RELIGION AND THE WESTWARD MARCH
By WILLIAM W. SWEET
When the Treaty of Peace was signed with
Great Britain in
the year 1783, which gave independence
to the United States of
America, the Congregational Church was
the largest and most
influential religious body in the land.
Though confined almost
exclusively to New England the
Congregationalists were, at the
same time, nationally important because
of their cultural and edu-
cational leadership. They had come
through the War of Inde-
pendence with increased prestige, since
their clergy and members
had been overwhelmingly patriotic, and
had furnished during the
period a group of leaders who were
recognized as of national im-
portance. There were, all told, 656
Congregational churches in
the country at the time the Nation
entered upon its independent
existence. The Congregational Church was
still established by
law in Massachusetts, Connecticut and
New Hampshire, and it
continued to occupy this privileged
position for more than a gene-
ration following independence.
Ranking next in point of numbers and
influence at the be-
ginning of our national life were the
Presbyterians. Made up
largely of the Scotch-Irish immigrants
and their descendants
who had come to the colonies in such
vast numbers during the
eighteenth century, the Presbyterian
Church had grown with
amazing rapidity from almost nothing at
the beginning of the
century to 543 congregations at the time
of independence. Both
the Congregational and Presbyterian
clergy were to a large degree
American born and American trained. The
Presbyterians also
had come through the Revolution with
increased prestige because
of their almost unanimous support of the
cause of independence.
The only minister to sign the
Declaration of Independence was
President John Witherspoon of the
College of New Jersey, the
outstanding Presbyterian leader in the
Nation.
(71)
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Baptists ranked third among American
religious bodies
at the beginning of the national period
of our history with 498
congregations. While most numerous in
Virginia and North
Carolina, where they had grown rapidly
as a result of the great
revivals in those colonies after the
middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury, they were found also in
considerable numbers in Rhode
Island and Pennsylvania and throughout
New England. Generally
speaking, from the standpoint of social
and economic standing,
they represented the more humble class
of people. Fourth in
number of congregations were the
Episcopalians. They had come
through the Revolution with a much
decreased prestige due to the
fact that they were the church nearest to the royal
authority, and
had contained perhaps the largest number
of loyalists. Having
been established by law in six of the
colonies these establishments
in every case were overthrown
immediately with the winning of
independence, while many of their
parishes were vacant, due to the
fact that their great missionary
society, the S.P.G., had suspended
operations in America and the
missionaries had gone back to
England.
These were the major American churches
at the beginning of
American independence. Besides these
there were the Quakers
with 295 Monthly meetings or
congregations; the German and
Dutch Reformed with 251 congregations;
the German Lutherans
with 151; and the Catholics with 50.
There were also congrega-
tions of the German sectaries--the
Mennonites, the Dunkers, the
Schwenkfelders, and the Moravians,
located particularly in Penn-
sylvania, New York and Maryland. The
Methodists were just
beginning to emerge as an independent
religious body and at the
time of independence had barely begun
their organized life in
America.
Such were the organized forces for
religion at the beginning
of our national life.
The greatest accomplishment of America
has been the con-
quest of the continent. At the end of
the colonial era there were
less than three millions of people
scattered along the Eastern
Seaboard, none living a great distance
from salt water, with many
islands of unoccupied territory between.
Within a hundred and
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 73
fifty years from the signing of the
Declaration of Independence
the vast continent had been filled in
with a teeming population of
more than a hundred millions. Great
cities had sprung up along
the interior water-ways and around the
Great Lakes; railroads
and factories and mercantile houses had
come into existence almost
like magic; virgin forests and prairies
had given place to farms
and homesteads, while in every village,
and town and country
crossroads were churches and schools,
and in the cities and larger
towns were to be found colleges and
universities, and great edifices
housing the religious activities of
numerous denominations of
Christian people.
