USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 21
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 21
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W. W. Robison was also admitted at this conference. He travelled for fourteen years, then located for near the same period, and then re-entered the conference, in which he remained till he died. He was an excellent man and an excellent preacher. He had travelled the best circuits, and had been on some of the best stations in the conference, and was always acceptable and always beloved. His death was eminently peaceful. "He said he had trusted God for thirty years, and could trust Ilim to the end.".
He was remarkable for his gentlemanly bearing, his refinement and amiability. IIe, too, has bequeathed his ministerial robe to a son, who is an efficient worker in the South Georgia Conference. 1
Edmund W. Reynolds entered at the same time, and remained in the work for over thirty years. He travel- Jed circuits in all sections of the State, and always did
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his work well. He at last received a superannnated relation, and settled near Fairburn, where he continued to work as far as his strength allowed. He died very suddenly, and was found, after several days' search, by the wayside, lifeless. He was a decided character, a inan of large frame and strong will, and had been a very hard worker in his active ministry. His son, John W. Reynolds, was a most gifted young preacher, and died during the year in which his father also died.
Georgia now presented great diversity in her work. In the older parts of the State there was elegance, refine- ment, and high culture; while in parts of Florida, northern and western Georgia, the hardest work of Humphries, Major, Hull, and Norton was being more than equalled.
The missions to the slaves were worked most vigor- ously, and with good results. There was now nearly 8,000 colored members in the State.
The Conference for 1835 met in Savannah, January 7th. Bishop Andrew presided. Eighteen were admitted on trial.
Two young Northerners who came to this conference were admitted on trial ; they were George II. Round and George W. Lane. The first took his place as class- ical teacher of the Manual Labor School ; the other, in delicate health, was appointed to St. Augustine, Fla. George W. Lane was the son of George Lane, who was for so many years a member of the Philadelphia Confer- ence, and book agent for the Church. He was highly gifted by nature, had been a hard student, and was one of the purest-hearted of Christian men. Ile was a re- markably fine preacher, and would have reached the highest eminence in the pulpit, but that the great need
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for educated Christian men to educate the children of Christians called him from the field he loved so well into the lecture-room of the professor. He was selected first as a teacher in the Manual Labor School, and then as a professor in Emory College. He was an enthusi- astic and accomplished teacher, but he never allowed his fondness for study or teaching to interfere with his religious labors. He loved to preach, and preached much. Not long after he came to Georgia he married a lovely woman in every way worthy of him, and spent a few happy and useful years in Oxford, as professor of the languages. He was, with his devoted colleagues, enlisted in the arduous and trying work of building up a new college, and had seen it almost established, as he hoped, for the future, when, in 1847, he was taken vio- lently ill, and in the vigor of his young manhood passed away to his reward. George W. Lane was one of the loveliest and most gifted men who ever did work in the Georgia Conference, and his memory is a precious leg- acy to his brethren.
Alexander Speer entered the conference and was stationed in Savannah. He was a man of very fine parts, had been a leading politician in South Carolina, and at one time was Secretary of State in that commonwealth. He was for some years a local preacher, and then entered the conference. After some very useful ser- vice, he retired again to the local ranks, and was a use- ful local preacher till his death. He was a man of very fine cultivation and of great native eloquence. In size he was very portly, but, in spite of his corpulency, he was active and useful as a pastor. He left two sons : Rev. Dr. Eustace W. Speer, for so long time a useful pastor in the conference, and now professor in the State
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University, and Judge Alexander M. Speer, of Griffin.
Russell W. Johnson, one of two brothers who entered the conference this year, after some years of hard and useful work, located and settled in Jefferson County,. where, as a local preacher and steward, he advanced the local interests of the Church.
