USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 24
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 24
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The American continent has produced few men who had more mind than Win. J. Sassnett. He was a broad, bold thinker; he wrote with great readiness, and wrote much ; he preached with great power and eloquence. His brethren of the Alabama Conference say of him : " Though enfeebled in body by disease, he was, never- theless, a great worker. He never shrank from respon- sibility nor avoided labor. As a preacher, his gifts were far above ordinary. Kind in heart, genial in manner, he was the joy of his friends, and the comfort of all about him. Truly a great man in Israel has fallen."
Dr. Sassnett was not only a fine preacher, but he was an author of no mean ability. One of those men, how- ever, whose bold opinions and whose elaborate discus- sions attract only a small cirele of thinking men to him.
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There is no page in his published works but which is filled with striking thoughts. He wrote, it may be, too rapidly, and his thought speculations were not, per- haps, always profitable, but he was by nature a philoso- pher, and his mind very speculative, and he thought broadly, spoke bravely, on all subjects of public inter- est. Ilis views on common school education, on sla- very, on progress in the Church, and on political ques- tions were decided, and his defence of them a very strong one. As far as we can see, he died too early, but God knows best.
At this session Edward H. Myers began his life-work. IIe was born in New York and at this time was twenty- five years old. ITis mother was a saintly woman and he became in early life a Christian. He was so gifted that it was determined by those who knew him that he should be highly educated, and he was graduated at Randolph, Macon College. On returning from college he taught school a few years, and then in the brightness of his young manhood entered the conference. He soon gained high place both as a preacher and as a writer. When the Wesleyan Female College was reorganized, he was invited to a professorship in it, and afterwards to its presidency, and went thence to Charleston to edit the South Carolina Advocate. IIe remained an editor for seventeen years, and was then made President of the Wesleyan Female College for a second time. He was always fond of the work of preaching and anxious to return to the pastoral field. IIe resigned his place in Macon and was appoint- ed to Trinity Church in Savannah. He entered upon his labors with great zeal and prosecuted them with ability. When the important commission to settle ques- tions between the two great branches of Methodism in
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America was selected, he was appointed one of the com- missioners. After the happy result of it, he was abid- ing for a while in the North, when the fearful news reached him that Savannah was visited again by the terrible yellow fever. To return was almost certain death, but he did not hesitate. He hurried home, he threw himself into the midst of the pestilence, he was taken with the fever, in a few hours it was announced to him that he must die; he calmly said he was ready and had been for a long time, and shortly afterward calmly and peacefully died. He died on the 26th Sep- tember, 1876.
Of the intellect and Christian character of Dr. Myers it is difficult to speak too highly. He was an accurate scholar, a man who thought much and wrote elegantly ; as a preacher he had few equals. He despised all kinds of pretence and always knew well what he claimed to know at all. He was a man of the sternest integrity ; strictly truthful in act or word, brave enough for any deed, he was one of those upon whom all knew when to rely. Conscious of his own sincerity of purpose, des- pising all duplicity, he never sought to curry favor, but rather scorned it. Those who knew him best, honored him most. Many knew of the might of his intellect, but only his friends knew how gentle and tender was his heart. His escutcheon was without a blot. From early boyhood to the day he died a martyr to duty, he had gone bravely and unswervingly on. He left an in- teresting family. One of his sons, the Rev. Herbert Myers, is President of a female college in Tennessee, and member of the Holston Conference. His death, to all Methodism, was a common grief.
During this year four members of the conference had
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died : Samuel K. Hodges, Smith Crandall, Jeremiah Freeman, and James Hutto.
Of Hodges' early life we have spoken and of his im- portant labors. He is represented to have been an amiable man, a pious Christian, and an indefatigable worker. When assured that his hour was come he said he had been preparing for death for thirty years, and was not afraid to die. He lived faithfully and died happily.
Jeremiah Freeman had travelled for several years, then located, but as soon as his health permitted re-en- tered the work in which he died. His last days were peculiarly distinguished for the manifestation of the presence of God and the blessedness of religion.
James Hutto, whom we have often seen as occupying posts of trial and danger, and who was the subject of many afflictions, died in peace.
