USA > Florida > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 9
USA > Georgia > The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida: From 1785 to 1865 > Part 9
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people ; it tore him especially from the books be loved so well ; it entailed a labor upon him his feeble frame was illy able to bear, but he bravely and unmurmur- ingly went about it.
Josias Randle, whose districts Lovick Pierce now takes, retires to private life, and returns to the itiner- ancy no more. He came from Virginia to Georgia in 1793, and had never left the State. He had done a great deal of very hard labor, and had done it well. Once he had been driven to location; he had then returned to the work again. He now, however, retires to come back no more. He removed soon after to Illi- nois, then a territory, and occupied a high place among the people there, doing much for the Church, as well as much for the territory. In 1824 he was taken with severe cold, which resulted in a throat attack, from which he died. He passed away in triumph. He was a true friend of Georgia, and his name ought to be held in precious memory. *
New laborers come to the field, but they are all young men.
James Russell now was sent on the Little River Cir- cuit. This embraced the heart of Wilkes County, then including the territory of two or three modern counties. This country was not only thickly settled, but the popula- tion was of the best kind. It had now been occupied by the whites for nearly thirty years, and having been very fertile and healthy, had attracted a body of the best Virginia and North Carolina people into it. Among the Virginia people there was a colony of well-to-do Virginians, who had settled up and down the Broad and
* Methodist Magazine, 1825.
6*
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Little Rivers. Among these people Methodism, twenty years before, had made some conquests : David Merri- wether, John Marks, the family of Gov. Mathews, John Crutchfield, Ralph Banks, and others, had long been Methodists ; but there were large families of these Vir- ginians who were without any connection with the Church. When they left Virginia they were many of them nominal adherents of the Church of England ; after the Revolution they removed to Georgia. There were no parishes or parish clergymen. They were thus without any religious care. They were in good circum- stances ; they were pleasure-loving, sociable, and, as far as mere social morality was concerned, were high-toned and honorable. To dance, to feast, to visit, to talk poli- tics, to hate Tories, to open new plantations, had engaged them and their children for many years. The fact that the Methodists were Virginians, that some of the most influential Broad River families were already of them, that old Virginia hospitality led them to have the preachers with them at their homes, had its influence in bringing them nearer the Church. In 1809 there was a sweeping revival among them. The father of Gov. Gilmer was converted and joined the Church during that meeting. Ile was a well-to-do Virginia planter, descended from a distinguished Virginia family, and one which afterwards gave two governors to the South- ern States. Micagah McGhee, another very influential man, who had lived to very mature years without re- ligion, joined the Church at that time; the princely Edmund McGhee of Mississippi, Miles McGhee of the same State, and many of that name in Georgia, are de- scendants of his family. Thomas Grant, of whom we have given a sketch in one of the early chapters, writes
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in his journal that the work was tremendous in power; and Gov. Gilmer, in his " Georgians," tells of the won- derful work which swept the Broad River settlements. L. Q. C. De Yamperts, in his sketch of Russell, says, attended by a corps of evangelists, he swept like a conqueror from neighborhood to neighborhood. Dr. Pierce, a participant in the work, says it swept infidelity from that section.
Britton Capel was on the Ogeechee District, Hilliard Judge and Wm. Redwine were on the Apalachee Cir- cuit. Redwine only travelled one year, and located to do useful work as a local preacher for many years. He was a man of tremendous muscular power, and was said by Judge Clayton to have had one of the most remark- able minds he had ever known .* He was at this time totally without culture. He had been brought up in the backwoods, and had never seen anything of elegant life, nor mingled with people of education. Dr. Pierce says that this year, at a meeting in Oglethorpe, he called upon Redwine to exhort after him. Redwine arose and announced a text : " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish." The first of the despisers was the deist. " He stands," says the preacher, "with his legs as wide apart as if he was the Empire of France, and he won't hear any man preach who can't speak romatically and explay oratory." The feelings of his presiding elder can be imagined.
He went to the house of Brother Williamson, in Han- cock. Brother Williamson was well to do, and had his home somewhat elegantly furnished for those times. Brother Redwine noticed that Brother Williamson's
* Dr. Pierce.
