USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 6
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 6
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The Church gained ground, though slowly. The membership was 1,318. For the first time Augusta ap-
* Mood and the Minutes.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
pears in the minutes, and Methodism in Georgia re- ports one considerable town in her list of appointments. For fifteen years the preachers had been at work, but they had made up to this time no impression on the two important towns in the State. There were really only three of any size in Georgia-Savannah, Augusta, and Petersburg, in Elbert County. In none of these had the Methodists a church building, and in only one of thein a society.
The Conference of 1799 met at Charleston. Bishop Asbury was able to come to it, and to preside. Josias Randle was forced to locate for a time. It was a de- plorable necessity indeed that called for the location of such men as Richard Ivy, Reuben Ellis, Hope Hull, Benj. Blanton, and Josias Randle ; but excessive labor, exposure to all kinds of weather, and preaching every day, and hardships of every kind, were too much for the strong men even of that iron age, and they were driven from the work not only by their family needs, but often by failing health. At this conference Stith Mead, who was reported as being on the Burke Circuit with Wm. Avant, became regularly a member of the conference. In our chapter on Methodism in the cities we have given a full sketch of the father of Methodism in Augusta. Georgia had long needed such a man, if she had not deserved him, and he came not a moment too. soon-the very man for the very time. Blanton took the district for the second and last time. Samuel Cowles was the only one of the old line who remained in Georgia. There was an entirely new detachment sent to the field. Stith Mead was sent as preacher on the Burke Circuit, and with him was Wm. Avant, with the evident design of leaving Mead in. Angusta, in which
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he was trying to build a church. Tobias Gibson was sent this year as missionary to the Natchez Country, John Garvin to the St. Mary's. While all Georgia west of the Oconee was in the possession of the Indians, there was a considerable body of white settlers on the banks of the Mississippi, in what was called the Natchez Country. Some of them had floated down the Ohio and Mississippi in flatboats, to those fertile lands in what is now Adams County, Miss. To them Bishop Asbury desired to send a preacher, and Tobias Gibson volun- teered to go. He was a South Carolinian, and was, at this session of the conference, twenty-nine years old. He had entered upon the work as a travelling preacher when twenty-one, and had faithfully travelled hard circuits in North and South Carolina. There were then more hardships to be met with in travelling to the banks of the Mississippi than a voyage to China now entails. To reach his new field Gibson rode on horse- back to the falls of the Cumberland at Nashville, thence took a canoe, and finally reached the settlements near Natchez. Here he labored for several years, the sole missionary to this, the most remote of the American settlements, and here, a few years afterwards, he died in great peace. Like one of the first missionaries-even Barnabas, he was a good man, full of faith and the Holy Ghost .*
From the same conference, Jesse Lee, with John Garvin, a young Englishinan, who had just come from the African coast, where he had been laboring as a missionary, and who had been appointed to the set- tlements on the St. Mary's, went on a visit to this,
* Mood and Minutes.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
the most remote southern point of the American settle- ments.
Florida was in the possession and under the govern- ment of the Spaniards. Along the banks of the St. Mary's and of the Saltilla, and in the pine country back from the coast, there were a number of settlers, and the town of St. Mary's was a place, even then, of some importance. The year before, George Clark had been a missionary to them, and had formed a small society in Camden and Glynn Counties. There was one church, and one only, as far as we have been able to discover, south of Savannah. This was the Medway Congregational Church in Liberty County. Lee left Savannah early in January, and rode Asbury's old gray-who, as the Bishop says-suffered for it, through the lower part of South Carolina, to Savannah, and thence to the St. Mary's. There was a most remarkable snow storm, at this time, snow falling to the depth of two and a half feet. He reached Savannah, and then rode through the wilds. The first night he was forced to lodge in a deserted log-cabin without doors, and with thirty or forty hogs for room-mates. He reached St. Mary's on the 18th, and preached in the Court House. He rode on, preaching every day, and found a rough people, many of whom had never heard a sermon. t
He left Garvin there and returned to Charleston. At the end of the year Garvin reported fourteen in the society. The Conference for 1800 met in Camden, S. C. It met at nine A.M., and adjourned at twelve, and had an afternoon session. These sessions were
* Asbury's Journal. t Dr. Lee, Life of Jesse Lee.
