USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 22
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
There was no Bishop present, and Win. J. Parks was selected to preside .. Bishop Andrew reached the con- ference on the 10th and took his seat. Whiteford Smith, who had been transferred from the South Caro- lina Conference the year before, was the secretary of the body. It was an interesting session. Columbus had now been settled a little over ten years. It had grown with great rapidity, and was already a thriving city. Dr. Pierce and Samuel K. Ilodges had their homes in it, and many old Putnam and Greene County Methodists had removed to it. It had been noted from the beginning for its liberal views and generous contri- butions, but during this conference it did an act of un- precedented generosity. Dr. Pierce, who lived in Co- lumbus, asked for a list of preachers in active work who were deficient in quarterage. The report was given him; the amount of deficiency was $1,851. In a day or two he presented to the conference the whole amount, which had been raised by the citizens of Columbus. It was a noble deed nobly done. For the first time in the history of the Church in Georgia had every deficiency in salary been provided for.
At this conference 3,000 copies of the minutes were
323
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
ordered. They were to be published by the preacher on the Columbus Station, and the presiding elder of that district, and distributed gratuitously and paid for out of the missionary collections. Twelve were admitted on trial.
John Howard, who for so long a time had been one of the most efficient preachers in the conference, was dead. He died in August of this year in the vigor of his manhood and in the height of his usefulness. After his return from the general conference he had entered actively upon his work as agent for the Manual Labor School; after a visit to Twigg's camp-meeting he was taken severely ill, and though he appeared convalescent, he relapsed and died. He had been beloved, honored, trusted, and, best of all, God had richly blessed his labors.
Atford M. Batty, who was quite a young man and in the third year of his ministry, had been stationed on one of the islands not far from Savannah, as missionary to the negroes, and had fallen before the malaria, leav- ing a young wife destitute. The conference raised a collection for her immediate relief, and with a letter of condolence forwarded it to her.
The publication of the Southern Christian Advocate, with Dr. Capers as editor, had been ordered by the general conference in Cincinnati, and at this confer- ence, resolutions were passed tendering support to the new paper.
The college interests of the State were the engrossing ones and agents were appointed for the Georgia Female College in Macon and for the newly established Emory College at Oxford.
Whiteford Sinith, who was ordained an elder at this
324
HISTORY OF METHODISM
conference, was reappointed to Augusta, in which he had been one year. He remained only a few years in Georgia and returned to South Carolina.
During the month of May the Christian Advocate began its career. From this time forth we have at least glimpses of the every-day working of the Church, and are thus able to present a fuller account than we have hitherto had material for.
Willis D. Matthews writes during the year from the Greenville Circuit that there had been evidences of deep religious interest in its bounds, which at length resulted in a gracious sweeping revival, and which be- gan in this interesting and remarkable way: Some little girls and a young lady were visiting the house of a Methodist. The father and mother were away. The child proposed, as bed-time came, that they should have the usual devotions. The Bible was brought out, and after reading a chapter, she knelt in prayer. The young lady became deeply affected, and under the prayer of the child was converted. The parents re- turned soon afterward and found them rejoicing. A meeting was appointed in the church near by, and the fire kindled at that family altar blazed all around the circuit. Many were converted.
