The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-05-11
RICEUS RYTHTOUGH
NATUS, APUD. FFANWENOG
IN. COMITATU CARDIGAN
EFT HIC SEPULKUS FUIT
AN. DOM. 1907
.ETATIS FUSE 81,

|
of which the following is translation
Reese Ryddarcks, born at Hanwenog, in
the county of Cardigan, and was buried in
the year A. d. 1907, being 81 years of
age"
This church was the third Baptist church
founded in America. The present meeting
house was built in 1747, and is yet in a
| good state of preservation. 1t is said that
the floor and ceiling joists of this building
were taken from the first house, which was
log structure, and stood near the site Of
the present house. The bricks used in the
| construction of this old house were i'm
| New Castle, where they were landed, in
painters upon mules. The difficulty of
obtaining bricks probably caused the adop-
ton of the peculiar style of architecture
that prevailed at this time in this county.
| Tho gables of this and some other old
| churches stop short of the height of the
apex of the roof, small part of which is
| pitched so AS to throw the water falling
upon it towards the end instead of the side
Of the building. This popularity gives the
buildings curious and unique appearance.
| Many Of the original settlers on the south
ern part OF Welch Tract were Presbyterians,
whose religious opinions and doctrine diff
| fered bat little, except in the ordinance of
baptism, from that of their countrymen
| who settled on the northern part of it.
These Presbyterians were the founders
of the Pencader Presbyterian Church at
| Glasgow, which in organization is probably
nearly as old as the Baptist church at Iron
| Hill.
David Evans and William Davis, two of
the persons who acted as agents in procur-
ing the grant of the Welch Tract from
Penn, are believed to have been Presby-
terians. AT what time they erected their
! first house of worship is matter of tradi-
tion. But it is believed that the building,
which was frame, is yet standing in the
southern part of the village of Glasgow,
where it was removed after the erection of
the house that Immediately preceded the
present one. The WEIGH did not remain
long at Radnor, where they at first stopped,
but some of them soon afterwards located
at Trcdiffrein, in the great valley of Ches-
ter county, about the same time that others
of them settled upon the WEIGH Tract.
The Rev. David Evans was the first pas
tor of the Pencader Presbyterian Church
He was a native of Wales, and a son of the
| David Evans before referred to. He com
menced preaching without license or au-
thority, but was promptly stopped by the
Presbytery of Philadelphia, in whose jurs
dicton the Pencader church then was,
which ordered him to cease preaching for
year and devote himself to study under
the direction of one of the ministers of
that body. He obeyed their order and
went to Yale College, where he was grad
uated in 1713 lie was licensed the next
year, and had charge of the united congre-
cations of Peucader and Trediffrein until
| 1920. 1t seems strange that two churches
so far apart should have been in charge of
the same pastor. But the pioneers of Pres
byterianism, like the pioneers of Metho-
dism, were men that delighted in mission
airy labor, and were prepared to make any
sacrifice or undergo any hardship in order
to preach the gospel to those who then re-
sided in the wilderness. 1t is said of some
of them that they spent one fourth of their
time in work of this kind. They were
eminently devoted and pious men, who,
with zeal and energy not unlike his who
heralded the coming of our Saviour in the
, wilderness of Judea, were ever ready to
spend their strength in their Masters SER
vice. TO have offered them vacation
would have been to have offered them an
insult. They fully recognized the fact that
the warfare in which they were engaged