xt7j6q1sfr5b https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7j6q1sfr5b/data/mets.xml  1900  books b92-71-27213745 English Harrodsburg Herald, : Harrodsburg (Ky.) : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Mud Meeting House ( Harrodsbury, Ky.) Reformed Church in America History. Harrodsburg (Ky.) Churches History. Centennial celebration of the Old Mud-Meeting House near Harrodsburg, Ky., August 25, 1900 text Centennial celebration of the Old Mud-Meeting House near Harrodsburg, Ky., August 25, 1900 1900 2002 true xt7j6q1sfr5b section xt7j6q1sfr5b 








HISTORIC SKETCH


               OF



THE FIRST DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH
    WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES.



    AND THE ADJACENT



 QCrave 1]ard

Where rest the ashes of those who
starved with Washington at Valley
Forge; who faced the Britons at
Monmouth and Brandywine and
crossed the Delaware and stormed
the Hessians at Trenton; and staked
their all upon the field at Princeton
and in the trenches at Yorktown.



THE HUGUENOTS OF
THEHACKENSACK



FROM CONEWAGO
TO SALT RIVER



Price. 50c



A TRULY GODLY COMPANY OF PEOPLE WHO
DARED TO FACE THE PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS


 
This page in the original text is blank.


 






THE



  CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION



               OF THE




"vOld Mud-Meeting House"



               NEAR




    Harrodsburg, KJ.



AUGUST 25, 1900







THE HARRODSBURG HERALD
BOOK AND JOB PR1NTING
HARRODSBURG KY.




 

 









Introductory and Descriptive Account of the Day's
                  Proceedings
           By Rev. J. G. Hunter, D. D.

    Earlv in the sunmier, the friends who had long
been identified with the M-ud Mfeeting House by an-
cestral ties and by personal fellowship, decided to
celebrate the centennial anniversary of the organi-
zation of the church and the erection of the present
house of worship.
    A committee consisting of John B. Mann, Wil-
liam Scomp, Joshua Adams and J. Clel Adams was
appointed to materialize a suitable plan. It was
decided first to put the building and grounds in the
best order. although as a worshipping place it was
in a comfortable condition, for which liberal contri-
butions of money were promptly made. Then a pro-
gramme of exercises was adopted which compre-
hended a historical sketch of the church and of the
Bi-Weekly House-to-House Prayer Meeting, which
had always been a co-ordinate factor of the church's
life and growth.
   Invitations were sent to friends in Kentucky In-
diana and Missouri, who in various ways were iden-
tified with this organization, to be present at the
celebration, and finally arrangements were perfected
for a generous basket dinner on the grounds. The
plan in all its details issued successfully on Satur-
day, August 25th. The exercises were conducted to
the utmost limit of the programme with the unabat-
ed interest of the large crowd in attendance.
    Mr. John B. Mann, chairman of the committee
of arrangements, made a happy address of welcome,
whereupon the congregation sang with great spirit


 






4   A ITRC KTHO



the hymn "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," and
attended to the reading of Psalm 48 with the appro-
priate prayer that followed. Mr. Moore, at the re-
quest of his uncle, who was unavoidably absent, read
the noble Historical Address, prepared at .great cost
of time and research by Dr. H. A. Scomp.
    Succeeding Mr. Moore, the Rev. Dr. W. 0. Good-
loe was introduced, who made an interesting speech,
emphasizing some points of the address and com-
menting on the legacy of Christian character and
good citizenship that had been bequeathed by the
ancestors of the people who had arranged for this
celebration.
    A recess was taken, and after the enjoyment
of an elegant dinner, the people resumed their seats
in the church, when devotional exercises were again
conductd.
    The Rev. J. C. Gilliam, for a long time the pas-
tor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of this
neighborhood. made a valuable contribution of facts
suited to the occasion and paid a tribute to the in-
fluence in the community of this sister church.
    Then followed an extended address on the Bi-
Weeklv House-to-House Prayer Meeting" by the
Rev. J. G. Hlunter. Amongst other things he said:
    "While nowhere could records be found men-
tioning the date and names of those who organized
this praver meeting, still the testimony of old men
now living who vividly recall conversations with
older men long since dead, but in the habit of attend-
ing this prayer meeting even in their youth-from
records of the homes where this prayer meeting was
held in its regular bi-weekly itinerary, which homes
were in the possession of those whose birthdays be-
gan with the earlier years of this century and before
-from this testimony and from these records we



