USA > Georgia > Liberty County > History of the Midway Congregational Church, Liberty County, Georgia > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
The following was the program for services :
The bell would ring at eleven o'clock, the congregation would assemble, the minister would preach, or if it was "reading day," the deacon would read a sermon ; then an intermission of one hour for refreshment, after which the congregation would again assemble at the ringing of the bell to hear another sermon from the minister or deacon. The congregation would be finally dismissed about four o'clock and quietly return to their homes, reach- ing them late in the afternoon, when after catechetical exercises (in many of the homes) the family would retire.
1. These houses were erected at a very early date. To a stranger the church, sur- rounded with some thirty and more of these little houses, framed and covered with boards, presented quite a singular and unique appearance.
83
CHARACTERISTICS.
The same customs also at the retreats. There were arbors erected at Walthourville and Flemington. At Jonesville and Dorchester, the houses being more compactly built, there was no necessity for these booths or arbors. In later years the practice of remaining at the church during recess was abandoned at all these places, it being more convenient for the families to return to their homes for dinner, but all re- turning to afternoon service.
But in nothing did their piety more conspicuously display itself than in their careful and conscientious training of their children. They were great believers in the Abrahamic cove- nant, and the duty to consecrate their children unto the Lord in baptism ; even outsiders, in some instances, asking the privilege. Their record shows that the practice at first was well nigh universal. They felt that they themselves and all they had belonged to the Lord, and therefore at a very early age they presented their children unto the Lord, in the ordinance of baptism, and at the same time recogni- zing the responsibility assumed in such a service, they mani- fested their great concern for their spiritual welfare, in the efforts they made to bring them to the Savior. They did not, as in these latter days, go to church themselves, and leave them at home or allow them to roam about on the Lord's day, but always carried their children with them to the house of the Lord. Mention is made in the records even of "children in the lap."
And they not only carried their children with them, but required them to sit with them in the same pew, that they might be under their immediate care and supervision. Noth- ing contributed more to the good and orderly behavior at church than the practice adopted at the beginning, of raising the pastors' salary by renting the seats. Each family had its own pew, the father occupying one end and the mother the other, with the children between ; and nothing was more beautiful. They emphatically worshipped by families, car- rying out the order of the march of Israel .through the wil- derness, "every man under the ensign of his father's house."1
1. Num. 2 2.
84
HISTORY OF MIDWAY CHURCH.
As Moses refused the request of Pharaoh to leave their chil- dren in Egypt, so this people were unwilling to leave their little ones behind them, but insisted on taking them along with them; as all the families of Israel, including their chil- dren, were baptized into Moses as their leader, by the deliv- erance at the sea ; as they all stood together, parents and children, and were sprinkled by Moses with the hyssop branch at Mount Sinai; as they all stood together again on the borders of the land, at the renewal of the covenant, ex- press mention being made of "the little ones," and as they all entered, parents and children, into the portion of the land on the east side of Jordan, typical of the part of Christ's kingdom in Heaven, so these people felt and believed that their children should go along with them, and as children of the covenant, should be baptized into Christ as their leader. It was not until later years, when departing from the sim- plicity of the faith of their fathers, and after the introduc- tion of a foreign element, that we find the duty to be neg- lected by some, and the necessity of the Session calling at- tention to the neglect and insisting upon their return to their former practice.
As the result of all this faithful training, and confirmed and supported too by parental example, the children grew up as they were taught, having due respect for everything sacred. In no community was there greater veneration for the min- ister, the sanctuary, the ordinances of God's house, and that veneration was seen in all directions; respect was shown the aged ; the children were trained up with gravity and in subordination to law and order. As the result, little or no profanity was ever heard, little or no drunkenness or rowdyism was ever seen, but obedience on every side tolaw. Hence the short sittings of the circuit court, seldom occupy- ing the whole of the two days allowed by the calendar. I do not now recall a single act of violence or murder trial in my raising. I doubt if the records of the courts, confined strictly to the Midway people and their descendants, will show a single homicide or murder during the entire history of the church. Only train the children right, make them obedient to their parents and respectful to their superiors,
85
CHARACTERISTICS.
and the courts of the country will have little or nothing to do.
