USA > Indiana > Circuit-rider days in Indiana > Part 3
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44 Memorial sketch of the Life of Samuel Parker. Minutes, Vol. I, 358, 359.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
cuit. At one of these meetings the wife of a local preacher, Jeremiah Meek by name, became ecstatic and continued in this state for about three weeks, during which time she scarcely ate, drank or slept. This was too much for her nerves and it resulted in the unbalanc- ing of her mind, and she remained so for many years. At the other camp-meeting, held on this circuit in 1810, there were five preachers present besides the regular circuit preachers, and we are told by one who was pres- ent, that this meeting made a "powerful impression in favor of religion in general and Methodism in par- ticular."45
In 1815 two new Indiana circuits were added to the six already in existence, the Wabash and the Blue River circuits. The Wabash circuit was in the south- western corner of the state just below the Patoka cir- cuit, and the Blue River circuit was situated along the banks of that stream, just to the west of the Silver Creek circuit.46 It is interesting to note that all the Indiana circuits, up to 1816, were named after streams with the exception of the Vincennes and the Lawrence- burg. The reason for these names is obvious. The early settlements were along the rivers and creeks, and these streams and the valleys served as the natural highways for the new country, and the circuit naturally derived its name from the stream along which the cab- ins of the settlers belonging to the circuit, were located. There were in those days few towns or post offices after which circuits might be named, and when finally towns of some importance did come into existence, the circuits soon came to bear their names. This naming of cir- cuits after streams was not in any sense peculiar to Indiana, but the same practice was followed all over the western country. The Blue River circuit was in the Salt River district of the Ohio conference, while the
45 Western Christian Advocate, March 6, 1846.
46 Ibid., December 19. 1845, December 5, 1845.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
Wabash circuit was placed in the Illinois district of the Tennessee conference. The first circuit preachers on these new circuits were James Simmons for the Blue River circuit and Daniel M'Henry for the Wabash.
At the beginning of Indiana Methodism there were of course no meeting houses, but in the winter time the cabins of the settlers were the temples, and in the spring, just as soon as it became warm enough, the people worshipped out under the trees. It was not long, however, before log meeting houses began to be erected, for there was plenty of material, and a Meth- odist revival generally resulted in providing willing hands to erect the desired house of worship. The men "were skillful with the chopping ax, the broad ax, the maul and wedge, the frow and whip saw, and the woods were full of tall and straight-boled beeches, maples and ash trees with a fair sprinkling of straight-grained white oaks and poplars. All the men had to do in order to have a meeting house was to go into the forest and cut, hew, split, rive, whip-saw and build-and they did it."47 When the day for raising the house came round a general invitation was sent out and volunteer help came from all quarters. Any man was considered a very mean one indeed who did not give muscular aid on such an occasion. Thus were the first Methodist meeting houses erected in Indiana, and they soon began to rise up in all the circuits. During the first year on the Silver Creek circuit three such meeting houses were erected. One of the first meeting houses to be erected on the Whitewater circuit was the Meeks meeting house, located on Clear creek, a mile and a half north- east of the present town of Salisbury. This meeting house was erected in 1808. In 1809 the Cain meeting house, a few miles north of Richmond, was erected, and in 1810 a third meeting house was built at the little town of Boston. The Cain meeting house was dedicated
47 General Minutes, Vol. 1. 282. 283.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
by Rev. John Summerville, who preached from the text, "Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together." In these log meeting houses there were none of the comforts known to modern churches, and the exterior and interior was rough and rudely finished. The roofs were made of clapboards, held on by weight poles; the floors were of puncheons; the chimneys of sticks and clay, while the seats were split logs hewn smoothly with an ax. The pulpit was a box-like struc- ture made of riven boards, often of oak, smoothly shaven with a drawing knife.49
American Methodism in the year 1816 sustained a great loss in the death of Bishop Francis Asbury, who died on the 31st of March of this year.50 To him more than to any other, is due the honor of being called the father of American Methodism. He came to America in 1771, saturated with Wesley's thoughts, and resolute- ly determined to carry out Wesley's plan. Instead of settling down in the centers of population, he heard and heeded the call of the wilderness, and himself set- ting the example, he sent his preachers through the forests and over the mountains to take the Gospel to the far flung outposts of civilization. "For nearly fifty years he was the outrider of an ever-growing army of apostolic men who knew neither self nor fear, who conquered a continent and covered it with a net- work of circuits and conferences."51 Although Meth- odism in Indiana was not founded by Asbury, person- ally, yet it was his spirit which fired the hearts and
48 Judge David D. Banta, "Making a Neighborhood," 17-18. From "Readings in Indiana History". 295-297.
49 W. C. Smith, "Indiana Miscellany," 62-70.
50 Biographical sketch of Francis Asbury. General minutes, Vol. I. 272-274.
51 The Journal of John Wesley. edited by Nehemiah Curnock. Vol. VI. 2. Editor's comment.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
inspired the deeds of the McKindrees, and Sales, and Parkers and all the others.