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chiefly religions meetings. Each preacher told his experience, and each one had his character thoroughly examined. Every night there was a band meeting.
Isaac Smith then lived in Camden, and it was at his "instance the session was held there. Two others and himself sustained the South Carolina Conference, but then it was composed of less than thirty members .* The conference did not hurry through its work, for it sat for five days. There were two clerks to keep the journals, and one for the minutes. The sixty-four dol- lars allowed for the yearly expenses of the preachers, was paid from a general fund collected on the charges. From the Bishop to the humblest preacher, the salary was the same, and this year it was all paid, save a trifle.
The conference lost one of its most efficient laborers in the location of Benjamin Blanton. It was his last conference as an effective preacher.
Stith Mead was now placed in charge of the Georgia District. A better appointment could not have been made, and from this time for nearly ten years the work in the State went on with steady prosperity.
Mead was an eminently useful preacher. He was not a highly gifted man, nor were his sermons, judged as intellectual productions, great ; but he was deeply pious, untiring in labors, fervent, and pathetic ; he sang well, and sang many revival songs of his own composing. In addition to this, he was an accomplished gentleman, of elegant manners, and of good cultivation for those times. IIe found ready admission to all circles, and as much the larger number of the people were from Virginia, of which State he was a native, his influence was decided.
ยท Asbury's Journal.
.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
He had therefore great success in his work. Sam- uel Cowles now went to the important Oconee Circuit, and John Garvin to Augusta. Moses Black, who did good work in the West in after-time, was this year on the Burke Circuit, and Isaac Cook also received an appointment in Georgia.
Britton Capel was sent to the Washington Circuit with Buddy Wheeler. Capel was a Virginian, and had been two years in the work. He travelled for eleven years, and located in 1810. He was an active and use- ful preacher, and while he was an itinerant had the most important charges .* After his location he became dissatisfied with the Episcopal form of government, and, in common with Eppes Tucker and several others of the early preachers, he left the Methodist Episcopal Church for the Methodist Protestant, and in that com- munion he died. In May of this year the General Con- ference met in Baltimore and Richard Whatcoat was elected Bishop, defeating Jesse Lee by four votes after a tie-vote had been had. Lee, who had been really a bishop for some years, and who had so nearly been elected, was assured of misrepresentation having been made, and succeeded in fixing it upon the guilty party, and that fact accounted for his defeat.
Among those who had labored in Georgia who were present was Philip Bruce, James Tolleson, and Jesse Lee. The conference continued in session for two weeks. Asbury was sick and was much depressed in spirits. He was anxious to retire from the episcopal office, but the conference passed a vote of approval and requested him to continue in it. The rule requiring a
* Dr. L. Pierce.
--
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preacher to give account of his presents was rescinded. Tolleson proposed a delegated general conference, which proposal was negatived.
Tolleson moved the allowance of the preachers be increased to eighty dollars per annum, which was carried. It was moved that the Bishop should have. a committee to assist him in making the appointments, which was not assented to. Very important changes took place in the management of the publishing interests. The whole of the assets of the concern were $4,000; the indebtedness, $3,000. Ezekiel Cooper, however, was a business man of fine capacity, and he took charge of the book concern, with a salary of $250 per annum, clear of board and house rent .*
On the 29th of November, Asbury, with Bishop Whatcoat, reached Augusta. They found the indefati- gable Mead had succeeded in securing all that was need- ful for building the church. Whatcoat preached at Mr. Fary's dwelling-house, and in the afternoon As- bury preached at St. Paul's Church. He says we had the honor of the priest's company. As there was quite a number of French refugee Catholics from Hayti, it is probable that the priest was a Roman Catholic. The next day Whatcoat and Asbury went to Squire Haynes, on Uchee Creek, thence to Scott's, and on to Grant's. On Sunday they were at Coke's Chapel, near Washing- ton. Hope Ilull was of course there, and exhorted after Asbury. From Washington they came south- ward into Warren County, and preached at Heath's. Crossed the Ogeechee at Thweat's Bridge, passed through Powelton, and came thence to Edmund Butler's, in
* General Conference Journal.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
Hancock. There had been a meeting-house here long enough for the old one to give way to a new one, which was not yet completed .* This was in 1800. The first missionary to Hancock came in 1792, but it is probable that this church was in the old Richmond Cirenit, and was founded before Hancock County was laid out, which was done in 1793. They then returned, and passing through Oglethorpe and Elbert, crossed the river at Martins' Ferry.
