Early Donegal Congregation

How early congregations developed

Presbyterian societies developed quickly along the new frontiers of early America, but not so quickly as historians of those congregations and regions sometimes claim.  Usually, when a new area was opened for settlement, young  ministers who had been licensed to preach by the Presbyterian governing bodies were sent out on mission to take a trip through the frontier, stopping periodically to join a group of Scotch-Irish or Scottish settlers together to worship, before moving on to another settlement.  Under the Presbyterian form of government, however, a "licentiate" could not be ordained until he completed the Presbytery's stingent examination and had been officially "called" by a specific congregation that undertook to support him.

The minister could then install the ruling elders-elect.  In Presbyterian terminology the process of creating a board of installed, ruling elders transformed a society into a church.  Accordingly, what constitutes a "church" in Presbyterian terminology is definable; what constitutes the start of a society or of a "few gathered together in his name" is indefinite.

None of these churches appeared suddenly or fully developed; many preliminary steps had to be taken.  The first was when for the first time the Bible was read at a family gathering.  On September 3, 1733, Donegal Presbytery (of Pennsylvania) went on record to "press family and secret worship."  Unquestionably the second step came when a family invited to their cabin on a Sunday, which was construed as the "Sabbath" at the time, some neighbors who informally read the Scripture, kneeled in prayer, used the Westminster Shorter Catechism to test the children, and sang the Scottish metrical version of the Psalms.  There were no sermons; Presbyterians frowned upon preaching by the laity.

As the number of participants increased or as the occasions of gathering became more frequent, the group became what the Minutes referred to as a society.  The term had been used in Scotland to describe dissenting Covenanters who gathered together outside the jurisdiction of the established Presbytertian Church.  A society had no official connection with Presbytery, but as one matured it could send one or more commissioners to Presbytery for the purpose of "supplicating" that a clergyman of the choice of the governing body be sent as a visiting preacher or for some other specific purpose.

When a society subsequently could provide adequate financial support, the commissioner could ask Presbytery to assign someone as a "supplyer for ordinary" rather than occasionally sending clergymen to conduct services.  Missionaries and "constant suppliers" at first preached outdoors or in family cabins, usually on alternate Sundays at two locations within the territory of one society.  This arrangement was a concession to the widely scattered and sparse population.  An example was the Pennsborough society which temporarily, 1737-39, claimed as its jurisdiction the thirty-mile stretch west from the Susquehanna River.  Outdoor preaching points materialized at one of James Silver's springs and at the junction of Indian paths in the east end of present-day Carlisle.  Springs or streams were necessities for parishioners traveling over dusty roads to attend services.
From "The Evolution of Ten Pre-1745 Presbyterian Societies in the Cumberland Valley" by William T. Swaim. 1985.  Used with permission.
 

Donegal Church, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania -- Est. 1719

Donegal Church was organized in 1719, or very early in 1720. Andrew Galbraith, Esq., son of James Galbraith, who came to America with William Penn, from Queenstown, upon his second visit, and whose remains are buried at Derry Graveyard, settled upon the land adjoining Donegal Church on the south, in 1718, for which he received a patent from the Penns in 1736, for two hundred and twelve acres. He was the first ruling elder of this church, and to him belongs the credit of organizing the congregation, and the selection of one of the most admirable and attractive sites for a church edifice within the broad limits of the state.

The first meeting house was erected with logs, and stood a few yards south of the present structure. After it had been used for a dozen years, the present edifice was erected. Loose stones were collected from the surface of the ground in the surrounding woods, with which the walls were built. There was no effort made by the masons to dress the stone; they were simply laid in mortar, to a line. The edges were craggy and rough. And there were no stone in the building that one man could not conveniently handle. The walls were plastered on the inside, but the outside was left in its rough state until the remodeling of the house in 1850.

The front of the building was the south side, facing the graveyard, with a double doorway, the only entrance into the house. The door frame and windows had a circular head. The pulpit stood against the northern side and immediately opposite the doorway. A broad aisle led from the door to another one running lengthwise of the building in front of the pulpit. Upon each side of the pulpit and facing it, were nine pews. Upon each side of the aisle running from the entrance door were seven pews.

There was also a small aisle near each end of the room, which ran at right angles to the main aisle, from which entrance was had to corresponding seven pews already mentioned. These pews faced the pulpit. Thre were four pews facing this small aisle, and between it and the end walls. For some years after the church was built, the floors of the aisles were composed of earth; no stoves were admitted; an innovation of that kind was considered incompatible with the worship of a true Christian; gradually, however, two large stoves, cast at Cornwall, were introduced, and the aisle paved with brick. The seats and backs of the pews were made of yellow pine and oak. The backs came to the neck of an ordinary person, and were perpendicular. At the corners of the pews were corner boards rounded out to fit the backs, and which really made it more uncomfortable to sit.

Two or three rows of pews in front of the pulpit had inclined shelves, upon which the hymn-books were placed. Of course, there was no paint upon any of the wood-work. Thus the building stood when it was remodeled.

The Rev. David Evans supplied the Donegal Church in 1720, and the Rev. George Gillespie and the Rev. Robert Cross were among the supplies in 1721 and probably for the year 1722 also. In the Fall of 1723 the Rev. Messrs. Alexander, Hutcheson, and Daniel McGill were sent by New Castle Presbytery. In 1725 the Rev. Adam Boyd of Octorara gave Donegal the one-sixth of his time. On the 24th day of September, 1726, the Rev. James Anderson was called to the pastorate of the church, and on the last Wednesday in August, 1727, he was installed. He died July 16th, 1740. Rev. Hamilton Bell had charge of the church from 1742 until the fall of 1743. The pulpit was supplied by Presbytery until November 23d, 1748, when the Rev. Joseph Tate was installed as pastor, in which relation he continued until his death, October 11th, 1774, a period of twenty-six years.

The history of the church during the colonial period was an eventful one, and particularly during the French and Indian War of 1755-8, and the subsequent Indian wars. Many members of the congregation were driven from their homes on the Conoy and Conawago creeks by the Indians. But there were also many members who shouldered their guns and marched to the frontier settlements to aid in terminating the Indian incursions, depredations and massacres.

Early in the Spring of 1776 the Rev. Colin McFarquhar took charge of the church at Donegal. 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. McFarquhar 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.

After the resignation of Mr. McFarquhar, Donegal Church was supplied occasionally, in 1806, by the Rev. Nathanael Randolph Snowden, then settled in Lancaster, and served by Rev. Robert Cathcart, of York, as a stated supply. The Rev. William Kerr succeeded Mr. McFarquhar as pastor. Rev. Kerr also preached in Marietta, where he died in 1821. He was succeeded in the pastorate of Donegal by the Rev. Orson Douglass, the Rev. Thomas Marshall Boggs, the Rev. James L. Rodgers, the Rev. John J. Lane, the Rev. John Edgar, and the Rev. William Blays Brown, who took charge of the church in 1871.