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Burke A. Hinsdale
(1837-1900)
The Disciples in Hiram...

(Cleveland: Ribison, Savage & Co., 1876)


  • title page

  • Mormonism

  • Bethesda Church Book

  • Transcriber's Comments





  • "Rigdon Revealed, 1826-27"  |  A. S. Hayden's History (1875)  |  Riddle's The Portrait (1874)


     



    A  HISTORY


    OF  THE



    D I S C I P L E S

    IN  HIRAM,  PORTAGE  COUNTY,  O.





    A  D I S C O U R S E

    DELIVERED  TO  THE  CHURCH  ON  SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1876.


    BY

    B.  A.  HINSDALE








    CLEVELAND, O.
    ROBISON, SAVAGE & CO., PRINTERS AND STATIONERS.



     

    [ 3 ]



    LETTER  OF  DEDICATION.


    DEAR HIRAM BRETHREN:

    This Historical Discourse was undertaken at your request. In presenting it to you in this permanent form, I desire to say a few things that would have been out of place in the Discourse itself.

    First: It is as perfect as I could make it, considering the quantity and the kind of material at my disposal. I have read all the published works that throw light upon the story. I have also gone through all the manuscript records known to me, that promised to be of any service. The Church Book of the Church Bethesda has been largely drawn upon. Our own records are incomplete and fragmentary; and we may well regret that they have not been kept with more care. Still, they are of considerable value. Valuable facts have been obtained by conversation with living actors in many of the scenes, here narrarted; especially with John and Zeb Rudolph. To gather up these materials, to put them in shape, to compare and to weigh discrepant accounts, has not been an easy task. But the preparation of the Discourse has been to me a source of constant interest and profit. If it is equally so to you, I shall be doubly paid.

    Second: Some may think the field covered is too broad, and that the Discourse is, therefore, too long. If so, I reply that Hiram can be understood only as she is taken in her historical connections. The relations of the Campbells with the Mahoning Association; of the Association with Bethesda; of Bethesda with the Disciples in this neighborhood, are so close that I felt obliged to trace the connection, in a rapid way, from the beginning. In our case, it really seems to life, that there are especial reasons for going back to the beginning in writing a local history. If any charge that I have lingered too long under the porches of Bethesda, this is any reply: I could not resist the temptation to give some glimpses of church life in Portage County, sixty years ago. Besides, how the Baptist Churches of Mahoning were transformed into congregations of Disciples -- how the new leaven




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    leavened the lump -- is an inquiry of the first importance. Such a process is always better understood when it is studied in a single case. As great changes in society are often best seen in the lives of single men; so similar changes in religious bodies are often best seen in a particular congregation.

    Third: There are some parts of the Discourse that I hope you will read with especial care. Let me mention what is said about the characteristics and defects of the Church. Our history is interesting and profitable, but it will not keep us alive. To live, we must work and grow. Hence, we inust understand ourselves individually and collectively, in order to intelligent effort. I would also mention the paragraphs pertaining to Church and College. Reference has been made above, to the imperfection of our records. Let more care be paid to them in the future. As the generation past made history for us, so we are making history for the generation coming. Let the Church never be without a Clerk, a good scribe, practiced in the forms of business, who will conscientiously record everything that will be a matter of future interest.

    Fourth: Should this little publication fall into the bands of neighboring brethren, let me urge them to see that the history of their congregations is gathered up and put in permanent form It is hoped we all properly appreciate such works as those of Richardson, Baxter, and Hayden, especially the work of the letter, belonging as it does to our own Reserve; but many facts of local interest, well worthy of preservation, are necessarily excluded from such books as theirs. Much valuable material has already been lost; more will be unless an immediate effort is made to put it in Shape where it can be preserved. Is not the year of our National Centennial a fitting time to like the effort?

    And now, Brethren, commending this Discourse to you, and you to God and the Word of his Grace, I subscribe myself,
                 Yours in Christ,
                                             B. A. HINSDALE.

    Hiram, O., March, 27, 1876.





    [ 5 ]


    HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE
    ________


    By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should, after receive for in inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Heb. xi, 8-10.

    Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. I Samuel, vii, 12.

    Walk about Zion and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. Ps xlviii, 12-13.

    Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, Jer. vi, 16.

    Let us follow therefore after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Rom. xiv, 19.


    How came there to be a Church of Disciples in Hiram? To answer this question, we must first answer another one. How came there to be Churches of Disciples anywhere?

    In the year 1807, Thomas Campbell, a Scotchman by blood and by training, came from the North of Ireland to Western Pennsylvania. Two years later he was followed by his family, one of whose members was Alexander Campbell, his oldest son. In his own country, the senior Campbell had been a learned, useful, and honored minister of the Seceders, one of the numerous branches into which the great Calvinistic body of Scotland and North Ireland was divided. His religious experience had been such as to convince him that the divided and distracted state of the Church of which the country that he came from was so melancholy an example, was not only unnecessary, but deeply sinful;
     




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    that this state of affairs resulted chiefly from introducing human elements into religion, and from neglecting Scripture teaching; and that a return to primitive foundations would bring back the primitive trust and petce. In his new home, he immediately began to urge, in the spirit of charity, these views. His Seceder brethren, with whom he had promptly allied himself on his arrival, took the alarm, and he soon found himself involved in the entanglements of an ecclesiastical prosecution. He freed himself from the toils by severing the bonds that bound him to the Seceders. Together with a few who sympathized with him, he soon formed a society that he named "The Christian Association of Washington, Pa." In the fall of 1809 this Association put forth a "Declaration and Address," in which the need of Christian union and the supreme authority of Scripture as the only basis on which it could be effected, were urged with great force of argument and cathlicity of spirit. It came from the pen of Thomas Campbell. Its key-note was, "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where they are silent, we are silent." About the time the transactions here narrated were transpiring, a large number of men in different places were feeling about for a principle that would lead them out of the chaos of Sect-Christianity. Several of these made the same discovery as Thomas Campbell -- the sole authority of the Bible. Hence, the stream we are now descending, variously called the Movement of the Disciples, and the Current Reformation, had many headsprings. But the one to whose stream all the rest became tributary, by which they were all swallowed up, was the one struck by the senior Campbell in the Washington "Declaration and Address." More than any other, he was the pioneer in reform. He was soon followed by his son Alexander, but with longer steps.