The conference collections of this year attest the general financial depression, since only $928 was raised for the conference collection. The amount raised for missions is not reported in the printed minutes.
The districts remain unchanged, save that a small district is laid out in Florida, known as the Newnans- ville, and Jno. L. Jerry, who had been doing hard work in that section for many years, was placed upon it. Robert A. Steele was placed on the St. Mary's District. There was an increase reported at this conference of 3,459 white, and 1,468 colored members. The Wat- kinsville Circuit alone increased its membership from 693 to 1,155.
The succeeding conference met in Milledgeville, January 6, 1842, Bishop Waugh presiding. There were thirteen admitted on trial.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
W. H. Evans was admitted on trial this year. He was born in Wilkes County, in 1814, was the son of a Methodist preacher, and the younger brother of James E. Evans, who had been for over ten years in the con- ference. He had been a preacher for nine years before he entered the work. He did effective work for thirty years, and then was called away. He had gathered his friends around him at the commencement at Oxford, when he was suddenly stricken by apoplexy, and pain- lessly expired. Wm. H. Evans was one of the most useful men the Georgia Conference ever received into its membership, and one of the best-beloved. He had travelled over a large part of Upper Georgia on hard circuits, and on hard stations and hard districts, and his work was always well done. Souls were converted and the Church was built up wherever he went. He was not a brilliant man, but he was a remarkably sensible one, and withal a man of fine information, and of broad and liberal views. He impressed all men with a sense of his deep and earnest piety, and a remarkable success always attended his labors. He had the confidence of his brethren as few men had it, and his death was uni- versally regretted. Sampson J. Turner, who afterward appears under the name Jackson P. Turner, was ad- mitted on trial this year. He was only eighteen years of age. He had a strong mind, almost entirely uncul- tivated, when he began his work, but which he most diligently improved by hard study. He became a good. English scholar, and had a fair knowledge of the ele- ments of Latin and Greek. He was a good thinker, and a bold writer. He did not hesitate to attack the views of any man, however great his age clevated his place. He soon rose to high pos
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and when only thirty-one years old was called from earth.
In the Florida District, on which Peyton P. Smith was presiding older, there were three circuits in Geor- gia : Thomasville, Bainbridge, and Troupville. We have already spoken of the Troupville Circuit, which covered a territory now equal to a district, embracing in its boundary Clinch, Lowndes, Echols, a part of Ber- rien, and all of Brooks Counties. Decatur and Thomas Counties were served from Florida, and were respect- · ively in the Monticello and Gadsden Circuits. During this year they were made into separate circuits. A church had been built in Thomasville during the year 1840. The county of Thomas was laid out in 1825, and Thomasville was settled in 1826. It was very remote from the Atlantic coast, and did its business through the port of St. Mark, in Florida. It had some very fine country tributary to it, but these lands were mostly taken up by large planters, and cultivated by large bodies of slaves. The poorer lands were settled by poor people, mostly stock-raisers. Thomasville, though the chief town in all the country, was a small town, and as late as 1851 had a population, according to White, of only 500. The church was an exceedingly plain building, and after Thomasville had grown to be a place of considerable size, and was a station of some importance, it was still the only Methodist house of · worship. It was finally replaced by a neat and attrac- tive church building. The first year it was separated from the Monticello Circuit; it was left to be supplied. During this year James Woodie was in charge of it.
* White's Statistics.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Decatur County, of which Bainbridge was the county- site, presented the same features as Thomas. There were some very fine lands, which attracted the rich and cultivated cotton-planter, and a large area of very poor pine-land, upon which the irrepressible cattle-raiser squatted and raised his cows. Bainbridge became be- fore many years a village of very considerable impor- tance, and has been for a long time a desirable small station.
Quincy and Tallahassee were both stations, and were places of considerable importance, and to them the Georgia Conference sent its most gifted young men.
