Person:Ludwig Wildonger (1)

[KIESSE~3.GED]

THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XIX, HISTORICAL CHURCHES, 1710 TO 1744. from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 1876 and 1905* editions..

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Transcriber's note: Liberty has been taken with numbering footnot to include all footnotes from both the 1876 and 1905 editions, plus any additional text and pictures in the 1905 edition. All 1905 material will be noted with an asterisk.

Note: Where names differ, the 1905 edition spelling is applied.

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CHAPTER XIX

HISTORICAL CHURCHES

1710 TO 1744

Population previous to 1710. -Churches between 1710 and 1720. -S James' Episcopal. -The graveyard. -Whitefield and Zinzendorf. -Churches established. -Whitefield at Neshaminy. -Second visit. -The "Gre Awakening." -David Brainard. -The "old" and "new side." -Division at Neshaminy. -The Log college and William Tennent. -Samuel Blai -Charles Beatty. -Neshaminy church founded. - Nathaniel Irwin. -Mr. Belville. -Southampton Baptist church. -John Watts, Samuel Jones. -Mr. Vanhorne, Mr. Montanye. -Deep Run church. -Francis McHenry. -James Grier. -Newtown church. -Hugh Carlisle, James Boyd. -Revolutionary. -Robert D. Morris. -New Britain Baptist churc -Child of a religious quarrel. -Growden gives ground. -Joseph Eaton. -Reconciliation with Montgomery. -Strength of church. -Minister names. -Tohickon Reformed church.* -Founded 1740-43.* -Rev. Jac Riesz.* -1749.* -John Andrew Strassburger, most famous pastor.* -Twelve pastors in 122 years.*

The population of Bucks county was composed almost exclusively of English Friends previous to 1710, if we except the feeble settlement of Rhode Island Baptists, at Cold spring in Bristol township. Other sects and denominations came in at a later period; in their order, the English Episcopalians, the Dutch Protestants, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, t Welsh Baptists, and the German Lutherans and Reformed. Each denomination marked a different people, and introduced a new element into provincial civilization. Between 1710 and 1720 three denominational churches were established, St. James' Episcopal, at Bristol, what is now the Bensalem Presbyterian church, and the Low Dutch Reformed church of Northampton a Southampton.

St. James' Episcopal church, built in 1711, and dedicated the 12 July, 1712, owes its foundation to the "Society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts." The lot was the gift of "Anthony Burton, gentleman," and Queen Anne interested herself enough in the feeble pari to give it a solid silver communion service, which was stolen in after years. The first pastor was Reverend John Talbot, chaplain in the Engli navy, an attached to the ship in which George Keith first came to America. He and Talbot founded St. Mary's church at Burlington, and the latter used to come across the river to preach at Bristol before the church was built. He officiated until 1727, and was succeeded by the following rectors: Robert Wyman, 1733, William Lindsay, 1739, Colin Campbell, 1741, Mr. Odell, 1768, Mr. Lewis, 1776, Henry Waddell, 1806, Richard D. Hall, 181 Mr. Jacquette, 1822, Albert A. Miller, J. V. E. Thorn, William H. Reese, 1825, George [Greenbury*] W. Ridgely, Thomas J. Jackson, William S. Perkins, 1833, Mr. Bartow, 1855, Joseph W. Pearson, 1857, D. W. W. Spea 1861, Doctor John H. Drumm, in 1863 [to 1875*], John C. Brooks, 1876- [Joseph W. Lee, 1878 to 1885, William Leggett Kolbe, 1887 to 1891, and William Brice Morrow, 1892.*] Doctor Drumm was a chaplain in the army during the late Civil war, and served in the campaign on the Peninsula, and is now rector of a parish in Rhode Island. The parish of St. James suffered during the Revolutionary war. The church was dismantled and turned into a cavalry stable, the graves trodden under foot, and the congregation scattered. After the war it was used for a barn. It was without a rector or regular service for thirty-one years, and until Mr. Waddell, of Trenton, was called to officiate twice a month, in 1806, for £50 a year. This venerable parish has passed through many tribulations, but survived them all. The gifts of its early patrons have been mostly squandered, yet it possesses valuable temporalities. The church edifice cost $13,000 in 1857, and the congregation owns a comfortable rectory, erected a few years ago. Anthony Burton was one of the most active in t organization of the church, and John Rowland gave a lot on Mill street, in 1715, to build a rectory upon. Some of the early rectors received but £100 a year. The grave yard is one of the oldest in the county, and in it lie the remains of some of Bristol's earliest inhabitants. Near the grave of Captain Green, who carried the first American flag to China, was buried Captain Sharp, Tenth United States infantry, who, while stationed just above Bristol, fell in a duel with the quarter-master of his regimen 1798. Sharp was courting Miss Sarah McElroy, whose father kept the Cross Keys hotel in Bristol many years. The duel grew out of a difficulty in relation to the lady, and was fought on the farm now owned by Charles T. Iredell, just opposite the borough limits. Sharp fell at the second fir The lady never married.

