These pages were created by Aprille Cooke McKay circa 2002 and went offline from the University of Michigan site that hosted them in late 2005. I've reproduced them here with her permission in 2006 and have done some minor corrections of typos. I do not plan to actively update these pages but I do welcome corrections, supplementary info, and links to complementary info and related church sites. Please use the threaded discussion boards on this site to discuss these pages and to offer additional info, clarification and to network with descendants for genealogy purposes. Hosting for these pages is provided courtesy of GetOggz.com. & Malcolm Humes.

Early American Presbyterians -- M

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    • Rev. Thomas Harris Maccaule (pre 1756-ca. 1796)

    Nothing is known of the parentage of Mr. Maccaule [1884].  He was ordained and settled as pastor of Centre Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, in 1776.  He entered warmly into the Revolutionary struggle, and in the time of the invasion went with his flock to the field and was beside General Davidson when he fell.  Such was his reputation in civil life, that he was nominated for Governor, but lost his election by a few votes.  In 1784 he was appointed President of Mount Zion College, South Carolina.  Besides his duties in the college, Mr. Maccaule had charge of Jackson Creek and Mouth Olivet Presbyterian churches, until September, 1792.  He was popular, both as a preacher and a man.  He died about 1796.
     

    Charles Macalester (1798-1873)

    Merchant and banker, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 17th, 1798.  He received a liberal education, first a Grey and Wylies's School, and afterwards at the University of Pennsylvania.  While at the latter Institution, during the war of 1812, when fifteen years of age, he commanded a company of forty boys, who worked for two days assisting to make the fortifications upon the west side of the Schuylkill.  Early in life he embarked in mercantile pursuits, and, in 1821, removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained until 1827, when he returned to Philadelphia, and commenced business there, amassing a large fortune.  He retired from active business in 1849, occupying himself subsequently with his private affairs, and various trusts and executorships.  He died December 9th, 1873, regretted by an unusually wide circle of friends and acquaintances.

    Mr. Macalester was one of the Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, from its first institution.  He was also president of the St. Andrew's Society, and of the Orthopedic Hospital, a director (from the time of its organization) of the Fidelity Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Company, of the Presbyterian Hospital, and of the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, of which latter company his father had been president.  In 1873 he gave, for the establishment of a college in Minneapolis, a valuable property, consisting of a large building with extensive grounds attached, then named by the Trustees the "Macalester College," and also confirmed the same by his will.

    He was a faithful elder of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia.
     

    Samuel Eusebius Maccorkle, D.D. (1746-1811)

    He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 23d, 1746.  His parents removed to North Carolina when he was quite young.  After graduating at Princeton College , in 1772, he studied theology with his maternal uncle, the Rev. Joseph Montgomery , and was licensed by the Presbytery of New York, in 1754.  For two years, he labored as a missionary in Virginia, and in 1776 returned to North Carolina, and on the 2d of August, 1777, was installed pastor of the church at Thyatira, where he remained until his death, January 21st, 1811.  Dr. Maccorkle was an active friend of his country in its struggles for liberty, and an earnest champion for the truth against the rising tide of French infidelity which threatened to sweep the land.  In 1785 he commenced a classical school in his own house, to which he gave the name of Zion Parnassus.  Forty-five of his pupils afterwards became ministers.  He was elected the first Professor in the University of North Carolina, having the Chair of Moral and Political Philosophy.  He was a thorough scholar, and received his honorary degree from Dartmouth, in 1792.  A number of his sermons were published.
     

    Rev. Elisha Macurdy (1763-1845)

    He occupies a prominent place among the pioneer ministers of Western Pennsylvania.  He was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 15th, 1763.  His father removed to Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland county, in embarrassed worldly circumstances.  At this time the son was about twenty-one years of age, and engaged in the transportation of freight to and from Baltimore, for about eighteen months, wheing enabled him to aid materially in the support of the family.  After his conversion he became, in 1792, a student of the Academy at Canonsburg, completing his literary and theological course in 1799; the latter chiefly under the direction of the Rev. Dr. McMillan .

    Mr. Macurdy was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Ohio, June 26th, 1799.  For some time subsequently he was engaged in missionary labor in the region bordering on Lake Erie, but in June, 1800, he was ordained and installed pastor of the united congregations of Cross Roads and Three Springs, by the Presbytery of Ohio.  His ministry from its commencement to its close, was a scene of the most self-denying and unremitting labor.  He had an important agency in connection with the great revival in Western Pennsylvania, that commenced about 1801-2.  He was among the few leading spirits that formed the Western Missionary Society, designed especially to diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel among the new settlements and the Indian tribes, and he engaged personally in the missionary work, frequently leaving his own immediate charge for a considerable time, to break the bread of life to those who were otherwise entirely destitute of it.  His health having suffered from sickness during a missionary appointment at Maumee, which he fulfilled in 1823, he resigned his charge of the Church at Three Springs, and confined himself to that of Cross Roads.  In 1835, by reason of increasing bodily infirmities, he resigned the pastoral charge of the latter congregation, and in the Spring of 1836 he removed to Allegheny, where he resided during the rest of his life, still employed, as opportunity offered and his strength allowed, in preaching the gospel.  It was mainly through his agency that the way was prepared for the organization of a church in the town of Manchester, adjoining Allegheny.  He, also, as he was able, made frequent visits to the inmates of theWestern Penitentiary.  He died, July 22d, 1845, having a complete triumph in the last hour, and on the day following his remains were conveyed to Cross Roads, the scene of his most extended labors, and in the midst of a large congregation, committed to their final resting place.

    Mr. Macurdy, as a preacher, was distinguished for directness, earnestness, boldness, in both matter and manner.  He never daubed with untempered mortar;  he never softened down God's truth for the sake of conciliating those who pronounced it a hard saying.  Though plain in manner and style, there was a rich vein of evangelical though and an air of deep sincerity in his preaching, that were far more effective than any mere rhetorical exhibitions could have been.  He had a clear, loud voice, which was usually brought into exercise in the pulpit, under the influence of intense feeling and very often in the utterance of the most terrible denunciations of God's Word.
     

    James Magraw, D.D. (1775-1835)

    He was born in Bart township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, January 1st, 1775.  He commenced the study of languages at a classical school near Strasburg, and completed his classical and literary course at Franklin College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  He studied theology under the Rev. Nathaniel Sample , pastor of the churches of Leacock and Middle Octorara, and was licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle, December 16th, 1801.  After spending some time as supply at New London, Chestnut Level, West Nottingham, Fagg's Manor, Little Britain, Chatham, and Deer Creek, and as a missionary in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Church of Lower West Nottingham, Maryland, April 4th, 1804.  At this time the church was comparatively feeble, but under his ministry it steadily prospered, and at the time of his death it was a large and flourishing congregation.  During his pastorate, about 1810, the Upper West Nottingham Church was organized, and he became its pastor, giving it one third of his time, until 1821.  In 1822 he became the pastor, for one third of his time, of the recently organized Church of Charlestown and continued to serve it until his death, which occurrred October 20th, 1835.  The church soon afterwards became extinct.

    Dr. Magraw was of a kind, genial and sympathetic nature, which had a magnetic influence, in attaching to him friends.  He was endowed with intellectual powers far above the ordinary standard.  He was emphatically a man of action.  His administrative abilities were of a high order.  As Superintendent of the West Nottingham Academy, which he was instrumental in establishing he was most efficient.

    Rev. William Mahon (1760-1818)

    He was born in the spring of 1760, Shippensburg, PA, and died 27 Nov 1818, possibly Marion Co. Kentucky.  He married Agnes Venable, dau James & Judith (Morton) Venable 17 Mar 1785.   She was born 13 Jul 1763 and died 14 Apr 1804.   They had 9 children,  William, b 14 Jan 1788, Elizabeth, b 9 Sep 1789, d 25 Feb 1862, who married William Harbison; Jane, b 12 Aug 1792; James V., b. 16 May 1794, m Matilda Pennick; Archibald, b 16 Oct 1795, d c 1799; Judith, b 11 Dec 1797, d c 1800; Martha, b 23 Jul 1799, d c 1802; Mary, b 15 May 1801, she m Jno Reed/Read of Indiana 28 Jun 1819; Samuel, b 4 Mar 1803, d by 1839.  Agnes Venable Mahon died 14 April 1804 and he remarried and had 1 child, Nancy, b 19 Jun 1805.

    He was marked absent at the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky at Lexington, Kentucky in 1802 and was designated a member of the Transylvania Presbytery .
    Thanks to Roberta Dawson for information about this family.

    Rev. Francis Makemie (1658-1708)

    He was an Irishman, born near Rathmelton, Donegal county, Ireland in 1658. He studied for the ministry at Glasgow University, where in February, 1676, he was a student in the third class. In 1680 the Irish Presbytery of Laggan received a letter from Judge William Stevens, a member of Lord Baltimore's Council, entreating that ministers be sent to Maryland and Virginia. The next year it licensed Mr. Makemie, and ordained him soon in 1682, as a missionary for the American colonies. He preached for a time in Barbados. About 1684 he began his labors on the continent. In 1690 his name figures in the records of Accomac County, Virginia, where he was engaged in the West India trade, and where in 1692 four hundred and fifty acres of land were granted to him. Here he married Naomi, daughter of William Anderson, a wealthy merchant. Until 1698 he returned to Accomac, where he was licensed to officiate "in his own dwelling house in Pocomoke near the Maryland line, and at Onancock five miles from Drummond town, or the house next to Jonathan Livesey's." In the Southeast corner of Maryland there were three or four "meeting houses," and in the one at Snow Hill he organized a church. An elder and merchant, Adam Spence, had probably signed the Solemn League and Covenant in Scotland, and a descendant of his, reciting the tradition of a hundred and thirty years, thus writes of Mr. Makemie: "One generation has uttered his praises in the ears of its successor, and you may, even yet, hear their echo. Parents made his surname the Christian name of their children, until, in the neighborhood of Snow Hill, it has become a common one." This hill was his base of missionary operations.

