USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 13
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 13
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* Dunwoody's Life. + Ibid. # Minutes.
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ville, but the appointment was changed to Augusta, and it met in that city. Bishops Mckendree and Roberts were present. James Norton, whom we remember as one of the early workers in lower Georgia, was the travelling companion of Bishop McKendree. The Bishop and himself had left the seat of the Mississippi conference attended by Thomas Griffin, who conducted them as far as Fort Claiborne, in the Tombigbee country. They then entered the Indian country. The creeks and rivers were high, and the country for miles was inundated. After many perils, in one of which they narrowly cs- caped being drowned, they reached the east bank of the Chattahoochee, and, although the Indians were not peace- able, made their way safely to the white settlements. They finally reached the hospitable home of John Lucas, near Sparta, and, in company with Lewis Myers, reached Augusta. "There was," says Bishop Paine, in his Life of Mckendrec, "some delicate and eventful business, which was attended to. What this was we cannot tell." This conference met January 27, 1818 .*
During this year Hope IIull followed Asbury to IIcaven. He had been a local preacher for twenty-five years, but had been a zealous worker for the Church all the time. IIull was in all respects a great man. In person he had large body and short limbs. He had & large, commanding head, a fine eye, and exceedingly bushy eyebrows.t Ile was a man of quick decision and of great firmness. Like most great men, he possessed striking peculiarities, some of them relating to little things. One of these was always to wear an old hat. As old as Father IIull's hat, was a proverb in North-
* Paine's Life of McKendree.
+ Dr. Pierce, in Sprague.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
east Georgia .* His clothing was always too large for him, especially his boots. Once, the story goes, he complained of a pebble in his boot ; when he drew it off, it had in it a small pair of candle-snuffers. Ilo had remarkable penetration, and was thought to possess the power of discerning spirits. One day in class he met a man who said he was like old David, and had his infirmities. " Yes," said Father Hull, "and I am afraid you are like old Noah too-get drunk sometimes." + It was a centre shot, for the man was much given to the bottle. He had great influence with the leading men of the State, and the State University owed much to his fostering care. He bequeathed his name and his vir- tues to his children, one of whom, Asbury Hull, was a leading lawyer and statesman in Georgia, who died a few years since ; and another, Dr. Henry Hull, once professor in the University, and who still lives, a useful Methodist of Athens.
It was now necessary to make some changes in the district presidents : Joseph Tarpley took the Oconee District, and Saml. K. Hodges was placed on the Ogee- chee; Lewis Myers was sent to Charleston ; Nicholas Talley came to Georgia again, to the important Sparta Circuit, and James Dunwoody, just admitted, was sent with him as junior preacher. James Dunwoody still lives (1875), although he has been for many years, against his will, superannuated. He was a long time a very de- voted, laborious, and self-sacrificing preacher, whom we shall often see.
During this year Samuel Dunwoody came from South Carolina, and preached a stirring and able sermon on
* Bishop Andrew, in Sprague.
t Ibid.
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the love of money. He attributed nearly all the evils which the world had known to covetousness, and espe- cially charged the decline of Methodism to this source. Solomon said in his day there were those who said erroneously the old days were best; and though Mr. Wesley endorsed Solomon, he said sadly, before his death, that the Methodists were no longer what they were. And still the same cry is heard ; but there seems to have been much truth in Dunwoody's statement, for there was another year of decline, and another lots of 500 members. For now nearly eight years there had been only decline. The churches lost in members and lost spiritual power. Even the Apalachee Circuit-to which Dunwoody was sent, Barnet's health having failed-although one of the best in the conference, was in a cold, dead state.
Hodges, the new presiding elder, was eminently fitted for the office. IIe preached well, and in managing a district had few superiors. Ile was about six feet high, of sallow complexion, dark eyes, was very fluent in speech, and his judgment was of the best order. He had entered the conference with Jas. O. Andrew, and nominated him for the episcopal office, to which he was elected.
Elisha Callaway was junior preacher on the Saltilla Circuit. This was a hard circuit, and Callaway rarely had any other kind. He was an admirable frontiersman, warm-hearted, cheerful, courageous. IIe was a man of rare ability of character, full of generosity and ten- derness. Ile transferred finally to Alabama.