    The Campbells had made their home in a society young but of boundless possibilities: the nascent society of the Mississippi Valley; a society that partook of the freedom, and even wildness, of the nature in the midst of which it was planted. As compared with the Atlantic Slope, much more as compared with Europe, this society had more enterprise, more courage, a more fluid state of opinion, less conventionalism of manners, and a





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    larger measure of personal independence. Churches of various orders had been planted; a fair share of the people "west of the mountains" in 1809, were religious people; but, the Western tone was seen in religion as well as in politics and social life. Religiously, the Western mind was impressible. It was, therefore, the good fortune of the Campbells, and of their co-laborers, to begin their work where the material at hand was plastic; also their good fortune to see this material, as society grew in culture and in age, harden, thus retaining the impression that they had made. They wrote neither upon iron nor in the water.

    As has been seen, the original inspiration of the new movement was a desire for the union of the people of God. This is what may be called the material principle of the Campbells. It led to the formal principle, viz: This union can be effected only on a simple Scriptural basis. In asserting the supremacy of Scripture, they meant much more than the common Protestant means in making the same assertion. They believed that human authority hung an obscuring veil before the Protestant mind; and this veil they proposed to tear away, and bring men face to face with the Word of God. When the Campbells adopted this formal principle, they never dreamed where it would lead them; like Abraham, they went out not knowing whither they went. Looking once more into their New Testaments, they asked: "What was the primitive faith and order?" They failed to find it reflected in the Church of 1809. They pushed their inquiry with the eagerness of men who take up a new question. Great changes were speedily wrought in their views of religion. Feeling their wry slowly onward, they at last set themselves to restore the Church of the Apostles; its faith, its polity, and its spirit. The principle set forth above, of which they were the, most conspictious, though not the only advocates, rose to the surface of almost every religious body in the West: in some, spontaneously; in others, evoked by the cry for reform that passed over the land. Let us see this principle at work in one of these bodies.

    At the opening of this history, a handful of churches of the regular Baptist order, generally were scattered over Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. So far as paper documents could do it, these Baptist congregations were well protected





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    against unsound doctrines and dangerous practices; each one had its Covenant, its Articles of Faith, and its Rules of Order-- together composing its Constitution. Of course they were Calvinistic in doctrine and congregational in polity. They were grouped together, as Baptist Churches still are, in voluntary societies called Associations, for counsel, encouragement, and cooperation.

    Following their new-found principle, the Cambells reached the conclusion that the "one baptisim" of the New Testament is immersion. This conclusion led to important results. The first was their immersion; this was in 1812. The year before, they had organized a church, called the Brush Run Church, in which was included a considerable number of the members of the Washington Christian Association. The Brush Run house of worship was in Washington county, Pa., a few miles from the village of Bethany. Originally composed of Paedo-Baptists, this church, the first Church of Disciples, now became a congregation of immersed believers. In 1813 it was admitted to the Baptist Redstone Association, a body that gathered up into its bosom the Baptist Churches of Western Pennsylvania and Southeastern Ohio. Regularly, a church was not admitted to one of these Associations without an acceptable statement of faith in a written form; but Brush Run stipulated in advance that she should not be required to accept any creed or confession but the Bible. Thus, immersion was the bridge over which the Campbells passed from the Presbyterian to the Baptist order. In fact, however, they never were Baptists; and the union formed in 1813, although it lasted ten years or more, was never a very happy one.

    The Campbells continued to preach their newly gained views. They departed more and more from the old Calvinistic doctrines and methods of pretching. They attempted to pour the new wine into the old bottles, in which attempt they met with very different results. According to Alexander's account, written thirty years later, the Baptist people were considerably tolerant, teachable, and progressive; but the ministry of the Redstone Association, at least for the most part, were "narrow, contracted





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    illiberal, and uneducated men "little men in a big office." * Many of the ministers followed a very annoying and obstructive policy. Probably personal feeling had something to do with the matter; for, as time wore on, the younger Campbell came to stand in ability, knowledge, and weight of character, head and shoulders above them all. From the immersion of 1812, he, rather than his father, was the real head of the movement. For ten years the elements of opposition were slowly gathering. Arrangements were made to pack the Association of 1823 against him; certainly to proscribe his views, possibly to eject him from the connection. Weary of strife, perhaps convinced that it was useless to coontinue the struggle on that field, but not choosing to be put under ecclesiastical ban at this juncture, Alexander Campbell took a bold step that confounded his pursuers, and put matters on a new footing. In company With thirty other members of the Brush Run Church, he quoetly withdrew from that congregation, and organized the Wellsburgh Church, the second one formed on the new foundation. This was about as far from Bethany in one direction, as Brush Run was in the other. It was consistent with Baptist order for this new church to knock at the doors of any Association that it pleased -- a fact on which great events turned. The next step in the history, brings us to the Western Reserve.

    In 1820, in the adjoining town of Nelson, the Mahoning Baptist Association was organized. It embraced the territory now included in Trumbull, Portage, Mahoning, and part of Columbiana counties. It included, at most, about twenty churches. In externals, it did not differ from other associations, not even the redoubtable Redstone. But its more influential men were a superior class; pious, tolerant, and willing to learn. From 1820, and even before in some churches of the Association, views similar to those taught by the Campbells asserted themselves. Some of the leading men were in communication with Alexander Campbell as early as 1821. The Wellsburgh Church was admitted to this Association in 1824, so that the little flock which had escaped the eagles of Redstone was once more under

    __________
    * Millennial Harbinger, 1848, p. 344.





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    ecclesiastical cover. The creed sent up from Wellsburgh, written by Alexander Canpbell, and called "A Belief of the Wellsburgh Church," differed about as widely from the common regulation creed as it could, and belong to the same category. * Beyond this point, I cannot follow in detail the history of this Association. After 1825, Mr. Campbell visited it yearly. He also attended the Preachers' Meetings, commencing in 1822. † Light broke in on all sides among the Baptists of Eastern Ohio. They were ascending the mountains of God. They obtained clearer and clearer views of truth, and one, by one they burst the cocoon of the, old theological and ecclesiastical wrappings. The Association protected the swelling chrysalis until, transformed, it burst its shell and flew away. In 1830, at Austintown, the Mahoning Association formally dissolved, leaving in its room a large member of Churches of Christians or Disciples. Most, if not all, the Churches of the Association went into the new movement, so that nearly all of the Baptist congregations of this region of later date than 1830. One step more brings us to Hiram.