We have mentioned that that noble man, John L. Jer- ry, to whom Florida owes so much, was on the Newnans- ville District. This was less a district to preside over than one to organize. The Seminoles, who had held such sway in the Peninsula, were at last driven into the remote South, beyond Lake Okechabee, and the refugees returned, and Jerry came with them from Middle Florida, where he had been living, to reorganize the Church. He had only three circuits. The next year they were all returned to the Florida District, since his health had so given way as to be unable to continue in their charge. There was no further attempt to reorganize the work in East Florida until 1844.
During this year the Culloden Circuit appears for the first time. It was the western part of the Forsyth Cir- cuit, and included a part of Monroe and a part of Craw- ford County. In this part of Monroe toward the Flint River there is a very fertile and beautiful section of country. It early attracted a full settlement of most excellent people. It was too remote from the county town for the advantage of the country academies, and
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school village was settled at Culloden. The Rev. John Darby established there a female school of high grade. This drew a large number of intelligent and wealthy people to the village, which was soon one of the most flourishing in the State. The Rev. Alex. Speer, Rev. N. Ousley, Rev. F. Cook and several other local preach- ers of high character and of excellent gifts settled there. About 1836 a brick church was built. This was the second church of the kind in the State among the Methodists, and was the most elegant. Among the Methodists of Culloden, to whom we have already alluded, was Frances Cook, a local preacher. He was a South Carolinian, and had joined the Society, as the Church was then called, in the home of the Rev. Isaac Smith, when he was a boy of fourteen years old. He lived until after his second marriage in Cainden, S. C., and was a steward in the Church. His house was the home of the stationed preacher. His last most excellent wife was a sister of Dr. W. H. Ellison, and when her father moved to Talbot County, in Georgia, Brother Cook was influenced to come also. He did so, and set- tled in Harris County. After Culloden offered such attractions to families he came to that village and settled there. He was an exhorter, and aspired to no higher place; but his brethren insisted on his taking license as a local preacher. He did so, and made full proof of his ministry. Few men have done more good. No man ever enjoyed more fully the confidence of his neighbors. His home was the home of the weary itinerant, and after Culloden was made a circuit, and a parsonage was established there, his wife was the tender guardian of the preacher's family. His means were ample, and his liberality was in proportion to his means. He tented
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regularly at two camp-meetings, preached as frequently as opportunity was afforded, raised his children for the Church, saw them all early in its fold, lived to see two of his sons travelling preachers, and others of them offi- cial members of the Church of his love, buried his loving and saintly wife, and then, with a glorious triumph like the translation of Elijah, gathered up his feet and passed to the Father's house above.
Newdaygate Ousley, another local preacher of Cullo- den, was a most excellent and useful man. He had entered upon a Christian life in his boyhood, and was a licensed preacher when very young. He was a man of more than ordinary amiability, and of fine capacity as a preacher. The Rev. N. B. Ousley, a useful member of the South Georgia Conference, is his son, and several of his children are efficient members of the Church in that conference.
James H. Mays was another lay member of that cir- cuit. He was from Lincoln County, and the brother-in- law of James E. Evans. Plain, simple-hearted, he was liberal and enterprising. He spent the last years of his life in the town of Forsyth, where he was regarded as a pillar in the Church, and died in great peace.
Uncle Jack Lester was another most useful man on that circuit. When he was a young man, passing through North Carolina, he casually went to a Metho- dist church. There was a love-feast, and Henry B. Howard, the brother of John Howard, told of how he had been converted from deism to Christianity through the life and death of a faithful Christian slave. The recital of this experience made a deep impression on the young stranger, and he came to Georgia a converted man. Few men have been more devoted, few men more
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useful as simple laymen, than was uncle Jack Lester. This circuit had a large membership from its organiza- tion of over 1,000 white and colored members.
Benjamin W. Clark was admitted into this confer- ence. He had been a local preacher for some years. His early life had been exceedingly reckless. He was a drunkard and one who was exceedingly violent when he was drunk. His wife had often fled from him. She was a devoted Methodist, and had often prayed for him, much to his annoyance. He went to a camp-meeting and was happily converted. As he returned home, and as he came in sight of the house, the thought of the delight the news would bring her, caused him to shout for joy. She heard him, and supposing he had returned as of yore, made ready for flight, but he succeeded in arresting her and she joined him in praising the good Lord for his mercy. IIe did not remain many years in the travelling connection, but located and worked efficiently as a local preacher. He never failed to tell his experience and he never failed to move a congrega- tion when he did.
