After nearly a two-year interval of supplies, Rev. Nathaniel Snowden was ordained pastor of Derry, Paxton and Harrisburg, on October 3, 1793, at an annual salary from each of £50. Coming after Parson Elder, who had endeared himself to the people during more than fifty years, and when there was already trouble be- tween the city and the country charges, it is not surprising that the ministry of Mr. Snowden at Paxton lasted but two years and six months. In this short time he made a strong impression on his flock; those of the older generation often spoke of his profound learning and great piety. Mr. Snowden was the first preacher of Paxton born on American soil. One of the five sons of Isaac Snowden, four of whom became ministers, he was born in Philadelphia in 1770, graduated from Princeton in 1787, and at various times in his life taught the classics at Carlisle, Lancaster and Franklin. About a year before coming to Paxton, he was married to Sara Gustine, who at the time of her death in 1852 was the last sur- vivor of the Wyoming massacre, having escaped with her parents down the Susquehanna on a flat. Barely a year after taking charge of the three congregations, we find Mr. Snowden seeking to be released from Derry, claiming the work was too much for his health. That such a claim was just we would agree even in this day of electric 105 trolleys. Not so thought our independent and plainspoken Scotch-Irish ancestors: in a letter to Presbytery in 1795, signed by John Ruther- ford and Joshua Elder, Paxton asks to cling to Derry rather than to the Harrisburg church, which had been formally organized in 1794. They say, "if Mr. Snowden is rendered incapable of undergoing the fatigue of three congregations in less than three years in the prime of life, by all probability he will not be able in a short time to attend to two congregations, and of con- sequence we shall be left without a pastor and the means of giving a call to another." Thus pastoral relations with the two country churches were severed in 1796, Mr. Snowden staying with the Harrisburg church until 1805. Pastor Snowden came from a long line of Pres- byterian ancestors, one of whom was the first elder ordained in Pennsylvania, perhaps in the United States; another started the subscription paper to found Princeton College, and gave the ground on which Nassau Hall was built. He was a man of wide learning and had unbounded faith even for an era when the mildest higher criticism would have been rank heresy. He died in 1850, at the home of his son, Dr. Snowden, at Freeport, Armstrong County. Rev. Joshua Williams, D.D. 1799—1801 For more than three years poor old Paxton was again pastorless. Though well supplied by Presbytery, it speaks much for the strong Chris- 106 tion faith of these God-fearing farmers and their pious wives that they should have held together — nay grown — under such discouragements.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

After nearly a two-year interval of supplies, Rev. Nathaniel Snowden was ordained pastor of Derry, Paxton and Harrisburg, on October 3, 1793, at an annual salary from each of £50. Coming after Parson Elder, who had endeared himself to the people during more than fifty years, and when there was already trouble between the city and the country charges, it is not surprising that the ministry of Mr. Snowden at Paxton lasted but two years and six months. In this short time he made a strong impression on his flock; those of the older generation often spoke of his profound learning and great piety. Mr. Snowden was the first preacher of Paxton born on American soil. One of the five sons of Isaac Snowden, four of whom became ministers, he was born in Philadelphia in 1770, graduated from Princeton in 1787, and at various times in his life taught the classics at Carlisle, Lancaster and Franklin. About a year before coming to Paxton, he was married to Sara Gustine, who at the time of her death in 1852 was the last survivor of the Wyoming massacre, having escaped with her parents down the Susquehanna on a flat. Barely a year after taking charge of the three congregations, we find Mr. Snowden seeking to be released from Derry, claiming the work was too much for his health. That such a claim was just we would agree even in this day of electric trolleys. Not so thought our independent and plainspoken Scotch-Irish ancestors: in a letter to Presbytery in 1795, signed by John Rutherford and Joshua Elder, Paxton asks to cling to Derry rather than to the Harrisburg church, which had been formally organized in 1794. They say, "if Mr. Snowden is rendered incapable of undergoing the fatigue of three congregations in less than three years in the prime of life, by all probability he will not be able in a short time to attend to two congregations, and of consequence we shall be left without a pastor and the means of giving a call to another." Thus pastoral relations with the two country churches were severed in 1796, Mr. Snowden staying with the Harrisburg church until 1805. Pastor Snowden came from a long line of Presbyterian ancestors, one of whom was the first elder ordained in Pennsylvania, perhaps in the United States; another started the subscription paper to found Princeton College, and gave the ground on which Nassau Hall was built. He was a man of wide learning and had unbounded faith even for an era when the mildest higher criticism would have been rank heresy. He died in 1850, at the home of his son, Dr. Snowden, at Freeport, Armstrong County. Rev. Joshua Williams, D.D. 1799—1801 For more than three years poor old Paxton was again pastorless. Though well supplied by Presbytery, it speaks much for the strong Chris- tian faith of these God-fearing farmers and their pious wives that they should have held together — nay grown — under such discouragements.

Historic Paxton, her days and her ways, 1722-1913