Although in 1834 and 1835 there had been such a won- derful work in Houston, yet during this year, under the ministry of J. B. Payne and Charles L. Hays, over 300 were converted. On the Watkinsville Circuit, under the charge of Jno. W. Glenn and Walter R. Branham, then in his first year, there was a gracious revival, and on the Forsyth Circuit, Samuel Anthony in charge, over 200 joined the church. On the Warrenton Cir- cuit, in the Angusta District, to which Jno. P. Duncan
325
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
had been sent, there was a gracious work. It began at the camp-meeting. Bishop Pierce, then presiding elder, was present. The camp-meeting was of all places the one in which the young presiding elder loved to be, and the two worked on. A large number were converted. The meeting closed, and with high hopes the young preacher adjourned to Warrenton. His co-laborer went with him, and preached with power, but though the meeting continued for several days, there was no evidence of success. One day the preacher announced sadly that he must close the meeting. A young man of fine social position came to him, and requested him not to close it, and promised, if he would hold another meeting, he would go forward for prayer. The bell was rung, and he did as he had promised. Others fol- lowed, and a great work resulted. Over 100 joined the church in that circuit during the year. At the next conference 1,170 were reported as the increase among the whites. The conference met at Athens, December 13, 1837, Bishop Morris presiding. Thomas A. Mor- ris, the presiding bishop of the conference, was a West- ern Virginian, and was raised on the frontier. Before he was twenty he began to preach. He was a man of very vigorous mind, and very studious. He improved rapidly, and after being called to various high places in the Church, was elected a Bishop in 1836, at Cincinnati. This was his first tour through the South. On the Sunday of the conference he preached the sermon found in his published collection, on "The poor have the Gospel preached to them." It was an excellent sermon, and had fine effect. He came to Georgia only once after this. Eight years after this conference the Church was divided, and Bishop Morris, whose home
326
HISTORY OF METHODISM
was in the North, adhered to the M. E. Church. He was much beloved in the South, and his utter- ances during the war, however distasteful to his old Southern friends, did not rob them of their love to him. Hle was a remarkably discreet, well-poised man, who met all the demands which were made upon him. He was a very reticent man, who was careful to sin not with his tongue; an exceedingly pleasant writer, who wrote as well as he preached. He was a man of very large size, and of great dignity and gravity of aspect. He died at his home in Ohio, full of years and honors, in 1874, having been for some time on the retired list of the Bishops of the M. E. Church.
The collection for conference claims amounted during this year to $2,300, Columbus being at the head of the list, reporting $412. The Forsyth Circuit next with $140, Augusta $140, and Athens $119. The Carrollton Circuit sent up $1.20, and Zebulon $1.25. The collections for missions amounted to $5,737, about $1,000 less than was appropriated to the work in Georgia. The districts con- tinue unchanged as far as their presiding elders are con- cerned, save that Jno. W. Glenn takes the place of Isaac Boring on the Cherokee District, and Wm. Choice takes the St. Mary's. This district extended from Americus in Georgia, to Jacksonville in Florida. The unconquerable Seminoles had at last broken forth in open hostility, and were on the warpath in the swamps of East Florida, so the preachers did not this year go below Jacksonville.
The district of John W. Glenn, which had been organ- ized by the energetic Boring, was not diminished in size, and still extended from the Blue Ridge to Monroe Coun- ty, and from the Savannah to the Chattahoochee. The circuits were as large as districts are now, and while
327
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
the country was rapidly developing, there were many hardships to be encountered. Through many portions of his work there were only Indian trails for roads, and the dusky savages were yet in the new conntry. Glenn was well suited for the work; brave in heart and strong in body, able to command and to control; scorning all effeminacy, and cheering his preachers by the force of his example, no man could have done the difficult' work better than himself. He had fifteen preachers and nearly 5,000 members under his charge, and nearly one-fourth of the State to travel over.
During this year that portion of Georgia which lies, north of the Blue Ridge was divided into circuits and supplied with preachers from the Holston Conference. It was called the Newtown District, and D. B. Cum- ming was the presiding elder. There was the Chattoo- ga, Spring Place, Newtown, Elijay, Hiwassie, Valley- town, Coontown, and, Oothcalooga Missions. They were all supplied with young unordained men, the only elder in the district being E. Still, on the Elijay Mission. At the next conference 665 members were reported in this portion of the work. Many Cherokees still re- mained in this section, and 752 were reported in the Cherokee Mission in Upper Georgia, Upper Alabama, and East Tennessee.
For the history of the mission work among the Cherokees in Georgia, the reader is referred to a suc- ceeding chapter.
