resulting in the election as Bishop of the Rev. J. H. Eccleston, D. D. He having declined, at the first annu- al Council held in Charlestown, February 27, 1878, the Rey. George W. Peterkin, of Memorial Church, Baltimore, was elected. He was consecrated in St. Matthew's Church, Wheel- ing, on Ascension Day, May 30, 1878, by the Bishop of Ohio, assisted by the Bishops of Pittsburg and Virginia, the Assist- ant Bishop of Kentucky and the Bishop of Southern Ohio.
Clergy List.
The following clergy were connected with the Diocese at its organization. The names in italics indicate, that of the original clergy, only two are connected with it at the begin- ning of 1902.
Present in Charleston, December, 1877:
Rev. James G. Armstrong. . Wheeling
1877
tr. 1878.
Rct. Gco. A. Gibbons
Fairmont 1877
Rev. R. A. Cobbs
Charleston 1877
ob. 1887.
Rev. James Grammer Middleway 1877
1877
tr. 1879.
Rev. John P. Hubbard Shepherdstown 1877
tr. 1880.
Rev. Wm. L. Hyland.
Parkersburg 1877
tr. 1879.
Rev. T. H. Lacy
P't. Pleasant
1877
tr. 1880.
Rev Jno. W. Lea Martinsburg
1877
ob. 1884.
Rev. W. T. Leavell Hedgesville
1877
ob. 1899
Rev. R. H. Mason.
Unior
1877
ob. 1893
Rev. W. H. Meade.
Charlestown
1877
tr. 1883.
Rev. S. D. Tompkins
Volcano
1877
ob. 1883
Rer. Jno. F. Woods
Clarksburg 1877
tr. 1879.
Rev. Emil J. Hall. Lewisburg
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
CHAPTER III.
List of Clerical and Lay Delegates to the Annual Councils of the Diocese of Virginia from the churches in Western Virginia.
1785-1877.
List of Clergy, in what is now West Virginia, 1785-1877. The dates do not give the time of ordination, nor of first par- ochial charge, but the year when first reported in the Con- ventions or Councils, as in charge of congregations in the present territory of West Virginia.
It is to be noted also that the names of Parishes do not always indicate that the organization was complete at the date given.
Clergyman.
Parish. County or Town. Date.
Addison, Thos. G.
St. Matthew's ... Wheeling 1861
Allen, Benjamin
St. Andrew's .Jefferson 1818
Ambler, Chas. E.
Zion Church .Charles Town
Andrews. Chas. W
Trinity Ch. .
Shepherdstown .. 1842
Armstrong, William St. Matthew's
. Wheeling 1837
Armstrong, John
St. Matthew's Wheeling 1823
Armstrong. J. G.
St. Matthew's Wheeling
1875
Barr, David
St. Mark's
.St. Albans 1873
Benton, M. M.
St. John's
Wheeling 1870
Braddock, W. L
All Saints'
Monroe 1873
Broadnax, W. A.
Christ Ch ..
Clarksburg
1858
Brooke, Pendleton
Christ Ch. . Clarksburg
1870
Bryan. Jno. L.
Christ Ch. .Bunker Hill 1817
Callaway, C. McK.
St. Andrew's
Jefferson
1851
Carson, T. M.
Bunker Hill
Berkeley
1866
Castlemar. R A. Christ Ch.
.Clarksburg
1853
Chisholm. James
Trinity Ch. Martinsburg 1844
Clark. Jonas B.
St. John's
. Wheeling
1874
Cobbs. R. A.
St. John's
Charleston 1876
Coffin. W. H. St. John's .Brooke Co 1853
Brooke. Jno. T
Norborne
. Berkeley
1826
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THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Clergyman.
Parish.
County or Town. Date.
Cowpland, Joshua
St. John's
. Wellsburg 1867
Crampton, S. W.
Hampshire
1840
Craik, James
Kanawha
Kanawha 1840
Curtis, J. F.