The conference met in Camden, Bishop Roberts presiding. A new district was now laid out, consisting of circuits which had previously been in the Ogeechee
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
and Oconee Districts. It was called the Athens Dis- trict. Joseph Tarpley was placed upon it. It consisted of the Broad River, Grove, Apalachee, Alcovi, and Sparta Circuits. The Grove Circuit is the only one of these circuits whose boundaries we have not endeavored to indicate. It consisted of those churches and preach- ing-places which were in the upper part of the State, bordering on the Indian Nation. The present counties of Hart, Madison, Franklin, Jackson, and a part of Clarke, were included in it. David Garrison, an elder, was this year in charge of it. He had been a local preacher for several years before he joined the confer- ence, having been licensed in 1806. He travelled con- seentively for ten years, and when his health gave way he was superannuated, and continued in that relation until the year 1842, when he died. He was a sober, pious, humble Christian, a plain, practical, spiritual, and useful preacher, a great lover of the doctrines and dis- cipline of the Church. His voice failed him ere his consciousness, and he signified that all was well by rais- ing his hand .*
W. B. Barnett was presiding eldor of the Oconee District, which included only five circuits, but they em- braced all the western and lower parts of the State. Samuel K. Hodges had the Ogeechee District. Asbury Morgan was in charge of the Ohoopee and Darien Circuits. He was now a deacon, and had travelled two circuits in South Carolina before he came to Georgia. He was born in Mecklenburg County, Va., Ang. 25, 1797, and before his twenty-first year was a travelling preacher. Hle advanced rapidly, and after he had
* Rev. W. J. Parks.
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travelled ten years, while stationed in Charleston, he died of the stranger fever, the 25th of September, 1828. Ile was not a man of splendid talents, but was acceptable and useful. * Ilis widow long survived him, and one of his danghters became the wife of J. Blakely Smith, who was hiinself a useful travelling preacher, and was long secretary of Georgia and South Georgia Conferences, and who died while he was presiding elder of the Americus District, in 1871.
Raleigh Green, another young man, was junior preacher on the Apalachee Circuit. He travelled only a few years, and then located ; afterwards, when an old man, he returned to the work, and in it he died. He was engaged in worldly business, and, like most preach- ers, was not successful, but preserved his Christian character in the midst of his losses.t
George Hill, the junior preacher on the Warren Cir- cuit, was destined to an early grave, but to a life of great usefulness before he was called away. Ile was born in Charleston, and was the son of Paul Hill, Esq. lle was a brilliant boy, and began to preach at twenty yours old. He travelled for only nine years, but in that time was placed in the most important charges. Ile was a powerful and an eminently successful preacher.
Mathew Raiford was received this year. He was only nineteen years old. IIe travellod several years in Sonth Carolina, and afterwards on some of the hardest circuits in Georgia. Ile went as an assistant to Isaac Smith on the Creek Mission. IIe was a faithful man all his life. and "though sorely afflicted in his last years, retained his Christian confidence strong to the end. He died at
ยท Minutes
+ Ibid.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Dr. James Thweat's, in Monroe County, in his fifty-third year." Asbury Morgan visited Darien, then a prosperous town at the mouth of the Altamaha, this year. It had been settled in 1735 by the Scotch Ilighlanders, but the settlement had been broken up; but now, as cotton songht shipment from the interior by way of the largest river in the State, the town at its mouth was growing in importance. The use of the only church in it was re- fused to the Methodists; but Morgan secured a counting- house near the river, and a plank was made a bridge from the bluff; when the worshippers were molested, the plank was used as a drawbridge. In 1831, Brother Shackleford, a devoted Methodist, moved to the place, and a church was soon built, and a revival followed-the first in Darien .*
Jno. L. Jerry was a junior preacher on the Broad River Circuit this year. He was of French descent, his father having come over with General La Fayette, to assist the American colonies. He joined the Church when young, and entered the conference at twenty-five years of age. IIe was on the frontier most of his life, travelling the hardest circuits in East and West Florida. In 1827, after ten years' work, he married, and located and settled in East Florida. After seven years in retire- ment, he re-entered the travelling connection, and re- mained in it till he died. He died of congestion of the brain in 1859. He was a very brave and a very self- sacrificing man, and one of great faith. On one occa- sion, at St. Augustine, he was threatened by a priest with imprisonment.t Ile fearlessly pointed to the American flag, and defied him. At another time, as he
* Dr Myers, in S. C. Advocate. 9
+ Minutes.