Population began to move west with the
signing of the Peace
of Paris in 1783 which closed the
Revolution. So rapid was this
population movement that within a few
years new states began to
apply for admission to the Union, under
the provisions laid down
in the famous Ordinance of 1778. First
came Vermont in 1791 to
make the fourteenth state; in 1792 Kentucky
was admitted, bring-
ing the number of states to fifteen; in
1796 came Tennessee; by
1803 Ohio had gained sufficient
population to be admitted. The
years preceding the War of 1812
population movement slowed
down, but the very year the war began
Louisiana became the
eighteenth state. Then in rapid
succession, as a result of a vast
surge of population movement, came the
admission of Indiana in
1816; Alabama in 1817; Illinois
in 1818; Mississippi in 1819;
Maine in 1820 and Missouri in 1821. Thus within a
period of
just thirty years eleven new states had
been added to the Union,
bringing the constellation of stars in
the flag to twenty-four.
The greatest task which the American
churches faced during
the latter years of the eighteenth and
the early years of the nine-
teenth centuries, was that of following
this restless and moving
population with the softening influence
of the Christian Gospel.
And those churches which succeeded in
devising the most adequate
means of following population as it
pushed over the Alleghenies
and on into the Ohio and Mississippi
valleys were the religious
bodies destined to become the largest,
and to that extent, the most
influential forces in extending religion
and morality throughout the
new Nation. In the year 1847 Horace
Bushnell preached a sermon
74
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
before the American Home Missionary
Society on the subject,
"Barbarism the First Danger."
There is not space here to set
forth the main points in that able
discourse on the needs of the
West, but the very title itself
summarizes what the author thought
to be the chief dangers arising from the
rapid movement of people
into the vast unoccupied areas of the
continent.
I propose here to sketch briefly the
methods of the major
religious bodies at work in the Nation
as they attempted to meet
the responsibility of trying to make and
keep the restless and raw
American frontier decently Christian.
The Presbyterians
The Presbyterians had, seemingly, the
best opportunity of any
of the American religious bodies of
becoming the largest and most
influential American church. The reason
for this statement is that
the Presbyterians were already living
farther west than any other
religious body in America, at the
opening of the national period.
They were largely Scotch-Irish people,
and as the Scotch-Irish
constituted the last great immigration
movement to America pre-
vious to the American Revolution, they
were compelled to find
their homes on the frontiers of the
colonies. At the opening of the
War for Independence they were to be
found in every one of the
thirteen colonies in sufficient numbers
to make their influence felt.
There were at least five hundred
Scotch-Irish communities in
America at the opening of the
Revolution, located mostly in the
back country. Thus as Theodore Roosevelt
says in his Winning
of the West, "they constituted America's first frontiersmen,
pos-
sessing those qualities--energy,
courage, boldness and intelligence
--which made them ideal pioneers."
If they had any religion at
all they were almost sure to be
Presbyterians.
By 1760 Scotch-Irish Presbyterian
churches were scattered
along the back country from the
"frontiers of New England to the
frontiers of South Carolina" and
Georgia. Ten years before the
Declaration of Independence Presbyterian
preachers began to
itinerate among the settlements of
Western Pennsylvania, and year
by year thereafter we find traces of
these pioneer missionaries
visiting the frontier communities.
Scotch-Irish people probably
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 75
constituted the largest element in the
movement of population
across the Alleghenies at the close of
the Revolution which soon
raised Kentucky and Tennessee to
statehood.
But for reasons that, at this distance
can be easily discerned,
the Presbyterians failed to take full
advantage of the opportunity
which the frontier presented. It is my
purpose here to point out
briefly, first the Presbyterian
technique of frontier procedure and
then to state, what seems to me to have
been their principal
handicaps.
