USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 5
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 5
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The conference was much straitened for room, hav- ing only one chamber twelve feet square to confer in, sleep in, and for the accominodation of the sick; for one of the brethren (P. B.), probably Philip Bruce, was quite unwell, and so was Asbury. They, however, com- pleted their business, and ordained four elders and six deacons .*
This year the entire State of South Carolina, and all of the State of Georgia then settled, was included in one district, which was placed in charge of Philip Bruce. The circuits were diminished in numbers, and there were only three, with six preachers. IIull took an appoint- ment at this conference for the last time, as at the next he located, to return to the itinerancy no more. Philip
* Asbury's Journal.
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Bruce, the new presiding elder, was one of the princes of early Methodism. He was a Virginian, and a direct descendant of those Huguenots who, exiled from France because of religion, came to Virginia. IIe entered the conference with Thomas Humphries and John Major, in 1783. IIe had now travelled twelve years, and from the date of his eldership had been on districts.
His districts were large and important, sweeping from the Atlantic seaboard to the Ohio. Wherever the post of difficulty and danger was, he was found. Carolina and Georgia needed him, and he came to give his ser- vices to these important but fecbly manned conferen- ces. He was a man of fine personal appearance, with the striking features of a French Huguenot. Ilis ex- pression was calm, dignified, and determined; his man- ner most elegant and graceful .* IIe had an intellect of decidedly high order, and a heart thoroughly consecra- ted to the work of the church.t He was a man of such spirit and judgment that Asbury leaned on him as a second self. He was the corps commander on whom that general most relied. IIe never located, for he never married. Ile travelled for thirty-seven consecu- tive years, then was superannuated, and spent his last days in Tennessee, though still holding his connection with the Virginia Conference. At length, full of years and honors, he died.
Could Bruce have given Georgia, as Ivy had, his entire time, a great work must have been done, despite the times ; but, with two great States to travel over, he could do but little towards meeting the demands of any single
*Sprague and Bennett. t Bennett.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
section. He remained only one year on the district, and then returned to Virginia. It is not possible, however desirable it may be, to give a full account of all the laborers in Georgia at this period. The old men who might have told us of them are gone. There were neither church newspapers nor magazines in those days, and locating, as most of the preachers did, long before their death, they drop from the minutes. Of Douthet, Russell, Posey, Clark, and King, the Georgia preachers, we know scarcely anything ; of some of them only the name. The next year there was not one of them this side of the Savannah.
The year 1794 was a dark year for all the churches in Georgia, and especially for Methodism. Laborers were imperatively demanded ; but what had the Church to promise to men for a life of such toil and sacrifice as she required ? All things seemed adverse to religion, the country was being opened up rapidly, emigrants were pouring into the new lands along the banks of the Oconee, and with the usual results of unsettled society. Political strife was high, the leading men of the State were duellists and infidels, and the whole State was in a blaze of angry fury, because of the recently per- petrated Yazoo fraud. A legislature, openly bribed, had sold to a private company, for $500,000, all that grand domain west of the Chattahoochee, and which includes now the States of Alabama and Mississippi. To hunt down the faithless legislators, to threaten and denounce them, engaged the people, rather than going to week-day preaching or attending class-meeting. There was nothing remarkable then in the decreasing numbers in society. The conference met in Charleston, January 1, 1795. The scarcity of laborers rendered
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it impossible to supply all the work, and one man could no longer devote himself to the presidency of the dis- trict ; so Josias Randall was placed on the Burke Circuit, and in charge of the district. The Savannah, Oconee, and Elbert Circuits were given up, and merged into the Washington, Burke, and Richmond. The Washington Circuit had declined in membership from 900 to 300, and there were now reported in the societies of the State only 1,028 members, the membership five years before having been double that number. The State was increasing rapidly in wealth and population, but the church could no longer furnish the class of travel- ling preachers demand. Hope IInll had located, and opened a high school at Succoth Academy, three miles from Washington. John Andrew was also teaching in Wilkes. The newly settled sections of the country always demand the highest order of men ; but, alas! whence were they now to come? The Georgia Dis- trict took the same shape it had when Richard Ivy first came in 1788. The preachers in charge were Randle, Moore, Guerry, Wilson, Taukersly. Of these three had just entered the conference, and of them only Josias Randle was to remain in Georgia for any length of time. IIow many separate societies there were then in Georgia we cannot tell. From the records of the Baptist Church we learn that there were twenty-six churches,* and perhaps half the number of preachers. There was certainly not less than 100 congregations to which the Methodists preached.
