ADAM HURDUS AND THE SWEDENBORGIANS IN
EARLY CINCINNATI
By Ophia D. Smith
Many volumes have been written about the
hardships and
accomplishments of pioneer preachers in
the Western Country.
Most of these, however, deal with men of
orthodox faith. The
Swedenborgians, equally self-sacrificing
but unorthodox and mis-
understood, have received little
attention, because they were few
in number. Yet they were people of
influence--they were readers
and thinkers and doers. In early
Cincinnati, as in other places,
the Swedenborgians were bitterly
assailed as a religious society,
but as citizens they were highly
respected.
The first disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg
to settle in Cincin-
nati was Adam Hurdus, a Manchester
merchant. He met with a
warm welcome in Cincinnati, because he
was a man of some
means and considerable business ability.
At that time, in the
spring of 1806, Hurdus had no thought of
becoming a minister.
He loved the truths of Swedenborg and he
wanted to find religious
companionship, but, primarily, he was
intent upon earning a com-
fortable living for his family. The
life-story of this man is a
peculiarly interesting one. In strange
ways, Providence seemed
to lead him toward his destiny--to
become "the Father of Sweden-
borgianism in the Old Northwest."
Adam Hurdus was born of a Catholic
father and Protestant
mother in the village of Copple, near
Manchester, England, on
April 16, 1760. According to
the general custom, the boys of the
family were reared in the father's
church, the girls in the mother's.
After the father's death, however, the
boys were confirmed in the
Episcopalian faith of their mother and
sisters.
At an early age, Adam was apprenticed to
a weaver in the
village of Wigan. The weaver, a brutish
drunkard, treated the lad
so cruelly, he eventually ran away to
seek other employment.
106
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 107
Work was hard to find, and the young boy
lived in mortal fear of
being returned to his master. Finally,
in desperation, he enlisted
as a private in the British army in
1777.
The next year, he was sent with a body
of recruits to Phila-
delphia to join a regiment then engaged
in fighting the colonists
in the American Revolution. When they
reached Philadelphia,
they found that their regiment had moved
on. Boldly they put
up a French flag and sailed unmolested
to join the British forces
on Long Island. There they remained for
several months before
they were sent to the West Indies to
fight the French.
It was in the West Indies that Adam
Hurdus began seriously
to consider his spiritual state. One
day, while manning a gun in
an engagement between the British and
French fleets, he looked
up and saw a Bible on a shelf above his
head. Opening the book,
he read a passage from one of the Psalms
that seemed to describe
his situation exactly. All that day he
stayed by the gun, reluctant
to leave that Bible. His shipmates
wondered why he would not
leave his station after the battle was
over; they did not know
that he lacked the courage openly to
read the Bible before irreligious
associates. In spite of temptations and
ungodly companions,
young Hurdus continued to seek the
verity that would satisfy his
questing mind and heart.
In the fall of 1781, Adam was captured
by the French, and
barely escaped death at the point of a
bayonet. He was spared
and taken to France as a prisoner.
During the long months of
imprisonment, he pondered the state of
his soul.1 Back home in
England, an Episcopalian minister, the
Reverend John Clowes, was
publishing the first English translation
of Swedenborg's The True
Christian Religion, the second Swedenborgian work to be trans-
lated into the English language. At that
time, however, Hurdus
had probably never heard of Swedenborg.
Eventually, Hurdus was exchanged and
sent back to England
as a recruiting officer. On February 4,
1783, he married Hannah
Smith of York. About the time Adam was
discharged from the
British army, he took his young bride to
Manchester to live.
1 A. G. W. Carter, Address on the Life,
Services, and Character of Adam Hurdus,
The First Minister of the New Church
West of the Alleghany Mountains (New York,
1865), 1-12. A. G. W. Carter was a
grandson of Adam Hurdus.
108
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
At Manchester, the preaching of John
Clowes had created
considerable interest in the
Swedenborgian principles. In 1782,
a printing society had been formed to
publish the works of
Swedenborg.2 Strangely enough, Adam Hurdus took no
part in
the new faith, but joined the
Methodists, because that society
stressed heart-religion.
It was while Hurdus was with the
Methodists that his interest
in Swedenborg was awakened. John Wesley
had savagely at-
tacked the writings of Swedenborg in the
Arminian Magazine.
Curious to know what manner of man could
arouse Wesley to
such a ferocious attack, Hurdus began to
read Swedenborg. As
he read, he became convinced that
Emanuel Swedenborg possessed
the Truth.
Hurdus then sat under the ministry of
John Clowes at St.
John's. Much as he liked the preaching
of Clowes, however, it
disturbed him to hear the New Doctrines
preached in the Old
Church.3 Eager to worship in
a house devoted exclusively to
New Church Doctrines, he helped to raise
the funds that built the
New Jerusalem Church in Peter Street in
1793.
In 1799, Hurdus formed a business
connection with Thomas
Ollivant. They had a large factory,
seven stories high, in which
they manufactured nearly every kind of dry
goods. After a few
years of prosperity, a devastating fire
deprived Hurdus of the
greater part of his wealth. In his
distress, he remembered Amer-
ica, the fair land he had seen as a
British soldier. In April, 1804,
he, with his eldest son Thomas, took the
goods he had salvaged
from the fire and sailed for
Philadelphia. Upon his arrival there,
he took a dwelling-and-store house on
Arch Street near the
Delaware River. The next year his wife
and children came from
England to join him.4
Hurdus was lonely and unhappy in
Philadelphia. Only a few
2 James Speirs, "The Planting of
the New Church in England," L. P. Mercer, ed.,
The New Jerusalem in the World's
Religious Congresses of 1893 (Chicago,
1894),
257.
3 The term "Old Church" refers
to churches of all beliefs other than Swedenbor-
gian. Followers of Swedenborg called
themselves the New Church, which they be-
lieved would supersede the Old. They
believed that a New Dispensation had been
revealed to Swedenborg, and for
that reason called themselves the Church of the New
Jerusalem or New Church.
4 Carter, Address, 12-20.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 109
receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines were
to be found there,5
and, doubtless, it was hard to compete
with the Quakers in busi-
ness. Hurdus' limited circle of friends
and acquaintances in
Philadelphia, however, included such
able citizens as Benjamin
Franklin, Robert Morris, Daniel Thuun,
Thomas Smith, Francis
Bailey, and Philip Freneau.6
Francis Bailey, editor of the Free-
man's Journal and printer to the state of Pennsylvania, had pub-
lished in 1787 A Summary of the
Heavenly Doctrines; two years
later he had published Swedenborg's The
True Christian Religion,
numbering among his subscribers Benjamin
Franklin and Robert
Morris. Hurdus, in after years, had
reason to bless the descend-
ants of Francis Bailey and their
conjugal partners, who contributed
so largely to the New Church and the
intellectual life of early
Cincinnati.
A few stimulating companions failed to
hold Adam Hurdus
in Philadelphia. Not long after his
family arrived in America,
he decided to go on to the busy river
town of Pittsburgh. In
covered wagons, drawn by six-horse
teams, the Hurdus family
with their goods made the long hard trip
over the mountains. The
rough river town did not appeal to
Hurdus. He soon packed his
goods onto a keelboat and with his
family floated down the Ohio
to Cincinnati. Rumors that "a rich
old Englishman" was coming
down the river, had spread through the
village of Cincinnati, and
when Hurdus did arrive on April 7,
1806, many of the more sub-
stantial citizens were at the wharf to
welcome him.7
Hurdus soon procured a respectable house
on Main Street,
between Fourth and Fifth, for his family
and his goods, and set
up a dry goods business. The Cincinnati Liberty
Hall announced
on April 21, 1806, that Adam Hurdus was
opening "the house
lately occupied by Henry Ewing as a
Tavern in Main street,
opposite the Court House," and that
he would sell "very cheap for
ready money," "a great variety
of DRY GOODS."
On May 12, the same newspaper announced
that Adam
5 A Swedenborgian Society was not
organized in Philadelphia until 1815.
6 Freneau's poem entitled On the
Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg's Universal
Theology first appeared in Francis Bailey's Freeman's
Journal, October 4, 1786. Ednah
C. Silver, Sketches of the New Church
in America on a Background of Civic and
Social Life (Boston, 1920), 16-20, 24.
7 Carter, Address, 20-2.
110
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Hurdus had "just opened a large and
elegant assortment of striped
and plain nankeens; fringes, line,
tassels, and lace for bed and
window curtains; fashionable and
seasonable vest patterns from
the manufactories of
Manchester"--also "a handsome assortment
of jewelry and brassware from Birmingham," and "cut nails
&c"
which would be "sold at very
reduced prices for cash."
