HISTORY - OF - MO/NTGOME-Rg BAPTIST - IN - MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA. By EDWARD MATHEWS. A. K. THOMAS, PUBLISHER, AMBLER, PA. THB AMBLER GAZETTE PRINT. 1895. MONTGOMERY HAITIST CjBUKCH, 18DÖ PREFACE. The historic sketch contained in this little volume is not presumed to be exhaustive, nor comprising all that might be told concerning the past history of Montgomery church. Its preparation was prompted by the desire of the writer to pre­ serve the records of the old church book, and to multiply copies of that account, ere, through some misfortune, it might be destroyed. From the beginning, it was thought desirable to proceed further and add a narration of the origin of the church and of those who founded it in the wilderness. To this naturally grew some memorial notes concerning the several pastors who have ministered to the people during the long period since the organization of the church. The secession of New Britain in 1754, and the preceding controversy, is a matter of interest to both churches now, whilst the separation of Hilltown, in 1781, left the mother church with only a neighbor­ hood membership. The account of the constituent members in 17IQ> and of the early worthies who succeeded them, and their further fortunes, may be of interest to the large number of persons who are their descendants. E. M. NORTH WALES, PA., September, 1895. REV. CHARLES HENRY PINCHBECK. (The Present Pastor.) •History of the Montgomery Baptist Church. The Montgomery church, like all other Neshaminy gather their waters, that run of the early Baptist churches of Penn­ to the eastward. Montgomery church is sylvania, was founded by Welsh people. situated on the northern slope of this These immigrants in considerable num­ elevation, midway between its summit bers accepted the invitation of William and the village of Colmar, on the rail­ Penn and came to the new province he road to Doylestown. had founded. Some were among the There are several points of interest earliest arrivals. The majority came be­ about the early membership of Mont­ tween 1700 and 1740. They came not gomery church, which are worthy of pre­ only to better their fortunes, but to secure liminary notice. Among these is the greater religious liberty. These Welsh fact that these early AVelsh colonists immigrants were either Friends or Bap­ were familiar with the AVelsh tongue and tists. The siteof the Montgomery church used it in ordinary conversation. They was the centre of one of these Welsh understood English, but only imperfectly. settlements, which comprised the town­ They probably used their mother tongue ships of Gwynedd, Montgomery, New for a considerable time, and doubtless Britain, Hilltown and portions of Hat­ heard preaching in that language. Un­ field and Towamencin. The Welsh in like the Germans, who were settled in Gwynedd and Towamencin were Qua­ solid bodies, they lost or discarded their kers. Elsewhere, they mostly were Bap­ language after the lapse of a generation tists. The church is situated in the or more. English was the language of northern part of Montgomery, one of the the courts, the markets, and of the books smaller townships of the county of the they read. English was taught to their same name. The early members, such children in the primitive school houses. as lived in the vicinity, were mostly res-, They were surrounded by an English- idents of the central and upper portions speaking people. The first generation of the township. More than a majority doubtless retained this knowledge of lived in New Britain, Hilltown and Hat­ Welsh, and their children must have field until the separation of the New heard it spoken. But the language seems Britain and Hilltown churches. Mont­ to have been wholly lost by the second gomery township has remained an agri­ or third generation, or at least before the cultural region, and within the last half time of the Revolution, when it had be­ century has but slowly increased in pop­ come a foreign and forgotten tongue. ulation. A great highway, the Bethle­ hem turnpike, crosses it from north to It was fortunate for those who came south. It is crossed from east to west by after thein that these first Welsh settlers a high ridge, upon which are situated the were mainly a moral and religious people. hamlets of Montgomery Square and In this respect they were similar to the Montgomery ville. From this divide the founders of churches of other denomina­ waters flow in opposite directions. Here tions, and other races—English, Scotch- are the sources of the Wissahickon, flow­ Irish, Hollanders and Germans—who ing southwest, and two branches of the settled Pennsylvania. They were not satisfied with merely the acquisition of HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERY BAPTIST CHURCH. land and property and the rude plenty of drinking of alcoholic liquor