USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 17
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 17
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"The last time I ever saw Josiah Flournoy was in his great temperance enterprise in 1839. He endeavored to convince the people of Georgia of the necessity of passing stringent laws against the sale of spiritnous liquor. For this purpose he combined all the temper- ance element of the State, going from town to town, from church to church, holding meetings, and getting subscribers to his petition. He enlisted Judge Sayre of Sparta, and other prominent men.
" He went to nearly every county in the State on this mission, and was treated very badly in several places by the sons of Belial. At Clinton they shaved the tail of his horse, at other places he received personal indigni- ties, and his life was threatened. Although his effort was a failure, yet no doubt it accomplished much good, which will be revealed in the day of eternity."
Dr. Pendleton also says that the man who lost his mind from the effect of Bishop Capers' sermon, after three months insanity recovered it, and lived a good man afterwards. Bishop Capers did not hear of his re- covery for some years, and when he did it was much to his gratification. At the camp-inecting of this year in
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Putnam, Jas. O. Andrew, John Howard and Jos. Travis were present, and there was much good done.
During this year there was a precious revival in Athens. Many of the students were converted. There was a great work in Walton and Gwinnett.
Jere. Norman was in charge of the Houston Mission, which embraced all the country south of Macon, to the Early Mission. He bore the name of one of the first travelling preachers, and was probably a kinsman of his. He was a man of very deep piety and very fine gifts. He was, however, one of the ugliest of men, and once Thomas Darley, his colleague, gave out an appoint- ment for him by saying: "If you will be here two weeks from to-day, you will see one of the ugliest men and hear one of the best preachers in the connection."
Jno. H. Robinson, who was on the large Ocmulgee Circuit this year, was from Bibb County. He was a good man and a faithful preacher for over forty years, and died in the work, although for a few years before his death he had been superannuated.
Although there was some decrease in the older sec- tions, such was the prosperity in the new country that there was considerable increase in the aggregate mem- bership. The conference met in Milledgeville, January 12, 1826, Bishop Soule presiding.
At this conference, Stephen Olin was ordained a deacon. He was a Vermonter, and was now in the twenty-ninth year of his age. After his graduation at college, he had come to the South to teach a school and to recruit his health. If he was not at this time an in- fidel, he was a sceptic. The academy to which he was called was the Tabernacle Academy, in Abbeville Dis- trict, S. C., which had been established by some Metho-
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dists. The Master was required to open the school with prayer, and though Olin was not a believer, yet he con- sented tomeet the demand. He became very restless un- der this state of things and was deeply convicted of sin. He began to examine the evidences of the Divine origin of Christianity. His intellect was soon convinced, and his heart was soon at rest, and not long after he began to preach. At one bound he reached the foremnost place among southern Methodist preachers. He gave himself with ardor to the work, and united with the conference. He was sent to Charleston with James O. Andrew for his presiding elder, and John Howard as his senior preacher. Here he attracted great attention, but his health failed him. His after-life was almost a continual battle with feebleness. He was unable to continue his pastorate, and was elected professor of belles-lettres at Athens. He thus became a citizen of Georgia. IIe married one of the loveliest of women, Miss Mary Ann Bostwick, one whose family position was the highest, and one whose beauty was the pride of her State ; she was withal a simple-hearted Christian. He now settled himself in Athens. IIere he did won- derful preaching, and was, as far as strength permitted, fully devoted to his work. When Randolph Macon College was founded, he was elected its president, but failing health drove him from his place there and exiled him to Europe. He returned to his beloved South no more. ITis gentle wife died in Naples, Italy, and when he returned to America, he sought the more bracing cli- mate of the North, and was elected President of the Wesleyan University of Vermont.