    The people were scattered like sheep in the wilderness and a large portion of Mr. Makemie's labors was to search them out. Soon after he had commenced his ministry in Maryland, he found on Elizabeth river, in Virginia, "a poor desolate people" mourning the loss of their "dissenting ministers from Ireland," who had been removed by death the Summer previous. It was not long before quite a number of congregations were gathered in the region which he had selected as his field of labor. An itinerant missionary, and in reality the bishop of a primitive diocese, he journeyed from place to place, sometimes on the eastern shore of Maryland, sometimes in Virginia, and sometimes extending his journeys as far as South Carolina. To the extent of his ability he supplied the feeble churches, but he deeply felt the need of others to assist him. To obtain these was an object of paramount importance, and he spared no efforts to attain it. With this end in view, he corresponded with ministers in London and in Boston. But he was not content with this. He broke away, we may be sure, at a great sacrifice from the pressing calls around him, that he might personally urge his appeals. He crossed the ocean, and applied to the Independent and Presbyterian ministers of London for aid. He visited New England, and consulted with Mather. He was indefatigable in effort, clear-sighted and sagacious in his views, liberal in sentiment, fearless in the discharge of duty, and shrank from no burden.

    In 1704 he went to London, and on his return brought back two other missionaries, who, along with Makemie himself and four others, formed at Philadelphia in the spring of 1706 the Presbytery. In 1707 Mr. Makemie and his friend and fellow laborer, the Rev. John Hampton , stopped a few days in New York, on their way to New England. Lord Cornbury, the Deputy Governor, who had no respect for the Act of Toleration, forbade the use of the Dutch Church to Mr. Makemie, whose friends secured him a private house. There he preached "in as public a manner as possible, with open doors." Mr. Hampton was granted a church by the people of Newtown, on Long Island . They were arrested. In the presence of Lord Cornbury, Mr. Makemie argued that the Toleration Act extended to all the colonies, and that the license taken in Virginia was good in New York. The answer was, "Your are strolling preachers; you shall not spread your pernicious doctrines here." "As to our doctrines," said Mr. Makemie, with admirable dignity, "we have our Confession of Faith, which is known to the Christian world, and I challenge all the clergy of York to show us any false or pernicious doctrines therein. We are able to prove that its doctrinal articles agree with those of the Church of England." "But these articles," replied the Governor, "you have not signed." "As to the Articles of Religion," said Mr. Makemie, "I have a copy in my pocket, and am ready at all times to sign, with those exceptions specified in the law." But all argument was in vain. The accused were sent to jail, where they continued nearly two months. At the end of that time they were brought before the Chief Justice, who had been absent at the time of their imprisonment, by a writ of habeas corpus, and admitted to bail, though no bill was found by the Grand Jury against Mr. Hampton, as he had not preached in the city, and he was therefore discharged. In June following, Mr. Makemie returned from Virginia to New York, to stand his trial. The result of it was an acquittal by the jury. But the court would not discharge him from his recognizance till they had obliged him to pay all the fees of his prosecution, which together with his expenses, amounted to little less than three hundred dollars. This injustice was soon denounced by the Legislature. He preached in the French Church, and narrowly escaped arrest in New Jersey. At Boston he published the sermon which caused his imprisonment. One of the texts was: "We ought to obey God rather than men."

    Even after this Mr. Makemie was not left unmolested. He narrowly escaped a second prosecution, based, if possible, on even weaker grounds than the first. A strange intolerance pursued him, as a chief offender, but the object was to obstruct the preaching of all Presbyterian ministers. The Dutch and other dissenters neither asked nor would receive a license, yet they were not disturbed. But any attempt of Presbyterian ministers to extend their Church was seriously obstructed. There is also evidence that New York was not the only province in which Mr. Makemie had to encounter gross and severe intolerance. His preaching, far and wide, drew on him the anger of the Virginia clergy, and he was seized and carried to the Governor, at Williamsburg, but his noble vindication obtained for him the Governor's license to preach throughout the Old Dominion. And, as a result is thought of his argument, the Virginia Legislature entered, April 15th, 1699, the Act of Toleration on their Statute-book.

    Mr. Makemie died at his residence in Accomac Virginia, in the Summer of 1708, leaving a widow and two daughters. He made liberal bequests to charitable objects, and distributed his valuable library among his family and two or three other friends. An original portrait of his was destroyed in the burning of the house of the Rev. Dr. Balch , of Georgetown, D.C. His influence in the region in which he chiefly exercised his ministry was extensive and powerful. Dr. Miller, upon the authority of some venerable men of the generation immediately succeeding him, speaks of him as a man of eminent piety and strong intellectual powers, adding to force of his natural endowments and his dignity and faithfulness as a minister of the gospel. What gives him his grand distinction is, that he is generally regarded as the first regular and thorough Presbyterian in this country, and the father of the American Presbyterian Church. [See Denton, Rev. Richard]

    The following extract from an article by the Rev. Robert H. Williams, of Annapolis, Maryland, in a recent [1887] number of the Presbyterian , is of interest in this connection:

    The discussion carried on from some weeks in our Baltimore paper, as to which is the oldest Presbyterian church in the land, has brought out a good deal of interesting material for a future history of the Denomination. It is wonderful what a number of facts about old churches can be gathered when the men in these old churches set to work to obtain them.

    We have always supposed that the churches on the Eastern Shore of Maryland were the oldest in the land. Then, looking carefully into the history of Presbyterianism on the Western Shore of Maryland, we found that Annapolis could claim an earlier date for her Presbyterianism, and that from the capital of the State of Maryland the ancient people drifted to the Patapsco river, and founded the church now known as Mt. Paran, as early as 1715, and probably to Deer Creek, and founded the Churchville Church, as early as 1739.

    Now it is claimed that the church at New Castle, Del., is nearly as old, and that churches at Hempstead, L.I., and Windsor, Conn., are older. Instead of being two hundred years old, Presbyterianism in this country is more than two hundred and fifty years.
     

    Rev. John Maltby (pre 1727-1771)

    He graduated at Yale in 1747, and was a Tutor in Nassau Hall from 1749 to 1752.  Probably he studied theology with Mr. Burr .  He was ordained by New York Presbytery in 1753 or 1754, and was for a number of years the much loved pastor of the Church on the Island of Bermuda.  In 1770, Mr. Maltby was dismissed to South Carolina Presbytery, and is said to have labored in Charleston but, his health failing, he removed to Hanover, New Hampshire, and died there, in 1771.
     

    Francis Markoe (1774-1848)

    From the Island of Santa Cruz, in the Danish West Indies where his family had a sugar plantation "Clifton Hill."  He graduated at Princeton College in 1794.  His ancestors were of Huguenot descent, and of high rank, the Duke of Sully being among them. After some time spent on his native island, where he was by a remarkable providence, converted to God, he settled in Philadelphia about the beginning of the century, and entered into mercantile life, marrying Sarah Calwell in 1796.  Here he was abundant in labor, especially in the instruction of the ignorant, in which was his great delight.  Removing from Philadelphia to New York, he became an elder in the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church of which Dr. Skinner was pastor, and his Christian character shone forth pre-eminently.  Dr. Skinner wrote of him:  "Among contemporary Christians, so far as my acquaintance has extended, as complete and perfect pattern of holiness as he was I have not seen."  Mr. Markoe died in New York, Febrary 16th, 1848.
     

    Rev. Thomas Marquis (c 1757-1827)

    He was born in Opequon , near Winchester, Virginia; received his classical education at Canonsburg Academy; studied theology with Dr. McMillan , and was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Redstone, April 19th, 1793.  On April 23d, 1794, he was installed, by the Presbytery of Ohio, pastor of the congregation of Cross Creek.  In addition to his labors at Cross Creek, he acted as a stated supply one half of the time at Upper Buffalo, until that church called the Rev. John Anderson to be their pastor, when his connection with it ceased.  He condintued, however, in the charge of the Church of Cross Creek, until October 3d, 1826, which, from the time of his settlement as their pastor, included a period of thirty-two years.  Several precious revivals occurred during his ministry, and upwards of four hundred persons were added to the Church.

    Mr. Marquis died peacefully on September 27th, 1827.  He was upwards of seventy years of age.  All who knew him speak of him as an eloquent and impressive preacher.  The tones of his voice were exceedingly musical.  Hence he was often called "the silver-tongued Marquis."  In the judicatories of the Church he was esteemed a wise and judicious counselor.  Hence, when in 1804, the General Assembly determined to appoint a committee to visit the Synod of Kentucky , and endeavor to heal the disorders which had taken place within the bounds of that Synod, he was chosen one of the number for that purpose.  The Assembly in 1805, commended the committee for the diligence, prudence, zeal, and fidelity with which they appeared to have executed their commission.

    Rev. Robert Marshall (1760-1833)

    He was born in County Down, Ireland, November 27th, 1760, and in the twelfth year of his age accompanied his family to Western Pennsylvania. He enlisted, at the age of sixteen, as a private soldier during the Revolutionary War, and was in six general engagements, one of which was the hard-fought battle of Monmouth, where he narrowly escaped with his life, a bullet grazing his locks. After his conversion, when about twenty-three years old, he commenced preparation for the ministry. His academical studies were conducted under Mr. Graham , at Liberty Hall , Virginia; his theological course under Dr. McMillan . After being licensed by Redstone Presbytery, he returned to Virginia, and labored in the revival, with great zeal and success. He was remarkable for his fidelity in visiting and conversing upon religion. In 1791 he removed to Kentucky with his wife, in the capacity of a missionary of the Synod, and on the 13th day of June, 1793, was ordained pastor of Bethel and Blue Spring churches. He also conducted a classical school, at which many received their education who afterwards made a very prominent figure in the world.

