commenced. The Great Revival, which marks the opening of the present century, with all its extravagances and excesses, effectually arrested the universal tide of skepticism and irreligion. It began when religion was at the lowest ebb, and spread over a region that to superficial view was proof against its influence.

CHAPTER XX.

RISE OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN TENNESSEE, 1775-1800.

RETURNING now to the fountain-head of Presbyterian emigration in Virginia, we take note of another branch of the current, following the line of the Holston. • In 1785, Abingdon Presbytery was erected by a division of the original Hanover Presbytery. It embraced the churches of Southwestern Virginia, and extended so as to include the new settlements on the Holston, in what is now Eastern Tennessee. In 1797, twelve years from its formation,-although Transylvania Presbytery was formed from it in 1786,-it numbered thirtysix congregations; while three others which had been under its care had become almost, if not quite, extinct.' Of these, eleven were within the State of Virginia, nineteen were in Tennessee, and seven were in the western part of North Carolina. More than two-thirds of the whole number were at that time vacant,-viz.: New Dublin, Austinville, Graham's Meeting-House, Adam's Meeting-House, Davis's, Upper Holston or Ebbing

1 Report to General Assembly, 1797.

Nearly all, however, were within the limits of what is now the State of Tennessee.

Spring, Glade Spring, Rock Spring, Sinking Spring, Green Spring, and Clinch Congregation, in Virginia; Upper Concord, New Providence, New Bethel, Hebron, Providence, Chesnut Ridge, Waggoner's Settlement, Charter's Valley, Gap Creek Congregation, Pent Gap and Oil Creek Congregations, Hopewell, Shunam, Lower Concord, and Fork Congregation, in Tennessee; and Rimm's Creek Congregation, Mouth of Swananoa, Head of French Broad, Tennessee Congregation, and Grassy Valley, in North Carolina.

The pastors at that time were John Cossan at Jonesborough, Samuel Doak at Salem, Hezekiah Balch at Mount Bethel, James Balch at Sinking Spring, Robert Henderson at Westminster, Samuel Carrick at Knoxville, and Gideon Blackburn at Eusebia and New Providence.

The oldest of the Virginia congregations, that of Upper Holston, or Ebbing Spring, had been in exist ence for twenty-five years, the others for shorter periods, varying from seven to twenty. In Tennessee, those of Upper Concord, New Providence, Salem, Mount Bethel, and Charter's Valley were organized in 1780; New Bethel, in 1782; Providence, in 1784; Hopewell, in 1785; Chesnut Ridge, Sinking Spring, New Providence, Pent Gap, Oil Creek, and Westminster, in 1787; Fork Congregation, Shunam,' and Hebron, in 1790; Waggoner's Settlement and Lower Concord, in 1791; Gap Creek Congregation, in 1792; Knoxville, in 1793; and Jonesborough, in 1796.

Meanwhile, the Presbytery of Transylvania, formed from that of Abingdon in 1786, and consisting of five members only at the time of its erection, had outgrown the parent Presbytery, and was fast attaining the dimensions of a Synod. Its field embraced the

1 Organized by Carrick perhaps a year or two later.

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 66 a John Knox in zeal and energy in support of his own Church." Beyond the bounds of his more immediate field he per

36

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