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was riding alone through the Florida wilds, he found himself near a ferry, without means to pay for crossing. Dismounting, he prayed to God for help, and on his way back to his horse found a Spanish doubloon. He was not an educated man, but a man of great common sense, and was very successful in his work. His name is precious to Florida Methodists.
The Ogeechee District was now enlarged by the addi- tion of the Black Swamp Circnit in South Carolina.
The chapter now drawing towards its end is one of the saddest in the history of Methodism in Georgia. There had been no advance, but a constant and painful decline. The State was prosperous, but the Church was never less so. So the minute figures say, and we have no access to other sources, for we are possessed of less information concerning this time than of any period before or since. The Methodist Magazine began its life in 1818, but there is in it no news of Georgia work. Better times were coming. . During the year 1819 Bishop Capers, who was stationed in Savannah, writes that Warren County, in which John Mote and Jno. L. Jerry were the preachers, was in a flame throughout, and at the camp-meeting there were over one hundred converted, and over two hundred had joined the Church. There was a great revival in Augusta, under Henry Bass, and altogether a better promise in the conference.
John Simmons was on the Apalachee Circuit this year, and received another appointment, when he lo- ented. Ile was zealous, simple-hearted, and devotedly pions, and labored cheerfully as long as he lived. Ilo located and did good work in Butts and Pike Counties ; after the settlement of Oxford, he fixed his home there. and there educated his sons : Dr. Jas. P. Simmons, low
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
dead, who was a useful layman ; the Rev. W. A. Sim- mons, of the Northern Georgia, and the Rev. Jno. C. Simmons, of the Pacific Conference. During the year for the first time in several, there was some increase, the minutes reporting 7,166 whites against 7,083 of the year before.
Wm. Capers was in Savannah this year, and Henry Bass in Augusta, and in both of these cities there was decided improvement in church matters.
The conference met in Charleston, January 13, 1820. Bishop George presided. IIe was among his old friends and co-laborers. Over twenty years before lie he had left South Carolina and Georgia, after having done noble work in them, and now he returns to his old home with the highest office in the gift of the Church. James Dunwoody, who was received at this conference into full connection, says of the Bishop: "He was greatly animated, and I think I have scarcely ever known a more thrilling or solemn season."*
The three districts retain their shape ; but Burnett, who was in the Wire-Grass Country, and whose health had failed him, retired, and James Norton took his place. IIe had been the pioneer in this region years before, and had first proclaimed the Gospel to its scat- tered inhabitants. He had been hard at work, honored by his brethren with successive seats in the General Conference, and deeply beloved by his Bishops, espe- cially by McKendree, with whom he had been a travel- ing companion. James O. Andrew was sent to Augusta. It was his eighth appointment. He had developed wonderfully as a preacher, and had now a wife and two
* Dunwoody's Life.
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children, and was the first married preacher ever sta- tioned in that city.
Thomas Samford, who was at work in Georgia, this year began a ministerial life, which continued till his death nearly fifty years afterwards. He was a poor boy, the son of a widowed mother. Placed in the family of a good South Carolina Methodist, he was converted, and his faithfulness in his duties kept him with them for some years. He came to Georgia and became a preacher. He possessed a mind of very fine texture, and was a diligent student. He was a small man, retiring, absent-minded, timid, but remarkable for his pulpit gifts. Few men have had higher repute for the pulpit power than he had. IIe was placed on the best circuits, stations, and districts while in Georgia. Ile afterwards transferred to Louisiana, and thence to Texas, where during the war he died. Ile was noted for his gentleness and his charitableness, and was uni- versally beloved. We shall see him often.