The great revival tide which swept over America came in blessing to Georgia this year. The Baptists participated largely in it, and during the next year, 1802, over 700 new members were reported in one asso- ciation.t At this conference, January 1, 1802, there was reported 2,094 white and 400 colored.
On the 31st October, Asbury, Whatcoat, and Nicolas Snethen entered Augusta. The church was now so far completed that it could be occupied. The congre- gations were large, but there was no considerable awakening. Nicolas Snethen, who came with Asbury, was a Marylander, and was one of the most eloquent and cultivated men of the connection. He afterwards, in common with many others, went into the Methodist Protestant Church, and had much to do in giving shape to an organization more in accordance, as he thought, with his firmly held views of religious liberty .; The three travellers pursued their usual route, visiting Wilkes, and on to Petersburg. This was then a young town, in which there were eighty stores; now not a cottage remains. Snethen had been very popular at Angusta, and Asbury, at the request of the congrega-
*Asbury's Journal. t Campbell's Baptists. ; Sprague's Annals.
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tion there, sent him back to spend some time in the city. The Bishop speaks of the sweet peace which filled his heart as he went from cabin to cabin, turning the cabin into a court .* At IIenry Pope's they found good quarters. Ilere the Bishop wrote in his journal : " Why should a living inan complain: But to be three months together, where you have only one room and fireplace and half a dozen folks about you, strangers perhaps, the family for certain. Hence, you must meditate here, preach, read, write, pray, sing, talk, drink, eat and sleep, or flee to the woods."
On Sunday, at Pope's, the congregation was not far from a thousand people. The Bishop preached ; Hope Hull and Stith Mead exhorted. Then they rode to General John Stewart's, and by Liberty Chapel to Relio both, in Warren. There was a great meeting at Heath's. The love-feast began at nine and continued till three o'clock. Eight souls were converted that day. The Bishop preached in the woods, but was interrupted by the singing and shouting.t Ile now came to Sparta for the first time. Hancock County, of which Sparta is the county site, was laid out in 1773. Sparta was, there- fore, a frontier village not ten years old when this visit was made.
Quite a number of Virginians from Dinwiddie County, several of them followers of Deverenx Jarratt, an Episcopal minister and the early friend of the Metho- dists, were settled here. Among them was that good man, John Lucas, who was for so long a time the pillar of the Church in that section. Asbury preached in the village, probably at the Court House, as there was no
* Asbury's Journal. + Journal.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
church there at this time. This is the first mention we have of Sparta. The first preaching done in the village was probably by the preachers on the Richmond Circuit, and the first time it was made regularly an appoint- ment was probably when George Dougherty came to the Oconee Circuit in 1799; but before Sparta was settled there were several appointments in Hancock and some in Washington, in which county a part of the present Hancock was included. Asbury left Sparta and rode into Washington County and through Jefferson, preach- ing in Louisville, then the capital of the State, and by Coxe's Meeting-house in Burke, back to Augusta. This Coxe's Meeting-house was probably the present Mt. Zion, in the northern part of Burke County. He thus made an extensive tour ; important results followed it.
In two weeks after they left Georgia, conference session began in Camden. This was on Jannary 1, 1802. The tour they had just ended had prepared them for a judicious arrangement of the work. It was entirely re- organized. The circuits took the names of the rivers which flow through them, and we are at some trouble to locate their boundaries. The Broad River and Little River Circuits occupy the territory formerly included in the Washington Circuit. The Broad River, which runs through the lower part of Elbert, gave the name to the circuit which included the upper part of Wilkes, Oglethorpe, Madison, Franklin and Hart Circuits; the Little River, the lower part of Wilkes, Lincoln, Talia- ferro, and Columbia; the Apalachee, a part of Ogle- thorpe, Greene, Clarke, and a part of Warren ; the Ogeechee, the old Burke and Richmond Circuits ; and the Oconee, Hancock, Washington, and a part of War- ren. We have been thus particular, for no true idea of
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the labors, successes, and failures of the preachers can be gathered without a study of the geography of the State in those times. Augusta continues a station. The conference, after a session of great peace, adjourned, having paid each preacher his stipend of $80 per year. Stith Mead was again on the Georgia District, and Isaac Cook was placed on Apalachee Circuit. Samuel Cowles was on the Oconee, John Campbell goes to St. Mary's, and J. II. Mellard to the Ogeechee. Josias Ran- dle had now re-entered the work, and with Britton Capel was on Little River, and Milligan and Russell were on Broad River. The work was ably manned, and with the stirring, soul-fired Mead at their head, the preachers had a glorious future before them.