At first settled pastors were urged by
their presbyteries to
preach as often as possible in
communities where there was no
settled ministry. This, at first was
done only on the request of
such communities. Soon, however, the
"duty of sending the gospel
without solicitation to destitute
regions" was felt, and presbyteries,
synods and finally the General Assembly
adopted a more or less
definite missionary policy. Preachers
were sent out on extensive
tours through the new settlements to
learn the needs and to locate
the places where Presbyterian people, or
where people of Presby-
terian background were located. Numerous
accounts of such tours
have come down to us, which give a vivid
impression of the life
and labors of the early frontier
Presbyterian preachers.
The Presbyterians, however, were slow in
forming churches
in the new settlements. Perhaps one of
the chief reasons for this
was the Presbyterian method of the
congregation extending a call
to the minister. To carry out this
system there must be congrega-
tions. But of course, in the early West
there were no congrega-
tions, hence no calls. For instance it
was more than ten years from
the first visit of Presbyterian
ministers to southwestern Pennsyl-
vania to the forming of the first
congregations and the calling of
the first settled minister in the
region.
Another handicap experienced by the
Presbyterians in their
impact on the frontier was their
insistence that the ministry be
kept at a high educational level.
Practically all of the first
pioneer preachers west of the
Alleglenies were college graduates,
and as the need for ministers on the
frontier became increasingly
large, it was impossible to supply these
needs with college-trained
men. When the Cumberland Presbytery in
southern Kentucky
76
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
attempted to meet this situation by
licensing men who could not
meet the high educational requirements
of the church, the Synod
took action, suspended the Presbytery
and finally disbanded it.
Out of the controversy which arose
because of this action finally
emerged the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church.
A third handicap which frontier
Presbyterianism met in at-
tempting to deal with the peculiar needs
of the time was the
rigidity of its creed and polity. Thus
it was soon found that when
such a rigid system as that of
Presbyterianism tried to accom-
modate itself to new needs and to meet
new problems, instead of
bending, it broke, just as non-elastic
things generally do. The
Presbyterians also labored under a
superiority complex and their
ministers instead of searching out
destitute communities of any
sort, tended to concentrate on those
communities where Presby-
terian people were to be found. In other
words they went out
hunting Presbyterians, and were not so
greatly concerned about
making Presbyterians out of the raw
human materials which the
frontier furnished in such abundance.
In this connection mention should be
made of the operations
of the Plan of Union, an agreement with
the Congregationalists,
made in 1801, by which Presbyterians and
Congregationalists were
to work together on the frontier. During
the first thirty years of
the last century the Congregationalists
were little concerned about
perpetuating Congregationalism in the
West and were seemingly
willing to be absorbed by the
Presbyterians outside New England.
Such organizations as the American Home
Missionary Society and
even the Connecticut Missionary Society,
though supported by
New England Congregationalists, were
working in the West to
form Presbyterian churches. The result
was that during these
years thousands of Congregational people
moving west became
Presbyterians, leaving Congregationalism
permanently weak in the
Middle West.
Perhaps another reason why the
Presbyterians were not as
successful in winning members on the
frontier as were the Baptists
and Methodists was because most of the
early Presbyterian
ministers in the West were also
school-teachers. Being college
graduates quite naturally they would be
asked to conduct schools.
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS 77
This, of course, occupied much of their
time. And it is a signifi-
cant fact that most of the first
colleges founded in the West as
well as several of the early state
institutions were established by
Presbyterian ministers.
The Baptists and the Frontier
The methods developed by the Baptists in
meeting frontier
needs differ greatly from the
Presbyterians, and from the stand-
point of winning members, were far more
effective.
During the period of the Great Colonial
Revivals the Baptists
had developed an uneducated and
unsalaried ministry, which was
found to be particularly adapted to
frontier needs. The Anglican
clergy in Virginia and Maryland were
both well trained and well
paid, but had the reputation of having
little concern for the
spiritual welfare of the people under
their care. Baptist antipathy
towards the Established Church was
undoubtedly one of the rea-
sons for the development of this type of
ministry. To pay or to
educate a minister came to be considered
among them as more or
less sure to destroy vital religion.
