THE PROCESS
Ten rural religious societies of Presbyterians evolved in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania prior to 1745. This account of the chain of self-starting societies in the seventy-mile Valley is drawn principally from the Minutes of the Presbytery of Donegal, which exercised rigid control over ecclesiastical activity, including such matters as scheduling each Sabbath of sermons until such time as a resident preacher was in place. Accordingly, the seventy thousand words in the official record between 1732, and 1740 contain solid evidence on the ecclesiastical history of the time.
Legal right for the Penn family to grant land to settlers west of the Susquehanna River came on October 11, 1736, following a treaty with the Iroquois Indians. Beginning January 24, 1734, and anticipating the results of negotiations, the Penns through their agent Samuel Blunston issued 284 licenses for tracts in and near the Valley. These licenses were, in effect, limited options to purchase, accompanied by a concurrent right to occupy. In spite of the vague descriptions and indefinite locations of tracts the Blunston Licenses were adequate to attract colonists. In the Valley most of the families were Presbyterians from Northern Ireland. For Valley tracts the permits were issued at the average rate of 1.76 per week for thirty-three months. Obviously settlement was slow in 1734, 1735, and 1736.
Prior to November 14, 1739, all regular preaching in the Valley, with the single exception of that done by Thomas Craighead, was done by young licentiates who could not be ordained until they completed Presbytery's stringent examinations and also had received official calls by majority votes at congregational meetings as authorized by Presbytery and moderated by a named ordained minister for that local service on a designated week day.
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. Donegal Presbytery, from its seat in Chester County, made no concessions in its procedure. Accordingly, what constitutes the formation of a church in the Cumberland Valley is definable; what constitutes the start of a society or of a few "gathered together in His Name" is indefinite.
None of the 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 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 Presbyterian 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 considering those things of cultural significance in our heritage, one rarely, if ever, thinks of tombstones. Yet pre-1850 stones and their art offer valuable insight into how our ancestors viewed death and life after death, and also reflect changes in the perception of death and rebirth.