Soon Hurdus began to seek believers in
the Church of the
New
Jerusalem. None were to be
found, except Daniel Thuun,
who happened to be in town on
business. Thuun was a
Philadel-
phia merchant who was such an ardent
Swedenborgian that he
had copied gratuitously the manuscript
of the Reverend William
Hill's English translation of
Swedenborg's Apocalypsis Explicata.
He had feared the precious manuscript
might be lost at sea while
on the way from America to the London
publisher.8 Daniel
Thuun told Hurdus of Thomas Newport,9
a New Churchman who
lived about four miles beyond the new
town of Lebanon, Ohio.
The two men went to see Newport, whom
they found to be "a
jewel of the first water."10
After making this new acquaintance,
Hurdus decided to give
up his business in Cincinnati and buy a
farm in Colerain Township.
For three weeks, beginning on February
3, 1807, Hurdus adver-
tised his goods for sale.1l
Hurdus, with little knowledge of farm-
ing in a wild and uncultivated country,
found country life very
unsatisfactory. He formed a friendship
with a country neighbor,
8 Silver, Sketches, 16-20. Thuun
later married Charlotte Eckstein, a granddaughter
of Francis Bailey and daughter of
Frederic Eckstein. Thuun was active in forming the
first Swedenborgian society in
Philadelphia. Ibid., 24.
9 Thomas Newport founded the hrst
Swedenborgian society of Lebanon, Ohio, on
January 4, 1812, under the name of the
Turtle Creek Society, a society which had its
unorganized beginnings in 1802. Newport
founded the Western Association which
was the forerunner of the Western
Convention. He was ordained in 1818 by his
brother-in-law, the Reverend David
Powers. Carrie Giles Carter, ed., The Life of
Chauncey Giles as Told in His Diary
and Correspondence (Boston, 1920), 92.
Newport's son Thomas "sowed much
seed," "preaching at several different places
every Sabbath, at a distance of more
than twenty miles." The New-Lights
and
Methodists sometimes invited him to
preach in their "meeting-houses, or other places
of public worship." Letter, Thomas
Newport to the Convention of the Church of the
New Jerusalem, May 5, 1823, The New
Jerusalem Missionary and Intellectual
Re-
pository (New York), 1 (1823).
In the 1830's, Thomas, junior, lived in
Oxford, Ohio, where a few Swedenborgians
met together informally for doctrinal
discussions. Oxford was considered a field for
Swedenborgian missionaries.
10 Carter, Address, 22.
11 Hurdus sold to merchants his British
manufactured dry goods: "brass drawer
handles, hinges, pendants and knobs,
&c., a case of English jewelry and watches, be-
sides other articles." He
advertised his intention to remove to the country, and offered
to exchange a part of his goods for
other property. Cincinnati Liberty Hall.
ADAM
HURDUS IN CINCINNATI
III
however, that paid rich dividends as
long as he lived. This friend
was Ogden Ross, whom Hurdus turned to
the Swedenborgian
faith, and who became one of the most
zealous and influential
Swedenborgians in this region.
In 1808, Adam Hurdus returned to Cincinnati and set up a
small factory on Sycamore Street for
spinning cotton and for the
manufacture of various kinds of cotton
goods. He formed a
partnership with Martin Baum,12 one
of Cincinnati's wealthiest
and most progressive citizens. On
December 31, 1808, Matilda,
Adam's eldest daughter, married an
enterprising young man named
Ephraim Carter. Not long after the
wedding, young Carter
bought Martin Baum's interest in the
business and ran the factory
under the name of Hurdus & Carter
until 1814. On May 3, 1814,
through the Cincinnati Liberty Hall, the
firm offered for sale;
all the cotton spinning machinery now in
complete operation, late Baum's
Long's and Hurdus's Factory, Sycamore
Street, Cincinnati, consisting of
two carding engines; four heads of
Doubling Machinery, four heads of
roving do., two mules of two or four
spindles, with all the apparatus for
carrying on the factory in a complete
manner. The partnership of Hurdus &
Carter now being closed, a very
advantageous purchase may be made as the
difficulty of procuring machinery at
this time is almost insurmountable, and
the machinery with a horse and two mules
to work it are to be bought
cheap. Any person applying at the
Factory may view the machinery and
know the terms.
Ephraim, relieved of the factory, went
into the mercantile busi-
ness the next year, on Main Street,
"opposite the lower pump."
Hurdus turned his attention to his dry
goods business and organ-
building.13
About the time that Hurdus set up his
factory on Sycamore
Street (1808), he began to hold
religious services in his own
home.
Adam had four sons and four
daughters, and he was
anxious that they should not be exposed
to erroneous doctrines.
Strangers were invited, but never urged,
to attend the services in
the Hurdus home. The liturgy14 was so much like that of
the
12 Martin
Baum built the house on Pike Street that is now the Taft Museum.
13 Carter, Address, 25;
Cincinnati Western Spy, Aug. 8, 1815.
14 The first New-Church Liturgy issued
in America contained a Calendar for daily
Scriptural reading, Prayers, a Creed,
Catechism, Forms for the Administration of the
Sacraments and Hymns by the Rev. Joseph
Proud. It was a reprint of the English
Established Church Liturgy, except that
the prayers were for the American President
instead of the English king. Silver, Sketches,
41.
112
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Episcopal Church, Episcopalians felt
perfectly at home in the
Swedenborgian service.
In order to enrich the service, Hurdus
built a parlor organ,
the first organ ever built in
Cincinnati. One of the Hurdus boys
played the hymns from a hymnal brought
from Manchester. The
organ attracted a great deal of
attention, of course. Even the
Indians, loitering about the streets,
were attracted by the strange
sounds coming from the home of Adam
Hurdus. Many a Sunday
service was attended by red men who sat
quietly through the entire
service just to hear the organ played.15
During the course of his lifetime, Adam
Hurdus built many
organs. He built one for the New
Jerusalem Temple in Cincin-
nati, and one for the first Catholic
church in that city, besides a
number of others for Cincinnati churches
and parlors. He had
no competitor until 1825, when Israel
Schooley, a piano-maker,
arrived from Virginia. It is not known
where or when Adam
Hurdus learned to build organs, but it
is known that he continued
to build them even in his old age. His
first organ was built at his
factory at No. 127 Sycamore
Street; in 1881 it was still in use
in the village of Lockland.l6 One of the
Hurdus organs, now in
the basement of the New Jerusalem Church
at Oak and Winslow,
once occupied a place of honor in the
home of the late Franklin
H. Lawson on Pike Street. Mrs. Cora
Carter Kendall of Cincin-
nati once owned an organ built by Adam
Hurdus, her great-
grandfather. It was made of cherry wood
and had small gilded
pipes.17
Adam Hurdus was a versatile person. He
could spin and
manufacture cotton, he could conduct a
dry goods business, he
could build organs, he could preach a
Swedenborgian sermon, he
was a good tailor and he could make fine
furniture. A grand-
father clock which he made before he
came to America is now
loaned to the Chicago Art
Institute. A four-poster bed with
pineapple-and-acanthus-leaf carving,
made by Adam Hurdus, is
still in the Hurdus family.
15 Carter, Address, 24.
16 Charles T. Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati and
Representative Citizens
(2 vols., Chicago, 1904), I, 919; Henry A. and Kate B.
Ford, History of Cincinnati
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland, 1881), 249.
17 Conversation with Mrs. Helen W.
Richardson, great-granddaughter of Adam
Hurdus.
ADAM
HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 113
After 1817, Hurdus must have devoted
most of his time to
organ building, for in that year his
son, George, opened a dry
goods store, and Adam's name never again
appeared as a merchant
advertising in the Cincinnati
newspapers.18
Adam
Hurdus and his family were lovers of good literature,
music, painting, the theater, or
whatever contributed to the good
life.
Two of the Hurdus boys were members of the "Shellbark
Theatre" in Cincinnati. They
performed with their
fellow-
Thespians in a circus enclosure on Main
Street below Fourth in
1814.
Joseph Hurdus, in addition to acting, had charge of all the
scenery.19
By 1811, the religious exercises in the
home of Adam Hurdus
had generated enough interest to justify
formal organization. In
that year, Hurdus called together twenty-two receivers of the
Swedenborgian Doctrines and organized
the First New Jerusalem
Society of Cincinnati, the first
Swedenborgian society west of the
Alleghany Mountains, the second in the
United States.