The average Baptist preacher, therefore,
of the latter eighteenth
century was just an ordinary American
farmer who, like St. Paul,
made his own living and gave what time
he could to the preaching
of the Gospel. They might be well
characterized as farmer-
preachers. It was this type of ministry
that took the Baptist
gospel into the back-woods communities
of Virginia and the
Carolinas during the latter part of the
colonial period, and this
same type of ministry furnished the
pioneers in spreading the
Baptist gospel as population began to
push cross the Alleghenies
into the great new West.
The Baptists had much, especially in
their type of church
government, which would tend to make a
large appeal to the people
of the frontier. Their church government
was a pure democracy,
in which every member had an equal
chance to express his views.
To such a degree was democracy carried
in some of the frontier
churches that even slave members were
given the privilege of
voting in church matters, as were also
the female members. Their
preachers came from among the people
themselves and since they
78
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
were largely self-supporting they would
be as much attracted to
the better land and the freer air of the
West as were the people
to whom they preached. As Theodore
Roosevelt states in his
Winning of the West (Vol. III, p. 101), "The Baptist preachers
lived and worked exactly as did their
flock; their dwellings were
little cabins with dirt floors, and
instead of bedsteads, skin-covered
pole bunks; they cleared the ground,
split rails, planted corn, and
raised hogs on equal terms with their
parishioners." Thus the
Baptists were particularly well suited
in their ideas of govern-
ment, in their economic status, and in
their form of church
government to become the ideal western
immigrant church.
The very looseness of Baptist
organization made it easy for
them to follow population westward. In
any large body of settlers
moving over the mountains during the
latter years of the eighteenth
and the early years of the nineteenth
centuries from Virginia and
the Carolinas, there was sure to be
among them not only Baptist
people, but Baptist farmer-preachers as
well. Let us look at one
of the companies of Virginia immigrants
as they make their way
over the mountains in the years
immediately following the winning
of Independence.
They left their Virginia home the very
year the Revolution
closed and took the long painful way
over the mountains. They
finally settled in Woodford County in
Kentucky, on Clear Creek,
and soon a relatively large number of
cabin homes sprang up about
them. Among the settlers moving in were
several farmer-preachers'
families, and it was not long until
religious meetings were being
held in the cabins. Out of this came a
religious awakening in the
neighborhood and finally a church
organization.
The process of forming a Baptist church
on the frontier was
a relatively simple matter. There were
no high church officials to
consult; no bishops or presbyteries,
synods, or conferences to
be called in for advice. If a Baptist church was wanted,
there were in every community, all the
elements present to form
it. Nor was there expense involved. The
minister was unsalaried;
ground for a church building would be
donated and the neighbors,
whether Baptist or non-Baptist would be
more than glad to donate
their services in the erection of a log
meeting-house. Thus the
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS 79
Baptist churches in the early West
sprang out of the soil of the
frontier.
In the formation of the Clear Creek
Church in Woodford
County, Kentucky, in the year 1785, the
people gathered together,
drew up a covenant and articles of
faith; elected the deacons and
then proceeded to choose a minister by
popular vote. The vote
favored John Taylor, although he was
among the youngest of the
five farmer-preachers who were members
of the church. And this
process was followed in hundreds of
communities throughout the
West, the Baptists most often being the
first religious organization
to appear in a new community.
Of course the Baptist farmer-preacher
had little time to give
to the preparation of his sermons, for
he had his farm to tend,
and he prepared for his Sunday
ministrations as he followed
the plow, or split rails in the forest.
John Taylor in his History of
Ten Churches tells of one day's work in which he set up, single-
handed, a hundred panels of rail fence
six rails high, the rails being
eleven feet long, and they had to be
carried from where they had
been split. During the course of his
long career in Kentucky he
and his sons and slaves cleared more
than four hundred acres of
heavily timbered land. I have found very
few Baptist sermons in
manuscript in my search for materials
dealing with frontier
religion. The simple fact is that the
farmer-preacher did not pre-
pare his sermons by writing. Rather he
went on the theory that
all that was needed was that he should
open his mouth and the
Lord would fill it.
