USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 28
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 28
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The preachers at that conference received their ap- pointments and went to their respective fields. Sher- man had made his march to the sea. A wide belt of country, the finest in the State, was left a desolation;
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
what the sword could not devour, the fire-brand con- sumed. Savannah fell, then many of the bravest hearts lost hope, and the darkness of despair settled over a doomed people. Then the fearful end came. In April, 1865, the last Southern soldier laid down his musket and turned his face homeward.
Wars have been waged, and wars have ended before ; but never was there such an ending as this. Such a terrific upheaval only to be likened to those great up- heavals of which geology tells the story. Of the one hundred thousand who had gone forth from Georgia, how few returned ! and those who did, came to a ravaged land. Dalton, Rome, Cassville, Marietta, were some of them in ashes, all of them largely in ruins. Atlanta was swept by shot and shell and flaine. Macon was in the hands of Wilson's raiders. The great facto- ries in Columbus were burned. Savannah, although it had escaped the fire, was and had been for months in the hands of the conqueror. A wide sweep of country, from the Chattahoochee to Savannah, along which the army, with its bummers and house burners, had marched, was a desolation. The newly freed slaves were rejoic- ing in their unrestrained freedom, courts were sus- pended, there was no law save the law of God, no tri- bunal save that of conscience.
In upper and middle Georgia the great question was, IIow shall we escape starvation ? How we did escape- and escape we did-who shall tell ? The good God watched over his people, and although there was suffer- ing and much privation, there was no famine.
The preachers had gone to their appointments in December, 1864. They remained at thein and they lived. There was at the first no money, there was a 18
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scant supply of provisions, the railroads were torn up, communication was broken; but the work of the Church went on.
What was to be the future of the Church ? The hos- tility of the Federal armics to the Methodist Church South was intense. The Government had seized the publishing house, the churches in Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and elsewhere. The army officers had at once removed the charges of colored people from our care, and placed them under the control of men im- ported from the North. They would have seized the church in Savannah, save that the intrepid pastor stood at his post, and held his church. There were not a few hearts which failed them for fear, and who declared firm- ly though sadly that the days of Southern Methodism were numbered. Yet the Church did not die. Encom- passed with difficulty as she was, she held her place still. In 1865, when the day for the assembling of conference came, there were enough of the preachers able to get to Macon to form a conference and to confer about the future.
Dark as these times were, poverty-stricken as were the people, there was yet collected for conference claim- ants $4,473, and for missions $2,549. The country was recuperating rapidly. There was a great deal of cotton left, and it brought very high prices, and the people were soon beyond fear of starvation ; yet church work was such as to force many of the best workers in the conference into a partial retirement, in which they might by personal exertion provide for their families ; but many went as of yore to the Master's work. The field was ripe for the sickle; the people who had been go stricken came flocking to the Saviour, and he had
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compassion upon them and healed them. It was a har- vest-time indeed, and for many years the Church had known no year so fruitful as the first year after the war had ended.
When the conference met at Americns, in 1866, it was evident that the Church was not dead, and would not die.
Previously to the meeting of this conference, the General Conference of 1866 had met in New Orleans. It was the first in eight years.
It was a very important session. The impression was general that the change in the state of things in the country demanded changes in church economy. For many years the rule which required expulsion for ab- sence from class-meetings had been disregarded, and it was now repealed. The laymen had now demanded representation in conference assemblies, but there was a general opinion among the preachers that it was a need of the Church, and a plan for it was adopted and submitted to the conferences. The term of pastoral service was extended from two to four years.
Bishop Andrew and Bishop Early retiring, for active new Bishops were demanded, and four were elected : W. M. Wightman, David S. Doggett, Enoch M. Marvin, and H. N. McTyiere.