A HISTORIC SKETCH OF



4


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



are safe in stating that this prayer meeting organi-
zation had its historic setting in the latter years of
1700. and therefore, was an institution of social and
religious power before the Mud Meeting House was
built, whose foundations have lasted one hundred
years, and in commemoration of which fact we are
(onvened here today.
    The forefathers, a truly godly company of peo-
ple, came from New Jersey and Virginia in the lat-
ter part of 1700, and for some years were occupied
with clearing the forests and building log houses for
dwellings, which duties had a prior claim to that of
church or school house erection.
    But their religious duties were not neglected.
On the Sabbath they assembled at some one of the
larger houses for worship. And being social and
pious, valuing the companionship of the united set-
tlement, seeking to regulate their homes by the
principles of Christian teaching and worship, they
organized this bi-weekly praver-meeting as a Sat-
urday evening service, which would become a fitting
preparation for the more formal worship of the Sab-
bath.
    Their children felt the power of the Christian
character that found expression in this prayer-meet-
ing, and when they grew older and stood in the
places made vacant by the death of their parents,
they continued to observe the praver-meeting ser-
vice until today the children of a fourth generation
are active and loyal in maintaining this house-to-
house prayer-meeting in company with their par-
ents. Thus, for over one hundred years, in unbroken
continuity, without the special oversight of a church
session or a Presbytery, in accordance with a plan
that found its inception in the hearts of sturdy
Christian men and women of a far distant past,



5


 





A HISTORC SKETCH OF



fathers and children and grandchildren have passed
from house to house in this neighborhood, to observe
a prayer-meeting, whose memories make up a noble
chapter in the history of the Chureh of Jesus Christ.
    At the close of this address some interesting
remarks were made by Rev. Dr. Lapsley, of Dan-
ville; Rev. Mr. Moore, of Indiana, and Squire Cum-
mings, whereupon the chairman announced that Rev.
Dr. Lapsley will preach at this church on Sunday
morning and administer the communion of the
Lord's Supper. Unanimously and most heartily
prevailed a motion for a vote of thanks to be extend-
ed to Dr. H. A. Scomp for the preparation of the
valuable Historic Address. A hymn was sung, a
prayer offered, the benediction pronounced, and this
closed a memorable celebration, which, as it seals
the past, may be, it is fondly hoped, a prophesy for
the future.
    Amongst the many who were in attendance
mention may be made of Nelson Rue, J. Harvey
Riker, Dr. J. H. Moore, Ad. S. Adams, David Adams,
Joshua Adams, Caleb Adams. James W. Wood, Wil-
liam Scomp, William Terhune, Barney Terhune and
W. T. Williams, whose lives in all their long and hon-
orable history have been valuably associated with
these institutions of the church and prayer-meeting.



6



 








A Historic Sketch of the Old "Mud Meeting House"
     Prepared for the Centennial Celebration
          By A. H. Scomp, Ph. D., LL. D.

 9    S causes for profound religious, or moral
        movements are long in their operation and
        deep and manifold in their origin, so the be-
ginnings of the history of this clrnrch do not belong
to Kentuckv history, nor, only partially, to the
story of the older States of the East; but rather are
they to be sought for in the religious and political
history of Europe during the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries of our era.
    The great religious upheaval of the earlier half
of the sixteenth century-aroused by Luther and
Melanchthon in Germany; then, stirred by Calvin, in
France; Zwingle, in Switzerland; Knox, in Scotland;
and by a host of reformers in the Netherlands-pro-
foundly affected the thought, the morals, the life,
and the politics of all subsequent times. Every stu-
dent of history knows that the great struggles of
Europe since the Diet of Worms, have been awaken-
ed by the new ideas, the new convictions, then forced
upon the world's thought: and conscience. Lutheran
and Calvanist were one in the demand for the right
to think and act independently of priestly shackles.
The new doctrines of salvation by faith, and of
man's direct personal responsibility to God alone,
could not but be everlastingly at war with papal
infallibility and royal absolutism. The two oppos-
ing principles were in irrepressible conflict. They
could not live side bv side on the same soil. One or
the other must go down; no people could submit to
the domination of both.