The next thirty-five years were marked by unusual religious excitement and activity. It was during this period that the celebrated Whitefield visited America, and stirred up the hearts of the people to their lost condition, and Zinzendorf and his disciples from Hernhutt settled in the wilderness on the beautiful Lehigh. The religious fervor prevailing through the provinces manifested itself in this county, and churches multiplied rapidly. The Neshaminy Presbyterian church was founded about 1720, possibly before, Southampton Baptist church in 1730, the Presbyterian church at Newtown in 1734, the church in the midst of the Scotch-Irish settlements along the Deep run in Bedminster about the same time, and the New Britain Baptist church, an offshoot of Montgomery, and the child of a religious quarrel, in 1744. In the establishment of these early churches, the parent of denominational religion in this county, we read in plain characters the history of the immigration of the period, for places of religious worship only kept pace with the spiritual wants of the population. It was during this period that the Brainards, with courage and self-denial equal to the early Jesuit missionaries, labored among the Indians in the Forks of Delaware, and now and then came down into the more settled parts of the county to preach, at Neshaminy, Newtown, and elsewhere. In 1726 Reverend William Tennent, one of the great lights of his generation, was called to the Neshaminy church, and the same year he established the Log college on the York road, half a mile below Hartsville, which for years was the only school south of New England at which a young man could be fitted for the ministry.

The visit of Reverend George Whitefield to America, in 1739, gave a new impetus to the religious enthusiasm already prevailing. He landed at Philadelphia the 2d of November, and a week afterward Mr. Tennent rode down from Neshaminy, on horseback, to welcome the great evangelist, who writes in his diary, that he was "much comforted by the coming of one M Tennent, an old gray-headed disciple and soldier of Jesus Christ, who keeps an academy about twenty miles from Philadelphia." On his return from New York, near the close of the month, Mr. Whitefield came by way of Neshaminy, to visit Mr. Tennent. Leaving Trenton on the morning of November 22d, he traveled across the country on horseback, in company with several friends, arriving at the church about noon. He was announced to preach there, and on his arrival found about three thousand people gathered in the meeting-house yard. He addressed them in words that melted the great audience down, and caused many to cry aloud. The meeting was closed by an exhortation by Gilbert Tennent, the singing of a psalm, and a blessing. Mr. Whitefield went home with Mr. Tennent and staid all night, of whom he writes in his diary: "He entertained us like one of the ancient patriarchs. His wife to me seemed like Elizabeth, and he like Zachary; both, as far as I can find, walk in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord, blameless." In the morning he started for Philadelphia, where he arrived that afternoon, stopping long enough at Abington to preach to t thousand people from a porch window of the meeting-house, and "although the weather was cold they stood very patiently in the open air." He returned to Abington in April, and preached to between three and four thousand people (1).

(1) He says, in his journal, there were near a thousand horses ti about the meeting-house when he preached at Neshaminy, and it struck him favorable that the people did not sit on their horses as in England.

