A Controversial Minister

Moses Andrew Stewart was the sixth pastor to serve Resurrection Reformed Church in Burkittsville. His pastorate lasted for eleven years, the third longest tenure of any minister to serve the congregation. Rev. Stewart led the congregation through two significant events in its history: the renovation of the church building in 1860 and the Battle of South Mountain after which the church was utilized as a field hospital. Only a few documentary fragments exist to illuminate Rev. Stewart and the momentous events he oversaw as pastor of the Reformed Church, but they tell an intriguing and important story of a significant figure in the history of the congregation and of Burkittsville.

According to U.S. Census Data, Moses Stewart was born around 1830 in Ohio. Virtually nothing is known about his childhood until 1849 when he was admitted to the German Reformed Seminary at Marshall College in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. While Moses was attending Marshall College, this institution was at the center of a debate in the German Reformed Church and the birthplace of theological movement which later had a significant impact on the Burkittsville Reformed Church.

Marshall College in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania

Rev. John Nevin

Rev. Philip Schaff

In 1844, two professors at Marshall College, Rev. John Nevin and Rev. Philip Schaff, began publishing essays urging the Reformed Church to restore certain ideas and worship practices to the denomination's doctrines. Most significantly, their movement called for a reimagining of the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist (Holy Communion), an idea which was decried by their opponents as papist and heretical. Nevin and Schaff saw the embracing of these ideas and the restoration of liturgical practices to Reformed worship as a means of concluding the Protestant Reformation. In the end, they desired greater unity and ecumenicalism between Protestants and Catholics around the world. These ideas became known as the Mercersburg Theology and they formed deep divisions within the Reformed Church in the United States throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. 

The first three ministers to serve the Burkittsville congregation after it became a separate charge in 1846 were all graduates of Marshall College and students of  Rev. Nevin and Rev. Schaff. Both of Moses Stewart's predecessors, Rev. George Lewis Staley and Rev. Samuel Philips, appear from surviving records to have been sympathetic to the Mercersburg Theology. In a biography of Rev. Staley published in 1909, he was described as "a strong advocate of liturgical worship" and that he "had much to do with the making of the liturgy and the order of worship which was adopted by his denomination." So when the Consistory of the German Reformed Church in Burkittsville called Rev. Stewart to assume the pastorate, they were most likely aware of the Mercersburg Theology and agreeable to having a third minister oversee the church in accordance to its teachings.  

Burkittsville as it appeared when Rev. Stewart arrived in 1856. (From Harper's Weekly, Oct. 25, 1862)

The first mention of Rev. Stewart in the records of the Burkittsville congregation is the baptism of Sarah Ellen Sontman which occurred in the church on February 18, 1856. At the time of his arrival, the Burkittsville church had enjoyed several years of growth, one report showing the congregation having 173 members. The church building, constructed in 1829/30, was still jointly owned and used by the Reformed and Lutheran Churches. This would change just three years after Rev. Stewart arrived in Burkittsville when Saint Paul's Lutheran Church was built next door to the Reformed Church Parsonage. This change required the Reformed congregation to pay the Lutherans the sum of $600.00 to buy out their half ownership of the old Union Church. 

Despite the evidence of a growing and healthy church, the first controversy involving Rev. Stewart came just two years after he began his pastorate. In March 1858, Rev. Stewart brought charges of slander against Daniel Gaver, a tailor living in Burkittsville with his family.  The case revolved around remarks made by Gaver concerning Rev. Stewart's wife, Elizabeth. The case was tried in Frederick and the court awarded Rev. Stewart $10,000.00 in damages for the attack on his wife's character. 

The Baltimore Sun - March 25, 1858

The impact of the court case appeared to be minimal. In the following year, with the Lutheran congregation moving into their new building, the Reformed Church under Rev. Stewart's leadership embarked on an ambitious rebuilding project. In 1860, the south wall of the old church facing Main Street was taken down and the side walls extended over ten feet to lengthen the building. A new facade featuring a grand portico with two Ionic order columns was erected. Inside, new pews were installed in the nave and galleries and a new pulpit was created within a recessed chancel which sported two elaborate Corinthian order columns.

The Mercersburg Theology and Rev. Stewart's commitment to it can be seen in the fabric of the church building following the 1860 renovations. While many Reformed Churches built up to this date and after were conservative in their decoration and configured to allow for "low church," non-ceremonial style of worship, Burkittsville's newly-improved church featured two noticeable changes. Unlike the aforementioned low churches which generally had two separate aisles, the Burkittsville church featured a broad central aisle leading from a large central doorway. Many Protestant churches had abandoned this layout because of its association with the formal procession of clergy that was considered a relic of the Catholic tradition that had no place in reformed worship.

