Rev. John Elder, Rev. Samuel Caven and Rev. Samuel Thompson came into the Presbytery of Donegal, now Carlisle, about the same time.
  September 1, 1737, the Presbytery of Donegal was requested by the congregation of Paxton and by commissioners from Pennsboro' to apply to the Presbytery of New Castle for a hearing in these places of some of their probationers.  The reason why that Presbytery had more licentiates than Donegal has been already stated.  At the next meeting, October 5, 1737, Messrs. John Elder and Samuel Caven, the former from New Castle Presbytery and the latter immediately from Ireland, having produced sufficient testimonials, and having preached to the satisfaction of Presbytery and adopted the Westminster confession of faith and catechisms, as the confession of their faith and promised obedience to Presbytery, were taken under its care.
  At the next meeting, November 17, 1737, Mr. Samuel Thompson, a student recently from Ireland and a licentiate of the Presbytery of New Castle, was received.
   John Elder was the second son of Robert Elder of Scotland, who was settled for a time in County Antrim, Ireland, and from thence with his family, except John, about 1730, came to America and located in Paxton township, then Lancaster, now Dauphin county, on a tract of land five miles north of Harrisburg, Pa.
   John Elder, according to Sprague's Annals, was born in County Antrim in 1706.  According to Egle's Pennsylvania Genealogies, he was born in the city of Edinburg, January 26, 1706.  Sprague says he was left in Edinburgh in care of his uncle, Rev. John Elder, to complete his classical studies and prepare for the ministry.  He graduated at the University of Edinburgh, studied theology and was licensed to preach in 1732.  Four or five years afterwards, probably in 1736, he came to America, presented his credentials to the Presbytery of New Castle and was received by that body and sent by it to the Presbytery of Donegal, October, 1737.  Mr. Bertram having been released from Paxton congregation in 1735, that people April 12, 1738, unanimously called Mr. Elder, which call he accepted and was ordained and installed there November 22, of that year.
    At the time of his settlement the excitement caused by the great revival movement of that periiod had already extended to that region.  Mr. Elder took his position very decidedly with the old side party.  He preached against what he styled the "religious furore" of that time and of that movement.  Two years after his settlement, he was charged by reason of this, with having preached doctrines at variance with the standards of the church.  Though the charge was shown to be groundless, it became the occasion of a great agitation and led to a division of his congregation.  The party separating made application to the New Side Presbytery of New Castle for supplies and the next summer Rev. Erends Campbell and Rev. John Rowland were sent to supply them and other places where the people sympathized with the New Side party in the Presbytery.  This was the Mr. Rowland under whose preaching, Mr. William Alexander, the grandfather of Dr. Archibald Alexander, before he moved to Virginia, became a subject of divine grace.  This fact Dr. Alexander learned of Dr. Robert Smith, of Pequea in 1791, when on his way from Virginia to the General Assembly in Philadelphia.
   Mr. Elder was one of those who signed the protest in the Synod in 1741.
And it was the people of Paxton and Derry who overtured the Synod in 1735 for a more definite declaration as to the adoption of the standards than that of 1729 and which led the Synod in order to the removal of all ground of jealousy on account of the expression of scruples which was allowed as to matters non-essential, used in the adopting act, to say that year, "that Synod adopted and still adhered to the Westminster confession, catechisms and directory for worship, without the least variation or alteration and without any true intent in the first adopting act of said confession."
   Mr. Elder after the division of Paxton and Derry congregations retained the charge of the Old Side portion of Paxton and took charge of the Old Side portion of Derry congregation.
   Mr. Elder was a public-spirited man, of great energy and decision of character.  He took the command of the "Paxtang Boys" during the troublous times of the French and Indian war and in 1763 was appointed a colonel by the Provincial authorities and had command or rather the superintendence of the blockhouses and stockades from Easton on the Delaware to the Susquehanna, nothing more being expected of him, as stipulated by the Governor in his appointment, than a general oversight.  Such services were regarded as justified upon the part of the ministers of that day, by the crisis of affairs then existing in the country.  The Indian massacre on Conestoga Manor and at Lancaster in 1763, on account of which Mr. Elder was subject to much criticism and some censure, was perpetrated despite his more earnest remonstrance.
   The union of the Synod in 1758, brought Mr. Elder and his Old Side friends in the Donegal Presbytery into union with a number of warm New Side men of the New Castle Presbytery.  To escape from these unpleasant associations Mr. Elder and some others, by the action of Synod, were set off to the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia.  On the formation of the General Assembly in 1788 he became a member of Carlisle Presbytery.
  At the period of the American Revolution Mr. Elder warmly espoused the cause of American Independence.  At the time when the British army overran New Jersy and drove before them the remnant of our half-starved and poorly-clad troops, in response to a brief and earnest appeal by Mr. Elder, at a Sabbath morning service, to his people, a company of volunteers was quickly formed, of which his oldest son Robert was chosen captain and of which his younger son John, then only sixteen, became a private member.  The next day though in midwinter, they marched away to the scene of conflict.
   Mr. Elder continued pastor of that part of the congregation of Paxton which adhered to the Old Side, and at the death of Rev. John Roan, the New Side portion of the congregation of Derry, united with that of Paxton in receiving him as their minister, and for a period of fifty-three years Mr. Elder was pastor of that people and died, highly respected and deeply lamented, at the advanced age of eight-six years (d. 7-17-1792).
  Mr. Elder, from all the evidence which can now be gathered with respect to his character and life, was a man conspicuous in his day for talent, learning and piety; a man of robust constitution, of strong and decided convictions, of great courage, of indomitable energy and strenth of purpose; a man full of public spirit, of extensive influence and in many respects one of the foremost men of his day; a man similar in the prominent characteristics of mind and disposition to John C. Calhoun or Andrew Jackson.
   He was a tall portly man, over six feet in height and of strong and heavy frame.  He had, said one who well remembered the old minister, a good and very handsome face, his features were regular and he was of fair complexion and had blue eyes.  He was a man of affairs, being equally sucessful as a farmer, a soldier and a minister.  His remains lie buried in the old Paxton graveyard.  He was twice married and had fifteen children, four by the first and eleven by the second wife.

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