History of the Miami Baptist association : from its organization in 1797 to a division in that body on missions, etc., in the year 1836 : With short sketches of deceased pastors of this first association in Ohio

Front matter

GriT M

*ic 977.1 D92h Dun levy, A. H.

History of the ass o c i a t- i o n

Chapter I

o=^HE first settlement in any part of the terri- J tory now comprising the State of Ohio, was T imade at Marietta, in the spring of 1788. In j July, 1787, a contract was made by authority of Congress, with Messrs. Sargent, Cutler, and their associates, for a large tract of land bordering on the Ohio, and extending up the Muskingum Eiver. It had been explored by Gen. Israel Putnam, one of this company, the year previous, and as soon as the contract was perfected a colony, from Massachusetts principally, set out for their new home. They did not reach it, however, that year; but arriving on the Monongahela, near the mouth of the Youghiogheny, at a place afterward called Eobbstown, they encamped for the winter. Early in the spring this little colony resumed its journey, and reached the mouth of the Muskingum, now Marietta, on the 7th day of April, 1788. These, however, were but the advanced guard of the colony, and were not accompanied by their families. Their object was to prepare for the reception of the main colony, which left New England in the spring of 1788, in wagons, with household goods and families, and which reached Wheeling after eight weeks’ travel, and soon after arrived by the river at Marietta. This was on the 2d day of July, _ 1788, and may be considered the first permanent settlement.

John Cleves Symmes, an enterprising and influential citizen of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in contemplation of planting a colony in the Northwestern Territory, with four companions, had made an exploring tour to the Miamis, *in the spring of 1787. In his route he met with Captain, afterward Major, Benjamin Stites, then of Bed Stone, Pa., formerly, also, of New Jersey. Captain Stites had descended the Ohio with a boat-load of provisions for the new settlements in Kentucky, and was at Washington, Kentucky, making his sales, when a party of Indians committed some depredations in the neighborhood. Having Aeen accustomed to Indian warfare, Captain Stites volunteered to pursue the Indians, and, if possible, retake the horses which they had carried off. His offer was accepted, and with a small company of men, he pursued the depredators, first along the Ohio Biver, on the Kentucky side, until they reached a point opposite to the mouth of the Little Miami, where they had crossed. Following the trail, he pursued them to near Old Town, about four miles north of the present site of Xenia; but, probably from the number of the Indians, Old Town then being a pretty large Indian village, he abandoned the pursuit, and returned to Maysville. In this route Captain Stites was enabled to form a pretty correct opinion of the beauty and fertility of the Miami country, and in the fall of the same year we hear of him visiting Judge Symmes, in New Jersey, and becoming one of his principal associates in the Miami purchase.

In July, 1788, Judge Symmes’ first colony left Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and in their route were joined by Captain Stites and some of his friends, at Red Stone, Pennsylvania, in all about thirty persons. The}" reached Maysville, Kentucky, then called Limestone, in August, and sent out an exploring party, Captain Stites, in the meantime, making preparations to receive the colony at the mouth of the Little Miami, soon after called Columbia, where he had secured, by contract with Judge Symmes, a tract of some ten thousand acres of land, to be laid off, as near as could be, in a square. These preparations being made, the colony landed about onequarter of a mile below the mouth of the Little Miami, on the north bank of the Ohio, on the 18th day of November, 1788. The families of some, and the wives of others, were left to winter at Maysville and Washington, Kentucky, until the next spring, when better provision for their comfort could be expected. Among this little band of some twenty-five persons, there were six Baptists. Their names were Benj. Stites, John S. Gano, Thomas C. Wade, Greenbright Baily, Mrs. Baily, his wife, and Edmund Buxton.