    July 30th, 1808, there was organized in Nelson, by Elder Thomas G. Jones then of Pa., a Baptist Church that, following the custom of giving churches sentimental or historical names, was called "Bethesda." There were six members: William and Mary West, John and Susan Rudolph, John and Elizabeth Noth. It was the first church of any kind organized in Portage County. The Church Book of this little congregation, kept, with great care and minuteness, is a curious and interesting study. Let me spread before you some of its material. Externally, there was nothing to distinguish Bethesda from the other little Baptist flocks scattered through the wilderness of Northern Ohio sixty years ago. It was Calvinistic in doctrine, congregational in polity, close in communion, and practiced immersion. It held that the laying-on of hands, in the reception of members, was of Apostolic appontment. In their Covenant, the members declared: "And we do promise and engage to do all things (by divine assistance), in our different

    __________
    * Note A.
    † Note B.





                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               11


    capacities and relations, that the Lord was commanded us and requires of us." One of the rules of discipline was this: "We do solemnly promise not to divulge the secrets of the Church to the world, and to keep the concerns of the House of God completely within itself." In 1810, it was "agreed that each member who neglected to attend any stated or appointed meeting of the Church, either on the Sabbath or week-day, shall be called upon to render to the Church a satisfactory excuse for such neglect." To carry out this order, the Clerk called the roll of the members, and the names of the absentees were entered on the Church Book, where they stand to this day. At this distance, the few facts relating to the financial history of this church are peculiarly interesting. It was, indeed, the day of small things. The difference between six and one-fourth and twelve and a half cents was fully recognized. April 7th, 1809, it was voted to raise six dollars for church purposes the coming year, and a committee was ordered "to levy, collect, and deliver it to the church as soon as possible." At first, members wore assessed according to their property, but later the, subscription plan was introduced. The year following, eight dollars was raised. January 25th, 1812, Elder West, the pastor, reported that he had received, for the previous and current yetrs, eighty-six dollars as salary. Bethesda generally grew from her organization. Why should she not, since she had plenty of room? Up to June 2d, 1810, she had received twenty-four members. December 15th, 1811, there were twenty-three members. The roll of August 17th, 1822, contained forty-five names. Within the territory over which these members were scattered, it is safe to say, twenty churches have since, at one time or another, existed. East and west, it touched the two extremes of Nelson and Aurora. Some of the members lived in Palmyra, some in Newton, some in Deerfield, others in Troy and in Bainbridge. In those days Hiram appears to have held a sort of bad eminence for irreligion for the whole town furnished Bethesda only one member, and that one was excluded for "heresy and unworthy conduct." On the roll we find some familiar names. April 10th, 1819, John Rudolph, Jr., "came forward and told what the Lord had done for his soul, and was received into the





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    Church." February 12th, 1821, Darwin Atwater "gave in his experience" and was immersed. Zeb Rudolph was received August 10th, 1823. The stated meetings were held in different places in the territory covered by the membership, but most frequently in Nelson, Mantua, and Aurora. They were held either in private houses or in school houses, generally in the former, as the Church had no house of worship. William West was the shepherd of the little flock for several years, commencing with 1810. Later, Elder Freeman acted in the same capacity. Adamson Bentley, then a young man of twenty-four, afterwards our own venerable patriarch, visited the Church as early as 1809. Sidney Rigdon, afterwards the Mormon heresiarch, came about as early. About 1820, the Church territory began to be narrowed by the organization of neighboring congregations.

    It is impossible, not to admire the faith and heroism of the six persons who took upon themselves the labor and responsibility of organizing the Church Bethesda. Nor can we fail to admire the courage and faithfulness with which she moved onward. Worship was maintained, and the ordinances were observed, according, to the rules of the body. How many Christians are there in Nelson to-day who would go to Aurora or Palmyra to attend public worship on the Lord's day? How many in Aurora would up to Nelson? How many in Hiram who would go to either place? How pleasing the picture that the imagination paints of these zealous Christains, scattered through the woods of a half-dozen townships, more than half a century ago, going up, sometimes, to John Noah's, in Nelson, sometimes to Jotham Atwater's, in Mantua, sometimes to Samuel Baldwin's, in Aurora, and again to the South School House, in Hiram, to hear the Gospel preached, and to keep the ordinances of God's House! But do not hastily conclude that the former days were better than these. Bethesda had her troubles. She could not enforce her rule requiring attendance at the conference meetings, and after a few years, the Clerk ceased to put down the names of the absent. Under date of January 25th, 1812, twenty-one members are marked absent from the meeting. The Clerk plaintively observes "that the brethren who attended were hurt, in their feelings," mournfully





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    adding, "this day is not generally attended to," I have never read the record of any church that had so many cases of discipline to look after. It would seem that more or less "impotent folk" always lay about the pool of Bethesda. Some of the cases were for absence from the Church meetings. One was for "insufferable misstatements," one for dancing, some for drunkenness, others for swearing or other violent language, and several for heretical opinions. For so small a church, there were numerous exclusions. Prominent members fell out of the way in a manner that would quite surprise us now. Plainly, society was more plastic then. Promptness in lopping off the unthrifty and dead branches of the vine may be a mark of zeal and life in the gardener, but not necessarily of wisdom and the spirit of Christ. Apparently, the waters of Bethesda were "troubled" for other purposes than healing.

    The reforming views as preached by the Campbells came to the surface as soon in Bethesda as in any of her sister Churches in the Mahoning Association. The senior Rudolph, a deacon of the Church from 1811, never believed in the laying-on of hands in the reception of members. Still, the good old Calvinistic dogmas and the good old Baptist rules held their place undisturbed, until the year 1823 was fairly rounded. Rudolph held his convictions as silent opinions, not wishing to disturb the peace of the Church. One or two things in The Church Book are very suggestive in connection with the Church's early history. In calling West to the pastorate in 1810, the form used was: "We the Church of Jesus Christ, called Bethesda." Is that a prophecy or an accident? Certainly it was remarkable for a regular Btptist Church so to describe itself. In 1823, when the Church field had been narrowed, the designation, "Baptist Church of Christ, in Nelson," was adopted. By this time, it became clear that there were two ways of thinking in the Church. The conservative party, which was the smaller, was led by Mrs. Eleanor Garrett, a lady characterized both by piety and skill in leadership. The other by Deacon Rudolph, who possessed weight of character tnd ardent piety. The one party insisted in going on in the good old way; the other thought the Bible should be regarded more and the Constitution less. John Rudolph, Jr.,