It is evident, from a survey of this period, that the great revival from 1786 to 1791 had lost its power,
* Campbell's Baptista.
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and there was a general religious declension, which continued till near the beginning of the new century. The conference met in Charleston again January 1, 1796. Bishop Asbury was present, and there were about twenty members of the body. The session was a peaceful one; and the tide of religious interest rose high. The Bishop at this conference received the tid- ings of the burning of Cokesbury College. It had been an ill-advised enterprise ; but the determined Dr. Coke, against Asbury's calmer and better judgment, entered upon it, and then returned to England, leaving his already burdened colleague to carry the additional and very heavy weight. It was now burned, and Asbury gave himself to work more pleasing and successful than building a college .*
Jonathan Jackson and Josias Randle were appointed to the Burke Circuit, and Jackson was to have charge of the district, but the design was for each of them to visit the older sections of the State, and endeavor to establish Methodism there.
Samuel Cowles, another Virginian, who was to do much work for the Church in Georgia, came this year to the State. He had been a dragoon with Washing- ton's Light Horse. In the battle of Cowpens he swept down with upraised sabre upon a British trooper, whom he disarmed, and was about to cut him down. The trooper gave him the Masonic signal of distress, and he spared his life. Years after, he met his old foe in Thomas Darley, a brother-in-arms, in the South Caro- lina Conference.
As Asbury was making a journey through Virginia,
* Asbury's Journal.
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he spent a night at his mother's, and with them left a good book. Through its influence the family was con- verted, and Samuel became a preacher. He travelled for some years, then located and settled in the new county of Warren. Here he labored as a local preacher, and as there was Cowles' Iron Works in the county, he probably became an iron-maker. He removed to Mon- roe County in its early settlement, and died a good man, at a good age.
Asbury crossed the river not far from Augusta, and rode through the city, whose streets, he mentions, had been ploughed into deep gullies for two miles by the angry waters of the Savannah. On this visit, for the first time Asbury preached in the city in the old St. Paul's Church, which was, at that period, free to all. Ilis congregation consisted of 400 hearers .* He rode on through Columbia County, and after preaching at White Oak, was forced to ride fifteen miles after ser- mon before he could get his dinner. Ile swam Little River in Wilkes, and on Friday was at Combs' Meeting- Ilouse, and that evening at Gartrell's. The next day he rode to the school at Coke's Chapel, three miles from Washington. Here Hope Hull had his academy. Ile then preached at Pope's Chapel, and crossed the river into South Carolina at Petersburg. There was but little change, and no improvement in the condition of things this year.
The General Conference met every four years. It was composed of all the travelling elders of the Church. The main body of its members were there- fore always from those conferences nearest to the place
* Journal.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
of meeting, which had been and was Baltimore. It met this year in that city, and we have the first printed record of its doings.
At this conference the form of a deed of settlement for church property, based upon the one so sternly required by Mr. Wesley in England, which aimed to place the property where neither the ambition of preachers nor the whims of congregations could affect it, was decided upon. Rules were adopted for the graduation of deacons to eldor's orders. Provision was made for the publication of a magazine like the Arminian Magazine in England. Specific rules were adopted, evidently at the instance of Dr. Coke, for the regulation of the students in our seminaries. These. rules were Spartan enough in their sternness, and entirely impracticable. The plan for a chartered fund was adopted ; slavery came in for its share of fruitless legislation. The preachers were instructed to proceed against all who retailed spirituous liquors, as in the case of other immoralities. The allowances for the preachers were fixed at sixty-four dollars for a man, and the same for his wife, with nothing for family expenses.
During the year a decline of forty members was reported in the Georgia Conference. It will be remem- bered that church discipline was summary and certain in those days. Three times absence from class, a ribbon, a ruffle, or a ring, and the preacher erased the name from the class-book. To be turned out of society was a constant dread of the conscientious member, and a neglect to enforce discipline the most serious charge against a preacher. The Montanists of the early church were scarcely more rigid in discipline than the 4
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early Methodists, therefore these figures do not indicate no success in winning souls.