    In the great revival of 1800 Mr. Marshall was one of the chief leaders, and carried away by the torrent of enthusiasm that swept over Kentucky , and sincerely believing his more sober brethren to be wrong, he joined with Stone , in 1803, in fomenting the New light Schism. He afterwards saw his error, and in 1811 returned to the bosom of the church. He took an appointment under the Assembly's Standing Committee of Missions in 1812, and was soon after reinstated in his old charge of Bethel, where he continued, till his decease, in 1833, at the advanced age of seventy-three. He afterward said "that he could not ascribe his conduct to any other cause than a strange infatuation; and for years never mounted the pulpit without lamenting his errors, and warning the people against similar delusions." Davidson says of his: "As a preacher, he was clear, logical, systematic, and adhered closely to his text. He was of a coarse, strong mind, rather of a metaphysical turn; rash and impetuous in his temper. He delighted in startling expressions and the use of language adapted to rouse and impress an audience. His popularity as a leader of the New Lights was for a time unbounded, thousands and thousands hanging on his lips at their camp-meetings. His constitutional temperament predisposed him to an ascetic sort of enthusiasm, and to fall the prey of errors, which assumed the guise of superior sanctity. He was present at the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky at Lexington, Kentucky in 1802 and was designated a member of the West Lexington Presbytery. See, the discussion of the secession, Rev. Richard McNemar .
     

    Rev. Samuel Vance Marshall (1798-1860)

    He was the son of Rev. Robert and Jane (Vance) Marshall and was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, February 6th, 1798.  He graduated at Transylvania University in 1821, and at Princeton Seminary in 1825.  He was licensed by the New Brunswick Presbytery the same year, and on returning to Kentucky he was ordained by West Lexington Presbytery, in 1826.  His first year of ministerial labor was as a missionary in South Carolina, then to North Middleton and Mount Sterling churches, in Bourbon and Montgomery counties, Kentucky, then in Woodford Church, Kentucky.  He was elected Professor of Languages in Transylvania University, which position he held for two years, until his election to the same Chair in Oakland College, in 1837.  Here he spent the most of his life.  For some years he was a teacher, and a partially voluntary evangelist, especially among colored people.  He was a man of strong character and large attainments, a good preacher and eminently kind and social in his disposition.  He died November 30th, 1860.
     

    William Stockton Martien (1798-1861)

    He was born June 20th, 1798, and belonged to a family of Huguenot descent.  From 1828 to 1834, he was engaged in business in Philadelphia, with Mr. James Russell.  In 1830, in connection with some other gentlemen, he engaged in the establishment of the Presbyterian, at a period when such an enterprise was attended with great difficulty, and from the year 1834 until 1862, continued to be its chief proprietor and publisher.  In 1833 he commenced the publication of religious books, a business in which he was actively engaged during all his life.  As a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Domestic Missions, his earnest devotion and wise counsels were long regarded as an element of great value to that cause.  In the early infancy of the Board of Publication of the Presbyterian Church he extended to it a helping hand, and from that time until his death he continued to serve the Board as a most faithful and efficient member.

    During the Rev. Dr. William M. Engles ' pastorate of the Seventh (now Tabernacle) Presbyterian Church, Mr. Martien made a profession of religion, April 18, 1830; was afterwards chosen to the office of deacon in the church, and subsequently, in the year 1846, he was elected and ordained ruling elder in which office he continued to serve with great fidelity until his death, which occurred April 16th, 1861.
     

    Rev. John Martin (b pre 1736)

    He studied theology with Mr. Davies , and was licensed by Hanover Presbytery August 25th, 1756.  He was widely employed in supplying vacancies, and was called to Albermarle, April 27th, 1757.  He was ordained June 9, 1757, being the first minister of our Church ordained in Virginia.  Mr. Martin was engaged in the Indian Mission, January 25th, 1758; the prospects were at first cheering, but the Cherokees having joined the French on the breaking out of war, the enterprise was abandoned.  He settled in South Carolina.
     

    Samuel Martin, D.D. (1767-1845)

    He was born in Chestnut Level, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, July 8th, 1790; was licensed by the Presbyrery of Baltimore, in May, 1793, and was soon after ordained and installed pastor of the congregation of Slate Ridge, in York county, Pennsylvania.  At the expiration of five years he accepted a call from the congregation of Chanceford, for one-half of his ministerial services.  In 1812 he removed to Rockville, Maryland, where he remained about eighteen months, when he accepted a unanimous call to return to Chanceford.  With the exception of the short interval just noted, his whole ministerial life, of nearly fifty years, was spent in the congregations of Slate Ridge and Chanceford.  For a time, in connection with his pastoral duties, he conducted a classical school, in which were educated a number of young men, some of whom subsequently stood high in office and in public estimation.  June 29, 1845, his spirit ascended to the "rest that remaineth for the people of God."
     

    Rev. Nathaniel Mather (b. pre-1727)

    He was a charter member of the self-organized Presbytery of Suffolk, Long Island, New York in 1747.  He died 1748.

    John Matthews, D.D. (1772-1848)

    He was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, within the bounds of the Alamance congregation, January 19th, 1772. Having served for some time in mechanical pursuits he entered at the age of about twenty, on a course of study in the school of the Rev. Dr. David Caldwell . Licensed by the Presbytery of Orange, in March, 1801, the next winter he was sent as a missionary to Natchez, Mississippi territory, and on his return to North Carolina, received and accepted a call in April, 1803, from the Nutbush and Grassy Creek churches, of which he remained pastor until 1806, when he was installed over the Church in Martinsburg, Virginia. After a little more than a year in this pastorate, he accepted a call to the Church in Shepherdstown, Virginia [now W.Va.] He preached as stated supply to this church, and that of Charlestown, until about 1826 or 1827, dividing his time equally betwen the two places, and preaching frequently, also, at Harper's Ferry. He then gave up his charge at Charlestown, and took that at Martinsburg, in its place, dividing his time equally between Martinsburg and Charlestown, until he removed to the West. On the 29th of June, 1831, Dr. Matthews was inaugurated Professor of Theology in the theological seminary which had then just been established at Hanover, Indiana , and from that period until the close of his life, seventeen years, his devotion to the interests of the Institution was most untiring and exemplary.  His theology department was also known as Indiana Theological Seminary, and under a new name and location, the New Albany Theological Seminary.   (This institution became in 1857, the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest, and in 1885, the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.)  During part of the time he acted as Vice President of Hanover College , and often supplied vacancies in the college, in the way of instruction. He died May 19th, 1848. His two most important publications were entitled "Letters on the Divine Purpose" and "The Influence of the Bible."  He married first, Elizabeth Daniel (1780-1809) of Charlotte Co., Virginia, December 8, 1803 and had four children.  He married second, Elizabeth Wilson (1783-1857 plus) of Berkeley County, April 1818 and had six children; daughter Elizabeth Morton Matthews married (1) Col Robert Sherrard and (2) Rev. John M. Harris, and was the mother of Rev. Joseph Lyle Sherrard.
     

    William Maxwell, LL.D. (1784-1857)

    He was born of English parentage at Norfolk, Virginia, February 27th, 1784.  He graduated at Yale College, September, 1802; afterwards studied law in Richmond, Virginia, and in 1808 commenced the practice of law in Norfolk.  In 1830 he was chosen to represent the Borough of Norfolk in the Legislature of Virginia, and was elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1832, where he continued till 1838.  In November of that year he accepted the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College , which he held till September, 1844, when he resigned and removed to Richmond.  Here, in 1847, he engaged in the enterprise of reviving the Historical and Philosophical Society of Virginia, and in 1848 he established the Virginia Historical Register, a Quarterly, devoted to the past and present history of his native State.  His death occurred near Williamsburg, Virginia, January 9th, 1857.  His reputation as a lawyer and advocate was very high.  But though absorbed in his profession, he found congenial relations in literary pursuits and his pen was not idle in the cause of truth.

    He erected in Norfolk, at his own expense, a Lyceum, for  the diffusion of useful knowledge by means of lectures, etc, thus anticipating the popular movement on the subject.  He was also active in promoting the charities of the day, especially the Bible and Colonization societies, in whose behalf his voice was often heard.
     

    Joseph A. Maybin (1795-1876)

    He ws the third son of John and Anna Joanna (Peters) Maybin, and was born in Philadelphia, March 6th, 1795.  At the age of eighteen he graduated, with high honors at Dickinson college.  He entered upon the study of law in the office of Hon. Horace Binney, in Philadelphia, and in 1816 was admitted to the practice of his profession.  Mr. Maybin went to the city of New Orleans in 1817, where he has had a home of nearly sixty years, and for more than half a century he has been identified with its educational, legal, and religious interests.  As the oldest practicing member of the Bar, he was highly esteemed and beloved by all who came in contact with him.

    Mr. Maybin was one of the founders and fathers of the first Presbyterian Church that had its beginning in New Orleans, in 1822, and of which he was elected elder, in 1827, the duties of which office he faithfully performed.

    Cut off by partial blindness from reading, with a memory constitutionally strong, he could draw upon the knowledge which earlier reading gave him and was able to stand up in the house of God and expound the Bible or lead in prayer; for two years before his death he supplied the pulpit of a mission connected with his church.  His visits in the homes of the church will long be remembered by old and young, for all were glad to see and hear him.  On the 14th of May, 1876, he went to preach, as usual, and coming home weary, he did not go out in the afternoon; at night, he conducted family worship, and after bidding his children good night retired.  When his daughters came to his bedside, in the morning, they found him dead.
     

    Rev. Hugh McAden (bef. 1735-1781)

    He was born in Pennsylvania; his parentage is traced to the North of Ireland. His Alma Mater was Princeton and his instructor in Theology, John Blair of New Castle Presbytery. He was graduated in 1753, and was licensed in 1755, by the Presbytery to which his instructor belonged, and ordained by the same Presbytery in 1757; and dismissed in 1759 to join Hanover Presbytery, whose limits extended indefinitely south. Comparatively little is known of his early life, as his papers were almost entirely destroyed by the British soldiers, in January, 1781, while the army of Cornwallis, in the pursuit of Green, was encamped at the Red House, in Caswell county. Of the few papers that escaped was the Journal of his first trip through Carolina, and is the only document of the kind known to be in existence [1846]. He returned to Carolina, and became the settled minister of of the congregations of Duplin and New Hanover. With these people he remained about ten years; when, believing that the influence of the climate upon his health was too unfavorable to justify his remaining longer in the lower part of the State, he removed to Caswell county, [about 1768] and there finished his days. At the time of his death he was preaching at Red House (Middle Hyco), Greer's (Upper Hyco), and to a church in Pittsylvania, "about half a day's ride" from his dwelling near the Red House.