The abolition excitement in New England was now intense. Olin had been a slaveholder, and was now in
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
the possession of a considerable estate derived from the sale of his slaves. He believed his New England breth- ren were sadly mistaken and sadly unwise in their course, but he could. not stay the tide. He was elected to the General Conference of 1844. He saw, before the conference met, that the issue must come, but still hoped for peace ; and, to add to his embarrassment and to his sorrow, the victim chosen was James O. Andrew, his dearest earthly friend. The question was at length be- fore the conference. Should he vote against his friend by voting for the Finley resolutions ? Olin thought in no other way could the Church in New England be saved. Bishop Andrew told the writer that the evening before the vote was taken, Olin took him aside and said to him :
"James, you know I love you, and you know I do not blame you for the course you have taken, and yet I. shall vote for the resolution to-morrow. It is the only way to save the Church in the North ; the South will go off, but it will do so en masse and united. If we do not pass this resolution, the North will go off in fragments, and there will be only strife and bitterness." The next day he did so vote. He lost many friends in the South ; many who had greatly admired him bitterly denounced him, but he did not lose his place in the great heart of Bishop Andrew, for that grand old man spoke of him as lovingly at the last as though Olin had stood by him bravely through the conflict. Olin earnestly advocated the plan of separation, and lost many friends on the other side by his advocacy of it. He never ceased to love the South, nor did the South cease to love him. IIere he had won his first souls for Christ. Here he had gained what he cared for least, his first pulpit and plat- 11*
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form fame. Here he married his first beautiful wife, and here much of his heart always was.
Stephen Olin never had a superior in the American pulpit, and it is doubtful whether in any sphere of pub- lic life there was a greater mind than his.
He was so identified with the Georgia work, that we shall see him often as we pursue this history.
Charles Hardy, a very gifted young man, was in Savannah this year. He was the son of pious parents in Lincoln County ; was converted when a boy, and be- gan to travel ere his majority. He cvinced fine qualities as a preacher from the beginning, and did most valuable work, filling the best appointments until his health failed him. He then retired for a short time, and located and settled in Culloden. He was a man of very liberal views, and, for that time, of large wealth. He gave $1,000 to Emory College, and was for one year its agent. He was one of the fathers of the Manual Labor School, and a leading friend of the High School at Culloden, which was tendered to the conference before there was a Methodist school in the State. His ardent tempera- ment led him into large land speculations, and in the crash of 1839-40 he lost his estate. He removed to Alabama, and was appointed as a supply to the Tusca- loosa station. He would have entered the travelling ministry again if his life had been spared, but that year he died. He was a highly gifted man, and would prob- ably have reached the highest place if he had never deviated from his life-work.
La Grange first appears as an appointment this year, under the charge of John Hunter. La Grange was the county-site of Troup County, and was laid out in 1827. The county is on the western border of the State, and
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
at that time was one of the most fertile and healthy in it. The circuit included a part of the at present county of Harris, all Meriwether, and a part of Heard, in addition to all of Troup. The church in La Grange was organized in January of the year 1828, and Caleb W. Key, then a young married man, who had moved to this new village from McDonough, was one of the twelve members who made the church, and was the first class-leader.
Troup, Harris, and Meriwether presented great in- ducements to settlers, and they were soon settled by a most admirable body of people, a very large part of whom were from Greene County.
After the establishment of the society in La Grange, a log-church, the first of any name in the town, was built. This gave way in a few years to a larger framed building. Until the great revival of 1838, this plain shell was the only place of worship among the Metho- dists. At that time the Church was very wealthy, but it contented itself with making the old building com- fortable. After the building of the La Grange Female College, and the large increase in the population of the town, a very handsome and commodious brick church was completed, which still supplies the Methodists with a place of worship. Thomas Stanley, Thomas Samford, Walter T. Colquitt, and Alexander Speer were among the preachers who had their homes in La Grange ; and George Heard, who had been a Methodist in Greene, removed to it in 1838. He was an earnest, devoted Methodist, a man of very great business capacity, con- ducting very large planting interests. He lived to see the Church greatly blessed by a remarkable revival, and after seeing all his children converted, in a ripe old
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age he passed away. He was a man of striking pecu- liarities, and became a Christian in a somewhat remark- able way. A pushing business man, one day he was calculating what his crop would bring, what he would buy with it, when he suddenly stopped. " Why, George Heard ! you can calculate about this world; what about your soul?" He began to pray, and God con- verted him.