I know of no more fitting close to this description than the following extract from the Centennial address of Hon. W. E. Law, himself a native of Liberty county :
"The social virtues have been eminently cherished in this county. If we may not indulge in Utopian dreams of visionary sages ; if we may not boast of the delicious climate and beautiful scenery of other places, or even of the picturesque and grandeur of our own mountain Georgia, yet we may say without vanity or ostentation that none, at least in this southern latitude, excel us in all the great moral elements of a really substantial and happy community. If these consist in obedience to, and reverence for, the laws in exemplary good order, in excellent internal government and police, in mutual confidence between citizens, in warm social affections, in the kindest intercourse, in a hospitality simple and easy, but without ostentation or grandism, in brotherly love one for another, in a surface everywhere dotted with houses of worship and schools for the instruction of the youth, in a population observant from education, habit and example, in temperance, so- briety and truth, and the duties of religion, then Liberty county may claim to have been through past time, as she now is, a model and example to her sister counties of Georgia. And it may not be too much to say that her influence has indeed and in truth been felt, and as the historian has de- clared, your sires were the moral and intellectual nobility of the province of Georgia, the sons of that colony have shown themselves in the state worthy of their sires."a
a. Ms. before me.
86
HISTORY OF MIDWAY CHURCH.
CHAPTER VIII.
HER GREAT MEN, CIVIL AND MILITARY.
SOME OF HER DEEDS AND GREAT MEN.
After this rapid and succinct statement of some of the characteristics of this old church, I proceed to call attention to some of her people as well as note some of their deeds. Be it far from me to advocate anything like Chinese ances- tral worship. We venerate, not worship. We admire, not adore. The Midway people had their failings and short- comings, like other men, but withal a most grand and glo- rious record, such as has never been the lot of any other people. Her great men are numbered by scores. Her influ- ence felt in thousands of places. Her history absolutely stands without a parallel, as will appear from the following simple recital of facts :
GOVERNORS AND SIGNERS OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Four of the early governors of the state and two of the signers of the declaration of independence, were from the parish of St. Johns. The governors were Button Gwinnett, Richard Howley, Nathan Brownson and Lyman Hall. The two signers were Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall.
1. Button Gwinnett was a native of England. Residing on St. Catherine island, which he had purchased from Thos. and Mary Bosomworth, he became identified with the people, making Sunbury his place of business and associations. Dr. Lyman Hall was his warm friend and physician, being also one of the executors of his will. He seems also to have been at one time the justice of peace of St. John's parish.1 He was
1. White's His. Col. P. 39.
87
GOVERNORS.
a member of the continental congress and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the convention that met in Savannah October, 1776, and framed the constitution of the state, he having much to do with the framing of the same. He was elected governor March, 1777, in the place of President Archibald Bullock, deceased, and fell mortally wounded in a duel which he fought May 15th, with Gen. Lochlan McIntosh, whom he had challenged, and died on the 18th, in the forty-fifth year of his age.
2. Richard Howley was born near Savannah, but after- wards became a citizen of Sunbury. First representing Lib- erty county in the state assembly, he afterwards was made governor in 1780, and a member of congress in 1781, when he and his associates published their noted remonstrance at the threatened surrender of Georgia to the British. He died in Savannah December, 1784.
3. Nathan Brownson, a practicing physician, introduced to the county by Dr. Dunwoody, surgeon in Georgia Brig- ade, a member of the provincial congress in 1775, and of continental congress in 1776-8, elected governor in 1781, and a member of the convention framing the constitution in 1789. We have no evidence that he ever was a communing member of Midway church, but the records show that he was thoroughly identified with her people, for in its registry we find mention of the death of his wife, Elizabeth, April 4, 1775, of his son, Nathan, September 2, 1777, and of his own October 18, 1796.1
The following notice of him is taken from the Columbian Museum and Savannah Advertiser of Friday, Nov. 11, 1796:
"Died at his plantation in Liberty county Nathan Brownson, Esqr., whose various talents as a statesman, philosopher and physician have placed him in the list of distinguished characters. His expiring moments were marked with that peculiar firmness of mind, which attended him through life, and his last words delivered in whispers, were more sublimely eloquent than all the studied declamation of the pulpit : 'The scene,' said he, 'is now chang- ing. The business of life is nearly over. I have, like the rest of my fellow creatures, been guilty of foibles, but I trust to the mercy of my God to par- don me, and to his justice to reward my good deeds.' By his family, by his friends, by men of sense and genius, who knew him, his death will be long lamented."