    He was united in marriage with a Miss Scott, of Lunenburg county, Virginia, whose family name was given to the neighborhood, formed by a company of emigrants from the North of Ireland, and called Scott's Settlement. A number of children were born to him in Duplin. He died January 20th, 1781, leaving a wife and seven children. Two weeks after his death, the British encamped in the yeard of the Red House church. They remained there some time, going about over the country, committing many depredations upon all the neighbors. . .They came to his house and searched it throughout, destroying many things, and also many of his most valuable papers. He lies buried in the grave-yard, near the Red House, in Caswell county, about five miles from the flourishing town of Milton. From Foote'sScetches of North Carolina, 1846.

    Rev. Samuel McAdow (1760-1844)

    Samuel McAdow was born April 10, 1760 in Guilford county, North Carolina. He was the youngest of eight children, four of whom were boys; the four others were girls. His father, John McAdow, emigrated from Ireland when young, and settled in Guilford. He there married Ellen Nelson, who had also crossed the Atlantic. The father was a farmer, and both the parents were Presbyterians,members of Buffalo Congregation, which was at the time under the pastoral care of Dr. David Caldwell . The mother seems to have been a very pious woman, and Mr. McAdow often spoke of her in his subsequent life, bearing testimony to the great excellences of her character and piety of her life. He did not enjoy the benefit of her counsel and watchful care long, as she died when he was about ten years of age. When he was about eleven years of age he professed religion, and was received into the church by Dr.Caldwell. His early years were divided between the labors of the farm and the school, but when quite young he was placed under the care of Dr.Caldwell, as it would seem, for a regular education. The revolutionary War, however, came on, and the school was broken up.

    After the close of the war he renewed his studies, and completed an academic course. He afterward took a three year course in Mecklenburg College, where he completed his education. His father had died in the meantime. On his returning home his step-mother, who occupied the old homestead, prevailed on him to take charge of the farm. He did so, and on the 24th of November, 1788, was married to Henrietta Wheatly. She became the mother of five children, all of whom died young, except one who was living in 1869.

    After he professed religion and joined the Church he became seriously impressed with the belief that he ought to prepare himself for the work of the Christian ministry. After having left college, however, and taken charge of the farm, especially after having married and become the head of a family, he, in a great measure, lost those impressions for a time. Still his mind was not long at ease. The impressions returned with increasing force. He left the far, procured a place near to the residence of Dr. Caldwell, and commenced the study of theology under the guidance of his old teacher. On the 20th of September, 1794, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Orange. This was the oldest Presbytery in North Carolina, having been first constituted in May of 1770. At the time of Mr. McAdow's licensure its ministerial members were, Dr. David Caldwell, James McGready , William Hodge , Henry Patillo , William McGee , and perhaps others.

    We have an account of his ordination, but the time is unknown. The information is that he preached after his licensure in different parts of the country until he was ordained, and settled in charge of Hopewell congregation, in Orange County. I find the following in Foote's Sketches of North Carolina:"

    In the year 1796, Mr. McGready, who had been ordained in1793, removed to Kentucky. In the year 1799 the Presbytery of Orange dismissed Rev. William McGee and Barton W. Stone , a licentiate to Pennsylvania Presbytery, and about the same time the Rev. Messers. William Hodge, Samuel McAdow, and John Rankin , to remove to the West. The part that these men acted in the succeeding events in the West forms an interesting par in the History of the Valley of the Mississippi.

    Mr. McAdow was evidently ordained, therefore, previous to 1799. It has been mentioned also that he was settled after his ordination as pastor of the Hopewell congregation in his native state. On the 20th of April, 1799, he lost his wife. This occurred in North Carolina. After the death of his wife, feeling himself to be very much broken up, he turned his attention toward the West, whither several of his old friends in the ministry had gone, and also a number of his relatives. He therefore made his arrangements to remove to Kentucky. He was accordingly dismissed by his Presbytery, as we have seen, for his new destination in 1799. On his way Westward he yielded to the solicitations of friends, and spent the first summer in East Tennessee. During the summer he preached as a supply to the Big Limestone congregation. But when the fall came he resumed his journey to the father West, feeling that he could not be satisfied until he rejoined his former friends. Of course he did not foresee, but we can now see, that he had a great providential mission to fulfill in the West. A call signed by one hundred and eighteen heads of families for his  continuance in East Tennessee as pastor of Big Limestone congregation was presented, but his purpose was fixed. When he reached Kentucky he found his old friends and fellow-labourers engaged in the great revival. the work was just beginning to develop itself in its wonderful power.

    In the spring of 1800, he began to preach regularly at Red River, in Logan County, and to the Rockbridge congregation in Christian County. In October of 1800, he was married a second time to Catharine Clark, a very pious lady, of Logan County. The fruit of this marriage was one child, a daughter. He was marked absent at the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky at Lexington, Kentucky in 1802 and was designated a member of the Transylvania Presbytery .  His second wife died on the 17th of May 1804. Being left with two little daughters, one of each family, he committed them to the care of a sister, and engaged in more extensive ministerial orations. He seems to have fully imbibed the spirit of the times; he traveled and preached extending his tours to the Ohio River, and far into the State of Tennessee. He continued to ride and preach extensively until he was almost entirely disabled from public speaking on account of weakness of lungs. Physicians advised him to desist. His more active ministerial labors, therefore, ceased. In July of 1806 he was married a third time. The lady's name was Hannah Cope. There were two sons from this marriage. He now settled in Dixon County, Tennessee, where he owned land. Here he engaged in teaching. His Sabbaths, however, he gave to the work of
    the ministry. He remained in Dixon County until 1815. This portion of his history brings us to the great work of his life. While he resided in Dixon, on the 4th day of February, 1810, the Cumberland Presbytery was constituted, out of which has grown the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The transaction took place at his house. The house has become historical. It was an unpretending building on the bank of Jones Creek, about seven miles from Charlotte. The little fire originated in that obscure spot has kindled a great matter. The good men who prayed and acted there on that occasion had no conception of what the result would be.   In 1815 he sold out his possession in Dixon, and moved to Jackson county, where he also owned land.

    NOTE: Excerpt from "Brief Biographical Sketches of Some of The Cumberland Presbyterian Church", second series, by Richard Beard, DD, ©1874  http://dctn.com/ccenter/mcadoo04.html   where it was contributed by Anne Hood.
     

    Rev. William L. McCalla (1788-1859)

    He was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, November 25th, 1788.  In 1815 he was appointed an army chaplain, by General Jackson.  In 1819 he was settled as pastor of the Church in Augusta, Kentucky.  In 1823 he was settled over the Eighth of Scots' Church, in Philadelphia, where his ministry was very successful.  In 1835 he felt impelled to travel in Texas, and again served as an army chaplain, dressing in clerical costume and living in a tent.  In 1837 he returned to Philadelphia, and labored successively in the Fourth, Tabernacle, and Union churches.  In 1854 he  engaged in missionary labor in St. Louis, among the boatmen, and afterward among the slaves in the South.  He died in Louisiana, of congestive chills, October 12th, 1859, in the seventy-first year of his age.

    Mr. McCalla was a tall and commanding person, with black hair and eyes, and a clarion voice.  He was more or less familiarly acquainted with the Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and German languages.  He preached without notes, had a wonderful command of language, and attained great popularity in the pulpit.  But it was in debate that he excelled.  In polemics he was a master.  This he abundantly exemplified in his debates with Mr. Vaughn and Alexander Campbell, Baptists, in Kentucky; with William Lane, an Arian Baptist, in Milford; with John Hughes, afterward Archbishop, the Roman Catholic; with Abner Kneeland, the atheist; and with Joseph Barker, the infidel, which last afterward preached the faith he once labored to destroy.  In the long controversy between the Old and New Schools he kept up his character for pugnacity, ability, and power of sarcasm.  He was proud of his Kentucky birth.  He had an uncommon power of self-control, and could say the most diverting or the most cutting things, without changing a muscle.  In the fiercest contests he remained perfectly cool.  Dr. Miller remarked of him that he was smooth as oil, but it was the oil of vitriol.

    Mr. McCalla was a gentleman of polished manners and in social life was a most agreeable companion.  His only publications were:  "A correct Narrative" of the affairs connected with the trial of the Rev. Albert Barnes, a small collection of psalms and hymns, in French, and "Travels in Texas."
     
     

    Thomas McCauley, D.D., LL.D. (pre 1786-ca. 1842)

    He was a native of Ireland.  He graduated at Union College, New York, in 1804; was Tutor there in 1805-6; and Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from 1814 to 1822, meanwhile being licensed to preach, it is supposed, by the Presbytery of Albany.  He was settled in New York City, as pastor of Rutgers Street Church.  He then removed to Philadelphia, and had charge of what is now the Tenth Presbyterian Church.  June 2d, 1830, he was elected President of the Board of Education, which position he filled but one year.  Subsequently he returned to New York city, to assume the pastorate of the Murray Street Presbyterian Church. While thus engaged, he was elected in 1838, to the Chair of Pastoral Theology and Church Government, in the Union Theological Seminary of that city, which position he held until 1841.  For a year previous to his death Dr. McCauley lived in retirement.
     

