USA > West Virginia > Myers' history of West Virginia (1915) Volume II > Part 36
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However, this antipathetic feeling of other denominations toward this church is gradually dying out. But the doctrines and practices of the Episcopal Church are so radically different from other Protestant denominations that it is doubtful that this organization will ever join the others in the work for the attainment of Christian union.
However, its members, as'a rule, are progressive in social, state and national affairs, and help to form our best citizenship.
The membership of this body in West Virginia in 1890 was 2,906; 1906 it had increased to 5,230.
The Baptist Church.
Perhaps the first Baptist preacher to hold services in Western Virginia was Rev. Shubal Stearns, who came from Massachusetts in 1751 and located for a short time in Berkeley County, where he found Baptists already established under the care of S. Ilennen. He after- wards moved on to North Carolina, and later, about 1755, came to Capon, in Hampshire County.
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The Baptist preachers, as a rule, were zealous workers in the missionary field. Many of them traveled extensively-riding con- stantly from settlement to settlement, preaching wherever they could collect an audience. Rev. Jeremiah Moore, it is said, traveled nearly 50,000 miles on horseback during his ministerial duties in the carly days.
In 1770 the Baptists organized a church at Mill Creek, Berkeley County. In 1775 they organized a church near Cheat River, in Mon- ongalia County.
The Baptists and Presbyterians were instrumental in bringing about religious freedom in Virginia in 1785. This law placed all de- nominations on an equality. Notwithstanding this, however, the Bap- tists for long afterwards were not immune from persecution. The vigorous manner of their ministers in expounding the gospel and their mode of worship were in such marked contrast to those followed by the "Established" church that the former were ridiculed and not in- frequently suffered mob violence. "Some of the preachers were set upon by ruffians and beaten; others were dragged by the hair; some were thrown into water and almost drowned; others had live snakes and nests full of hornets thrown on them when they attempted to preach. Many were arrested and thrown into jails where fleas and other vermin annoyed them; occasionally they were fed days at a time on bread and water while in prison. The law officers and the courts prosecuted them, sometimes on the ground that they were preaching other than the doctrines of the established church, and at times on complaint of some citizen that they were disturbing the peace.
"They generally endured the persecution without showing vin- dictive resentment. When thrown into prison for preaching they would continue to preach through the prison bars to the crowds which assembled about the jails. Some of their greatest successes in pro- mulgating their doctrine and in making converts were when they ex- horted the crowds which surrounded the jails where they were con- fined. On one occasion when three preachers were led down the street to the jail from the court room where they had been sentenced 'for a year and a day' for preaching they sang as they went:
'Broad is the road that leads to death And thousands walk together there, But wisdom shows a narrow path With here and there a traveler.'"
The same writer, Maxwell, continues:
"Patrick Henry was a firm friend of the Baptists, though not in full sympathy with the doctrines they taught. He recognized their right to expound their doctrines in a reasonable manner, and on one occasion he volunteered to defend some preachers who were up for trial on a charge of disturbing the peace. He rode fifty miles to at- tend their trial, and though he arrived almost too late to be of any service, as their trial was in progress when he reached the court house. vet so vigorously did he attack the prosecution and so strone was his plea for the men whose only offense was that they had preached, that the judge ordered the trial to stop short, and he discharged the de- fendants. It is worthy of note that the father of Henry Clay was. once imprisoned in Virginia as a Baptist preacher."