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    the Church Clerk, became tired of reading the Covenant and Articles at the monthly Covenant meeting, and he accordingly omtted some of those parts that he thought most objectionable. The conservative party insisted that they should be read; the progressives took a step forward, and proposed to lay aside the Creed altogether. The pool of Bethesda was now "troubled" as never before. A number of Church meetings were held to adjust the difficulties. Elder Thos. G. Jones, the father of the Church was called in as a counselor. At a meeting held in Nelson, June 21st, 1824, it was agreed peaceably to separate. The conservatives would remain with the old standards; the reforming party, having first received testimonials of character, would go their way. Some of the Mantua members who had not been present at the meeting, thought the proceedings irregular. Deacon Rudolph, on reflection, regretted having agreed to separate from the Church. Accordingly, at a meeting held June 29th, the previous action was both reconsidered and reversed. This left both parties under the flag. A third meeting was held in the South School House, in Hiram, Aug. 21st. Only two or three of the conservative party attended this meeting. On the motion of John Rudolph Jr., it was voted almost,unanimously, "to renounce the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the Constitution, the Articles, and Covenant of this Church, which was formed the 30th of July, 1808, and to take the Word of God for our rule of faith and practice." Brush Run had previously organized without articles; but Bethesda, so far as known to me, heads the list of Baptist Churches that voted to lay articles aside. * Messengers to the Association, soon to convene in Hubbard, were choscn at this August meeting. A string of questions that these messengers were instructed to lay before that body, better than anything, else, will show what the most active Christain minds in the borders of Hiram were thinking of fifty-two years ago:

    1. "Will this Association hold in its connection a church which acknowledges no other rule of faith and practice than the Scriptures?

    __________
    * Note C.





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    2. "In what manner were members received into the churches that were set in order by the Apostles?

    3. "How were members excluded from those churches?"

    These questions were not answered by the Association until them following year. When the iiiswers came, they were all that the reforming party could have desired.

    The minority refused to accept the action of August 21st. In itself, it was distasteful to them. Besides, they charged the majority with having broken faith in not living up to the agreement of June 21st, to separate in peace. Neither party would yield to the other; the minority determined to go to extremes. Accordingly, Nov. 27th, 1824, without summoning those who composed it to appear, the minority excluded the majority from the fellowship. Here are the names of the excommunicated persons as preserved in the Record. John Rudolph and wife, John Noah and wife, Hulda Atwater, Darwin Atwater, Rosetta Snow, John Rudolph, Jr., and wife, and Benjamin Green; in all, ten. Some of the younger adherents of the excluded party, as Zeb Rudolph, are not mentioned in the exscinding resolution. One traditional account says there were seventeen in all; another account fourteen. More than one-half were Rudolphs. Tradition also says that only eight votes were cast for the exscinding resolution. It is not invidious to say that the excluded party surpassed the excluding in intelligence, and Biblical knowledge as much as in numbers. Naturally, the majority refused to recognize the legality of what the minority had done. Each party claimed to be the Church. Both sent delegations to Association in 1825 and both delegations were received. The difficulties were referred to a committee, of which Alexander Campbell, now sitting for the first time in the Mahoning Assocation, was Chairman. The report of this committee, still extant in Mr. Campbell's hand-writing, recites that there was a hopeful prospect of the difficulties being removed, and says it would appear inexpedient for the Association to take further notice of them in the meantime. No accomodation, however, was ever made. The new cloth and the old garment could not be sewed together. Majority and minority were moving on diverging roads. In 1826 they both elected messengers to Association, but the minutes contain no





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    trace of the Regulars. As the Association was moving on the same road as the excluded party, though at a slower pace, the Regulars followed no further. With a protest against the proceedings of the Association, and a fling at "the innovations of Alexander Campbell," the Baptist Church of Nelson abandoned her late sisters, and in 1828 joined herself to the Grand River Association. Here we take our leave of Bethesda, with the remark that she lives to-day in the Baptist Church of Garrettsville. *

    In the meantime, the reforming ptrty went on very much as though nothing had happened. John Rudolph, Sr., his sons John and Zeb, and Darwin Atwater were the leading spirits among them. They had no Elders, but the senior Rudolph, continued to act in the capacity of Deacon. Sometimes they met in Nelson, sometimes in Mantua, and sometimes in Hiram. For the most part, the brethren edifted themselves in love. Occasionally, they were visited by preachers holding the new views, living in other places. They regularly sent messengers to the Association until its dissolution, where they were recognized as the Baptist Church of Nelson. The more prominent of them read "The Christian Baptist," the powerful organ of Mr. Campbell, established in 1823. We call this little band a church, but we must be careful not to carry back and attribute to it the exacter and more formal ideas of to-day. The movement of the Disciples was then in an inchoate state and the Hiram-Nelson-Mantua Church of 1825-6-7 was, in fact, a floating band of ardent brethren, without fixed ecclesiastical organization. In a sense, they had gone out, not knowing whither they went; by faith, they sojourned in the land of promise, dwelling in tabernacles, until God should give them a city which had foundations. For devotional meetings, they met in little knots in their several neighborhoods. About 1827, Rigdon begin to preach once a month, in Mantua, and as the brethren all went up there to hear him, this fact served to localize the body in that place. Hence, according to the Mantua Record, a formal organization, with nine members, was effected

    __________
    * Note D.





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    there in January of that year. Afterwards the nine were reinforced by ten others who, with them, were pilgrims from Bethesda. Thomas Campbell visited them in 1828, from which time the Church took on a still more regular form. Darwin Atwater and Zeb Rudolph were now appointed teachers, John Rudolph, Jr., and Lyman Hunt, deacons. At that time the Church was visited also by Adamson Bentley, Jacob Osborne, Walter Scott and Bosworth. By April, 1829, there had been forty-nine immersions, making a total membership of seventy. The time had now come for another step forward. April 18th, 1829, the Hiram and Nelson members petitioned for a division of the Church, on the ground that they lived so far from the common meeting place. This was at the South School House in Mantua. The petition was granted, and thirty-four persons withdrew. forming the Church of Hiram-Nelson.

    In that day, churches were propagated by a process very like that known to naturalists as fissiparous generation. The parent cell splits asunder, each part becoming a perfect organism. In this case, the products of the first fission were the Chirch in Mantua and the Church in Hiram and Nelson; the former embracing the western, the latter the central and eastern members, of the Mother Church. Each of the new churches went on its way. Thus matters stood until 1835, when the next fission took place.