    Hon. William McCay (b pre 1791-1841)

    He was born in Scotland, but while yet a child his father removed to Claugher, County Tyrone, Ireland.  There he spent his youthful days.  He came to this country in 1801, settled in Tuscarora Valley, Junianta county (then Mifflin county), in 1804, and in 1810 removed to Lewistown where he connected himself with the Presbyterian church, and was elected and ordained an elder in said congregation in 1811 or 1812.  He was a man universally respected for his strictly religious character, conscientiousness, intelligence, and public spirit.  He was a leading spirit in the church, in the town, and in the community generally.  As an elder, he had great influence, and was, in all matters of doctrine or discipline, the right hand of the pastor.  As a citizen, the town of Lewistown, of which he was long the Chief Burgess, owed most of its public improvements to his foresight, prudence and diligence. He was a patriot, and at the time of the War of 1812, raised a company for the service of the country, and received a military commission from Governor Snyder, marched towards the front, but the war ended before he was called to any active service as a soldier.  He was made a Justice of the Peace by Governor Heister, a Notary Public by Governor Wolf and Associate Judge of Mifflin county by Governor Porter.  Judge McCay died at Lewistown, December 13th, 1841.  He was the father of the Rev. David McCay.
     

    William McClean (1778-1846)

    He was born August 4th, 1778 in Franklin township, Adams county, Pennsylvania.  Removing to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, about the year 1829, he was chosen an elder in the Presbyterian Church of that place, and was superintendent of the Sabbath school for some years.  Removing to Harrisburg in 1839, he served in the office of the Surveyor General of the State for several years.  In 1844 he was elected an elder of the Presbyterian Church of that place.  He was a man of more than ordinary abilities, and had few superiors as a Christian of spotless character.  He was a man of strong and ardent faith.  His trials were many and severe.  He met with reverses and afflictions, and misfortunes; but his faith in God never failed him.  He fell suddenly dead, in market, December 23d, 1846, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
     

    Rev. Alexander McClelland (1794-1864)

    He was born at Schenectady, New York, in 1794, and died at New Brunswick, New Jersey, December 19th, 1864.  He graduated at Union College in 1809; studied theology under J. M. Mason; was licensed by the Associate Reformed Presbytery in 1815, and was pastor of the Rutgers Street Presbyterian Church from 1815 to 1822, when he became Professor of Logic, Metaphysics, and Belles Lettres, in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.  From 1829 to his death he taught in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey (as Professor of Languages, 1829-33, and of Evidences of Christianity, 1840-51), and in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church in the same place, as Professor of Oriental Languages and Literatur, 1832-57, and passed his closing days in scholarly retirement.

    As a preacher and a teacher, Dr. McClelland stood forth pre-eminent.  In the pulpit he proclaimed God's truth with eloquence, unction and logical power.  In the Professor's chair he was enthusiastic, inspiring, exacting and thorough, witty and severe.  As a teacher of Hebrew he is remembered for his fidelity and success in grounding his pupils in that language.  His condensed Hebrew Grammar, never published, was a masterpiece.  The good students thanked him for his stimulating method, the dull ones writhed under his continual exactions.  His publications were very few; among them were, "Manual of Sacred Interpretation," New York, 1842; second edition, under the title "Canon and Interpretation of Scripture," 1860.  A volume of his "Sermons, with Sketch of his Life," was published in 1867.

    Rev. Donald McCloud (pre-1773-1821)

    He was the minister of the church of Edisto Island, South Carolina between 1793 and his death in 1821.

    Rev. John McCloud (b. pre 1721)

    In 1735 Col. Oglethorpe commanded a group of Scots from the area of Inverness Scotland and settled on the southeast of Georgia, (60 miles south of Savannah, Ga.) in 1736. In memory of the ill-fated Panama expedition, they called this town Darien, it is the second city of Ga. They brought John McCloud, a Presbyterian minister with them. He later moved from Darien, Ga. to near Charleston, South Carolina. He was the settled minister on Edisto Island, South Carolina between 1741 and 1754.
     

    Rev. Andrew McClure (b pre 1766)

    He was a charter member of the Presbytery of Transylvania .1786.

    John McClure (1784-1841)

    He was the son of Charles and Amelia McClure, and was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania.  The family had settled at an early day in the Cumberland Valley, and one of them was an elder in the Church at the Meeting-house Spring, about 1740, the first Presbyterian congregation west of the Susquehanna River.

    Mr. John McClure graduated at Dickinson College in 1802, and in that Institution he was Tutor in 1810.  After his graduation he became a Divinity student, but, in consequence of impaired health, he was constrained to abandon his prospective work.  He was ordained a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, in 1825, and when the Second Church was organized there, in 1833, he was one of the first three elders elected.  Eminently domestic and retiring, he spent his life generally in the duties and enjoyments of his quiet and happy home, on the Letort, in the education of his children, and in the supervision of the Willow Grove Farm, but he never forgot or neglected the welfare and claims of the Church.  Though a delicate man physically, he had a strong and cultivated mind, a kind and generous heart, and withal a firm and decided will.  He was an intelligent Christian gentleman and a well-read theologian.  The Greek Testament was his valued companion, and among his works were the massive and solid "Institutes of Turretin," in Latin, and other books of like character.  He was a pronounced Presbyterian. He departed this life March 20th, 1841, aged 57 years.  All his surviving children were members of the Presbyterian Church, in different places and all are the worthy representatives of a no less worthy parentage.
     

    John McCluskey, D.D. (1795-1880)

    He was born  in Great Valley, Chester county, Pennsylvania, June 17th, 1795.  He graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania , in 1822, after which he was one and a half years a teacher in the academy at Newtown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania; also a teacher for a year at New Hope, in the same county, when he went to Philadelphia and spent one year in studying theology, under the guidance of the Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, D.D.   Subsequently he was a student in Princeton Seminary for a year.  Licensed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, October 19th, 1826, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Church at West Alexander, Pennsylvania, October 8th, 1828, by the Presbytery of Washington , and labored there faithfully, wisely and successfully for twenty-six years, until, at his own request, the pastoral relation was dissolved, April 15th, 1854.  After this he was agent for the Presbyterian Board of Publication, for a year, in the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; labored from 1855 to 1856 as assistant the the Rev. Jacob Bellville, pastor of the Church at Neshaminy, Pennsylvania; from 1856 to 1858, as stated supply of the same church, then vacant; and from April 1st, 1858, to April 1st, 1859, as supply or pastor elect with the church at Smyrna, Delaware.

    Dr. McCluskey had always been deeply interested in the instruction of youth.  As soon as he settled in West Alexander, he founded there a Church school which accomplished great good, and helped to bring into the ministry many sons of the families of that place.  In 1859 he founded a female seminary in West Philadelphia, and taught it for five years.  Then placing it in younger hands, he established, in 1864, a school at Hightstown, New Jersey, with a special view to the education of children of missionaries and ministers of the gospel, free of charge.  About July 1st, 1870, he returned to West Philadelphia, and was for several years Associate Principal of the Mantua Academy.  He died March 31st, 1880, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.

    As a preacher, Dr. McCluskey was interesting, instructive, and often powerful.  His ministry, especially in his earlier years, was marked by frequent revivals, of great power.  His mind was clear, active, and vigorous

    David McConaughy, D.D., LL.D. (1775-1852)

    He was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, September 29th, 1775. He was educated under Mr. Dobbins, of Gettysburg, and graduated at Dickinson College, September, 1795. He studied theology with the Rev. Nathan Grier , of Brandywine, and was ordained pastor of Upper Marsh Creek (now Gettysburg), and Upper Conewago, October 8th, 1800. In 1832 he was inaugurated President of Washington College . After eighteen years of service, he resigned, in 1849. He died, January 29th, 1852, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He published several occasional discourses, and two volumes of sacred biography.
     

    Rev. Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, D.D. (b 1746)

    He was born August 23rd, 1746, near Harris' Ferry, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.  He was graduated at the College of New Jersey , 1772; soon afterward commenced the study of theology under his maternal uncle, the Rev. Joseph Montgomery ; was licensed to preach the gospel in the Spring of 1774, and immediately after was appointed by the Synod to go southward and spend one year preaching in that region, under the direction of the Presbyteries of Hanover and Orange.  After thus spending about two years in Virginia, he was installed pastor of the congregation of Thyatira, by the Orange Presbytery, August 2d, 1777.  During the Revolutionary War, and especially from the Summer of 1780, when the South became the theatre of conflict, the country was in a state of utter confusion, and vice of almost every king prevailed to an alarming extent.  Mr. McCorkle came out in reference to this state of things in his utmost strength.  From the close of the Revolutionary War, and especially from the breaking out of the Revolution in France, when North Carolina, in common with other parts of the country was overrun with French infidelity, he again stood forth the indomitable champion of Christianity, not only preaching but publishing in defense of Divine revelation.  He wrote very minute directions respecting his funeral, designating the minister whom he wished to preach his funeral sermon, the text which he desired him to use (Job xix, 25), the order of the funder procession, the hymns to be sung on the occasion, and even the epitaph for his own tombstone.  Dr. McCorkle, though cheerful and pleasant in the social circle, or at the family fireside, never indulged in levity.  He seemed never to forget for a moment that he was a minister of Jesus Christ.  He was always ready to preach in destitute churches or regions, but his delight was in his study.  He had, on the whole a very successful ministry and many were hopefully converted through his instrumentality.

    Rev. John McCrery (pre 1747-1800)

    John McCrery studied theology and was licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle about 1767. He was ordained and installed as pastor of White Clay Creek Church, Delaware, in 1769, which charge he held until his death in 1800.

    Rev. John McCue (d. 1818)

    He was a minister in Augusta County, Virginia and died when thrown from his horse one Sabbath morning on his way to Tinkling Spring Church.  He was a good man, when so inclined, could tell comic stories in a manner irresistible laughable.  His sons were James A., John, and Franklin McCue, long prominent citizens of Augusta. Dr. William McCue, of Lexington, and  Cyrus McCue, a lawyer, who died young. His daughters were Mrs.Matthews, Mrs. Potterfield, Mrs. McDowell, and Mrs. Miller.

    Rev. John McDonald

    In 1829 he had been "long the minister of Pleasant Prairie," Illinois. He was the first Clerk of the Centre Presbytery in that year.
     