 





A HISTORIC SKETCH OF



    The Protestants of Germany, the Huguenots of
France and the Lowlands, and the Calvanists of
Scotland, for more than a century, were involved in
the conflict which meant the ultimate overthrow of
ecclesiastical and political systems of those times.
The ideas born in that wonderful sixteenth century
were destined one day to rule the world.
    It would be long to tell the story of the Hugue-
nots from the days of Francis I to the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, the story of all those battles
and seiges; of the Bartholomews, and of Valois, and
Bourbon treachery. Yet there are those here today
whose fathers suffered martyrdom at Rochelle, or
Picardy-who bled upon a hundred fields for the
right to worship God as conscience dictated. Sad,
yet glorious is the story. The blood of the Hugue-
not is flowing in the veins of some of these who are
here this day. Huguenot names-some of them
strangely cramped to fit the Saxon mould-are yet
recognizable after all their changes. We have des
Marests-Amerieanized into Demarees; du Ryzs
into Duries; LaRous into Rues: Terheuns into Ter-
hunes; the DeMotts from DeMottes; the Debauns
into Debouns; Cossatt into Cozarte-Cozatt; the
Deschamps (metamorphosed into Sehamp-Scomp),
and other names that have suffered sea changes by
contact with the Dutch and English. Many of these
names belong to the annals of those desperate wars
-aged so long for their God and the Protestant
faith. Refugeeing at last to Holland, which had be-
come the Continental asylum for persecuted Prot-
estants, the Huguenots became incorporated with
the children of those gallant Lowlanders, who, under
great William of Orange and his successors, had
waged for nearly three-quarters of a century the
most unequal conflict in all history-not merely for



8


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



the right to think and to worship, but even for the
right to life itself-against the greatest powers of
Europe. If pollical liberty was born in Greece, re-
ligious liberty was cradled in the Netherlands. It
is something to be of the blood of those who fought
at Ivres, or perished in the butcherv of St. Bartholo-
mew; it is much to be the children of those who suf-
fered the horrors of Haarlem and Leyden; and who
cut the dykes to let in the wild North Sea upon their
homes sooner than prove false to their religion.
The world's history presents no grander story than
that of those heroic Netherlanders struggling
against Phillip, of Spain; the Valois and Bourbons,
France; the Maximillians, of Austria; and the bloody
Marys of England. Of such an ancestry were born
the Bantas, the Boyces, the Brewers, the Bohons,
the Cozines, the Comingores, the Huffs, the Rites,
the Kyles, the Smocks, the Vannuyses, the Rykers,
the Vanarsdalls, the Voorheeses, the Vanmeters, the
Verbrykes, the Vanderviers, the Vananglins, the
Vanderipes, the Vandykes, the Vaughns, and many
others whose names are familiar to us in Kentucky.
The history of the religious wars in Europe brings
out frequent mention of many of these names.
Some of them are found in the annals of the old
Huguenot synods of France; many others belong to
the records of the Calvinistic churches of the Low-
lands.
    It was but natural that such spirits should seek
for the larger, freer life of the New World. What
were its wild forests, its wilder men, its perils by
sea, or perils of the wilderness compared with the
Spanish Inquisitions The Indian stake was not so
terrible as the Spanish rack; Phillip, the Wampa-
noag, was not half so treacherous as Phillip of Cas-
tile; the fiercest savage chieftain was merciful as



9


 





A HISTORIC SKETCH OF



compared with the infernal Duke of Alva-and so
they came over the sea prepared to meet every dan-
ger of the wilderness.
    The seventeenth century finds these Huguenots
and Dutch Reformed already in New York, on Long
Island, in Northern Jersey, and on both branches of
the Raritan. Industrious, enterprising and honest,
they rapidly transformed the wilderness into fruit-
ful fields, and blooming orchards and gardens. The
Dutch Reformed Church in America was the fruit
of their religious system. They brought their
church, red with the blood of martyrs, with them
from beyond the ocean, and the peaceable fruits of
righteousness everywhere began to appear. The
Huguenot had become so thoroughly incorporated
with his Dutch coreligionists as in large measure, to
have lost national identity. The Dutch was the lan-
guage of the church and of social life till long after
the flag of Holland had ceased to wave over the Col-
omes. A new Holland had arisen along the Hudson
and the Raritan, with the customs, language, re-
ligion and habits of the Mother Land. The names
had crossed the sea as well. The New Amsterdam
represented the Old. The old Ilium lived again in
the new, and its Simois and Scamander perpetuated
themselves in the larger waters of the West. A
century of progress followed. The Dutch Reformed
in New Jersey had a kind of common center at New
Brunswick. The Huguenots had been absorbed by
their Dutch neighbors. One colony only of the
former attempted for a time to maintain their or-
ganization and language in New Jersey. This was
the little colonv in Northern New Jersey so graph-
ically described by Dr. D. D. Demarest in his
"Huguenots of the Hackensack." But in 1696 this
church with its distinctively French organization