At this conference, the delegates to the General Conference of 1820 were elected. They were : Sam'l Dunwoody, Win. Kennedy, Joseph Travis, James Norton, Lewis Myers, Daniel Asbury, Win. Capers, James O. Andrew, and Sam'l K. Hodges; of these every one except Father Asbury had travelled in Georgia. It was a large and very able delegation, and it was well that it was so, for there were try- ing days just ahcad. McCaine was elected secre- tary, and the Bishops presided in turn. The im- portant Committee on Episcopacy was elected by ballot, and Lewis Myers was again placed upon it. Win. Capers was placed on the committee to consider the local preacher question, and Kennedy was chairman
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
on the Sunday-school Committee. The session was long and stormy. Some cases of appeal from the Baltimore Conference, which had located two travel- ling preachers without their consent, called out the strong men. Wm. Capers on the side of the appellants, and Stephen George Roszell, in defence of the con- ference, the other. Then caine the election of a Bishop, and Joshua Soule was elected over Nathan Bangs. James Axley brought forward the slavery question, as he always brought forward something to excite discussion. It was left as before. By far the most exciting and important measure was the proposal for the election of presiding elders. From 1808, at every general conference, this measure had been presented, and three times it had been rejected. It was now, however, brought forward again by D. Ostrander, of New York, and finally carried ; with this action of the body Mckendree and Soule were much displeased. They believed it an unconstitu- tional, and a radical and dangerous change. Soule refused to be ordained a Bishop while this law re. mained in the discipline, and Mckendree refused to carry out the measure until the conferences should decide by a three-fourths vote that they desired it. Those questions of the power of the general conference, which were to be so ably dis- cussed in 1844, were now for the first time broach- ed. Apprehending serious trouble, the execution of the law was by vote of the conference suspended until 1824; and as Soule refused the office, no other Bishop was elected, and after a most exciting session the body adjourned.
James O. Andrew was a silent member of this con-
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ference, the first to which he had been elected as a delegate, and the only member of the South Carolina delegation who took active part in the discussions was Wm. Capers.
The next South Carolina Conference met Jannary 11, 1821, in Columbia, S. C. Bishop George was again president, though Bishop Mckendree was with him.
At this conference Joseph Tarpley, after a most useful career, located, and the Athens District had a new presiding elder ; this was Isaac Smith, one of the earliest of the Methodist preachers in South Caro- lina, and one whom we have already mentioned as having been present at the first Georgia Conference in 1788.
Ile was a Virginian by birth, the grandson of an Episcopal minister. His father, Thomas Smith, was a farmer in Kent County, Va., and died while his son was still small. When the Revolutionary war com- menced, he entered the army and served with Washing- ton and La Fayette for three years. He was an orderly sergeant, and was so well known by La Fayette, that when the Marquis was in America, on meeting him at his mission, near Columbus, the ardent Frenchman caught him in his arms, and the old soldier, now a missionary, after asking his old commander about his prospects for Heaven, commended him to God in prayer. He had been well taught the Episcopal cate- chism, but knew nothing of personal religion until after the Revolution was over. He saw it manifest among the Baptists of Norfolk, and soon after heard Asbury preach. He was converted, and in 1783 began to preach, and in '1784 entered the conference at Ellis'
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Meeting-honse, in Virginia. He travelled in Virginia and North Carolina for two years, then came southward for twelve years; he was a most laborious travelling preacher. During that time he married Ann Gilman, a cousin of James Rembert, and, when his family cares forbade his travelling, located and settled in Camden, S. C. He was the father of Methodism in the town. His home was the stopping-place of all the preachers. He was the trusted friend of Asbury, MeKendree, George, and Soule. Asbury visited him every year from the time of his election as Bishop, till his death. He was much loved and honored. In his house Bishop Capers made his first public prayer, and he and two others entertained the South Caro. lina Conference at its first meeting in Camden. After a life as a local preacher of great usefulness, he re-entered the conference in 1820, and remained in it till his death in 1835. At the time of his appointment to the Athens District, he was about sixty years old. He was selected the next year to take charge of the mission to the Creek Indians at Fort Mitchell, near the present city of Columbus. IIe won the affections of the red men, and labored among them with some suc- cess. After several years in the wilds he was super- annuated, and spent the remainder of his life in such labor as he could do, visiting as far west as the Natchez Country, where his daughter Mary, the wife of Hugh Lenoir, was living. IIe returned to Georgia, and died in Monroe County, at the residence of Whitman C. Ilill, who had married his daughter Jane. When asked on his dying bed how it was with him, he repeated the beautiful lines of Wesley, as with his clasped hands he looked toward the sky :
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" There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart are there, And my Eternal home. For me my clder brethren stay, And angels beckon me away, And Jesus bids me come."