    Rev. Alexander McDowell (pre-1720-1782)

    He was native of Ireland, was licensed by Donegal Presbytery, July 30th, 1740.  In the Spring he was sent to Virginia, requests for him having been made by North Mountain, James River, Rockfish, Joy Creek, Bush Mountain, South Branch of Potomac, and by the Marsh, in Maryland.  He was ordained, October 29th, 1741, to go as an evangelist to Virginia, and in the fall he was directed to itinerate in New Castle Presbytery.  He seems to have settled at Nottingham, an din 1743, to have become pastor of White Clay and Elk River.  The Synod's school was entrusted to him, and was for several years at Elk, and finally, in 1767, at Newark, Delaware.  On the union Mr. McDowell gave up the charge of Elk.  In April, 1760, Conococheague asked for him.  He died January 12th, 1782.
     

    John McDowell (1736-1809)

    He was one of the early elders of Chartiers Church, Presbytery of Redstone, during the pastorate of Dr. McMillan , was born September 23rd, 1736, in the north of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry.  When a young man, he went to the West, about 1773.  In or at his log cabin John McMillan, as appears in his journal, preached his first sermon in Chartiers settlement, August, 1775.  Mr. McDowell was tall and slender in person, grave in manner, of sound judgment, general intelligence, well read in theology and highly esteemed and honored in his day.  He was appointed, in 1783, one of the "Council of Censors" for the State.  Was a representative in the Legislature from 1798 to 1801, and the year following was commissioned, by Governor McKean, an Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.  He was active in the establishment of Cannonsburg Academy, and President of its Board of Trustees; was a trustee of Jefferson College from its organization till his death, August 12th, 1809.

    Among Judge McDowell's descendants have been several prominent Presbyterian ministers, also many elders, some of them men of national reputation.  Such an one, pre-eminently, was the Hon. Josiah Scott, of Bucyrus, Ohio, for many years a Judge of the Supreme Court, a man of versatile talent, great ability in his profession and a devoted Christian.  Like many other eminent men, he testified openly to the advantages received  from his early training in the Shorter Catechism.  His highest honor he esteemed it to be, that he was a ruling elder in the Church, as had been his father Alexander, his grandfather Josiah, his great-grandfather Abraham, and his great-great-grandfather, Hugh Scott.

    Francis McFarland, D.D. (1788-1871)

    He was born in the County Tyrone, Ireland, January 8th, 1788. His pious parents emigrated to Western Pennsylvania in 1793. Having completed his collegiate education at Jefferson and Washington colleges , Pennsylvania, he entered Princeton Seminary in 1818. In 1819 he was licensed and spent several years in missionary work in Indiana, Missouri and Georgia. He was ordained while supplying, for a short time, the recently organized First Church of Brooklyn, August 1st, 1822. Ill health requiring a journey South, he was invited to the Bethel Church in Augusta county, Virginia. He continued a faithful and acceptable pastor, till invited, in 1835, to take charge of the Board of Education, as Secretary. This office he vacated in 1841, on being again called to his former charge. There he spent his remaining years. He was all his life a man of infirm health, affected by paroxysms of asthma, so that he seldom "knew the luxury of uninterrupted sleep." He was often sent to the Assembly, of which body he was elected Moderator in 1856, and he presided so as to excite marked admiration. Seldom has any church enjoyed better services as Stated Clerk, than the Synod of Virginia during the unusually long period of his holding that office. His decline was protracted, though not painful. He died October 10, 1871.

    Rev. Collin McFarquahr (abt. 1729-1822)

    Early in the Spring of 1776 the Rev. Collin McFarquahr took charge of the church at Donegal , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. He came to this country from Scotland, to seek a home and settlement, and left his family behind him, expecting to send for them as soon as he was settled, but on account of the interruption of travel occasioned by the prevailing war, he did not see them for ten years thereafter. Mr. McFarquahr continued to be the diligent and faithful pastor of Donegal until 1805, when his wife having died, he was bowed down with sorrow, and concluded to resign the charge and live with his daughters, Mrs. Wilson, in Lancaster, and Mrs. Cook, in Hagerstown, where he died, August 27th, 1822, aged ninety-three years.

    Rev. Robert McGarrough (1771-

    The distinction of laying the foundation of the Presbyterian church in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania belongs to the Rev. Robert McGarrough. He was born on the Yough River, near Cookstown [Cooksburg?, Jefferson Co., Pennsylvania], January 9, 1771; prepared for the ministry under the tuition of Revs. James Dunlap , pastor of Laurel Hill Church in the Presbytery of Redstone, David Smith in the "Forks of Yough," and the greatly influential and successful Dr. John McMillan , and was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Redstone in the church of Rehoboth, in Fayette county, Pa., October 19, 1803.

    The following April he visited upon invitation the churches of New Rehoboth and Licking, in what is now Clarion county [directly to the west of Jefferson Co.]. These churches were under the care of Redstone Presbytery, and had, it is believed from traditions among old settlers in the neighborhood, been organized nominally by the Rev. John McPherrin in 1802. He is said to have preached the first sermon ever delivered in all that region.

    These churches made out calls for Mr. McGarrough, and in June of the same year he removed his family, consisting of a wife and three children, to the bounds of his first parish.

    The journey required seven or eight days and was made upon two packhorses, the family and all the fixtures and furnishings for housekeeping being thus conveyed. They were delayed a day each at Mahoning Creek and Redbank on account of high waters, and had to construct canoes before they could cross. They went to housekeeping in a log cabin not more than sixteen feet square, the door made of chestnut bark, the bed constructed of poles and clapboards, an old trunk serving for a table, and blocks of wood for chairs.

    He was for nineteen years the only Presbyterian minister laboring within the bounds now embraced in the Presbytery of Clarion [1888]. He was an exceedingly slow preacher, but intensely in earnest, and wholly consecrated to the winning of souls to Christ, and the building up of the Lord's kingdom.

    Soon after Mr. McGarrough's settlement at New Rehoboth and Licking he began to preach at several out stations. One of these points was at the house of Peter Jones at Port Barnett, where a communion service was held in 1809, and occasional services afterward for several years. This communion is believed to have been the first ever held in the bounds of Jefferson county. Another station some years later, where occasional services were held, was at the house of Mr. Samuel Jones in Rose township, four or five miles southwest from Brookville. Near this point in an old log school house was organized the first Presbyterian church in the county, Bethel.

    Rev. William McGee (d. aft 1814)

    He was an important figure in the Kentucky Revival . He and his brother, John, a Methodist preacher, attended the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at Red River Congregation, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, on route to Ohio for missionary work. This meeting was the traditional beginning of the revival. Wm. McGee, in the Assembly minutes of 1796, is reported as a member of the Presbytery of Orange, in the Synod of the Carolinas. He had been converted under McGready's preaching. Dr. Bangs, in his history of the M.E.Church says that "in 1796 or '96, he moved to West Tennessee, and in 1798 settled in a congregation in Sumner county." He finally joined the Cumberland Presbyterians and died in 1814.

    He was marked absent at the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky at Lexington, Kentucky in 1802 and was designated a member of the Transylvania Presbytery .

    Rev. Daniel McGill (d. 1724)

    He was ordained in Scotland.  He joined the Philadelphia Presbytery (the only presbytery)  in 1713, having accepted a call to Upper Marlborough, Patuxent, Maryland  where he labored for some time (1713-19). He was a charter member of the New Castle, Delaware Presbytery in 1717.  In 1719 the Synod sent him to preach to the people of Potomoke, Virginia, where he spent some months, and put "the people into church order," but declined their call. Mr. McGill was called to Elk River, in Maryland, but after a long delay, declined. He was a supply for short periods in Kent, at Birmingham, on Brandywine, at Snow Hill, White Clay, Donegal , Drawyers, Conestoga, and Octorara. He died February 10th, 1724, his home being in the London Tract, New Castle county, Delaware.

    Rev. James McGready (d. aft 1802)

    An important figure in the Kentucky Revival , he came to the congregations of Red River, Gasper and Muddy River before 1799 from Orange County, North Carolina. He was marked absent at the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky at Lexington, Kentucky in 1802 and was designated a member of the Transylvania Presbytery .

    Rev. James McGregor (b. pre-1698)

    Rev. James MacGregor arrived with five ships from the River Bann, Londonderry, Ireland on the 4 of August 1718 and landed at Boston Harbor. His parish had been in Aghadowey, County of Londonderry, Ireland.

    Rev. Charles McKnight (b. pre 1720-1778)

    He was taken under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery, June 23d, 1741, and was licensed probably in the Fall. He was ordained pastor of Staten Island and Baskingridge, October 12th, 1742. He was installed, October 16th, 1744, at Cranbury and Allentown. Mr. McKnight was dismissed from Cranbury in October 1756, and Burden's Town obtained one-fourth of his time in 1758. He was called, May 28th, 1766, to Middletown Point and Shrewsbury, and in the Fall Trenton asked for him. He was dismissed from Allentown in October, and accepted the call to Middletown Point, Shark River, and Shrewsbury, april 21st, 1767. He was seized by the British, and his church was burned. He died soon after his release, in 1778.

    Dr. John McKnight (1754-1823)

    He was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 1st, 1754. He graduated at Princeton in 1773. His theological studies were pursued at Middle Spring, near Shippensburg,  Pennsylvania under Dr. Cooper .  He was taken under the care of the Donegal Presbytery, December 22, 1774, with William Linn and James McConnell, likewise graduates of Princeton, students under Cooper and itinerants among the Virginia vacancies.    Among their classmates at Princeton were Rev. John Blair Smith, D.D ., president of Hampden Sydney College and of Union College, New York, and Rev. William Graham , head of Liberty Hall Academy in Virginia which grew into Washington and  Lee University .

