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CHURCHES OF GUILFORD COUNTY.

CHAPTER XVII.
REV. DAVID CALDWELL, D.D., AND THE CHURCHES IN GUILFORD COUNTY.

THE congregations of Buffalo and Alamance, the two eldest and largest of the Presbyterian denomination, and probably of any other, in the county of Guilford, have had the singular privilege of enjoying the regular ministrations of the gospel, with little intermission, for more than eighty years in conjunction with each other, dividing the Sabbaths—and from two men. The time of the ministerial relation of the Rev. Messrs. David Caldwell and Eli W. Caruthers with these congregations, extends from about the time of the organization of Alamance, in the year 1764, to the present day; an incontestible evidence of their stability, and the irreproachable lives of their pastors.

"A Sketch of the Life and Character of the Rev. David Caldwell, D.D.," by Mr. Caruthers, his successor in the ministry, replete with various information, gives all of importance that can be collected, concerning the early life of that venerable man, who finished his course in the one hundredth year of his age, and the sixty-first of his ministry.

David Caldwell, born March 22d, 1725, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was the son of a respectable farmer, in good worldly circumstances, and of unblemished Christian character. After receiving the rudiments of an English education, he was bound apprentice to a house carpenter, and served till the legal period, the age of twenty-one. After working at his trade, as a journeyman, for about four years, at the age of twenty-five he was admitted to the communion of the church, on a profession of his faith. As soon as the hope in Christ was formed in his heart, he began most earnestly to desire an education for the purpose of becoming a minister of the gospel. His thirst for information became a passion, and his desire to be useful in the ministry increased to intense earnestness, and he resolved to sacrifice time, and labor, and his portion that might fall to him from his father's estate, to satisfy these strong desires of his heart. With unwearied perseverance, he pursued the object of his desire, and received