Bishop Wightman had been long connected with Geor- gia, for he had been editor of the Southern Christian Advocate for seventeen years. He was greatly honored and deeply beloved. He had once before, twelve years before this conference met, come within one vote of being elected, and, but for the carelessness of the voter in writing his ticket, would have been elected by a majority of one. Bishop McTyiere had received his
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first academic training in Georgia, and as editor of the Nashville Advocate had large intercourse with the Georgia preachers and people. Bishop Doggett, as editor of the Review, was well-known to them all. Bishop Marvin, known so well beyond the Mississippi, was unknown to the Eastern Conferences. The Church has had no reason to regret the election of any of the four, and they are all of them greatly beloved in Georgia and Florida. Each has presided over the conferences, and always to profit and pleasure. These Bishops have been called to places requiring capacity of the highest order, and they have shown that they possessed it. They have been called to follow those whose devoted lives and immense toils have made them the admired of all Methodism, and they have shown by their devotion and their toils that they were worthy successors of them.
At this general conference permission was given to the Georgia Conference to divide into two bodies at such time as it should see fit, and in case of division, that the part of Georgia then contained in the lines of the Florida Conference should be attached to the Southern Georgia Conference.
The conference met in Americus, and this was the great question before it. It was by no means a unani- mous opinion that the time had come for the division, and the ablest men in the body were arrayed against each other ; but the fact that now there was so large a membership, that there was lay delegations, and espe- cially the fact that the Florida Conference, enfeebled as all the conferences were by the war in her financial strength, and with an insufficient ministerial force, could not supply the large mission areas of Southern Georgia
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
with preachers, led to the reluctant conclusion that the conference must divide. With perfect harmony a line was fixed, and henceforward there were two confer- ences in Georgia-the North and South Georgia.
At this point we cease to trace the history of Metho- dism year by year. Other chapters of special charac- ter follow, and our work is for the present ended.
Thirty-six years the Georgia Conference had been in existence. The growth of the Church in that period had been wonderful. There were at the time of the division over 50,000 white members and 20,000 col- ored. Since the formation of the conference in 1830 the membership had been nearly tripled. Greater ad- vancement was yet before it.
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CHAPTER XII.
METHODISM IN THE CITIES-AUGUSTA-SAVANNAH-ATHENS-MACON- COLUMBUS AND ATLANTA.
ALTHOUGH Savannah antedates Angusta as a city by several years, yet, as Methodism was established in the latter city first, it claims priority in Methodist history.
Immediately after the first settlement of the colony in 1732, a fort was established on its upper boundary, which was called Augusta, in honor of a young prin- cess, daughter of George II., for whom the colony was named.
It was simply a fort, and a trading-post for the Cherokee, Uchee, and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, who still owned all the land north and west of it. The trade with the Indians increased, the traders became more numerous, and a village sprang up. After the surrender of the charter of the trustees to the govern- ment, and the establishment of the English Church about 1757, a church was built and a parish laid out. This parish was called St. Paul's. The church was served by missionaries sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first of these was Jonathan Copp.
He found a congregation of from 80 to 100 mem- bers, but had only eight communicants. He had neither rectory nor glebe, and the promise of £20 per annum from the vestry was broken ! The Indians were near by, and were not friendly ; still he maintained his place
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865. '
for five years. He was the first frontiersman among the English-American clergy ; he, however, left the place, and Solomon Frink succeeded him, and re- mained three years .* In 1767 Edward Ellington came. He was an itinerant Episcopalian, who travelled over the thinly-settled country to perform his official duties. He did hard work until the revolutionary war, and then disappeared, perhaps returning to England ; Augusta fell into the hands of the British, and the church was destroyed.
The Grand Jury of 1782 presented the fact that there was no church in Augusta, nor in Richmond County.t There was, as far we can discover, no preach- ing in this section. Perhaps Bottsford, or the Mar- shalls, or Silas Mercer- one of whom lived in the coun- ty of Burke, and the others on the Kiokee, in what is now Columbia County-may have visited the city. A church was built, however, on the lot of the old St. Paul's Church, which seems to have been used by any preacher who casually visited Angusta. Although it was the capital of the State, it was comparatively a small hamlet. The most of the houses were of logs, and the river crossed by a ferry .; Population increased rapidly after the revolution, and it soon became an im- portant commercial point. The western part of South Carolina, the western part of North Carolina, and all the settled parts of upper Georgia, as well as the In- dian Country, did their trading there.