The Rev. P. A. Heard, of the North Georgia Confer- ence, is his son.
James Stockdale at this conference was appointed to the Columbus Mission. Hle was to explore and organize the Church in the new country west of the Flint, which was just opened to settlers. His mission embraced Muscogee, Talbot, and a part of Harris. He left his home in South Carolina, and reached the eastern part of his circuit early in 1828. While crossing the Flint at a ferry in Talbot County, he inquired if there were any Methodists near by, and was referred to Josiah Matthews, who is still living (1877). He was gladly received, and the few scattered inhabitants were called together, and a society was formed, and soon after a log-church built. This was probably the first church west of the Flint. It was known as Corinth. The log-church soon gave way to a better one, and now there is a handsome country church, with a large society in its place; and Josiah Matthews, with a large family of descendants, still holds his place among its members .*
This year Coweta and Carroll appear as a new mis- sion left to be supplied. As Dabney P. Jones was
* MSS. from Rev. W. H. Tegner.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Living in Coweta, and as he had been at an early day a travelling preacher, it is probable he was the supply. It is certain he preached the first sermon preached in the town of Newnan, in the little log-house which served for the first court-room. The circuit was very large, including not only all of Coweta, but all of Car- roll Counties, extending from near Atlanta to the Ala- bama line, and embracing a country a part of which was rich and productive and well-peopled, and a part of it wild and thinly settled.
In the year 1828 it appears regularly supplied from the conference.
The Florida work still went on in the midst of diffi- culties. A body of settlers had settled on Pea River, in the west of Florida, and a camp-meeting was held there. Although there were not more than 150 people present, there were twenty-one conversions. In the far west of Florida, at Holmes Valley Mission, there was also a successful work.
At this conference Nathaniel Rhodes was sent to Habersham County, which bordered on the Cherokee Nation, and whose beautiful valleys were even now settled by the adventurous pioneer. During the year he crossed over into the Nation, and joined hands with preachers from the Tennessee Conference, who were holding a camp-meeting among the Indians. There were fifteen or twenty Indians converted.
Benjamin Pope was junior on the Apalachee Cir- cuit with Anderson Ray. He was connected with that family of Popes who have been identified with Methodism in Georgia since its introduction into the State. He was liberally educated, and was a man of ample wealth.
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He gave himself to the travelling ministry in his twenty-fourth year, and continued to travel until his early death, in 1835. Few men have more richly merited or more generally received affection. He was pure, eloquent, accomplished, welcome to the most important stations, and useful in all. His health soon gave way, and while yet young he died.
Bond English, a South Carolinian, took Dr. Capers' place on the Milledgeville Station. Robert Flournoy, the brother of Josiah Flournoy, of whom we have spoken and shall speak again, was made presiding elder on the Savannah District. Flournoy had been con- verted at the Sparta camp-meeting, and had entered the conference. He travelled some years, and did effi- cient work, then located and settled in Houston County, where he lived a local preacher until his death. Two new missions were enterprised : the Fayette Mission, upon which John Hunter was sent, took the lower part of the territory included in the Yellow River Mission, and the Houston Mission included a part of the Mon- roe Circuit, and all the country south of it to the Early Mission. McCarrell Purifoy was sent to it. Lewis Myers took the Effingham Circuit as supernumerary.
The great Ohoopee Circuit gave up enough of its territory to form the Liberty Circuit, and Wilkes County for the first time became a separate circuit. Thus the contraction of circuit lines, and the increase of ministerial force went on. The great revival con- tinned, and 2,000 were added to the Church. In the new purchase the revival seems to have been con- tinned. Monroe, Gwinnett, Walton, Yellow River, doub- led their membership this year. There was especially great prosperity in the Monroe Circuit, which then in-
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cluded Pike and Upson Camp-meetings, which had been introduced into Georgia as early as 1802, had become an institution. In all the counties there was one, and in some of them there were two or more camp-grounds. In the new purchase the camp-ground was immediately selected. In 1825 the first camp meeting was held in Monroe County, near old Mt. Zion, and in Upson near Thomas Maybrey's. Originally, just where the preacher and his leading members thought there ought to be a camp-meeting, the spot was selected. The work was all temporary, but afterwards there was a shingle-roofed tabernacle, good seats, plank tents, and royal hospi- tality ; but in the new country the old plan was the first adopted-a bush arbor, logs for seats, and a plain stand. The presiding elder was in charge, and brought preach- ers from the country round about to aid him. A won- derful work generally was done.