The Conference of 1797 met in Charleston, and this time Coke was with Asbury. There were cheering reports, says Asbury's Journal, from Georgia, but there are certainly none in the printed minutes.
The appointments this year were the best which had been made for several years.
Enoch George, afterwards Bishop, took the district, and James Jenkins was preacher in charge of the Wash- ington Church. Hope Hull was placed as a supply on the Augusta station, though it does not appear that he went there ; if he did, it is certain he organized no ยท church. Randall, with two young assistants, was in lower Georgia. Enoch George was a Virginian, and when he came to Georgia was about thirty years of age. Ile had been converted under the flaming ministry of John Easten, and entered the ministry soon afterward. After travelling a very hard circuit in North Carolina as a supply, he entered the conference regularly. He came at once to South Carolina, and after a few years on circuits was made presiding elder. This year he was on the Georgia District. There were only three circuits in his district, but they covered almost the whole State. Six preachers had all the work to do. The Church had not prospered since Richard Ivy left the State and Hope Hull located. No presiding elder had been able to give it all his time, at a day when it needed it most. George came in good time. IIe was the man for the occasion.
He was rather gross-looking. IIis hair was thick, bushy, and long. He was very careless in his dress, and was not prepossessing in his appearance ; his voice
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was rich and sweet, his enunciation clear and distinct. In prayer he had wonderful power. In preaching he wept, and all about him wept. IIis piety was deep and beautiful,* his consecration to the work entire, and his success in winning souls was great. He gave himself to his work in Georgia with great zeal, and with his coming the ebbing tide was stayed. It did not until a few years after rise to a flood, but it ceased to ebb. James Jenkins was now on the Washington Circuit, and we get the first clear view of its boundaries. It included the at present counties of Greene, Taliaferro, Wilkes, Lincoln, Elbert, Hart, Franklin, Madison, and Oglethorpe. There were now a number of church buildings erected. Among them was Burke's Meeting- house and Liberty Chapel, in Greene. At Liberty Chapel, Jenkins exhorted after George, and a man in uniform came forward, and falling at his feet, begged him to pray for him ; others came likewise, and this, says Jenkins, was, as far as he knew, the beginning of the custom of public profession of penitence, or, in Methodist parlance, going to the altar. The meeting, he says, was such a noisy one that he wondered the horses did not take fright.t
The Conference of 1798 met in Charleston, but for the first time Asbnry was absent. 1Ie was sick in Virginia. The disease of his lungs, which finally caused his death, had so alarmingly threatened him then, that his physicians forbade his travelling. The responsibility of the appointments rested with Dr. Coke; but he was assisted by Jesse Lee, who had been requested by As- bury to go to Charleston. Dr. Coke, on his journey
* Dr. Luckey in Sprague. t Jenkins' Life, 83.
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from England, had been captured by a French pri- vateer, and after being stripped of all his other goods, with his books and papers, had been landed on the Vir- ginia coast, and had reached the Virginia Conference. He now came south with Jesse Lee. The conference concluded its session without having accomplished any- thing of special note.
Enoch George, strong as he was, broke down in the work, and did not return to the Georgia District, but was succeeded by Benj. Blanton. IIe was a Virginian, who had been ten years in the work. Ile began his itinerancy in the mountains of Virginia, and ended it in Georgia. After travelling the district this year he lo- cated and settled in Oglethorpe County, where he lived a useful local preacher for many years. He married this year a Miss Huet, " and, as was universally the cus- tom, ceased to itinerate. He was a pure, good man, who always took the greatest interest in the Church, and did much for it. When an old man, in love-feast one day, he said "that he thought, when he had been forty years in the wilderness, he would have been called to cress Jordan ; but he had been now over forty years in it, and he was still browsing on the banks of the river." Ile re-entered the conference in his old age, and was at once superannuated. His family, in 1845, had gone to the camp-meeting, and he was to follow, but that evening, being quite unwell, he remained with his wife and some of his children at home. That night he sat up in bed and prayed aloud for the last time with un- usual power, and the next day sank calinly to sleep on the bosom of his Lord. Ile was thrice married, and his
* Jenkins.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
children and grandchildren are at this time among the most useful members of the church to which he gave his early life.