At what time the first Methodist preacher visited Angusta, we are unable to say. It is more than proba-
* Bishop Stevens' Memorial Sermon.
t White's Historical Collections.
# White's Statistics.
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ble that Thomas Humphries and John Major visited it before Asbury came, which he did for the first time in 1789. On this visit he does not seem to have tarried in the town, but pushed forward to Hayne's, on Uchee Creek. Augusta at this date was a considerable town, with a newspaper and a theatre, but without any reli- gious service or any organized body of Christians. When Asbury came the next year, he rode to near where Brothersville is now located, and stopped with Samnel Clarke. Although he was in Georgia and in Angusta several times, he does not seem to have preached in it until 1796, when he preached in St. Paul's Church. This was the first time a Methodist Bishop ever preached in Angusta. An effort had been made, however, to establish the Church there on his first visit to Georgia, and James Connor, a promising young preacher, had been appointed to it as a station in 1789. His health was fecble, and during the year he died in Virginia." It is there- fore probable that he went to Virginia immediately after conference, and never returned to Georgia, and was never for any length of time in Augusta. Hope Hull, after his location, was sent to the city; but if he went, he did not accomplish anything. It is probable that now and then one of those plain, sober, peculiar men who travelled the circuits adjoining may have visited the gay capital of the State, and gathered a few hearers in some remote house ; but if he did, no snecess attended his efforts. Thus it was till 1798. The father of Augusta Methodisin was now at hand.
Among the Virginians who were drawn to Augusta by its business advantages was Col. Wm. Mead, a
* Minutes.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
wealthy Virginian. Two of his danghters were mar- ried and were living there." His son Stith, a thought- ful boy, came with him, and attended the old Angusta Academy. Stith had been religiously impressed from conversation with his father's negro servants, and had sought to find peace for his disturbed conscience by close attention to what he believed to be his religious duties. He was still unhappy, and went to. Virginia. Here he attended a camp-meeting in Bedford County, and was converted. He entered at once into the Vir- ginia Conference, and travelled there seven years. He then came to Augusta. He said he found a city of 4,000 inhabitants, in which there was no organized church, and, as far as he could see, not one of the peo- ple knew their right hand from their left in religion. He began his labors, and preached one sermon in the church. His sermon so offended his hearers that the church was thereafter closed against him. His rela- tives, some of whom in after-time were devoted Metho- dists, were so opposed to his fanaticism that they closed their doors against him. He found a private house in which to preach t-the house of Ebenezer Doughty, and in 1798 he organized a society, which consisted of six members .; The society increased, and a meeting- house was a necessity. He secured a lot in the then Commons, on what is now Greene Street, and when Asbury came in 1800, he found that Mead had a foundation and a frame prepared for the erection of a two-story house. Mead gave $500 out of his own proper- ty, and by his influence and energy raised money enough to fit the house for occupancy.§ Asbury thought
* Bennett. 18*
t Ibid į Ibid. § Ibid.
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it was commodious and elegant, and the congregation large and attentive.
The church building which Stith Mead had crected was located on the same lot on which the present St. John's Church stands. It was then almost out of town, in the upper part of the city. The business part of the town was the lower part of Broad Street, on Bridgo Row, and along the river banks. The most elegant residences, if any could be called elegant, were below, where is the present lower market-house. The only other church building was the St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and around it at that time was the city cemetery.
The church was 40x60 feet, with two rows of win- dows .* It was of wood, and perfectly plain; there was a gallery for the colored people, and a few years afterwards there was a small belfry. This church, un- changed, served the people until John Howard came in 1822, and the church was added to, making it longer. Success now attended Mead's efforts, and he had soon a society of sixty members. This was the first organized body of Christians in Augusta after the Revolution. The Presbyterian Church was organized about 1808, and the Baptist Church some ten years later. As far as we can discover, there was no regular rector to the Episcopal Church until later still, when the new St. Paul's Church was built.