    In the meantime, an important accession had been gained. The evangelical work of Walter Scott gave to the cause Marcus Bosworth. This fervent preacher preached at Hiram Center in June. One of his auditors was Symonds Ryder, a resident of fifteen years, in the vigor of life, perhaps the most influential man in the township. Though favorably disposed towards churches on account of their conservative influence, he had never made a profession of religion. His leanings were towards Universalism, to which most citizens of Hiram, at an early day, seem to have been drawn. Ryder's attention was arrested by Bosworth's sermon, and a week later, at the close of Father Campbell's sermon in Mantua, he made confession of his faith in the Savior, and was baptized the same day. He was the most important accession that the Hiram Church has ever had, so far


    Symonds Ryder  (1792-1870)
    [photo not in Hinsdale's 1876 pamphlet]






    18                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    as local results are concerned. His age, abilities, force of character, and position gave the young cause new strength. He became the leader of the little band almost at once. Especially was this the case after the western brethren found a local habitation in Mantua, and Hiram and Nelson went on alone. Before Hiram and Nelson separated, an event more startling than any yet related occurred, and, for a time, threatened to lay the whole heritage waste.

    In 1830, Mormonism broke out in Western New York. Almost immediately, its prophet and its devotees moved, by a predetermined path, to the Western Reserve. Here I need not discuss the respective relations to Mormonism of Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon, further than to say the latter furnished its historical and dogmatic materials, the former the low cunning and sensuousness that lay at the bottom of all its early triumphs. Rigdon was first a regular Baptist preacher; then he went into the reform movement, where he stood below only Campbell and Scott as a preacher; now he was a Mormon. How he and Smith were first brought together, is about the only important question relating to the genesis of Mormonism that remains Unanswered. But it is proved that he was in correspondence with Smith as early as 1827. Rigdon had been preparing the way for the new faith some time before Smith made his advent in Ohio. At first, the Ark of the Latter-Day covenant was set down in Kirtland, near Rigdon's home in Mentor; but in 1831 it was removed to Hiram. For a time, the house now occupied by Mr. William Stevens, on Ryder Street, was both the Palace and the Temple of the Prophet. But what brought the Mormons to Hiram? Why, a few converts had been made in this retired spot. One of these was Ezra Booth, both previously and subsequently a Methodist preacher, and a man of very considerable culture and eloquence. Booth was immediately made an elder, and began to preach. One of his converts was none other than Symonds Ryder. In a published discourse on "The Life and Character of Elder Symonds Ryder," I have gone over his history with some detail. All I can here say must be put in a few sentences. Ryder had never been satisfied that the Disciples did justice to the Scripture doctrine of spiritual gifts;





                                   HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                                19


    and it was the pretended miracles of Smith, some of which were very extraordinary, that led him to embrace the new faith. * In a letter published since his death, Ryder says: "It has been stated that from the year 1815 to 1835, a period of twenty years, all sorts of doctrines, by all sorts of preachers, have been plead; and most of the people of Hiram had been disposed to turn out and hear." No one can unerstand the early progress of Mormonism who does not keep this chaotic state of religious opinion in mind. Ryder also became an elder. By this time, the Mormon cause was making great headway in this neighborhood. Numerous conversions took place in Hiram, Mantua, and adjoining towns. Especially did the south part of Hiram run after Mormonism. How many Disciples were seduced from the faith and were joined to the new idols, probably cannot now be determined; but so many were, that for the time it seemed as though the Church would be broken up. Some, especially the Rudolphs, stood firm. The defection of Symonds Ryder was felt to be a severe blow. Soon, however, there were evidences of returning reason. Considered as prophets and apostles, Smith and Rigdon did not wear. Suddenly, there came a revelation demanding that the Saints should sell their farms and give the proceeds to Smith. This was a shock to the faith of Symonds Ryder. In the letter mentioned above, he says: "This was too much for the Hiramites, and they left the Mormonites faster than they ever joined them, and by fall, the Mormon Church in Hiram was a very lean concern." Booth returned from Missouri to tell the people that they were deluded. The spell was broken. About the middle of March, 1832, Rigdon and Smith were treated to tar and feathers by what must be called a mob, though made up in part of excellent citizens. The Mormon Tabernacle was now hurridly taken down, and carried once more to Kirtland. † Ryder was a Mormon only from May to September. To the credit of the people of Hiram it must be said, if they took up Mormonism quickly, they dropped it quickly. Only one firmly, so far as I can learn, followed the Prophet to the West. Most, if not all, of those who had abandoned the Church,

    __________
    * Note E.
    † Note F.





    20                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    now returned. Father Ryder at their head. He soon won back the confidence of his brethren and was held in as high esteem as ever. This Mormon episode in the history of Hiram is most remarkable. It was nothing less than a temporary madness. Those who gave way to it were not adjudged fickle or unstable by their neighbors. "You were a Mormon" never became an eXpression of reproach. But it should be remarked, that for the time, Mormonism reflected much discredit, upon the Disciples, Rigdon had been one of their leading preachers. He engrafted many of their tenets on the Mormon System, and naturally, in that state of formative opinons, a considerable number of Disciples followed him into the new fold. One of the Parmly Brothers, of New York has told me that years afterward, he heard Rigdon, in that city, while propagating Mormonism, preach as sound Disciple doctrine as he ever heard in his life. Strenuous opponent[s] of the Campbells and their work, at once exclaimed: "See what deserting the old standards leads to!" "We told you so." My father, who had then passed his majority, tells me that the first he ever saw or heard of Mormonism was in an article in a newspaper published in Hudson. Ohio, entitled "Campbellism Gone to Seed." But the charge was so foolish than it soon fell to the ground.

    The Mormon fever over, the Hiram-Nelson Church stood once more upon her feet ready to move forward. Disciples multiplied. For their ordinary meeetings, the brethren met in two groups; one in Garrettsville and one in the South School house; but on important occasions they met together. In the spring of 1835, came the second fission. One part of the divided cell became the Church in Garrettsville, the other part the Church in Hiram. From that time, Hiram has had a church life that is all her own. To sketch that life in its main features, is now my task.

    The old Church Record declares that "the congregation of Jesus Christ in Hiram, Portage county, Ohio, was organized on the first day of March, 1835." This Record opens with a statement that bears some resemblance to an old-fashioned Baptist covenant. It recites that the persons composing the Church had previously been members of the congregation of Hiram and Nelson.