The following letter, written by John Blair, deputy governor, to the King's Attorney in Spottsylvania County, shows that the Baptists had other friends in Virginia who recognized their right to worship God according to their religious belief. The letter reads:
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"1 lately received a letter, signed by a good number of worthy gentlemen, who are not here, complaining of the Baptists; the par- ticulars of their misbehavior are not told, any further than their run- ning into private houses and making dissensions. Mr. Craig and Mr. Benjamin Waller are now with me and deny the charge. They tell me they are willing to take the oath as others have. I told them I had consulted the attorney general, who is of the opinion that the general court only have a right to grant licenses, and, therefore, I referred them to that court. But on their application to the attorney general they brought me his letter, advising me to write you that their petition was a matter of right, and that you may not molest these conscientious people so long as they behave theinselves in a manner becoming pious Christians, and in obedience to the laws, till the court, where they intend to apply for license, and where the gentlemen who complain may make their objections and be heard. The act of tolera- tion (it being found by experience that persecuting dissenters increases their number) has given them a right to apply in a proper manner for licensed houses for the worship of God according to their con- sciences; and I persuade myself the gentlemen will quietly overlook their meetings till the court. I am told they administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper near the manner we do, and differ in nothin from our church but that of baptism, and their renewing the ancient discipline, by which they have reformed some sinners and brought them to be truly penitent. Nay, if a man of theirs is idle and neglects to labor and provide for his family as he ought, he incurs their cen- sures, which have had good effects. If this be their behavior. it were to be wished we had some of it among us."
During the Revolutionary War the Baptists were to be found in the front ranks in upholding the cause of liberty.
A Baptist Church was organized and located on North River, in Hampshire County in 1787, under the pastorate of Rev. B. Stone, with twenty-six members. Another church, with forty-four members, was organized by the same minister on Crooked Run, in the same county, in 1790.
In 1808 Dr. (Rev.) Monroe came from Fauquier County, Virginia, and with sixteen members established a church on Patterson's Creek in Mineral County.
Near Stewartstown, a few miles northeast of Morgantown, Rev. John Corbly organized the "Forks of Cheat" Baptist Church on the evening of November 5, 1775, with twelve members. Mfr. Corbly's family was soon after murdered by the Indians. This is supposed to have been the very first church of any denomination established west of the Alleghanies.
The baptists were in evidence at Clarksburg, Harrison County as early as 1788. Rev. Ira Chase, in a letter written by him in 1818 relative to the Baptists at Clarksburg, said in part:
"A Baptist Church had once been constituted here, but many years ago the pastor went west. No successor was secured and the flock was scattered. Nothing but the graveyard appeared where the meeting house once stood."
In 1795 Rev. Simeon Harris built and ministered to a church near the present village of Meadowville, in Barbour County. The old chim- ney of this structure still partly stands, the fireplace of which would accommodate a log ten feet in length-an eloquent reminder of pio- neer architectural style. Another church in the same county, near Philippi, was organized by Phineas Wells in 1817.
In 1890 the Baptist membership in West Virginia was 42,854; in 1906, 67,044, and in 1913, about 70,000, being almost equal to the com-
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bined membership of all other Protestant churches in West Virginia, excepting the Methodists, whose combined membership in 1900 was 115,825.
Presbyterians.
The first Presbyterian Church west of the Blue Ridge was erected in the lower Shenandoah Valley by William Hoge, who came from Pennsylvania in 1735 and located in the valley. It was known as the Opeckon Church. Three years prior to this-September 30, 1738-the synod of Philadelphia wrote Governor Gooch of Virginia the follow- ing letter:
"We take leave to address you in behalf of a considerable number of our brethren ( Presbyterians) who are meditating a settlement in the remote parts of your government, and one of the same persuasion as the Church of Scotland. We thought it our duty to acquaint your honor with this design and to ask your favor in allowing them the liberty of their consciences and in worshipping God in a way agree- able to the principles of their education. Your honor is sensible that those of our profession in Europe have been remarkable for their at- tachment to the house of Hanover, and have upon all occasions mani- fested an unspotted fidelity to our gracious sovereign King George, and we doubt not these our brethren will carry the same loyal princi- ples to the most distant settlements where their Jot may be cast, which will ever influence them to the most dutiful submission to the govern- ment which is placed over them. This, we trust, will recommend them to your honor's countenance and protection, and merit the enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties."
To the foregoing letter the Governor of Virginia replied as fol- lows:
"By the hand of Mr. Anderson I have received an address signed by you, in the name of your brethren of the synod of Philadelphia. And as I have been always inclined to favor the people who have lately removed from other provinces to settle on the western side of our great mountains, so you may be assured that no interruption shall be given to any minister of your profession who shall come among them, so as they conform themselves to the rules prescribed by the act of toleration in England, by taking the oaths enjoined thereby. and behave themselves peaceably toward the government. This you may please communicate to the synod as an answer to theirs."
