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

There were three entrances to the church, one at each end, with a window to either side of it, and the present south door, with its two windows to each side. On the north wall there were at first four windows, with a small one above the pulpit, which was later closed. This pulpit stood against the north wall high above the heads of the congregation. An aisle led to it from the south door and there was another aisle east and west. Rafters took the place of the present ceil- ing. The church was built in a period of religious stress when the congregation was rent with "Old Side'' and "New Side" disputes. It later split into two separate churches because of these dif- ferences, so that Mr. Elder was pastor of the "Old Side" followers of Derry and Paxton, while Rev. John Roan was at the same time head of the "New Side" factions of the two congregations. This split in the church, which caused untold bitterness for years, weakened churches, divided families, drove Parson Elder into the Presbytery of Philadelphia from 1768 until Paxton became part of the newly formed Carlisle Presbytery in 1786, was not one of creeds but of methods. It grew out of the revival of George Whitefield in 1739, whose preaching caused religious excite- 19 ment that seemed menacing and unorthodox to the practical old Covenanters. Needless to say, Parson Elder was one of the staunchest support- ers of the ^^Old Side." Owing to these disputes, which reduced alike the congregation and the parson's salary, the in- terior of the church was unfinished for several years, and without floors or pews. Tradition has it that the congregation sat on logs, excei^ting the honored family of the pastor, who had a settee. Some of the younger Elders must have taken to the log as well, as there were fifteen of them, and the settee, which was left to Thomas Elder and came down to his descendants, was not very long. When the floor, later laid, was taken up in 1887, the ground beneath it was hard and smooth, worn so by the feet of the early wor- shippers. There was no legal title to the church until 1754, when the "Old Side" people of Derry left that church and joining with the "Old Side" in Paxton issued a call to Kev. John Elder, though he had been preaching in the old stone meeting house for years. This document now hangs in a lower room of the Dauphin County His- torical Society. Among its one hundred and twenty-eight signers we find the names of Thomas Rutherford, John Harris, Robert Snod- grass, Thomas Forster, James Wallace, John Mc- Cormick, David Walker, William Kerr, Matthew Cowden and other bulwarks of Presbyterianism in this county. In 1789 we note the first repairs "for the lay- 20 ing of alleys in the Paxtang meeting house.'' Among the contributors are the names of Elder, Rutherford, Cowden, Crouch, Walker, Wilson, Gray and many others who continued to be gen- erous supporters of the church for generations. These "alleys" were doubtless wooden aisles or sections of the flooring.