REV. ANDREW HERON.

Andrew Heron was born in Scotland. October 11, 1788. He first came to the United States (as he says in his application to become a citizen of this country in 1840) in the year 1807. He was nineteen years of age. He remained a while at Cambridge, New York, where he studied theology and was licensed to preach by the Associate church. For a number of years he acted as missionary, traveling on horseback through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, and preached to the congregations in those states. In 1818 he was settled in Rockbridge county, Virginia, where he remained thirteen years. During this time he acted for a while as professor of languages in Washington College at Lexington, the same over which General Lee presided at the time of his death. In 1831, he removed with a considerable part of his congregation, and formed what was known as the Caesarscreek congregation, near Jamestown, Greene county, Ohio. Here he remained until 1844, when he was displaced by the disruption in the Associate church. His next charge was in Indiana, where he remained, however, only a few years. Yielding to the infirmities of age, he returned to this county and became a resident of Cedarville. He received the degree of D. D. from Washington College, Virginia. In familiarity with the Scriptures he had few equals, and his retentive memory enabled him to quote scripture while preaching, with peculiar fitness. He was twice married. By his first wife he had one son, Rev. John Heron, who is yet (1900) living in Jamestown, Ohio. Dr. Andrew Heron died August 30, 1873, in his eighty-fifth year, and is buried in Woodland cemetery, Xenia, Ohio.

Source: "History of Greene County, Ohio" ¹⁴⁸²

ANDREW HERON, D. D.

entered the first Protestant seminary the Associate organized, at Service, Pa., April 21, 1794. The Chartiers Presbytery gave him license Sept. 1, 1813, and the Carolinas ordained and installed him pastor of Ebenezer and Timber Ridge, Rockbridge Co., Va.. April 1st, 1815. He entered zealously and systematically upon this wide extended field, making full proof of his ministry.

His talents were recognized as an educator as he held the Chair of Languages in Washington College, Lexington, Va., (now W. and L. University), for four years, beginning in 1815, as also Trustee for thirteen years. The Trustees were loathe to give him up.

"Dr. Heron was a strong character and an able professor." He was Moderator of the Associate Synod in 1820, her stated clerk from 1827 to 1842, and a liberal, punctual and influential member of his Church courts. The Associate Synod at Pittsburg, Pa., Friday, May 2gth, 1829, resolved to engage in public covenanting. This was a very solemn service, the acknowledgment of sins and the signing of a bond. Dr. A. Heron preached the sermon on that memorable occasion.

In May 1832, a call was presented and accepted from Caesar's Creek, Green Co., Ohio, and on the 8th of January, 1833, he was installed pastor, having removed from Virginia the preceding August. In this region he rounded out exactly 60 years of ministerial life, being licensed Sept. 1, 1813, and his death occurring at Cedarville, Ohio, Sept. 1, 1873.

Washington and Lee University bears unasked and impartial testimony thus: "Dr. Heron possessed strong mental powers as well as strong religious principles. He was also both scholarly and literary. His memory was wonderfully retentive. Toward the last, when blindness cut him off from his great resource of reading he entertained those around him by pouring out from the stores of his memory an astonishing variety of knowledge. Shortly before his death he repeated the whole of the one hundred and fifty Psalms in the Scotch metrical version. When 83 years old he got a severe fall, which confined him to bed for some time, during which period he composed a sermon. "The Angels at School," by which he was so inspired as to rise from his bed, and hobbling on crutches go from church to church preaching his new sermon, and conducting all the services with accuracy and propriety, although he could neither see nor hear. Thus ended the career of a strong, good man, of the brave old Cameronian type."

Source: "The centennial history of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. 1803-1903." ¹⁴⁸¹