A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia, Part 42

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Church, of which his parents had been members prior to their removal to the West. Suffice it to say, this examina- tion resulted in a determination to offer himself a candidate for Orders in that Church. Early in the year 1792, he re- ceived ordination at the hands of the Right Rev. William White, of Philadelphia, soon after which he located tempor- arily in Western Pennsylvania, but in the course of a few years settled permanently in Charlestown, now Wellsburg, in Brooke county, Virginia.

"At this early period of the settlement of the country, the greater portion of the population of Western Virginia and Pennsylvania consisted of emigrants from Maryland and Virginia, where many of them had been attached to the Mother-Church; hence the advent of a preacher of their own denomination was hailed by them as an auspicious event, filling their hearts with gladness. He was everywhere greeted with kindness, cheered and encouraged in his labours by the presence of large and attentive congregations; albeit in most places where they assembled for public worship their only canopy was the umbrageous trees of the unbroken forest, whose solemn silence was, for the time-being, ren- dered vocal by their devotions.

"During the year 1793, I occasionally attended the minis- trations of this zealous advocate for the cause of Christ, at West Liberty, then the seat of justice for Ohio county, Virginia, and the residence of many respectable and influ- ential families. At this place divine service was held in the court-house. Although still a young man, Dr. Doddridge was an able minister of the New Covenant. When preach- ing, there was nothing either in his language or manner that savoured of pedantry or awkwardness; yet he did not possess that easy graceful action which is often met with in speakers in every other respect his inferiors: but this ap- parent defect was more than compensated by the arrange- ment of his subjeet, the purity of his style, the selection and appropriateness of his figures, and the substance of his dis- courses. He was always listened to with pleasure and edifica-

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tion, commanding the attention of his hearers not so much by brilliant flights of imagination and rhetorical flourishes, as by the solidity of his arguments and his lucid exhibition of the important truths which he presented for their deliberate consideration.

"In person he was tall and well proportioned, walking very erect. He possessed fine colloquial powers, was social, an agreeable companion, and highly esteemed by those who knew him on account of his plain, unostentatious manners, courteous demeanour, and rigid devotion to duty.

"The first Episcopal church in Western Virginia, if I re- member rightly, called St. John's, was erected in 1792-93, in a country parish, a few miles distant from the residence of Dr. Doddridge, whose pastoral connections with it, I have been informed, continued for nearly thirty years, when de- clining health compelled him to dissolve it. At no great distance from St. John's, and occupied by the same pastor, another edifice, also in Virginia, was erected at a very early period, the name of which I cannot now recollect.

"In the course of a few years after he took up his abode in Virginia, many families reared in the Episcopal Church removed from the older States and settled west of the Ohio River, where they were as sheer in a wilderness without a shepherd. To those of them within a convenient distance from his residence he made frequent visitations, holding services in temples not made with hands but by the Great Architect of nature.

"We have been credibly informed that Dr. Doddridge was the first Christian minister who proclaimed the Gospel of salvation in the now flourishing town of Steubenville, in this State, and that some years previous to the close of the last century he officiated there monthly, the place at that time containing but a few log cabins and a portion of 'Fort Steuben.'

"The parish of St. James, on Cross Creek, in Jefferson county, was early formed by him, and was for many years under his pastoral charge. At St. Clairsville, Belmont

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county, he had a congregation and church, the pulpit of which he occupied from time to time until another pastor could be obtained. Occasionally his missionary excursions included Morristown, Cambridge, and Zanesville.

"In the autumn of 1815, this untiring apostle of the Church, with a view of preparing the way for future mis- sionaries, made a tour through part of Ohio, coming as far west as this city,-Chillicothe,-preaching in the intermedi- ate towns and ascertaining where Episcopal services would be acceptable. He was, I think, the first regularly ordained clergyman of that Church who officiated in our place, which he did several times during his stay among us.

"In Virginia at a very early period he held religious ser- vices at Charlestown, Grave Creek, and Wheeling. At the latter place was quite a number of Episcopalians, whom he frequently visited, keeping them together until the arrival of that pious and devoted servant of God, the Rev. John Armstrong, their first resident pastor.