Dr. Lovick Pierce was placed on the Savannah Dis- trict. In this district Sandersville first appears as a circuit. The Washington County Circuit had been one of the first in the State. Asbury had visited Buffalo Creek and Harris Meeting-house, New Chapel, and Fenn's Bridge, all of which are in that county. It was now a large circuit, including all of Laurens as well as all of Washington County, and had 405 members in it. The church in the town of Sandersville was an ungainly building, without paint, blinds, or ceiling, and located on the outskirts of the town. The leading men of Washington were wealthy disciples of Epicurus, some of them inen of very fine intelligence, and openly and defiantly infidel. The fact that the circuit was a poor one, and the minister always poorly provided for, led for many years to the starvation policy, and preachers of most ordinary gifts were sent to the work to work hope- lessly ; but in 1857 the Rev. W. J. Cotter, by an ear- nest effort, built a handsome church in Sandersville, and the conference had labored to supply the work well ; so that now Sandersville is quite a pleasant station in the South Georgia Conference. The preacher on that cir- cuit in 1835 began his work on the borders of Hancock, and found his most remote appointment some sixty or seventy miles below, in the pine-woods of Montgomery.
This year a most important change was made in the
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general arrangements of the circuits. For years Dr. Lovick Pierce had insisted that the meagre support of the preachers, and the want of success in many depart- ments of church work was owing to the great size of the circuits, and that the demands of the country vil- lages required that a preacher should live in thein and go around his circuit every two weeks. This proposi- tion alarmed many preachers and people. If a preacher was not supported on the Cedar Creek or Apalachee Circuit, with its thousand members, and including near- ly three counties each, how could one county support a preacher. It was a question of simple arithmetic, but for once figures lied egregiously. The smaller cir- cuits did much better than the larger ones had done.
The Cedar Creek, Apalachee, Alcovi, Ocmulgee Cir- cuits are heard of no more. Many precious memories clustered around these names, and they were not readily given up ; but they were now surrendered, and the loca- tion of the circuits was now indicated by the naines they bore. There were generally from ten to fourteen churches in a circuit, and they were to be supplied with public service every two weeks.
The Forsyth Circuit had a new circuit formed from it -the Knoxville. The Apalachee was divided between the Madison, Watkinsville, and Greensboro, and this name, so dear to the old Methodists, ceases to be.
The county of Jones was separated from the Cedar Creek Circuit, and James B. Payne was sent in charge of it.
In this circuit lived Jno. W. Knight. He was an infidel tailor. He was a man of really fine intellect, but was reckless in life as he was sceptical in his religions views. The preacher became attached to him, and used
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to go to his bench to talk with him. At last he persuaded Knight to go to the church; he did so, became con- vinced of the truth of Christianity, and said, if not an- dibly yet sincerely, " I surrender," and was at once con- verted .* He began to work for his Master, and for thirty years has been a most useful travelling preacher.
Win. J. Parks was on the Macon District, and found his work farther away from home than before. ITis highest hope was to see his family a few days six times during the year, and such was his industry that he held the plough while he was at home, till he often left blood- stains on it.
Samuel Anthony was for the second year on the Perry Circuit. It then included Houston, Pulaski, and Dooly, with parts of Bibb and Crawford. During the summer of 1834 a mighty awakening was felt. This revival influence continued during the year 1835. The total number of accessions, white and colored, was 1,336. This was in addition to the accessions by certificate, which must have been numerous. There was a mani- festation of power like to that in the early days of the century, when men in their strength fell senseless under the weight of their emotions. Houston County had now become thickly settled with a fine population, many of whom were South Carolina Methodists. From this date Methodism was established in this whole country, and there are now three prominent stations and four cir- cuits where his circuit was. There were several large camp-meetings on the circuit, and they were, as of yore, seasons for general ingathering.
The experiments of smaller circuits was fairly entered
* His own words.
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upon, and its after-success attested the wisdom of the Bishop and his cabinet in following the counsel of Dr. Pierce.
The Church had suffered greatly from that conserva- tive spirit which refused to see that the change of the country demanded a relative change in the mode of conducting conference affairs and the large circuits, and the want of parsonages in the county towns had seriously impeded the progress of the Church. For the first time in Georgia Methodism, the travelling preacher felt the obligations, and was able to discharge any of the duties of a pastor; yet still pastoral service was neg- lected, as many of the most effective preachers had homes of their own, and spent their few leisure days at them, away from their circuits.
The Cherokee District was still under the direction of Isaac Boring. This year the Cassville Mission was established. Cass, now Bartow County, was then one of the largest and one of the most fertile of the counties in the Cherokee Country, and though the Indians were still in some parts of the county, it was being rapidly settled.