April 23, 1745, Mr. Whitefield made a second visit to Neshaminy. Leaving Philadelphia about eight a. m., accompanied by several friends, he arrived at three, having "baited at a friend's in the midway." That afternoon he preached in the meeting-house yard to about 500 people, and "great numbers were much melted down." That evening he rode to Montgomery, eig miles, where he staid all night, and the next morning continued on to Skippack, sixteen miles further, where he preached to 2,000 persons, passing through what "was seemingly a wilderness part of the country." The 7th of May Mr. Whitefield again came into the county, crossing the river to Bristol, where he preached to about 400 people, and then returned to Philadelphia. At this time Whitefield is described as "of middle statur slender body, fair complexion, comely appearance, and extremely bashful and modest. His delivery was warm and affectionate, and his gestures natural, and the most beautiful imaginable." Franklin, who attended his sermons, said: "He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great distanc computed that he might well be heard by 30,000."

In 1745 a religious revival and excitement, called the "Great Awakening," broke out in various parts of the country, and extended into this count It was noted for several marvelous instances of persons being thrown in contortions, called "jerks," while under the influence of preaching. So fainted, others saw visions, and many were moved in various ways. It broke out in the Neshaminy congregation in the spring of the year, and in Jun David Brainard, the great missionary among the Indians, came down from the Forks to assist Mr. Beatty, the pastor. He tells us, in his journal, th on Sunday there were assembled from 3,000 to 4,000 persons, and that during his sermons many were moved to tears.

During this period a spiritual skeleton introduced itself amid the revivals and awakenings that stirred the religious world. Things were f from harmonious. Presbyterians became divided, and for forty years the Old Side and New Side stood bristling at each other across an imaginary lin It was the ancestor of the war of "schools" that came a century late a word the division was here. The Old Side believed that all should "be regarded and treated as regenerate who did not give evidence to the contrary, by manifest heresy or immorality," and that all baptised persons should be communicants. This doctrine was held by what was called the strict Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland, with few exceptions. The New Side, principally persons from New England, held that all, in whom no evidence of regeneration could be found, should be excluded from communion, and the ministry. The Log College (2) was a New Side seminar and the New Brunswick Presbytery leaned the same way. The division caus great trouble in the synod from 1728 to 1741, when the schism, which separated the New Brunswick Presbytery from the rest of the body, was consummated. The Neshaminy church was not a unit. That part of the congregation adhering to the Old Side worshiped in the old church, in t graveyard, under the pastoral care of Reverend Francis McHenry, of Deep Run, while the New Side held service in the new church, on the site of the present one on the back of the creek. This continued until about 1768, when the synod having become united the two sides came together and worshiped in the same building.

(2) William Tennent renounced the authority of the Presbytery in 1739.

The religious fervor of the period probably led to the establishment of the Log College. William Tennent, its founder, and in fact its everything, took a leading part in all the discussions of the day, and exerted himself to advance the cause of religion. Whether the school he taught in Bensalem was theological is not known, but that near Neshaminy soon assumed this character, and has now become historic. He made a clearing in the timbe on a fifty-acre tract given him by his kinsman, James Logan, and erected a log building about twenty feet square (3). It was one of the earliest classical schools in the province, and was called "Log College" in derision. Mr. Tennent was assisted in the school, for a year, by his son Gilbert, who was licensed to preach in 1725. As this was the only school within the bounds of the Presbyterian church at which young men could be fitted for the ministry, he soon had as many scholars as he could receive. The Log College prepared for the pulpit some of the ablest divines of t last century. Mr. Tennent was born in Ireland about 1673, and was a distant relative of the Laird of Dundas and the Earl of Panmure. He was educated for the Episcopal church, and ordained in 1704. In 1702 he married the daughter of Mr. Kennedy, a Presbyterian minister, came to America in 1718, was licensed by the Philadelphia Presbytery, called to East Chester first, to Bensalem in 1721, and to Neshaminy in 1726, where he died in 1746. His widow died in Philadelphia in 1753. He was a man of very fine education, and spoke the Latin language with elegance and purity.