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children called him Pa, instead of Daddy, or Pappy; that the plates were upside down on the table, and that Brother Williamson wore suspenders. He was dis- tressed at these signs of worldliness, and went into the ยท woods to pray. Here he fell asleep. The sun was set- ting. Brother Williamson had come to the same retreat for his evening devotion, and his cup overflowed that evening, and he began to shout. This awoke Brother Redwine, and looking up, he saw his happy brother. Rushing to him he cried, " Pa or no Pa, plates or no plates, galluses to your elbows or not, you've got reli- gion, my brother."
Ile had an accident to befall him, in which his foot was injured, and a severe inflammation set in, which imperilled his life. The doctor told him he feared he would die of lockjaw. " What's that ?" said Redwine. " Why, you will not be able to eat or talk, and so must die."
" No, that I won't," said Redwine. "I'll die shouting glory to God," and so he did, but not then. He was one of those undrilled, unpolished soldiers of Christ who knew better how to fight in the field to which he was called, than if he had been trained in the best schools of theology.
A preacher having been horsewhipped by a wealthy ruffian, it fell to Redwine's part to meet the man who did the dastardly deed.
"So you are the man that horsewhipped Brother G ," said Redwine.
" Yes, sir ; and suppose I should try to horsewhip you, what then ?"
" Why, you'd be the worst-whipped man you ever saw in ten minutes," said the preacher.
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The coward knew the preacher could and would do as he said, and he let him alone .*
Robert L. Edwards entered the travelling connection in 1807, and was placed in charge of the Alcovi Cir- cuit in 1809. It was a new circuit, whose boundaries we have given. Edwards was a young man, but a fine worker. He travelled only four years, and then located for four, returned to the work, and continued in it till his death in 1850, having travelled regularly forty- three years. He was really a remarkable man, famous for his readiness in preaching, and for his revival power. Wherever he went, awakening followed. His life was useful, and his death serene. His success on the new frontier circuit was considerable, since he reports 486 members in it. Edwards had great fondness for new fields. He solicited an appointment late in life, to a neglected settlement on Broad River, and succeeded in one year in raising quite a church in it, sufficiently numerous to call for a circuit preacher.
The old preachers, always fond of a harmless and merry story, used to tell of the old man an incident, that, while amusing, is so trifling, that we have hesitated to insert it.
He was very fond of good coffee, and he was often where it was not to be found. He met Bishop An- drew, who was passing through his circuit. They were going to dine at the house of an old lady whose coffee lost in quality what it made up in quantity. He con- cluded that he would secure a refreshing cup for him- self while he saw to the Bishop's welfare. He rode ahead to the house, and said to the good sister :
* Dr. Pierce.
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"Sister, Bishop Andrew is going to dine with you, and he is specially fond of strong coffee."
Dinner came. There were two coffee-pots on the table. The good lady poured out for the Bishop a cup, rich, amber-colored, strong. Then sweetly turning to Brother Edwards, said, " Well, Brother Edwards, we do not like ours so strong." The preacher had his coffee poor, but the joke on him was rich, and he en- joyed it.
Osborn Rogers was on the Broad River Circuit this year. He was from Hancock County, and had been travelling since 1807. He was a man of fine personal appearance, excellent preaching capacity, and very deep piety. IIe located in 1814, and lived a useful local preacher in Hancock County until after the settle- ment of Monroe County, when, with a colony of his neighbors, he moved to this new purchase and settled not far from Culloden. Here, in connection with his other Methodist brethren, he built a church which was known as Rogers Church, and which is still an appoint- ment in the Culloden Circuit. When his boys grew towards manhood, he removed to Oxford, to be near Emory College, and here he spent his remaining days Ile was a man of purest character, beloved by all who knew him. IIe was permitted to live long, surrounded by many friends and in much temporal comfort, and his days were brightened by the companionship of one of the purest and holiest of wives. Ile was permitted to see the Church for whose welfare his carly labors had been spent, second to no other in influence or members in the country. Ile gradually withdrew from all worldly business, and spent his last days in the sweet seclusion of Oxford, happy in the enjoyment of its
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religious privileges, and in the association with many of his old ministerial friends and associates.
