ruary 5, 1798, a meeting was held, at which it was reported that the people concurred in the vote of the church, and that sufficient subscriptions had been secured to offer Mr. Story a salary of $300. We find nothing more in the records respecting a colleague, and therefore conclude that the subscriptions were not sufficient to support another man. February 8, a letter was sent to Mr. Story, giving the result of the canvass, and extending to him the call of the church. April 9, or sixty days later, an affirmative answer was received.

It was not practicable to convene a council in this distant settlement, therefore on May 15 the church "voted that Rev. Manasseh Cutler be, and he is hereby appointed agent for and in behalf of this church, to join with Mr. Daniel Story, the pastor-elect, in convening an ecclesiastical council, for the purpose of ordaining the said pastor-elect, and that Dr. Cutler represent this church in all matters necessary for having the said ordination effected." In accordance with this vote, a council was called by Dr. Cutler and Mr. Story, which convened at Hamilton, Massachusetts, August 15, 1798, at which time "Mr. Daniel Story was solemnly ordained as pastor of the church of Marietta and vicinity, in the Northwest Territory of the United States." This ordination was held seven hundred miles from the church, with no member of the church present except the pastor-elect.'1

The following is an extract from the minutes of that council: "After suitable examination of the pastor-elect, and mature consideration of the several matters before them, the council came to the following results:

I. Voted unanimously that the council is satisfied with respect to the qualifications of Mr. Story for the work of the gospel ministry, and of his being regularly called to be pastor and teacher of the church and association at Marietta and its vicinity.

II. Voted unanimously to proceed to the ordination of Mr. Story. The council then went in regular procession to the meeting-house where the Rev. Thomas Barnard introduced the solemnity by prayer. The Rev. Isaac Story (an uncle of the candidate) preached from 2 Cor. iv, 5. "For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." The ordaining prayer was made by the Rev. Eli Forbes, the Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler gave the charge, the Rev. Benjamin Wardsworth gave the right hand of fellowship and the Rev. Joseph Dana concluded the solemnities with an address to the throne of grace."

The charge given by Dr. Cutler is found in his recently published Memoirs. It was Christian and catholic in spirit. The only denominational allusion is as follows: "You have the honor, sir, to be the first regularly ordained and settled minister of the Congregational denomination in the extensive country westward of the Alleghany mountains. We, who are convinced that this denomination is most conformable to the sacred scriptures, and, from long experience, think it most consistent with the rights of conscience and religious liberty; most congenial with our national government and most favorable to those numerous municipal advantages which well-founded Christian societies endeavor to promote, feel much satisfaction in seing it transferred to that new country." We, who still believe in the scriptural church polity, may well express our regret that such sentiments were not universally prevalent in the New England churches during the next half century.

Mr. Story returned to Marietta April 3, 1799, and resumed his labors with the church. This, we shall observe, was two years after the vote to call him as pastor of the church. It seems strange to us, accustomed to the hurry of the present generation, that a period of time nearly equal to an average modern pastorate was consumed in the settlement of the first pastor of this church, but we must continue to bear in mind the distance. which separated the settlement from New England and also that religious as well as secular thought has been greatly quickened during the last century. During Mr. Story's absence the services were principally conducted by laymen and the sacraments were omitted. The first election of deacons was held April 26, 1799, when Josiah Hart was chosen for Marietta; Joseph Spencer for Vienna, Virginia; Benjamin Miles for Belpre, and Nathan Proctor for Waterford. Mr. Story continued his labors in these settlements until March 15, 1804, when, at his own request, he was released from the pastorate. His health was greatly impaired and he ended his earthly career December 30 of the same year at the age of forty-nine.

Mr. Story's ministerial labors were almost entirely with the people in these settlements. He died here and his remains rest in the old Mound cemetery. He has been described as “a

man of more than ordinary intellectual and literary attainments, a good preacher and very social in his disposition and intercourse." Most of his people were strongly attached to him and his influence was good. He is described as a man slightly below the medium stature, and a contemporary relates that he took his turn on guard during the Indian war.

In the early settlement of New England, when a new town was surveyed, it was customary to reserve one section of land for the support of the ministry and one for schools. When the Ohio Company laid out their lands they adopted a similar practice, and reserved in each township section 29 for the ministry and section 16 for schools. About the same time the general government adopted the same principle of reservation for schools. in all its territories; but since the constitution prohibited the union of church and State the ministerial reservation was very properly omitted, except by special enactment, as in case of the purchase by the Ohio Company. The ministerial section in Marietta fell within the city limits, and about the year 1800 began to yield a considerable income from rents. March 2, 1801, the first religious society was organized, according to an act of the legislature of the Territory, to take charge of the temporalities of the church. This society made a contract with Mr. Story, for the year 1802, at a salary of $450; provided that amount was realized from the rents of the ministerial lands. The leading members of the society now hoped to be able to provide Mr. Story with a salary which should in some measure remunerate him for the sacrifice he had made in previous years; but about this time some members of the society withdrew and employed a Presbyterian minister to preach for them. In the interest of peace, Mr. Story voluntarily relinquished one half the ministerial fund to support the new church. In 1804, a second religious society was formed in the interest of this Presbyterian church. That church was discontinued aftar a few years. Other religious societies were subsequently formed, which have divided the ministerial funds in the ratio of adherents to the present time.

The early religious history of Marietta embraces the history of the first Sunday School in Ohio and one of the first in the

country. Upon the outbreak of the Indian war, January, 1791, the commanding officer ordered all families in the different settlements to retire within their fortifications. Not less than thirty families took refuge within the stockade at Campus Martius. This consisted of a block of buildings surrounding an open space of 144 feet square. Among those who occupied rooms there was Mrs. Mary (Bird) Lake, wife of Archibald Lake. Mrs. Lake was an elderly Christian lady, who had been a nurse in our hospitals during the war of the revolution. She observed the children playing in the enclosure during Sunday afternoon and conceived the plan of organizing a Sunday School. I cannot find conclusive evidence that any other Sunday School then existed in the country, although three or four had existed some years earlier. If any existed at that time it is not probable Mrs. Lake knew of them, but a warm Christian heart and love for the children prompted her to gather them together Sunday afternoon and teach them scripture lessons and portions of the Westminster catechism. This school was commenced in the spring or early summer of 1791, and was continued until the close of the Indian war in 1795, when Mrs. Lake removed with her family to a farm about eight miles up the Muskingum. She died in 1796, and her grave in the cemetery at Rainbow is at present unmarked. It is hoped that the Sunday Schools of Washington county will erect a suitable monument to her memory.

Mrs. Nancy Allison Frost, who was born October 22, 1784, was one of Mrs. Lake's pupils from the beginning of her school and is still living at Lowell, Ohio, in the 104th year of her age; she retains her faculties and has a very vivid recollection of scenes in Marietta during those early days. The writer had an interview with her a few months since in which she gave a very interesting account of Mrs. Lake and her Sunday School. It is not probable there is another person in this country, perhaps not in the world, who was a Sunday School scholar ninety-seven years ago. What changes have occurred during the life of this aged pilgrim. Nearly 4,000,000,000 human beings have been born and as many have closed their earthly career during these years, and the population of our country has increased twenty fold. The Northwest Territory was a wilderness when she was