(3) He probably commenced the school in his own dwelling, for the land was not deeded to him until 1728. Mr. Logan frequently sent provisions to Mr. Tennent.

We know but little of the Log College beyond what can be said of its distinguished founder and the eminent men educated within its log walls. Its story of usefulness is told in the lives of its alumni. Mr. Tennent had four sons, all born in Ireland, but three of them educated at the college; Gilbert, born 1703, died 1764, William, born 1705, died 1777, John, born 1706, died 1732, and Charles, born 1711. They all became distinguished ministers in the Presbyterian church, and William was the subject of the remarkable trance that attracted universal attention at the time. Gilbert accompanied Whitefield to Boston in 1740, where his preaching was received with great favor. He was largely instrumental in bringing about a division in the church. Whitefield said that the Log College had turned out eight ministers before the fall of 1739, includi Tennent's four sons, but many more were educated there. All traces of this early cradle of Presbyterianism have long since passed away, and its exact location is hardly known. A piece of one of its logs is preserved as a memento, in a cane which the late Reverend Robert Belville presented to Doctor Miller, of Princeton, New Jersey. The school was maintained for twenty years, but did not long survive the retirement and death of its founder. Among the distinguished pupils of the Log College, we are able to mention the following: Samuel Blair, born in Ireland in 1712, came to America while young was one of the earliest pupils, and licensed to preach and ordained 1733. He was called to the pastorate of the New Londonderry, Pennsylvania, churc where he died. President Davis called him "the incomparable Blair;" Charles Beatty, son of an officer of the British army, born in Ireland about 1715, and came to America in 1729. He began life as a peddler, but stopping at the Log College with his pack, Mr. Tennent discovered he was a good classical scholar, and advised him to dispose of his goods and stu for the ministry. He succeeded his preceptor at Neshaminy in 1743, married a daughter of Governor Reading, of New Jersey, in 1746, was present at the coronation of George III, and present at court, in 1758, and died in the West Indies, in 1772. He was the ancestor of [the late*] John Beatty, of Doylestown; William Robinson, the son of an eminent Quaker physician near Carlisle, England, was born the beginning of the last century. He came to America when a young man, studied at the Log College, was ordained in 1741, settled at Saint George, Delaware, where he died in 1746. He was stationed for a time at Craig's and Hunter's settlement, north of the Lehigh. He was considered one of the most effective preachers of his day; Samuel Finley, born in Ireland in 1715, came to America in 1734, was ordained in 1742, was pastor at Milford, Connecticut, and Nottingham, Maryland, and in 1761 was elected president of the College of New Jerse where he died in 1766. The degree of D.D. was conferred on him by the University of Edinburgh; John Roan, born in Ireland in 1716, came to America in his youth, studied at the Log College, and was settled over the united congregations of Paxton and Derry [one charge*], and Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1775; Daniel Lawrence, born on Long Island in 1718, was licensed in 1745. He preached at the Forks of Delaware until 1751, when he removed to Cape May, where he died in 1766; James McCrea probably came from Ireland. He was licensed in 1739, a ordained in 1741; was pastor over several congregations in New Jersey, and died in 1769. He was the father of the unfortunate Jane McCrea, who was murdered by the British Indians in 1777 (4). He had nine sons and two daughters;

(4) Jane McCrea was murdered and scalped by a party of Indians whi being conveyed by her betrothed, an officer in the British army. A quarrel among the Indians was said to have led to it. It occurred near Fort Edward a few days before the battle of Saratoga. It called forth the severest denunciation, and much pathetic prose and verse were written upon it. Among others, Joel Barlow, the distinguished American poet, wrote a poem upon the event, beginning: "One deed shall tell what fame great Albion draws; From those auxiliars in her barbrous cause; Lucinda's fate. The tale ye nations hear; Eternal ages trace it with a tear."*