​The other element of Burkittsville's 1860 renovation that reflected the impact of the Mercersburg Theology was the incorporation of Gothic architectural elements into the building. The renovations included the addition of lancet arches to the tops of the windows in the nave and also a lancet tympanum over the front door. Records from the time also indicate that Gothic arches were painted on the wall behind the pulpit. While other churches had begun to experiment with Gothic Revival architecture beginning in the early-nineteenth century, its use in a rural Reformed church was uncommon. The Gothic style was associated with the medieval, Catholic church, and thus became popular as Protestant churches began to restore elements of liturgical and ritual worship practices. 

The use of a central aisle and Gothic architecture for a Reformed Church was not without precedent, because Trinity Church in Mercersburg, which stood just outside the gates of Marshall College, also employed these elements. As the church closest to the leaders of the Mercersburg Theology, it is evident that the ideas of this movement impacted the design choices that were made when Trinity was built in 1845. Rev. Stewart was certainly familiar with the unique design of Trinity Church having lived nearby to it when he was a student at Marshall College. 

Trinity Reformed Church in Mercersburg, built 1845.

Resurrection Reformed Church, rebuilt 1860.

The sixth year of Rev. Stewart’s pastorate at Burkittsville was marked by the destruction of war. On Sunday, September 14, 1862, the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac under General William B. Franklin, numbering some 12,800 men, clashed with 2,100 Confederate soldiers under the command of Brigadier General Howell Cobb on South Mountain within a mile of the village. During the hours that the battle raged, Burkittsville’s residents fled to surrounding communities as artillery rained down over the village. By the evening, the Union Army had pushed the Confederates into retreat down the west side of the mountain, taking possession of Crampton’s Gap and the road leading into Pleasant Valley. By nightfall, wounded soldiers of both the north and the south were being carried into Resurrection Reformed Church.

​According to a 1938 history of the Maryland Reformed Churches by Rev. Guy Bready, Rev. Stewart “resigned when the Government took charge of the building, but when the congregation regained possession of the church, Stewart withdrew his resignation.” For four and a half months, soldiers were treated inside Resurrection Reformed Church. The pews and carpet that had been installed in the church during the renovations of 1860 were removed and piled in the churchyard. Amputations were performed on an operating table placed within the chancel of the sanctuary. The frescoed walls were splattered with blood, as were the floors of the church. Eyewitness accounts of the destruction, related in a 1907 war claims case for the church speak to the devastation that occurred. When the army relinquished the church back to the congregation on January 31, 1863, the people of Resurrection Reformed Church faced a long road to full recovery.

Rev. Stewart led Resurrection Church for another four years after the battles of 1862-63. He ministered to a congregation that was in the process of healing, both the physical consequences of the war and the emotional trauma of witnessing the gore and tragedy that unfolded in their house of worship. The congregation was also heavily in debt, owing money to pay for the 1860 renovations and the repairs following the use of the building as a hospital. Rev. Stewart's pastorate concluded in 1867 when he resigned from the Burkittsville Charge. He was succeeded by Rev. Henry Irving Comfort. His feelings towards Rev. Stewart and the Mercersburg Theology were made clear in a brief statement he wrote for the December 1868 issue of The Reformed Church Monthly, which criticized his predecessor for his "high-churchism." 

The exact circumstances which precipitated Rev. Stewarts resignation are not definitely documented in surviving church records. What is known is that he and his wife began the process of converting to Catholicism. Reformed Church publications and local newspapers reported that on January 23, 1867, Rev. Moses Andrew Stewart and his wife Elizabeth were received into the Catholic Church in Hagerstown. One article stated that "rumor had it that such a transition had taken place in this case, and to those who have been familiar with his idiosyncrasies for years past, the event will not occasion surprise." Another article conveyed this sentiment: "All we have to say is, we wish him no harm, but hope he has at last found his proper spiritual home and will be happy in it." The Burkittsville Church appears to have moved swiftly on from Rev. Stewart's pastorate, the Rev. Comfort remaining with the congregation for the next five years. 

Little is known about Rev. Stewart after his conversion and departure from Burkittsville. The census indicates that he moved to Baltimore by 1870 and a newspaper article concerning a court case relates that Stewart was working as a publisher for a German language Catholic newspaper in the city. The court case, which occurred in 1875, was between the owners of the newspaper and a prospective buyer, Rev. Stewart having failed to pay a note he had made to the owners in order to purchase the newspaper for himself. The last mention of Rev. Stewart appears in a catalog of alumni from Marshall College in 1903, which simply lists his name as a member of the class of 1852 and that he had died. 

The examination of the life of Rev. Moses A. Stewart and his impact on the Burkittsville Reformed Church is a unique example of the ways philosophical movements can impact the built environment. Under his leadership, the Burkittsville Church was redesigned to accommodate a new mode of worship in a time of steady transition among American Protestantism.