Dad had an uncle,Robert Belville SIMPSON,1ST COUSIN OF PRES-GEN GRANT. _Www.google.com_ (http://www.google.com) just told me the Simpson's had a minister,Robert Belville,New Castle Co to Bucks Co,Pa at Neshamminy Presbyterian,Bucks Co.,Pa The Simpsons moved to the sw Ohio farm adjoining mine in 18`18,and Robert Belville Simpson was born 20 years later. 1745, Mr. Whitefield made a second visit to Neshaminy. Leaving Philadelphia about eight a. m., accompanied by several friends, he arrived at three, having "baited at a friend's in the midway." That afternoon he preached in the meeting-house yard to about 500 people, and "great numbers were much melted down." That evening he rode to Montgomery, eight miles, where he staid all night, and the next morning continued on to Skippack, sixteen miles further, where he preached to 2,000 persons, passing through what "was seemingly a wilderness part of the country." The 7th of May Mr. Whitefield again came into the county, crossing the river to Bristol, where he preached to about 400 people, and then returned to Philadelphia. At this time Whitefield is described as "of middle stature, slender body, fair complexion, comely appearance, and extremely bashful and modest. His delivery was warm and affectionate, and his gestures natural, and the most beautiful imaginable." Franklin, who attended his sermons, said: "He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great distance. I computed that he might well be heard by 30,000." In 1745 a religious revival and excitement, called the "Great Awakening," broke out in various parts of the country, and extended into this county. It was noted for several marvelous instances of persons being thrown into contortions, called "jerks," while under the influence of preaching. Some fainted, others saw visions, and many were moved in various ways. It broke out in the Neshaminy congregation in the spring of the year, and in June, David Brainard, the great missionary among the Indians, came down from the Forks to assist Mr. Beatty, the pastor. He tells us, in his journal, that on Sunday there were assembled from 3,000 to 4,000 persons, and that during his sermons many were moved to tears. During this period a spiritual skeleton introduced itself amid the revivals and awakenings that stirred the religious world. Things were far from harmonious. Presbyterians became divided, and for forty years the Old Side and New Side stood bristling at each other across an imaginary line. It was the ancestor of the war of "schools" that came a century later. In a word the division was here. The Old Side believed that all should "be regarded and treated as regenerate who did not give evidence to the contrary, by manifest heresy or immorality," and that all baptised persons should be communicants. This doctrine was held by what was called the strict Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland, with few exceptions. The New Side, principally persons from New England, held that all, in whom no evidence of regeneration could be found, should be excluded from communion, and the ministry. The Log College (2) was a New Side seminary, and the New Brunswick Presbytery leaned the same way. The division caused great trouble in the synod from 1728 to 1741, when the schism, which separated the New Brunswick Presbytery from the rest of the body, was consummated. The Neshaminy church was not a unit. That part of the congregation adhering to the Old Side worshiped in the old church, in the graveyard, under the pastoral care of Reverend Francis McHenry, of Deep Run, while the New Side held service in the new church, on the site of the present one on the back of the creek. This continued until about 1768, when the synod having become united the two sides came together and worshiped in the same building. (2) William Tennent renounced the authority of the Presbytery in 1739. The religious fervor of the period probably led to the establishment of the Log College. William Tennent, its founder, and in fact its everything, took a leading part in all the discussions of the day, and exerted himself to advance the cause of religion. Whether the school he taught in Bensalem was theological is not known, but that near Neshaminy soon assumed this character, and has now become historic. He made a clearing in the timber, on a fifty-acre tract given him by his kinsman, James Logan, and erected a log building about twenty feet square (3). It was one of the earliest classical schools in the province, and was called "Log College" in derision. Mr. Tennent was assisted in the school, for a year, by his son Gilbert, who was licensed to preach in 1725. As this was the only school within the bounds of the Presbyterian church at which young men could be fitted for the ministry, he soon had as many scholars as he could receive. The Log College prepared for the pulpit some of the ablest divines of the last century. Mr. Tennent was born in Ireland about 1673, and was a distant relative of the Laird of Dundas and the Earl of Panmure. He was educated for the Episcopal church, and ordained in 1704. In 1702 he married the daughter of Mr. Kennedy, a Presbyterian minister, came to America in 1718, was licensed by the Philadelphia Presbytery, called to East Chester first, to Bensalem in 1721, and to Neshaminy in 1726, where he died in 1746. His widow died in Philadelphia in 1753. He was a man of very fine education, and spoke the Latin language with elegance and purity. (3) He probably commenced the school in his own dwelling, for the land was not deeded to him until 1728. Mr. Logan frequently sent provisions to Mr. Tennent. We know but little of the Log College beyond what can be said of its distinguished founder and the eminent men educated within its log walls. Its story of usefulness is told in the lives of its alumni. Mr. Tennent had four sons, all born in Ireland, but three of them educated at the college; Gilbert, born 1703, died 1764, William, born 1705, died 1777, John, born 1706, died 1732, and Charles, born 1711. They all became distinguished ministers in the Presbyterian church, and William was the subject of the remarkable trance that attracted universal attention at the time. Gilbert accompanied Whitefield to Boston in 1740, where his preaching was received with great favor. He was largely instrumental in bringing about a division in the church. Whitefield said that the Log College had turned out eight ministers before the fall of 1739, including Tennent's four sons, but many more were educated there. All traces of this early cradle of Presbyterianism have long since passed away, and its exact location is hardly known. A piece of one of its logs is preserved as a memento, in a cane which the late Reverend Robert Belville presented to Doctor Miller, of Princeton, New Jersey. The school was maintained for twenty years, but did not long survive the retirement and death of its founder. Among the distinguished pupils of the Log College, we are able to