Old Redstone, or Historical Sketches of Western Presbyterianism

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Excerpt from Old Redstone, or Historical Sketches of Western Presbyterianism: Its Early Ministers, Its Perilous Times, and Its First Records1. In the first place, extensive portions of the West are deeply indebted, so far as Presbyterianism is concerned, to that part Of our church which was once included in the bounds of the Presbytery of Redstone. It will be borne in mind that these bounds included not only all Western Pennsylvania, but a considerable section of Western Virginia. Now, from this region, vast numbers of Presbyterians, from almost the begin ning of this century, began to emigrate into the N orth-western Territory, and to disperse themselves widely over Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. There, in numberless places, they formed the materials out of which the first Presbyterian churches, now Spread over the bounds of at least four of our largest western synods, were formed. It is remarkable what great numbers thus removed from almost all the first churches in the bounds of the Redstone Presbytery. This was, perhaps, in part, owing to the very imperfect scotch-irish system of farming which generally prevailed, answering well enough, so long as a virgin soil would yield its plentiful returns of crops. But it was a system that soon exhausted the lands. And our ancos tors did not understand, or had not the patience to adopt, the methods Of the Pennsylvania Dutch, as they were called, for recuperating exhausted lands. At any rate, the prospect Of cheap fresh lands, and of larger farms across the big river, as they called the Ohio, presented too inviting a lure to be resisted. But, though they went to the West too Often, perhaps, from mere selfish motives, God had his own purposes to accomplish by them. If they did not carry the gospel with them, and sometimes settled where, for a season, they seldom heard it, they soon contributed largely to invite minis ters and build churches all over the West. The in¿uence which Presbyterians from the old Redstone Presbytery thus.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.