Immediately on landing prayer was offered up to Almighty God for his sustenance, guidance and protection, and all united in a hymn of praise on this solemn occasion. A winter of bloody conflict with the Indians was then anticipated; but, contrary to expectation, the colony remained undisturbed during all that winter, and until autumn of the next year. The settlers labored incessantly in building cabins for themselves upon the beautiful plain which lies east of most of the present buildings in Columbia; but on the first of January, 1789, a high flood in the Ohio proved that they had made a bad selection for a town. The whole bottom was overflowed, but one house escaping the deluge. Afterwards improvements were made below, and further from the river, on higher ground; but that flood forever ruined the prospects of Columbia. During the Indian wars many stayed there because they could not move further into the country on account of the savages. But as soon as Wayne’s victory, in the fall of 1794, secured the safety of the settlements in more interior localities, the people began to

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leave Columbia; and after the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, many more left, and Columbia ever after had the appearance of a deserted town.

Judge Symmes remained at Maysville when Major Stites left for Columbia, waiting some supplies, and did not leave that place, with another part of his colony, until the 29th of January, 1789. He was determined to settle at Horth Bend, some five miles above the mouth of the Great Miami, where he expected to lay out and build up the great town or city for the Miami country. But Matthias Denman, one of Symmes’ associates from Hew Jersey, had explored the country in 1788, and perceiving that the place where Cincinnati now stands was the site for a city, immediately entered into a contract with Judge Symmes for the section and fractions immediately opposite the mouth of the Licking River, Kentucky. He soon after met Robert Patterson, of Lexington, Kentucky, and a surveyor by the name of Filson, and gave each of them one-third in his purchase, they assisting him in laying out the town and settling it. Filson was soon after killed by the Indians, and Israel Ludlow, another experienced surveyor, was selected to take his place, and on the 26th of December, 1788, according to some — 28th according to others — a few individuals landed at the present site of Cincinnati, then called Losantiville, but afterward changed to Cincinnati, by Israel Ludlow

BIST OR Y OF THE on the suggestion of Gov. St. Clair, who laid out the town in the spring of 1789.

Judge Symmes, about the first of January, 1789, with his colony of some fourteen individuals, reached North Bend, about sixteen miles below Cincinnati, and there established the third settlement between the Miamis.

At these four points, Marietta, Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend, were the first permanent white settlements made within thepresent limits of Ohio, and whatever may have been the characters of a few who followed in the wake of these, the leading men in each were persons of talent, information and great energy and firmness of purpose. Many, if not most of them, had been revolutionary soldiers, and had spent their all in that struggle. The republic, then just established, was too poor to compensate them for their services and sacrifices; and they came to a new country, in part, to repair their broken fortunes, and, as it were, to commence life anew. It must be admitted, 'however, that with some of them, habits, probably acquired in the army, of using ardent spirits as a very common beverage, by many considered essential to health in a new country, formed one dark feature in the character and history of many of them. Some of the noblest of their number, of irreproachable conduct in every other respect, fell victims to intemperate habits, and a few melancholy instances of

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this ungovernable appetite were found among those who had made profession of religion, and had been united to some branch of the Christian Church. But again there were many noble examples of men among them, who, if they did not openly advocate entire abstinence from intoxicating drinks, were examples of temperance, and made it a point not to use intoxicating beverages on any occasion.

There was, however, another consideration beside that of acquiring a new home, in a new and fertile country, which brought many of the best citizens to Ohio Territory at an early period- This was the perpetual prohibition of slavery in all the limits of the Northwestern Territory, by the deservedly celebrated ordinance of 1787. This prohibition induced many of the noblest spirits of Kentucky, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia? who had seen the blighting effects of slavery upon the moral, educational, and intellectual condition of the people, to forsake the land of their birth, and the comforts of improved homes, for the wilds of the Northwest, where they and their posterity might enjoy the blessings of pure freedom and really free institutions.

These two traits in the early settlers of Ohio — the spirit of ’76, and opposition to slavery, both concurring in their love of the largest liberty of the human family — gave to the pioneers of the Northwestern Territory a dignified and generous character. In every man they recognized the common rights of humanity and their bearing to all was therefore respectful and kind.

