Early American Presbyterians  -- G

Rev. Samuel Gelston (1692-1782)

Rev. George Gillespie (1683-1760)

Rev. Adam Baird Gilliland ( 1794-1885)(My GGG Grandfather)

"Is it expedient for half a dozen of members of the Presbyterian Church, living within two and four miles of their minister, to form a weekly prayer-meeting and invite another preacher to attend and preside and exhort statedly, without having invited their own pastor, or asked his advice, or that of the Session?" The Presbytery answered: "It is not expedient, as it is calculated to produce divisions in the church, and to weaken the hands of the pastor and church session, and is inconsistent with their promise to their pastor that they will give all proper support and encouragement and obedience in the Lord."

He was dismissed to the Presbytery of Cincinnati and he went to Bethel Church, in Butler Co., Ohio in 1829 and stayed there ten years. While there he learned the cabinet maker's trade, and a number of pieces of furniture in the family bear testimony to his taste and skill. He was then called to Riley and was stated supply at Venice from 1839 to 1859. At one time he had a very urgent call to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Dayton, Ohio. While debating it he happened to go to the cemetery at that place, and immediately declined the offer, saying, "There are too many small graves there, I cannot bring my little ones to so sickly a place."

He was for the most part an extemporaneous speaker, rarely taking anything into the pulpit except a small piece of paper with the heads of his sermon upon it. Often in preparing his sermon; the only books he used were his Bible and concordance. He was an able and successful preacher. He had deep sympathies and tender feelings, which were hidden by an abrupt, severe manner. He was occasionally witty, sometimes sarcastic. He was very entertaining socially, and told a story well. In the presbytery he was very influential, frequently turning the vote of that body at the last moment by a few terse and clear cut sentences. This influence was always on the side of what he believed was right, personal sympathies having no part in his decision. Sometimes he took advantage of an unguarded expression of a brother in presbytery and threw the entire body into a fit of laughter while he sat down with a face as innocent as a child. He was always a staunch Republican, and a ranting abolitionist. He was a lover of music, possessing a fairly good voice, and played the violin so that "you wanted to dance." His favorite hymns were "I would not live always," "Nearer, my God, to Thee," "Home sweet home," and Suanee River. At Venice [now, Ross Ohio], one of the most beautiful spots on the Ohio River, in sight of the church he served and helped to build, rests his body. His wife, three daughters, three sons-in-law, and ten grandchildren lie near him, waiting the resurrection morn. (Mary Lizzie Anderson, Dayton, Ohio, 1905.)

Rev. James Gilliland (1769-1845)

He was installed as pastor of the Red Oak and Straight Creek Presbyterian Churches in April, 1806, at the home of Samuel Salisbury. Williamson preached the installation sermon from 2nd Corinthians, 2:16 and John E. Finley presided over the proceedings. Gilliland was also ordered to occasionally supply the pulpit at Williamsburgh. In 1814, Red Oak Church requested his full-time services and he served that church until the latter part of 1841. In addition to the 78 persons who were members when he came to the church, 484 others were added to the church rolls by certificate or transfer or on examination under his leadership.

Reverend Gilliland was a generation ahead of his time with his reasoning on the effects of alcoholic drinks and the wrongs of slavery. From 1805 until his death forty years later he preached at Red Oak against slavery and for the first seventeen years of that time was pre-eminent among abolition leaders in southern Ohio. In 1830 he spearheaded an effort to compose a pastoral letter, together with Samuel Crothers, on the subject of slavery. Eighteen-thousand copies of this letter were printed. The Presbyterian churches at Ripley, Georgetown, Russellville, and Decatur which became well-known for their abolition sentiments sprang from Gilliland's church at Red Oak and for vehement anti-slavery preaching there was not a group of ministers in the country who could surpass those who clustered about this Carolina pioneer and with him helped to for the vigorous Chillicothe Presbytery.

Hugh Fullerton, of South Salem, one of his sons in the faith wrote: "Father Gilliland was a very humble and modest man. He shrank from anything like ostentation; plainness characterizing his dress and style of living and speaking. In preaching, he hid himself behind his subject, especially when the subject was the cross. Self, nothing; Christ, all in all, seemed to be his motto."

Reverend Gilliland composed the words carved on the stone of Frances (Baird) Gilliland whose grave is beside his in Red Oak Cemetery. They are: "Those who knew her best will say, that she was a kind wife, a tender mother, a friend of the poor and a follower of Christ."

