U.S. Data Repository -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (pages 325-335) Chapter XV The Early Churches To be of no church is dangerous. ReHgion, of which the rewards are distant and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordi- nances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary in- fluence of example.——Samuel Johnson. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.—— Samuel Johnson, One of the reasons for locating Fairmont on its present site was that there was a "meeting house" on a hill near by. This church, the first in Middletown, was of the Presbyterian de- nomination, and was formally organized at the home of Asa Hall, near the mouth of Buffalo Creek, in 1815. A few people had just set- tled there and their lands were not yet cleared, but they felt the need of some help other than their own, so the little band met in the wilder- ness each Sunday to worship together and to gain strength for the coming week. Until No- vember 4, 1830, the services were held regu- larly by missionaries and young men preparing for the ministry, but in that year Rev. Cyrus Beecher Bristol came out as a regular pastor and continued with the church thirteen years. On a flyleaf of the first session record book, the following account of the founding of the Pres- byterian Church at Middletown is written in his handwriting, although without date and name: Middletown, Monongalia County, Virginia. The Presbyterian Church in Middletown was formed from members who came from the Slate of Delaware in 1790. They obtained supplies from the Redstone Presbytery. The same Presbytery sent out missionaries through the country to preach and administer the sacra- ments wherever they could find a sufficient number of members. The first clergyman was the Rev. Mr. Mar- shall; next, Mr. Dunlap Cooley, supposed to be an im- postor, and Mr. Cadwell, a candidate under the Pres- bytery, created some difficulty. About the year 1815, a church was organized at Mr. Hall's by Rev. Allen and Marquis. Messrs. Boaz Fleming, Jordan Hall and Thomas Hall were ordained elders. The church received occasional supplies from the Presbytery. The Revs. Adams, Hunt, Ralston, J. Green, R. Condit and A. G. Fairchild. About 1828 or 1829, S. Reed, a licentiate, preached six months as stated supply. About the same time Elisha D. Barrett was licensed as a candidate for the ministry. On November 7, 1830, the Rev. Cyrus Beecher Bristol, a member of the Bedford Presbytery, was sent as a missionary to this church and found it without any sessional records. He commenced the records, and con- tinued them for thirteen and a half years, which con- tains the history of the church during that period. The "members from the State of Delaware" organized a society in the year 1798. In 1831 a church was built on a land session made by Boaz Fleming on Jefferson Street. This build- ing, which was surrounded by a graveyard, was unpainted and contained but one story. The structure was nearly square, and in front of the building there were two entrance doors, one for the use of the men and the other for the women, while on the inside there were two sec- tions for the same purpose. The ministers were of the regular Presbyterian type of those days ——stern and unsmiling——who thought the Sab- bath Day a most holy institution which must be kept to the last letter of the law. During the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road most of the officials were Presbyterians, and aided the little church generously. Soon after 1852 a new two story brick church was erected on the site of the old one. The railroad people gave very freely, but the townfolk had to make many sacrifices in order to carry their share of the burden. In those days money was scarce and many of the sub- scriptions were paid in material or manual labor. Our ancestors humbly laid the work of their hands before the Master as the only gift they had to offer. In the earlier church the congregation joined in singing the good old hymns without the aid of instruments or especially trained singers, but in the new brick church there was a choir with Mr. John Jones, and later Mr. J. W. Crom- well as leaders. What this choir lacked in musical ability it made up in vociferousness, as we are told that Mr. Jones' voice could be heard a full mile away. It is thought that Methodist Episcopal minis- ters preached here as far back as 1778, but we have no authentic records until 1784, when the Redstone Circuit was established to take in this county. At that time Samuel Breeze and John Cooper were appointed ministers, and during the first years of the existence of the circuit Bishop Asbury passed through this section several times. During these visits he made the following entries in his journal: Friday, July 11, 1788. Arose at 4 o'clock and jour- neyed through devious lonely wilds where no food might be found, except what grew in the woods or was carried with us. We met with two women who were going to see their friends, and to attend the quarterly meeting at Clarksburg. Near midnight we stopped at A————'s, who hissed his dogs at us; but the women were determined to get to quarterly meeting, so we went in. Our supper was tea. Brothers Phebus and Cook took to the woods. I lay along the floor on a few deer skins with the fleas ——that night our poor horses got no corn, and the next morning they had to swim across the Monongahela. After a twenty miles' ride we came to Clarksburg; the man and beast were so outdone that it took us ten hours to accomplish it. And— We rode thirty miles to Father Haymond's (near Pricketl's Fort, in Marion County) after 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon, and made nearly eleven before we came in. And— Oh, how glad should I be of a plain, clean plank to lie on, as preferable to most of the beds. » » * This country will require much work to make it toler- able. * * * The great landholders who are indus- trious will soon show the effects of the aristocracy of wealth by lording it over their poorer neighbors and by securing to themselves all the offices of profit and honor. On the one hand, savage warfare teaches them to be cruel; and, on the other, the preaching of Antinomians poison them with error in doctrine; good moralists they are not, good Christians they can not be, unless they are better taught. The first religious services