EDITORIALANA. |
VOL. XXVIII. No. 2. |
|
APRIL, 1919. |
TEMPERANCE AND CHURCH-BUILDING IN PIONEER DAYS ON THE WESTERN RESERVE. By JUSTUS NEWTON BROWN, OBERLIN, OHIO. In the fall of 1826 my mother's father, Rev. Joseph Edwards, re- moved from Manlius, New York, where he had been pastor of the Pres- byterian church, to Greenfield, Huron County, Ohio. The next year he preached the first sermon ever preached by an ordained minister in the township of Ripley, in the same county, to a congregation consisting of seven families. In 1828, when he removed to Ripley, less than two dozen families had settled there. When he had been there something over two years, he organized the first temperance society in the town- ship. It consisted of the members of his own family and its constitution ran thus: "This society shall be composed of the parents and children and such other members of our family as shall hereunto subscribe their names. In forming the constitution we pledge ourselves to observe the following rules: "1. We will use no ardent spirits ourselves, nor suffer the use of them in our families, nor present them to our friends, or those in our employment, unless in cases of extreme necessity for medical pur- poses. "2. Those of us who are or hereafter shall become heads of fami- lies solemnly agree to teach our households the principles of entire abstinence, and to use our best endeavors to obtain their signatures to this constitution. "3. A copy of this constitution shall be pasted in our family Bible, to which our children (if any) shall be often pointed as the act of their parents, and we solemnly enjoin it on them, as they revere our memories, sacredly to regard these our sentiments." The constitution was signed by my grandfather and every member of his family, eight in all, in the order of their ages. As an outgrowth of this temperance society, another was soon formed with which nearly all the families in Ripley united. Its meetings were held at the log cabins of its members until log school-houses were built, which furnished better accommodations for public meetings. That society continued to grow until it numbered more than a hundred mem- bers. In writing for the Firelands Historical Society a short time before (251) |