Rev. James Gilliland, Jr. (b. pre-1784)

Rev. Joseph Glass (1774-1821)

Rev. Benjamin Goldsmith (1735-1810)

John Goldsmith, D.D. (ca.1795-1854)

During Goldsmith’s ministry, 215 persons joined the church. He helped create the Astoria Presbyterian Church in the 1840s.  Goldsmith’s death in 1854 was felt not only by members of the congregation, but also by members of other denominations. On the day of his funeral, all other
churches in Newtown were closed.
Adapted from information on the Newtown Church's website by Robert Singleton http://www.fpcn.org/history/pastors/goldsmith.html

Rev. Ebenezer Gould (b. pre 1727)

Rev. William Graham (1745-1799)

Mr. Graham was an ardent patriot and a thorough republican. He died in Richmond, Virginia, June 8th, 1799, and his remains were deposited near the Episcopal Church, on the hill, over which a plain marble slab, with a short inscription is placed. "The extent of the influence exerted by this one man over the literature and religion of Virginia," says Dr. A.Alexander, (who was one of his students), "cannot be calculated."

Ashbel Green D.D., LL.D. (1762-1848)

From 1792 till 1800 he served as Chaplain to Congress, along with Bishop White. In 1812 he was made President of the College of New Jersey. While he elevated the standard of learning in the college he did not neglect discipline and religious instruction.

In 1815 there was a revival of religion, and thirty students were its subjects, among them such men of mark as John Breckinridge, Dr. Charles Hodge, Bishop McIlvaine and Bishop Johns. In 1822 he resigned and returned to Philadelphia, where he applied himself to editing the Christian Advocate for twelve years.

In 1824 Dr. Green was elected Moderator of the General Assembly. He was a member of the Assembly in the years, successively, 1837, 1838, and 1839, and took a decided stand in favor of the Old School party. "The trumpet gave no uncertain sound." In 1846 the Old School Assembly met in Philadelphia, and the venerable man was led in. The whole Assembly rose to do him honor, to which Dr. Green responded. He was conducted to a chair, placed for him under the pulpit, but was able to remain only a short time. May 19th, 1848, he paid the debt of nature, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was found dead, in the posture of prayer.

His printed works, comprising an Autobiography and "Lectures on the Shorter Catechism," fill several volumes.

Rev. Enoch Green (d. 1776)

Rev. Jacob Green (ca. 1724-1790)

John Cleve Green (1800-1875)

Returning home in the year 1839, with an ample fortune, and establishing his residence in the city of New York, Mr. Green continued, for a time, his connection with the China trade, but subsequently other enterprises enganged his attendtion. He became a Director in the Bank of Commerce, a Trustee and President of the Bleecker Street Savings Bank, and Director in various important railroad companies. He was long connected with the New York Hospital, as one of its governors; also with the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and other kindred institutions. He established or aided in establishing the Home for the Ruptured and Cripples, of which he assumed the presidency, being on of its most generous benefactors. He connected himself with the church of the Rev. Dr. Potts, while worshiping in Duane street, and both there and after its removal to University Place, he was one of its most active and liberal supporters.

He was for many years the Financial Agent of the Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary. That Seminary is also largely indebted to his generous liberality. It owes to him the endowment of the Helena Professorship of Church History, one of the houses occupied by a Professor, the renovation of the chapel at an expense equal to the original cost, the remodeling of the main Seminary building, handsome contributions to its various funds, and finally, a legacy of fifty thousand dollars. He died, April 29th, 1875, peacefully.

Col. Lewis Green (1791-1875)

Rev. Zachariah Green (1760-1858)

Rev. Nehemiah Greenman (pre-1728-1779)

Rev. Isaac Grier, Sr. (ca. 1768-1814)

In the Spring of 1792 Mr. Grier was appointed to missionate on the West and Northeast branches of the Susquehanna, and, and on through the State of New York. He was ordained, April 9th, 1794, at Carlisle, and at the same time he was installed p[astor of the congregations of Lycoming, Pine Creek and Great Island, commissioners from the congregations being present. In the Spring of 1794, he removed to Lycoming county, near to Jersey Shore, and in 1802, owing to his small salary, took charge also of a classical school. He received a call to the united churches of Sunbury and Northumberland, and removed to Northumberland, in the Spring of 1806, and in addition to his pastoral charge, and supplying Shamokin Church once a month, he took charge of the academy in Northumberland. He died, August 23d, 1814. Mr. Grier was the father of the Hon. Robert C. Grier, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. As a teacher of the Latin and Greek languages he is said to have had no superiour in Pennsylvania.