During the year there was $6,055 raised for missions and $1,748 for the conference collection. Some of the districts change their presidents. William J. Parks re- lieves John W. Glenn from the arduous labors of the Cherokee District, Willis D. Mathews took the Colum- bus District, left vacant by the death of Samuel K. Hodges. Ivy F. Steagall was on the Fort Gaines and Thomas C. Benning is on the Florida District, and Leonard C. Peek on the St. Mary's. Lovick Pierce was this year transferred to Alabama and stationed in Montgomery. George F. Pierce retired from the col- lege presidency and returned to the work of his choice
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
by taking charge of the Macon Church. There was but little change in the arrangement of the work.
W. M. Crumley, after a year in Florida, returned with his family to Upper Georgia and was sent to the most remote south-east to the Satilla plantations. The same physical obstacles he met the year before are again overcome, and he reached his work to find a vacant, single-room house on a plantation. He stripped the long moss from the trees and made his mattresses, and with such furniture as he could manufacture and such food as he could procure, he provided for his household, and went from one plantation to another teaching the poor negroes the way of life.
E. H. Myers was appointed to Cumberland Island, but was relieved from the appointment that he might take the assistant pastorship of Savannah with Rev. James E. Evans.
There were some gracious revivals during the year. Josiah Lewis writes from the Sparta Circuit of a great work in Hancock, and says: " There are some circum- stances worthy of remark connected with the revival. A father had the happiness to witness the conversion of five of his children. It looked like distracting the old man, but he bore it like a Christian. The devil got up a dance; but the fiddler, dancers, and all, were con- verted."
At Talbotton 106 were converted, and 250 were added to the Church on the Marietta Mission.
The conference of 1843 met in Savannah, January 18th. Bishop Andrew was to preside, but did not reach the conference at the beginning of the session, and W. J. Parks, at his appointment, was president pro tem.
Silas Griffin, of Oglethorpe County, had left $4,096.89, 16
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which was added to the vested funds of Aid Society, and W. J. Parks was made the Special Agent of the Conference to see after its unsettled business in varions parts of the State. This business was to see after sun- dry tracts of land, which, from time to time, had been left to the Conference, but which had chiefly been given by the bequest of Thomas Grant, made before the con- ferences divided.
Thirteen were admitted on trial. One of these was Jacob R. Danforth. He was from Angusta, and his family was one of the oldest Methodist families in the State. He had been pious from his youth, had fine mind, and entered and graduated at Emory College. He was really a very gifted man, wrote beautifully, and was a declaimer of very high order.
He had, however, one mental defect which ruined all. He never knew when to stop. He was perfectly oblivi- ous to the lapse of time. He would rise in the pulpit, and being enthused with some brilliant imagination, he would present one glowing picture after another for three hours at a time. Rebuke him for it, and he would receive the rebuke with a gentle smile, and do the same the next Sabbath. He was called upon to preach one night at a camp-meeting. After he had been preaching for some time, the angry thunders began to mutter threateningly, and the larger part of the congregation fled to the tents, but the preacher preached on. The storm burst; all who could get away were gone ; but the preacher preached on, The storm ceased; he was preaching still. At last, after ten o'clock, he ceased, but not before he was almost alone. He was as guileless, as gentle, as loving as a child, and but for some defects in his mental make up, would have been one of the most
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brilliant men in the land. After a quiet, useful, and happy life, he died in Macon a few years ago.
The year 1843 seems to have been an uneventful one in the Church. The work was well manned, and the field well worked, and there was prosperity; 1,763 whites, and 1,200 blacks were the numbers gained during the year. This does not represent the true increase, for Georgia was constantly losing by emigration. The conference collection amounted to $1,600, and that for missions $7,494. The next conference met in Co- lumbus, January 17, 1844, Bishop Soule presiding.