After the adjournment of the conference, Lee visited Georgia, going as far west as the Oconee, in Greene County, and returning in February. He crossed the Savannah at Bardsdale Ferry. Hesays he was greatly comforted with his visits to Georgia, where he spent twenty-seven days, and preached twenty-one sermons. The country was much better than he expected to find it, and the parts in which he travelled were chiefly settled by Virginians. They lived well, but appeared to him to be ungovernable in church and state. It was a good country for corn, tobacco, and cotton, and also for oats, wheat, and potatoes. In the pine woods there were a great many salamanders, which perhaps were not found in any other State in the Union. He ex- pected that there would be a great revival of religion in Georgia soon .* In this hope he was not disappointed, as we shall see.
George Dougherty was appointed this year to the Oconee Circuit, which was again called into existence. The Cherokees and Creeks were on the western bank of the river still, but the fields of the white settlers were on its eastern borders. The circuit was a large one and a hard one, and courage was demanded from the man who was to do the work, and there never was a braver heart in a frail body than that which beat in the bosom of the inexperienced boy who was sent to these wilds. He had only one eye, was pitted with small- pox, and was most careless about his dress. He had no
* Thrift's Life of Lee.
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outward marks of greatness, but we donbt whether the American pulpit ever had in it a truer genius or a more regal soul than George Dougherty. This was his second year, and the only one spent in Georgia. He then re- turned to South Carolina, where he toiled faithfully until the burning soul consumed his frail frame, and, in what should have been the vigor of his life, he died .* He was, we have said, a genius, and his attainments were remarkable. " He used," said old Dr. Pierce, " to visit my father's house, and when on his district my first year I read to him from the English Bible, while he compared the version with the original Ilebrew." There was much infidelity in those days, and Dougherty gave careful study to the science of apologetics. Ilis attainments here amazed those scholarly men who heard him. Ilis sermons were rich in original thoughts, full of pathos and power. Ilis denunciations of sin were fearless and stirring. The mob in Charleston, angered by his faithfulness, once nearly caused his death by pumping water upon him from the town pump, and he was only rescued by the courage of a good woman, who, rushing to the pump, stuffed her apron in the spout.t Bishop Andrew was rarely more enthused than when telling of the traditions of his pul- pit power, and Dr. Lovick Pierce, who knew him well, 80 carried away as when telling the story of his elo- quence, learning, and piety. When the history of Meth- odism in South Carolina is written it may be that he will be placed on his truc pedestal. To the present genera- tion he would be almost unknown, save for the faithful labors of a Presbyterian, the good Dr. Sprague, who
* Sprague. + Mood.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
from Bishop Andrew and Dr. Pierce, gathered the re- maining fragments of fact from which to erect his monument. The last conference he attended was in the bounds of the only circuit he had travelled in Georgia.