People came by thousands, for this new country was for no length of time, after it was opened to settlement, thinly settled. Its contiguity to the older counties, its security against the hostility of savages, its fine soil and genial climate, and the gratuitous distribution of the land, brought scores of thousands into it. In four years after Monroe County was settled, 1,700 votes were cast at Forsyth, the only precinct in the county. There were at the Monroe Camp-ground over 100 tents, and hundreds came in wagons and bivouacked. Ten thousand persons were supposed to have been present at one camp-meeting there, and it was no un- common thing for over 100 to be converted during the four days. The great battle-fields of Methodism in the new purchase were the camp-grounds, and many were the victories won on them.
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The work in Florida continued to prosper, and Talla- hassee was made a station, and Josiah Freeman was sent to it, the first stationed preacher in Florida. Adamn Wyrick and D. McDonald came to the Leon Circuit, which then included Leon, Jefferson, Gadsden, and Madison. In the southwest of Florida on Pea River, there was still prosperity, and 314 white and colored members were reported.
The hardships endured in this part of the work was very great. The preachers were often removed from circuits in the up-country of Georgia, and sent to this remote section. There were neither railroads nor public conveyances of any kind, and the whole journey had to be made on horseback. Isaac Boring, now a deacon, was ordered from the Keewee Circuit in South Carolina, to Pensacola in Florida, while Adam Wyrick went from the Monroe Circuit, Ga., to Leon County in Florida, which reached to the shores of the Gulf. . The work of revival still went on, and 20,204 white members were reported as the total to the conference.
The next conference was held in Charleston, Janu- ary 28, 1829, Bishop McKendree presiding. Thomas Samford still continued in his place as presiding elder of the Athens District, Win. Arnold still on the Mil- ledgeville. Josiah Evans came back from Florida and was placed on the Savannah, and Henry Bass came to Georgia, and was put upon the Augusta.
A new district was made in the western part of the State, and Andrew Hammill was placed upon it. This, the Columbia District, included all that section between the Flint and Chattahoochee north of Columbus. Hamn- inill, while on the district, had charge of Columbus Church.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. .
James O. Andrew now returned to Georgia, and was stationed at Athens and Greensboro. John Howard with Benj. Pope were on the Apalachee, and Macon, now made a station, had Dr. Few as its pastor. Dr. Pierce was sent to Eatonton and Clinton. Clinton, the county-site of Jones, was an appointment in the old Cedar Creek Circuit. It was a place of considerable importance, being in the midst of a fine cotton-pro- ducing country. In it there was much wealth and style, and alas! infidelity and dissipation. The first Sunday after Dr. Pierce came, he was preaching an earnest and impressive sermon, when a fashionably dressed lady, the wife of one of the most distinguished and wealthy lawyers of the community, became over- come by her feelings and swooned away. She recov- ered consciousness, and was soon a converted woman. She long lived an exemplary Christian life. Years before, when she resided in another part of the State, she had heard Dr. Pierce, a young presiding elder, preach, and had been overcome and stricken down then. She had seen him no more until this time, and the flood of old memories brought back old convictions, with a happier result.
Madison was connected this year with Monticello. Monticello was the county-site of Jasper, and had been settled since 1807. It was, while not a large, yet a flour- ishing county town, but did not long retain its position as a half-station.
