USA > Indiana > Circuit-rider days in Indiana > Part 4
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Beauchamp was styled the Demosthenes of the west. His voice was remarkably tender with a note of quite indescribable sweetness about it. In argument,
15 Western Christian Advocate. November 21, 1860. Article by F. C. Holliday.
16 Methodist Magazine, Vol. VIII, pp. 17, 49, 86. A short sketch of the life of Beauchamp will also be found in Minutes, Vol. I, 474.
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however, his voice became elevated and it then as- sumed a deep and hollow tone, which had a telling effect upon opponents, and on one occasion literally staggered an antagonist who, on attempting to leave the house during the sermon of Beauchamp, staggered, and catching a railing, sank into his seat, seemingly overwhelmed.17
Five typical circuit preachers during the twenties and thirties in Indiana were, Allen Wiley, Calvin Ru- ter, James Armstrong, James Havens and Joseph Tarkington. Allen Wiley commenced his career as an itinerant in 1816, his first circuit being the Lawrence- burg which he traveled with Russel Biglow as the se- nior preacher, and for a period of thirty-one years his name is a conspicuous one in the annals of Indiana Methodism, and in the writing of an account of early Methodism in Indiana perhaps his name will appear more frequently than that of any other.
James Havens was admitted on trial into the Ohio Conference in 1820. He entered the ministry under peculiarly discouraging circumstances, and in the face of them he achieved distinction and success in his chosen work. He had a very limited education, in fact when he entered the conference he could scarcely read. He had a large family, and was very poor in this world's goods, but by indefatigable work and by sheer force of character he became one of the conspicuous leaders in the church. He was a man of medium height, but was very strong and his courage and strength were often called into play in subduing the lawless and protecting those who desired to worship God in quietness. He gathered multitudes into the church and in spite of his late start he became an able defender of the truths of christianity and the possessor of considerable personal culture.18
17 F. C. Holliday, "Life and Times of Allen Wiley," 92, 93. 18 F. C. Holliday, "Indiana Methodism," 54.
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James Armstrong was a native of Ireland and was brought to this country by his parents when a child. He was converted and joined the church in Philadel- phia where he was licensed to preach. In 1821 he came to Indiana and in the fall of that year he joined the Illinois Conference. He was an excellent administrator and served many terms as a presiding elder, and was exceedingly successful in winning people for the church. He was supplied with a great fund of ready wit, which he often used as a keen weapon, to the confounding of self-conceited skeptics of which the frontier seemed to possess an oversupply. On one occasion he was preaching in the hall at New Har- mony, Indiana, which was open to all denominations or to any one who had any message to give. It was the custom of a certain Mr. Jennings, one of the resi- dents of the community, to rise in the meetings and question the preachers. He accordingly rose in his place while James Armstrong was preaching and asked, "Mr. Armstrong, how do you know you have a soul ?" Armstrong answered, "I feel it." "Did you ever smell, taste, see, or hear your soul," said the questioner. "No," said Armstrong. "Then you have four senses against you," replied the skeptic. Then Armstrong asked his questioner, "Mr. Jennings, did you ever have the toothache?" "Yes," said Jennings. "Did you ever smell, taste, see, or hear the toothache ?" asked the preacher. "No," replied Jennings. "Then," said Armstrong, "you have four sesnses against you."19
Joseph Tarkington began his ministry under James Armstrong, who in 1824 was the presiding elder of the Indiana District of the Missouri Conference. His theo- logical schooling consisted in traveling with the pre- siding elder for five weeks on the district, where he
19 Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Tarkington, 104.
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observed and learned what he could of the work to which he had given his life. One of the first sermons which Tarkington attempted to preach was from the text, "Prepare to Meet Thy God." He said, "I was badly scared but the wife of Rev. J. W. McReynolds shouted and helped me out; for I quit when she com- menced." One of the first circuits traveled by Tark- ington was the old Patoka circuit. "I got as pay for that year," he says, "nine dollars and a pair of trou- sers."20
Calvin Ruter entered the Ohio Conference in 1818 and was immediately transferred to the Illinois country as one of the group of volunteers who were sent into the new country. He entered so heartily into his itin- erant duties that his health soon gave way under the strain. Several times during his ministry he was forced to take a supernumerary relation, but with re- turning health he re-entered the active ministry and continued his work. He became the first secretary of the Indiana Conference at its organization in 1832, and his name appears conspicuously upon the records of the church in Indiana for many years.