By 1816 there were eight circuits in Indiana with a total membership of 2,699 whites and eight colored. The colored members were found only on the Silver Creek and Lawrenceburg circuits. These eight cir- cuits were divided among three districts; the White- water, Lawrenceburg and Oxford circuits were in the Miami district; the Silver Creek and the Blue River circuits were in the Salt River district; while the three southwestern circuits, the Vincennes, the Patoka and the Wabash were in the Illinois district of the Tennes- see conference. The Miami and the Salt River districts were in the Ohio conference.
List of Indiana circuits, with circuit preachers and presiding elders by years, to 1816:
1806-Whitewater Circuit: James Oglesby, circuit preacher; John Sale, presiding elder.
1806-1807-Whitewater: Thomas Hellums and Sela Paine, preach- ers, John Sale, presiding elder.
1807-1808-Whitewater: Joseph Williams, preacher, John Sale, presiding elder. Silver Creek : Moses Ashworth, preacher; William Burke, presiding elder.
1808-1809-Whitewater : Hector Sanford and Moses Crume, preachers: Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
Silver Creek : Joseph Crawford, preacher; Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
1809-1810-Whitewater: Thomas Nelson, Samuel H. Thompson, preachers; Johu Sale, presiding elder.
Silver Creek : Sela Paine, preacher: William Burke, presiding elder.
Vincennes : William Winans, preacher; Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
1810-1811-Whitewater: Moses Crume, preacher; Soloman Lang- don, presiding elder.
Silver Creek : Isaac Lindsey, preacher ; William Burke, presiding elder.
Vincennes : Thomas Stilwell, preacher; Learner Blackman. presiding elder.
Enon : Walter Griffith, preacher; Soloman Langdon, presiding elder.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
1811-1812-Whitewater: Robert W. Finley, preacher; Soloman Langdon, presiding elder. Silver Creek : William McMehan, preacher; James Ward, presiding elder.
Vincennes : Jacob Turman, preacher ; James Axley, presiding elder.
Patoka : Benjamin Edge, preacher; James Axley, pre- siding elder.
Enon or Lawrenceburg : Walter Griffith, preacher : Soloman Langdon, presiding elder.
1812-1813-Whitewater: John Strange, preacher; Soloman Lang- don, presiding elder.
Silver Creek : Thomas Nelson, preacher; James Ward. presiding elder.
Vincennes: Richard Richards, preacher; Peter Cart- wright, presiding elder.
Patoka : Omitted this year.
Lawrenceburg : William Dixon, preacher; Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
Oxford : Moses Crume, preacher; Soloman Langdon, presiding elder.
1813-1814-Whitewater : David Sharp, preacher; Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
Silver Creek : Charles Harrison, preacher; Charles Holliday, presiding elder.
Vincennes : Zechariah Witten, preacher ; Jesse Walker, presiding elder.
Patoka : Omitted this year.
Lawrenceburg : Moses Crume, preacher ; Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
Oxford : John Strange, preacher; Samuel Parker, pre- siding elder.
1814-1815-Whitewater : William Hunt, preacher ; Samuel Parker, presiding elder.
Silver Creek : Shadrach Ruark, preacher; Charles Holliday, presiding elder.
Vincennes: John Schrader, preacher; Jesse Walker, presiding dealer.
Patoka : John Scripps, preacher; Jesse Walker, pre- siding elder.
Lawrenceburg : John Strange, preacher; John Sale. presiding elder.
Oxford: John Summerville, preacher; John Sale, pre- siding elder.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
1815-1816-Whitewater, Daniel Fraley, preacher; John Sale, pre- siding elder.
Silver Creek : Joseph Kinkaid, preacher; Charles Hol- liday, presiding elder.
Vincennes: Thomas Davis, preacher; Jesse Walker, presiding elder.
Patoka : Thomas A. King, preacher; Jesse Walker, presiding elder.
Lawrenceburg : David Sharp, preacher; John Sale,
presiding elder.
Oxford : Benjamin Lawrence, preacher; John Sale, presiding elder.
Blue River : John Simmons, preacher; Charles Holli- day, presiding elder.