    The three candidates were examined together, and licensed together on April 12, 1775 and McKnight appointed to intinerate in the Pennsylvania vacancies, and at Elk Branch, Opequon and Augusta in Virginia, which resulted in calls from Unity, Conemaugh and Marsh Creek in Pennsylvania, and Augusta and Elk Branch in Virginia.  McConnell went to the back parts of Virginia and became pastor at Oxford, High Bridge and Falling Spring in Rockbridge Co.   McKnight was installed at Elk Branch December 4, 1776, and pastorate dissolved October 16, 1782.  He was settled over Lower Marsh Creek Church (Gettysburg), in Adams county, Pennsylvania where he owned a farm of 150 acres. December 2d, 1789, he was installed colleague pastor with Dr. Rodgers , in New York . In 1791 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly. After twenty years' service in New York, in consequence of new arrangements made in the collegiate charge, he resigned, April, 1809. The Church of Rocky Spring solicited him to become their pastor, but as his health was delicate, he consented to be a stated supply only, at the same time declining other flattering invitations in the State of New York. In 1815 he accepted the Presidency of Dickinson College, but finding its financial embarrassments in a hopeless condition, resigned in a year. He now retired to a farm, and preached as opportunity offered until his death, October 21st, 1823, in the seventieth year of his age. Six discourses on Faith and several occasonal sermons were published by him.  His D.D. was conferred on him by Yale College in 1791.

    He was married October 17, 1776 to Susan Brown, of Franklin County, Pennsylvania by whom he had ten children, two of them ministers, one a surgeon in the U.S. Navy.  The eldest son, Washington McKnight, became pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia in 1804, and president of the Academy there, but died in 1808, aged only twenty-nine.

    Rev. John McLeod (bef 1750-aft 1773)

    He came from Scotland some time in the year 1770, accompanied by a large number of families from the Highlands, who took their residence upon the upper and lower Little Rivers, in Cumberland county, North Carolina. Barbacue and Long Street were part of teh places in which he preached during the three years he remained in Carolina. In the year 1773 he left America with the view of returning to his native land; being never heard of afterwards, it is supposed that he found a watery grave. He wa a man of eminent piety, great worth, and popular eloquence.

    John McMillan, D.D. (1752-1833)

    He was born at Fagg's Manor, Chester county, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1752. After being fitted for college at Fagg's Manor Academy, by Dr. Samuel Blair, he graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, under Dr. Witherspoon , in 1772. While at college he was one day so impressed by his solitary reflections of truth and duty that he became the subject of a sudden conversion, and, in consequence, upon graduating, studied theology with Dr. Robert Smith , of Pequea. He was licensed by New Castle Presbytery, in 1774, at the age of twenty-two, and performed missionary service in Maryland, Western Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. In 1775 he organized the churches of Pigeon Creek and Chartiers, over which he was ordained the following year by the Presbytery of Donnegal. He was soon after married, and removed his worldly all to his field of labor on pack-horses. He lived in a log cabin, and was a stranger to all the luxuries of life. He established a school, which became the nucleus of Jefferson College . From this theological school issued a hundred young men, many of whom afterwards became distinguished preachers. (See, for example Rev. Ira Condit , Rev. John Coulter , Rev. Johnston Eaton .and Rev. James Robinson ) He died November 16th, 1833, aged eighty-one.
     

    Rev. Robert McMordie (b. pre 1733)

     He was sent as a missionary to Virginia and North Carolina in 1753 by the Synod of Philadelphia. He was called to the Congregation of Hanover , Pennsylvania in 1762.

    Rev. Richard McNemar

    He was received by the Presbytery of Transylvania , as a candidate, from West Pennsylvania, in 1795, at which time he was licensed to preach together with Archibald Steel. They were limited in that they were not permitted to preach oftener than once in two weeks, and not to exceed forty minutes. He was ordained at Cabin Creek, August 2nd, 1798. He was a portly, fine looking man, tall and erect, six feet high, and of a stout frame. He was a popular declamatory preacher, warm, animated, lively in desultory exhortations, and apparently sincere. He spoke and sang with all his heart. He encouraged the jerks, and did all in his power to stimulate the excitement to its height, thus playing an important role in the Kentucky Revival He was affiliated with the Washington Presbytery in 1799. He was appointed the commissioner of the Presbytery to the General Assembly in that year. He was appointed to supply Union Church, Kentucky, one half of his time in 1799. When he reported at the next meeting, in the Baptist meeting house at Washington, Kentucky, October, 1799, and gave a narrative of his attendance and of the business transacted in the Assembly, Presbytery "expressed their approbation of his faithfulness as commissioner and agreed to concur, cordially in promoting the objects so warmly recommended to their attention by the General Assembly. He attended the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky in 1802. In 1810, the pastoral relation existing between Mr. McNemar and the church of Cabin Creek, in Lewis County, Kentucky, was dissolved at his request--the congregation being represented, at Presbytery, by a commissioner, Mr. Joseph Darlington, who, for the congregation, stated: "that on account of their inability to comply with the terms of Mr. McNemar's settlement, they agree to a dissolution of their connection with their parson, provided he be continued only half his time in that congregation, and that they pay him proportionably according to the terms of his settlement." The commissioner representing the congregation was Gen. Joseph Darlington, and elder in the West Union Church, an associate Judge of the court, member of the first legislature in the state of Ohio, and also of the first constitutional convention, and a very prominent man in that convention. There may have already been some dissatisfaction with Mr. McNemar's preaching, especially in reference to doctrine. In November, 1801, there was presented to Presbytery "A letter with certain other papers, from three of the former elders, of Cabin Creek congregation, containing certain charges, respecting doctrine, against the Rev. R. McNemar." No notice was taken of this further, but in 1802, the Presbytery acted: "Whereas it has been reported, for more than a year past, that the Rev. Richard McNemar held tenets hostile to the standards of the Presbyterian Church and subversive of the fundamental doctrines contained in the more clamorous, notwithstanding Mr. McNemar has been warned of these things both privately and more publicly; both by private persons and the members of Presbytery, separately and jointly; therefore the Presbytery have thought it necessary to enter into a more particular and close examination of Mr. McNemar, on the doctrines of particular election, human depravity, the atonement and the application of it to the sinner, the necessity of the Divine agency in this application, and the nature of faith. Upon which examination had, it is the opinion of this Presbytery that Mr. McNemar holds these doctrines in a sense specifically and essentially different from that sense in which Calvinists generally believe them, and that his ideas on these subjects are strictly Arminian, though clothed in such expressions and handed out in such a manner, as to keep the body of the people in the dark, and lead them insensibly into Arminian principles, which are dangerous to the souls of men and hostile to the interests of all true religion." "Ordered that a copy of this minute be forwarded by the Stated Clerk, as early as my be, to the churches under our care."

    Notwithstanding their adoption of the above, Presbytery appointed him supply at Turtle Creek, for half the time, until the next stated meeting. In 1803, a petition was presented praying "the reexamination of the Rev. Richard McNemar, on the fundamental doctrines of religion, or, on what the petitioners call Free will, or Arminian doctrines, and also that the Rev. John Thompson undergo the like examination." concerning which it is recorded: "The petition of Wm. Lamme, John McCabe, John Ewing, William Waugh, John Steele, Jonathan Tichenor, Andrew Small, Furgus McClane, Francis Dill, John Bone, Jonathan Whittaker, Daniel Reeder, James Jones and James Ewing, from the congregations of Beulah, Turtle Creek, Bethany, Hopewell, Duck Creek, and Cincinnati, was taken up, and Presbytery determined that it was improper to go into the examination of Mr. McNemar and Mr. Thompson on the prayer of said petitioners, as being out of order." Presbytery also put into Mr. McNemar's hands a call from the congregation of Turtle Creek which he accepted. The sound men in Presbytery did what they could in that, as is recorded, in the minutes of this long meeting: "Messrs James Kemper , M.G. Wallace and Stephen Wheeler protest against the proceedings of Presbytery, in the case of the petition of Wm. Lamme and others . . because the people cannot be deprived of the right of proposing to Presbytery for discussion, such difficulties respecting the doctrines taught them as cannot be settled by the session, and especially because Mr. McNemar's principles, in particular, now stand condemned, by the last meeting of Presbytery.. . The above named members also protest against the proceedings of Presbytery in the case of the call to Mr. McNemar, from Turtle Creek, for the above reasons. The two objectors had been outvoted at the meeting, three to two.

    At the second meeting of the Synod of Kentucky, in 1803, the conviction of Rev. McNemar was upheld and the subsequent disregard of the conviction condemned, and passed a resolution to examine both Thompson and McNemar to determine the accuracy of the charges against them. At this juncture, the Revs. Robert Marshall , Barton W. Stone , Richard McNemar, John Thompson, and John Dunlevy laid in a protest and declinature of the jurisdiction of the Synod and withdrew. A committee was appointed, by the Synod, to endeavor to reclaim them, but without effect. The next day the Seceders came into Synod in a body, and informed it that they had formed themselves into a Presbytery. Upon this, the Synod suspended them severally from the office of their ministry, and declared their pulpits vacant, and referred them to their several Presbyteries to be restored, upon repentance. They repudiated the Confession of Faith, and declared that they considered themselves freed from all creeds but the Bible, and soon had quite a following. Stone became the leader of the secession. Afterwards many of their followers, with Stone himself, went with the Cambellites. (From Galbraith's History of the Chillicothe Presbytery. Obviously, this is a parochial and prejudiced view of the foundation of the Christian Church, a denomination which spread throughout the midwest, including to Logan Co., Illinois, where several of my ancestors were members.)

    Rev. George McNish (d. 1722)

    He was a native of Ireland and came to this country in 1705, with the Rev. Francis Makemie . The Rev. John Hampton came at the same time. They were, no doubt induced to come through the influence of Mr. Makemie, who had already labored here for a number of years. In the Spring of 1710, Mr. McNish was called as the eighth pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Jamaica, Long Island. He was one of the original members of the Presbytery of Philadelphia , the first formed in America. For a short time he labored among the people of Monokin and Wicomico, in Maryland, but, it appears, was not settled as their pastor.