It was an intelligent and influential
group of people who con-
stituted this first Swedenborgian
society in the Old Northwest.
The members were Andrew Brannon, Matilda Carter,20 James
and
Margaret McMakin,21 Mary
and Clarissa Mennessier,22 John
18 On September 24, 1817, the following
announcement appeared in the Western
GEORGE HURDUS
New Goods
Just received from Philadelphia, and is
now opening on the hill, Main-
street--opposite the Presbyterian
Church--first door below John S. Wallace &
Co., a general assortment of Dry Goods
and Groceries . . . On Commis-
sion, an assortment of woolen goods--
Drab Cloth
Dark mixt do.
Brown do.
Blue green and blue boching baize
offered at cost and carriage
for cash or negotiable paper at 90 or
120 days. Country merchants will do
well to give him a call.
19 Greve, Cincinnati, I,
468.
20 Matilda Hurdus Carter,
ancestress of Dan Beard, the organizer of the Boy
Scout movement in America. Dan's father
was James Beard, the painter, whose por-
trait of Adam Hurdus, copied from a
daguerreotype, now hangs in the New Jerusalem
Church at Oak and Winslow.
21 James McMakin was a weaver of linen, woolen and cotton. He wove
"counter
panes, coverlids, bedtickens, jeans and
twilling, dimity, royal ribb, round topped cords
and Diaper of different figures."
Cincinnati Liberty Hall, April 1812.
22 The head of the Mennessier family was Francis Mennessier, an exiled
Parisian
lawyer who came to Cincinnati from
Gallipolis as early as 1797. He expected to go
into business, if "allum
clay," a clay impregnated with alum, could be found. Ap-
parently, the clay was not found, for on
September 14, 1799, the following an
nouncement appeared in the Western
Spy:
Francis Mennessier begs leave to inform
the public that he has opened
a Coffee House in Cincinnati, at the
foot of the hill on Main Street,
where he proposes to retail the
different kinds of liquors and all kinds of
114
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Meredith, Samuel Pierson, Thomas and Ann
Rawlins, Ogden
Ross,23 Jacob Resor,24 Benjamin
Sampson, Charles and Hannah
Sontagg,25 Nathan Sampson,26
Solomon Smith,27 Ellen Harrison,
Adam
Hurdus and wife, Hannah, and children, James, George
and Elizabeth.
At the time that the First New
Jerusalem Society of Cincin-
nati was formally organized, Cincinnati
was changing from a dirty
little country village into a progressive
town, through the initiative
and enterprise of her people. The Swedenborgians contributed
their full share of the leaders in art,
literature, education, music,
business enterprise and good
citizenship.
Five years after the organization of the
First Society in Cin-
cinnati, in the summer of 1816, Adam
Hurdus made a trip East
to buy goods for his store. Ever mindful
of the welfare of his
little congregation, Hurdus visited the
city of Baltimore to confer
with the Reverend John Hargrove. On July 29, Adam Hurdus
was baptized and ordained into the
ministry of the New Jerusalem
Church by the Reverend Mr. Hargrove,
founder of the first New
Jerusalem Society in America (Baltimore,
1792).28
It is an inter-
pastry, &c--He will punctually
attend all to the Coffee House, which will
be open from 2 o'clock P. M. until
9--His sign is Pegasus the bad Poet
fallen to the ground.
He also informs those gentlemen who
desire to learn the FRENCH
LANGUAGE, that he will commence school
on Monday, the 23d inst. at
this house and will teach every evening
in the week, Saturday and Sunday
excepted, from 6 o'clock P. M. until 9.
. . .
By 1808, Mennessier was teaching young
ladies that "elegant accomplishment,"
the French language, four days a
week--one hour in the morning and one in the
afternoon--at the rate of two dollars a
month. Young gentlemen were taught in
the evening of the same days from
candlelight until nine o'clock for $1.50 a month.--
Cincinnati Liberty Hall, Oct. 1,
1808.
One of the Mennessier daughters married
George Jacob Beck, the first painter
in Cincinnati. Beck came to Cincinnati
in a company of scouts with Wayne's army
in 1792. He was a poet and a translator
of Greek and Latin authors, though his
specialty was landscape painting. Mrs.
Beck, too, was a talented painter. The Becks
painted some of the most beautiful
scenes of this part of the Ohio Valley. Mrs.
Beck conducted a drawing school for
young ladies in Cincinnati after her husband's
death. Ford and Ford, Cincinnati, 49,
53, 55.
23 Ogden Ross was twice a representative from Hamilton County to the
legisla-
ture at Chillicothe, Ohio. He was one of
the first trustees of Miami University, a
member of the committee who selected and
laid out the college town of Oxford,
Ohio, in 1810, and a member of the
building committee for the Miami University.
24 Jacob Resor was a pioneer iron
manufacturer, the father of William, Reuben
and Jacob Resor, iron founders. W. N.
Hobart, Historical Record of the First New
Jerusalem Church of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1903), 5.
25 Charles Sontagg was a German chemist,
junior partner in the firm of Allen &
Sontagg, dealers in drugs. Charles was
the father of William Sontagg, the eminent
artist. Ford and Ford, Cincinnati, 239;
Hobart, Historical Records, 5.
26 Nathan Sampson was the leading
dealer in fine glass ware and china, jewelry,
etc.
27 Not to be confused with
Solomon Smith, the pioneer actor.
28 Carter, Address, 25, 26. Hurdus became an American citizen on
June 28, 1815.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 115
esting coincidence that Hurdus became an
ordained minister at
the age of fifty-six, the age at which
Swedenborg received his first
revelation.
In 1818, the legislature of Ohio passed
an enabling act for
the incorporation of "The First New
Jerusalem Society in Cin-
cinnati." The little group had long since outgrown the parlor of
Adam Hurdus. They had met at the
schoolhouse of Cornelius
Wing for a time, and later at a school
at the corner of Sixth and
Lodge. The next year, the congregation bought a lot on the north
side of Longworth or Centre Street,
between Race and Elm. On
it they raised a plain frame church,
"with large pews, pulpit, and
gallery for the organ and choir."29 Adam Hurdus and his con-
gregation were given considerable
financial help by members of
other churches. The Swedenborgians expressed their thanks
pub-
licly on May 29, 1819, in the Western
Spy:
The New Jerusalem Society of Cincinnati
respectfully acknowledge
the kind assistance rendered by their
fellow citizens, in the form of a sub-
scription, towards the erection of a
place of worship; and beg leave to
notify their friends, that the
subscription has been transferred to Mr. JOHN
STOUT, who has undertaken the building,
and will shortly give them a call.
Until the new house is completed, public
worship will in future be
performed in the school room at the
corner of Walnut and Fifth Streets.
Daniel Roe30 described the new temple as
large enough to
hold 350 persons, and "plainly
finished and painted white." In
the report of 1822, printed in the New Jerusalem Church Reposi-
29 Ibid., 26;
Cincinnati Commercial, April 8, 1867.
30 Daniel Roe was a lawyer who preached
regularly at the new Jerusalem Temple.
He was recording secretary of the
Western Emigrant Society, a society that offered to
emigrants information, employment, and
aid to the sick and unfortunate. Cincinnati
Western Spy, quoted in United States Gazette (Philadelphia),
May 24, 1817.
Roe had been in business in Lebanon as
early as 1806, advertising in the Cincin-
nati Liberty Hall (June 9, 1806): "Dry
goods, groceries and hardware, just arrived
from Baltimore. Also London pewter,
spices, teas, and many other items."
In 1823, Roe was defeated by James
Foster, a Methodist, for the office of justice
of the peace, which office he had held
for three years. Sol Smith opined that Roe
lost the election because he was a
Swedenborgian and a Free Mason. Independent
Press, Feb. 6, 1823.
Roe sometimes lectured at the Western
Museum on such subjects as, "On the
Operation of the Senses in the Formation
of Character." Cincinnati Republican,
March 25, 1825.
For Roe's connection with the Haydn
Society of Cincinnati, see Harry R.
Stevens, "The Haydn Society of
Cincinnati, 1819-1824," Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Quarterly (Columbus), LII (1943), 101-2, 110.
By 1832, Roe had asked for dissolution
of the pastoral relation between the Cin-
cinnati church and himself. He went to
Dayton to engage in the manufacture of silk.
He wove "upwards of fifty silk
handkerchiefs having commenced with the silk worm
from the egg." The machinery for
winding, reeling, doubling and twisting the silk
was of his own invention. His silk was
strong and serviceable. Silk at that
time
was "a new and important domestic
manufacture." Cincinnati Gazette, Nov. 29, 1832.
116 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
tory (1817-1840),
the Cincinnati church was reported as daily
increasing, with seven
baptisms lately celebrated in one day.31
A communication from the Cincinnati congregation to the
General Convention of 1822
reported that that society was pros-
pering "in the
most perfect harmony and love, entertaining doc-
trines and opinions
amounting almost to unity."
And, "what
[was] extremely
pleasing, not the smallest tincture of the --
[had] manifested
itself amongst" the society.
The communica-
tion continued:
On the last Lord's day
we had an addition of one member, who was
baptized, and on
Monday evening a further addition of seven. There are
many more leaning on
the posts of the gates which lead into the city; and
no doubt will, ere
long, enter in, and openly declare themselves on the
Lord's side.
Our meetings continue
to be
well attended by the most intelligent part
of our citizens, and
the most solemn and earnest attention is given to our
lectures.
The Cincinnati society
reported, also, the prosperity of the doc-
trines in the society
in Indiana, near Louisville, and that two
Methodist preachers in
that community were "reading with atten-
tion and promise of
benefit."
A New Church
missionary reported to the Repository in June,
1822, that Daniel Roe
and Marcus Smith32 had assured him that
the Cincinnati society
had very encouraging prospects--that they
had established a
library containing nearly all the works of Sweden-
borg for "the use
of the members and interested ones." The
numbers
who compose[d] this
society, and the intelligence and zeal by which they
[were] distinguished,
render[ed] it by far the most promising of any other
in the western
country. It already form[ed] the centre of communication
for most of the other
societies in the west.
When the General
Convention met at Baltimore in May, 1823,
Daniel Roe wrote the
Cincinnati report to that body. He
stated
that three sermons
were preached each Sabbath, and no two by
31 This report
mentioned the spread of the New's Church over the state of Ohio.
Besides the societies at
Steubenville, Lebanon and Cincinnati, "one very extraor-
dinary
missionary," Johnny Appleseed, was laboring hard enough "to put the
most
zealous members to
blush."
32 Marcus Smith was a
brother of Solomon Franklin Smith, pioneer actor--one of
the ten Smith brothers
in Cincinnati whose combined height equalled sixty feet, giving
them the name of
"the sixty-foot Smiths."
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 117
the same person. Roe preached in the
morning, Adam Hurdus
in the afternoon, and Oliver Lovell in
the evening, none of the
three receiving any material
compensation for their services.
Adam Hurdus was the only one of the
three who had been or-
dained "according to the generally
approved custom." Ten mem-
bers had been recently added, and many
more were about to join.
There was much inquiry about the
Doctrines "by the best part of
our citizens." The members of the
society held meetings "two
or three evenings every week, at the
house of those most con-
venient, at which familiar conversation
on the Doctrines" were
held. All speakers spoke
extemporaneously.
In the same report, Roe mentioned a
library of about one
hundred New Church books. He stated that
most of the members read considerably;
the ministers of the old church
[all churches other than Swedenborgian]
read none; and of late they make
but little opposition, though
considerable secret means are used to prevent
inquiry. Upon the whole, I can say, that
our society is acknowledgly, by
acquaintances and by strangers, who
occasionally spend a few days amongst
us, the happiest that is known to them.
There are several other societies
of the New Church in this State and
Indiana.
The members of the society at the time
of its incorporation
in
1818 were Anthony McKinney, Joseph Adams, Dudley and
Hepza Andrews, Marston Allen,33 Samuel
Coombs, Ahab
Capron,34 Thomas Carter,
Maria Hurdus, Joseph Hey, E. Johnson,
Emma and Thomas Lawson,35 Oliver and
Clarissa Lovell, Stephen
Peabody,36 Daniel Roe, Giles
and Amos Adams Richards,37 Josiah
33 Marston Allen operated the Cincinnati Chemical
Laboratory. He was one of the
principal trustees and creditors of the
Ohio Mechanics' Institute. Ford and Ford,
Cincinnati, 225.
34 Ahab Capron was a commission merchant
of extensive business interests in early
Cincinnati. He dealt in wool, machine
cards, hardware, dry goods, etc., at wholesale,
two doors south of Goodwin's Inn.
Cincinnati Western Spy, January 2, 1819.
35 Thomas Lawson was the founder
of Thomas Lawson & Son. The family busi-
ness is still in existence. Lawson was
a worker in copper, tin, iron and lead. The
company manufactured stills, hatters' kettles,
fullers' and wash kettles of all sizes. In
1828, they advertised fire grates for stone coal; also
stoves "for ornamental and for
cooking, entirely new patterns." Cincinnati National
Republican, June 17, 1828.
36 Stephen Peabody was a missionary of the New Jerusalem Church.
37 Giles
and Amos Adams Richards were brothers from Massachusetts, sons of Giles
Richards, an important manufacturer of cotton cards. It was
the factory of Giles
Richards & Co. that George Washington mentioned
in his diary in 1789. The brothers
engaged in the commission business in
Cincinnati, handling accounts for many of the
larger eastern firms, including Samuel Slater
& Co. By 1819, they were operating a
cotton mill on Toad Creek, a tributary of
the Great Miami River. See Ophia D.
Smith, Life and Times of Giles Richards (Columbus, 1936).
118
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Smith,"38 George and
Mary Sampson, Cloe Smith, Elizabeth Sharp,
Marie Smith, Julia M. Sampson, Calvin
Simpson, Daniel Stitt,
Oliver Smith,39 John Scudder,
Benjamin Wright, J. L. Williams,
and Eliza and Sallie Wood. Silas Smith40
and his wife Sarah
joined the church in 1819.
At least six of the famous
"sixty-foot Smiths" were mem-
bers of Adam Hurdus' flock. Wright and
Samuel came to Cin-
cinnati in 1817, Samuel a lad
of only fourteen. One of the ten
tall brothers was Solomon Franklin
Smith, familiarly known as
Sol Smith. He was one of the most
colorful pioneers of the
theater in the West. Sol was an ardent
defender of the Sweden-
borgian faith. In the winter of 1819-20,
he clerked in one of
his brothers' stores at eight dollars a
month, read law with Daniel
Roe, took part in debating societies and
religious gatherings,
played the organ three times on Sunday
and every Thursday eve-
ning at the New Jerusalem Temple, and on
two evenings a week
conducted the New Jerusalem Singing
Society, "teaching a whole
lot of young New Jerusalemites the art
of psalmody."41 On
July 4, 1822, he published the
first issue of his Independent Press
& Freedom's
Advocate, a Jacksonian Democratic
organ. He was
a young man of honest intentions and
perhaps a bit more zeal than
discretion, for he suffered bodily
attack on more than one occasion
by some indignant citizen offended by
his caustic lines.42 The
paper was printed at the cost of much
sacrifice and hard work,
with only his brother Lemuel43 to help.
Many a Sunday, Sol
38 Josiah Smith was one of the
"sixty-foot Smiths." There is evidence to indicate
that he migrated to Oxford, Ohio, and
went into business there in the 1830's, building
himself a substantial brick house on
Mulberry Street (now Church Street).
39 One of the "sixty-foot"
Smiths, engaged in the mercantile business on Main
Street.
40 Silas Smith, one of the "sixty-foot Smiths," was in
the wholesale mercantile
business in Cincinnati and Hamilton,
Ohio.
41 Solomon Franklin Smith, Theatrical
Management in the West and South for
Three Years Interspersed with
Anecdotal Sketches, etc. (New York, 1868),
22, 23.
42 When the Independent Press was
revived by Sol's brother Martin in 1826, an
"introductory address"
appeared on the front page of the first issue, giving a short
history of the paper under
Sol's editorship. One stanza describes Sol's impetuous spirit:
He was but young, as many might have
guessed,
When first he drove the quill--a mere
child;
And but of youthful ardor then
possessed--
A rustic, rude and fearless, frank and
wild.
He publickly exposed all who
transgressed
Those sacred laws which should not be
defiled,
In hopes to mend them; but for this,
forsooth!
They threatened hard to kill the
imprudent youth.
--June 24, 1826.
43 Lemuel was the youngest of the
ten brothers. He was a professional actor.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 119
played the organ at the New Jerusalem
Temple at the opening of
the service which usually consisted of a
hymn and two chants, then
when "good old Adam Hurdus"
launched forth on one of his long
sermons, Sol slipped away to his
printing office to help "work off"
the first side of the paper, returning
with ink-stained hands to
accompany "Strike the Cymbals, the
Hallelujah Chorus, or some
other stirring piece at the close of the
service."44
At the time that he was editing the Independent
Press and
acting as organist and choirmaster at
the Temple, Sol Smith was
managing the Globe Theatre and acting as
secretary of the Haydn
Society. As busy as he was, he found time to infuriate the
"evangelical" ministers of the
town by his writings. A typical
editorial, which probably refers to a
Sunday School celebration
mentioned later in this article,
appeared in his paper on November
7, 1822:
Should some poor ghost of the New
Jerusalem Society chance to meet
those of the three revered signers of a
late letter, on the same shore, it is
feared that Charon and his boatmen would
have a troublesome time ...
The mustachios and curling irons could
be easily understood; but it is much
questioned whether the old ferryman
could be brought to comprehend our
terms and notions of
"Evangelical," or admit such an excuse as legal author-
ity, for the reverend Clergy to refuse
to pass over in the same fare with the
Swedenborgians. . . . The only
distinctions he "regards" are the good
and the bad.
By November, 1823, Sol had brought out
seventy-two pungent
issues of his paper. By that time he had
insulted so many people
that he was insolvent and was obliged to
sell out to the Cincinnati
National Republican. In the issue of November 21, the National
Republican printed Solomon Smith's rather long valedictory, in
which he paid his respects to friend and
foe. To Joshua Lacy
Wilson, Presbyterian divine and enemy of
the Swedenborgian
faith, he left this message:
Parson Wilson--look well to your sheep--look sober on Sundays, and
be particular not to let your lambs mix
with the non-elected, unevangelical
goats of the New Jerusalem
flock. Also keep a strict watch over
the
theatre, and do all you can to starve the poor actors.
44 S. F. Smith, Theatre in the West, 26.
120 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The valedictory was concluded with the
advice to all readers "to
live honestly, serve God, and take the
newspapers."
What the Reverend Mr. Hurdus thought of
his hot-headed
organist is not on record. Hurdus
wrought by love and reason,
not by caustic wit and audacious speech.
It is interesting to note the early
educators of Cincinnati
among the members of the New Jerusalem
Church. The most
outstanding were David Cathcart, the Misses
Bailey, Frederic
Eckstein, Alexander Kinmont and Milo G.
Williams.
David Cathcart was teaching in
Cincinnati as early as 1810.
In the 1820's he was lending his
schoolroom for evening debates
upon such questions as, "Is there
any book or books extant of as
much importance to man as the
Bible?" When the Swedenborgians
established the Urbana (Ohio) University
in 1852, Cathcart and
his daughter Caroline went to teach in
the new institution.45
The Misses Bailey were daughters of
Francis Bailey of
Philadelphia, the printer who had
published the first Swedenborgian
works in America. The Bailey sisters
with their husbands and
children carried their lamps of truth to
many places. Abbie
Bailey James and her husband, John
James, contributed greatly
to the establishment of the Urbana
University.
In January, 1824, the Misses Bailey
announced that Frederic
Eckstein would join them in conducting
their young ladies' semi-
nary on Broadway between Market and
Columbia streets. Eck-
stein had married their sister, Jane,
some years before and had
been teaching for several years in
Pennsylvania. A card in the
Cincinnati National Republican apprized
the public that "F.
Eckstein" had lately been "one
of the Academicians to the Penn-
sylvania Academy of Fine Arts and late
Principal of the Harmony
Seminary for the education of Young
Ladies, &c." Eckstein
advocated "learning by rote"
only "so far as ... necessary for the
cultivation of memory," and
declared that his primary object
would be "to elicit ideas, and to
improve the understanding by
explanation, illustration, questions and
conversation." The course
of study, was a liberal one for its
time.46
45 Ford and Ford, Cincinnati, 174;
Cincinnati Gazette, February 6, 1822.
46 See Cincinnati National
Republican, January 16, 1824.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 121
Frederic Eckstein was a highly ingenious
and intelligent
artist, a skilful sculptor and a painter
of some distinction. His
father, John Eckstein, had been an
artist at the court of Frederick
the Great of Germany; John Eckstein had
come to Philadelphia
in 1790, already devoted to the
Swedenborgian faith. Two years
after Frederic Eckstein came to
Cincinnati, he undertook to found
an Academy of Fine Arts. Enthusiastic
citizens subscribed lib-
erally, on paper. In June, 1827, Eckstein
hopefully announced
that enough funds had been subscribed to
commence the building
immediately, and called a meeting of the
subscribers at the school-
room of Milo G. Williams to elect
trustees in order that "a building
committee and a treasurer, &c
&c" might be appointed.47
Accord-
ing to Mrs. Trollope, the plans went as
far as obtaining a charter,
but the subscriptions were never
collected, the building never
erected.
Eckstein's Academy of Fine Arts found a
home in a room
in "the college edifice at Walnut
and Fourth." There he lectured
on art, illustrating his lectures with
works of art which he had
brought with him from Pennsylvania. He
taught young gentle-
men drawing and "designing in all
its branches, including ARCHI-
TECTURE and PERSPECTIVE," at four
dollars a quarter,
payable in advance. Two of his most
distinguished pupils were
Hiram Powers and Shubael Clevenger. So
great and distinctive
was Eckstein's contribution to
Cincinnati art, he has been right-
fully called the "Father of
Cincinnati Art."
In 1829, Eckstein with his wife
and one of his daughters
opened a school for young ladies
"at the late residence of Mr.
Benham" on Race Street below
Fourth. Eckstein taught there
in the daytime and devoted his evenings
to his art classes.48
Alexander Kinmont, a brilliant Scottish
scholar and devout
Swedenborgian, came to Cincinnati in
1826. He was a classicist
who knew practically every passage of
the great Greek and Roman
authors. He had come to New York in
1823, at the age of twenty-
four. Finding no employment there, he
had walked to Baltimore
47 Ibid., June 18, 1827.
48 Ford and Ford, Cincinnati, 235-6;
Silver, Sketches, 22-3; Western Spy and
Literary Cadet, Feb. 21, 1829; Cincinnati Emporium, June 22,
1829.
122 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and on to Bedford, Pennsylvania, where
he had secured the prin-
cipalship of the Bedford Classical
Academy. It was at Bedford
that he had read Swedenborg's Arcana
Coelestia and had emerged
from the gloom of skepticism into the
sunlight of faith in the New
Church. Soon after coming to Cincinnati,
he was offered two
thousand dollars a year to teach in the
Cincinnati College. This
flattering offer he refused, saying:
"Think of my being told how
to teach school by a set of professional
donkeys."
He opened an academy for boys at Race
between Fifth and
Longworth Streets, specializing in the
classics and mathematics.
In 1829, he removed his
school to Sixth and Main, and operated
two departments. In one department he
offered mathematics, the
classics and "the general
branches"; in the other, Spanish and
French and the higher branches of
English. In that same year,
he married Frederic Eckstein's daughter,
Mary, which fact sug-
gests that the new wife took charge of
the new department. Mary
continued the school after Kinmont's
untimely death in 1838.49
Alexander Kinmont was so popular as a
lecturer that he was
invited to become a minister to the New
Jerusalem Society. He
declined, however, "believing it
not to be for the best interest of
the Society." Nevertheless, he offered to explain the
Doctrines
at any time without charge. A group
began to meet with Mr.
Kinmont at his schoolroom, and in June,
1836, they formed the
Second New Jerusalem Society of
Cincinnati. Every Sunday
morning, Kinmont lectured at his
schoolroom with an average at-
tendance of one hundred. The signed roll
of membership shows
a membership of thirty-four men, and of
this number only six
had been members of the First Society
organized by Adam Hurdus.
It was in no spirit of controversy that
Kinmont organized the
Second Society; he honestly believed
that only good would come
from it. Since Kinmont was not an
ordained minister, Adam
Hurdus administered the ordinances, and
after Kinmont's death
preached to the Second Society.
After the death of Adam Hurdus, nearly
all the members of
the Second Society joined the First
Society--a tribute to the
49 Greve, Cincinnati, 1,
615; Charles Cist, The Cincinnati Miscellany (Cincinnati,
1844), 73; Silver, Sketches, 22-4.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 123
spirit of love and tolerance that the
Reverend Mr. Hurdus had
inspired. No matter how bitter the
controversy that raged among
factions of the New Church, Hurdus never
took sides. They
usually disagreed on some matter of form
that the General Con-
vention in the East had brought up, and
Hurdus considered forms
of little importance. To walk humbly
with God, to love mercy,
to do justice to all men was enough for
Adam Hurdus. He lived
to see three separate societies existing
in Cincinnati; he loved the
people in all of them and was grieved to
see them separated.50
Milo G. Williams became a New Churchman
under the
preaching of Adam Hurdus. When Hurdus
won Williams to the
faith, he won a mighty servant for the
Church. On his way to
hear David Root at the Second
Presbyterian Church, one summer
Sabbath morning in 1822, Williams
chanced to meet a friend
going to the New Jerusalem Temple to
hear Adam Hurdus. Milo
accompanied his friend to church, and
thus it was that he was
introduced to the Doctrines of
Swedenborg.