10


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



was broken up by the absorption process. The last
French pastor, M. Daille, removed to Boston and the
tide of Dutch immigrants swallowed up all that was
distinctively French in the Colony.
    But some force-was it inbred antipathy to the
dominant Britons-was impelling the Dutch Re-
formed to the Westward Soon they began to set-
tle in Bucks County, in South-eastern Pennsylvania,
and there thev laid the foundation of those com-
munities, one day to be famous in the annals of the
Keystone State.
    But we are more directly concerned with those
Dutch colonists, who about 1765, began to pour from
New Jersey into the extreme west of the then civ-
ilized world, York County in Southern Pennsyl-
vania. These settlers, it is known, formed the fa-
mous Conewago Colony, so named from the neigh-
boring Conewago Creek. This Church, "Old Cone-
wago," as our fathers called it, was about three
miles south of Gettysburg, and very near the im-
mortal battle ground of 1863.
    Dr. J. K. Demarest, of Gettysburg, in 1884, in
a series of articles which appeared in the "Star and
Sentinel" of that city, has given us, from the old
records, the history of this famous church, the moth-
er church of the "Mud Meeting" House orgamiza-
tion. Many of our grandparents were baptised as
children at old Conewago, and their names are found
ipon the baptismal records published by Dr. Dem-
arest. Mr. Honeyman, in his "Ioaunes Nevius and
His Descendants, 1627-1900," tells us (pp. 167-171)
that the story of this colony was as interesting as
romance. It was formed between 1765 and 1775.
At is supposed to have contained about 150 families,
with an aggregate of about 700 souls. Today it (the
church) is invisible. The church building where



11


 





A HISTORIC SKETCH OF



these worshipped. where their children were bap-
tized and married, is to be located only by a search
in a small inclosure overgrown with high weeds, near
a wood, and only with difficulty can some of the
foundation stones be discovered, and a few markers
of the resting places of the dead. "I," says Mr.
Henry May, "was there in 1897, and can testify to
the desolation and barrenness of the church grounds,
and no one knew, even in the locality, what the fence
and weeds meant, though the highway near still
bears the name of the 'Old Dutch Road.' "
    The church was located in about the center of
the new settlement, and was attached to the Classis
of New Brunswick, N. J. A copy of the plan of the
church is still in existence, and indicates where each
member of these good Dutch forefathers sat on Sun-
day to hear the preaching. Fortunately, the site
of the church was not injured by the battle. The ad-
jacent lands are of slate, and not specially fertile.
    Various motives have been assigned for this
migration of the Dutch to York county. It has
been suggested that it was to get larger farms, to
have "more elbow room." York county was then
on the extreme verge of the known civilization; the
Indians in that loeality had been latelv subdued and
almost exterminated, and in that quarter many of
the first members of the Conewago colony were en-
abled to have pretty large possessions, though the
land was no better than that they had left at home.
From the baptismal records of Conewago (1768-93),
it appears that the Cossats and Montforts, from
Millstone, Somerset county, N. J.; and the Bantas
and Westervelts, of Bergen county, -,ere among the
first settlers. The first Conewago deed to land was
made to a Vanarsdall (1768). The Demarests came
from Bergen about 1771. The first baptism took