in Mannington District were held at the home of Richard Roberts, on Dent's Run. There, several years before 1800, the settlers formed a religious so- ciety. They had no regular pastor, but any preacher passing through the country would stop and hold services for them, some of the earliest of these being the Rev. David Cunning- ham, who died in 1800; Thomas Snodgrass, Philip Green and Cabel Foster. Soon after 1800 they built their first church, which was a hewn log building, 24 by 30 feet. This was heated by a stove, a very rare thing at that time. In 1811 a church was erected on Tever- baugh Creek in Lincoln District by the Method- ists. This building was used as a school as well as for religious purposes. At the homes of Richard Morris and Noah Matthews, in 1810, were held the first religious services in Paw Paw District, although no church was regu- larly organized until 1823, when the Method- ists established St. John's Church at Basnetts- ville. The first minister to preach in the new edifice was the Rev. Thomas Jemison. A Sabbath school was established here in the same year by Henry Boggess and Polly Conaway, and was well attended. The first brick church in Fairmont was built by the Methodist Episcopal denomination in the early part of the nineteenth century, and religious services were held in this church until a new building was erected on Main Street in 1852. The old church stood on Washington Street, and in addition to being a place of Divine Worship served as a courthouse for several years. Fairmont did not become a regular pastorate until 1851, when the Rev. Jacob S. Patterson was stationed here as minis- ter, and the Rev. Moses Tichensel as presiding elder. The first services held by the Baptists in this county were conducted in a little hewn log building erected at Yellow Rock Ford, in Grant District, in 1804. This church was served by Joshua Hickman. The building, which is still standing, would not be recognized now as a former church. Members of the Methodist Protestant de- nomination first organized in this county in 1829, when they gathered to hold their serv- ices in the "Old Horse Mill" in Barnesville. Thomas Barnes was for many years a leader in this church, being aided by his brother-in-law, the Rev. Asa Shinn, who began life as an itine- rant preacher among the hills of northern West Virginia while he was yet a lad in his teens. The first Methodist Protestant Church in Mid- dletown was established in 1830 by the Rev. Cornelius Springer, and in 1834 a frame build- ing was erected on Quincy Street for the use of this denomination. Nine years later, the Fair- mont Circuit was established as a part of the Pittsburgh conference, and in 1850 Fairmont became a regular charge——Noble Gillespie and William Gillespie being the first ministers. They were followed by the Rev. William Reeves, who was appointed in 1852. In this same year the old building was torn down and a new brick building of moderate proportions was erected. This was known as 'The old church on the hill," and was used by the Methodist Protestants until the completion of their present structure on Monroe Street in 1895. Before 1852 there were but three families of the Catholic faith in Marion County——the Watsons at Smithtown, and the Carneys and Bradleys at Middletown. These families had no regular priest or meeting place, but Father Gal- laher, of Pittsburgh, occasionally came to their homes to celebrate mass. In 1843 this same rector held a service in the old Methodist Church, preaching to a large congregation, and the morning after his sermon he said mass in the home of Cornelius Bradley. Father Plun- kett, of Martinsburg, sometimes visited the Catholic community in Fairmont, and in 1849 Father Austin Grogan, who was located at Kingwood, took charge of Fairmont and Mor- gantown——the number of communicants in the parish having been greatly increased by the ad- dition of the Irish immigrants of 1849. Father Dennis Brennon and Father Bartholomew Stock, of Weston, aided in the work. Mass was said in Dr. Campbell's house for some time, but when the congregation became too large for that, a deserted house on Coal Run behind Jackson's Feed Mill was rented. Father James Cunningham, who had been detailed to the Bal- timore and Ohio Railroad missions, built the first church in 1858. The first communicants of the Church of England to come to this region were Thomas Steel and his wife, who settled at Fairmont in 1848. In 1849 Martha Kearsley came, mak- ing the third member. In the same year Rev. T. D. Thomkins visited these members, per- forming the rite of baptism for several of their children, and in 1851 the Rev. McCabe held a short service and administered the sacrament at the home of the Kearsleys. In the fall of this year the Assistant Bishop of Virginia, Dr. John John, delivered the first sermon preached by an Episcopalian clergyman in the town. A confirmation service was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church by Dr. Meade, the Bishop of Virginia, in 1852, and the sacrament was administered to four persons. At the same time, the Rev. R. A. Castiman was appointed rector, and two years later the Methodist Episcopal building was purchased and recon- structed by Bishop Meade, as the "Christ Episcopal Church." In many of the early churches throughout the county protracted meetings were held during the winter months, to which the settlers rode many miles in big sleds. Before churches were estab- lished, the Sabbath Day was observed by mak- ing neighborly visits, and after their establish- ment the families who attended from a distance usually went home after the services with those who lived near the church to spend the remain- der of the day. In the early days funerals were conducted by the neighbors of the deceased. There are no authentic records of the boisterous "wakes" of which so much has been said. The people were a simple God-fearing folk to whom the mystery of death came as a solemn warning. Coffins were roughly fashioned of pine boards and stained with walnut juice——the cost approxi- mating $5. They were carried by the mourners through the bridle paths to the burying ground, or transported on one-horse sleds. It was not an unusual thing for a funeral party to travel 12 miles, in which case, however, the mourners rode on horseback. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -