new settlements in Kentucky, and already extended across the Ohio River. Abingdon Presbytery thus marked the grand route by which the pioneer columns of the great Presbyterian army were moving on to take possession of the new settlements beyond the mountains.

At the commencement of the French War, about fifty families had located on the Cumberland River; but these were driven off by the Indians. About the same time the Shawnees, who had lived near the Savannah River, emigrated to the banks of the Cumberland and settled near the present site of Nashville; but they also were driven away by the Cherokees. In 1755, a number of persons removed to the west of the present bounds of North Carolina, and were the first permanent colonists of Tennessee. By 1773 the population had considerably increased; but in 1776 the Cherokees were incited by British agents to attack the infant and feeble settlements. Their incursions, however, were repelled, and during the war Tennessee colonists hastened to join their countrymen east of the mountains in repelling the attacks of the foe upon the Southern States.

At the close of the war, although the dangers of Indian warfare were still imminent and the settler stood in constant fear of savage ferocity, the vast territory sparsely occupied by the Cherokees was too inviting to be overlooked by pioneer enterprise; and the fair valley of the Holston was specially attractive. A wilderness of two hundred miles intervened between this region and the Kentucky settlements; but the grant of military lands brought into the bounds of what now constitutes the State not a few bold and hardy men, who had been schooled in peril, and to whom the trials of the wilderness were only a new spur to enterprise and strange adventure.

Those who were already on the ground-and they were largely composed of Presbyterians from the upper counties of Maryland and from Pennsylvania-were in constant danger from the hostile Indian tribes: yet, even thus, they had not been unmindful of the need of gospel ordinances. At Brown's Meeting-House, June 2, 1773, a call was presented to Hanover Presbytery for the services of Rev. Charles Cummings, by the congregations of Ebbing Spring and Sinking Spring, on the Holston. It was signed by one hundred and thirty heads of families. The call was accepted; and Mr. Cummings, who had labored for several years in Augusta, removed to his new field, as yet unoccupied by a single Presbyterian minister, beyond the mountains.

It was amid strange scenes that the early years of his pastorate in this region were passed. The Indians. were very troublesome, and during the summer months the families were compelled, for safety, to collect together in forts. Once (1776) Mr. Cummings himself came near losing his life from a hostile attack. The men never went to church except fully armed and taking their families with them. Mr. Cummings did not fail to set an example of precaution. On Sabbath morning he was wont to "put on his shot-pouch, shoulder his rifle, mount his dun stallion, and ride off to church." There he met a large congregation, every man of whom had his rifle in his hand. Stripping off his military accoutrements and laying down his rifle, the speaker would preach two sermons, with a short interval between them, and the people would disperse. For more than thirty years this pioneer of Presbyterianism in Tennessee was known and revered as an exemplary Christian and a faithful pastor. He was "a John Knox in zeal and energy in support of his own Church.” Beyond the bounds of his more immediate field he per

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formed a great amount of missionary labor, the fruits of which yet remain.

With the return of peace the tide of immigration commenced anew. In 1782, Adam Rankin, whose name is more intimately associated with the history of the Church in Kentucky, was licensed to preach, and soon visited the region of Holston. But he had been preceded four years by a man whose name deserves a more permanent record. This was Samuel Doak, conjointly with Cummings the founder of the Presbyterian Church in East Tennessee. Of Scotch-Irish descent, in a humble but honorable condition of life, he early resolved to secure himself an education. With this object in view, he proposed to relinquish to his brothers his share in the patrimonial inheritance and devote himself exclusively to study. By great self-denial, he prepared himself for college, and in 1775 was graduated at Nassau Hall. After studying theology with Dr. Robert Smith, of Pequa, he accepted the office of tutor in the then. new college of Hampden-Sidney. Here he continued his theological studies, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Hanover, October 31, 1777. Almost immediately he directed his steps to the Holston settlements. The means of subsistence were very scarce, and he was under the necessity of going thirty miles in the direction of Abingdon for supplies. His family ran great risk of being cut off in the Indian War. Repeatedly he left his pulpit or his students to repair to the camp at some hostile alarm.

Throughout his life, Dr. Doak was the devoted friend of learning and religion. In 1784, he was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of "the ancient commonwealth of Franklin," and secured in it the provision for a university. At Little Limestone, in Washington county, he purchased a farm, on which he built a log house for the purposes of education, and a

small church-edifice, occupied by the "Salem congregation." This literary institution—the first that was ever established in the Mississippi valley-was incorporated in 1785 as "Martin Academy," and in 1795 it became Washington College. Till 1818, Dr. Doak continued to preside over it. Few men in the history of the Church were better fitted, by wisdom, sagacity, energy, and learning, to lay the foundations of social and religious institutions than Dr. Doak.

Early in 1785 he was followed by a man of kindred spirit, who was destined to exert a vast influence upon this growing region. This was Hezekiah Balch, a graduate of New Jersey College in the class of 1762. After teaching for some years, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Castle, and labored for several years as a missionary within the bounds of Hanover Presbytery, his field reaching from the Potomac indefinitely toward the Pacific. After having labored thus in various localities, mainly as an itinerant missionary, he directed his course to East Tennessee. Here for more than twenty years his labors were abundant; and Greenville College owes its existence to his exertions. In May, 1785, he joined with Messrs. Cummings and Doak in a request to Synod that a Presbytery might be formed embracing the territories of the present States of Kentucky and Tennessee. The result was that the Abingdon Presbytery was erected,-soon, however, to be divided to compose the new Kentucky Presbytery of Transylvania. Along with Doak, Cummings, and Balch, the two new members Cossan and Houston constituted the Presbytery of Abington after the division. The last of these (Houston) had in 1783 accepted a call from the Providence congregation in Washington county; but he labored in the field for only about five years.

A valuable and efficient co-laborer in the pioneer mis

sionary work of East Tennessee was found in a young man by the name of Robert Henderson. He was one of Doak's pupils soon after Martin Academy, in Washington county, was opened. Here he pursued his course preparatory to entering the ministry. By Abingdon Presbytery he was licensed in or. about 1788, and took charge of the two churches of Westminster and Hopewell, the latter the present county-seat of Jefferson county. Here he continued for more than twenty years; and few of his associates exerted a more extensive or permanent influence. His powers of address were great and varied. When, to use his own language, conscience said, "Robert Henderson, do your duty," it mattered not who composed his audience. No man was spared; and on one memorable occasion, when profanity was his subject, and most others would have been overawed by seeing some of the most notorious swearers in the State present, his delineations, lashings, and denunciations are said to have been absolutely terrific. When dealing with vice, he used a whip of scorpions. Yet his moods were various,-now overwhelmingly solemn, now witty and humorous, and again most severe and scathing. With a matchless power of mimicry, and a perfect command of voice, countenance, attitude, and gesture, his flashes of wit or grotesquely humorous illustrations would break from him in spite of himself, convulsing with laughter an audience just trembling under his bold, passionate, and at times awfully grand appeals. He was aware of his own infirmity, and strove against it; but it gave him a popularity and influence with the masses such as few others have ever possessed. Thousands of hearers on a single occasion would be subdued and overwhelmed by his melting pathos. A crowd was sure to gather where it was known that he was to preach; and his indescribable earnestness, emphatic tones, and bold and striking gestures were "perfectly