James II. Mellard, who was this year on the Ogeechee Circuit, was in the second year of his ministry. He was a little man, thin and pale, but very wiry and full of pluek and energy. IIe travelled the Union Circuit the year before this, and was now sent to the Ogeechee. Cir- cuit. After this he was sent to Georgetown, S. O. Finding the people would not go to church, he went to the market-house to preach. The mob brought down a drum, and tried to keep him from being heard ; but he preached more earnestly. They threatened to drown him, but the intrepid little preacher kept on .* That year there was a great revival in Georgetown. He travelled till 1810, when he located. He removed from South Carolina, in the early settlement of Alabama, to that State, where he died.t Ile preserved a pure character to the end, and his zeal for the Church knew no abatement. As a travelling preacher, the only charge
. Mood. t Deems's Annals
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
made against him was that he would not turn people out of the Church.
This was a year of great revival. Beginning in Ken- tucky in 1799, there was a work of grace, the most wonderful America had ever seen, which swept over the whole land. Camp-meetings grew out of it, and they advanced it. Cook, McGee, McKendree, in the West ; Jesse Lee, Douglas, Ballew, in Virginia ; Stith Mead, Hope Hull, Randle, Blanton, in Georgia ; Tarpley, Dougherty, Myers, James Jenkins, in South Carolina-constituted a corps of evangelists such as are not often met with. It was not a swollen summer tor- rent which exhausted itself in an hour, but a steady stream of blessings for years. The church was vital- ized in all its parts. It never increased more rapidly in numbers and in spiritual power. From 1800 to 1812 the revival fire blazed. There was constant effort to save souls, there was intense spiritual interest, and there were those strange phenomena which have always attended great religions excitements. Men and women fell senseless under the weight of their emotions. The excited soul deprived the mind of all control over the body, and there were jerking exercises, barking, danc- ing, and many other physical extravagances. The timid were alarmed at this. The more thoughtful de- plored its wildness, while the more superstitious con- founded these mere physical manifestations of excited feeling with religion itself. The Christian philosopher has neither to lay aside his common sense, his philoso- phy, nor his faith, to account for all this. It was neither directly of God or of the devil. These phe- nomena were the natural results of an intensity of feel- ing, rational enough in itsorig in, and legitimate in e'
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way, but which a clear, cool reason did not, and perhaps could not, properly direct. Man and woman alike, in- fidel and Christian alike, were subject to these nervous excitements ; but only when a true penitence and a living faith was at the base were the effects of this intense excitement good and abiding. Dr. Pierce gives, in the Advocate of 1874, an account of these remarkable manifestations of feeling, such as had not been seen before in American Methodismn, and such as were not seen afterwards. David Brainerd had some- what the same experience among the Indians, White- field and Wesley among the colliers, and Whitefield and his Presbyterian friends in Cambuslang among the Scotch.
Mead was in his glory in a great revival, and he swept like a conqueror from one part of his large district to another. Out of this revival sprang the camp-meetings in Georgia; the first of which we have account in the State was in Oglethorpe County. There were neither tents to dwell in, nor a roof to shelter the worshipper. A grove and a spring were chosen, and a stand for the preachers was built. Logs were cut for seats, and the people - in wagons and carts flocked to the meeting, sometimes going seventy-five miles to it. At the camp-meeting in Oglethorpe, Hope Hull and Benj. Blanton, besides the itinerants, were present. Among those converted at that meeting was Major Floyd, father of Judge Jno. J. Floyd and of Stewart Floyd, Esq., formerly of Madison.