Frederick Lowry was sent to it, and reported at the next conference 130 members.
From this time this populous and fertile country has been supplied with preachers, and there are now three large circuits and one station in the circuit which Lowry travelled.
The Monticello Circuit was formed this year from the Cedar Creek, and Jasper County was made a separate charge. It has continued such, and while not the most fruitful soil for Methodism, has not failed to give good return for labor expended.
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CHAPTER X.
1836-1840.
TWO CONFERENCES IN 1836-JANUARY CONFERENCE IN MACON-JNO W. GLENN-GEO. A. CHAPPELL-GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1886- GEO. F. PIERCE PRESIDING ELDER-COLUMBUS CONFERENCE I DECEMBER-NOBLE GENEROSITY OF COLUMBUS-FIRST CONFER. ENCE MINUTES PUBLISHED-DEATH OF JOHN HOWARD CHRISTIAI ADVOCATE-GREAT REVIVAL IN WARRENTON-THOMAS A. MORRIS- THE HOLSTON DISTRICT IN UPPER GEORGIA-CONFERENCE OF 1837- GREAT REVIVAL IN LA GRANGE-A RACE-HORSE NAMED FOR I PREACHER-WORK IN FLORIDA-MASSACRE OF A PREACHER'S FAM- ILY-CONFERENCE IN EATONTON-JAS. R. JACKSON-A. B. LONG STREET-G. J. PEARCE-REVIVAL IN UPSON-A. MEANS-WM. CRUM. LEY-AMONG THE TOMAHAWKS-FORT GAINES-GENERAL CONTER- ENCE OF 1840-GENERAL REVIEW.
THERE were two conferences in 1836. The first was held in Macon, January 13th, Bishop Andrew presiding. John Howard for the last time was secretary. Eighteen were admitted on trial. Of these not a single one now remains. Jno. W. Glenn began his itinerant ministry at this conference. He was then a man of mature years, was a successful mechanic, and a man well-to- do in the world. He had prominent place among his own county people, and had been elected Judge of the Inferior Court. He had decided to enter the legal pro- fession, and had begun to study law when John Howard influenced him to yield to his convictions of duty and become a travelling preacher.
He was so able a preacher, and withal possessed such
-
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fine administrative capacity, that he was placed in the presiding eldership, and filled the office for many years with very signal ability.
He was a man of unusual parts. Without making any claim to great learning, he really possessed that best of learning-a knowledge of men and things. He was recognized as a wise man everywhere. Statesmen respected the value of his opinions, farmers and me- chanics were ready to take his advice, while in the Church his decisions were almost always accepted. He did not speak a great deal, but whenever he did his words were few, pointed, and forcible. It was very rare indeed for the conference to go against his will. Ile was for years a presiding elder and on large districts, and all those higher qualities which are demanded in one who has to control hundreds of churches and thousands of members were brought into exercise. In the often intricate questions of church law which were brought before him, he evinced remark- able legal ability. The work he was called to do was very difficult and entailed much labor; but he did his work without a murmur. He did not seem to have much gentleness in his nature, and those who saw the stern-looking man in the pulpit, savagely shaking his enormous head as he poured out, in homely Saxon, his stirring invectives against some popular evil, little dreamed how gentle and tender he was towards the feeble. He was a man of rare pulpit power; and, although he was always plain and spoke for plain peo- ple, he was yet so racy and so strong that he was popular in the large cities as in the rural districts. Although one of the plainest and most conservative of men, he was willing to see when the day had passed
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.
for anything to which he had clung with affection, and to accommodate himself readily to change. To the younger preachers he was a father indeed. He con- tinued for many years an active preacher, and when his work gave way remained in cheerful retirement until the end came, when peacefully and triumphantly he passed to his reward.
During the year the conference lost three valuable men by death : Andrew Hammill, John R. Hearne, and Benjamin Pope.
Hammill, of whom we have already spoken, had done much most valuable work. He was a man of remark- able amiability and sobriety, and in intellectual polish had few superiors in the conference. He had bravely done all the hard work the Church required of him, and in the brightness of the day his sun went down.
