Ohio History Journal

  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  •  
  • 4
  •  
  • 5
  •  
  • 6
  •  
  • 7
  •  
  • 8
  •  

Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association

Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association. 183

 

Records of the Synod of Pittsburgh. (1802-1832).

Centenary Memorial Volume of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsyl-

vania. (Papers by Darlington and Veech.)

History of Pittsburgh, by N. B. Craig. (1851).

History of Pittsburgh, by Sarah H. Killikelly. (1906).

History of Pittsburgh, by Erasmus Wilson. (1898).

 

 

EARLY RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN THE MUSKINGUM

VALLEY.

BY C. L. MARTZOLFF, OHIO UNIVERSITY.

The dominant note in the settlement of the majority of the

colonies was, as we know, religious freedom.   The spirit of

modern history which has as its slogan, "All men are free,"

found in those days expression in terms of religion, with the

result that the most of men's acts were determined by a religious

motive.

While the settlement of the Muskingum Valley, which in-

cludes practically all of southeastern and eastern Ohio, was

not prompted by the same reasons which urged the fathers to

come across the Atlantic and establish colonies in the name of

religious freedom, yet the fact that these men were their fathers,

leads us confidently to expect that the founding of the church

was contemporaneous with the founding of a settlement.

"Like father, like son."  So, noble sons of noble sires had

learned the experiences of the elders and had received a thor-

ough training in the traditions, growing out of the acts which

had made history. We have only to recall, therefore, that this

section of Ohio was settled in a great measure by Puritans from

Massachusetts, Scotch-Irish from  Pennsylvania and New Jer-

sey, and Quakers and Germans, also from our eastern neighbor,

to at once conclude that the statement made in the previous

paragraph is a correct one.

While, figuratively speaking, the Lilies of France once

floated over this section of Ohio, and we might with some degree

of assurance look for the presence of the Jesuit missionary in

these parts, yet we have no record of any of these black cowled

messengers of the Cross ever being in this region. Yet, we are

quite certain that their influence was felt upon the Indians who