Epps Tucker was on the Warren Circuit this year. He was now an elder, and had travelled extensively. He was a man of good parts, and of great zeal; after travelling for some years he located, and settled in Elbert County. He was a member of the quarterly conference to which James O. Andrew applied for license to preach. The brethren were not all in favor of granting it, but Bro. Tucker's influence was sufficient to secure the permission, and the future Bishop went forth duly equipped, for his great work .* .
After the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church, he united with that body, and finally entered the Congregational Methodist Church, in which commu- nion he died. He bore a fine Christian character, and was a man of extensive influence. Epps Tucker, for- merly editor of the Congregationalist of Alabama, from whom we have gathered these facts, is his grandson.
John Collingsworth came to Georgia this year. He was a Virginian by birth, and at this time about twenty- five years old. He had entered the conference in 1807, and after travelling two circuits in North Carolina came to Georgia. He remained in the conference for some years, then located, from feeble health ; but as soon as his strength allowed, he re-entered the work. He spent a few more years in active work, and then died at his home in Putnam County, the 4th September, 1834.
He was a man of great firmness of character and of great individuality. He made no compromise with
* Epps Tucker, Jr.
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the world, and was a very Elijah in the sternness of his rebuke. He was noted for his plainness of living and his untiring industry. Josiah Flournoy, of whom we shall speak hereafter, so admired the faithful, indepen- dent old preacher, who was his friend and neighbor, that, on founding and endowing a manual labor school in Talbot County, he named it in his honor, Collings- worth Institute. As he grew in years he grew sterner, and could not tolerate anything that looked like extra- vagance or worldly pomp .*
Rings, ruffles, fashionable bonnets, or dress-coats were never spared. Prof. Pendleton gives some personal recollections of him which illustrate his character.
"He lived," says Dr. P., "near Post Oak Meeting- House, in Putnam. He was of stalwart frame, and his visage was of the Andrew Jackson type. He dealt al- most exclusively in the denunciations of the law, and I can imagine nothing more fearful than some of his exhortations to sinners. To a young and impressible mind as my own was when I heard him, it was truly awful.
" IIe always wore the round-breasted coat, the white cravat without a collar, nor could he tolerate any dis- regard of this old costume, then so common among the preachers." Dr. P. proceeds to give an incident con- nected with the old preacher and young George Pierce, afterwards Bishop, which, as we have it di- rectly from the Bishop, we give to our readers as he gave it to us.
After his graduation from Franklin College, George Pierce entered the law office of his uncle, the Hon.
* Sprague.
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Thomas Foster, to study law. He was then a Christian, and felt it his duty to preach. No motives of earthly ambition had led him to diverge from the path in which be believed he ought to walk, but motives of the high- est and most unselfish kind. The oldest son, who longed to do something to aid a self-sacrificing father, might be easily persuaded that duty forbade his going when his inclination led him into an itinerancy which promised no worldly return. Bishop Andrew, living at Greens- boro, though stationed in Athens, convinced him that he must let the dead bury their dead, and follow Christ; and an application was made at Bishop Andrew's instance, to the congregation for recommendation to the Quar- terly Conference of the Apalachee Circuit, that license to preach should be granted to the young law student. One Sunday morning, Brother Collingsworth being preacher in charge, requested the society to remain, and young Pierce remained with them. He was dressed in his graduating suit. It was of blue broadcloth, a swal- low-tailed coat with brass buttons, and vest and pants to match. The old preacher arose, and requested George Pierce to retire. After some time he called him back, and met him outside of the house. "Well, George," he said, " in spite of all I can do, these people have recom- mended you to the quarterly conference for license ; but, George, this coat must come off. You can never be licensed to preach dressed in such a worldly way as this." " But," said the future Bishop, " Uncle Collings- worth, I have no other nice coat, and don't think it would be right to take this off, for father is not able to buy me a new outfit. I will wear this out, but I will not get another like it."
In vain the old man scolded, reasoned, and threatened.