A good example of the Baptist
farmer-preacher is James
Lemen, the founder of the first Baptist
church in Illinois. Like
most frontier farmers he made his own
harness. The horse collars
were of straw or corn husks, plaited
together. Once being engaged
in breaking a piece of stubble ground
and having stopped for
dinner, he left the harness on the beam
of the plough. His son,
who was employed with a pitch fork to
clear the plough of the
accumulating stubble, stayed behind and
hid one of the horse col-
lars in order that there might be a
longer period of rest while
his father braided another. But Lemen
returning and missing the
collar mused a few moments, and then,
much to the disappoint-
80
OHIO ARCHA EOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ment of his son, pulled off his leather
breeches, stuffed the legs
with straw, threw the legs over the
horse's neck, placed the
hames over the stuffed breeches' legs
and went on plowing for
the remainder of the day. Such ingenuity
was characteristic of
the frontiersmen generally, and the
frontier preachers were no
exception.
Both the Disciples, or the Christians,
and the Universalists
were protest movements in the West. They
arose as a reaction
against the over-emotionalized
revivalism found particularly among
the Baptists and Methodists and to a
limited degree among the
Presbyterians. Both emphasized the
simple acceptance of the Gos-
pel and repudiated the necessity for a
miraculous conversion. Both
used the farmer-preacher technique and
both possessed the con-
gregational form of church polity, which
was particularly accept-
able in the democratic atmosphere of the
West.
The Methodists
At the opening of the national period
the Methodists were
the smallest of the religious bodies in
America having less than
I5,000 members when the Methodist
Episcopal Church became
an independent ecclesiastical body in
1784. But the Methodists
had the advantage of having as their
spiritual father a born or-
ganizer--John Wesley--and was the first
American religious body
to achieve a national organization. Thus
from the very beginning
they looked upon the new Nation as a
whole, and conceived of
their task in national terms.
Another advantage, from the standpoint
of equipping Meth-
odists for their national task, was the
circuit system. Devised by
John Wesley in England, it was brought
to America by Francis
Asbury and his fellow laborers, and was found
admirably suited
to meet the conditions and needs of a
new country, where people
were living in scattered communities and
where distances were
great. Thus one circuit-rider was able
to bring the softening in-
fluences of the Christian Gospel into
many communities, for the
average circuit in the early West
covered a region often as large
as a present day Methodist conference.
The circuit-rider preached
every day in the week, except on
Monday--that day he rested
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 81
from his extra labors over the Sabbath.
His preaching places
often numbered from twenty-five to
thirty. The nucleus of Meth-
odist organization was the class-meeting
presided over by the class-
leader whose duty it was to inquire into
the spiritual welfare of
each member of his class, at least once
a week. And out of these
classes sprang Methodist church
organizations as the frontier com-
munities increased in population and
frontier life became settled
and orderly.
In addition to the circuit-rider, who
gave his full time to the
ministry, the Methodists also had their
farmer-preachers, like the
Baptists and the Disciples, termed local
preachers in Methodist
parlance. In fact the Methodist gospel in
many instances was
first brought to numerous communities,
not by the regular circuit-
riders, but rather through the zeal of
some farmer-preacher. But
the circuit-rider was almost
omnipresent. So closely did he keep
pace with the westward march of
population that often he arrived
on the scene before the mud in the stick
chimney of a settler's
cabin was dry or the roof poles were in
place.
Unlike the Presbyterians, the Methodists
had the advantage
of an elastic system of church polity.
Both Presbyterians and
Baptists believed that their systems of
polity were prescribed in
Scriptures. The Methodists accepted
Wesley's position that the
Scriptures prescribed no form of church
government, but that the
episcopal was the best form and was not
contrary to Scripture.