"From the time of his ordination, he made it a practice to visit and preach wherever he could find a few who desired to be instructed in the faith of their fathers. These efforts to collect, and keep within the fold of the Church the scat- tered sheep of the flock imposed upon him the necessity of traversing a wide extent of country, which, being but sparse- ly settled, was poorly provided with roads; consequently, all his journeys had to be performed on horseback.

"In labours this Christian minister was most abundant, sustained under their performance by the approbation of his own conscience and the long-deferred hope that the time was not far distant when Episcopalians in the Atlantic States-to whom, through letters to several of their Bish- ops and otherwise, he made request and earnest appeals in behalf of a field already white for the harvest-would awake from their apathy to a lively consciousness of the imperative duty of making the long-neglected West a theater for mis- sionary exertion.

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Some years subsequent to his entrance into the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he found it necessary, in order to meet the wants of an increasing family, to combine with his clerical profession one that would be more lucra- tive in a new and sparsely-settled country; he accordingly studied medicine, completing his course under Dr. Benjamin Rush, in the Medical Institute of Philadelphia. To the avails of the latter profession he was mainly indebted for means to rear and educate a large family of children.

"His life was one of close application and incessant toil; but his health eventually failed, and an asthmatic disease, with which in his latter years he was sorely afflicted, in a great measure impaired his ability for usefulness. In the fall of 1824 he attended a Convention of his Church holden in this city, but he appeared greatly enfeebled. In the course of the succeeding summer, he spent some weeks here in the family of a beloved sister, Mrs. N. Reeves, hoping, though vainly, that a cessation from labour, change of air and scene, would in some measure renovate his exhausted energies. During this period the friendship of our youthful days and the remembrance of former years revived. He often visited me at my own domicile, where we held free converse and communion together, and 1 found him the same cheerful, agreeable companion as in days 'lang syne.' Nothing ever occurred to mar our friendly intercourse or to diminish our kindly regards for each other. But he is taken from our midst; his disencumbered spirit has been called to its re- ward by the Great Head of the Church.

"Finding that neither travelling nor rest availed to arrest the progress of disease, my friend returned to his home and family in Virginia, as he emphatically said, 'to die among his own people.' He lingered in much bodily affliction till November, 1826, when, strong in the faith which he had preached, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, his sufferings were terminated by death, to him a most welcome messenger. "Of the published writings of the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, his

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'Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars, together with a View of the State of Society, Manners, Customs, &c., of the Early Settlers of the Western Country,' is the principal.

"This graphic picture of pioneer scenes, manners, customs, and events, is peculiarly interesting as well as valuable on account of its fidelity,-it being the result of the writer's personal experience and observation. The work was under- taken by its author not only for the purpose of preserving the facts therein recorded, but also with a view of enabling those who come after him properly to estimate the advan- tages of position in a civilized and refined state of society, by contrasting them with those possessed by their forefath- ers in the Western regions. Thomas Scott. "Chillicothe, Ross county, Ohio, June 25, 1855.".

To the foregoing we add a few things which we received from those who knew him as the minister in Brooke county. He preached at four places in that county, two of which are now occupied by Presbyterians and Methodists. The other two were Wellsburg and the neighborhood where St. John's Church now stands. Although he was followed by that most zealous and popular man, the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, still it was found impracticable to sustain congregations in all of them. Dr. Doddridge died in the year 1826, in his fifty-eighth year. He was buried in a vault under his own house, near Wellsburg, but afterward removed to a publie burying- ground.

The Rev. Mr. Armstrong, from Wheeling, preached much and zealously to the congregations after Dr. Doddridge's death, as did also his son at a subsequent period. The Rev. Mr. Wheat, of Wheeling, who was the immediate successor of the elder Armstrong, also laboured for them. After some time, the Rev. Mr. Skull was sent as a missionary to Brooke county. He was followed by the Rev. Mr. Harrison in the same capacity. The Revs. Mr. Goodwin, Hyland, and Tomp- kins followed in succession. The Rev. Mr. Christian is the present minister. During the intervals of ministerial sup-

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ply, which have been very considerable, the Rev. Dr. Morse, of Steubenville, Ohio, has most kindly and laboriously served the people of St. John's, for which he is most justly very dear to them. Three churches have been put up in St. John's Parish on the same site,-the first of log, the second of framework, and the last of brick,-the last being conse- crated in 1850. There has always been a considerable congre- gation at St. John's, and I have ever been delighted to find myself in the midst of that plain, unpretending, hospitable, and zealous congregation of people, devoted to the true prin- ciples of the Gospel and worship of our Church.