It might be well to state here the fact that not all Presbyterians were Scotch-lrish, nor were all Scotch-Irish Presbyterians; neither were all the early settlers in Western Virginia active members in any church. On the contrary, a great many of them were not affiliated with any church, especially those who early settled west of the Alle- gnanics. The best reason for this latter condition was the fact that in many settlements there were no churches. Another reason, as ex- plained elsewhere, was that the people's time and attention were di- rected more to their clearings and fighting Indians than to their spirit- ual affairs. True, some of the heads of families had formerly been members of some church in the country from whence they came, and a few of these would sometimes get together and holl religious ser- vices. Occasionally, too, some itinerant preacher on horseback would find his way to a settlement during a Jull in Indian hostilities. These visits were generally regarded by the settlers as important events- by some for the spiritual edification they received from the Gospel message, by others for the entertainment and diversion from the common, every-day grind of pioneer lifc.
The Presbyterian, were as persevering in fighting for religious
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liberty in Virginia as were the Baptists, but they exercised more dis- cretion and diplomacy, and consequently suffered less persecution.
Very few church houses were built by the Presbyterians in West- ern Virginia previous to the year 1820, but persons who had formerly been members of that organization were scattered pretty much all over the State. There were, however, quite a number of Presbyterian preachers who traveled from settlement to settlement, preaching the gospel wherever they could assemble a few of the scattered flock.
During the Revolutionary War the Presbyterians were better or- ganized as military than Christian soldiers. They took a firmn stand against English tyranny and oppression. In the trouble and long controversies leading up to the actual beginning of armed resistance they were all on the one side in all parts of America inhabited by thein.
They were prominently identified with the revolutionary move- ment in Western Pennsylvania, where they passed resolutions; at the mouth of the Hocking River in Ohio when General Lewis's army was returning from chastising the Indians; and in North Carolina, where they took a leading part in the Mecklenburg declaration of independence a year before the one proclaimed at Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776. When actual warfare came on they were in the thick of the fray from beginning to end, the ministers themselves often serv- ing as chaplains, captains or common soldiers.
After the war was over, in 1791 Rev. John Lyle, who had fought in the battle at Point Pleasant, was a missionary on the Greenbrier River, where there was a considerable number of Presbyterians. He visited other places west of the mountains, and in 1793 preached at Springfield, in Hampshire County. He was active in his ministerial duties until near the time of his death, which occurred at Springfield in 1807, at which place he was buried.
It is recorded that a Presbyterian minister preached on the South Branch, in Hardy County, in 1782, but he had no organized church in that community. Here he remained and held services near Moorefield until 1787, when, owing to ill health due to unfavorable climatic con- ditions, he left the valley and moved on to Shepherdstown, in Jeffer- son County, where he relieved Rev. Moses Hoge. That left the entire South Branch Valley and the surrounding country from North Moun- tain westward without a Presbyterian minister, as far as is known, except occasional visits by missionaries.
Rev. William Hall was stationed near Martinsburg, in Berkeley County, in 1792.
About 1788 a few Presbyterians at Morgantown formed a religious society, and the first preacher who visited them was Rev. Joseph Patterson. The organization, however, did not prove a success, for after the lapse of eighteen years the membership dwindled down to four, and it was twenty-five years before another Presbyterian Church was organized in that vicinity.
About 1786 a considerable number of Scotch-Irish settled in the Tygart's Valley, many of whom had been affiliated with or had a leaning toward the Presbyterian Church, but the earliest available census of this denomination in that region was in 1831, when it was ascertained the Presbyterians there numbered sixty. This flock was ministered to the first year of its arrival (1786) by Rev. Edward Craw- ford of the Shenandoah Valley. He preached two sermons that year, probably the first ever heard within fifty miles of that locality. Not long afterwards Rev. William Wilson of the "Old Stone Church" of Augusta County preached two sermons, and in 1789 the people were favored with two sermons. It seems that for a few years Rev. Moses
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lloge and Rev. William Wilson alternately preached two annual ser- mons in Tygart's Valley.
