or Congregational, resided within its bounds. There was not even an organized church. Nearly all the missionary labor that had been performed in the region had been performed by ministers appointed for short periods by the General Assembly. Yet, limited as the time of their efforts was-in their absence from their own charges the reports of their labors and successes were pronounced by the Assembly of 1799 to be "favorable," and to "afford rational ground to believe that the appropriations of the voluntary contributions of our Christian brethren for the benevolent purpose of extending the means of religious instruction in those parts of our country will prove satisfactory to them, and encourage them to further assistances in that way."

Of the ministers sent out by the Assembly, Rev. Ira Condict organized a church in Palmyra in 1793; Rev. Benjamin Judd, one at Windsor, at nearly the same time; and Rev. Daniel Thatcher, in 1795, the three churches of Elmira, Lima, and Geneseo. Almost at the same time, Congregational churches were organized by missionaries from Connecticut,-one by Rev. Mr. Campbell at Sherburne, and another by Rev. Zadoc Hunn at East Bloomfield. Between 1796 and 1800, several other small churches had been organized. Rev. Reuben Parmele was installed at Victor in 1799; Rev. Timothy Field at Canandaigua in 1800; and Rev. Mr. Grover at Bristol in the same year.

But in 1800 more vigorous measures were taken by the General Assembly for the visitation and supply of this whole region. In 1798, Rev. Mr. Logan had traversed the country, and preached with so much acceptance that the settlers urgently requested his return. The request was approved by the Assembly, and additional laborers were appointed for different periods in this inviting field.

These measures were adopted in accordance with the established mission-policy of the Church, but they were prosecuted with enlarged vigor in consequence of the intelligence from Western New York. A letter of the late Dr. Williston, of Durham, N.Y., then a young missionary in the service of the Connecticut Missionary Society, was published in the New York "Missionary Magazine" early in 1800, and spread before the churches the cheering success of the previous year. That year, for a long period, was destined to be remembered throughout the region as the year of the Great Revival. One of the most prominent of the ministers who were connected with it was the late Jedediah Bushnell, of Cornwall, Vt. Six years before, while engaged in his tanning-mill at Saybrook, Conn., a stranger stepped in to inquire of him the way. Having obtained his information, he lingered long enough to ask his informant whether he was in the "way" of salvation. A few serious words were dropped, which led to the conviction and conversion of Mr. Bushnell. He immediately gave up his business, entered Williams College, was graduated in 1797, and in the following year was invited to Canandaigua to supply the pulpit of the infant church in that place. He went; but, not content with supplying his own people, he traversed the surrounding region as a missionary. Earnest, affectionate, discreet, and devoted entirely to his work, he won the affection and respect of all. A powerful revival commenced. Mr. Williston, who had completed his commission for the Military Tract, joined his friend Bushnell. On every side the work spread. Places could not be procured large enough to accommodate the crowds who pressed to hear the word. "It seemed as if there was scarcely anybody at home who could possibly get to meeting."

Intelligence of this state of things was given in Williston's letter. He wrote, moreover, "There is a great

call for preachers in this county and in the other western counties of this State. There are scarcely any settled ministers in all this extensive, flourishing, and growing country." Rev. Walter King, who performed a missionary tour in the counties of Chenango and Tioga (1798), wrote, "While I have been a preacher, never did I enjoy a season, in so short a time, of so much Christian satisfaction or so high a probability of being really useful to the souls of men." In the winter of 1798 the work began. Through the spring and summer following it was characterized by a "wonderful display of divine power and grace in the conversion of sinners." Throughout the region "individuals appeared awakened in most places." Several churches were soon organized, although the missionaries said, "We are afraid to establish churches while there are no shepherds within call to feed and lead them."

ner.

The revival commenced at Palmyra; it soon extended to Bristol, Bloomfield, Canandaigua, Richmond, and Lima, and to other places in a less marked manQuite a number of churches were formed, and in 1800 the Association of Ontario was organized,— at first on strictly Congregational principles, but three years later its Constitution was so revised and altered as to give it jurisdiction over the ministers and churches to such an extent as to exclude them from the connection if found erroneous in doctrine or practice.

Here was already, almost contemporaneous with the adoption of the Plan of Union, a voluntary approximation by the Congregational body to Presbyterian principles. The circumstances in which ministers and churches in the new settlements found themselves, demanded a stricter discipline than was necessary in the towns and parishes of New England. There was thus on the part of Congregationalists themselves a disposition not to fall back on any favorite form of govern

ment, but to select that which was best adapted to the emergencies of the case.

At the close of the eighteenth century the institutions of the gospel had been extensively planted in Western New York; and it would be difficult to say whether the preponderating influence was on the side of Presbyterians or Congregationalists. It was a question which no one was disposed to raise, and the means of its solution are not readily to be obtained. The strength of the two denominations west of the Hudson seems to have been nearly equal, in case the Presbyterian leanings of the bodies Congregational in name be not taken into account. Nearly or quite twenty churches had been organized, although with scarcely an exception they were all in a feeble state. By 1793 the churches of Sherburne, Windsor, and Cazenovia had been gathered. In the course of the two or three years that followed, those of Auburn, East Palmyra, and Elmira were added to the list. Before or by 1800, the number was increased by those of Oxford, Bainbridge, Springport, Scipio First, Milan, Geneva, Ovid, Lisle, Naples, and probably some few others.

Thus the foundation was laid for the operations of subsequent years, and already the policy which was declared in the Plan of Union was initiated, and, with or without ecclesiastical legislation, the spirit of the leading ministers and missionaries was such as was sure to promote the results which the Plan was intended to secure.

CHAPTER XIX.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN KENTUCKY, 1775-1800.

SOME estimate may be formed of the urgent claims of the great mission-field west of the Alleghanies and south of the Ohio, from the fact that the aggregate population of Kentucky and Tennessee had increased. from little more than one hundred thousand in 1790 to three hundred and twenty-five thousand in 1800. A constant stream of immigration was pouring into it from the older settlements, at the rate of something like an average of twenty thousand a year. This was

during a period when New England had scarcely begun to colonize west of the Hudson, and when Central and Western New York were in process of being surveyed. The pioneers were bold and hardy men, ready to brave the hardships of the wilderness and contend with the beasts of the forest or the scarcely less merciless Indian tribes. Their lives were full of strange vicissitude and romantic incident. Constant hazard and peril seemed to become at length the necessary stimulant to healthful energy.

Among such a people, the recluse scholar, with his logical, polished discourse read from the manuscript, was not needed. Erudition and refinement were not in demand. The hardy backwoodsman required a new type of preacher,-one who could shoulder axe or musket with his congregation, preach in shirt-sleeves, and take the stump for a pulpit. Men of this stamp could not