Rev. James Grier (ca. 1752-1791)

John Nathan Caldwell Grier D.D. (1792-1880)

When in his prime Dr. Grier was an unusually solemn preacher. His person was commanding, and the deep tones of his voice accorded well with the momentous doctrines which he was commissioned to enforce. His earlier ministry was marked by the most wonderful revivals of religion. In the year 1831 one hundred and twenty-seven were added to his church on profession of faith; in 1832 seventy-four, and in 1834 sixty-four--making three hundred and thirty seven in four years, one hundred and four of whom were baptized, the ministry from his church, and what are now four large and flourishing churches were sent out from his church as colonies. The records of his Presbytery show that during the first forty-five years of his ministry he was absent but once for its stated semi-annual meetings.

The last few years of Dr. Grier's life were spent mostly in retirement, pressed down by the weight of increasing infirmities. One interesting feature of his later experience was his love for the Word of God. During the sixteen years of his retirement from the pastorate he read the Bible through, word for word, the almost incredible number of one hundred and fifty-seven times, marking down on the fly-leaves when he began and when he ended each reading. It was a striking and beautiful coincidence that just at eleven o'clock on Sabbath morning, the exact hour at which, for threescore years, he had gone to the church to hold up Jesus to the people, he went to his final rest.

Rev. John Walker Grier (1789-1864)

Rev. Nathan Grier(1760-1814)

Mr. Grier was an able and faithful minister. His judgment was sound and discriminating, and his talents as a preacher eminently popular. The arrangement of his discourses was natural and lucid, and the matter of them at once eminently evangelical and practical. With a voice clear, pleasant and commanding, he exhibited a solemnity of manner and a deep and tender earnestness, which never failed to secure attention, and often made a powerful impression. He spake as one who believed and felt the force of divine truth, and the weight of ministerial responsibility. In all his relations as a pastor, a citizen, an ecclesiastic and a man, he was earnest in his endeavors to know what was right, and inflexibly firm in his adherence to it. As a husband, a father, and guardian of his family, his whole demeanor was characterized by Christina dignity, condescension, affection and faithfulness. As the Presbyterian Church in America had not then provided theological seminaries, and students in theology availed themselves of the libraries and instructions of the pastors of churches, as they had opportunity, the estimation in which Mr. Grier was held as a pious, able and successful minister of the gospel, induced many to avail themselves of his direction and aid. Twenty-seven years he served the congregation of the Forks of Brandywine with fidelity and success, until, having finished the work which was assigned him, he was summoned from his labors on earth to a glorious reward in heaven. His death occurred March 31st, 1814. His wife was Susanna Smith.

Hon. Robert Cooper Grier (1794-1870)

At the death of his father, he took charge of his brothers and sisters, ten in number, cared for an deducated all, as a faithful guardian until they were settled in life. At the time of his residence in Pittsburg, Judge Grier was an active and influential elder of the First Presbyterian Church, Allegheny, then under the pastoral care of teh Rev. Dr. E.P.Swift.

Rev. Robert Smith Grier (1790-1865)

Edward Dorr Griffin, D.D. (1770-1837)

In 1808 Dr. Griffin accepted an appointment to the Bartlett Professorship of Pulpit Eloquence in the Theological Seminary at Andover, and on July 31st, 1811, was installed pastor of the Park Street congregation, Boston. In the Winter of 1812-13, he delivered his Park Street Lectures, on successive Sabbath evening, to a crowded audience, collected from all classes of society. June 20th, 1815, he was installed pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. During this second period of his residence in Newark, besides attending with exemplary fidelity to all the appropriate duties of a pastor, he devoted himself with characteristic energy, to the establishment and support of several of the leading benevolent institutions of the day. He was one ofthe origianl founders o the American Bible Society, and had also an important agency in establishing the United Foreign Mission Society, and in promoting the interests of the school established by the Synod of New York and New Jersey, for the education of Africans. His celebrated "Plea for Africa" was distinguished alike for learning and eloquence. About 1821 he was elected President of Williams College, and his connection with the Institution proved most auspicious to its interests. On account of enfeebled health, he resigned this position, in 1836, removed to Newark, and died November 8th, 1837

Rev. Timothy Griffith (ca. 1717-1754)

Rev. Stephen Grover (1758-1836)

He was the first pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Caldwell, New Jersey, and was mainly instrumental in the erection of the first edifice, the corner-stone of which he laid in 1794. He continued in that charge until his death in June 1836, when he was seventy seven years old. From the beginning of his ministry until its close, his church was the scene of frequent and powerful revivals, over a hundred uniting at one time, on several occasions. It is believed he was the instrument, under God, in the conversion of over one thousand six hundred souls. He was the associate of a group of eminent ministers--Drs. Richards and Griffin, of Newark; Hillyer, of Orange; Fisher, of Paterson; Judd, of Bloomfield.

Robert C. Grundy, D.D. (1809-1865)

Rev. Peter Johnson Gulick (1797-1877)