In Wellsburg, which is about seven miles from St. John's, on the Ohio River, the congregation is small. They have a neat brick church, which was built some years since, almost entirely at the expense of two brothers, John and Danford Brown. The former has gone to his rest. The latter still lives and hopes for better times to the church of his affec- tions.

To these notices of the Church in Brooke county, I sub- join an extract from a pamphlet which I had occasion to publish some years since, when the question of forming a sep- arate diocese in Western Virginia was considered. In dis- cussing it I was led to consider the real condition of that part of the State, which unfitted it for the support of a sep- arate organization at that time. The following is, I believe, a true account of it :-

"Those who would see the main causes of the feeble con- dition of the Episcopal Church in Western Virginia, and of the difficulties in the way of its speedy progress, under any helps that can be brought to bear upon it, must consider the history of Western Virginia, and the peculiarity of her condition, by comparison with other portions of our land, similar as to soil and position. Take, for instance, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, lying on two sides of Western Virginia. While the latter (Western Virginia) is more hilly and mountainous, and less attractive on that account to

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the emigrant, she has also had other obstacles to settle- ment and improvement, which have left her far behind the former two. In the first place, the unsettled condition of her land-titles continues to this day to present most serious difficulties in the way of sale to those who would form such materials as might be moulded into Episcopal congregations. Another obstacle to the settlement of Western Virginia is the fact of its being part of a slave-holding State. This has prevented immense numbers from the North from choos- ing this as their home, while, on the other hand, the fact of the contiguity of Western Virginia to the free States, furnishes a facility for the escape of slaves, has prevented Eastern Virginians from settling there. Episcopal families for a long period of time have in great numbers been pass- ing by or through Western Virginia, and have formed the basis of churches in the South or Southwest. Comparative- ly few have settled in Western Virginia. The few are in- deed the chief materials out of which our churches are com- posed. The causes above-mentioned have mainly produced the immense difference between the present condition of Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and Western Virginia. While the two former have their forests cleared, their lands well cultivated and covered with comfortable dwellings and farm- houses .- while they abound in flourishing villages and even large towns, and churches and schools and colleges,-it is quite otherwise with the latter. A large proportion of her high hills and mountains are still covered with dense forests. Her villages and towns are few and small,-some not increas- ing at all, others but slowly. Immense bodies of her lands are owned by non-residents, being only inhabited by those who have no inducements to improve them, and who only seek to gain, during their uncertain residence, just what is necessary for the sustenance of life. On my recent visit, I passed through four tracts of fifty thousand acres each, own- ed by four different individuals, who were non-residents. These, I am told, are only a few of many large unimproved

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tracts: hundreds of thousands of acres can be bought at the low price of from twenty-five cents (perhaps less) to one dollar per acre, and of good land too, which will one day, though a distant one, be covered with flocks and herds. Of course, as villages and towns in the interior are for the most part sustained by the surrounding country, if this be uncul- tivated, or does not flourish, those cannot increase greatly. That Western Virginia has, on her surface and within her bosom, the materials of great wealth and improvement, none can doubt. I have ever believed and said that at some future day she would be one of the most interesting and de- sirable portions of our country. The improvements in the roads, already made from Winchester, Staunton, and other places, to the Ohio River, have done something for the com- fort of the traveller and the improvement of the country; but it is only necessary to travel these roads in order to see in how wild and uncultivated a condition large portions of Western Virginia still are; while those who traverse it on horseback, by the cross-routes, will see a far more rugged state of things. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad will do much for certain portions of Western Virginia; and the Central Railroad, if pursued, as we trust it may be, will do much for some other portions. There will be a general, though it cannot be a rapid, improvement throughout the greater part of this region.

