about supplies about leave of absence

reasons sustained for late attendance or non-attendance, or non-compliance with appointments, &c. These, especially the first two items, form a considerable mass of the minutes. We have also, after a few of the earlier meetings of the Presbytery, deemed it unnecessary to give the names of the ministers and elders present, and of the absentees. With these exceptions, and with some abbreviated forms of expression respecting candidates and their exercises for trial, we have given the entire minutes. To many it may seem that we should have gone further, and left out much more. But we cannot doubt that, to many others, much satisfaction will be afforded by the perusal of such portions of the Records as may appear of little intrinsic value. They will sometimes serve to illustrate the times to which they belong, and, in some cases, will prove abundantly suggestive. We have spent much time and pains in preparing the notes, which we hope will be found to contain some agreeable variety, if not information. The Biographical Sketches, which form a part of these notes, will give a novel character to this part of our work; and should this feature of the "Records" meet with acceptance, it is not improbable that a Work of a similar character, bringing down this kind of Ecclesiastical history more nearly to our times, will be attempted. There are materials at hand for a continuation of this part of cur Work. Indeed, we apprehend that some disappointment will arise from the absence, in this Work, of any account of several of our old churches, and of many fathers and brethren whose memory will long be cherished in the West. We have meant no invidious distinction by their exclusion, and can only plead that the plan of our volume did not seem to open a door for their admission.

In the records now published, after striking out as above described, we have thought it unnecessary to notice the successive days of each meeting of the Presbytery. The reader will, of course, understand that even the brief statements of their transactions, as now condensed, often belong to successive days.

RECORDS

OF THE

PRESBYTERY OF REDSTONE.

FROM ITS ORGANIZATION, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 1781, TILL ITS DIVISION, OCTOBER 18TH, 1793.

"AT a meeting of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, held on the 16th of May, 1781, the Rev. Messrs. Joseph Smith, John M'Millan, James Power, and Thaddeus Dod, having requested to be erected into a separate Presbytery, to be known by the name of the Presbytery of Redstone, (1)

(1) REDSTONE.-This name was given to the Presbytery by the Synod, at the suggestion, no doubt, of the ministers who sought this organization; not because the term, in its stricter sense, denoted either the region of country where the first churches were organized, or the most central part of the Pesbytery-for that was farther west,- but because the expression "Redstone Settlement," then, and for many years afterwards, was employed to denote most of the country, whether claimed by Pennsylvania or Virginia, which lay west of the mountains. It derived its origin from the name of a creek which enters the Monongahela below Brownsville. This place was long known by the name of "Redstone Old Fort."

"The hills around abounded with bituminous coal; and along the water-courses, where the earth had been washed off, the coal was left exposed. The inflammability of that mineral must have been known to the inhabitants at that early period; for, where those exposures happened, fire had been communicated, and an ignition of the coal taken place: and probably continued to burn until the compactness, and so

the Synod grant their request, and appoint their first meeting to be held at Laurel Hill, the third Wednesday of September next, at 11 o'clock, A. M."

FIRST MEETING.

Wednesday, Sept. 19th, 1781.(2)—The Presbytery, according to appointment of the Rev. Synod of New York and Philadelphia, met at Pigeon Creek, (3) as the circumstances

lidity of the body, and want of air, caused its extinguishment. These fires, in their course, came in contact with the surrounding earth and stone, and gave them a red appearance; indeed, so completely burned were they, that when pulverised, they have been substituted in painting for Spanish brown. Many of the Red Banks are now visible; the most prominent one, perhaps, is that near the junction of a creek with the Monongahela river, a short distance below the fortification, and which bears the name of Redstone-doubtless from the red appearance of the bank near its mouth."-Am. Pioneer, Vol. II., p. 55.

Our State geologist, in his third Annual Report on the Geological Survey of the State of Pennsylania, p. 97, gives a different account of the origin of the ignition of coal banks. "In many places," says he, "the coal of the roofs has been precipitated by a slipping of the hillside upon the lower part of the seam, in which case the latter has often taken fire from the heat evolved by the chemical decomposition. This has occurred particularly at the mouth of Redstone Creek, in Fayette County, where the overlaying slate has been baked and reddened by the combustion."

(2) The first meeting of the Redstone Presbytery was just one month before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. This important event, which was soon followed by a treaty of peace with Great Britain, and the final establishment of the independence of the United States, did not, as might have been expected, bring immediate peace and quiet to the western borders-as will appear from the minutes of the Presbytery presently.

(3) PIGEON CREEK.-This congregation, one of the oldest in Washington County, in union with Chartiers, gave a call to the Rev. John M'Millan, at a meeting of the Donegal Presbytery, April 23d, 1776, at which time he was ordained with a view to his settlement among them as their pastor-though he was never formally installed. Whether this congregation was organised previous to this time is uncertain. Dr. M'Millan, in his journal, speaks of his ordaining elders, baptizing chil