Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/546

 486 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI same period the Benton and Bloomfield elmrehes were dissolved because they were in a disorganized state; the Whitewater church was dropped from the roll because it was withdrawn from connection with the church organizations and had become affiliated with the Northern Presbyterian church. Jast as is true in the history of every other church organization in the state, the Civil war period was an exceedingly trying one. Not only were buildings burned and many mem- bers of the congregation killed and their property destroyed so that the organizations were themselves almost destroyed, the bitter feelings engendered by the war and the con- test from slavery made themselves felt in the conference, synod and associations of various church bodies. The troubles in the Presbyterian church be- cam'i acute at the meeting of the general as- sembly in 1861 and were intensified by tht adoption of a resolution known as the Ipso Facto Order, in 1866. This Ipso Facto Order summoned the signers of a certain declaration and testimony which had been presented to the general assembly as a protest against certain of its members to appear before the assembly of 1867 and answer for their con- duct in signing this declaration. It was also part of this order that such persons were for- bidden to sit in any court higher than the session and enjoined all Presbyterians to look out for this order and not to enroll any such persons as members of their respective courts under penalty of immediate dissolution. When the Potosi Presbytery met in 1868, Rev. John Branch introduced a resolution that only such delegates as avow their adher- ence to the general assembly be permitted to take seats as members of the Potosi Presby- tery. This resolution was promptly rejected. whereupon Rev. John Branch and Rev. Julius Spencer gave notice that the^ withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Presbytery. Prior to this meeting of the Potosi Pres- bytery the Synod of Missouri had divided, owing to an attempt to carry out this Ipso Facto order, the division having been made in October, 1866. The niinority of the Potosi Presbytery, after the withdrawal of Branch and Spencer, sent a memorial to the synod in which they expressed their adherence to the assembly of the church and they secured from the synod an order for the meeting of the Potosi Presbytery in Ironton April, 1869. This order of the synod was in violation of the arrangements made by the Presbytery itself at a stated meeting appointed by the Presbytery in Farmington September, 1868, and was to be held in the First Apple Creek church in April, 1869. Division in Presbytery This, then, affected a division of the Pres- bytery ; the majority of the members retained the records and met in the First Apple Creek church on the 22nd of April; the meeting was composed of three members and represen- tatives of thirteen churches; the minority met in the First church at Ironton on the same date and there were present five min- isters and representatives of four churches. There were thus two bodies, each claiming to be the Potosi Presbytery. One of them, which we have called the majority, was inde- pendent for three years, not being represented in any of the synods of the church. In 1872, however, when it seemed that the division could not be cured, the majority connected itself with the Independent Old School Synod of Missouri. This synod, as its name indi- cates, was at the time occupying a neutral position, not being attached either to the