Few of the men who planted Methodism in the State of Indiana were educated men in the sense in which we now consider that term. Their schooling was as a rule very limited, but somehow they became efficient interpreters of a larger life, and as a class, they developed a keenness of mind, and a readiness of wit that has rarely been equaled. They were men of few books, but they must have absorbed the few they possessed. They always carried some books with them on the circuit, in their saddle-bags, and like Wesley many of them read and pondered as they rode through the woods. The circuit-rider always carried a Bible
20 Ibid., 91-103.
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and hymn book, and a discipline, and usually a copy of Wesley's Sermons or Fletcher's Appeal.21
The General Conference of 1824 divided the Mis- souri and Ohio Conferences, and placed the States of Illinois and Indiana into a new Conference, which was called the Illinois. The time and place of the session of the Missouri Conference for 1824 had been fixed six months before the General Conference met, and as the time was short, it was decided that for the first year the two Conferences should hold their sessions at the same time and place. Therefore, in October of the year 1824, three bishops, McKendree, Roberts and Soule, were present at this joint session of the Confer- ences held at Looking Glass Prairie, Missouri. The following year, however, the two were permanently separated, and the new Illinois Conference met at Charlestown, Indiana, in August, 1825.22 The year started with an increase of six new circuits within the state, Rushville, Salem, Paoli, Boonville, Vermillion and Mt. Vernon.
This was still the days of big circuits. In 1825 Vincennes circuit included the following preaching places : In Knox county, Vincennes, Cane's, Thomas's, Snyder's, Terebaugh's, Nicholson's, Hawkins'; in Davis county, Bethel Meeting-house, Stuckey's ; Thomas Ha- vell's, Widow Stone's, T. Stafford's, Ballon's; in Mar- tin county, Hammond's, Clark's, Mount Pleasant, Love's, Maner's in Green county, and back again in Davis county to Bratton's, William's, Osmon's and Florer's.23 In 1828 the Rushville circuit included Rush- ville, county seat of Rush county, Greensburg, county seat of Decatur county, Shelbyville, the county seat of Shelby county, and went within a mile of Greenfield,
21 "Autobiography of Joseph Tarkington." Edited by T. A. Goodwin, p. S.
22 F. C. Holliday, "Indiana Methodism," 63.
23 Holliday, "Indiana Methodism," 65. For the preaching places on the Indianapolis circuit in 1825, 69.
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east along the National road as far as Blue river, and formerly it had gone as far north as Newcastle, county seat of Henry county.24 The Fall Creek circuit was or- ganized in 1828, embracing the territory around An- derson, then called Andersontown. In the minutes of the Quarterly meeting for that circuit held in March, 1829, the following preaching places were given: Pen- delton, Andersontown, Montgomery's, Carey's, Wad- dell's, Goe's, Smith's, Rector's, Bank's, Fuller's, Black's, Reddick's, Garrett's, Jordon's, Sargent's Sibert's Kirk- endall's. The sum collected for the quarter was $16.611/4, and the amount paid Allen Wiley, the pre- siding elder, was $2.71, while Charles Bonner, the circuit preacher, received, $13.551/4.25
From these lists of preaching places we notice that the homes of the people are still, in the majority of cases, serving as preaching places. Even the Vin- cennes circuit eighteen years after its organization, had few meeting houses. To give an idea of how the new preachers were received on the early circuits, and how they made their preaching appointments, I will let Joseph Tarkington tell of his reception to the Pa- toka circuit, to which he was appointed in 1825, with James Garner as senior preacher: "The first place I came to on it (the circuit) was Archibald Campbell's, a mile from Petersburg. It was night and I called and asked to stay. Mrs. Campbell came to the door and said, 'No, we are all sick, with no one to put up your horse.' I told her I could put up my horse, and she said, 'Well, if you can wait on yourself and do without supper, you can stay.' And so I did. Mr. Campbell had a very high fever at the time, and turned to me, when I came in and set down my saddle-bags and said, 'You are traveling, sir?' I answered 'Yes.'" Mr. Camp-
