Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-28
DESCENDED FROM A JAIL UNION
Ancestry Of Some Known In Southern
Religious and EducatioAal History.

Ancestry Of Some Known In Southern
Religious and EducatioAal History.
OF the immigrants to this country during
the last century, none were more sturdy
than the rugged Scotch-Irish whose notions
Of personal and religious freedom caused
item to forsake their own country and to
seek homes on this side Of the Atlantic.
Among the number who thus came to
America was the Rev. DR.. Thomas Clarke.
Scotch Presbyterian, who was educated
in the University Of Glasgow. but who
from 1851 to 1764 was the pastor Of a con-
81 egation in Monaghan county, Ireland.
In the last-named year DR.. Clarke, with
about 300 Of his congregation, came to
America They landed at New York, at
which place they separated and went, O
part to Salem, in Washington county, N.
Vile county, 8. c. DR.. Clarke accompanied
the part that went to Salem, and there be-
came the pastor Of the first church that
was erected in the state of New York north
OF Albany. He resigned from the passionate
OF the Salem Church, however, in 1872,
and Joined his brethren in South Carolina,
where he was installed as pastor Of the
Cedar Springs congregation in Abbeville
county, position he retained until his
death In 1872.
While DR.. Clarke was a pastor In Ire
land he refused to take the prescribed oath
OF ap1uration. because the oath recogniz-
ana Tor such refusal he was imprisoned in
the county JAN Of Monaghan county.
while thus confined in Jail Dr.. Clarke off,
ctated at one marriage and thirteen ham
tlsms. The marriage thus celebrated in
the Monaghan county jail was performed
IN the year 1854; and the parties to 1t, John
Harris and Eleanor Renalds, preceded
South Carolina
The descendants Of this couple whose
nupt1ais were thus solemnized in 4 fail
nave been numerous and DISTINGUISHED
WE'VE OF the ministers of the Associate
reformed Presbyterian Church of the
South are descended from that couple
twenty-five of the ministers of that church
nave obtained wives from among the de-
scendants of that couple. and many of
their descendants have filed the offices of
elder and deacon in that church
me members OF that church still OBJ
serve mueh OF the severity of faith and
practice that characterized their progeni-
tors In Scotland. The term ''Seceders," by
which they are commonly known did not
arise from anything in this country, but
was given to them in their origin when
Ebenezer Erskine and his coadjutors in
1893 seeded from the Church of Scotland.
These secessionists declared that the
church from which they parted had be-
come corrupted under the various efforts
OF the English kings to inject prelacy and
epiScopacy into the Presbyterianism of
Scotland.
When the "Seceders." who have since
spread into all the southern states estab-
iished classical schoof for the education
Of their boys at Due West, South Carolina,
they called 1t Clarke and Erskine Semi
nary; and it was this seminary which
grew and developed into "Erskine Col
lege," an institution which is closely iden-
tilted with the history of Associate Re
formed Presbyterianism in this country;
and the gentleman who for twenty-five
years has presided over that institution,
and to whom the educators of South Caro-
lima recently paid most admirable tribute.
is himself descendant of the couple
whose hands were united in the Jail of
Monaghan county, Ireland in 1854.