Still it is our duty, as I have often said privately, public- ly, and officially, not only diligently to cultivate the places already opened to us, tend the little flocks already gathered, search for wandering sheep among the hills and mountains, but be ever ready to occupy any new positions, such as Fair- mont and Fellowsville, which shall from time to time pre- sent themselves. If we cannot do all that we would, let us do all that we can. But it is best to think soberly, and not deceive ourselves with false calculations. Even Western Pennsylvania, though having more ministers and churches than Western Virginia, has but few by comparison with her

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agricultural and other improvements, and by comparison with Ohio and other parts of our country. The cause of this may be found chiefly in the character of the population which first took possession of it, and still holds possession, and which was and is, averse to the Episcopal Church. The same may be said of the population of Western Virginia. Though for the most part of a different kind from that which first established itself in Western Pennsylvania, it was not and is not favourable material for the Episcopal Church, as past experience has shown. Western Virginia was doubtless settled chiefly from Eastern Virginia. Those who moved from the valley were not Episcopalians, for it is well known that the German and Scotch-Irish took possession of the val- ley at an early period, and that the Episcopal Church had scarcely an existence there until a very late period. Those who emigrated from Eastern Virginia were chiefly of that class who had deserted the Episcopal Church and been engag- ed in a violent hostility to it, and carried with them and trans- mitted to their children nothing but prejudice against it,- which prejudice has been cherished ever since by their re- ligious teachers. But, even if such prejudice has not been, so many generations have since grown up in utter ignorance of our Church, that in the great body of the people of West- ern Virginia there is no tendency to it, but the reverse. That the service of our Church is most admirably adapted to the edification of the poor and labouring man, I firmly believe and often delight to affirm; but the difficulties in the way of getting such to make trial of it are so great, by reason of their partiality to other denominations, and various other circumstances, that hitherto all the efforts to induce them so to do, whether in Virginia or elsewhere, have been of lit- tle avail."

Article LXXVIII. from Bishop Meade's Book. Churches in Wheel- ing, Fairmont, Clarksburg, Weston, Buchanon.

The Rev. Joseph Doddridge was the first Episcopal minis-

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ter, it is believed, who officiated in Wheeling. Residing in Wellsburg, he occasionally visited the few Episcopal fan- ilies then in Wheeling; but there was no organization until the 11th of May, 1819. This is to be ascribed to a visit of Bishop Chase, at whose instance it doubtless took place. The organization was with the title of "St. Matthew's Church, Wheeling." The persons composing the first association were as follows :- John Armstrong, Jr., W. T. Good, W. Gray, T. H. Armstrong, Joshua Morton, J. Good, W. Perrine, Richard Simms, P. Ray, J. C. Williams, Josiah Chapline, J. Wilson, Jr., W. Chapline, Jr., P. Bier, S. Scovill. T. M. Cowles, C. D. Knox, J. M. Smith, R. C. Thompson, Moses Shepherd, Moses W. Chapline, H. Thornbury, John Eoff, Samuel Chamberlain. A vestry being appointed, we find that the Rev. John Armstrong, from Maryland, was chosen the first minister. In the year 1821, Mr. Noah Zane pre- sented a lot for an Episcopal church. On the 9th of May, 1821, the corner-stone of St. Matthew's Church was laid by the order of Masons,-the Rev. Mr. Armstrong delivering a sermon and the Rev. Dr. Doddridge an oration. In the fall of that year it was ready for divine service. Mr. Arm- strong's labours continued for seven years, at the end of which time he died and was buried in the church. He was an honest, zealous, laborious, and faithful minister. At the building of the new church his remains were removed to it and now rest beneath its chancel. His son-the Rev. William Armstrong-was elected to fill the vacancy, but declined, and recommended the Rev. Thomas Wheat, who was chosen. In 1832, the Rev. Mr. Wheat resigned. and the Rev. Wm. Armstrong, being again elected, became the minister of St. Matthew's Church. The congregation so increased un- der his care that it became necessary to build a larger house. The present one was consecrated by myself on the 26th of October, 1837. In the year 1849, the question of dividing the diocese of Virginia having been agitated in the western part of the State, and being brought before the vestry, it was