12


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



place in 1768, the last May 14, 1793. The distance
to Conewago from Harlingen, N. J., was 150 miles
in a direct line. 1783, the last year of the war, was
a distressing one for Conewago. The crops failed
and the cattle perished. In 1786 were riots. In one
vear the Indians burned 35 houses and terrified the
people (Penn. Archives, Vols. X, XI and XII, as
quoted by Honeyman). In 1780 fifty heads of fami-
lies had gone to Mercer county, Ky., from Southern
Pennsylvania, and in 1781 some Conewago families
started thither. while others went to the "Lake
Countrv" about the (Genesee Lakes in Northern
New York. To the latter migration belonged the
Brinckerhoffs, Johnsons (or Jansens), Bodines,
Vantines, Dates, Pareelles and Lysters. They were
two and one-half months on their journey. A still
longer time was required for those who came to Ken-
tucky, viz.: The Bantas, Braners, Coverts, Van-
nuvses, Demarests, Brewers, Montforts, DeMotts,
Bergens, Smocks, Vanarsdalls, Cassats, Cozines and
many others.
    Collins' History of Kentucky, VoL II, p. 523,
gives the first Dutch immigration, in a group of
families, to Kentucky, as coming in 1781 to White
Oak Springs, one mile above Boonesborough. This
group was composed of Henry Banta, Sr., Henry
Banta, Jr., Abraham and John Banta, Samuel, Pe-
ter, Daniel, Henry and Albert Duryee, Peter Cozart,
or Cozad, Fred Ripperdan, and John Fleuty. These
purchased 1,200 acres of land known as the "Low
Dutch Tract."
    By 1800 Conewago was so depleted as to scarce-
ly furnish any congregation for the Sunday service;
and in 1817 not more than five Dutch families of the
famous colony were left. Permission was obtained
to sell the old church building and with the proceeds



13


 





A WISThUC SKEtCH Of



of the sale build a permanent wall around the old
burying ground. The sum realized was 288.20.
George Lashall, the purchaser, used the weather-
boarding for the building of a fence, which he paint-
ed in gay colors; the foundation stones he used fr
the building of a smokehouse.
    Such was the fate of the famous old Conewago
Church near the modern Gettysburg, where our
fathers were wont to worship God. We have fol-
lowed the Church to its end that our story might be
more connected. It is now necessary to go back
some years, to follow our own ancestors on their
long journey to the "Dark and Bloody Ground."
    It has been said alredy that the last baptism
recorded in the Conewago record took place May 14,
1793.
    As to the pastors, Conewago had, Dr. J. K.
Demarest thinks, no regular shepherd until 1772.
Meanwhile, Rev. John M. Harling, of New Jersey,
paid two visits (1769 and 1772) to the colony and
preached, and baptised the children; and in 1770,.
Rev. J. R. Hardenbergh, of New Brunswick, New
Jersey, also baptised some of the Conewago children
This gentleman was the first President of Queen's
(now Rutgers) College, organized that same year
(1770). September 8, 1771, baptism was administer-
ed to eight children by Rev. John Leydt (Lite).
    In the fall of 1772 Rev. Cornelius Cozine became
pastor of Conewago Church and continued till his
death in 1788.
    He is spoken of as a good man and of considera-
ble force of character. Some account of his minis-
4rv is given in Dr. E. T. Corwin's "Manual of the
Reformed Church in America."
    Mr. Cozine was succeeded in the pastorate of
Conewago by Rev. George 0. Brinkerhoff, who en-



14


 





OLD "MUD MEET[NG HOUSE"



tered on his work November, 1789. One of Mr.
Brinkerhoff's earliest ministerial functions was the
baptism of children in the following December. Sev-
eral names known to us were among those little
ones at the font. Among them that of Vroutie Van-
nice, grandmother of this writer.
    Mr. Brinkerhoff resigned the pastorate Novem-
ber, 1793, when the colony had practically broken
up; for it was in this vear that the two great migra-
tions took place which really ended the Colony.
    On April 10th of that year, the one part of the
Colonists started for the Genesee Country, and
probably about the same time, the greater migration
started over the mountains for the cane lands of
Kaintuckee. Some of us can remember, from the
lips of the old, the story of that migration. We have
heard them tell how, for weeks they journeyed in
the great heavy wagons-camping at night along
the wilderness road-how they stopped over and
rested on the Sabbath, never neglecting to hold di-
vine service; how they wearily crossed the moun-
tains to the upper waters of the Ohio; how they flat-
boated it down La Belle Riviere whose shores were
infested with hostile savages; how they landed at
Limestone, now Maysville and again set the wagons
in motion for the upper Salt River about Harrod's
'Station. "
    Mr. Cornelius Terhune, of Nevada, is the wri-
ter's authority for the statement that this emigrant
band made their temporary headquarters in a sort
of blockhouse at the bend of Salt River, in front of
Gabriel Taylor's residence. They brought milch
kine with them, and the milk put into teapots, was
echurned daily by the motion of the heavy springless
" agons, and furnished butter for the journey.
    But "Gypsying" was not in accord with the



15.