Thus as needs arose the Methodists were
able to modify their
church government to meet frontier
needs. Among Presbyterians,
when such attempts were made,
controversy and division resulted.
It is an interesting fact that the
Presbyterians have furnished the
most numerous as well as the most famous
heresy trials.
It has been suggested that the
Presbyterians, Congregational-
ists, and Baptists had an aristocratic
theology, but democratic
forms of church government. The
Methodists, on the other hand,
possessed an autocratic form of church
government, but preached
a democratic gospel. And it may seem
rather strange that the
Methodists, with their highly
centralized and autocratic system
of church government, should have
succeeded so well in the highly
individualistic and democratic society
of the West. In a sense it
82
OHIO ARCH EOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
succeeded because Bishop Asbury was an
autocrat. He had the
authority to send men where he pleased.
But he was no autocrat
who exercised his authority from a
comfortable seat east of the
Alleghenies. He traveled more
continuously than any of his cir-
cuit-preachers. He never had a home; and his salary was no
more than that of the humblest
circuit-rider. In fact he was a
strange combination of democracy and
autocracy--democratic in
his life, autocratic in his rule.
Methodist theology was ideally suited to
make an effective
appeal to the democratic society of the
frontier. It was the gospel
of free grace, free-will and individual
responsibility to God. To
the average frontiersman the Calvinistic
gospel of limited grace
and election seemed entirely out of
harmony with what he saw
all about him. As he looked about he saw
no indication of a
favored group--the Elect. Everyone was
living in log houses, and
all were engaged in working out their
temporal salvation through
their own efforts. Why should their
souls' salvation be on any
different basis? It is not strange that
frontier conditions were
responsible for modifications of strict
Calvinism, and that the
Presbyterians suffered the most numerous
and severe schisms. The
Episcopalians, handicapped by the
weakened condition in which
they were left by the Revolution, did
not inaugurate a frontier
missionary policy until 1835, when
Bishop Jackson Kemfer be-
came the first missionary bishop for the
West.
The Catholics established their first
diocese west of the Alle-
ghenies in 1808 at Bardstown, Kentucky,
but they did not con-
stitute a numerous body in the West
until the new German and
Irish immigration brought a greatly
increased Catholic constitu-
ency into the country.
There is much that is amusing, if not
particularly enlighten-
ing, in the frontier religious
controversies which were common
enough in the early West. Methodists and
Presbyterians had many
a debate over the doctrine of election
and predestination. Once
Peter Cartwright was dining with some
Presbyterian ministers
and the argument for and against
predestination began. Turning
to the Presbyterian minister next to him
Cartwright asked, "Do
you think it predestined that you should
eat that particular piece
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 83
of meat on the end of your
fork?" The Presbyterian solemnly
declared in the affirmative. At that
Cartwright suddenly grabbed
the piece of meat and ate it himself,
thus defeating the divine
decree.
Presbyterians and Methodists often
locked horns with Baptists
on the question of baptism. But whenever
a Universalist ap-
peared, Presbyterians, Baptists and
Methodists presented a united
front. Hell-fire and endless punishment
were too essential a part
of their revivalistic gospel for them to
allow its disparagement on
the part of the upstart Universalists.
While each of the great
frontier religious bodies had its own
peculiar major emphasis, and
each developed its own techniques in
meeting frontier needs, yet
in their total impact there was far more
unanimity than has been
generally realized. The early
camp-meetings were interdenomina-
tional affairs, where Presbyterians,
Baptists and Methodists co-
operated. The different churches in
their days of frontier poverty
often shared the same meeting-house;
frequently they gladly
loaned their churches to other bodies.
It is easy to criticize these frontier
religious bodies and their
leadership. Doubtless both left much to
be desired; but they per-
formed a type of service which could not
have been rendered by
any other human agencies in that time of
dire need.