With this year commences the work which was to be pushed forward with so much energy and success, the mission work among the colored people, and James Dannelly, the first missionary, had charge of the Broad River Mission. From the beginning the colored people
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had been the special care of the Methodist preachers. In every church there was a place for them. They were received into the societies and invited to the Com- munion table. Men of their own color were licensed to preach to them, and there was at this time over 6,000 members in the conference; but they could not all be reached by a ministry which preached largely in the week, and it was evident that if they were reached at all it must be by special work.
Thomas H. Capers entered the work this year. He was the nephew of William Capers, and was a young man of decided talents, who took a good position in the Church. After travelling some years he located, then returning from the West, where he filled important posi- tions, he was readmitted into the itinerancy and united with the Florida Conference, and there died in charge of the Monticello Station, in the year 1867 .*
James Hunter, who was appointed to the Alcovi Circuit, was one of two brothers who did good work for the Church. He had travelled nine years in the South Carolina Conference, then married and located in Jasper County, and after fifteen years' location he re- entered the work, and in it he died. He was a pioneer, and was in the new country of Georgia from its settle- ment till his superannuated relation commenced. He organized the work in several of the new counties. He was gentle, meek, patient, brave, and much be- loved by those whom he served. IIe died in peace, December 10, 1862, having been nearly sixty years a preacher.t
John Hunter was his brother, and his faithful cola-
* Minutes.
t Ibid.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
borer. After some years of usefulness in Georgia, he moved to Alabama, where he continued his work.
These brothers were not gifted men, but zealous men and good men, and did much good.
In those days of large circuits protracted meetings were not common, and the value of the camp-meetings was incalculable. Methodism advanced as the newer settlements advanced, rapidly, but while there was great prosperity in the newer, in the older sections there was less increase, since the older counties were supplying population to the recently settled. There was not such increase as in the years preceding, but there was a net gain of 1,627 over the year before. The conference met in Columbia, S. C., January 30, 1830. It was the last session in which Georgia received her appoint- ments from the South Carolina Conference. The terri- tory was too wide in area, and the preachers too numer- ous for one body, and a natural line of division was found in the Savannah River, which was adopted as the line, and thenceforward there were the South Carolina and the Georgia Conferences. The Georgia took Georgia and Florida; the South Carolina, South Carolina and North Carolina. This presents a proper time and place for a review of the Georgia work since the union in 1794.
Forty-five years before this conference, a single preacher had entered the wilderness to preach, for the first time, the doctrines known as Methodist, and to do but little. Forty-four years before this, two most devoted men had volunteered as missionaries, and had come to Georgia to do much. At that time Georgia was com- paratively a wilderness. The nominal boundary of the white settlements was the Oconee River. All beys
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this to the Mississippi, known then as Georgia, was an unbroken forest, save the few fields tilled by untamed savages. Four years after the missionaries came, the date of the first reported census, there were 82,548 in- habitants, and when Humphries and Major began their work there were, as we have said, not 500 professed Christians in the State. In a previous chapter we have given, as well as we were able, a full account of the then condition of things. Against obstacles almost in- surmountable, hardships, persecutions, slanders, the preachers had gone on. For five years they had met with wonderful success, then came a period of decline, and for five years the decline had been constant and rapid. Then, under Stith Mead and his successors, there had been a glorious harvest time ; and then for nearly thirteen dreary years decline again, and now for seven years such wonderful prosperity as the sanguine had not hoped to see. Now a laborer like Major fell at his post; now one like Ivy, Ellis, and Connor, worn down with heavy toils, left the field only to die; now, as with Blanton, Randle, Hull, and Andrew, necessity drove to location, but at last there was a strong conference, com- posed almost entirely of the sons of the Church. Then the Methodists were humble, obscure, and poor ; now the judge on his bench, the Congressman, and the Assem- blyman were not ashamed to be known as Methodists. Then of the few preachers a small number only were mnen of even moderate education ; now the Georgia Con- ference presented such an array as Pierce, Andrew, Howard, Olin, Samford, Few and Pope, and others, who could have filled any pulpit in America. The State, too, had extended her boundaries, until the Chattahoo- chee was on her western side, and her population had
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