Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/479

 HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��directed to do so by the old Presbytery of Lan- caster. At the organization, there were six male members and seven female. Two Elders were elected— George Coffinberry and Richard Hoy, the former of whom had been an Elder before coming to Mansfield ; the latter had been a member of the Associate Presbyterian Chnrch. In 1820, when the Associate Presby- terian Church was organized in Mansfield, he transferred his membership thereto, and was at once intrusted with the. same important office. In 1817, G. BerryJiill, Mathias Day, and Noah B. Cook, were elected and ordained Ruling Elders.

Mathias Day, Sr., was born in Chatham, N. J., in 1791, and came to Mansfield in 1816. He was a master carpenter, and superintended the erection of nearly all the early buildings in Mansfield. In 1817, he married Sophia Grimes, who then held the office of County Recorder. After their marriage, the office was transferred ' to ^Ir. Dsiy, who held it foui'teen years. He was long a member of the Presley terian Church, and a strong antislavery man. He died JMarch 21, 1866.

Mr. Van Eman was installed by the Presliy- tery of Lancaster. The exact date is unknown, but it was prior to October, 1817, the date of the erection of the Presbyter}' of Richland b}' the Synod of Ohio. Mr. Van Eman applied for a dissolution of the pastoral relation in May, 1820, but was not dismissed until August the same year. There was no church edifice in his time, the services lacing sometimes held in .private houses, but generally in the court house. In his report to the Presbytery in April, 1818, he says : " Mansfield Church consisted of fort}'- five members, April 1, 1817. Since added, on examination, fifteen ; on certificate, ten ; total now in communion, sevent}"." In 1867. he writes to Mr. Davis : " When I came to Mans- field, there were about ten communicants ; when I left, about forty."

In August, 1820, Rev. James Rowland first visited Mansfield. The following April, at the

��request of the church, then consisting of about twent3'-five members, the Presbytery appointed him stated supply for one-half of his time for one year, the church promising him $200 on subscription, at the same time allowing him one- half his time for suppl^-ing other churches con- tiguous to Mansfield. He was ordained June 26, 1821, and installed April 8, 1823. During his pastorate, which continued over seventeen years, being from April, 1821, until November 25, 1838, one-half his time for seven years, and the whole of his time afterward, he preached within the bounds of this church thirteen hun- dred and seventy sermons ; baptized fort3'-eight adults, and three hundred and thirty-two infants ; solemnized two hundred and fiftj-seveji mar- riages, and received into the communion of the church, on examination and profession of faith, two hundred and twenty-two. and on certificate one hundred and fifty-seven. After the dissolu- tion of the pastoral relation, in 1838, Mr. Row- land continued as stated supply until April fol- lowing ; and also supplied the pulpit at subse- quent times, as occasion I'equired, living among them i;ntil his death in 1 872. as a prudent and loving father and friend. Sometime during the earl}^ part of his ministry, a frame church was erected on the spot where the present edifice stands.

Mr. Rowland was succeeded in April, 1839. by Alexander M. Cowan. His was a stormy pastorate, and was terminated in August, 1842. In the autumn of 1840, a second Presl\yterian Church was organized, as the result of a long and bitter controversy between two factions. The church was al>out equallv divided, and the fire only burned higher and waxed hotter by virtue of the oil that the Presbytery poured upon it. until, for the sake of peace, a second organization was granted. This organization erected and occupied the building on Mulberry street, now used by the Roman Catholics as a school. Of that church, Mr. Rowland was stated supply for a time. and. after him. the Rev.

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