                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               21


    But as it was inconvenient for all the congregation to meet at one place on the Lord's day, to keep all the ordinances delivered by the Apostles of Jesus Christ, therefore, by mutual agreement, two congregations are composed of the one. And in common together, as a congregation, having already been immersed upon a confession of their faith in the Messiah as the only begotten Son of God, they declared it to be their full purpose and determination to acknowledge no leader but Christ, no infallible teachers but the Apostles and prophets, and no articles of belief but the Old and New Testaments." Following this statement are the names of the original members of the Church, in all thirteen, viz: Symonds Ryder, Arunah Tilden, Pelatiah Allyn, Jason Ryder, Thuel Norton, Pelatiah Allyn, Jr., Mehetabel Ryder, Amelia Allyn, Lucretia Mason, Emeline Raymond, Amelia Allyn, Jr., Harriet Norton, and Betsy Sperry. Probably it will be a surprise to you, is it was to me, not to find in the list the name of "Aunt" Fanny Ryder. She had been a member of the Hiram-Nelson Church since 1830, and no account can now be given of why her name does not appear upon the original roster of the Hiram Church. Of the thirteen, only five remain in the land of the living: Jason Ryder, Thuel Norton, Amelia Allyn, (now Mrs. John Mason, of Missouri), Emeline Raymond, and Harriet Norton. These five persons, then either young or in the prime of life, are now all old and well stricken in years.

    From this point, let us trace the subsequent growth of the Church. It has been remarked already that, in early days, Hiram was an irreligious community. But after the conversion of Symonds Ryder there was a steady ingathering to the Church of influential citizens; more especially after the organization of the present Church in 1835. I will not say that we Disciples have a natural right to Hiram; but it is true that ours is the only statement of the, Gospel that has ever commended itself to large numbers of the Hiram people. A Methodist Church was organized here, and it lived a sickly life to die at last. Ours is the only Church that has ever struck her roots deep into the Hiram soil. From the first we can trace a steady healthy growth. This is exhibited in the following table...





    22                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               23


    (under construction)










    24                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               25


    (under construction)










    26                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               27


    (under construction)










    28                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               29


    (under construction)










    30                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               31


    (under construction)










    32                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               33


    (under construction)










    34                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    (under construction)










                                  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                               35


    (under construction)










    36                               HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.                              


    instrument of incalculable good. To mark out the range of her influence, would be to retrace the history. We meet to-day with in a mile, of the spot, where, fifty-one years ago last August, the major part Of the members of Bethesda voted "to renounce the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the Articles, and Covenant of of the Church which was formed the 30th of July, 1808, and take the word of God for our (their) rule of faith and practice." Only two of the actors in that day's proceedings remain to this present; the rest have fallen asleep. John and Zeb Rudolph, venerable men, are still with us. What has not the half century wrought before their eyes! They have seen the Reform movement grow into its present proportions. More narrowly, they have seen the small band of Disciples that went out with them increase in numbers until it divides into Mantua and Hiram-Nelson; then the first became Mantua and Shalersville, the second, Mantua and Garrettsville. They have survived the forty years since the two last separated; survived all the other actors in those early scenes. Few men now living stand in so interesting a relation to the early history of the Reformation. May God spare them to us many years!

    And now, this long discourse must close. Let us set up a stone midway between the extremes of Bethesda, call the name of it "Ebenezer," saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. "Having to-day walked about our Zion, gone round about her, told the towers, marked her bullwarks, and considered her palaces, let us tell it to the generation following. For the rest, turning from the past to the present, from history to the work before us, let us follow after the things that make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.


    Zeb Rudolph  (1803-1897)
    [photo not in Hinsdale's 1876 pamphlet]





    [ 37 ]



    NOTES.
    _____


    NOTE A, page 10.


    One point of difference between Brush Run and Wellsburg here comes to view. Brush Run united with Redstone, by stipulation, without a written Creed of any sort. See Richardson's "Memoirs of Alexander Campbell," Vol I, p. 441; a quotation from "The Harbinger" for 1848. This was in 1813. But Wellsburg comes to the Mahoning Association, at Hubbard, in 1824. eleven years later, with a written "Belief." This Creed is found in the Record of the Association, and is printed by A. S. Hayden, in his "History of the Disciples in Western Reserve," pp. 31-3. Why a Creed at Mahoning in i824, when there had been none at Redstone, in 1813? No answer to this question has been made, to my knowledge. Nor does the question appear to have occurred to any writer. Dr. Richardson, Vol. II, p. 100, says the statement of Belief was presented at Mahoning, in conformity with the rules of the Association. But was Mahoning more rigid than Redstone had been eleven years before?


    NOTE B, page 10.


    When Alexander Campbell first visited the Reserve, is a question of some interest to the curious. A. S. Hayden says he attended a Preacher's Meeting in Warren, in June, 1821. See "History," p. 39. Again, he speaks of his being there in October of the same year. See p. 177. But a passage from Mr. Campbell's own pen points to the year following. In the "Harbinger" for 1848, he gives the history of a visit that he received at Bethany, in the summer Of 1821, from Bentley and Rigdon, who came to him, strangers. He speaks of their leave-taking the following day, in these words: "With many an invitation to visit the Western Reserve, and with many an assurance of a full and candid bearing on the part of the uncommitted community, and an immediate access to the ears of the Baptist Churches within the sphere of their influence, we took the parting hand. They went on their way rejoicing, and in the course of a single year, prepared their whole Association to hear us with earnestness and candor." See Richardson, Vol. II, p. 45. This language evidently means a first visit to the Reserve in 1822. Hayden bases the visit in 1821, on an autobiographical sketch of William Hayden. There can be little doubt that Hayden's memory, in this instance, was at fault. John Rudolph, who met Mr. Campbell in Warren at his first visit, confirms 1822.





    38                                              NOTES.                                             


    NOTE C, page 14.


    A. S. Hayden's "History" contains this paragraph: "Though the church in Braceville was originally Baptist in name, its creed was not held rigidly. Love prevailed over law, and the Bible eventually superseded the Confession of Faith. In the discussions which resulted in the displacement of all doctrinal dogmas as grounds of Christian fellowship, this brotherhood bore a leading part. They formally organized as Christians, March 20, 1828, declaring the Holy Scriptures sufficient for all purposes of faith and practice, Their number was then twenty-eight. Marcus Bosworth was appointed the overseer. The Church in Braceville was probably the first on the Western Reserve which formally adopted this divine platform as their only basis. It was increased by twelve conversions at that time." p. 139, If Bethesda did not "formally" organize on the divine platform nearly four years before this time, she did formally renounce the Articles and so stood on the platform. What is more, the organization at Mantua, January, 1827, was "on the principle of faith in Jesus Christ, the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and the New Testament, as the rule of conduct and book of discipline."


    NOTE D, page 16.


    The history of the disruption of Bethesda is minutely given in two documents. One is The Church Book and the other a yellow, four-paged Memorandum, made by John Rudolph, Jr., as the events were transpiring. Fortunately, these documents do not antagonize, though each one contains items not found in the other. Here follows a more detailed statement than the one found in the text.

