1809-1909 Centennial Souvenir

• some partia1ity for Ohio, as the first free st~te admitted into the Union, they· gave him a unanimous call to become ·their pastor. :He accepted the c;all, and in April 1829 returned from the South, 1 ~nd was soon afterwards installed over the congregation, whose beloved pastor he remained till his lamented death in October 1860. In 1829, when Rev. Hugh McMillan became the pastor of the congregation, there were but sixty,six communicants. · 0£ those that subscribed the original call, there ·remained in tlte congregation in 1860 only three, J\1:essrs. John, William, ~fld Robert Reid. A goodly number of Mr. McMillan's people in South Carolina followed him, so that in a few years they forthed the larger part of the congregatiun. In 1860 the Sbtithern members, with their descendants, were still in· the majority, not one of them being a sympathizer with secession. Irt 1833,- at the time of the division, 38 of the 165 members went out with the Synod branch. The division caused some trouble about the occupancy of' the church, which was however finally settled by allowing those who had left the congregation to use the church every fourth Sabbath; and when they had a communion, t\\ o Sabbaths together. During the time that the church was thus occupied, Mr. McMillan preached in Xenia one,fourth of his time. In 1839 the congregation purchased another lot of ground adja– cent .to the old one, and built thereon a new church, of brick, · 45 by 55 feet, and allowed the other congregation to use the stone church all the time, if they wished or· needed it. Ii1 1848 the members living in Xenia and vicinity petitioned Presbytery for a distinct organization which was granted. · The Xenia congre– gation took off fifty members. They immediately made a call upon Dr. McMillan, who was then living iri Xenia, to become their pastor. After mature delibera.tipn, however, he declined to give up his connection with the old congregation. He removed to Cedarville where he continued to reside till his work in the church militant was done and he was taken to his reward, Octo– ber 9th, 1860. In 1853 the congregation determined to pull down the brick church and rebuild it in Cedarville, that being a more central place after the members composing the new Xenia congregation had withdrawn. By this time the old storie church was not fit 15