Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/384

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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES

It is the subscribers, do promise to pay, or cause to be paid u n to, who is appointed col­ lector hereof by the members of the Congre­ c tit* a c iiE S gation o f Mahoning, the several sums annexed to our names, in (our quarterly payments, the The religious sentiment o f Danville has al­ first (hereof on demand, and the other three ways been very pronounced. From the early payments successively at three months each days there have been churches where many afterwards, for the purpose o f supporting the earnest and devoted people gathered for wor­ preaching of the Gospel in this congregation. ship. It has been our aim to write the history Witness our hands this 1st day o f October. of these churches; but the surprising fact that 1785.” The blank for the collector’s name w as has developed is, that there is so little knowl­ not filled in. edge of the early history of the churches W e do not know the number of the member­ among those connected therewith. A few ship of the congregation at this tim e; there churches have had some devoted member or were about forty subscribers to this paper. pastor who has spent much time and labor in The congregation doubtless w as scattered o ver gathering together historical facts, and these a wide territory, but In those days it w as a have hc1|>ed much. W here there is little given common experiaicc to walk eight or (en miles o f certain churches, it is because little has been to attend church, 'fhose were the days when [>re$er>ed. The different sketches arc given no hardship w is too groat to undertake fo r about in the order o f time of the c o n iz a t io n the purpose o f divine w orship; men and of the churches. women sat for an hour or more listening to the preaching of God’s w o rd; children were Mahoning Preshytctian Church brought up on such religious d iet; there ^*as On Sept. 8, 1775. .Amos Wickcrsham con­ no clamoring for twcnty-minutc sermons, and veyed three acres and seven perches o f bn d the clocks in those days were placed on the in Mahoning township, Northumberland coun­ outside of the church that the people mi^ht ty. lo John Simpson. Robert Curry, Hugh Me® know when (0 go in, instead o f on the inside Williams and John Clark, trustees of the Pres- to tell them when to go out. T lie family cen ­ hytcrbn congregation o f Mahoning. T his in­ sus could be accurately taken in the church, cluded (he land on Bloom street on which the and the boys and girls sat in the family pew. Datvvillc was laid out by Gen. Daniel church afterw ards stood, and the space occu­ pied by the old graveyard, now covered by Montgomery* seven years after the founding of the Mahoning congregation; the R evolu ­ Memorial Park. There is no evidence o f an organized con­ tionary w ar had come to a close only* tw o gregation until 1785. T he period which elapsed vears l>c(orc that congregation was organized, l>ctween the date of the deed and the tatter ^ c r e w as no rqpilar pastor in those days, the date w as one of w ar and its direful conse­ services being held as often as it w as possible quences. 'flic Indians carried on a w arfare to find some one to conduct them. T h e that drove the women and children to the pro­ preacher o f those days never died from n e rv ­ tection of the forts. Horrible massacres are ous prostration and never knew what a recorded, notable among them being that of vacation was. Some idea o f his work m ay be Wyoming, in Ju ly, 1778. S o great w as the gathered from the in.structions given Rev. danger, and so unfitted the conditions for so­ Isaac G ricr by the .Assembly o f 1792, which cial and fam ily life, that Gen. William Mont­ authorized him to "missionate” in this regio n : gomery*. who had brought his family from "H e is to begin at Northumberland, in the county in 1776 and placed them in the Slate o f Pennsylvania, and proceed from log house he had built for them adjoining the thcncc up the W est Branch of the river as far site of the stone house he afterwards erected as the settlements extend; then traverse the (now known as the Russell home), rentoved country until he arrives at Tioga P o in t; thence them to their former home until 1780. tip the Chciiiuiig to the Cayugn lake, or wher­ Under such circumstances little religious ever he may fall into the route of the other work could k <lone. and less public worship missionaries. In fulfilling his duty as a mis­ carried o n : but the Indians could not kill the sionary he is to preach the Gospel in season religious desire of the heart, nor drive out the and out of season, and be diligent in catechiz­ longing for public meeting with the I^ r d and ing and instructing the youth in the general Master. So wc find a paper circulated in principles o f religion wherever he goes,” etc. 1785, lienring the following heading: "W e, In the spring of lyW itwo appointments were paper has steadily ^ in e d in circulation. now the only daily in DanviUe.