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LIFE OF REV. MANASSEH CUTLER.

CHAPTER XIII.

REV. DANIEL STORY-LETTERS TO GENERAL PUTNAM-DR. CUTLER'S CHARGE AT MR. STORY'S ORDINATION-OHIO UNIVERSITY-DIARY, 1800.

The Rev. Daniel Story, who left Dr. Cutler's house in November, 1788, to go as a religious teacher to the settlement at Marietta, where he arrived in March, 1789, had cheerfully borne the privations and perils of pioneer life. He had encountered a year of famine and the dangers of nearly five years of Indian warfare, faithfully preaching the Gospel, when his hearers came to attend the Sabbath services armed with their rifles; and he went to the outposts, Belpre and Waterford, when a military guard was necessary for his protection. On the return of peace, he gathered together those to whom the Word was precious, and formed them into a Church of Christ, at Marietta, the first Congregational Church ever established west of the Alleghany Mountains. Then, after more than eight years of arduous missionary labor, he went back to Massachusetts. A call from the people who had so long enjoyed his ministrations, and still earnestly desired to have them continued, followed him to his eastern home:

Feb. 6, 1798.

The Church of Christ, consisting of members residing at Marietta and its vicinity, to our beloved Brother, Daniel Story, sendeth greeting:

It has given us much satisfaction to have the Subscribers to the Association for the support of Teachers of Religion and Morality in these settlements concur with us in our choice and election of you to the office of Pastor of the Church, and the temporal provision which they have made for your support,

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and of which you will be informed by the Trustees of the Association.

The Church and People being thus united in their call and election of you to the work of the ministry among us, we hope and trust that our application will not be in vain; that our Unanimity in the Invitation, the great need there is of ministerial Labor in this part of the harvest, will overcome all discouragements that may be in your mind, and that you will soon return an answer in the affirmative.

We are, in the Fellowship of the Gospel, and in the name and behalf of the Church,

RUFUS PUTNAM,

JOSIAH HART,

ABNER LORD,

Committee.

The amount of salary offered to Mr. Story by the Trustees of the Association (Rufus Putnam, Israel Putnam, and Robert Oliver) was three hundred dollars annually, to be paid "while you shall continue to carry on the work of the ministry with this Church and people. Seventy-five dollars quarter-yearly."

Mr. Story's return to his post in the wilderness involved much self-denial. In his answer to the call, he says: "The sum offered for my support is, perhaps, as much as your present circumstances will authorize; but it is not more than half the sum that I can receive in this country as a candidate, with prospects of a permanent support still more advantageous. Vacancies are numerous, and Candidates for the Gospel Ministry are scarce.

"In addition to this, I am in a settled country, enjoying various means of Improvement, besides Books, to all kinds of which I have free access. I am surrounded by my connections, as well as my Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry, whose counsel, interviews, and remarks are both pleasing and improving. My Relations, averse to a separation perhaps forever, used every argument to dissuade me from returning. These considerations have had their effect upon my mind.

"But, on the other hand, influenced by a strong attachment. to my Brethren and Friends in the Western Country, which I believe to be reciprocal, taking into view your peculiar situation,

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