Benjamin Pope had run a short career, but one of the most brilliant. An unusual combination of excellences entered into his character. He was gentle and brave, gifted, cultivated, and humble, an heir of wealth, yet willingly surrendering all its comforts that he might preach the Word. At only thirty-two years old he went home.
John R. Hearne was only twenty-five years old, and had been only three years a preacher, when he fell a vic- tim to the malaria of Burke County, whither he had gone as a missionary to the negroes. He was neither highly gifted nor had he been carefully educated, but he was better than that-a man of remarkably deep and earnest piety, and of great zeal in the work.
Of the collections reported at this conference, Sa- vannah sent only $10.50, while Augusta sent $67.00, the Decatur and Carroll Circuit only $1.50 each, while
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Macon leads the whole list of cities with a contribution of over $170.00. The Forsyth Circuit contributes more than any of the circuits, sending up $215.00. Columbus went far ahead of Augusta or Savannah, and sent up $152.95. There are eleven from the effective preachers who received a small addition to their salaries from this fund, and, as no one was permitted to draw upon it who received his stipend of one hundred dollars if single, and twice that if married, it is evident that there were many of the preachers who did not receive even that amount.
The Savannah District reappears, and so does the Angusta. The Savannah is a compact district, covering the counties immediately around the city, up as far as Effingham and down as far as Darien. The Augusta District included ten appointments in counties formerly in the Savannah District. Geo. F. Pierce was presid- ing elder on the district, his first appointment of that kind. Wm. Arnold continued on the Athens, and Geo. A. Chappell came from Florida to the Columbus District. Jno. W. Talley was on the Savannah, Geo. W. Carter on the St. Mary's, and Jno. L. Jerry on the Tallahassee.
Gco. A. Chappell, who was presiding elder on the Columbus District, had joined the South Carolina Con- ference in 1829, and was now in the seventh year of his ministry. He was living in the Forsyth Circuit when he was converted, and was one of two brothers who entered the conference together. His mother was famous for her great piety, and her sons, Geo. and Jno. D. Chappell, were consecrated by her to the self-sacri- ficing labor of preaching the Gospel. The demands upon Geo. A. Chappell were of the sternest kind. He was, if not a pioneer, yet not long after the first. He
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travelled the hardest districts and missions without com- plaint, and while on the Lumpkin Circuit, in the then new country of Sonth-western Georgia, July 23, 1838, he died in great peace.
On the Lexington Circuit this year was Tilman Don- glass. After travelling some years, the need of his family forced him to location. He studied medicine, and located in Alexander, Burke County. Here he labored both in his medical profession and as a local preacher.
He was much esteemed by those who knew him best, and, after a life of usefulness, died happily.
The delegates were elected to the general conference. Owing to the reduction in the ratio of representatives only five delegates were selected. They were Lovick Pierce, John Howard, Samuel K. Hodges, Elijah Sin- clair, and W. J. Parks.
This conference met at Cincinnati, the first which ยท had ever met in the Great West. Since the last session two of the Bishops had died : Wm. McKendree, in the ripeness of old age ; John Emory, in the prime of a mature manhood. The exciting questions with refer- ence to church government had been disposed of ; but a new and more exciting question was to engage the attention of the conference, which was to result first in a secession from, and then in a division of the Church. As long ago as 1816 the slavery question had been dis- posed of by compromise. The effort to reopen it was now to be made. Four years before this time, Thomp- son, the English Abolitionist, had been lecturing in New England. He made many disciples among the New England preachers, and some of them not only attended his lectures, but delivered lectures on the subject them-
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selves. The Church at that time was largely opposed to slavery, but not less so to abolition ; and in this confer- ence a resolution was introduced condemning the course of those who attended abolition meetings, or delivered abolition addresses. This resolution was advocated by Northern and Southern men, and was passed by a large majority. Orange Scott and his followers then seceded from the Church and formed the Wesleyan Church, agreeing in doctrine, but disagreeing in government with the Church they left. The conference elected Beverly Waugh of Maryland, and Thomas A. Morris of Ohio, and Wilbur Fisk of Vermont, as Bishops; Nathan Bangs, missionary secretary; and Samuel Luckey and Juo. A Collins, editors Christian Advocate and Journal.