1. Encyclopedias say November 6th.
88
HISTORY OF MIDWAY CHURCH.
4. Dr. Lyman Hall was a member of the Continental Congress in 1776, going all the way to Philadelphia on horseback,1 first as the representative of St. John's par- ish before the secession of the rest of the colony, and after- wards of the whole province, and also one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was also elected gov- ernor in 1783. The church records show that Dr. Hall was a member at Midway in 1776. His plantation was near the old church, "Hall's Knoll" being one of the earlier recollections of the writer when a boy, not being more than two miles from his father's home.
Dr. Hall, after the expiration of his term of office as gov- ernor, removed to Savannah, and in 1790 to a place in Burke county on the Savannah river, where he died October 19, 1790, and was buried, and where his remains reposed till July 4, 1848, when, together with those of George Wal- ton, they were removed and deposited beneath a monument in Greene street, Augusta, in front of the court house, the state of Georgia paying the cost of removal.2 It was the in- tention that the remains of Button Gwinnett, the other signer of the Declaration of Independence, should also be deposited there, but though generally believed to be buried in Savannah, the spot not being marked with a stone, they could not be found.
COUNTIES NAMED.
To this church and people also belongs the honor of giving names to six of the counties of the state, viz .:
1. Liberty, formed of the parishes of St. Johns, St. Andrew and St. James, in 1777, by the legislature, and so named in honor of the early and conspicuous devotion of the people of St. Johns to the cause of freedom, in so emphatically as- serting their independence.
2. Screven, formed December 14, 1793, and named after Gen. James Screven, a citizen of Sunbury, who fell mortally wounded in an engagement one and a half miles south of
1. Sherwood. 2. See acts of Assembly.
1
89
MILITARY.
Midway church, on Sunday morning, November 22, 1778, and died three days afterwards, and was buried in Midway grave yard.
3. Hall, established December 15, 1818, and named after Dr. Lyman Hall, resident of Liberty county, member of Midway church, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards governor of the state.
4. Gwinnett, established December 15, 1818, and called after Hon. Button Gwinnett, whose home was on St. Cath- erine island, but whose business and associations were in Sunbury ; one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence, and also governor of Georgia and commander-in-chief of her forces. Would that the fact could be blotted out that he fell mortally wounded in a duel with Gen. Lachlan Mc- Intosh, and thus relieve his otherwise fair name of such a stigma.
5. Baker, constituted December 12, 1825, and named af- ter Col. John Baker, of Revolutionary memory, and one of the early pioneer settlers of the St. John's parish.
6. Stewart, constituted December 30, 1830, and called after Gen. Daniel Stewart, a native of Liberty county, a member of Midway church, and another soldier of military fame.
To what other community has the honor been given to give names to so many of the counties of a state ?
MILITARY.
Of military men I mention the following :
1. Col. John Baker. I regret exceedingly not to be able to speak with any certainty concerning the parentage or rela- tionship of Col. Baker. The common opinion seems to be that he was a son of Benjamin Baker, but I think this is clearly a mistake. Benjamin Baker had a son John, but he was "John Baker B.," who died December 6, 1785, whereas Col. Baker died, according to the Georgia Gazette, June 3, 1792. In the list under the "disqualifying act" Col. John Baker is spoken of as "Senior." John Baker B. had no son at that time that would secure to him the title of "Senior."
90
HISTORY OF MIDWAY CHURCH.
Moreover, Mr. Benjamin Baker, in the records, speaks of his "son John" in contradistinction to "Col. John Baker," and also another "John Baker," who were also in the neighborhood at the time.1
There are three distinct branches of the Baker family in Liberty county, the descendants of whom, so far as I know, do not claim kin.
1. William Baker, the deacon and grandfather of Dr. Dan- iel Baker, the evangelist.
2. Benjamin Baker, the first settler, and for so many years clerk of the church, and whose descendants are Rev. B. L. and R. Q. Baker.
3. And then another branch to which Richard Baker, the early settler, stands related, and as its representative and among whom we so frequently meet with the names of John and Richard. I am satisfied that Col. Baker was a member of this branch of the family, and that the brothers, John and Richard, deceased, sons of Stephen Baker, and the brothers, John and Richard, Presbyterian ministers, sons of William Jeans Baker and cousins of the former, were related to him, but what the precise relationship is I am unable to say. The probability is that he was a brother or near relative of the "Richard Baker" mentioned above.