    In 1711 Mr. McNish became the minister of Jamaica . In 1710 he was the Moderator of the Presbytery. He may be said to be the father of Presbyterianism in the State of New York. In 1716 he was again Moderator of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and consequently preached the synodical sermon at the first meeting of the Synod of Philadelphia, in 1717. The same year he was deputed by the Synod to act as its representative abroad, for the promotion of religion in this country. This visit, however, he did not make, but the appointment and other important service assigned him, prove that he was a leading and influential minister, and enjoyed, in no small degree, the confidence of his brethren. In 1723 Synod recorded its "great grief" at his decease. In the Church Register of Newtown it is stated that he died March 10th, 1722. His remains were buried in the Jamaica cemetery.

    Rev. John McPherrin (1757-1822)

    He was born in York, now Adams county, Pennsylvania, November 15th, 1757; graduated May 7th, 1788, at Dickinson College, and studied theology under the direction of Rev. John Clark, pastor Bethel, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Redstone, August 20th, 1789, and installed pastor of the united congregations of Salem and Unity, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 22d, 1791. Here he labored with great success for a number of years. On June 25th, 1800, he resigned the charge at Unity, and on April 20th, 1803, that of Salem, and having accepted a call from the united congregations of Concord and Muddy Creek, within the bounds of the Erie Presbytery, he was transferred to that Presbytery, April 9th, 1805. A few years afterwards he had charge of Concord and Harmony, and still later, of Butler and Concord. He is said to have been the founder of the church in the town of Butler, and was its pastor for ten or twelve years. He was Moderator of the Synod of Virginia in 1799, and of the Synod of Pittsburg in 1805. He died February 10th, 1822.

    Mr. McPherrin was a thorough Latin and Greek scholar, and for a number of years after he was settled in the ministry, taught a class of young men, most of whom became ministers of the gospel.

    He married Miss Mary Stevenson of Cross Creek congregation in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  His daughter Amelia married the Honorable Walter Lowrie without her father's permission..

    Rev. Thomas McPherrin

    He was a delegate to the first meeting of the General Assembly at Philadelphia in 1789, representing the Presbytery of Carlisle.

    Alexander McWhorter, D.D. (1734-1807)

    He was born in New Castle county, Delaware, July 15th, 1734; after graduating at Princeton College in 1757, studied theology with Rev. William Tennent of Freehold, and was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, August 3d, 1758. In the Summer of the same year he was installed pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. In 1764 he visited North Carolina, by order of the synod and was very efficient in establishing churches in that region. In 1775 he was appointed, by Congress, to visit North Carolina and use every effort to bring over the enemies of independence to the American cause. In 1778, at the soliciation of General Knox, he acted as chaplain while the army lay at White Plains. In 1779 he left Newark, that he might accept a situation in North Carolina, but was soon obliged to fly before the army of Cornwallis, losing almost all that he possessed. Returning to Newark, he resumed his old charge, which he retained until the day of his death. He was a representative of the Presbytery of New York at the meeting of the first General Assembly at Philadelphia in 1789. In 1802, at the advanced age of sixty-eight, Dr. McWhorter was agent for soliciting funds in New England for rebuilding Princeton College, which had just been destroyed by fire, and had great success. He was one of the leading spirits in the organization of the Presbyterian Church. He died July 20th, 1807.

    Rev. Bononi Y. Messenger

    In 1829 he attended the first meeting of the Centre Presbytery of Illinois.
     

    Rev. Alexander Miller (b. pre 1747)

    Alexander Miller was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York in 1767, and was ordained in 1770. In 1771, he took charge of a church gathered in Schenectady, New York, where he remained for eleven years, but during the distraction of the Revolutionary war, his congregation dispersed, and he was compelled to leave the field. He was a trustee of Princeton College , 1785-1795.

    Rev. Samuel Miller

    He was assistant pastor to Dr. John Rodgers of the Brick Church and Wall Street congregations of New York in the last part of the eighteenth century. In 1803 he assumed the sole care of the Wall Street church.

    Rev. John Mines (ca. 1777-ca. 1849)

    He was a candidate for the ministry at Charles Town Church, april 17, 1797 and was licensed by Winchester Presbytery April 28, 1798.  He was the principal of the Charles Town, Virginia academy 1799-1803 and missionary for Berkeley county and east of the Blue Ridge.  He was dismissed to Lexington Presbytery April 19, 1804, by which he was ordained May 11, 1804.  He was stated supply at Bethel Church 1804-05 and then was received back by Winchester Presbytery August 1, 1806.  He was pastor at Leesburg, Virginia 1806-1822, when he was dismissed to Baltimore Presbytery.  Stated supply and pastor at Rockville and Bethesda, Maryland, 1822-49.  He went with the new school party in 1839.  He died 1849-50 and is buried at Shepherdstown, Viginia.  He married Margaret Kearsley and had several children, among them, Rev. Thomas Joseph Addison Mines (1803-1838), Rev. Flavel Scott Mines (1811-1852) and Elizabeth J. Mines (1810-1852) buried at Shepherdstown.

    David Montfort, D.D. (1790-1860)

    He was born in Adams Co., Pennsylvania, March 7, 1790.  He was educated in Transylvania University; graduated at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1817; was licensed by the Miami Presbytery in 1813, and soon became pastor of Bethel Church, in Oxford Presbytery. Here he labored for several years. Afterward he was stated supply for Terre Haute Church, Indiana. He was then one year at Wilmington (Sharon Church) under the care of Chillicothe Presbytery , and when he went to Crawfordsville Presbytery, he became pastor at Franklin, Indiana, and continued there for twenty years. In 1851, he was a member of Whitewater Presbytery, and for a few years remained without charge. In 1857 he removed to Macomb, Illinois, where he died October 18, 1860.
     

    Rev. Francis Montfort (1782-1855)

    Francis and his brother, Peter , were subject of deliberation by the Presbytery of Miami at its second meeting in 1811.  They had joined the Turtle Creek Church in 1803-4, when it was in transition, under McNemar to New Lightism.  They had studied for the ministry for four years with McNemar, Thomson , Marshall , and Stone , and had been New Light preachers for four years.  They expressed their desire to come under the care of presbytery as candidates for the ministry. After full conference, it was agreed to take no presbyterial action but that they should continue to hold meetings.  They did so, letting it be known that they intended to become Presbyterian ministers as soon as they could pass through their trials.  At this same meeting of presbytery, April, 1811, Francis Montfort presented his first born for baptism, and the ordinance was administered by the Rev. Joshua L. Wilson.  He was the pastor of Seven-mile Congregation in Collinsville, Butler Co., Ohio between 1810 and 1820.  He  came to Hamilton, Butler Co., Ohio and became the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in November, 1821, continued to officiate thus until the year 1831 when a schism occurring in the Church, in part originating from the doctrines of the New School and Old School parties, which then began to agitate the Church, Mr. Montfort adhered to the Old School. He was ejected from the charge of the congregation. However, a portion of the congregation still adhered to him. They built a new brick church on lot No. 58, in Rossville, where Mr. Montfort continued to officiate as their pastor until the year 1837, when he relinquished his charge and removed to Mount Carmel in the State of Indiana.

    Rev. Peter Montfort (1784-1865)

    See the discussion of his training under the note for his brother, Francis .  He first served the Church of Yellow Springs, and then the Church of Unity the successor of Turtle Creek, and Pisgah.  In 1836 he joined the Associate Reformed Church--since the United Presbyterian Church.  He died November 13, 1865 in the 81st year of his age.

    Rev. John Montgomery (ca. 1753-1818)

    He was born in the bounds of the New Providence congregation in Rockbridge County, Virginia, son of John Montgomery and Esther Houston.  He graduated at Princeton in 1775, was a tutor and student at Liberty Hall Academy under Rev. William Graham and was licensed by Hanover Presbytery, October 28, 1778, with Benjamin Erwin.  He was ordained April 27, 1780 and in October, 1781, given calls to  Bethel Church, Washington Co., Virginia, concord and Providence in Campbell and Louisa counties, Reed Creek in Montgomery Co., and to the united congregations of Opequon, Cedar Creek and Winchester.  He accepted the last and served there until May 24, 1789, when he informed Lexington Presbytery he had removed to Wahab and Rocky Spring Churches on Calf Pasture River.  He owned land there and there he remained to his death on February 10, 1818.  His wife was Agnes Hughart.

    John Houston, father of Esther, and John Montgomery, her husband were the prime movers in the organization of the New Providence Church; Esther H. Montgomery, sister of Rev. John, married Rev. Samuel Doak , pioneer Presbyterian minister and founder of Churches and colleges in Tennessee.
     
     

    Rev. Joseph Montgomery (b. pre 1739)

    He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Philadelphia about 1759, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Lewes, about 1761, and settled as pastor of the Presbyterian churches of New Castle and Christian Bridge, Delaware. From 1784 to 1788, Mr. Montgomery represented the State of Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress.  He was the maternal uncle of Rev. Samuel Eusebius McCorkle

    Rev. Moor (d. 1733)

    He died on Edisto Island, South Carolina in 1733, and was probably the first pastor of the church there, although it is not known when he came. Land was first donated for the support of a minister on the island in 1717.
     

    Rev. James B. Morrow (ca. 1800-1842)

    He was born in Virginia about 1800, probably son of John or Charles Morrow of Shepherdstown.  Candidate for the ministry before the Presbytery of Winchester, October 10, 1818.  He received an A.B. at Jefferson College in 1822, attended Princeton Theological Seminary 1822-25 and was finally licensed April 30, 1825.  He was dismissed to Richland or Steubenville Presbytery (in Ohio) October 22, 1825 "to whichever his congregation belonged" (Richland).  He was ordained by Richland Presbytery over the congregation of Canton, Ohio 1828-30 and stated supply and pastor at Sandyville and New Philadelphia, 1831-42.  He died at New Philadelphia, Ohio July 31, 1842.
     

    James Muir, D.D. (pre 1769-1820)

    He was a Scott who was the pastor of Alexandria in Virginia from 1789 until his death in 1820.  He was buried, dressed in his gown and bands, beneath the pulpit in a grave thirteen feet deep.