The next year, 1803, there was a camp-meeting on Shoulderbone, not far from Sparta ; at this meeting there were 176 tents, and Dow supposed there were 3,000 pco-
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.IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1786-1805.
ple on the ground .* From 1802, for nearly forty years these meetings increased, until at last the Georgia Con- ference, about 1838, advised against their multiplication. The Old Liberty, Hastings, White Oak, Richmond, and Sparta camp-grounds have been the scenes of great battles and of great victories.
Lorenzo Dow, after having consented to take a circuit in New England, was impressed that he ought to come to Georgia, and as his lungs were weak and his head hard, he decided against the advice of his friends that he would come, and took passage for Savannah .. He reached that city early in 1802. IIe found no Methodist church there, but a Mr. Cloud, one of the IIammettites, as the followers of Mr. Hammett were called, had a place to preach in, and about seventy hearers. He preached for him, and for Andrew Marshall, the old colored Baptist preacher. He then left Savannah and travelled to Augusta; of his stay the reader is referred to the account of Methodism in Augusta. One morning, being impressed that he onght to leave Augusta for Washington, where Hope Hull was, he set out before daylight. He had been converted under Hull's preaching, in New England, and regarded him with great affection. He found him at his corn crib, and saluted him with " How are you, father?" The father was not enraptured at seeing one whose. strange impressions had led him to go on foot through England, Wales, and Ireland, and now to come to Georgia ; but he treated him very kindly, and gave him some sound advice about discarding these impressions and sticking to his work. Dow heard him calmly, and soon after,
* Dow's Journal.
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while Hull was sending an appointment for him to the village, he dashed away on foot and reached it first, scattered his tracts, and was ready to preach before the messenger came .* There was much about his aspect and manner to arouse attention even at this time, though he grew much more eccentric in after-life. Elisha Perryman, a Baptist preacher, heard him on one of his visits, and thus describes his appearance : " IIe wore an old half red overcoat, with an Indian belt around his waist. IIe did not wear a hat, but had his head tied up with a handkerchief. Coming into the house, he sat down by the fireplace for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden jumped up, and cried ont: 'What will this babbler say ? Those that have turned the world up- side down are come hither also.'" This was his text, and his talk was much every way, for it appeared to me to run from Britain to Japan, and from the torrid to the frigid zone. t Yet this strange man was a man of no common intellect, and preached with real power. He was a great polemic. Ile had been brought up in New England, among the Calvinists, and as they were the only errorists, for so he regarded them, who had been much in his way, he never preached a sermon without attacking their views. IIe called them ALL part peo- ple. To relieve the church in Augusta from debt,t he published his chain, which is mainly directed against the Calvinists. It is a fine piece of homely reasoning, and evinces real power in argument.
His habits were wildly eccentric. During this visit he came to a house just in time to escape a heavy stormn. In the night, he says, "I felt uneasy, and my heart felt
* Dow's Journal. t Life of Perryman. # Journal.
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IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, 1785-1865.
turned upon the road." So he declared he must go, nor could any dissuasion keep him from doing so. Night as it was, raining as it had been, go he must, and go he did. His kind friend accompanied him till day- break and then returned. He visited some of the ap- pointments in Oglethorpe, and held a meeting at Pope's Chapel, Tigners, &c. He then returned to Augusta .*
On this tour Dow preached at Tigners, then in Ogle- thorpe, now in Clarke County. The founder of this church came out from Virginia early after the Revolu- tion and came to the frontier. When settlers began to flock to the wilds his heart was stirred within him, and before a preacher had entered the settlement he held meetings and organized a society. From this society sprang Tigners Church, and from this good man has descended a large number of Methodists and several Methodist preachers.
Dow often visited Georgia after this, and went to the Natchez Country, on the Mississippi, as early as 1803. His appointments were given out from twelve months to two years ahead, and he always filled them. Adopt- ing as a rule in the beginning of this history that we should not introduce any anecdote, however piquant, we were not assured was authentic, we do not feel at liberty to enliven our pages with many of those incidents of Dow which are handed from month to mouth. He went to Louisville and met Dr. Coke. The last time the Doctor had seen him was in Dublin, Ireland. He said to him : "Brother Dow, the warning you gave to the people of Dublin had like to have proved true." The Governor of the State gave Dow a testimonial. The
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