Sketches of Western Pennsylvania [pp. 280-306]

Sketches of Western Pennsylvania.
three months. They visited the military station at Fort Pitt,
preached to the small settlements on the way, and extended
their journey as far as Muskingum, and preached to the Delaware Indians collected there. In 1767, the Rev. Messrs.
Cooper and Brainerd reported that they had not fulfilled a
mission to which they had been appointed, because they had
heard unfavourable reports respecting the Delaware Indians,
for whom their mission was chiefly intended. Every year, for
several years, with very little success, attempts were made by
the same ecclesiastical body to send missionaries over the mountains. In 1771, the Rev. James Finley, brother of the Rev.
Samuel Finley, D. D., the fifth President of the College of New
Jersey, crossed the mountains and spent one or two months as
as a missionary. From that time the heart of this good man
was fixed on the West, and he several times passed the mountains, and in 1777 he asked his Presbytery to dismiss him, with
a view of removing his family west of the mountains; but his
request was refused, in consequence of the strong remonstrance
of the congregation of which he had been pastor several years.
In 1775, Mr. John McMillan, having obtained license to
preach the gospel, made a tour through the great valley of
Virginia, crossed the mountains, and entered the western country through Taggart's valley, on the borders of Virginia. The
year following he accepted a call from the congregations of
Chartiers and Pigeon Creek; but he did not remove his family
and reside permanently with his congregations until 1778.
The Rev. James Power removed his family west of the mountains in 1776, and resided on Dunlap's creek, about four miles
from Brownsville, Fayette county, and preached in different
places until 1779, when he became pastor of the congregations
of Mount Pleasant and Sewickly.
The Rev. Thaddeus Dod crossed the mountains in 1778,
preached to the people of Upper and Lower Ten-Mile, living
the greater part of the time in block-houses, to protect themselves from the attacks of the Indians. The following year he
removed his family, which he had left in Virginia, and became
the pastor of the congregations of Ten-Mile.
The Rev. Joseph Smith became pastor of the congregations
of Buffalo and Cross Creek, in Washington county, in 1780.
282
[APRIL