The work among both whites and Indians in the Cher- okee country under charge of D. B. Cumming, includes Chattooga, which reports 296. members; Elijay with 126, and Blairsville with 161; Valleytown, Coontown, and Oothealooga with 570 Indians. This work called
328
HISTORY OF METHODISM
for great heroism, and we have the before-told story of the hardships of the hardest frontier which awaited these devoted men ; but a glorious success attended their efforts. The Spring Place Circuit included the counties of Murray, Gordon, and Whitfield; the Elijay, the large counties of Gilmer and Fannin, and a part of now Lumpkin ; the Blairsville, Union and Rabun, and por- tions of Tennessee contiguous to these counties. Spring Place at this time was the centre of a very thrifty coun- try. Few sections of Georgia have been so soon peopled by a class of enterprising settlers as the rich valleys of Murray and Gordon, and few people have been of ruder manners than many of them. As yet the railroad had not been built, and this valley was the centre of influ- ence, and noted for its wild, reckless wickedness. Here Vann, the Indian chief, had his elegant residence ; here the Moravian Mission had been established, and here was the seat of those parties who waged an internecine war in Upper Georgia. The preacher in charge re- ported 190 white members, and only five colored.
The district of John W. Glenn adjoined this Hol- ston District. The total amount collected for the con- ference in this entire district was a little over seventy dollars. This is an indication of what the preacher and presiding elder received. There were only two missions in the district, and the preachers were dependent upon quarterage alone. As an illustration of what each one was paid, we find that Josiah Lewis received fifty- five dollars from the conference fund, not having se- cured $200 all told on his work. Nor was this meagre pay alone given in this district, but it was thus over the whole conference. There were as yet very few parson- ages in the State, and of the members of the conference
329
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
there were twenty-five who had homes of their own, in a conference of perhaps not more than fifty married men in active work. The difficulty of making appoint- ments was greatly increased by this state of things, and oftentimes appointments which were considered very afflicting resulted only from the fact that the preacher could not move his family.
At this conference James E. Evans was transferred to South Carolina, and James Sewell came to Savannah. Of James Sewell, who was a remarkable man, we have given a sketch in another chapter.
James B. Payne was sent to La Grange Circuit. Meth- odism had been in fertile soil in this new section of the State; and, though the La Grange Circuit had set apart the Harris and Greenville Circuit, yet in the county of Troup alone there were 528 members, but during this year there was a most remarkable and memorable revi- val in La Grange and the county around it. From his entrance into the ministry, James B. Payne had been wonderfully successful in winning souls. He found much apathy in religion in the town of La Grange, and, although there were many valuable members of the Church there, there was much open wickedness. He told his brethren, one Sabbath, that his time was so lim- ited that he could not visit them all at their homes, but wished to meet the members at the church the next morning at nine o'clock. When the morning came, a few were there. While they were engaged in Christian conversation a lady, not a member of the Church, be- came deeply affected. With this the work begun, and night services were appointed. The young men of the community had enterprised a ball, and although the meeting was going on, the ball was not postponed. The
330
HISTORY OF METHODISM
church was lighted, and so was the ball-room. The ball went on, so did the meeting. The managers of the ball were conscious of having done wrong, and the next morning the leader of them proposed that they should go to the prayer-meeting. They did so. Several of them became penitent. They were nearly all converted, and the managers of that ball became the leading men- bers of the Church in La Grange. At the camp-meeting that year 120 were converted. There was a total acces- sion to the Church on the circuit of over 500 mem- bers.
There was a race-track near the town, and a great lover of the turf had invested largely in it.
In the revival, the leading patrons of the track were converted, and a race and a ball was an impossibility. The racer had a fine horse, and as a retaliation he named him Jimmy Payne, and so the race-track became familiar with the name of him who had been mainly the instrument of making at least one track useless.
The Baptists and Presbyterians joined heartily in the meeting, and all the churches were greatly blessed. The next year La Grange became, in connection with West Point, a station, a place it has held to the present time.
Whiteford Smith, who had spent one year in Au- gusta, was sent this year to Athens. The member- ship there was one hundred and one, and among them were some most excellent people. During the year there was a gracious revival, of which we have given account elsewhere. The total increase in the State was 3,091.
