in establishing Swedenborgian societies; although this faith would never become widespread in the state or the nation, Ohio by 1843 had several hundred members of the Swedenborgian church.
In Meigs County the fruits of Chapman’s spiritual labor were seen in the Grant family, converts who entertained the holy man at their home and established a Swedenborgian congregation inspired by his teachings. Apparently no such society existed in neighboring Athens County, but Chapman did travel through the area, often stopping to spend the night at the Dover Township farm of Abraham Pugsley, a Baptist minister. Local tradition has it that Chapman planted his last orchard in southeastern Ohio on Elder Pugsley’s land before moving his operations farther west. If his path had ever crossed that of Jonathan Koons, they could have passed many lively hours parsing theology in addition to mulling the finer points of growing apples. Chapman’s twin legacies would linger in southeastern Ohio for decades after his 1845 death in Indiana.
While Chapman was bringing a mystical strain of Christianity to the area, he might have encountered the Reverend James Quinn, a Methodist missionary based in Marietta who traversed the wilds on his horse, Wilks. In December 1799 Quinn had made his first pass through the Hockhocking Valley, preaching at any settlements he could find. Although he enjoyed comfortable lodgings in Athens, he endured many lonely hours on the trail, once carving his name on a beech tree after taking a solitary meal of “pone and meat.” After several years as a circuit rider, Quinn helped organize what was likely the first camp meeting in Athens County—a four-day affair that drew excited participants with its evangelical style of preaching and singing. Methodist societies eventually formed in Athens and Alexander Townships, cementing that denomination’s influence in the area.
Just a year or two after the town of Athens was incorporated in 1811, the Methodists built a brick church in the village. The Presbyterians followed with their own building in 1828, having previously worshipped at the courthouse. Although they were several years behind the Methodists in actual church construction, the Presbyterians were highly influential. At least three presidents of Ohio University were ordained ministers of that faith, as were many faculty members.
The elders of the Presbyterian church took their duties seriously, disciplining members of the congregation who drank to excess, neglected prayers, questioned religious doctrines, or committed fornication or adultery. In 1828 the elders set their sights on Samuel Baldwin Pruden and his wife, Mary Cranston Pruden. Baldwin at age 30 was an enterprising merchant and miller who was developing the Bingham mill in Athens as a wool-carding operation. Within a few years he would make his fortune by establishing his own flax oil, grist, and saw mill, and a saltworks just south of Athens. Mary was the daughter of a well-to-do family in New York State and a descendant of two colonial governors of Rhode Island. As a youth she had survived a harrowing voyage down the rain-swollen Ohio River, during which she was nearly swept away by a flash flood, before reaching Athens on foot.
In the spring of 1828 Baldwin Pruden was brought before the Session, the governing body of the local Presbyterians, for failing to attend services for more than a year. When questioned by the church elders, he said “he disbelieved the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures and that he did not believe in the future punishment of the wicked.” He was excommunicated on May 10, 1828, “until he manifest repentance.”
Mary Pruden may have continued to attend services after the ouster of her husband, but her adherence to church doctrine was also suspect. The contrary ideas entertained by the couple were thought to stem from their reading of the New Harmony (Indiana) Gazette. New Harmony, founded in 1814, was a utopian community in southwestern Indiana that sought an egalitarian lifestyle for all its residents. The Scottish industrialist Robert Owen, who was widely regarded as an infidel, had purchased the town in 1825. The newspaper, edited by his son Robert Dale Owen, provided a platform for free thinking—questioning the norms of society that most people took for granted. The paper weighed in on slavery, women’s right to divorce, child labor, free education, and other reform issues. Above all, the paper challenged the very pillars of religious orthodoxy.
“Our ancestors drowned old women for a knowledge of witchcraft and burnt heretics, because they were guilty of heterodox sentiments,” an 1827 editorial noted, “and we, their successors, if we have lessened the punishment, have not become more rational in our accusations. In the nineteenth century, we accuse our fellow-men of candor, and impeach them of sincerity. An atheist is a blameless character so long as he dissembles; but let him be guilty of honesty, and his character is lost.”
A stubborn dalliance with this newspaper continued to cause problems for the Prudens. Just a month after her husband’s removal from the church, Mary Pruden was called to answer similar charges. “We charge you with questioning the truth of some parts of the Holy Scriptures—Expressing doubts about some of the leading doctrines of the Gospel—and industriously propagating infidel principles from a certain weekly paper called the New Harmony Gazette,” the indictment declared. Mary Pruden pleaded not guilty.
A formal trial commenced on July 19 with the Reverend Robert G. Wilson presiding. Wilson was pastor of the church as well as president of Ohio University. The jury of six elders was made up of male church members of high standing in Athens—four merchants, a lawyer, and a justice of the peace. At Mary Pruden’s request, the lawyer, Joseph Dana, was allowed to assist in her defense. She also asked questions of the witnesses herself.
A handful of witnesses testified about their sometimes startling conversations with Mary Pruden. One said she “heard Mrs. Pruden say she did not believe there was any witches or Devils” and that she “doubted their being either a Heaven or Hell.” Another quoted her as saying that “God was an object of imagination.” Multiple witnesses reported that she had read to them out of the Gazette or talked to them about books she found interesting.
One of the elders, Alvan Bingham, testified about a conversation in which Mary Pruden seemed to discount the literal truth of biblical miracles. “She said, it was said that Bonaparte marched his army across the Red Sea at the same place where Moses with the Israelites crossed: Moses being well acquainted with that Country knew the exact time at which he could cross on dry ground. . . . She said that she believed the Bible as much as any minister of learning.”
“What were your impressions from what Mrs. P. said?” asked Dana.
“It made me feel disagreeable from her saying that she believed the Bible as fully as any minister of learning,” Bingham responded. “The impression was that Educated Ministers do not believe it, and she did not.”
“Did you express your fears to Mrs. P. about the consequences of reading the papers?” Dana queried.
Before Bingham could answer, Mary Pruden interjected, “He did repeatedly and scolded me.”
She said nothing further in her own defense. The panel unanimously found her guilty on all counts but stopped short of pronouncing her punishment. Instead they delayed sentencing and asked the Reverend Wilson and Dana to speak with her privately.
On August 9 the Session met again. Wilson reported that he had visited Mary Pruden, but “she was not willing to make any further concessions than what she had made before and would not agree to abandon the practice of reading infidel publications.” With the recalcitrant Mary Pruden remaining a challenge to church authority, she was excommunicated that day.
It is not clear whether Baldwin and Mary Pruden suffered any social ostracism as a result of being kicked out of the church for heresy. But nine years later Baldwin Pruden was barred from testifying in a civil suit in Athens County Common Pleas Court after an attorney objected to his religious beliefs (or lack thereof). Baldwin Pruden’s businesses continued to prosper, and in time he became a trustee of Ohio University, a state legislator, and—ironically—an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1840 he and Mary built a red brick mansion they called Harmony, perhaps in honor