Never was a new country settled, under the same disadvantages, so rapidly, and with so noble a class of men and women. Hence the first public men of Ohio, with all the difficulties which surrounded them in a wilderness country, afford the brightest specimens of talent, integrity and worth. Even the early legislative assemblies, composed, as they mostly were, of farmers and mechanics, exhibited more talent and more correct knowledge of legislation than any similar body of a late date. As fast as the old pioneers disappeared from our legislative halls, legislation dwindled into low political broils and schemes for party and individual advantage in the place of the public good. Either a new race has been engrafted upon us, or the descendants of the first settlers have degenerated. If the latter, it is probably that love of money which so distinguishes the age that has caused the changes. The pioneers were only desirous of making money and property to live. Now our people rather live to make money. At all events there is a change, whatever may be the cause, and not for the better.

In condensing the brief history of the Miami Baptist Association, whose origin was in the first settlement of Columbia, many of these pioneers of the Northwestern Territory have been brought

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up, in review, before my mind, and, for the time engaged in the work, I have seemed to be still living among them — again witnessing that marked courage, energy, and activity for which they were so distinguished. Many of them were familiar to me, and though then but a boy, their appearance and peculiarities are vividly impressed on my memory. The face of the country, as associated with these early recollections, has seemed to put on its primitive appearance, covered with its immense forests, and only here and there, miles apart, broken by a log cabin and a few acres of cleared land. In those humble dwellings, where all classes dwelt, were ever found warm-hearted friendship and hospitality. Neighborhoods then extended for miles around — often five and six — and nothing of interest, of joy, or sorrow, occurred to any which was not known to, and did not affect, all. But these early scenes can not be described. To be fully realized, they must have been witnessed. And I can not better convey even an imperfect idea of them and the early pioneers than by transcribing here the following stanzas, taken from some paper, but by whom written I know not :

Our valleys to the sun have bared,

And never in the battle’s van,

Have men at death more calmly smiled,

Than our first settlers, who began The work of culture in the wild.

The perils of a frontier life,

They toil’d that we the prize might share — They conquer’d that we might possess:

Converting to an Eden fair,

The terrors of a wilderness.

The car of steam now thunders by

The place where blazed their cabin fires;

They vanish from us one by one In death’s unlighted realm to sleep;

And, oh! degenerate is the son Who would not some memorial keep!

Chapter II. The First Baptist Church In Ohio

Was constituted by the aid of the Eev. Stephen Gano, afterward of Providence, Ehode Island, on

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the 20th of January, 1790,* at the house of Benjamin Davis, in Columbia, five miles above the present site of Cincinnati. This was on Saturday, and immediately after organizing the church? then consisting of nine persons, viz.: Benjamin Davis, Mary Davis, Isaac Ferris, Jonah Reynolds, Elizabeth Ferris, Amy Reynolds, John Ferris, John S. Gano, and Thomas C. Wade, Isaac Ferris was appointed Deacon, and John S. Gano, Clerk- The door of the church was then opened, and Elijah Stites, Rhoda Stites, and Sarah Ferris were received on experience, and baptized by Dr. Gano on the next day. Thomas Sloo, a member of Dr. Gano’s church, of New York City, and who had come out West with Dr. Stephen Gano, was present. Both Mr. Sloo and Dr. John Gano afterward moved to Kentucky. Soon after three others, Mrs. Meek, Smith, and Baily united by letter; and thus the first Baptist Church in the Northwestern Territory commenced with the above twelve members. On the 24th of January, 1790,* at a called meeting, they gave a unanimous invitation to Rev. Stephen Gano to become their

* These dates are given on the authority of a diary kept by Dr. William Goforth, one of the first settlers in Columbia, and were furnished by his daughter, Mrs. Mary Gano, widow of John S. Gano, one of the first members of the church at Columbia. Mrs. Gano is still living and active, May, 1857. But Dr. Ezra Ferris, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, lately deceased, and who was present at the organization of the church, is positive it took place on the last Saturday in March, 1790.

pastor; but this he declined. Dr. Stephen Gano was a brother of John S. Gano, before named, and through whose influence, it was hoped, he would accept and come West to live near his brother.

In May following this little church, without any pastor, was visited by Elder John Smith, then residing in Western Pennsylvania, though, by birth and education, a Virginian. His preaching was highly acceptable to the church, and before he left he was invited to become their pastor. This invitation was accepted on condition of being allowed time to settle his business at home. This required a longer time than he anticipated, and he did not take charge of the church until May, 1791.