Few men since the days of the Apostle John have been more holy and lovable than this old soldier. Ris- ing at four in the morning, he spent the time in prayer, singing and reading the Bible until six o'clock. He was called the St. John of the Carolina Conference. Ilis two sons, Isaac . Henry and James Rembert, were local preachers of fine ability ; one of them, Dr. James Rem- bert Smith, still lives and still works. The other, after years of useful labor, died a few years since. Several of his grandsons are also travelling preachers. Ile was a man of dignified and gentle bearing; he had a good English education, and while a plain preacher, was an earnest and acceptable one. The South Carolina Con- ference was so much attached to him, that, when the con- ference was divided, although their old father was in the Georgia territory, they would not allow him to be transferred, but retained his name till the last.
He was devoted to the religious teaching of the negroes and the Indians, and was so esteemed by the negroes, that, in a time when all the white men were doomed by the rebellious blacks to death, the only ground upon which they consented to the massacre of Father Smith was that it would be kindness to him to send him to heaven. While he was on the Athens Dis- trict, he licensed Win. J. Parks to preach. Of him we shall have much to say in the future of this history .*
* Sprague's Annala, and Stevens' History.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Jno. B. Chappel, just admitted into full connection, was this year on the Grove Circuit. He was born in Lincoln County, Ga., and was converted when twenty- three years old. He was first a local preacher, and entered the conference in 1819. He was a very accept- able and useful preacher, preaching by day when he could get a congregation, and by night when they would not come out by day. In all his circuits he was blessed with gracious success, and revivals followed his ministry. He broke down in the work, and settled in Oglethorpe County. After returning from a camp-meeting in Elbert, he was taken suddenly ill, and died praising his Redeemer to the last .*
During this year Wmn. Capers was much in Georgia. He had been selected to establish a mission among the Creeks, and was to raise funds for the purpose. He went twice to the Nation, spending the intervals solicit- ing contributions to the society.t How well he suc- ceeded is evidenced by the fact that the South Carolina Conference paid into the missionary treasury inore than all the conferences together-all of New England pay- ing but seventy-nine dollars, and South Carolina Con- ference alone $1,374. # IIis heart was in the work, and the zeal with which he labored was inspiration to all.
One new circuit was made in the Wire-Grass Country, called in the minutes Lapahee. It should be Alapaha. It joined the Little Ocmulgee on the north, and extend- ed to the Florida line in the south. J. J. Triggs, an Englishman by birth, was placed in charge of it. He was possessed of decided ability, and did good work.
* Obituary notice in Minutes. t Wightman. # Methodist Magazine for 1824.
9*
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After travelling a few years, he located, and resided in Burke County till his death.
James Dunwoody was on the Little Ocmulgee Circuit. He says that it was a three weeks' circuit for one preacher. The population was sparse, the rides were long. The people were very poor, living in log huts ; and often during cold winter nights, as he slept in these cabins, the wind poured in upon his head all night long. In windy weather the wind blew down the large stick- and-dirt chimneys, and mixed lumps of clay and soot with the not enticing food. The country was much infested with flies and mosquitoes, but the young itiner- ant, sick and weary as he was, did his work until conference. This was but a specimen of the work in Norton's District. This district extended from near Milledgeville to St. Mary's, and Norton himself broke down under the labor .*
During the year there was no increase, but a decrease of over four hundred members. The conference met in Angusta, January, 1822, Bishops McKendree and George presiding. A very great change was made in the line of the white settlements in Georgia by the acquisition of new and valuable territory from the Indians. This rendered the extension of the conference boundary needful, but this was not done until the next year. John Howard, who came to Georgia the year before, and who was stationed in Savannah, was in Augusta this year. He was from North Carolina, and was born in 1792, and at this time was thirty years old. After receiving an excellent common school education, he entered the store of his brother, Henry B. Howard, of
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