Some time prior to 1820 Rev. Asa Brooks, a New England mis- sionary, visited the region, and later on made his home at Clarksburg. where, after a few years' ministerial service with the Presbyterian Rock, he died in 1830.
In 1820 Rev. Aretus Loomis, a Presbyterian minister, located in Tygart's Valley, Randolph County, where he organized the first Pres- byterian Church and erected the house of worship at or near Huttons- ville. Here religious services were held until the Civil War, when the building was destroyed by Federal troops. A few years later another inceting house was erected near the head of the valley.
Religious meetings were occasionally held at the home of Jacob Warwick, on the head of Greenbrier River, in Pocahontas County, in the early part of the century.
There were a considerable number of Presbyterians at and in the vicinity of Clarksburg, in Harrison County, as early as 180], but they had no church building at that place until 1829, when the Rev. Asa Brooks undertook this task, but died before its completion.
The people of those days were very much like those of the present time with reference to the preacher's mode of delivery of sermons. They detested a "paper read" sermon, as evidenced in the diary of Rev. Phihp B. Fithian, a Presbyterian preacher who visited the fron- tiers during the Revolutionary War. His notes, touching on this "peculiarity" of the people in this respect, read, in part, as follows:
"I am under the necessity of close study, as the people here do not allow of reading sermons. Preach without papers, seem earnest and serious, and you will be listened to with patience and wonder. Both your hands will be seized and almost shaken off as soon as you are out of the church, and you will be claimed by half the society to honor them with your company. Read your sermons, and their backs will go up at once, their attention all gone, and their noses will grow as red as their wigs, and you may get your dinner where you break- fasted."
As a church organization the Presbyterians were opposed to sla- very in any form, and there was no serious division in that body on the subject of slavery in its early years in this country. It was so with the Methodists and Baptists; but in after years a number of the churches divided, the opposing factions taking their respective ways.
In 1787 the synod of New York and Philadelphia officially ex- pressed sentiments on the subject as follows:
"The synod of New York and Philadelphia do highly approve of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in .. merica, and the interest which many of the states have taken in pro- moting the abolition of slavery; yet, inasmuch as men, introduced f. ori a service state to a participation of all the privileges of civil so- ciety without a proper education, and without previous habits of in- dustry, may be in many respects dangerous to the community; there- fore, they earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to their communion to give those persons who are at present held in servitude such good education as to prepare them for the better en- joyment of freedom; and they moreover recommend that masters, whenever they find servants inclined to make a just improvement of the privilege, would give them a peculium, or grant them sufficient time and sufficient means of procuring their own liberty at a moderate rate, that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits of industry that may render them useful citizens; and finally, they recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent measures
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consistent with the interests and the state of civil society, in the coun- tries where they live, to procure eventually the final abolition of sla- very in America."
The foregoing plan of emancipation was never carried out, and seventy-six years later Uncle Samuel took a short cut and with a stroke of the pen declared that human slavery should forever cease in the United States of America, and that declaration was confirmed by the result of the Civil War in 1865, when the South laid down its arms.
In West Virginia, in 1913, there were 71 churches of the denomi- nation called Presbyterians of the United States of America, with a membership of 10,214; and seven churches of the denomination called United Presbyterians, with a membership of 1,160, or a combined total of 78 churches and 11,374 members.
Lutherans.
Jefferson and Berkeley were the first counties west of the Blue Ridge to be occupied by members of the Lutheran Church. A majority of them were German immigrants from Pennsylvania and Maryland, who had crossed the Potomac at or near Harper's Ferry and wended their way up the Shenandoah Valley.
This denomination, like the Episcopal Church, was never numerically strong in West Virginia, notwithstanding both were among the first in missionary work as well as participating in the early settlement of the country west of the Blue Ridge. Possibly the almost exclusive use of the German language in their devotional exercises had much to do in re- tarding the progress of the Lutherans as a religious body, as but a small per cent of the population in Western Virginia understood that language.