But no matter whose son, he was a brave and gallant officer, first as the captain of the St. John's Riflemen, a volunteer company, and afterwards made colonel by the leg- islature. He led the expedition against Florida, planned by Button Gwinnett, was wounded in an engagement at Bull- town Swamp, and participated in the capture of Augusta in 1781, and died as stated above, the county of Baker being named after him in commemoration of his gallant services.
2. General James Screven. The grandson of Rev. William Screven, a Baptist minister, who came to this country from England to escape persecution, and who founded the first Baptist church in Charleston, S. C., and afterwards moved to, and is said to have owned, the land upon which the town of Georgetown is built. His father was James Screven and his mother Mary Hyrne, the daughter of the second Land-
1. Pub. Rec. P. 64.
91
MILITARY.
grave Smith, of Charleston. Gen. Screven was born about 1744, and married Mary (Esther)1 Odingsell. He was not a member of the Midway church, but his wife was, being re- ceived August 18, 1771, and her sister, Elizabeth, being the wife of Rev. Moses Allen, at one time the pastor of the church. He was one of the patriotic leaders in the struggle for independence, being a member of the Provincial Congress that met at Savannah July 4, 1775, as a member from St. John's parish. He was first captain of the St. John Ran- gers and afterwards made Brigadier General by the legisla- ture. He fell mortally wounded in a skirmish with the Brit- ish under Col. Provost, on Spencer Hill, one and a half mile south of Midway church, November 22, 1778.
From the Midway Records and other sources we gather the following facts :
That Col. White and himself had gathered an army to meet Col. Provost approaching from the South; that after an unsuccessful attempt at resistance at Newport Bridge on Saturday morning, they fell back to Midway church. On the next morning, Sunday, Gen. Screven and some of his party crossed the swamp to reconnoitre, but falling into an ambuscade he fell mortally wounded, receiving three wounds, one of which was inflicted after he had fallen. He was sent by flag of truce that evening by Captain Mittuc and eight men, placed in the Vestry House, treated by Dr. Dunwoody, removed afterwards to the house of John Elliott, Senior, where he breathed his last Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1778. Cap- tain Strother and Mr. Judah Lewis were killed in the same skirmish in which the general fell.2
Col. Browne, in his letter to Dr. Ramsay, says of him: "He had the character of a brave and worthy man. I sincerely felt for his misfortune and ordered him to be con- veyed to our camp, where every attention was paid to him by Col. Provost and every assistance given to him by our surgeons."' So Holmes, in his Annals, says: "Gen. Screven was a very valuable officer and estimable man, and his
1. The Records sometimes speaks of her as Mary and then at other times as Esther. Our only explanation is that her name was Mary Esther.
2. See Pub. Rec. P. 62, White's His. Coll. P. 615, and White's Statistics P. 521. 3. White's His. Coll. P. 616.
92
HISTORY OF MIDWAY CHURCH.
memory is still cherished at Midway, where he lived, and in the immediate defense of which settlement he fell."}
Concerning the monument ordered by congress to be erected to his memory, I give the following extracts from the Congressional Journal to set forth the facts in the case :
JOURNALS OF CONGRESS U. S.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1781.
On motion of Mr. Walton. seconded by Mr. Telfair,
Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of Georgia be desired to erect a monument at Sunbury, in the said state, at the expense of the U. S., not exceeding $500.00, to the memory of the late Brigadier General Screven, who fell, covered with wounds, fighting for the liberties of the United States.
JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE, VOL. 4. SENATE CHAMBER, 1801.
A message from the Senate by Mr. Otis, their secretary-
Mr. Speaker :- The Senate has passed the bill, entitled an "Act, to carry into effect several resolutions of Congress, for erecting monuments to the memories of the late General Wooster, Harkeman, Davidson, and Screv- en," to which they desire the concurrence of this house.
MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 1803.
Same Vol. on March 3, 1803.
Ordered, that the committee of the whole house to whom were committed on the 24th of January last, the bill sent from the senate, entitled an "Act to carry into effect several resolutions of Congress, for erecting monuments to the memories of Generals Wooster, Harkeman, Davidson, and Screven," and sundry amendments to the said bill, reported by a select committee, be discharged therefrom, and that the further consideration of the said bill and amendments be postponed until the first Monday in November next.