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decided by a unanimous vote to be inexpedient. In the year 1853. the Rev. Mr. Perkins was appointed assistant to the Rev. Mr. Armstrong. In the following year Mr. Armstrong resigned. The vestry and congregation were so unwilling to part with one who had faithfully served them for nearly one-quarter of a century, that carnest efforts were made to prevent his removal from Wheeling or the vicinity; and, had he consented, provision would have been made for his support without the performance of the usual ministerial services: but he felt it his duty to return and spend his re- maining days in a small parish in Maryland, which he had served during the first thirteen years of his ministry. The Rev. Mr. Perkins was therefore chosen as his successor, and still continues to be the pastor of St. Matthew's Church.

List of Vestrymen of St. Matthew's Church.

John Good, Richard Simms, Wm. Chapline, Jr., S. Scovill, J. C. Williams, Noah Zane, Wm. Chapline, Sen., Alexander Caldwell. Josiah Chapline, Eli D. Swearingen, Moses Shep- herd, Richard Lane, Peter Yarnell, Patrick Ray, Joseph Cald- well, Jas. Tanner, Edmund I. Lee, Jr., Dr. Morton, W. H. Heiskell, John F. Clark, Major Good, Z. B. Curtis, F. Bassett, John Robinson, W. I. Selby, H. D. Brown, W. B. Atterbury, C. T. Strong. Alexander T. Laidley, Morgan Nelson, Samuel Neil, Alfred Richardson, A. P. Woods, Alexander Caldwell, J. L. Newby. J. R. Greer, W. K. Lindsay, George, Armstrong, S. Brady, R. C. Bonham, G. C. Tingle, M. C. Good, Robt. C. Woods.

Of the high respectability of the above body of vestry- men, under whose guardianship the Episcopal Church in Wheeling has so eminently flourished, the citizens of Wheeling, during the term of their service, would, I doubt not, bear a strong and willing testimony. Some of them were, and others still are, personally known to me. Of those who were known to me on earth, and whom I hope to know again in a higher sphere, and who are specially noticed

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and honoured on the records, I may be permitted to men- tion the names of Judge Caldwell and Richard Simms. The latter I knew from the year 1820 to the time of his death,- a few years since,-and knew him always as the same active. useful vestryman, and consistent Christian. He helped to build the first church in Wheeling, when it was in the midst of the woods. He loved, like David, to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, though from first to last he was the chief churchwarden. Providence permitted him to experi- ence great reverses during his earthly pilgrimage, but, through grace, he knew how to abound and how to suffer need. One thing he did not know, and that was to be idle and dependent. When, in extreme old age, he was depriv- ed of all earthly property, but when both the church and the town would have felt honoured in making provision for him, he could not endure the thought of being unemployed, but obtained the place of toll-keeper on the great turnpike-road from east to west, a few miles from Wheeling, and there, with his old and excellent companion, who yet survives him, spent the evening of his days,-still turning the curse into a blessing, and by the sweat of his brow making an honest livelihood. Mr. Simms was a native of Maryland, moved to Wheeling in 1816, was married by Dr. Doddridge, died in Triadelphia in March, 1854. His remains were brought to Wheeling, and into the church, and from thence to the East Wheeling Cemetery. Judge Caldwell was a man of high character and standing in every position in society, but above all was an humble Christian. Whenever the Holy Commun- ion is administered, the pastor and the people partake of the emblems of the Saviour's body and blood from a rich ser- vice of plate, costing, according to the vestry-book, the sum of three hundred dollars, a present from Mr. Joseph Caldwell, the brother of Judge Caldwell.

St. John's Church, East Wheeling.

The following account of it has been furnished me by one

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who is fully acquainted with its history. St. John's par- ish, Wheeling, was organized in the year of our Lord 1849. Previous to that time St. Matthew's parish embraced the whole of the city of Wheeling, and was the only Episcopal church in Ohio county.

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A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia, Part 42

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