There were fourteen admitted on trial. Daniel Bird had died. The work undergoes few changes. The only important change was the enlargement of the Florida work by the re-establishment of the Newnansville Dis- trict, which extended into the remotest point of the peninsula of Florida. The Seminole had now been subjugated, and the scattered few of this unconquerable tribe who still remained in Florida had sought the deep recesses of the Everglades. Andrew J. Deavours was sent upon the Indian River Mission. Indian River is an inlet of the sea, in the remote south-east of the Florida peninsula. The climate is tropical, and the government had here a fort and station for the provis- ioning of the troops who were engaged in the war with the Indians. A few stray settlers had found their way into this country, and Andrew J. Deavours was sent to carry to them the glad tidings. On the western side of the Peninsula was Jno. N. Miner. We may only conjec- ture, for they have not told of them, how great were the hardships, and how many the dangers met with, and how brave the heart needs be, which faced and endured them. Long uninhabited stretches of prairie, on which
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the cattle roamed, or wild sweeps of pine-forest, with now and then a settler's hut. It is the same old story of the pioneer preacher, which Methodism has so often to tell.
The conference was now very large. There were nine large districts stretching from the Blue Ridge to Key West, and from the Savannah to the Chattahoo- chee ; 135 preachers in active work, beside eighteen who were superannuated. It was evident that the con- ference was too large for effective work, and at this ses- sion a resolution was carried, to petition the general conference to divide the Georgia Conference into two parts, the Southern part to be known as the Florida. This, as we will see, was done.
The conference collection during the year amounted to $1,600, while that for missions reached $7,494.43. The amount the conference was able to pay upon the claims partly held upon it, was only about forty-five per cent.
Key West now appears for the first time as an ap- pointment, and was left to be supplied. From that day to this, it has been mentioned annually in the minutes.
Within sixty miles of Cuba, almost in the tropics, immediately on the line of travel from the Gulf cities to the Atlantic coast, is this island. It is surrounded by coral reefs, which, rising out the waves, are knowu as keys, and becomes most important as the headquar- ters of the wrecking fleets, and as the port of the sponge gatherers. Quite a colony of Wesleyans from the Bahamas had settled there, and a preacher was sent to them, but little was done until 1846 when Simon P. Richardson was appointed to the station. The church
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the inhabitants of the island erected was swept away in a storm, and another, largely by his exertions and with aid from the East, was built. The church has con- tinued to increase, and there are now two charges on the island, besides a Cuba mission. The type of Meth- odism on the island is said to be more thoroughly Wes- leyan than perhaps in any other charge of the Southern Church, and Key West bids fair to be a most important point from which to direct the movements of evangeli- cal Christianity against Cuba, when, as will be the case in course of time, the barriers of Romanism shall be broken down.
Key West has had the services of the ablest men in the Florida Conference, and although sometimes visited by the yellow fever, has generally been healthy, and is a most delightful charge. Bishop Wightman in 1874 paid the island an Episcopal visit, to the mutual pleas- ure of the Bishop and the Church.
The General Conference was to meet in New York, in May, and Geo. F. Pierce, Wm. J. Parks, Lovick Pierce, Jno. W. Glenn, James E. Evans, and A. B. Longstreet were elected delegates.
The abolition and anti-slavery excitement had been of increasing intensity. The Methodist Episcopal Church had early expressed its disapproval of slavery, and had as clearly expressed its opposition to abolition- ism. In consequence of this position, taken so decidedly by the general conference, Orange Scott and the ex- treme abolition wing in New England, after the Gen- eral Conference of 1836, had seceded and formed the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The anti-slavery and abolition feeling, however, had grown rapidly in the West and in New England. Peculiar circumstances
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were now to bring the matter before the General Con- ference in a very trying shape. The Baltimore Confer- ence sent up an appeal case which would necessarily open the question, and Bishop Andrew was the inno- cent cause of increased excitement and agitation. His gentle Amelia died, and his second wife, an exceedingly lovely Christian woman, who had been a Mrs. Green- wood, of Greensboro, was a slaveholder. Bishop An- drew became by virtue of his marriage the nominal owner of her property.
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