24 Western Christian Advocate, July 17, 1846; Beggs' "Early History of the West and Northwest," p. 70.
25 From the Quarterly Conference records of the old Fall Creek circuit.
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bell then asked where he was from, and when Tarking- ton replied that he was from Charlestown, Mr. Camp- bell asked if he knew who their preachers were, and on Tarkington's telling the name of the presiding el- der, and the senior preacher, the host asked, "Well, who is the other one? We had two last year." There- upon Tarkington replied that the bishop had sent him. Campbell then said, "Why, what can you do?" "Not much," Tarkington replied. "Well," said Campbell, "wife, give him some cornbread and cabbage to start on." Tarkington said, "I started on it after a fifty- mile ride that day." "The next day I went on giving out appointments for Mr. Garner, and that night got to O'Neal's, near the place of Major Robert O'Neal, who had sold out and was going to Sangamon county, Illinois. I preached there, and after the sermon, Ma- jor O'Neal said: 'I will be gone before Mr. Garner comes. Who of you will open your house for preach- ing?' All was silent for some time, and then Major Robb arose and said: 'Rather than have no preaching in the neighborhood, I will open my house. I have a large bar-room, and there are several sinners at my house. If you accept of what I have you are wel- come.' So an appointment was given out for preach- ing at Major Robb's, in two weeks. The Major treated the preachers well all that year, and though he never made any profession of any religion yet all the female members of his family became religious."26
The session of the Illinois conference in 1826 met at Bloomington, Indiana, and in that year the Indiana circuits contained a membership of nearly eleven thou- sand. The third session of the conference met at Mt. Carmel, Illinois, in September, 1827; the fourth session of the conference met in Madison, Indiana; the fifth session in Edwardsville, Illinois; the sixth session in Vincennes; and the last session of the old Illinois con-
26 Autobiography of Joseph Tarkington, 104-106.
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ference was held in Indianapolis, October 4, 1831. During these years the circuits were spreading out rapidly to the northward, following the population as it expanded in that direction. In 1829 the Logansport Mission was organized with Stephen R. Beggs as the missionary. In 1830 the Indianapolis District appears with James Armstrong as the first presiding elder, which embraced Indianapolis, Franklin, Fall Creek, White Lick, Greencastle, Rockville, Crawfordsville and Logansport. This year also Ft. Wayne Mission was or- ganized. By 1831 it was found expedient to organize another district, farther north and the Crawfordsville district was accordingly added. The work in Indiana was now included in five districts, the Madison, Charlestown, Indianapolis, Crawfordsville and Wa- bash. The charges lying in the north part of the state in this year were Greencastle, Crawfordsville, Lafay- ette, Pine Creek, Rockville, Logansport, South Bend and Ft. Wayne.
The period from 1825 to 1832 is noticeable for the changes and readjustments made in the size and loca- tion of circuits. The Conference of 1827 divided the old Whitewater circuit, and the northern part was called Wayne, and Stephen R. Beggs and William Ev- ans were the first circuit preachers. Beggs was the first Methodist preacher to attempt to hold a two-days' meeting in the Quaker stronghold of Richmond, and so successful was the meeting that it gave the cause of Methodism great impetus there, so that now Meth- odists far outnumber the Quakers.27 The next year Beggs was sent to the Crawfordsvilel circuit, and dur- ing that year organized a class at Lafayette, consisting of twenty members. At this time the Crawfordsville circuit reached practically across the state. The main preaching places on this circuit were Crawfordsville,
27 Beggs "Early History of the West and Northwest" (Cin- cinnati, 1868). 75-76.
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Fort Wayne, Logansport, Delphi, Lafayette, Attica, Portland, Covington and back to Crawfordsville once more.28 The subordinate and intermediate preaching places, however, outnumbered the principal ones, so that the preacher had to preach from five to seven times a week. The Portland here referred to was an old town located about half way between Attica and Covington, and in the early days was an important trading center. The appointments on the Crawfords- ville circuit were all on or near the Wabash river, which greatly facilitated the traveling of the circuit.29
In the fall of 1829 Stephen R. Beggs was sent to organize a new circuit, which was known as the Lo- gan's Port Mission, and included as the three main preaching places, Logansport, Delphi and Lafayette, with a number of intermediate places. These newer circuits were four weeks' circuits, that is, it took the preacher four weeks to make the complete round of the circuit, and these seem to have been the largest circuits at this period, though from ten to twenty years previous, six and even eight weeks' circuits were not uncommon. The usual size of the circuit at this time was two or three weeks.
