 While attending a summer camp he experimented with staying underwater by breathing through hollow reeds found in the lake shallows.Though he could not yet swim well, this allowed him to stay underwater for extended periods.On January 24, 1784, the town of Barnet voted unanimously to make the Presbyterian denomination the official one of the town, as it was "founded on the word of God as expressed in the Confession of Faith, Catechisms Longer and Shorter, with the form of church government agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and practiced by the Church of Scotland."