here on a firm foundation. I do not recollect the precise time of his coming or leaving. The little brick church on the hill was erected in 1825, (chiefly by old Mr. Hudson.) I think the Rev. Mr. Page preached in it for some years. This church was used until 1835, when it was burned.

"The first vestry was P. R. Thompson, Davis Hudson, Jesse Hudson, and others whose names I have forgotten. After Mr. Page left, we were for some time without a minister, and the Methodists and Presbyterians came in and gathered up the sheaves already bound by him, as many baptized by him connected themselves with those Churches. The Rev. F. D. Goodwin succeeded Mr. Page, and continued about two years. I think he came in 1830 or 1831, and was followed by the Rev. Mr. Martin in 1833, who remained in the county about five years, and gave place to Mr. Craik, who preached for us occasionally for several years. Old Mr. West had charge of this parish part of a year during Mr. Craik's ministry in Charleston. After Mr. West left us, Mr. Craik still continued to preach for us, until the spring of 1845, when the Rev. F. B. Nash was called to this parish. He continued to labour zealously for several years. During his ministry St. Mark's Church was built on a part of the lot given by my father for a church and parsonage. The parsonage was built for Mr. Martin, but was never occupied by a minister until Mr. Nash came. Mark's Church was built in 1846, and shortly afterward St. John's in the Valley. The congregation in Quay's Valley was first gathered by Mr. Craik, and an old still-house converted into a place of worship. I think he started a subscription-paper for St. John's before he left. There are several communicants still living near this church, though they have never had any services since Mr. Nash left, with the exception of one or two sermons from Mr. Henderson, who continued here a short time. I was licensed as a lay reader about thirty-two years ago, and have continued to officiate in that capacity and as superintendent of the Sunday-school up to this time. Our school last summer, and as long as the weather permitted during the fall, was quite a flourishing one, numbering more than forty scholars. We shall resume it on next Sunday, if the weather continues good. I remain, dear sir, your attached friend, F. THOMPSON."

List of Persons who have acted as Vestrymen, (from memory.)

St.

P. R. Thompson, Sen., Davis Hudson, Jesse Hudson, John Lewis, P. R. Thompson, Jr., John P. Turner, Alexander Bradford, Dr. John Thompson, Robert Simms, George Rogers, Alfred A. Thornton, Benjamin S. Thompson, George W. Thornton, Francis Thompson.

We have no other church besides these on the Kanawha River, though our ministers have had stations at the court-house in a neighbouring county and at Buffalo in Kanawha county. At Point Pleasant, besides the occasional visits of the Rev. Mr. Craik and Mr. Henderson, the Rev. James Goodwin laboured several years in the hope of building a church and raising up a congregation, but was disappointed. Various circumstances have prevented the establishment of a flourishing village on that most beautiful of all the sites on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, which, by their junction there, concur to make it as convenient for trade as it is memorable

for the bloody battle with the Indians in which the family of Lewis so signalized itself,-some of whose descendants still live upon the spot and adhere to the Church of their ancestors.

BRUCE CHAPEL.

About twelve miles below Point Pleasant, on Mercer's Bottom, a large and fertile tract of land, once owned by Charles Fenton Mercer, we have a comfortable brick building called Bruce Chapel, erected during the ministry of the Rev. James Goodwin, and so named because of the large contribution made to it by Mrs. Eliza Bruce, now of Richmond, and whose liberality to so many other objects is well known throughout Virginia. The chapel is in the neighbourhood of the Moores, Beales, General Steenbergen, and others whose names I cannot now recall.

THE CHURCH AT RAVENSWOOD.

Ravenswood is a small village on the Ohio River, built on land taken up by General Washington, (who never made a mistake as to the quality of soil,) and left to some of the Ashton family of King George, with whom the Washington family was connected. Mr. Henry Fitzhugh, formerly of Fauquier, marrying a descendant of the Ashtons, became possessed of a part of this estate, and settled on it with a large family of children. At his expense a neat little chapel has been put up at Ravenswood, and when ministerial services were not to be had one of his sons has officiated as lay reader. The Rev. Mr. Tompkins has now for the last two years been residing there, discharging the duties of a teacher and minister at the same time. Services are also held at the court-house of that county.

Since the above was penned, I have received a communication. which states that the ladies, by their zeal and diligence, raised one hundred and fifty dollars for the furnishing of the chapel, and that some contributions were made by individuals other than the family above mentioned, in the neighbourhood, and in Wheeling and Cincinnati, though not to a large amount. Contributions of labour were also made by some of the neighbours. The Rev. Mr. Wheeler was the minister for two years from the year 1842. The Rev. Messrs. Martin and Craik and Brown, of Charleston, the Rev. Mr. Goodwin, of Point Pleasant, the Rev. Messrs. Smith and Perkins, of Parkersburg, the Rev. Mr. Hyland, of Moundsville, and Drs. Armstrong and McCabe, of Wheeling, have all rendered acceptable services at

Ravenswood. The vestrymen have been Mr. Henry Fitzhugh, Dr. John Armstrong, Thomas Atkinson, W. S. Holmes, D. M. Barr, Burdett Fitzhugh, Henry Fitzhugh, Jr., R. H. Dickenson, James R. Mays, George H. Fitzhugh, T. D. Noussey, J. Beckwith, Thomas Kirk, D. Frost, I. J. C. Davenport, H. Harpold, James Beatty.