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The young preacher stood his ground. He scolded him privately and publicly. He bore it meekly, but. con- tinned to wear his blue broadcloth. The next trouble of the old man was the way George wore his hair. It grew straight up from the forehead, while his, in old Methodist style, lay, like Asbury's, down upon it. George told him God made his hair to grow up, and he, could not make it grow down. Quarterly conference came. Brother Collingsworth did all he could to pre- vent the members from giving him license; but they were only too glad to license the gifted and educated son of one of the noblest of the fathers, and the old gentleman was overruled again. Then the annual con- ference received the young licentiate, and he was sent on the circuit adjoining Apalachee.
IIalf the year was gone. There was a camp-meeting at Old Hastings, and Father Collingsworth was in charge of it. There had been much rain, and the preachers were unable to get to the ground. One even- ing the old preacher stepped into Sister Pierce's tent, and there at the supper-table sat George. IIe was dressed now, if not in proper clerical costume, yet without the blue cloth and the brass buttons.
" Why, George, how did you get here ?"
" Well, partly by land, and largely by water."
" Did you swim any creeks ?"
"Yes, I did. I swam three."
The old man lovingly laid his hand on the young preacher's head.
" Why, did you, boy ? Well, George, I think you'll do, after all."
For once Brother C. admitted he was wrong.
The minutes report large increase on the Ogeechee
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District, where James Russell, in the glory of his strength, sweeps a conqueror.
Lovick Pierce, on the Oconee District, had but a single elder in his district, while the experienced and popular Cabel had three, and one of them was Russell ; yet the increase is in about the same ratio. Pierce visits every part of his district, reaching even Jefferson- ton, near the Saltilla, a few miles from Florida. This incessant travel broke in upon his habits of study, fos- tered by station life. His Greek books were laid aside to be taken up no more, and his habit of writing as he studied was necessarily at an end.
The annual conference met in Charleston, Dec. 23, 1809.
There had been a great revival on the Little River Circuit, and one on the adjoining circuit, in South Carolina. Asbury was delighted by the news which reached him of rich and poor in Georgia coming to Christ.
The Oconee District was reduced in size, and Jos. Tarpley was placed on the Sparta District, which embraced all the country south and west of Sparta. Lewis Myers returned to Georgia and was placed on the Ogeechee District, which Capel left as he left the conference, by location. Myers had gone from the State years before, a junior preacher, and after doing important work in South Carolina, he was called to the charge of a district. Georgia had three presiding elders such as she has not often had.
Myers, the oldest of them, sturdy, energetic, earnest, and always sensible.
Tarpley, of fine person, very eloquent and moving in preaching, and very popular in his manners; and
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Lovick Pierce, who was a marvel in his youth to the grandfathers of those to whom he is a marvel in his vigorous age.
These leaders, upon whom so much rests, had the State divided among them, and, attended by a corps of pious and devoted men, had gone forth on their work.
Hilliard Judge, a Virginian by birth, was in Georgia this year, and for several years after this. He was a very handsome man, and of very conrtly manners. His style in preaching was very pleasing and attractive, and improving constantly, he rose to great eminence in the Church, occupying its most important stations, and was the first Methodist preacher elected to the chaplaincy of the South Carolina Legislature. He located in his ma- turity, and died not long after.
James Russell and John Collingsworth, men of great power, and John McVean, of whom we have given a sketch in our account of Savannah Methodism, were men of experience. The rest were young men, and one who travelled the Apalachee Circuit, if not to be a great man, was to lead a grand life. A great-hearted, brare, self-sacrificing man, who, amid a thousand difficulties, continued his ministry to the end, which came fifty years from this time. This was Jno. S. Ford, the first missionary to the west of Louisiana. IIe was born in Chester District, S. C., and was at this time only twenty years old. Ilis father died when he was a child, and his mother, after her second marriage, reinoved to North Carolina. She was of Presbyterian lineage and educa- tion, and taught her son the catechism. When he was about fourteen years old the wave of revival rolled from Kentucky into western North Carolina, and some of his friends ;r . - a camp-meeting returned to their homes
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converted. At a prayer-meeting held iu the neighbor- hood they began to shout and clap their hands, and young Ford was deeply impressed. When the Metho- dist preacher came into the section to organize a class, his mother and himself joined the society. At nineteen he applied for admission into the-travelling connection, and was appointed to Apalachee, a large and important circuit, as the third man. He was young and timid, but he did his work well, and success attended his labors. We shall see him again in a more difficult field .*
Richmond Nolley,t who was to be his associate in the far West, was admitted into full communion at this conference. A few years before this, while a clerk in the store of John Lucas, at Sparta, under a sermon of Lovick Pierce, at the Sparta Camp-ground, he was awak- ened and was converted. He spent one year in Geor- gia, and one in Charleston, and this year returned to Georgia. The next year he went to the far West. Of these two young heroes we shall speak hereafter, even though after 1812 they are mentioned as being in the Western Conference.