    1. The Memorandum says there was a Church meeting, April 10th, 1824, at which it was agreed to call in two Elders to aid the Church in composing the difficulties. The Conservatives chose Elder Jones, the founder of the Church, but gave the other party no notice of his coming until his arrival. Hence, only one Elder was present.

    2. June 21st, 1824, Elder Jones presiding, the points of difference were canvassed. According to The Church Book, these were three in number: The Eternal Sonship of Christ; The Law, or Ten Commandments; Written Articles of Faith. Both accounts say it was agreed, Elder Jones consenting, that the parties could not go on together; that they should separate; and that those who chose, should remain with the old standard, and that those who chose to leave, should receive letters certifying to their moral character. A vote was taken, and the two lists were made up.

    3. June 29th, the Refoming party refused to accept the letters that had been voted them. On this point, the two documents unite. But the Memorandum says the action of the 21st was reconsidered, and then "considered illegal." No reason for this step is assigned, except that a meeting had in the meantime been held in Mantua, of the members residing in that town,





                                                NOTES.                                             39


    under the leadership of Oliver Snow. The question considered by this Mantua meeting was, whether the members there would hold with the Articles, or go out with the Reforming party. On this point, the Memorandum says, "they could not come to any decision," but "were much dissatisfied about what had been done in Nelson, and thought the business there had been done too much in a corner." The Church Book states: "Deacon Rudolph then declared his own and his party's dissatisfaction with what had been done." The Memorandum agrees with this, and says Snow expressed similar views. There can be no doubt that the Senior Rudolph had changed his mind since June 21st. He had had a conversation with John, Jr. (so the latter tells me), in which the son reasoned follows: We are the majority; the major elements of strength are with us; there is no reason why we should go out and leave the minority to call themselves the Church, since we can lay aside the Articles and go on our own way. These arguments, no doubt, had as much or more to do with reversing the action of June 21t, as the dissatisfaction of the Mantua brethren, on the ground that the business "had been done too much in a corner."

    4. The Regulars have left this record of the exscinding act: "Nov. 27th, 1829. We took into consideration the conduct of our brethren who had at the Church meeting in Hiram, Aug. 21, voted to renounce the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, etc.  *  *  *  After deliberating on the subject, we viewed their departure as sufficient ground for their exclusion. The Church therefore voted to exclude them." Tradition says the Regulars charged the Reformers with being "Covenant-breakers," basing the charge on the rejection of the Church Covenant by the latter.

    5. The Reformers called a council of brethren from sister Churches, to see if the difficulties; could not be arranged. Nothing in this direction was ever accomplished.


    NOTE E, page 19.


    One of these miracles is described in the following extract from the sermon on "The Life and Character of Elder Symonds Ryder." Said sermon was published in The Christian Standard, Oct. 1, 1870; also, somewhat abridged, in A. S. Hayden's "History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve," pp. 245-59.

    "Whatever we may say of the moral character of the author of Mormonism, it can not be denied that Joseph Smith was a man of remarkable power over others. Added to the stupendous claim of supernatural power, conferred by the direct gift of God, he exercised an almost magnetic power -- an irresistible fascination -- over those with whom he came in contact. Ezra Booth of Nelson, a Methodist preacher of much more than ordinary culture, and with strong natural abilities, in company with his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and some other citizens of this place, visited Smith at his home in Kirtland, in 1831. Mrs. Johnson had been afllicted for some time with a





    40                                               NOTES.                                              


    lame arm, and was not at the time of the visit able to lift her hand to her head. The party visited Smith partly out of curiosity, and partly to see for themselves what there might be in the new doctrine. During the interview, the conversation turned on the subject of supernatural gifts, such as were conferred in the days of the apostles. Some one said, 'Here is Mrs. Johnson with a lame arm; has God given any power to men now on the earth to cure her?' A few moments later, when the conversation had turned in another direction, Smith rose, and walking across the room, taking Mrs. Johnson by the hand. said in the most solemn and impressive manner: 'Woman, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be whole,' and immediately left the room. The company were awe-stricken at the infinite presumption of the man, and the calm assurance with which he spoke. The sudden mental and moral shock -- I know not how better to explain the well attested fact -- electrified the rheumatic arm. -- Mrs. Johnson at once lifted it up with ease, and on her return home the next day, she was able to do her washing without difficulty or pain."


    NOTE F, page 19.


    Symonds Ryder has given this account of the affair: "But some, who had been dupes of the deception, determined not to let it pass with impunity; and accordingly, a company was formed of citizens from Shalersville, Garrettsville, and Hiram, in March, 1832, and proceeded to headquarters in the darkness of night, and took Smith and Rigdon from their beds, and tarred and feathered them both and let them go. This had the desired effect, which was to get rid of them. They soon left for Kirtland." This characteristic letter is found in Hayden's "History," pp. 220-1.


    NOTE G, page 22.


    As this Discourse has been passing through the press, all the names found in the acccessible Records have been collected. These are nine hundred and eight in number. Should the roll of student members ever come to light (from 1850 to '57 these names were entered in a separate book), it would appear, making due allowance for names never enrolled, that the total membersbip of the Church is at least one thousand two hundred. On the roll are found twenty-two Allyns, eleven Masons, fourteen Newcombs, thirteen Nortons, twenty Ryders, eleven Tildens, thirty-six Udalls, and twenty-four Youngs.


    NOTE H, page 26.


    The three men to whose exertions the selection of Hiram was principally due, were Alvah Udall, Esq., Carnot Mason, and Pelatiah Allyn, Jr. That is, they roused up the people of Hiram, and put the town in such shape that it became a formidable contestant. Mr. Udall seems first to have agitated the question.


     

    The Church Book

    
    1] 
    
                The Church Book 
    
          On July 30 1808. was Constituted 
    
    at Nelson in Portage County & State 
    
    of Ohio:  The first Baptist Church 
    
    in said County.  Called 
    
                Bethesda 
    
    By the Revd. Thomas G. Jones Pastor of Sharon 
    
    Church Penn. 
    
                The Covenant 
    
    ... [goes to next page in the middle of this section] 
    
    WILLIAM WEST  Mary West 
    
    John Rudulph   Susan Rudulph 
    
    John Noah   Elisabeth Noah 
    
    A declaration of our faith and practice. 
    
    
    ... [the remainder of the declaration and several pages of minutes skipped] 
    
    [the following notes are organized by meeting dates, without page numbers.  
    Only meeting dates with partial transcription are included.] 
    