Wabash : Daniel McHenry, preacher; Jesse Walker, presiding elder.
CHAPTER II.
INDIANA METHODISM, 1816-1832.
IN 1816 Indiana's star was added to the American constellation. As early as 1812 a petition had been drawn up and presented to congress, asking that In- diana be made a state.1 Nothing was done at this time, and it was not until February, 1815, that a petition from the inhabitants of Indiana Territory, asking for admission into statehood, was brought before the House. During the summer following this petition, there was much agitation throughout all the Terri- tory. Newspapers published accounts of new town sites which were being laid out, and statistics were gathered (though there is doubt as to their authen- ticity) stating that the population was 63,897. The Enabling Act had appointed May 13, 1816, as the time for the election of delegates to the Constitutional Con- vention. The only restriction as to the work of the convention was that the constitution should exclude slavery, the same restriction which had been laid down in the Ordinance of 1787. Methodism was represented in this convention by Hugh Cull from Wayne county, and Dennis Pennington, of Harrison county.2 Both were interested in politics as well as religion and exer- cised a strong influence on the convention.
From this time there was a rapid increase in the population. The immigration was still chiefly from
1 Esarey, History of Indiana, Chap. IX.
2 Hugh Cull was a circuit rider and local preacher in Wayne County. Allen Wiley says that he was the first Methodist in that county. Dennis Pennington was not a preacher but was a promi- neut layman and later served a number of years in the State Legislature. Holliday, Indiana Methodism, Chapter I.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky, though a num- ber of settlers from the Western part of New York and the Northwestern section of Pennsylvania were forced into Indiana because of economic causes, during the early part of 1817. The summer of 1816 had been cold and the supply of grain was consequently limited. As a result of this condition many people floated down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers on rafts and settled in Dear- born, Jennings, Switzerland and Washington counties. These people were much interested in politics, and while during the period of territorial government, the offices had usually been filled by Virginians, from 1816- 1824 the government was more frequently in the hands of settlers from Pennsylvania. There were several settlements directly from Europe, such as the Swiss at Vevay, but none became strong enough to exert an active influence in politics.3
One noticeable fact in regard to church, and par- ticularly Methodist history in Indiana, is that the first societies, as a general rule, were formed in the coun- try. In many of the towns, the property holders and office seekers were opposed to all forms of religion. Among the early settlers in Indiana were "criminals from the east and others of criminal tendencies, who found the restraints of the law disagreeable." This class took up its headquarters in the villages and about the village taverns.+ This fact made the village an unprofitable field, while those who settled in the coun- try districts were more easily influenced by religious teaching. The moral impress of the first settlers re- mains in many towns to this day. In some cases, the proprietor of the town, the clerk of the court, or the landlord of the tavern gave tone to the morals of the community. In other cases some man of wealth or some family of culture made an impress that was abid-
3 Holliday, Indiana Methodism, Chapter V.
4 Readings in Indiana History, 294.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
ing. Brookville, Charlestown, Corydon, Bloomington and Indianapolis were fortunate in this respect, for their early and most influential citizens were usually religious, or recognized that respect was due to re- ligion, and that its influence on society was decidedly helpful, and they endeavored to promote its advance- ment. But we must give credit to some less worthy methods of promulgating religious influence. The bar- room was often the first place thrown open for preach- ing in a western village, and the landlord would pride himself on maintaining good order during the service.5 The first sermons preached in Rising Sun and New Albany were in bar-rooms. A sermon preached by James Conwell, of Laurel, led to the conversion of a tavern-keeper, who disposed of his liquors and opened his bar-room for preaching, and it remained the per- manent place of worship until the erection of the vil- lage church.
In 1816 a readjustment was made by which south- west section of Indiana was to be included in the Mis- souri conference, which had been organized that year, holding its first session in Turkey Hill Settlement in Illinois.6 The Indiana circuits were in the Illinois Dis- trict. The boundaries of this new conference extended into four States and Territories-Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. At the sessions of the two conferences, containing Indiana circuits, in 1818 we find the following adjustment of Indiana circuits : Ohio Conference, Lebanon District, contained White- water circuit, Miami District, Lawrenceburg, Madison and Oxford circuits. Missouri Conference Illinois District, contained Indian Creek, Blue River, Harrison, Vincennes, Patoka and Pigeon or Little Pigeon, and
5 Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 99.
6 Minutes of Conference, Vol. I, 1773-1823, p. 297. "Life and Times of Rev. Allen Wiley," F. C. Holliday, 51-52. Seven mem- bers were present at the first session of the Missouri Conference over which Bishop McKendree presided.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
it is also probable that the Wabash circuit was within the bounds of the state.