was almost a new country. They might have been universal. It damaged the Welsh worse content merely with material prosperity. than the people of more stolid, less ex­ Houses and barns, cattle and money, all citable and phlegmatic races, just because the goods of this world might have been the Welsh were more sprightly, mercur­ their inspiration and the end of their ial and nervous in temperament. In efforts. Instead, they aimed at some­ those days the habitual drinking of in­ thing higher and better—the mental, toxicants was no bar to church member­ moral and spiritual culture of themselves ship. Nearly everybody did that. They and their posterity. A struggle for and were turned out of church only for re- * contentment with only worldly good peated drunkenness. The theory was would, in time, end with moral and men­ that alcoholic beverages were good to use, tal degeneracy, in profligacy, vice and but not to abuse—-a belief even yet not crime in the community, and in the loss extinguished.' It was not deemed wrong of that very worldly wealth, unwisely to sell such liquor, and dealers in such aimed at as the chief good. They started held membership in Baptist churches all aright the foundations of a well-ordered their lives. Considerable numbers of the and prosperous community, of prosperity Welsh of the second and third generations lost their property through intemperance, which should endure for generations to and their lands passed into the hands of come. owners of another race, who were not They were not unmindful of mental Baptists. Spiritual decadence was quite enlightenment, as well as spiritual im­ marked about the time of the Revolution, provement. In the deplorable lack of when the churches were closed for wor­ state or public provision for free schools ship, the Sabbath was not regarded, and in the early history of Pennsylvania, ig­ infidelity was rife among the classes who norance would soon have become univer­ read and thought and directed the move­ sal had not the early churches come to ments in social and political affairs. This the rescue. Nearly all of them, whether period continued for many years after in­ the members were English-speaking or dependence was established. German, placed school houses alongside of their churches. These proved insuf­ Among the early Welsh settlers of this ficiënt for the efficient education of the region were a number of men of superior whole mass of the people, but they did education, piety and mental force. They much to dispel the mists of ignorance were the natural leaders of the people. ami to impart the rudiments of knowledge Such men were Abel Morgan, Benjamin to the early generations. The voluntary Griffith, William Thomas, Joseph Eaton, system had a long trial and proved inad­ Simon Butler, and others that might be equate. It was happily succeeded by the named. By their piety, their courage, better free school system, established their industry, their wisdom, their self- over half a century ago. sacrifice, they led their people forward in Notwithstanding all these efforts to the path of mental and religious growth. promote religion and dispel ignorance, They were respected and revered, not there were times of great spiritual de­ only because of these qualities of leader­ clension and of mental darkness in the ship, but because they were of the people, last century. The second generation and labored with their own hands, as did were not up to the mark of the immi­ the other settlers. They toiled in the grants, especially in education. Very fields, they ploughed the land, or worked many men in the period before the Rev­ at the handicraft of the mechanic. This olution signed their names with their was a necessity of that time, as the mem­ "mark," and among the women the il­ bership of the churches were too poor, literacy was greater. Intemperance was or thought themselves too poor, to ade­ a very great curse of that day, especially quately support the preachers. among people of Welsh lineage. The It is evident that if the region from HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERY BAPTIST CHURCH. 9 which the early membership of Mont­ have been divested of their antique spell­ gomery was drawn had wholly remained ing and phraseology only : in the possession of their descendants, 1718—Esther Roberts, wife of John the parent church today would have Roberts, baptized. been immensely stronger in numbers. So 171!)-Esther Evans, daughter of John would the Baptist denomination in the Evans, and Mary James, wife of Wm. townships of New Britain, Hilltown and James, and Margaret Young, baptized. Hatfield. There would now exist six 1720—Evan Thomas and Mary, his wife, or eight strong and powerful Baptist received from Baptist church in Pem­ churches, embracing nearly all the peo­ brokeshire, Wales ; likewise Bernard ple in this territory.