The Old Hopewell Presbyterian Church

A brief history of an old institution

Before 1803, when Ohio joined the United States, it was part of the vast Northwestern Territory. Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance, it was the nation's first post-colonial incorporated territory. At the time of its creation, the territory's land was home to several Native American cultures, including the Delaware, Miami, Potawatomi, Shawnee, and others.

The European notion of “property ownership” and the attraction of vast, seemingly underdeveloped tracts of arable land drew increasing numbers of settlers looking to establish themselves in what they saw as unclaimed land. The conflicts between these settlers and Native American inhabitants resulted in the Northwest Indian War culminating in General "Mad" Anthony Wayne's victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The subsequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened the way for settlement, particularly in southern and western Ohio.

I suspect that my ancestor, James Callin, was a private in a mounted cavalry unit that fought under Wayne in the Battle of Fallen Timbers:

Theoretical: James Callin's Military Career

Whether he fought there or not, two of his sons, James and John, settled in what would soon become Milton Township, Richland County, Ohio, around 1810.

Becoming Ohio

Milton Township was organized in Richland County, in 1816. Two years later, it was reduced in size to six miles square when Clear Creek Township was organized from the north half of Milton Township on 15 October 1818. When Ashland County was formed from portions of Huron, Lorain, Richland, and Wayne counties on 24 February 1846, Milton Township was again divided. The four columns of sections on the east were included in Ashland County (forming the territory on the map below), and the other two columns remained in Richland, where they were joined with part of old Franklin Township to create Weller Township. That left Milton with its present dimensions of four by six miles.

Milton Township, Ashland County, Ohio

Early Days: Statehood (1803) to 1816

In the early days of settlement an occasional minister, either Presbyterian or Methodist, traversed this region. The pioneers would assemble in a log cabin to hear preaching. If the weather permitted, people often gathered in the forest, and sometimes in a log barn to hear a new minister.

The Eckley Church was a log building erected in Vermillion Township. While it was the first church building built in the county, it was a "union building" - free to all Protestant ministers, occupied mostly by Methodists, who were the more numerous group.

George William Hill assessed in his 1880 History of Ashland County, Ohio, that the first organized congregation was within Montgomery township. Its membership was largely composed of the residents of Milton township and was organized by the settlers who arrived from (mostly) Western Pennsylvania in 1815-1816.

The Hopewell Congregation

These people were visited by Rev. Joshua Beer, who preached a few sermons in the cabins of the pioneers. About the same time Rev. William Mathews also became a candidate for employment as pastor of the new congregation.

In 1817, the Hopewell congregation was organized. It is not recorded whether they were aware of the Hopewell Culture that had lived on lands to their south for untold generations. The Hopewell congregation hired Mr. Mathews and employed him one-third of the time. The balance of his time was divided between Mt. Hope, in Perry, and Jeromesville, in Mohican township.

Twenty-two members were received on certificates from other congregations and twelve on examination. In 1818, Robert Nelson and Abraham Doty were elected elders, ordained and installed. The members, according to Hill's research, were:

• Robert Nelson

• Abraham Doty

• David McKinney

• William Huston

• David Pollock

• Abel Montgomery

• William Andrews

• George Ryall

• Samuel Burns

• David Burns

• Jasper Snook

• James Clingin

• James Ferguson

• Hance Hamilton

• Thomas Cook

• Robert Culbertson

• Isaac Mathews

• Jesse Mathews

• William Lions

• John Hall

• George Hall

• Samuel Urie

• James Black

• William Shilling

• Mrs. Jane Burgett

• Mrs. Mary Stevenson

• Mary Vanoshand

• Susan Vanmeter

• Nancy Owens

• Margaret and Mary Owens

• Mary Callen (presumably the wife of James “2nd” Callin)

• Nancy Starret

• Obediah Ferrell

• John Crabs

• John Prosser

• Joseph Scott

• Elisha Kelley

• Cornelius Eaton

The Rev. William Mathews continued to spend a portion of his time at Hopewell until 1821. He was succeeded by Rev. Robert Lee who remained until 1826, when he was succeeded again by Rev. William Mathews. As before, Rev. Mathews devoted one-third of his time until 1833, when he was succeeded by Rev. James Robinson, who gave half his time, until 1837.

The congregation, in the meantime, increased to about one hundred and fifty members. Around 1838, a lot was purchased in Ashland, and the congregation moved to a large frame church erected there.

The minister officiating at that time was Rev. Samuel Hare. In 1839, Rev. S. N. Barnes supplied the pulpit. He was succeeded by Rev. Robert Fulton, then principal of Ashland Academy, who remained until 1841. He was succeeded by Rev. James Robinson, who remained until 1843, when he was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Moody, who was pastor until his demise, in 1856.

The Service

William Andrews and George Ryall were chosen to conduct the music. They were both considered excellent singers. They stood near the pulpit, on a platform, where they led the congregation to read or sing.

Services began about ten o’clock and continued until about twelve o’clock, when there was a recess after which services continued for one or two hours. In the absence of the pastor, a leader was selected from among the church officers, who read a printed or written discourse for the edification of the members. This task frequently fell upon Elder Robert Nelson, who is said to have been a fluent reader.

The Building

In 1819 the congregants erected a hewed thirty by thirty-five-foot log church on what is now the Olivesburgh road, about one and a half miles west of Uniontown (now the city of Ashland).

According to the recollection of Mr. John Nelson, son of Robert:

"the building had a cabin roof, plank floors and door, plank benches without backs or cushions, the windows very high from the ground, the pulpit elevated after the old style, four or five steps, and boarded as high as a man's shoulders. The church was heated, in winter, by a large box-stove, capable of receiving four-foot wood. The building was erected by tire voluntary efforts of the pioneers and members, some furnishing a quota of hewn timber, others, plank and boards, and others, clapboards, sash, glass and nails, while others, with teams, hauled the materials to tire ground where the church was to be erected.”

History of Ashland County, Ohio, by George William Hill; pg. 84

The church building served for twenty years before the congregation moved to the new building in Ashland in 1839. It stood unused until 1864, when Bishop Rappe of St. Edward Catholic Church purchased the "Old Hopewell" Presbyterian Church which had not been in use the previous 18 years. By that time, the original Hopewell congregation had dissolved and connected with other churches.

The church burned to the ground in 1869.

Dissolution

A community is never just one person or just one family. There is only one Callin (“Mary Callen”) on the list above but she lived on a farm with her husband and his brother’s family. Between those two Callin families, they had 15 children - and whether they were all members of the church or not, they would have participated in the social life of the church and the town.

But Mary’s husband, James, was killed by a neighbor named Sutton Fowler in 1820, and her brother-in-law, John, succumbed to tuberculosis in 1835. By 1839, when the growing Hopewell congregation moved to their building in Ashland, the 15 Callin cousins had begun to grow up, marry, and move away - often in groups that settled further to the west.

By the mid-1840s, fewer than half of the Callin cousins remained in Ohio. Several of Mary’s sons moved to Iowa, where they were decimated by outbreaks of typhus and cholera. Mary had gone with them and is buried in Muscatine. The Scott family resettled in Winnebago County, Illinois, and the Fergusons took John’s wife, Elizabeth, with them to Auburn, Indiana.

But by the time the Old Hopewell church burned down, very few Callin family members remained in the Ashland area to mourn it.