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CHAP. II.]

ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES.

87

in an extraordinary degree, were enjoyed in 1803– 04, the effects of which had been to make glad the wild and solitary place and to cause the desert to blossom as the rose; raising the little, feeble church of eight members to a strong and prosperous one of one hundred and one members.*

On the 4th of August, 1810, the Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury was installed over the church at Harford, or "Nine Partners," in Susquehanna county, about fifty miles north of Wilkesbarre. This was one of the first installations of which we have any account in that section of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kingsbury probably organized this church, for we are told that "he formed one church" just previous to his installation.†

In 1810-11 the Rev. Mr. Spencer, a missionary of the Connecticut Society in the counties east and south of Lake Erie, organized three churches. And in 1811-12 the Rev. Worthington Wright, Lucas Hart and Mr. Kingsbury were all at work in the northern counties; and in 1812-13 Mr. Joseph Treat, a licentiate of Litchfield county, Conn., and Mr. Oliver Hill, another candidate for the ministry, were in Wayne, Susquehanna, Bradford and Luzerne counties. The report of Mr. Hill was very encouraging. In Susquehanna and Bradford counties he found growing attention to the education of children and to domestic and

*Narrative, etc., for 1810, pp. 9-10, published 1811. † Narrative, p. 8, published 1811.

public worship. In a large proportion of the settlements where they had no ministers, reading meetings were held by the settlers on the Sabbath. Within a few years five ministers had been settled in these counties, and several new churches had been formed, being the immediate fruits of religious revivals enjoyed there.

Rev. Samuel Sargeant, another Connecticut missionary, reported, about the same time, that no part of the wide missionary field had profited more, in proportion to the labor bestowed, than the four northern counties of Pennsylvania just named. And Mr. Kingsbury reported that in Lycoming county, just south of Bradford and Tioga counties, there were in 1812 two churches and one pastor.

In 1813 Rev. Mr. Wright was installed pastor of the church in Bethany, on the Delaware river, in Wayne county. Rev. Daniel Waldo, William Wick and Abraham Scott were at work in these northern counties during 1813-14. And during the years 1812-13 the Rev. Messrs. Samuel J. Mills and John F. Schermerhorn were making their extraordinary tour through the West and South, starting from Pennsylvania. They reported that, in ten counties west of Bradford county and east of the Alleghany river, there were no more than six churches-Congregational and Presbyterianand three settled ministers, in a population of twenty-one thousand souls. Now, if to this estimate we add the six churches and three ministers then

CHAP. II.] SUMMARY OF MISSION WORK.

89

established in Bradford county, and in Susquehanna, Wayne, Luzerne and Lycoming counties east and south of Bradford we shall have a total of twelve churches and six settled ministers in all those ten counties of Northern and Western Pennsylvania, extending from the Delaware to Lake Erie-some two hundred and fifty miles.

Toward the close of the year 1813 we have the following summary of work accomplished by the New England missionary societies in Northern Pennsylvania, between 1789 and 1814: "In the counties of Wayne, Susquehanna and Bradford, on the east, there are seven Congregational ministers and twelve or thirteen churches." But in the four western counties, Tioga, Potter, McKean and Warren-containing four or five thousand inhabitants-there was not one settled minister nor a single church, and but very few professors of religion. But in Erie county there were three ministers and seven churches.*

But the settlements between Wellsborough, in the centre of Tioga county, and Warren county a distance of about one hundred miles — Mr. Treat says had never been visited by a missionary until he went through the country, though the settlers were largely New England people.

Sometime between 1813-14 a Congregational church was organized in the ancient settlement at Tioga Point. This was the fruit of a revival which

*Narrative, 1815, pp. 10, 14-15.

followed the missionary labors of Rev. William Wisner, of the Morris County (N. J.) Associated Presbytery, a Congregational association. This church prospered and grew in numbers, and was connected with the old Luzerne Congregational Association when that body was swallowed up by the Susquehanna Presbytery. It retained, for a time, its Congregational rights and liberties; but when this church, after the great schism, was urged to give up Congregationalism and become entirely Presbyterian, it was rent in twain and became two churches Old and New School.* In January, 1814, the Rev. John Bascom, after spending four months as a missionary in the northern counties, was ordained to the pastoral care of the Congregational church in Smithfield, in the centre of Bradford county. Another minister was installed in Bradford county in the winter of 1814, and one in Susquehanna county also. A church was formed at Lawsville and New Milford, in the northern part of the same county, in September, 1813; and in February, 1814, Rev. Oliver Hill was ordained its pastor.

During the year 1815 the Connecticut Society supported several missionaries in Northern Pennsylvania, and two or more new churches were organized by them in Susquehanna and Bradford counties; and the Rev. Miner York was installed pastor of a church at Wysox, in the centre of Bradford county, in 1819-20.

* Hotchkin, 449-.

CHAP. II.)

CO-OPERATIVE MISSIONS.

91

Still, the destitutions of that country were so great that in 1821 it is reported that in three counties Wayne, Tioga and Pike-there was not a single "regular minister," in a population of about fifteen thousand souls.*

The old Connecticut Society continued to send its missionaries into these destitute regions until 1826, when it surrendered its life-work into the hands of the American Home Missionary Society. Other New England societies coöperated with the Connecticut almost from the first; particularly the Massachusetts Missionary Society, whose missionaries were at work in this country as early as 1800. Two of their earliest missionaries were Rev. Jacob Cram and Rev. Mr. Alexander, † both excellent and efficient ministers.

We have now reviewed very summarily the work of the New England missionary societies in Northwestern Pennsylvania, between 1793 and 1826. In the course of the first twenty-one years of this time, the Connecticut Society sent into this field twenty-one different missionaries, many of them repeatedly, and furnished at least ten full years of ministerial work to these new settlements, at an expense of about ten thousand dollars - a very considerable sum for those days of moderate incomes.

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* Narrative, 1822, p. 9.

↑ Mass. Miss. Mag., 1, p. 66—; 111, pp. 383–85.

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