Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County. William Alexander Taylor
First Presbyterian Church had its origin in Franklinton, and was organized on the 8th of February, 1806, as the First Presbyterian Church of Franklin county: pastor, Rev. James Hope; elders, Robert Culbertson, William Read; trustees, Joseph Dixon, John Dill, David Nelson, William Domigan, Joseph Hunter, Lucas Sullivant.
The formal organization of the church was under the charge of Rev. R. G. Wilson of Chillicothe and the following members were accepted: Colonel and Mrs. Robert Culbertson, William and Mrs. Read, David and Mrs. Nelson, Michael and Mrs. Fisher, Robert and Mrs. Young, Mrs. Margaret Thompson, Mrs. Susanna McCoy and Miss Catherine Kessler.
Among the later members were: Lucas Sullivant, William Shaw, John Turner, Joseph Hunter, John Hunter, John Turner, Adam Turner, J. Hamlin, S. G. Flenniken, John Dill, Michael Fisher, J. McGowan, George Skidmore, Samuel King, William Brown, Sr., Joseph Park, David Jameson, Andrew Park. John Overdier, Jacob Overdier, Charles Hunter, John Lisle, J. McElvaine, M. Hess, M. Thompson, Robert Young, William Domigan, John McCoy, Joseph Smart, Isaac Smart, S. Powers, Jos. Dickinson, Joseph Cowghill.
In 1805, the afterward distinguished Dr. Hoge, then a young man, first arrived in Franklinton as a missionary; and after laboring in that capacity for some time, he formed a regular church, of which he remained the head until he resigned his charge, in 1857. In 1807 he was regularly employed by his church and congregation to minister to their religious wants. The following is a copy verbatim of the call upon him for that purpose and to which he acceded. The old document, in the hand writing of Lucas Sullivant, is still preserved as a relic of past times: "The congregation of Franklinton, being on sufficient ground well satisfied of the ministerial qualifications of you, James Hoge, and having good hopes from our past experience of your labors, that your ministration in the Gospel will be profitable to our spiritual interests, do earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pastoral office in said congregation; promising you in the discharge of your duty, all proper support, encouragement and obedience in the Lord: And that you may be free from worldly cares and avocations, we hereby promise and oblige ourselves to pay to you the sum of three hundred dollars, in half yearly payments, annually, for three-fourths of your time, until we find ourselves able to give you a compensation for the whole of your time, in like proportion, during the time of your being and continuing the regular pastor of this church. In testimony whereof, we have respectively subscribed our names, this 25th day of September, Anno Domini 1807.
"Robert Culbertson,
"William Read,
"Elders.
"Joseph Dixon,
"Joseph Dill,
"David Nelson,
"William Domigan,
"Joseph Hunter,
"Lucas Sullivant,
"Trustees."
The house in which the congregation first held their religious meetings in Franklinton was a two-story frame and was still standing in 1858, when the semi-centennial was celebrated, some two hundred yards northward from the old courthouse. The sessions of the supreme court of Franklin county were first held in the same building. It so happened, that Parson Hoge traveled from Springfield to Franklinton in company with Judge Baldwin, who, pleased with the young candidate for holy orders, tendered him the use of the room occupied by the court; and here the small band of worshipers first assembled for religious service. The next church building was a very plain one-story brick house, erected on the bank of the river, near the old Franklinton burying-ground. The society's next step was their removal to the infant town of Columbus. In the spring of the year 1814 they erected a log cabin about twenty-five by thirty feet on the ground near the corner of Spring and Third streets. Service was held at times in this, but principally at the Franklinton brick church, until the year 1818, when a frame building, or rather three frames connected and forming but one inside or large room, was erected on the west side of Front street, south of town, where Dr. Hoge administered to his congregation until the erection of the First Presbyterian church, in 1830, at the corner of State and Third streets, and the first services were held in it on the first Sunday in December, 1830. In 1855 this building underwent a general remodeling, under the direction of Mr. K. A. Sheldon, architect, and here services were continued to be held until preparations were completed to remove to Bryden road and Ohio avenue, and the site was disposed of.
On the 8th of February, 1856, the church held a semi-centennial celebration in the church building, in honor to their venerable and highly respected pastor—at which Dr. Hoge himself was the interesting and imposing character most observed. He delivered the address on the occasion. It was an interesting recital of the circumstances attending his advent into this then wilderness, and the progress of the church and society generally since that period. The Rev. Mr. Hall and Rev. Mr. Smith, both of the Presbyterian church, also spoke on the occasion. Under the direction of Joseph Sullivant.
Esq., whose familiarity with the church made it an easy and pleasant duty, a number of well-executed pictures were hung around the room, at once disclosing a striking and graphic history of the church improvements above referred to. The pillars were decorated with festoons of evergreens and flowers.
The tables were admirably arranged, under the direction of Mrs. Kelsey, and the supper was worthy of the occasion. The whole thing passed off well and was a solemn but pleasant celebration.
Half Century Organization.
The church organization at the date of the half-century was: pastor, Rev. Edgar Woods; elders, James Cherry, Isaac Dalton, Thomas Moodie, James S. Abbott, William M. Awl, Alfred Thomas; trustees, Robert Neil, M. L. Sullivant, D. W. Deshler, James D. Osborn, George M. Parsons.
The membership of the First church, according to a local authority, was one hundred and seventy-five. During the last eight or ten years of Dr. Hoge's administration he was assisted by various ministers of the denomination. On Sunday, June 28, 1857, he delivered an appropriate address, resigned the charge and was succeeded by Rev. Edgar Woods, formerly of Wheeling, Virginia, who was regularly installed on the 30th day of the same month.
Dr. Hoge is described, by a contemporary, when he was approaching fourscore, as tall, erect and robust in figure, the embodiment of healthful, contented and happy age, with hair but little whitened with the frosts of time. His long and useful career came to a peaceful and triumphant close in Columbus, Ohio, on the 22nd of September, 1863, at the age of eighty-nine, with but little impairment of his physical and mental powers. He was born in Moorefield, Hardy county, Virginia, July 4, 1784. He had lived an active, laborious life, and lived it well and becomingly, and thus escaped most of the ills flesh is traditionally heir to.
That the life of Dr. Hoge and the growth of Presbyterianism in the capital of Ohio, in the central regions of the state, is fully shown by a remarkably vivid memorial written by Dr. E. D. Morris, of Columbus, who, like Dr. Hoge, was, or rather is, a man of great mental and physical powers and still lives in flesh and in vigorous age, to cheer and edify his many admiring friends. This memorial was written by Dr. Morris in 1870, and printed in the June number of "Our Monthly," a religious and literary magazine for the family, published in Cincinnati. Dr. Morris describes the primitive conditions in central Ohio at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the •obstacles of all kinds that met James Hoge, a young beginner in the vineyard, in 1803.
Dr. Hoge, then it young man, visited Highland county, Ohio, to transact some secular business and strive for a betterment of health. He resolved to become a permanent citizen of the newly erected state. He was twenty years old. Preliminary thereto he returned to Virginia to earn the means to begin his labors in the wilderness.
His father. Moses D. Hoge, was a famous Presbyterian divine in the Old Dominion, and for the fifteen closing years of his life had been president of Hampton Sidney College. James taught school and studied theology under private tutors. On April 17, 1805, he was licensed to preach in the Presbytery of Lexington, Virginia. In the same year he received a commission from the general assembly to preach the gospel as a missionary in Ohio. As already stated, he was "called" to the ministry in Franklinton (now Columbus), which he accepted, was regularly ordained and began his ministry in the courthouse of Franklin county.