St. Paul's Weston
1866
Currie, C. George
St. Matthew's
Wheeling 1868
Davis, R. T.
Trinity Ch.
Martinsburg 1855
Fisher, Andrew
St. Paul's
Weston 1870
Gibson, Isaac
Christ Church
.Fairmont
1875
Good, W. H.
Norborne
Berkeley Co
1845
Goodwin, Fred D.
Kanwaha
Kanawha
1831
Goodwin, James
Christ Church
Pt. Pleasant
1840
Gordon, John
Grace
Middleway
1856
Grammer, James
Grace
Middleway
1869
Greer, David H.
Christ Ch.
Clarksburg
1867
Harrison, J. H.
St. John's
Brooke Co.
1842
Hall, Emile J.
Grace .
Pocahontas
1877
Hanson, W. D.
Trinity Ch. Martinsburg
1860
Hayden, H. E.
Christ Ch. Pi. Pleasant
1868
Heath. ..
Trinity Ch.
Shepherdstown
.1800
Hedges, Chapline H.
Grace Ch.
Middleway
1836
Henderson, D. J.
Kanawha
1855
Horrell. Thos.
Norborne
Berkeley
1817
Howard. C. R. .
St. John's
Harper's Ferry. . 1855
Hubbard. John P.
Trinity Ch ..
Shepherdstown .. 1876
Hudson. A. J. M.
St. Mark's
Kanawha
1859
Hurt. John
Jefferson Co.
1775
.Jackson, Robt. F
Missionary
Wheeling
1877
Jacobs, Cyrus M.
Trinity
Martinsburg
1836
.Jacobs. W. F. M.
Trinity
Marshall
1859
Johnson. W. P. C.
Norborne
Berkeley
1832
.Jones. Alex
St. Andrew's
Jefferson Co. 1825
Jones, E. Valentine
Trinity Ch.
Huntington
1873
Tacy, T. H.
Christ
Pt. Pleasant 1873
Lea, John W.
Trinity Ch.
Martinsburg
1875
Leavell, Wm. T.
Wyckliffe
Kabletown.
.1866
Linpitt, E, R.
Norhorne,
Berkeley Co
1821
Towe, Enoch M.
Norborne,
Berkeley Co.
1819
Manning. Wm.
Berkeley Co.
1772
Martin, John
Kanawha
Kanawha Co. 1835
Mason. R. H.
All Saints'
Union
1870
May, G. S.
MeCabe, James D.
St. John's
Wheeling
1849
MeDonough, A. A.
St. Paul's
Weston
1874
McGill, John St. John's
Ripon
Christ
Wellsburg
1850
Hyland. Wm. L.
Frederick Co. 1754
Grammer, Julius E.
Zion Church .Charles Town
1865
Gibbons, G. ...
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IN WEST VIRGINIA.
( lergyman.
Parish.
County or Town. Date.
McGuire, Wm.
Christ
.Bunker Hill . . 1857
MeMechen, James M.
Wood Co. 1840
Meade, W. H.
Zion
Charles Town 1867
Mee, C. B. St. Mark's
Kanawha Co. 1872
Meldrum,
Frederick 1765
Moore, James St. John's
Wheeling 1860
Morrison, J. Horace,
Trinity
Shepherdstown .. 1839
Morrow, W. B.
St. John's
Wheeling 1868
Muhlenberg, Peter
. Berkeley Co. 1768
Nash, Norman Hampshire
1821
Nash, Sylvester
Hampshire
Hampshire 1824
Nash, F. B.
St. Mark's
. Kanawha 1845
Noek. Joseph
St. John's
Charleston 1868
Ogilvie. Jas
Berkeley Co .. 1771
Page, James J.
Berkeley Co 1:53
Page, Bernard
Trinity
Martinsburg 1795
Page, Chas. H. St. Mark's
Kanawha Co. 1823
Page, C. Randolph
Ravenswood
Jackson 1873
Perkins, E. T. Missionary
Parkersburg
1848
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