Bishop Asbury's health having improved, he came to Georgia in November. He crossed the Savannah above Augusta, and stopped with Win. Tait, and preach- ed at Tait's Chapel. Wm. Tait was probably the father of Judge Charles Tait, the great friend of W. II. Craw- ford, and afterward senator in Congress. The son was himself the friend of Asbury, and in after years Asbury was entertained at his own home. He went from thence to Ralph Banks. Ralph Banks was his host often after this. He was a remarkable man and brought up a re- markable family. On one of Asbury's visits to Elbert he mentioned that he stopped with Ralph Banks, whose handsome and healthy wife, thirty-six years old, had twelve children. From this family sprang some of the leading Methodist families in Georgia, and of eight sons, every one of them arrived at distinction, and several of them acquired great wealth, and all of them preserved their Methodist connections. Their descend- ants are to-day a numerous and influential people in the State, and nearly all of them leading Methodists. From that home he went to Franklin County to the home of Henry Parks, and then turning his course southward he came to Charles Wakefield's, in Oglethorpe, and sent Jesse Lee to visit the banks of the Ogeechee, while he remained behind to nurse Benj. Blanton, who was sick. The next day he rode to Burrell Pope's, riding from one plantation to another on Blanton's stiff-jointed br- which he said he would not ride except to save @
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the health of a brother .* Jesse Lee having accomplish- ed his work, returned to Asbury, and they went to Henry Pope's. They now turned their course westward, and in December, 1799, he preached in Greensboro. Here there was a Presbyterian church, the first mention we have of one in upper Georgia; it was established by Father Cummings, the first Presbyterian minister in this part of the State. The county of Greene had been a separate county for thirteen years, and it is probable that from the very first it had been included in the bounds of the Washington Circuit. Although we had no church in Greensboro, there were several in Greene County, such as they were: one at Burke's, one at Crutch- field's, and at Little Britain, which was " open at the top, bottom, and sides." t Hope Hull, Josias Randle, Sam- uel Cowles, and Wm. Patridge, met the good Bishop, and they had a family meeting at Mother Ilill's. She was probably the mother of Whitman C. Hill, and lived in Oglethorpe County. They had quarterly meetings at Mark's, and rode twenty miles to Hope Hull's, near Washington. He preached at David Merriwether's, and took saddle for Angusta. All the trading of the country was then with Augusta, so that the roads were wretched. They, however, plonghed through the mud, and reached that city by the Sabbath.
Here Asbury says he heard a sermon in the morning and preached one in the afternoon. Asbury now re- crossed the Savannah and entered into South Carolina, and went to Charleston, where the conference session was to be held. During all this journey Jesse Lcc travelled with Bishop Asbury, and was his most efficient
* Asbury's Journal. + Ibid.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
colaborer. No two men could have differed more in everything except the aim, grand and glorious, to which each of their lives was directed. Lee was large in body, and Asbury delicate. Lee was full of humor, and Asbury grave and thoughtful. Lee found a joy in the encounter with difficulties, and to Asbury the sweet quiet of home was the delight of life. Lee in the middle ages would have been Richard of the Lion Heart, Asbury St. Francis of Assiso. Lee had ere this time made his power felt over the whole connection. From the Penob- scot to the Oconee he had labored. Like some brave knight of the olden time, his massive form and the flashing battle-axe had been seen where the foes were the strongest and their ranks were the thickest. He had gone to New England alone and unfriended, and, against intolerance the fiercest and opposition the sternest, he had planted Methodism in all that land. He will appear in our history in an after-day more than once, but not as we would have desired to see him, as the episcopal colleague of Francis Asbury. Had this intrepid, ener- getic, earnest Virginian, in middle life, been chosen instead of the shrinking, retiring and aged Whatcoat, to the office of Bishop, the Church had been better served when she needed service most, and the overburdened Asbury relieved and assisted.
Samuel Cowles returned again to Georgia, and was on the Washington Circuit. He was accompanied by Alexander McCaine. McCaine was a young fine person and of fine gifts, and was destined a high place in the Church, for he was station years in the leading cities of the F years of active and efficient minist pal Methodists, he left his old assor 4*
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the founders of the Methodist Protestant Church. He. occupied a prominent place in this body till his death, which occurred in 1856. He lived to see the church of his early love, for whose welfare the best energies of his young and mature life were put forth, sadly torn and divided; to see Snethen, Shinn and Jennings in bitter strife with their old colleagues ; he lived to see all the smoke of battle pass away, and until almost all remem- brance of the strife had ended, and to see some of his own children and grandchildren in the church which he had left ; and to have the kindly care of the ministers in his last hours; and when he died, it was from the altars of the Methodist Episcopal Church the old hero was buried.
Nicolas Waters came from Maryland to take place on the Burke Circuit. He was the brother of Wm. Wa- ters, the first native American who entered the travelling connection. Ile entered the ministry in 1776, located in 1779, re-entered the connection, and finally died in Charleston in 1804. He was at this time fifty years old, and had been really at work since 1772, though not regularly licensed till four years later. He was a con- secrated man, distinguished for his moral courage, ardent zeal, and unwearying labors. ITis heavenly- mindedness and uniform simplicity of deportment greatly endeared him to his brethren .* Ilis family removed to Georgia after his death, and one of his grandsons, Win. Waters Oslin, is in the Georgia Con- ference at the present time.
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