THE CHURCHES IN PARKERSBURG AND THE VICINITY.

Parkersburg was one of the places visited by our first missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. Lee and Page. The Rev. Mr. Goodwin, also, either before or after his settlement in Kanawha, paid an acceptable visit to the people of that place. The Rev. Mr. McMechin, soon after his ordination, spent a year or more in attempting to raise up a congregation there. In the year 1843, the Rev. Thomas Smith was elected its minister and the church was regularly organized, and in the following year was admitted into union with the Convention of Virginia. Mr. Smith immediately commenced, with his accustomed enterprise, to raise funds for building a church, and was sufficiently successful in securing enough to provide a small and plain church; but, as is too often the case in the progress of such a work, the views of those engaged in it were enlarged, both as to the size of the building and the style of its execution, so that the completion of it was delayed for some years. It is a well-built and handsome brick church, and stands on ground presented to the vestry by J. F. Snodgrass, late member of Congress from that district. For a large portion of the funds for its erection, and for much of the superintendence of the work, the congregation is indebted to General J. J. Jackson, of Parkersburg. Mr. Smith died in 1847, and was buried beneath the vestibule of the church, at his own request, the reason being assigned that, as he felt himself to be a poor sinner, he wished to be trampled under the feet of all who entered the house. In the same year the Rev. Mr. Perkins was chosen, who entered on his duties in the month of October. In the year 1853, Mr. Perkins resigned the charge, since which time it has been vacant. During Mr. Perkins's term of service two other churches have been built in connection with Parkersburg,-one about fifteen or twenty miles above it, on Cow Creek, and another about ten or twelve miles below it, at Bellville. The latter was built almost entirely by Mr. Wells, on whose land and near whose house it stands. Mr. Perkins used occasionally to officiate at each of these places.

The following is the list of the vestrymen of this parish:-John Taylor, J. G. Stringer, Dr. D. Creel, A. L. Kinnaird, J. M. Little

boy, Sen., J. F. Snodgrass, J. R. Murdock, W. S. Gardiner, David B. Spencer, J. J. Jackson, Beverley Smith, W. P. Rathbone, Dr. Farmin, E. D. Safford, C. J. Meale, Isaac Morris, W. H. Morehead, G. B. Neale, J. J. Dickenson, W. H. Laurence, W. H. Small, J. J. Neale, J. H. Adams, E. F. De Selding.

CHURCH IN WETZEL COUNTY.

A church at New Martinsville, in this county, was partly built some years since, under the auspices of the Rev. James McCabe and the Rev. Mr. Hyland, and supplied for some time with services by the same. I have no list of the vestrymen of this parish, which was called Wetzel parish after the name of the county.

CHURCH AT MOUNDSVILLE.

Within twelve miles of Wheeling, on the Ohio River, is to be seen one of the largest of those Indian mounds which are to be found in our Western world. It gives the name to the place. In the time of the elder Mr. Armstrong, there were some families belonging to our Church in and around it, which were visited by him, and to whom with the other people of the place he preached. The passage of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad through it, and the establishment of a large depôt at it, has increased the population so much that an Episcopal church was erected here some years since, and the Rev. Mr. Hyland has, in connection with a school, performed the duties of a minister in it.

The following is a list of the vestrymen of the parish:-Colonel John Thompson, Isaac Hoge, E. H. Caldwell, W. S. Lane, O. S. Hock, G. W. Bruce, William Collins, General G. Jones.

From the foregoing notices of the Church in Western Virginia, it will be perceived that our "beginning is small." May some future historian, when all its resources have been developed, have the pleasure of recording that "its latter end has greatly increased"!

ARTICLE LXXX.

Recollections of the Episcopal Church in this Country during the last Fifty Years.

HAVING thus disposed of the Church of Virginia, I purpose in the present to record some things in relation to the General Church which have come under my observation, and in which I have taken some part. As I introduced the notices of the Virginia Church with some preliminary remarks on its previous history, so would I offer a few thoughts as to the earlier history and character of the American Church generally, before entering on the particular narrative to which this article is devoted. And, as I was forced by a regard to historic truth to acknowledge that at no time from its first establishment was the moral and religious condition of the Church in Virginia even tolerably good, so am I also, by the same consideration, obliged to admit much that was defective in relation to other parts of the American Episcopal Church. More especially was this the case in regard to Maryland, which bore a strong resemblance to Virginia in more respects than one. The character of her early population resembled that of Virginia, in having more of the aristocracy than was to be found in some other parts of the English territory in this country. Slavery also was introduced at an early period, and served to strengthen that feature in her character. She, like Virginia, was also put under a regular establishment,though not at so early a period. She had her Governors and Commissaries, who acted as substitutes for the Bishop in ecclesiastical matters. Neither Maryland nor Virginia were under the patronage of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, as other portions of America were. The history of those other portions, by comparison with those of Virginia and Maryland, establishes the fact beyond contradiction, that the selection of missionaries by that Society was generally better than the supply coming to Virginia and Maryland through the Bishop of London, or some other channel. The reader is referred to Dr. Hawks's faithful and laborious History of the Church in Maryland for proof of this in relation to that diocese. I adduce only one testimony besides, and that from the well-known Dr. Chandler, of our American Church. After a