Williams soon became interested in the
body of theological
thought that Hurdus endeavored so
earnestly to make clear to his
hearers. The Science of Correspondences,
especially, interested
him--the science whereby the spiritual
meaning of the Scriptures
is made clear. He went frequently to
borrow books from the
New Church library at Adam Hurdus'
house. Often he found
Hurdus busy in his workshop, but Hurdus
was always glad to
lay aside his tools for conversation on
the truths he loved so
devotedly. Williams became so interested
that he joined a small
group of young men and women who were
studying the Doctrines.
They met on Sunday afternoons to read
from some New Church
work and to discuss what they read. Now
and then, a member
read a paper on a previously assigned
subject.51 Williams joined
a mutual improvement society, also. It
existed for one season
only and the membership was limited to
Williams, Alexander Kin-
mont, Luman Watson and Benjamin Powers.
The four men
50 Hobart, Historical Records, 10-15;
Carter, Address, 33.
51 The society existed about two years. Among the more active women were
Mrs.
Sarah Washburn Brown, Mrs. Cleveland, Mrs. Sarah Loring
Carlisle, Mrs. Charlotte
Williams, and Mrs. Lucy Rider. Recollections of Milo G. Williams, MS. (Urbana
Uni-
versity), 88-9.
124
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
met once a month to read and criticise
the delivery as well as the
content of the papers they wrote.52
It was about this time that Williams
opened a private school
in the rear of the Cincinnati postoffice
on the west side of Main
Street between Third and Fourth.53 He
opened the school with
one pupil besides his two young sisters.
By the end of the second
quarter he had to remove to a more
convenient room on Fourth
Street--John Baker's carpenter shop,
which Baker fixed up and
rented to Williams for sixty dollars a
year.
In the winter of 1824-1825, Williams and
Frederic Eckstein
conducted an experimental evening school
to find out how the
Pestalozzian theory of education might
be adapted to the Cincin-
nati schools. The school opened with
thirty-five or forty students,
and was successful, but the two teachers
dismissed it at the close
of, the first session. They had found
out what they wanted to
know. They came to the conclusion that
it was unwise to discard
all books; relying only upon the senses and the reasoning
powers
of the student was not entirely
satisfactory.
The two New Churchmen, soon after the school opened,
found their venture bitterly assailed by
a distinguished clergyman
from his pulpit. The reverend gentleman
asserted that the system
originated in infidelity and undermined
the truths of Revelation;
that it was not safe for children to be
taught to examine into and
reason upon religious matters; that they
must be told what to
accept without doubt--otherwise the
Bible would become but an
idle tale.
The next summer, Williams went to New
Harmony, Indiana,
to meet Joseph Neef and to observe
Neef's school. The uncon-
ventional, barefooted Neef was a bit of
a shock to Mr. Williams.
He came away not too well pleased with
Neef or his radical ideas
on education, religion, government and
social life.54
At the time that Milo G. Williams was
beginning to attend
religious services at the New Jerusalem
Temple, he was teaching
52 Ibid., 72-3.
53 Williams taught spelling,
reading and writing at two dollars a quarter; with
geography and bookkeeping, extra, four dollars; with geometry,
trigonometry, survey-
ing and
navigation, five dollars. For pens and ink, he charged a fee of twenty-five
cents. Independent Press, October
8, 1822.
54 Williams, Recollections, 59-65.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 125
a Sunday School class in the Episcopal
Church. The pastor of
that church, the Reverend Samuel
Johnson, publicly rebuked
Williams at a Teachers' Meeting "in
a most unchristian manner."
His words so angered the teachers, only
one out of ten or twelve
teachers came to Sunday School the next
Sabbath morning. The
Reverend Mr. Johnson had to suspend his
Sunday School for a
year.
At that time, there was much active
opposition to the New
Church. It was gaining too many converts
to suit the evangelical
ministers of the town. In the summer of 1822, it was proposed
to have a general Sunday School
celebration on the Fourth of
July. A call was published to all Sunday
School superintendents
to meet and make arrangements. Milo
Williams, who had not
yet broken with the Episcopal Sunday
School, went to the meeting
as a representative of that school. A
New Church Sunday School,
in operation for only a short time,
also, sent a representative. In
the planning, it fell to the New Church
Sunday School to lead the
procession. No objection was made at the
time, but, a little later,
three of the leading ministers of the
town--Samuel Johnson
(Episcopal), Joshua L. Wilson (First
Presbyterian), and David
Root (Second Presbyterian)--drew up a
protest to be presented
at the next meeting of the
superintendents. The protest set forth
the horrible truth that New Church
people were not "evangelical"
and that they should not be so
recognized, nor allowed to take a
place in the procession with other
schools. The indignant divines
started to circulate the paper to obtain
more signatures. Milo
Williams heard of it and found it in the
hands of a Methodist
minister, who was supposed to get more
signatures. He allowed
Williams to have the paper for one hour.
Williams showed it to
an editor of a weekly newspaper55 and
returned it within the hour.
The Swedenborgians, wishing to avoid
bickering, withdrew from
the celebration.56
The Swedenborgian Sunday School
continued but a short
time. It was re-opened at the insistence
of Milo G. Williams, on
55 This editor probably was Sol Smith of the Independent
Press. In an editorial of
November 7, 1822, he referred to "the three revered
signers of a late letter," and to
the "Evangelical" attitude toward the
Swedenborgians.
56 Williams, Recollections, 73-6.
126
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
March 18, 1832. Williams had planned a
course of study and
had submitted it to the society for
approval. Most of the members
were opposed. They did not wish to
indoctrinate the young, as
in "evangelical Sunday
Schools," and they did not think children
capable of forming their own opinions.
Only one man, C. F.
Kellogg, spoke in favor of Williams'
plan. In the face of so much
opposition, Williams had withdrawn his
resolution and had asked
permission to use the Temple and conduct
the school independently,
the society assuming no responsibility
whatever. The school
opened with twenty-one pupils, and each
pupil had a Bible, the
only textbook used.
The opening exercises were very similar
to those of the
Sunday School of modern times. The
course of study, however,
was ahead of its time. It began with
Genesis and was given with
its historical connections. Some text
was selected for special
emphasis, and the lesson conducted in a
free and familiar style.
On alternate Sundays, Scriptural
Biography and Natural History
were given special attention. Geography
was taught with maps
(3' x 4') prepared especially for the
school. Beginning with a
mere outline, the map was filled in as
the course progressed.
Some idea of the Science of
Correspondences was conveyed
in the teaching of Scriptural Natural
History. Pupils were
allowed to select from the three
kingdoms of nature some object,
provided it was found in the Bible. Each
pupil was expected to
search the Scriptures for verses
referring to his selected object,
and to come to Sunday School prepared to
read or recite those
verses, and to tell as much as he could
about that object. At the
proper time, a drawing of the object was
put before the school,
and its most striking characteristics
pointed out. These drawings
were all made by one of the teachers,
William H. Williams. By
means of these drawings, in their neat
mahogany frames, young
minds were trained to understand the
Science of Correspondences,
the relation of cause and effect, and to
lay the foundation for the
Doctrines of Degrees. They learned the
fundamental truth that
for every material fact there is a
corresponding spiritual truth.
After the school had been in operation
for two or three
months, members of the society were
invited to visit the school.
ADAM
HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 127
They were convinced by what they saw
that a Sunday School did
not have to be run by
"evangelical" methods. In October, the
Western Convention, held in Cincinnati,
passed a resolution to
organize Sunday Schools to instruct the
young in the fundamental
principles of the New Jerusalem
"wherever practicable."57
In 1825, a Theosophic Society was
organized, with Milo G.
Williams as secretary. The society grew
out of a conversation
between Williams and a Mr. Earle.
Wishing to increase their
knowledge of the New Church Doctrines,
they invited Frederic
Eckstein, Luman Watson and Oliver Lovell
to meet with them;
the five men agreed upon the plan of
organization and proceedings.