The years 1837 and 1838 will be remembered as times of great commercial disasters. From the opening of
331
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
the new country to the settlers there had been much apparent prosperity, but now the crash came. Cotton went down, land sympathized, and fortunes, soon made, were sooner lost. Yet religion prospered. It is a re- markable feature in the history of the Church, that when there is the most temporal adversity there is often the greatest spiritual advancement. The collec- tions do not even fall off. During this year Georgia raised more money for missions than ever before, and sent $7,000 to the relief of the Charleston brethren whose churches had been burned. This was indeed a year of revivals; sixty-eight joined the church in Augusta in one meeting. Five hundred and fifty white and colored in Columbus; one hundred and six in Lincoln ; three hundred and fourteen in Houston ; fifty at one camp-meeting in Franklin County.
The missionary cause seems to have received a new impetus. Missionary societies were organized in the various counties, and missionary meetings were held. In the county of Greene alone, Peyton P. Smith re- ported $378.43 as collected for missions.
In Florida there was call for the highest heroism. The cruel and unconquerable Seminoles were waging exterminating war, and the preachers held their ground at the risk of their lives. That grand man, Jno. L. Jerry, whose brave heart led him to face all danger, still inustered his band of heroes, and fromn block-house to block-house moved on his work. He says in a letter to the Christian Advocate and Journal, " that on Mon- day we learned that the Indians had attacked the house of old Father Baker, and killed him and his wife, and one grandchild; the other was found asleep in his arms, though wounded." He now went to Suwanee and met
332
HISTORY OF METHODISM
Howren, and preached to a large congregation of offi- cers and citizens. Some of them had come thirty miles. " When I returned home, my dear wife was overjoyed to see me. They were expecting an attack on Monti- cello. She had two pistols, a dirk, and a tomahawk to defend herself and her children." Yet he and his preachers still went on with the camp-meetings. Alas, some of the preachers did not escape so well. Tilman D. Purefoy was returning home, when he heard that the Indians had attacked his home, and killed his family. He found his wife horribly wounded, but still living. She had been shot by seven balls, toma- hawked and scalped, yet was still alive. She strangely recovered. His negroes lay about the yard killed, and his two children, after being murdered, were burned up in the house.
This, then, was the Florida work, and these the perils which those brave men had to face. During this year the college interest was engrossing much attention. Bishop Pierce had accepted the presidency of the Geor- gia Female College; and Bryan and Benning, agents of Emory College, were busy canvassing the State. Of this, however, more in another place.
The conference met in the village of Eatonton, Dec. 11, 1838, Bishop Andrew presiding. The session was largely taken up, apart from attendance to the usual questions, with matters concerning the newly-enterprised educational institutions. The Relief Society of the con- ference was at last incorporated, and the preachers were urged to bring the interests of this new and useful soci- ety before the people. They were instructed to preach on the subject of missions, and to circulate the newly- published prize essay of John Harris, "Mammon,"
333
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
among the people. The Sunday-school interest seems to have been the least regarded.
James B. Jackson was admitted on trial at this time.
He had been a very poor boy, who worked as a day- laborer, and, although quite a youth, could not read. He was employed by a good Presbyterian to pick cotton for him. The children of the family took great interest in him, and taught him to read. One of the daughters gave him a New Testament, and that was his first, and then his only book. He spelled his way through it, and its influence and their counsels brought him to Christ. He now applied himself to study, and improved rapidly. He began to teach, then was licensed to preach and entered the conference. He soon rose to high place. He was on all kinds of work-circuits, stations, and dis- tricts-and always did his work well.
His mind was very philosophical in cast, and he was a fine metaphysician, and perhaps too fond of specula- tion. He was transferred to Florida to meet a demand in that conference after he had been nearly thirty years in active work in Georgia. There was promise of much work before him, when in a railroad accident he was so injured as to soon die, but not before he left his testi- mony to the precious consolation of the truths he had preached.