It was during the twenties and early thirties that the name "Station" made its first appearance among the appointments in Indiana. It was in the list of ap- pointments for 1825 that Madison station and Salem station appeared.30 A few years later Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis became stations, and by 1831 New Albany and Bloomington had been added to the num- ber. Many of the old circuit preachers greatly op- posed the doing away of the old circuit system, many of them maintaining that it was this system, more than anything else, that had been responsible for the great
28 Ibid., 208. 29 Ibid., 81. 30 Minutes for 1825.
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progress of Methodism on the frontier.31 But as the towns grew in population and wealth the demand of the membership in these larger places became more and more insistent for stationed preachers, and as time went on the number of stations greatly increased.
The founders of Methodism have been criticised for their lack of foresight in taking little or no thought for the accumulation of property for the church.32 In the early days excellent sites for church buildings might have been had for the asking in all the towns, yet most of the early meeting houses of the Methodist church were built in country districts, and they were built with little or no reference to the permanent cen- ters of population. As a consequence, when towns be- gan to develop many churches were found to be wrongly located, and as the country became older and the demand for Sabbath preaching compelled the dis- continuance of week-day appointments, many of the older church buildings ceased to be occupied. They were built too close together for Sabbath appointments and yet it was always difficult, as at present, to unite the small country churches into a common center, for the erection of a larger church. Other denominations were erecting large church buildings, years before the Methodists were able to do so, and it is not an uncom- mon thing to find Methodist conferences sitting in Pres- byterian and Baptist churches, although numerically the Methodists were the largest denominatiton in the state. The Methodists, however, began to make im- provements in their church buildings, during the latter years of the old Illinois conference, and the old log churches began to give place to the plain brick or frame church, without steeples or bells.
As the population of Indiana crept northward, schemes for internal improvements began to be agi-
31 Rev. W. C. Smith, "Indiana Miscellany."
32 Holliday, "Indiana Methodism," 155.
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tated, especially in the matter of road building. The earliest roads were state roads, and then came the National road. These improvements had their reac- tion on church development. The early circuits were so large and the settlements so scattered and remote from each other, that the improvements in the roads not only greatly benefited the preacher, but also the people who had to travel long distances to hear him. It is an interesting fact, although the reason for it is not definitely known, that preaching appointments were for 12 o'clock, on all days except the Sabbath. Per- haps the reason for this was that everybody could tell on a clear day when it was noon by the sun, for there were few clocks and fewer watches among the people.
By 1832 the Methodist membership in Indiana had grown to nearly 20,000, and during the twenties there had been a number of remarkable revivals in various places over the State. Probably the greatest numbers, which the preachers succeeded in winning to the church, were won as the result of camp-meetings, held during the spring and summer months. Almost every circuit had somewhere within its bounds a camp-meet- ing ground, and the camp-meeting occasion was the great occasion looked forward to by all on the circuit. It was about the only vacation enjoyed by the people of the frontier, and served a social as well as a religious purpose. The idea, often expressed, that early Meth- odist converts were won in meetings, held in close rooms, is absolutely untrue, for the greatest religious revivals were conducted out in the open air, and every convert, who fell prostrate on the straw, had his lungs filled with pure oxygen. In these camp- meetings very often strange and seemingly supernat- ural things happened. In the year 1831 a camp-meet- ing was held on the Wayne circuit, and during the meeting many were converted. Some of the converts would begin to laugh, and would continue doing so for
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hours. After the laughing commenced it seemed prac- tically impossible to stop it.33 Opinion was so divided on the matter that the minister preached and advised concerning it, from the pulpit, suggesting that those who laughed "should not invite the exercise," and those who scoffed "should not doubt the sincerity of their brethren, for they could not help seeing that the thing was involuntary when once commenced." One man was almost thrown into the "jerks" of former days by resisting the laughing symptoms. It was told that a woman in Kentucky laughed all day and all night after she was converted.