The membership was limited to twelve,
the remaining seven mem-
bers admitted by ballot. The seven were
Coddington Chese-
brough, Silas Smith, Calvin Washburn,
Alexander Kinmont, John
Hunt, William Conclin and J. W. Silsbee.
The Theosophic
Society was made up of acknowledged
receivers of the Sweden-
borgian Doctrines, the object of the
society being to study the
theological writings of Emanuel
Swendenborg. The membership
was constantly changing, though it was
considered a privilege to
belong. Seldom was a member absent.
The meetings opened with the Lord's
Prayer. After the
reading of the minutes, a lesson from
the Arcana Coelestia was
read. Then followed discussion. If the
topic proved to be of
special interest, a member was appointed
to write a paper to be
read at a future meeting, embodying the
important points of the
discussion and the conclusions of the
society.
Another plan of proceedings was used
alternately with the
above plan. At the proper time, the
leader opened the Bible, in
Genesis or Exodus. Whatever number his
eve chanced to fall
upon, he announced that verse and
chapter and read the verse.
Each member wrote down the verse, and
for thirty minutes wrote
down his thought on the text. At the end
of the half-hour, each
member read what he had written. After
all had read, each
reader was asked to defend his views.
After general conversation
upon the subject, the leader closed the
discussion by reading from
57 Ibid., 89-98. The teachers in the school were Charles F. Kellogg,
S. Y. At-Lee.
William H.
Williams, Mrs. Ebenezer Hinman, "and perhaps one other lady."
128
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the Arcana Swedenborg's
explanation of the Scripture discussed.
This was considered the more interesting
procedure of the two.
By 1832, the Theosophic Society had a
library of seventy
volumes. The members continued to meet
for fifteen years, the
last meeting being held on August 6,
1840. The library and papers
were given to the New Jerusalem Society
of Cincinnati. From
January 23, 1827 to July 15,
1832, papers were written on 106
subjects. The authors were Alexander
Kinmont, Milo G.
Williams, Frederic Eckstein, Luman
Watson, William Conclin,
George Muscroft, Edwin A. At-Lee, J. T.
Earle, Marcus Smith,
Coddington Chesebrough and John Hunt.58
Milo G. Williams was in so many
organizations that it is im-
possible to list them all here. He
helped to organize in 1829 the
Academic Institute which, mainly by his
efforts, became the Col-
lege of Professional Teachers. Williams
introduced the study of
constitutional law into the Cincinnati
schools, and was the first to
introduce technical courses. In 1833 he
was called to Dayton
to establish what was known as the first
technical school in the
West. In 1852 he became professor of
science and the first presi-
dent of the Urbana University.59
A distinguished member of Adam Hurdus'
flock was Ben-
jamin Powers, brother of Hiram Powers.
He was a young lawyer
who was more interested in journalism
than in the law. As early
as 1818, he was the editor of the Inquisitor.
In January, 1823, he
succeeded Isaac Burnet as editor of the Liberty Hall and Cincin-
nati Gazette.
Hiram
Powers was not a member of the Swedenborgian
organization, but he was a believer in
the Swedenborgian prin-
ciples
He was not baptized until 1850, when the Reverend
Thomas Worcester baptized him in
Florence, Italy. In a letter
to Dr. Spurgeon in 1865, he expressed
his faith in these words:
I am a "New Churchman," a
"Swedenborgian," a "New Jerusalemite,"
without any reservations whatever; and I
wish it to be known. I have
always. wanted it to be known. . .
. Swedenborg is my author; all other
writers (in comparison) seem moving in
the dark with tapers in hand--
58 Ibid., 77-9; Hobart, Historical Records, 7-8. Hobart gives the date of organiza-
tion as 1826.
59 Williams, Recollections, 80-6.
ADAM HURDUS IN
CINCINNATI 129
groping their
way--while he moves in the broad light of the sun. . . . And
I am happy to know
that God has allowed me to be instrumental in directing
attention to our
Heavenly Doctrines.
Hiram Powers died
before he executed a commission to sculpture
a bust of Swedenborg.
After his death. his son Preston executed
the commission. This
bust, at a cost of five hundred dollars to
the subscribers, was
donated to the Cincinnati Society in Novem-
ber, 1880. It was
placed in the Art Museum for a number of
years, and was loaned
to the Chicago Society during the World's
Fair for the New
Church exhibit there. After its return, it was
placed in the church
library. It now occupies a place of honor in
the lobby of the New
Jerusalem Church at Oak and Winslow.60
The men who started
Hiram Powers on his distinguished
career were
Swedenborgians--Frederic Eckstein and Luman
Watson. Hiram helped
Watson to build musical instruments. It
was Watson who first
recognized his mechanical genius and recom-
mended him to Joseph
Dorfeuille of the Western Museum. Dor-
feuille employed
Powers to make a set of wax figures to represent
the infernal regions
as described by Dante. The figures were
eminently successful
and won for Powers in 1830 a commission
to make a bust of
Robert Hamilton Bishop, the first president of
Miami University at
Oxford, Ohio. This was the first work of
art that Powers ever
made for a fee; he charged one hundred
dollars plus five
dollars for molding the bust in plaster.
Hiram Powers'
benefactor, Luman Watson, was one of the
strong pillars in the
First New Jerusalem Society of Cincinnati
after 1825. This
Yankee mechanic was one of Cincinnati's earliest
clockmakers. Watson,
assisted by Hiram Powers, built the organ
which the Haydn
Society, composed of singers from all choirs
and musical
organizations of the town, bought for the Episcopal
Church in 1822. Funds
were raised for the purchase of the organ
by public concerts
given by the Haydn Society, the tickets selling
at one dollar apiece.
It was Sol Smith's belief that this organ
was the finest piece
of work of its kind in the Western Country.
Sol described it as a
large fine-toned organ, with seven stops,
60 Silver, Sketches,
22; Henry Tuckerman, American Artist Life (New
York, 1867),
292; Hobart, Historical
Records, 27. The bust is one of two or three replicas in
existence.
130 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
sixty-eight keys and a twelve-foot
tone. Sol's New Jerusalem
Singing Society, of course, was a part
of the Haydn Society.
Luman Watson was the first president of
the Episcopal Singing
Society, which was organized in 1819. It
is quite possible that
the initiative of Adam Hurdus inspired
Watson to undertake the
building of the organ for the use of the
Haydn Society. Who
knows but that conferences with Hurdus
on organ-building
brought Watson into the Swedenborgian
fold? Luman Watson
took a great interest in all civic
affairs and was always found
hard at work in musical organizations
and debating societies.
Watson was one of the founders of the
Ohio Mechanics
Institute.61
Another interesting member of Adam
Hurdus' church was
Nathaniel Holley, a lawyer and teacher.
He was in Cincinnati as
early as January, 1827, when he opened
an office at No. 97 Main
Street, and called it the
"Cincinnati General Agency and Intelli-
gence Office." He dealt in the sale and lease of lands and
town
property; operated a teachers' agency
and an employment agency;
ran a "lost and found"
department; dealt in insurance of river
craft; acted as agent for loans and as
collector of bills; wrote
letters and drew up legal papers. He
made every effort to con-
centrate at his office such general and
important information
relative to the Western Country, and to
Cincinnati in particular,
useful both to citizens and strangers.
By 1829, Holley was con-
ducting an academy on Western Row
between Fifth and Long-
worth.62
The Swedenborgians have always been
great believers in the
printing and distribution of religious
leaflets, books and papers.
A movement to establish in Cincinnati a
separate society for pul)-
lishing the Writings made some headway
in 1821. One of the
members, Thomas Reddish, a bookseller
and distributor of Sweden-
borgian literature, published in 1822, The Dagon
of Calvanism, or
the Moloch of Decrees, To which is
added A Song of Reason;
or The Essence of Truth. Considering that Dagon was a Philistine
61 Independent Press, December 19, 1822;
Greve, Cincinnati, I, 921; Ford and
Ford, Cincinnati, 141; Stevens,
"Haydn Society," 100.
62 Cincinnati National Republican, January
16, 1827; Greve, Cincinnati, I, 616.
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 131
god, half fish and half man, the work
could not have been compli-
mentary to the Calvinists. The imposing
title of the book sug-
gests a diatribe against Joshua Lacy
Wilson and his kind, who
belabored the Swedenborgian principles
unmercifully. The move-
ment of 1821 gained little headway, for the
little society still owed
a thousand dollars on the church lot and
a small sum on the new
temple. Prudence prevailed until the
debt could be discharged.
In 1828, however, a printing society was
organized, and Hind-
marsh's Compendium of the True
Christian Religion was printed.