Who composed this first society ? Ebenezer Doughty was a member, the mother of John II. Mann was another, and probably her daughters. If Asaph Waterman was not one of the first, he was a member as early as 1804, when Dr. Pierce first came to Augusta.t
* Asbury's Journal.
t Dr. Pierce.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Mead remained in charge of the church, which was included in the circuit, until 1801, when it was made a station, and John Garvin was the stationed preacher. He was an Englishman by birth, having been born in Windsor, Jan. 30, 1763. He was converted in Ireland, and preached his first sermon in London in 1792, and immediately went to Africa, where he remained four years. He reached America in 1797, and reported himself to Asbury for work. We have seen that he went, in company with Jesse Lee, to lay out a circuit in the extreme southeastern part of Georgia, early in 1799. In 1801 he came to Augusta. In 1803 he married Sarah Few, who survived him many years, and who was noted for her deep piety. He was a man of good native parts, and an excellent English scholar. After his location he taught school in Augusta, and when the Presbyterians had no pastor, he preached regularly for them for one year, in the old St. Paul's Church. He was quite pop- ular in the city of his residence, and married most of those who were coupled together in the city and its vicinity .* He died in 1816 in great peace, leaving a most excellent widow and a son, Ignatius P. Garvin, who for many years has been a leading member of the church of which his father was the first pastor.
The next year, 1802, Levi Garrison came. He was a plain man of excellent religious character, but not the equal of those who had gone before him. The Church continued, however, to grow slowly, but it was embarrassed by debt, and needed a revival of religion. This year it received aid, both financial and ministerial, from a very unexpected quarter.
* Dr. Garvin.
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Asbury had brought Nicholas Snethen with him the year before. Snethen was a man of really wonderful eloquence and had attracted much attention. Mead, and Asbury, and Garvin were far beyond the average of the preachers of that day, but none created so much noise as Lorenzo Dow, who came in 1802. One spring day he came on foot to Augusta. He was dressed in the oddest manner imaginable. His hair and beard were long, and as he carried no baggage and his wardrobe was not extensive, his dress was far from neat. He carried with him a pocket full of tracts, which he distributed as he ran along. He moved according to his impressions, and, under one of them, came to Au- gusta. He sought the hospitality of the Methodists, but no one would entertain him, and he finally found a home with a negro in what is now Hamburg. He sought ont Levi Garrison, preacher in charge, and told him who he was; but Garrison was naturally afraid of him, and did not ask him to preach. In another chap- ter we have already told more of him and of his adven- tures in the interior. When he returned to Augusta, Stith Mead, who knew him, and knew he was no com- mon man, invited him to preach. He did so. Such original, and yet such moving sermons the people had never heard before, and large congregations flocked to hear him. IIe proposed they should have preaching at night, but they told him that even the great Snethen could not get the people to night meetings. Dow, how- ever, tried and succeeded .* One night he found the church door locked. The builder had not been paid, and he would give possession of the building no longer.
* Dow's Journal.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Dow persuaded him to let him enter, and proposed to the congregation that they should pay the debt, propos- ing to pay ten dollars himself. He raised a hundred dollars, and the worship went on.
The next year John Garvin came to the city again, and Stith Mead was presiding elder.
During this year, 1804, the first South Carolina Con- ference ever held in Georgia was held in the house of Peter Cantalou, on Ellis Street. Bishop Asbury and Dr. Coke were present. The history of this conference we have given in the fourth chapter of this work. At the next conference Stith Mead, having been four years on the Georgia District, decided to return to Virginia. He was placed in charge of the Augusta Station, with Britton Capel as his junior. Capel was now an elder. He had travelled, from the time of his entrance into the travelling ministry, circuits in the State. He was an energetic, earnest, and gifted man. His preaching, ac- cording to Dr. Pierce, was without system, but sparkled with gems of beautiful thoughts. He reported at the succeeding conference eighty white members and sev- enteen colored. Whether Mead remained the year through we cannot say. He was a presiding elder on the Richmond District, in Virginia, during the next year, and was never afterwards more than an occasional vis- itor to Georgia. The city of Augusta, and indeed the whole State of Georgia, owes a deep debt of gratitude to this excellent Virginian. IIe was eminently a revi- valist, and the Church was quickened, and sinners were converted wherever he went. His heart was with the church he had planted in Augusta, and he was cheered to see its progress.