Two Bishops were ordained, Beverly Waugh and Thomas A. Morris. Dr. Fisk, being in feeble health, never accepted the office, and died in a few years after this. At this conference, the chapter with reference to location without consent was admitted into the dis- cipline, almost asit now stands. Baltimore was selected as the place for the meeting of the next general con- ference, and the conference adjourned on the 27th May, 1836.
The appointments made at Macon had been very wise ones, and as the demand for active workers was now fully met, the field was well supplied. The pre- siding elders were all of them energetic and earnest and capable. A cabinet composed of such men as Dr. L. Pierce, Wm. Arnold, Win. J. Parks, Charles Hardy, and Jno. L. Jerry, presided over by Bishop Andrew, were not apt to make any serious mistakes in making appointments, and they did not.
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Jno. W. Talley, G. F. Pierce, Win. Arnold, Wm. J. Parks, G. A. Chappell, Isaac Boring, Jno. L. Jerry, and Geo. W. Carter were a fine corps of presiding elders- some of them young and ardent, some of them old and experienced-all of them gifted and pious.
No one who has not carefully studied Methodism in her formative state can realize the vast importance dur- ing that period of an able presiding eldership. These filled the double office of evangelists and bishops. A metropolitan in the early Church had very rarely such a territory under his survey, and many, very many Right Reverends, who boast loudly of apostolical descent, have not nearly the number of communicants, or preachers under their supervision, as these presiding elders in Southern Methodism.
George F. Pierce, now in the fifth year of his minis- try, was placed on the Augusta District. It was a compact district in the heart of Middle Georgia, and included a part of the State in which Methodism had been longest established. In 1809, his father, then the youngest man in the office in America, had travelled a part of the same district. The son was now about the age his father was at the time he was invested with the office. IIe entered upon the work with enthusiasmn. His love for the planting people of Georgia, with their plain and unpretending ways, had always been ardent, and where many a young man of culture and refine- ment would fret and complain at hardships and want of congenial society, this young preacher found only delight. Travelling his district in a buggy, leaving his fair young wife for weeks at a time; from one quar- terly conference to another, from one camp-meeting to another, he went to work with all his strength and
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ardor. He was laboring for souls, and God crowned his labors with great success. While young Pierce was firing the hearts of his preachers, and inspiring the people with a higher hope, Isaac Boring, in a more difficult field, was laboring with equal ardor. Boring possessed two qualities that fitted him eminently well to the field in which he worked. One was very strong common sense, and the other was invincible pertina- city. He knew no such word as defeat, and he dared all the dangers of his really perilous work with a fear- less heart. Jno. L. Jerry, in Florida, was a born hero. The story of his life, if fully told, would read like a ro- mance. He was bravely facing the angry Seminole, and the no less deadly malaria that exhaled from the swamps. Nor was the work of Geo. A. Chappell much less difficult. From Carroll County to Fort Gaines he was forced to travel. The first settlement of the coun- try is always followed by times of sickness amounting almost to pestilence, and he travelled where ague and fever raged almost universally. Despite the fact that the work was so well done, there is reported a decrease of 1,398. This result may be attributed to the greater attention to church records. They were at the first very carelessly kept, .but Dr. Few had introduced a res- olution at the conference before, that the preachers in charge should be required to keep a record book, and when the records were revised, it may be that numbers were left off, but it is evident that the revival spirit was not high. The year 1836 was one of those which are known as flush. Cotton was high. Speculation was wild. Paper promises were abundant. The new cot- ton lands of South-west Georgia were then most produc- tive. Railroads were being projected, and all this
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seemed to be on the tide to success. To make more cot- ton, to buy more negroes, to buy more land, to make more cotton, and so on in a vicious circle, seemed to be the ruling aim of the planter. The country was wild in its pursuit after wealth, but God was providing something better than money-a great revival-and to prepare the way for it the rod of a terrible chastisement was lifted, but ere it fell the Church suffered spiritually.
The second conference during the year 1836 was held in Columbus, December 7th.
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