From 1815 to 1820 was a period of increased set- tlement and of greater development in the sections already settled. With the increase in population the value of property also increased. In 1820 a malarial fever epidemic in the southern section of the state, particularly on the lower Wabash, checked immigra- tion, and many left that region and settled further north. The growth of Methodism had kept pace with the growth of population. By 1817 it was found that the church had completely overcome the great loss in members caused by the war with Great Britain in 1812-1814. The year 1817 showed an increase of 849 members over the preceding year, and 580 over the number before the war began. In 1810 the popula- tion of Indiana was 24,520 and Methodism numbered its members at 755. In 1820 the population of the State had increased to 147,178, and Methodists to 4,410.7
In 1820 Indiana was still divided between the Ohio and Missouri conferences ; the five circuits, Lawrence- burg, Whitewater, Greenville, Oxford and Madison being in the Ohio Conference, Miami District, while in the Missouri Conference an Indiana District had been created and contained the following circuits : Charlestown, Blue River, Bloomington, Vincennes, Pa- toka, Ohio, Mount Sterling and Corydon.8
This table of the increase of membership, and cir- cuits, so briefly given, cannot tell of the hardships en- dured, and the trials encountered, by the circuit rider. The itinerant system was peculiarly adapted to the time and country. It effectually prevented preachers from forming local ties, or creating local prejudices, which might have injured their effectiveness. The
7 Statistics from Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 51.
8 Minutes of Conferences, Vol. I, 367.
(3)
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
poverty which accompanied it kept them foot-loose of all worldly things. It might be compared in some ways, to the Jesuit system of missionary work, and certainly it was as effective as the work of the Catho- lics among the Indians and half-breeds. While the communities to which the itinerant preachers came might be rude and illiterate in some ways, still, there were the germs and possibilities for future growth and development, which had been entirely lacking in the Indian villages of an earlier period. The preaching of these devout men-and devout men they were in the truest sense-was a great moral and educational force. Even when it influenced men's minds through fear, it prompted them to good conduct, as one of the necessary means of keeping out of the "eternal hell of quenchless fire." True enough, the preachers themselves were men of little education, but they knew thoroughly the messages they were to deliver and they were very much in earnest. Their speech might be ungrammati- cal at times, but their zeal was white hot with the fer- vor of conviction and their eloquence lost nothing in effectiveness by reason of rudeness in rhetoric or inac- curacy of diction.
We picture the typical itinerant of that day as a "tall, rawboned, hollow-eyed man, who dressed accord- ing to the Methodist preacher fashion of that day, namely, round-breasted coat, long vest with corners cut off, short breeches and long stockings, with his hair turned back from about midway between the forehead and the crown, and permitted to grow down to the shoulders."? One who saw Bishop William McKendree near Washington, Indiana, on his way to the Missouri Conference in 1822 or 1823 describes him as wearing short clothes. His coat had a high-rolling collar, a long and very sharp tail, with large brass buttons on
9 One of the early itinerants as described by Allen Wiley.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
415101
it.10 But the circuit rider was by no means so well dressed as a Bishop, who commanded the munificent salary of perhaps $300 a year, if he could collect it, while many times, even as late as 1820 the circuit rider received little pay worth naming. The circuit rider on the Bloomington circuit in 1820 received as a part of his quarterage home made leather socks, and jeans. The preachers sometimes wore whole suits of leather, because leather resisted the briers, as wool could not.11
In 1821-1822 Allen Wiley was serving the White Water circuit with James T. Wells as his associate. Wells was a very peculiar man, and although he was conscientious and extremely religious, yet because of his peculiarities he was more of a hindrance than a help. During this year Wiley says: "I then had a wife and seven children, and my entire receipts for house rent, fuel, table expenses and quarterage, amounted this year to seventy-six dollars. Then there were no estimates for house rent, and quarterage for children; so that if there were a married and a single preacher on the circuit the collections were divided into three parts, and the married man received two parts and the single man one; or if one preacher had ten children and the other none, they both shared equal when they were both married men."12
Between the years 1820 and 1824 a number of new circuits had been created within the limits of Indiana, and in the year 1824 there were seventeen circuits, wholly or partially within the state. In the Miami District of the Ohio Conference, over which John Strange was the presiding elder, there were Oxford, Greenville, Whitewater, Lawrenceburg, Madison and Connersville circuits; while in the Indiana District of the Missouri Conference, over which William Beau-
10 Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Tarkington, 75.