The next year Hugh Porter came. He was a short,
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stout man, full of revival fire, and much attached to Augusta in after-life. During this year, by some means, a bell was secured. It was placed in the little belfry of which we have spoken. When Bishop Asbury came he saw it with horror. It was an innovation-the first bell he had seen in any of our meeting-houses in America He said it was the first ; he hoped it would be the last. It was cracked ; he hoped it would break .* Porter seems to have good success, since he reports one hundred members at conference. Bishop Asbury does not seem to have been pleased with some things he saw, and says these youngsters need looking after-evidently referring to something Hugh Porter had done. He says he had a high time at the church, but does not explain his meaning.
At the Conference of 1806, Lovick Pierce, just be- ginning his third year in the ministry, came from the Apalachee Circuit to Augusta. He had been on a cir- cuit reaching to the frontier, and was immensely popu- lar among his people. He brought with him to a-for that time-large and fashic ibole city the wardrobe the good people of his circuit had provided. It was of homespun material, in which rabbit-fur had a consider- able place.t He was the only pastor in the city, and the youngest man who had ever filled the office there. Mead and Garvin had had much better advantages than him- self, and Capel more experience. He was very gifted, but was as timid as he was gifted. He was, however, a preacher, young as he was, and had preached many more sermons already, and seen the results of his labor much more evident, than many a graduate of a theological
* Journal.
t Dr. Pierco.
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school, after seven years in college and the seminary. Ile soon adapted himself to his new surroundings. In the pleasant household of Asaph Waterman he found a home, and soon took on all the polish of the really good society of the young city. He at once attracted attention, and had large and appreciative congregations. He was the instrument of doing great good, and of . course excited opposition from the sons of Belial. As he walked down the streets, the young men of the city would stand at the street-corners and groan in imitation of Methodist responses. He had a small pastorate and abundant time for study, and this for the first time since he had entered upon his ministry. He improved every moment. The membership of the Church increased during his stay. The next year Reddick, his brother, came. We have already spoken of him. He was now in the vigor of his youth, and was a preacher of no ordi- nary power.
The Church was not strong, and preachers were very scarce ; and now that the capital of the State was removed to Louisville, this little town and Augusta were united in one charge, and John Collingsworth and John Rye were sent to them. Among the members of the society at this time was Asaph Waterman. He was from New England, and had no doubt been religionsly educated. There was no other Christian body in Augusta except the Methodists, and he was drawn to them. He cast in his lot with them, and was for many years a true pillar of the Church. He had come to the South a mechanic, but he entered into mercantile life, and was successful in amassing a handsome fortune. The Meth- odists were poor, and his house became the home of the preachers. He lighted the church, led the class, and
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entertained all the Methodist preachers who passed through the city. He was a quiet, steady-going, gener- ous, plain Christian, Methodist in dress as well as in character. He always wore a coat of blue broadcloth, cut in Methodist style, so that it was pleasantly said of him that Asaph Waterman had not had a new coat in thirty years. His first wife died and left him childless. Ile then married Mildred Meals, a young widow who was originally Mildred Bostwick, and a sister of Stephen Olin's wife. No union could have been happier-no two Christian people could have labored together more harmoniously for the Church's welfare.
Their home was the abiding place of the preacher in charge, and the resting-place of every weary itinerant who passed through the city. Asbury, Whatcoat, Mc- Kendree, Hedding, Soule, Andrew, Emory, Capers, were all his guests. He was able to distribute, he was ready to communicate, and given to hospitality.
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