Augustus B. Longstreet, of whom we have spoken before, was admitted into the travelling connection at this conference. He had filled the highest places in the State to which he had aspired, and there was no position which he might not have reached if he had sought it, but he came in the maturity of his manhood's ripest powers and presented himself as an applicant for admis- sion to the conference, and for his quadrennium of
334
HISTORY OF METHODISM
study. Although he was a graduate of Yale, and had been on the judicial bench, yet he went through his regular examination at every conference, not only on the deep subjects of theology, but on English grammar and geography. The only adverse report against him was that he tripped in his examination on English gram- mar. He was this year appointed to Augusta, but the next was called to the presidency of Emory College as the successor of Dr. Few. Of his career here our chapter of the college gives account. After some years in Georgia he was called to the presidency of Centenary College, in Louisiana, and then to that of the University of Mississippi. His family consisted of only a wife and two daughters, the eldest, Fannie, the wife of Dr. Henry Branham ; and the second, Virginia, the wife of the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar. They all removed with him to Mississippi. The burdens of his office became too heavy for him, and he resigned it, expecting to spend his old age in peaceful retirement, but he was called from that by an invitation to take the presidency of the Sonth Carolina College. It was, perhaps, the only call which could have drawn him from his quiet home; but early association with Calhoun, his friendship for Mc- Duffie, his taste for Carolina politics, and the general features of the old Carolina society, than which none could have been more delightful, overcame his reluc- tance and he went to Columbia. The war found him again in Mississippi. When it ended he was in body feeble, yet still mentally strong, and comforting him- self, as he contemplated the wreck of all things about him, with the precious consolations of Christ. At last his dear wife, who had been his life-long strength and joy, passed from him; and soon after, quietly,
335
IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
calmly, joyfully, he too sought his home beyond the waves.
Few men have presented such a blending as belonged to Judge Longstreet. Few men have possessed such high gifts, such advanced scholarship, and such striking common sense. Few men have had such a fund of humor, and yet such perfect balance of mind. Few Christians have avoided so entirely all narrowness on the one hand, and all false latitudinarianism on the other. A full biographical sketch of this extraordinary man is a desideratum, but we can do no more than furnish here a brief monograph.
While seventeen were admitted, only two were lo- cated. The number of locations decrease every year, evincing not a greater devotion to the work on the part of the preachers, but a greater willingness on the part of the people to keep them in the field, and to furnish at least a scanty support.
Geo. F. Pierce, who had presided with such ability and had been so useful on the Augusta District, was called to the presidency of the Georgia Female College, in Macon, and Dr. Lovick Pierce was the agent for it ; so the Augusta District had a new presiding elder, Saml. Anthony, who had for several years been so won- derfully successful as a circuit preacher in Middle Georgia. His home was fixed in Washington. Gad- well Jefferson Pearce, who died in 1876, was also admitted. He was a vigorous, strong-minded, earnest young man, who, without any considerable advantages in early life, educated himself and became a man of ex- cellent culture. For nearly forty years he was an active preacher. Bold, original, earnest, eloquent, he was a power in the pulpit .. Genial, sparkling around the fire-
336
HISTORY OF METHODISM
side, he was a power there. Severe attacks of at first bronchitis, and then rheumatism, unfitted him for regular work, and for some years he was agent of the Bible Society, and for more a Sunday-school agent, and his whole time was given up to working among the churches, and especially with the children. Although nominally a Sunday-school agent, he was really an evangelist. Ere his health failed partially he had con- ducted revival meetings of wonderful character. In Columbus, in Augusta, and especially in Athens, he had been very useful. While stationed in Athens, in 1846, there was a revival of wonderful power. In his later years, as an evangelist, he was a power. In Marietta, Barnesville, Culloden, wherever he went, the blessing of God went with him. He lost sight of everything else save the one work of saving souls.
He was a bold debater on the conference floor, and one in whose judgment there was great reliance.
He was the soul of honor, and no mnan felt his inter- ests imperilled when they were in his care.
After years of hard work he sadly sought retirement, and, not long after the conference at which he had been superannuated, he suddenly died, but died as calmly and as believingly as he had lived.
For the first time Covington and Oxford appear as a station, with Isaac Boring as preacher in charge, and Emory College, with I. A. Few President, A. H. Mitch- ell and George W. Lane Professors. The Manual Labor School still continues with Dr. A. Means as Superin- tendent and George H. Round as teacher.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.