To show the final action and fate of the bill, I need only give the following letter from Senator Bacon touching the matter:
UNITED STATES SENATE, March 10, 1898.
REV. JAMES STACY,
Newnan, Georgia.
My Dear Sir :- Replying further to yours of the 17th ult. I herewith enclose you all that can be found in the proceedings of Congress relative to the erection of a monument to the memory of Gen. Screven at Sunbury.
1. Vol. II P. 406.
93
MILITARY.
It seems that the resolution passed the Senate, was reported to the House and the House deferred action on the same until Nov., 1803, but after a dili- gent search it could not be found that the House ever considered the reso- lution after that.
Yours very truly, A. O. BACON.
3. Major John Jones, the grandfather of the ministers, Drs. Charles C. and John Jones, was a native of Charleston, S. C., but had removed to St. John's parish and made Sunbury his home. He entered the war of the Revolution, became aid to Gen. McIntosh, and fell, struck by a cannon ball, in the unsuccessful attack upon Savannah on the morning of the 9th of October, 1779, the same day in which the noble Pulaski fell, a martyr to the cause of freedom. Jones street in Savannah was so named in honor of his memory, as appears from the following extract taken from the "Savannah Geor- gian," William H. Bulloch editor, of date Friday, March 15, 1839.1
"A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE AND GOOD."
"The new street to be called Jones Street, it may be worthy of remark, is a compliment to the brave father of Captain Joseph Jones, of Liberty coun- ty, who fell within one hundred yards of the spot patriotically dedicated to his name, while fighting for the liberties of his country. Thus has posterity been grateful to one of the deliverers of this hemisphere from foreign thraldom."
From the same paper, same date and same column, we have an account of the City Council and its proceedings, of date of March 14, 1839, the day before the date of the pa- per, in which it was stated that council passed an ordi- nace laying off the three new streets, viz .: Macon, Charlton and Jones, and two new squares, viz .: Pulaski and Madison.
I have felt it due to say this much, as it has been asserted and believed by many that said street was so named in hon- or of Hon. Noble Wymberley Jones.
4. General Daniel Stewart, the son of John and Susannah Stewart, was born December 20, 1761, in Liberty county, entered the Revolutionary army when only fifteen years of age, was frequently in battle under Sumter and Marion, ta-
1. Copy in Ga. His. Soc. Savannah.
94
HISTORY OF MIDWAY CHURCH.
ken a prisoner at Pocataligo and put on board a prison ship at Charleston, from which he made his escape with eight others, on a stormy night,1 especially distinguished himself in the Indian wars after the revolution, at which time he was made a Brigadier General, and served in the legis- lature for quite a number of years. He was one of the com- mittee appointed by the church and society to write a letter to President Washington on his visit to Savannah in 1791, joined Midway church Nov. 23, 1822, died May 17, 1829, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and was buried in Midway cemetery, where his tomb may be seen. Among other de- scendants he has a grandson, Judge Henry J. Stewart, re- siding in Jasper, Florida.
5. General Charles Claudius Wilson. The grandson of Josiah Wilson, who was clerk of Midway church for three years, from 1821 to 1824, and great grandson of Gen. Dan- iel Stewart, a lawyer and distinguished general during the late war, was born October 1, 1831, in Effingham county, to which his father removed. After three years' service in the war he died at Ringgold, Ga., November 25, 1863. His remains were removed and deposited at Savannah, De- cember 1st of the same year.
6. Adjutant General John Kell. Grandson of John Kell, a citizen of St. John's parish, and one of the signers of the articles of incorporation of the church and society. His great grandfather was Col. William McIntosh, the son of John McIntosh, Mohr, his grandmother, was Margery, the daughter of Col. William McIntosh and Mary Mackey, and was baptized by Rev. John Osgood, pastor of Midway church, at Sapelo September 14, 1754. Captain Kell was born January 26, 1823, entered naval service October 23, 1846, on board ship Falmouth, commanded by Captain, afterwards Commodore, McIntosh. During the late war, was first on the Savannah, guarding the coast, then on the Sumter, under Captain Semmes, afterwards on the Alabama first as First Lieutenant, afterwards as Captain, on account of services off Cape Hatteras, and at present Adjutant Gen- eral of the state of Georgia.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.