11 Ibid., 85.
12 Western Christian Advocate, June 26, 1846.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
champ presided there were eleven circuits, namely, Charlestown, Flatrock, Blue River, Bloomington, Honey Creek, Vincennes, Patoka, Mount Sterling, Corydon, Indianapolis and Eel River.13
In 1821 William Cravens was sent to Indianapolis to organize a circuit. A few Methodist families had settled on White river in the vicinity of Indianapolis, and the conference wisely saw the necessity of the early planting of religion in the center of the new state. Cravens was just the man for the new circuit, zealous, fearless and an indefatigable worker. Coming on horseback to his new circuit, he met with swollen streams and in attempting to ford Sugar creek, he was swept from his horse and thrown into the stream. A settler seeing the horse come out of the stream with- out a rider went to the bank to investigate; he saw a large, middle aged man crawling out of the water upon the limbs of a tree-top which had fallen into the stream. As he was climbing onto the tree the settler heard him soliloquizing, "Well, bless God, I would go to heaven if it were Sugar creek all the way."14 Cravens was a Virginian and while a resident in that state had been fearless in his denunciation of slavery and drunken- ness, and when he moved to Indiana he did not cease his denunciations of both evils. He seldom preached a sermon without "making all who made, sold, or drank ardent spirits feel uneasy." He found some residents in Indiana who had hired out their slaves in the slave
13 Minutes, Vol. I, 367, 421, 425. There is some doubt about Oxford and Greenville circuits being in Indiana. In 1812, Allen Wiley says, Oxford circuit was part in Ohio and part in Indiana. Wiley includes these two circuits in the lists of Indiana circuits in his article of June 26, 1846, in the Western Christian Advocate for the year 1821-1822. Greenville circuit was probably partly in Indiana until 1827. Part of Oxford circuit was in Indiana until 1828. Western Christian Advocate, July 17, 1846. (Allen Wiley, Article No. XXVI.)
14 F. C. Holliday, "Life and Times of Allen Wiley," 45, 46.
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
states, and were drawing their wages, while many more had sold their slaves and had purchased homes for themselves in Indiana with the price of their slaves. These he denounced as "hypocrites, and worse than the actual slave holder."
An early Steward's record of the old Connersville circuit, which was organized in 1822, affords consider- able insight into the method of paying the preacher, in the pioneer days. The record reads as follows :
To cash received from Lewis's class $ .50
To cash received from Curtis' class .50
To cash received from Connersville class 1 2.50
To cash received from Abbott's class 1.00
To cash received from Hardy's class 871/2
Bridle leather from Hardy's class 621/2
Cash from Tullis's class 1.25
Shoe leather and corn from Tullis's 1.75
1 Cash from Lower's class. 2.561/2
1 pair of shoe soles from Lower's
.50
Cash from Robert's class 1 1 1
4.65
Cash from Hardy's class .75
21/2 yards of linsey from Hardy's class 1.121% I 1
Cash from E. Abbott's class 1.32 1
Cash from Curtis's class .50 1
7 yards of linen, from Curtis's 1.75
One small pair of shoes from Curtis's 1
1.00
334 yards of linen from Alley's class 1.25
21/2 yards of linsey from Alley's class
1.25
834 yards of linsey from Lewis's class 3.27
1 pair of socks from Lewis's class
.433/4
Cash from Grigg's class. 2.121/2
$36.121/2
1
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
By cash to A. Cummins, traveling expenses_ .50
By cash to J. Havens, traveling expenses 1.50
To A. Cummins, allowances 3.75
To J. Havens, allowances 30.371/2
$36.121/215
In 1824 the presiding elder of the Indiana District of the Missouri conference was William Beauchamp, one of the most eloquent preachers in the west. He was a native of Delaware, his father having been a Methodist preacher in that state, and also in west- ern Virginia. In 1794 Beauchamp joined the Confer- ence and was appointed to the Pittsburg circuit, and later served circuits in New York, Boston and Prov- incetown, Massachusetts. On his marriage in 1801 he located, and later moved to the western part of Vir- ginia. Though he was no longer serving regular cir- cuits, yet his interest in religion and the church did not wane, and in 1811 he published at Marietta, Ohio, "Essays on the Truth of the Christian Religion," which had a wide circulation and reading among other de- nominations as well as in the Methodist church. In 1816 he became the editor of the "Western Christian Monitor," a monthly religious paper, established at Chillicothe, Ohio, especially to combat Arian and Pela- gian doctrines. In 1822 he resumed the active min- istry and continued it until his death, which occurred on the 8th of October, 1824, in the fifty-third year of his age, in the State of Indiana.16
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