John Rowland, a native of Wales, was licensed to preach in 1738, and died about 1747 . He preached in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and was a m commanding eloquence. He was known as "hell-fire Rowland" among the irreligious. In personal appearance he closely resembled a noted scoundrel, and was once arrested and prosecuted for him, and was acquitted with difficulty; William Dean, born about 1719, but it is not known where, was probably educated was probably educated at the college. He was licensed to prea in 1742, and officiated at the Forks of Delaware and elsewhere until 1745, when he was sent missionary to Virginia, where he died in 1748; David Alexander came from Ireland, and is thought to have been educated at the Log College. He was ordained and installed at Pequa in 1738, but passed out of sight in 1741.

Probably John Roan and Doctor John Rogers both assisted in teaching, or possibly took charge of the school when infirm health, toward the close of his life, interrupted the duties of Mr. Tennent. Of the Log College pupils, fourteen became Presbyterian ministers. This institution was t pioneer school of those which made Hartsville an educational centre for fifty years in the present century.

The churches, founded during the period of which we write, were properly the pioneers of denominational religion between the Delaware and the Lehigh, and form a cluster of great historic interest. The history of the religious movements of the first forty or fifty years of the eighteenth century will not be complete without a brief sketch of these societies. First in order is the Neshaminy Presbyterian church, of Warwick (5). T date of its foundation is not known, the loss of early records breaking its chain of history, but it was probably as early as 1720 [1726*], possibly before (6). The first known pastor was Reverend William Tennent, called from Bensalem in 1726 (7). He likewise preached at Deep Run, called t "Upper congregation," and in 1734 the newly-formed church at Newtown asked for one-fourth of his time, but Deep Run refused her consent.

(5) The historians of the Presbyterian church have erroneously claimed Paulus Van Vleck as the pastor at Neshaminy in 1710, which carries its founding back to that date. Van Vleck was pastor at Bensalem and at the North and Southampton Dutch Reformed churches at that time, and never had any connection with the Warwick church. This correction in the early history of the Neshaminy church throws great uncertainty over the date of its foundation. This was never a Dutch congregation. In 1743 it was known as "the congregation of Warwick, in ye forks of Neshaminy." (6) This powerful sect in this state had a small beginning. The visit of Francis Makennie to Philadelphia, in 1692, is thought to have led to the gathering of dissenters at the Barbadoes store-house. John Watts, a Baptist minister, preached for them for a time, but in 1698 they called Jedediah Andrews, of New England. In 1704 they built a meeting-house on Market street, enlarged it in 1729, when they adopted the Presbyterian form of church government. With this exception the early churches of this denomination in Pennsylvania were Scotch-Irish. (7) This was without doubt the origin of Neshaminy Presbyterian church. It corresponds with the date of the arrival of the first installment of the Ulster Scots who formed the congregation, ad with the date of the donation of the land for the church by William Miller.*

In 1740 the Reverend Francis McHenry was chosen his assistant. Mr. Tennent was never regularly installed, but the people met and chose him for their pastor, and the Presbytery afterward ratified their actio was an active, thorough-going pastor, but not guiltless of stirring up strife in the church, and his crusade against the Old Side, his pastoral duties, and the management of the college kept him fully employed. A n church edifice was erected on the site of the present building in 1743, the last year of his pastorate.