The first Lutheran preacher to hold religious services in the Shen- andoah Valley is supposed to have been Rev. Ezra Keller. about the year 3736, shortly following the first settlement of that region.
The first church building erected by the Lutherans on West Virginia soil appears to have been in Kernstown, on a lot granted by Lord Fair- fax in 1753, but the structure was not completed until eleven years later.
Many of the Germans located at or near Stephensburg. in Jefferson County.
When the Revolutionary War broke out the German clement was quite as patriotic as any other nationality, and their men fought valiantly for America's independence.
Rev. Philip B. Fithian, who visited Stephensburg in 1775, where the population was mostly German, says in his diary :
"The village is full of people, men busy mustering, women in the streets and at the doors looking on, all things festive. The drum beats and the inhabitants of this town muster each morning at five o'clock. Mars. the great god of battle, is honored in every part of this spacious colony, but here every presence is warlike, every sound is martial- (irums beating, bag-pipes playing, and only sonorous tunes. Every man has a hunting shirt, which is the uniform of each company. Almost all have a cockade and a bull tail in their hats to represent that they are hardy, resolute, and invincible natives of the woods of America.
"Today for the first time, I went through the new exercise, gave the word, and performed the action. One snipe of this town was backward this morning in his attendance with the company of Independents. A file was sent to bring him. He made resistance, but was compelled at length, and is now in great fear, and is very humble since he heard many
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of his town-men talk of tar and feathers Many men of note are warm in the cause, especially Colonel Hite, a man of property in the neigh- borhood."
The people of German descent, whether they belonged to the Luth- eran Church or not, were never a slave-holding class. They opposed slavery on moral grounds.
In West Virginia, in 1-90, the membership of the Lutheran bodies numbered 4,176; in 1906 they numbered 6,506.
Disciples of Christ.
The Disciples of Christ are a body of people pleading for Christian union. Early in the last century Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Bar- ton W. Stone. Walter Scott and others, came to realize that divisions in the Church of Christ are sinful, and began to urge all Christians to try to get together in the understanding of the Bible. They were guided in their thought by the prayer of our Lord as recorded in the Seventeenth chapter of John. "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word: that they may all be one; even a> thou. Father, art in me, and 1 in thee; that they also may be in u -. " In the New Testament they read of one flock and one shepherd; of one body and one Spirit. They saw unity everywhere on the pages of the Book that all Christians claim to take as their sole and supreme rule of faith and practice. They learned that a house or kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.
The union contemplated was to be effected by a return to the teach- ing of Christ and llis apostles. It was necessary, so it was believed. to go back of the great reformers of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. and back of the Post-Nicene and Ante-Nicene Father- to the beginning and take up things as the apostles left them. The one creed upon which all could unite was the creed of Caesarca-Philippi. The ordinances upon which all could unite were those which were observed by the church of the first century. The name upon which all could unite was one of the names found in the Scriptures. The Campbells and Stone and Scott and their associates accepted the Word of God as their counsel: its precepts were authoritative and final. They said, "Where the Scriptures speak, wc speak, where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent." The end in view was the evangelization of the world. These men saw sin regnant in high places and in low places. They saw that the greater part of the world was without the Gospel. Darkness covered the lands and gross darkness the people. The churches were so weakened by divisions and sub-divisions that they could not address themselves in earnest to the work of making Christ's saving grace and power known among men everywhere. 1t seemed to be self-evident that a divided church could not evangelize the world. The task was too great. Only a united church could hope to do that in any reasonable time, if at all. The union for which they prayed and pled was not for its own sake: it was not an end. but a means to an end. The union for which our Lord prayed just before his passion was to the end that the world might believe that the Father had sent him, and that the Father loved them even as He loved His Son our Lord. And the union for which the Disciples of Christ have been praying and labor- ing for more than a hundred years was to the end that the kingdom of the world might become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and that He might reign forever and ever.
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