In the meantime, Daniel Clark, a licentiate from Whitely Church, Pennsylvania, arrived with his own and other Baptist families. Elder Clark was immediately invited to supply the church until the arrival of John Smith. This he consented to do, and not only supplied this year’s absence of the pastor, but continued to labor for the church, with Elder Smith, for some five years longer. Their joint labors were harmonious, and a friendship was formed between the two that never was broken. John Smith was a man of fine natural abilities, dignified, affable in his manners, with a most pleasing address in the pulpit. Daniel Clark was a plain man, of great integrity of

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character, and, though not eloquent, yet an acceptable preacher.

At the October church meeting, 1791, fifteen persons united by letter and two were received by experience and baptism. In the spring of 1792, the church resolved to build a meeting-house on a lot in Columbia, donated by Major Stites. Until this time, the site had been considered too much exposed to the Indians, as being too far from Fort Miami, the place of refuge and defense for the inhabitants of Columbia when attacked, as they frequently were, by the Indians. The house was so far completed in the spring of 1793, as to be occupied for preaching. The law then required every able-bodied man attending meetings for worship, to carry his fire-arms with him, prepared to defend the inhabitants as well as those at the meeting from any attack of the Indians. On the first day the house was opened for worship, Col. Spencer, one of the early settlers at Columbia, and at that time at the head of the militia, attended the services, and at the close addressed the militia and pointed out the necessity of strict discipline at these meetings. On another occasion, during the same season, when the congregation had assembled lor worship, two men came from the woods with an Indian’s scalp which they had just taken; and during this and the next year, two members of the church, Francis Griffin and David Jennings, were killed by the savages. A number more of the inhabitants of Columbia were killed by the Indians during the years of 1791-2, and several taken prisoners; among them, O. M. Spencer, son of Col. Spencer, above named, and long after a well-known citizen of Cincinnati. All their religious meetings, therefore, until Wayne’s victory in the autumn of 1794 (and the treaty of Greenville in the next year), had to be guarded by armed men.

After Wayne’s victory in the autumn of 1794, the inhabitants of Columbia, most of whom had settled there only temporarily for protection, began rapidly to move to lands they had purchased further in the interior, and in this way a large majority of the members of the first church scattered, within a few years, over the Miami Talley, and soon began to organize other churches in different neighborhoods. In 1795, a number were dismissed to unite with a church on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. In 1797, two other bodies were dismissed from the Columbia Church, one to form a church on the island, some eight miles up the Miami, and afterward called Little Miami Island Church, and another to form a church on Carpenter’s Run, some ten miles directly north of Columbia. The meeting-house of this church was situated two miles west of the present site of Montgomery, Hamilton County. Others were dismissed, who settled at Clear Creek, and built a

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meeting-house a little north of the present site of Ridgeville, Warren County; at Turtle Creek, now Lebanon, and in the neighborhood of Little Prairie, now Middletown; and soon organized churches at each of these points. As early as 1804, a church was organized at Staunton, about one mile east of Troy, Miami County, and about seventy miles north of Columbia. The origin of all these churches can be traced to members of the Columbia Church, as they scattered themselves through the Miami Valley after the peace of 1795.

On the 21st day of September, 1792, Elder Daniel Clark, before a licentiate from Whitely Church, Pennsylvania, was ordained, at Columbia, according to the forms of the Regular Baptist Church. Elders John Smith and Dr. John Gano, recently from New York City, and then settled in Kentucky, officiated at the ordination exercises, which were performed under the shade of some large trees on the bank of the Ohio River. This was the first ordination of a Protestant minister in all the territory of the Northwest.

Elder Clark remained connected with the Columbia Church as assistant of Eider Smith, who was assigned to preach a part of his time at Cincinnati, until the year 1795, when Elder Smith resigned the care of the Columbia Church, and took charge of the Island Church. Elder Clark continued his labors with this church until the fall of 1797, when he moved about thirty miles northeast, where were organized, first, Clear Creek, and soon after Turtle Creek (now Lebanon) Church. He supplied both with preaching several years, and was the only pastor of the Lebanon Church from its organization in 179£ until about 1829, when he became too feeble to preach. He died December 11, 1834, in the 90th year of his age.