Only the year before, the society had
reported to the General
Convention that they had a hundred
members and an equal number
of "constant hearers."
Undoubtedly, the one hundred "constant
hearers" stimulated a desire to
print the Writings for distribution.
In 1825, a New Church paper, the Herald
of Truth, had been
published by Morgan & Lodge in
Cincinnati. It seems to have had
a very brief existence. The effort of
1828 proved to be abortive,
also. In 1832, Adam Hurdus, Josiah Espy
and Alexander Kin-
mont were a committee charged with
asking the General Conven-
tion for financial help in establishing
a New Church periodical in
the West. In 1835, the Western
Convention was asked for eight
hundred dollars to establish a printing
press in Cincinnati. Finally,
in 1837, the Precursor was
published with a circulation of four
hundred. The Precursor, however,
languished and died in 1842.
Milo G. Williams, M. M. Carll, T. O.
Prescott, and a Mr.
Cranch composed the editing committee,
with Williams as working
editor.63
In the year 1836, a movement to
establish a literary institu-
tion based on New Church principles got
under way. It was
proposed to combine mechanical arts and
agriculture with the
usual branches of education. A canvas of
the members, however,
resulted in an unfavorable report to the
Western Convention (Oc-
tober, 1836). There the matter rested
until 1837, when the Con-
vention appointed a committee to study a
plan of operation and,
if practicable, to open a school at some
suitable place for the
children of New Church parents.
63 Hobart, Historical Records, 7, 8;
Cincinnati Gazette, April 26, 1825, and other
Cincinnati newspapers of the 1820's; Ford and Ford, Cincinnati, 289;
Williams,
Recollections, 102.
132
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
At the home of Alexander Kinmont, in
August, 1839, a group
of New Church men decided to make a
strong effort to get the
school under way. The Society raised the
money and Milo G.
Williams was asked to come from Dayton
to take charge of the
school. By October, the organization was
completed and trustees
elected. Williams agreed to take over
the new school, and was
sent to Boston to get ideas on general
management, method of
instruction, etc. A New Church school
had been in operation in
Boston for only a year or two.
On January 6, 1840, the New Church
school opened in the
basement of the Temple with about forty
pupils present. Mrs.
Margaret Coombs was the assistant
teacher and had charge of
the girls. Milo G. Williams made an
opening address at the
Temple, setting forth the principles of
action and pointing out the
difficulties to be overcome. The little
school increased so rapidly,
they soon had to close the enrollment.
The need for more com-
modious quarters was urgent.
At a meeting of the New Church Society,
Silas Smith offered
to build a new schoolhouse on the
property adjoining the Temple,
for a rental of eight per cent on his investment.
On July 6, 1840,
the school was transferred to the
"beautiful and commodious
edifice," with its "large,
airy, and well lighted" "apartments." The
rooms were "handsomely
furnished," and a fine pipe organ, a gift
of a society member, had been placed in
the main room, for the
use of the girls who accompanied the
chants that opened and
closed the school each day. The school
had three departments--
the primary, the classical and the
scientific, under the direction of
Mrs. Margaret Coombs. T. O. Prescott and
Milo G. Williams,
respectively.
By 1842, the school was flourishing in
every way, except
financially. The tuition was too low and
there were too many free
students. By 1843, the financial burden,
resting upon a few mem-
bers, became too heavy to bear. The
Association (Convention)
then took over the school and undertook
to operate it as a private
school. It was now Milo G. Williams' own
private school, and
it ceased to be a school for New Church
pupils only. It was not
ADAM HURDUS IN CINCINNATI 133
long, however, before Williams closed
the school to take a profes-
sorship in the Cincinnati College.64
During the busy years of expansion and
hopeful planning,
Adam Hurdus played no inconsiderable
part. He served faith-
fully on committees, despite advancing
years and increasing in-
firmity of body. By 1830, there were
scattered receivers of the
Doctrines all over the Western Country,
but only three known
organized societies in Ohio, at
Cincinnati, Lebanon and Steuben-
ville. Many of these scattered receivers
were remote from each
other. There seemed to be a need for a
Western Convention to
unite these scattered believers in Ohio
and adjoining states. The
Cincinnati Society corresponded with all
the receivers known west
of the Alleghany Mountains, asking for
opinions. The response
was favorable and a meeting was held at
Cincinnati on October 12,
1832. Daniel Mayo was elected president,
and Milo G. Williams
secretary. Owing to the prevalence of
Asiatic cholera in the city,
the attendance at this first convention
was small. Adam Hurdus
was the chairman of the committee on
organization. He reported
in favor of forming a Western Convention
to be held annually.
His recommendations were adopted and the
meeting became the
"First Convention of Receivers of
the New Jerusalem Doctrines
West of the Alleghany Mountains."65
The conventions, up to and including
that of 1843, were of
deepest concern to Adam Hurdus. In spite
of a sorely afflicted
body, he never stopped planning for the
advancement of the New
Church. Always, he was the spiritual
anchor of his people. The
radiance of his personality, the
genuineness of his great love for
his people, exerted a strongly unifying
influence. For thirty-
seven years, he labored in love for his
church, esteemed and loved
by people of all walks of life and of
all religious creeds.
Hurdus was a self-educated man, learning
by himself the
Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages that
he might better interpret
the word of God and the works of
Swedenborg. The abstruse
64 Williams,
Recollections, 112-22.
65 Ibid., 99-102. The committee
to prepare a constitution and rules consisted of
Milo G. Williams, Luman Watson, Josiah Espy,
Daniel Mayo and David Powell; for
education of the young, Milo G. Williams, Alexander Kinmont, David Pruden and
Richard De Charms; for government and
order, Josiah M. Espy, Luman Watson, Otho
M. Herron, Ogden Ross, Adam Hurdus and Alexander Kinmont.
134
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
principles of Swedenborg he understood
thoroughly. No less a
scholar than Alexander Kinmont said that
he never knew one who
knew more about the Science of
Correspondences than did Adam
Hurdus.
At the Western Convention held in
Cincinnati in May, 1843,
Adam Hurdus preached his last sermon.
His text was: "Behold
how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell in unity."
That text was the rule by which he had
lived a long and useful life.
So humble was he, he never called the
delivery of his sermons
preaching--he "talked" to his
brethren from the pulpit. He was
earnest and sincere, and simple-hearted
as a child. He had men
of great talent in his congregation, but
there was no jealousy in
the heart of Adam Hurdus. He rejoiced
that such talent could be
used for the Lord. A man was but a lamp,
he thought, through
which the light of God's countenance
shone upon His people;
some lamps simply gave a brighter light
than others.
On August 30, 1843, Adam Hurdus was
released from the
burden of his ailing body. He passed
into the spiritual world with
confidence that he would awake to
consciousness in a world already
familiar to him by long association. His
gentle spirit lived on in
the hearts of his people.
ADAM HURDUS AND THE SWEDENBORGIANS IN
EARLY CINCINNATI
By Ophia D. Smith
Many volumes have been written about the
hardships and
accomplishments of pioneer preachers in
the Western Country.
Most of these, however, deal with men of
orthodox faith. The
Swedenborgians, equally self-sacrificing
but unorthodox and mis-
understood, have received little
attention, because they were few
in number. Yet they were people of
influence--they were readers
and thinkers and doers. In early
Cincinnati, as in other places,
the Swedenborgians were bitterly
assailed as a religious society,
but as citizens they were highly
respected.
The first disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg
to settle in Cincin-
nati was Adam Hurdus, a Manchester
merchant. He met with a
warm welcome in Cincinnati, because he
was a man of some
means and considerable business ability.
At that time, in the
spring of 1806, Hurdus had no thought of
becoming a minister.
He loved the truths of Swedenborg and he
wanted to find religious
companionship, but, primarily, he was
intent upon earning a com-
fortable living for his family. The
life-story of this man is a
peculiarly interesting one. In strange
ways, Providence seemed
to lead him toward his destiny--to
become "the Father of Sweden-
borgianism in the Old Northwest."
Adam Hurdus was born of a Catholic
father and Protestant
mother in the village of Copple, near
Manchester, England, on
April 16, 1760. According to
the general custom, the boys of the
family were reared in the father's
church, the girls in the mother's.
After the father's death, however, the
boys were confirmed in the
Episcopalian faith of their mother and
sisters.
At an early age, Adam was apprenticed to
a weaver in the
village of Wigan. The weaver, a brutish
drunkard, treated the lad
so cruelly, he eventually ran away to
seek other employment.
106