After a great revival there is other work to be done, and a very important part of church work in early Meth- odist days was excision. Get them into the society, train them well ; but if they will not be trained, cut them off. This was the process. Lewis Myers espe- cially believed in amputation, and, believing it did good, he never allowed his sympathies to control his surgery. Wince they might, but the amputation went on. There was no considerable increase reported at the conference which met in Columbia, S. C., December 23, 1810. It
* Ford's MSS.
+ Bishop McTyiere.
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met in the house of Governor Taylor, then Senator, and after a session which seems to have been pleasant enough, but without anything of special interest, the conference adjourned and the preachers went to their work.
The districts remain unchanged, and the same pre- siding elders had them in charge. Alexander Talley, the first of three brothers who were to do good service for the Church, entered the conference this year. He was a Virginian by birth, but his father had removed to Greene County. He was sent to the Ocmulgee Cir- cuit, with Drury Powell. He afterwards went as mis- sionary to the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi, and when they left Mississippi for the far West, he went with them there, and remained in the work until he died. He died in Louisiana in 1840. Thomas Y. Cooke was sent to Milledgeville. He was the first stationed preacher ever stationed in the then capital of the State. The town was now eight years old, and its position as the capi- tal had drawn quite a bustling and intelligent people to it. The new Methodist church had not long been made ready for occupancy. It was located where is now the cemetery. There were 102 members in the station, and it was consequently the largest station in the State. Augusta had but sixty-four white members, and Savan- nah three. Warrenton, which was set apart as a station, with John Collingsworth for its pastor, did not remain such but one year, and was then returned to the Warren Circuit.
One name occurs in the appointments this year which was long on the minutes of the South Carolina and Geor- gia Conferences-the name of Whitman C. Hill, who was for many years one of the most, if not the most successful worker in the State. IIe was from the re-
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spectable and wealthy family of Hills in Oglethorpe County. He had enjoyed all the advantages which those early days gave him, and was a man of very fair attainments. He spoke with great fluency and correct- ness, and was very moving in his appeals. His soul was ablaze with evangelical fervor, and wherever he went souls were converted. His wife, the daughter of Isaac Smith, of precious memory, was his efficient assistant in his work, laboring in a woman's sphere continually to do good. We shall meet him often as our story progresses.
On the banks of the Tombigbee, in the southern and western part of Alabama, was quite a body of American settlers. Pensacola and Mobile were the ports to which came the peltry of the Indians and the goods of the traders. Prior to the purchase of Louisiana and the opening of the Natchez Country, there were a few whites, who had already left the white settlements and squatted in the Nation. They were a lawless and licen- tious crew; but after the invention of the cotton- gin, and the purchase of Alabama from Georgia, the number of the settlers increased, and their characters improved. Some of them came from North Carolina, by the way of the Tennessee River, to near Huntsville, and thence through the wilderness to the Tombigbee, and then on rafts and in small boats to the settlements .* [ Others came from the Natchez Country, and others from Georgia.
In 1803 Lorenzo Dow, making his way to Natchez, came into this country. He found quite a number of settlers in one group, and a few scattered along the
* Pickett's Alabama.
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river for seventy miles. He left a chain of appoint- ments, which he afterwards filled. He was probably the first Protestant, as well as the first Methodist preacher, who ever preached the gospel in Alabama .*
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