Long protracted meetings held during the winter months, had not yet come into vogue, though the two day meetings were common. Such a meeting was held, as has been noted above, on the Wayne circuit in 1828, the preacher, Stephen R. Beggs, being assisted by the local preachers on the circuit. The meeting was held in the school house at Richmond, and created consid- erable excitement among the Quaker population, some of whom had never seen or heard Methodist preaching. There were six or seven converts, and some of them desired baptism ; some chose pouring, others sprinkling and one asked to be immersed. Accordingly the con- gregation, with many curious onlookers, including a number of Quakers, went to the banks of Whitewater to see the sight. One man was so curious that he waded out into the water so that he might get a better view of the performance, and so intent was he that he made a misstep and with his little boy, whom he had carried out with him, he fell backwards into the stream. At this some of the onlookers shouted with laughter.34 The year on the Wayne circuit was closed with "a powerful union camp meeting" and such famous camp-
33 Western Christian Advocate, October 20, 1846. Article by Allen Wiley.
34 Beggs, "Early History of the West and Northwest," 75-79. (4)
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meeting preachers as John Strange and James B. Fin- ley, of Ohio, were present.
Of all the camp-meeting preachers in Indiana dur- ing these years, none were so popular as John Strange. One who often heard him preach states that "There never has been a man in Indiana who could move and stir an audience from center to circumference equal to him."35 On one occasion when preaching on a Sab- bath morning at a camp-meeting in Wayne county to a vast crowd, in the midst of his sermon he took one of his flights of eloquence, which raised a great shout from the congregation and lifted the people from their seats. Hearing the shouting the crowd on the outside of the meeting place rushed in and as they came pour- ing down the center aisle, Strange, raising on his toes and throwing himself a little back, with his right arm extended, pointing with his finger directly toward the young men coming in, screamed in a voice that made the forest ring, "Here they come now! My Lord ! Shoot them as they come." And one of the young men who was among those coming in states that he sank down in the nearest seat, unable to move until the ser- mon was finished.
The eloquence of these pioneer preachers was not the kind learned in the schools from the study of books, and there is no better way to account for it than to let John Strange, this prince of circuit-riders and west- ern orators, tell of the school in which he learned it. His Alma Mater, said he, was "Brush College, more ancient though less pretentious than Yale or Harvard or Princeton. Here I graduated and I love her mem- ory still. Her academic groves are the boundless for- ests and prairies of these western wilds; her Pierian springs are the gushing fountains from rocks and mountain fastnesses; her Arcadian groves and Orphic
35 Western Christian Advocate, June 23, 185S. Article by W. C. Smith on "John Strange at Camp-Meetings."
. South Bend Mission
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CRAWFORDSVILLE TLOGANSPORT
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DISTRICT · CRAWFORDSVILLE
MADISON
. GREENCASTLE
.
SINDIANAPOLIS
INDIANAPOLIS
. FRANKLIN
DISTRICT
. Tenit
WABASH
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LAWRENCE DLRG
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· PAOLI CHARLES TOWN
Indiana Districts it the last seeeion of the Illinois Confer -.
. PRINCE DISTRICT
CHARLESTON.
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ence, in 1832.
NEW ALBANY
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CIRCUIT-RIDER DAYS IN INDIANA.
songs are the wild woods, and the birds of every color and every song, relieved now and then with the bass hootings of the night owl and the weird treble of the whip-poor-will; her curriculum is the philosophy of nature and the mysteries of redemption ; her library is the word of God, the discipline and the hymn book, sup- plemented with trees and brooks, and stones, all of which are full of wisdom and sermons and speeches ; and her parchments of literary honors are the horse and saddle-bags."36
In the sixteen years since Indiana had become a State many influences had been at work developing the new commonwealth from a pioneer district to a well organized and prosperous condition, and by 1832 it seemed expedient that Indiana should be set apart into a separate conference. There were nearly 20,000 Methodists within the State, and accordingly the Gen- eral Conference of 1832 decided that it was for the best interest of both Indiana and Illinois Methodism to form a separate conference to include all the sta- tions and circuits within the State of Indiana, and a strip of territory in the southern part of Michigan. With the formation of the Indiana conference, Indiana Methodism begins a new and larger chapter in its his- tory. In a sense the pioneer days are passed and the church is firmly established in the new commonwealth.
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