 





A HISTORIC SKETCH OF



I)utch nature. The Dutchman does not willingly
relax his hold on terra firma. Very soon the new
colonists were looking out lands and purchasing
them. They were too late to "take up" good lands;
they had to purchase. The "entering" of lands had
been fully attended to very early in Kentucky's his-
torv. Mercer (lid not become a county until 1786.
From a recent hasty examination of the old County
records, the writer has noted the dates of recording
most of the purchases made by these settlers. There



are deeds (recorded) to:
Abraham Banta, -1789.
Cornelius Cozine, 1790.
Garret Cozine, 1797.
John Comingore, 1798.
Henry Comingore, 1798.
Peter Demaree, 1791.
Samuel Demaree, 1792.
Charles DePawe, 1793.
Joseph Delaney, 1793.
Lawrence DeMott, 1794.
Peter Huff. 1797.
Thomas Huff, 1798.
Thomas Ohrer, 1792.
Barney Smock, 1793.
John Smock. 1796.
William Terhune, 1794.
James Stagg, 1791.
Anderson Vannuys, 1795.
Jacob Vories, 1794.
John Vories, 1798.
Barney Verbryke, 1798.
Albert Banta, 1799.
Walter Bohon, 1791.



Bay Bohon, 1792.
Abraham Brewer, 1792.
John Bohon, 1793.
Henry Banta, 1794.
Peter Banta, 1794.
Dennis Bice, 1795.
Abraham Brewer, 1796.
Abraham DeMott, 1793.
Isaac Hite, 1791.
Thomas Kyle (Dominie)
  180.2.
Abraham Nourse, 1790.
William Nourse, 1790.
James Lite, 1792.
Jacob Smock, 1802.
Garret Terhune, 1797.
Charles Vanarsdall, 1796.
Lucas Vanarsdall, 1796.
Cornelius Vories, 1794.
Isaac Vories, 1798.
Cornelius Vanices 1801.
James Vanarsdall, 1796.



   We may infer from the above dates that the
immigrants did not all arrive at the same time, and



16


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



this, from other sources, we know to be the fact.
Some of the earlier colonists seemed to have come
from New Jersey direct, and did not come with the
Conewago colony. There is clearly some discrep-
aney between Collins' declaration (Vol. II, p. 523)
that the first Duteh immigrants settled at White
Oak Springs, one mile from Boonesborough, and an-
other statement that these colonists purchased or
"entered," 1,200 acres of land known henceforth as
"The Low Dutch Tract."
    "The Low Dutch Tract" lay in Henry and Shel-
by counties, on Six-Mile Creek, about the modern
railroad station, Pleasureville, and many miles from
Boonesborough. It consisted of between 6,000 and
7,000 (not 12,000) acres. From the statement of
Judge D. D. Banta, of Franklin, Ind., and from
many other authorities, it is certain that the "Dutch
Tract" in Henry county was settled by immigrants
from Mercer a few years after the great migration
from Conawago (See Appendix B).
    About 1827 the "Dutch Tract" hive began to
swarm, and a colony from it settled in Johnson coun-
ty, Ind., and built the first Presbyterian church in
Franklin. Others settled in Switzerland county,
Ind.; in Dark county, Ohio, and later at other points
in the West. But having lost both their language
and their church, the settlers lost also their national
identity, and became thoroughly incorporated with
the populations around them. They no more mi-
grated in compainies, forming single, isolated com-
munities wherever they settled; but they became
English in speech, and, generally, Presbyterian in
faith.
    Let us return once more to the Mercer county
colony: As before said, when these left Conewago
they left their last pastor, Mir. Brinkerhoff, behind.