    
    Aurora  Feby. 5 1820   Church met accor- 
    
    -ding to appointment.  meeting opened by prayer 
    
    and singing 
    
    1  Chose Br Jothum Atwater Moderator 
    
    2  Voted that our next Church meeting be in Nelson 
    
    the Saturday before the second Lords day in 
    
    May the Lords Supper to be administered on 
    
    Lord's day 
    
    3  Voted that the Church should be divided and 
    
    that the Clerk should have liberty to give letters 
    
    to the Bretheren in Aurora and Mantua 
    
    to be organized into churches whenever they 
    
    should call for them. 
    
    ... 
    
    Mantua  August 19th 1820  ... 
    
    4  Voted that the clerk should write letters 
    
    for the Bretheren of Aurora and Brainbrige 
    
    to be constituted in Brainbrige the Saturday 
    
    before the fourth Lords day in September 
    
    ... 
    
    Mantua  August 17 1822 ... 
    
    6  Voted that Elder Freeman and John Rudolph visit 
    
    Sister Young and make report at our next church 
    
    meeting of the state of her mind. 
    
    ... 
    
    Mantua  Feby 15 1823  ... 
    
    ... 2  The committee that 
    
    was appointed to visit Sister Young was called 
    
    upon and they reported that they had neglected 
    
    to do it and the business was refered to them 
    
    again. 
    
    ... 
    
    5  Voted that Br. John Rudolph and Benjamin Green 
    
    be a committee to visit Br. Oliver Snow and converse 
    
    with him about his negligence in not attending 
    
    meetings and report at our next meeting. 
    
    ... 
    
    Nelson  May 10 1823  ... 
    
    2  Called the committee sent to Br. Snow one of 
    
    them being present reported that they had visited 
    
    him a talked with him about his negligence in 
    
    not attending our meetings and he said that it 
    
    was on account of the difficulties of his own mind. 
    
    3  Called the committee that was sent to Sister 
    
    Young and they reported that they had been 
    
    but could not get an opportunity to converse with 
    
    her on account of there being other company present 
    
    ... 
    
    Mantua  August 16 1823 
    
    3  Voted that we will hearafter designate ourselves by 
    
    they name of Baptist Church of Christ in Nelson. 
    
    ... 
    
    Nelson  April 10 1824  ... 
    
    3  Called the committee respecting Sister Young 
    
    and they reported that they had attended 
    
    to the business and she being present confessed 
    
    that she was a restorationer and that she had 
    
    also danced and appearing very hard and unh- 
    
    -esitant the church did exclude her. 
     
    
    [exact date for the below entry not given, 
    though minutes appear to resume on August 28,1824] 
    
    
    The church here feels it her duty to leave on 
    
    record some painfull events in her history occ- 
    
    -asioned by a difference of opinion springing up 
    
    and gaining on the minds of many of the bretheren 
    
    who became dissatisfied with some of the leading 
    
    doctrines of the Church and was the principle 
    
    means of preventing the regular administration 
    
    of the Lords Supper and the reception of some per- 
    
    -sons who had been baptized.  About the 18th June 
    
    1824 Elder Thomas G. Jones visited the church and 
    
    preached several times and on Lords day June 
    
    20th after sermon at the centre of Nelson publicly 
    
    requested to see the church together on the next 
    
    day at Bro. Noahs on business of importance in order 
    
    to see if the breaches could not be made up and 
    
    a way opened for the church proceed in order and 
    
    fellowship.  June 21.  The church met agreeable to 
    
    request at Bro. Noahs.  Elder jones presided and 
    
    the meeting was opened by solemn prayer by several 
    
    of the Bretheren.  The question was then asked by the 
    
    Elder what their difficulties were?  and why they were 
    
    not in fellowship?  On examination it was found 
    
    that a part of the church was dissatisfied with the 
    
    doctrine 1st of the eternal sonship of Christ as expressed 
    
    in the church articles 2nd of the law of ten command- 
    
    ments as explained in our confession of faith. and 3d 
    
    they were dissatisfied with having any written or printed 
    
    articles or confession of their religious belief.  After 
    
    considerable discussion of the points of difference it 
    
    was unanimously agreed to separate peacebly and 
    
    those who adhered to the constitution of the church 
    
    should give the other part a letter expressive of the 
    
    cause of separation and their good moral standing 
    
    in the church.  On the vote being taken the following 
    
    persons manifested their satisfaction with and their 
    
    adherence to the constitution by [???]ing. 
    
    Joseph Tucker and wife  Martin Manley and wife 
    
    Caleb Storr  Elenor Garrett  Anna Morris  Paulina 
    
    Storr  Rhoda Gilmore  and Roxanne Ketcham who 
    
    afterwards gave her assent to the articles.  Deacon J. 
    
    Rudolph and wife with their sons and daughters 
    
    and Bro. Noah and wife dissented.  It was then 
    
    agreed to meet at the house of Sister Eleanor Garrett 
    
    on the 29th of June and those who now constitute the 
    
    church was to give the dissenting party their letter 
    
    dismissed in the usual way.  June 29 1824  Church 
    
    met agreeable to appointment and Elder Jones gave 
    
    an address from 3d chap of 1st Timothy.  Deacon Rud- 
    
    -olph then declared his own and his party's dissatisfaction 
    
    with what had been done and that they would not 
    
    receive the letters agreed o at the meeting above noted 
    
    and another meeting was then appointed in Hiram 
    
    on the 21st of August.  The meeting was then closed 
    
    by an appropriate sermon by Bro. Jones. 
    
    At the meeting appointed in Hiram on the 21st of Augt. 
    
    a number met but mostly of the dissenting party.  they 
    
    then chose Bro. Green Moderator.  2.  Voted to renounce 
    
    the Philadelphia Confession of faith, the constitution, the 
    
    articles and covenant of this church which was formed 
    
    the 30th of July 1808 and take the word of god for our 
    
    rule of faith and practice.  Those who voted as above 
    
    were John Rudolph Sr. and wife  John Noah and wife 
    
    Huldah Atwater  Darwin Atwater  Rosetta Snow  John 
    
    Rudolph Jr. and wife and Benjamin Green 
    
    [At this point the record appears to go back to its original format, 
    beginning with minutes from a meeting in Nelson on August 28, 1824.]
    
    



     


    TRANSCRIBER'S  COMMENTS

    B. A. Hinsdale's 1876 Pamphlet




    Burke A. Hinsdale (1837-1900)





    (under construction)






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