On December 1, 1743, Reverend Charles Beatty was ordained "to the congregation of Warwick in ye forks of Neshaminy," on a salary of £60, increased to 100 pounds, or $260 at the end of twenty years. Here Mr. Beatty spent his life, absenting himself from his charge only on three occasions, on a missionary visit to the frontiers in 1766, when chaplain to Franklin's regiment in 1755 (8), and a visit to the West Indies in 1771, to collect money for Princeton college, and where he died. In 17 Neshaminy and "adjacent places" raised 14 pounds .5s 10d. to build a school-house and buy books for Brainard's Indians. The division in the church was consummated during his pastorate. The old church was in the present graveyard, where it stood for several years after the new one w built. Mr. Beatty was succeeded by Reverend Nathaniel Irwin in 1774, w was installed May 18th, and remained until he death, in 1812 (9). He began on a salary of $346, which was raised to $452 in 1798. He was a man of varied and extensive information, possessed great scientific knowledge, and was passionately fond of music. He exercised a wide influence in church and state, and for several years he controlled the politics of t county. He was instrumental in having the county seat removed to Doylestown. As a slur upon the clergy and church for interfering, some one made a charcoal sketch on the walls of the old court-house at Newtown, which represented Mr. Irwin in his shirt sleeves with a rope around the building and his body, and he pulling in the direction of Doylestown wi all his might. During his pastorate, in 1775, the church was enlarge his will he left $1,000 to the Presbyterian theological seminary, on condition that it be located on the site of the Log College, and $500 to the "American Whig society" of Princeton college, of which he was one of the founders in 1769. He rode to church on an old mare called "Dobbin," and composed his sermons as he jogged along the road and across the fields.

(8) Franklin says: "We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyteri minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. Whey they enlisted they were promised, besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was fortunately served out to them half in the morning and half in the evening, and I observed they were punctual in attending to receive it, upon which I said to Mr. Beatty: 'It is perhaps below the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you were to distribute it out only just after prayers, you would have them all about you.' He liked the thought, undertook the task, and with the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally or more punctually attended. So that I think this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some military laws for non-attendance on divine service." (9) Mr. Irwin was born in Chester county, October 18, 1746, educated at William and Mary college, Virginia, and at Princeton, where he had James Madison for classmate. He was twice married. His first wife was Priscilla McKinstry, born 1760, his second, Mary Jamison, who died August 3, 1822. Mr. Irwin was the first to encourage John Fitch in his steamboat invention.

The Reverend Robert B. Belville succeeded Mr. Irwin, and was ordained and installed October 20, 1813, and remained in charge a quarter of a century, resigning in November 1835 on account of ill health. He was an eloquent and able preacher, and during his pastorate there was a large increa members. After the resignation of Mr. Belville the pulpit was filled by supplies until January 1839, when those claiming to be the majority called the Reverend James P. Wilson (10), a young man teaching a classical school in the neighborhood, who was installed the 26th of February. This gave great offense to the rest of the congregation, who organized a new church, and erected a board "Tabernacle" in the woods on the Bristol road, at t top of the hill above the church. This congregation identified itself with the Old School organization, and Mr. Wilson's with the New School. This the question of "schools" divided the congregation, as the "sides" had done a century before. These troubles led to a law-suit, but a compromi was effected by a division of property, when the Old School party bui new church at Hartsville. The congregation prospered under the ministry of Mr. Wilson, the church building was enlarged and improved in 1842, and the members largely increased. At his resignation, in 1847, to accept the presidency of Delaware College, the Reverend Douglas K. Turner was call to the charge, who was ordained and installed April 18, 1848. His pastorate extended through a quarter of a century, to April 20, 1873, a was a period of prosperity in the church. A lecture-room was built at Hartsville, in 1849, the graveyard enlarged in 1857, an organ purchased for the church in 1853, and a Gothic chapel built in the graveyard in 1871. During his pastorate 300 members were added to the church. Mr.

See Wildonger.txt in folder

1. ↑ OneWorldTreeSM.

   Ancestry.com. One World Tree (sm) [database online]. Provo, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc.

2. ↑ .

   Details: 1 Footnote: Ancestry.com. One World Tree (sm) [database online]. Provo, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc. _FOOT: Ancestry.com. One World Tree (sm) [database online]. Provo, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc.

3. ↑ .

   Details: ???? Citation Text: 1

4. ↑ .

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5. ↑ .

   Footnote: ???? _FOOT: ????

6. ↑ .

   Details: Online publication - Ancestry.com. OneWorldTree [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc.

7. ↑ KIESSE.

   Date of Import: 1 Nov 2007

8. ↑ KIESSE.

   Date of Import: 1 Nov 2007