17


 





A HISTORIC SKETCH OF



With their faces toward the wilderness, they kept
up their Sunday services; for they were the most
rigid observers of the Lord's Day. On their arrival
they had no pastor; but we may be sure that the
Sabbath service was not omitted. Their religion, in
some measure, isolated them.
    The early pioneers had taken but little stock
in religion. None of the earliest organizers of Sta-
tions had made any provision for public worship.
The colonists who founded Boonesborough, Harrods-
burg and others of the early settlements did not
bring preachers, nor introduce public worship. Rev.
David Rice had come in 1783, and had spent several
vears in ministerial work about Danville and Har-
rodsburg. A few other ministers, of various denom-
inations, were laboring in different parts of the new
territory; but a careful survey compels the confes-
sion that religion among the pioneers was at a low
ebb; or, perhaps, it would be better to say that it
had never yet been at flood tide. That was waiting
for the great revival of 1800.
    But we may be sure the Dutch Reformed did
not neglect their rigid observance of worship, both
on the Lord's flay and at the family altar. They
were a praying people. Doubtless, they presented a
somewhat singular spectacle to their neighbors who
had never been accustomed to such rigorous habits
of life.
    After the Great Immigration the colonists were,
for a time, without a preacher; and just in this in-
terval we may properly place the origin of the fa-
mous by-weekly prayer-meeting, now more than a
century old. It was already an institution in the
"MAud House" neighborhood at a time when the
memory of man runneth not to the contrarv. It



18


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



was not introduced from Danville, Harrodsburg, nor
any other neighboring station.
    These latter places had themselves no like insti-
tution. There were no ministers from any of these
places who preached to the Conewago strangers; in-
deed, these latter still used, in large measure, their
mother tongue, and as contemporary evidence from
Conewago itselif abunldantly proves the prayer-
meeting was of native growth among the Dutch Re-
formed; it was an exotic among the Kentucky pio-
neers. Their neighbors-foreign in speech-in a de-
gree, at least-and foreign in forms of worship,
could not have introduced an institution unknown
to themselves. Besides it would have been all the
more natural for the rigid Conewagans, in lack of a
pastoral service, to have held more firmly to the
prayer-meeting that worship so peculiarly the func-
tion of the laity. No, the origin of the bi-weekly
praver-meeting must, by every token, be assigned
to the closing decade of the 18th century, and to the
religious spirits and habits of these Conewago set-
tlers. For several years these sheep were without a
shepherd. But in 1796, as Corwin's Manual informs
us, the Svnod of the Dutch Reformed church sent a
missionary, Rev. Peter Labagh, to the Salt River
country. He made the trip on horse-back from
Hackensack, N. J., to Harrodsburg-about 700 miles
-and returned in the same way.. He spent some
months in Kentucky, and organized the church,
though it had not yet any house for worship.
"Father Labagh," as he was familiarly called, died
in 1858, at the age of 85 years.
   After Mr. Labagh's departure, the church was,
evidently, for several years without a pastor; but it
kept up, so far as possible, its organization, and, no
doubt, its prayer-meetings. A. year or two after Mr.



19


 






20            A HISTORIC SKETCh OF



Labagh's visit, the immigrants set actively to work
to build a church house. They were, doubtless, too
poor on their arrival, and the need of shelter for
their famililies was too pressing to undertake at that
time the erection of a church building. But they
were eager for the work; they could not leave the
ark of the Lord in a tent while they themselves
abode in comfortable houses. Some Ezra put it into
the hearts of the people to build, and they began in
earnest.
    One of the immigrants, Henry Comingore,
grandfather of the late Mrs. Harvey Riker, of prec-
ious memory, was appointed to go to New Jersey--
Conewago was now hardly more than a name in his-
torv-and solicit funds. He made the trip on horse-
back-a ride of six weeks either way-collected the
money-how much we know not-and brought it
home in his saddle-bags. Who of the moderns would
undertake such a journey Who would dare carry
any considerable sum of money so far, and in such
a manner Financial honesty was of a higher grade
then than now.
    Land for the church site and cemetery was pur-
chased from David Adams. Why was the "Mud
House" hill chosen Probably for its central situa-
tion as to the colony.
   Harrodsburg evidently had no church edifice of
any kind at the time. A little frame church build-
ing had been erected a few years before at Cane
Run; a double hewed log church, 50X30 feet, New
Providence, had been built about eight miles below
Harrodsburg-a testimonial of gratitude to God for
an extraordinary deliverance of some of the settlers
from an Indian ambuscade. It will be seen there-
fore that the "Mud House" was a pioneer among
Kentuckv churches.



A HISTORIC SKETCH OF '



20


 





OLD "MUD MEETING HOUSE"



              THE TITLE DEED
                (A literal copy)
    "This Indenture made this, 22nd day of Decem-
ber, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred, be-
tween David Adams  Elizabeth, his wife, of the
County of Mercer and the Commonwealth of Ken-
tucky, of the one part,