In 1801, Elder Peter Smith, then recently from Georgia, was chosen pastor of the Columbia Church, and continued such until 1805, when he removed to Beaver Creek, some five miles west of Xenia, and organized and took charge of a church at that place, where he remained until his death, about 1812.

In the spring of 1801, there was a large addition to the Columbia Church under the pastoral labor of Elder Peter Smith, assisted by Elder John Smith. In the course of a few months, nearly one hundred and fifty were received and baptized into the fellowship of the church. Among these converts was James Lyon, who has been for many years pastor of the same church, long since removed some two miles north of Columbia, and called Duck Creek Church; Elder Ezra Ferris was another, who, for more than forty years, lived and labored at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and who died April 19, 1857; another of those then added to the church was

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Hezekiali Stites, who has been pastor of a church called Bethel, Warren County, from its organization, in the year 1810, until the present time. To Elder Ferris I am indebted for many of the facts stated in connection with the first settlement and church at Columbia.

The early pastors of this first Baptist Church, and, indeed, the first regularly constituted church of any denomination of Christians in the whole Northwestern Territory, may be stated in the order in which they succeeded each other, as follows: 1st. Eev. Stephen Gano, temporary

pastor, who preached at Columbia during a part of the winter, 1789-90, and constituted said church. 2d. John Smith, 3d. Daniel Clark, associate pastors from 1790 to 1797. 4th. Peter Smith. 5th. William Jones. 6th. For a short time, John Clark; and 7th. James Lyon, still living (1857).

In 1808, the place of worship of the first church was removed from Columbia to Duck Creek, about two miles north, and from that time has been called the Duck Creek Church. In 1816, this church, with seven others, to- wit: Little Miami, Clover Fork, Clough, Nine Mile, Union, or Indian Creek, Stone Lick, and East Fork Churches were dismissed, and formed the East Fork Association, in which connection Duck Creek Church has ever since remained. Soon after the formation of the East Fork Association,

James Lyon was called as pastor of this church, and has remained pastor most of the time since. For a few years, B. F. Ilarmon has been the regular pastor, though Elder Lyon still preaches to the church a part of the time.

This church, from its first organization, has licensed and sent out a number of young men to preach the Gospel. Among the first was William Snodgrass, who, at a[very early day, went to the lower Mississippi country, then a Spanish province, and preached the Gospel, perhaps, for the first time, in the neighborhood of Natchez. Next, perhaps, a David Jones, then very lately from Wales, and who afterward became eminently useful as a preacher, but died early at Philadelphia. Among others, by this church licensed to preach, may be added James Lyon, Dr. Ezra Ferris, Hezekiah Stites, and Thomas J. Price. Elders Lyon, Ferris, and Stites all united with the church in 1801, and all lived to preach the Gospel until April 19, 1857, when Dr. Ferris was called to his rest, at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he had been pastor of a church for fifty years.

The spot on which the first house of worship of this church stood should be carefully preserved, not only as a memorial of the first planting of the Baptist cause in the Northwestern Territory, but of the ground on which so many Baptist preachers first proclaimed the Gospel message to the pioeers of the wilderness — for in addition to the

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pastors of this church whose names are above given, there were many early adventurers in the ministry who are remembered to have preached here to the delight and edification of the first settlers of Columbia. Among these were Dr. Samuel Jones, Chaplain in Wayne’s Army, and so long and favorably known at Philadelphia, Drs. Stephen and John Gano, Elders Joshua Carman, and John Mason. The last was a brotherin-law of Elder John Smith, and often preached at Columbia, and, for a time, about 1804, supplied the church.

The house of worship of the Columbia Church, erected in 1792, and finished in the next spring, was the first Protestant meeting-house in the Northwestern Territory. It stood on a little eminence on the north side of Columbia, where may still be seen, on the east side of the Little Miami Railroad, a pile of rocks and a number of ancient graves, some of which are inclosed by decayed palings, but most, only discernible by the little tumuli of earth which mark the resting-place of many of the old pioneers. The house itself was torn or blown down about 1835. A drawing of this house, as it appeared in 1830, taken from the American Pioneer , forms the frontispiece to this sketch.

This church at Columbia was the first regularly organized Protestant Church in the Northwestern Territory. Daniel Story, it is true, had preached

El ST OR r.

at Marietta, as an evangelist, from the spring of 1789, but the first church organized at Marietta was not founded until 1796.* At Cincinnati there was a Presbyterian Church, but its regular organization did not take place for at least twelve months after the church at Columbia.

* American Pioneer, Yol. I., pages 85, 86.

^N the 23d of September, 1797, the following named Baptist brethren, principally from the four churches then organized, viz. : Columbia, Miami Island , Carpenter's Run , and Clear Creek , met in conference at Columbia, viz.: JAMES SUTTON, PETER SMITH, DANIEL CLARK, JOHN SMITH, MOSES HUTCHINS, John Beasley, Abner Garrard, Ebenezer Osborn, David Davis, Hercules Tinner, William Milner, Joseph Frazee, Richard Ayres, Robert McKinney, David Snodgrass, John Beal, Abrah vm Blue, Francis Dunlevy, William Knight, William Buckley, Ross Crossley, Evan Bain, Lewis Jennings, Charles Reynolds, Class Thompson, Samuel Belville, John Ferris, Elijah Spites, JOSHUA CARMAN, and JOSIAH DODGE. The two last then lived in Kentucky.

The ministers are designated by capitals from my own recollection and information — members in small capitals. David Snodgrass, named among these pioneers, as has been before stated, was about this time licensed by the Columbia Church, with the view of his going into a desolate place in the South, Natchez probably, to preach the Gospel; but what became of him is not known.

At this conference, John Smith was chosen Moderator, and David Snodgrass, Clerk ; and, after consultation, it was resolved, “ That the churches in this Western Territory, and those adjacent, of the Baptist order, should meet at the Baptist Meeting-house, in Columbia, on the first Saturday of November, ensuing.”

Pursuant to this resolution, on Saturday, the 4th of November, 1797, all the above-named Baptist members of the above churches, with the addition of JOHN MASON, John Buckley, Bambo Harris, John McGrue, Levi Jennings, Henry Tucker, William Buel, Morris Osborn, Jonathan Garrard, and Thomas Shields, met at Columbia. After electing the same moderator and clerk, it was resolved, That arrangements be made to form an association; and a committee, consisting of PETER SMITH, JOHN MASON, JAMES SUT- TON, Richard Ayres, William Milner, and JOHN SMITH, was appointed u to draw up general principles of faith, practice, and decorum, to be laid before the several churches for their inspection, as the basis of an association,” and an associational meeting was appointed to be held at Columbia, on Saturday before the first Sabbath of June, 1798. On that day, delegates met at Columbia from the four churches above named,

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but the number of members is not given — of either church. The committee appointed to draw up general principles of faith, practice, etc., was modified-— the first committee having never met — and John Smith and Peter Smith were chosen from Columbia Church, William Milner, from Miami Island, Richard Ayres , for Carpenter’s Eun, and James Sutton , for Clear Creek, to constitute said committee. Another association was appointed, and met on the 20th of October, 1798, with the Miami Island Church. At this association, the same churches were represented, but no statistics given of members. John Corbly was chosen Moderator, and David Snodgrass, Clerk.

Eules of order and decorum , for the government of the Miami Association, appear to have been adopted at this meeting, and were ordered to be recorded at the beginning of the association records. Some of these it may be proper to copy here as showing the views of the pioneer Baptists, as to the object and sphere of associated action, and the independeuce of churches. The 9th rule provides, that

“ Every request for advice, or query, sent from any church in the union, is to be read and put to vote; and if carried, shall be investigated; provided, always, those be first considered which affect the union of churches.

10. “But no query shall be received by the association except inserted in a letter from some

HIST OR T OF THE particular church, after having first been debated in the church from whence it came.