USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 65
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 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
CARNEGIE LIBRARY, SHELBYVILLE
asville. Lawrenceburg. Paris, Shelbyville, Lexington and other towns.
"In 1906 the Federation, shocked by facts gleaned from the reports of the United States commissioner of education as to Kentucky's low educational status, embarked upon a plan for improving the rural schools. The estab- lishment of the School Improvement League was decided upon as the best means for ac- complishing the end. A trained organizer was brought from another state and the work en- tered into in earnest. At the end of two years and a half the chairman of the Educa- tion committee, Mrs. R. N. Roark, then acting Vol. 1-29.
play grounds and school gardens have been added. But better than all this, the conscious effort of the Federation has been realized. There has been awakened a public sentiment for education that has demanded and passed, and is now enforcing, better school laws both in the country and in the city, and that has produced a tremendous increase in local taxa- tion for schools.
"In 1907 a prize of eight hundred dollars was offered by the Federation to the rural school that would do the most to make of itself a model school. Some of the desiderata suggested were consolidation of school dis-
450
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
tricts, grading of pupils, manual training, do- mestic science, a school garden and a play ground. The school in Owsley county which won the prize can boast that it has realized each one of these suggested improvements, and that it has called forth a spirit of generos- ity and public service on the part of elders and of young people rarely seen in Kentucky. The inspiration of the contest has been felt in many counties. A member of the Education committee of the Federation helped to draw the County School Board law under which we are now acting. The Federation did its full part in securing the passage of this law and lent a hand also in securing the State Uni- versity and Normal School appropriation laws of 1908. In recognition of the work done by the Federation, the legislature of 1908, in pro- viding an educational commission to follow up the work of the County School Board law by revising all the state educational laws, in- structed the governor to appoint upon it a rep- resentative of the Federation.
tives from the cities who desire to retain the schools as a political asset, she will go again to another legislature and is confident that in 1912 the people of Kentucky-in fact, even the men of Kentucky, leaving women out of account-will demand that their legislators accede to her reasonable request.
"A committee of the Federation, of which Miss Lilla Breed is chairman, has done ex- cellent work in the interest of pure food legis- lation, and to bring about better sanitation in many ways throughout the state.
"A notable effort of the Federation has been in the interest of forestry preservation. A committee, of which Mrs. Mason Maury of Louisville has been for a number of years the able chairman, has continually carried on a propaganda for increased knowledge and pub- lic sentiment on the subject. Legislation ad- vocated by the Federation has unfortunately as yet been rejected by legislatures, but there is little doubt that at another session the cap- stone will be put to the Federation's efforts "As a natural result of the knowledge col- by the passage of a forestry bill embodying the lected by the women of the Federation as to . four essential points demanded by the For- school conditions in Kentucky and of their earnest effort to better these conditions, has come a movement to obtain the school suf- frage for Kentucky women. No woman of the Federation intends to abate the efforts she is making to improve the schools of Ken- tucky through the indirect means now at her hand. But she realizes that the direct means of casting a vote for much needed local tax- ation, to elect fit persons as school trustees, or when holding office as a trustee to secure efficient teachers, must also be used by her if educational progress is to be made with reasonable rapidity. It is proof of the earnest- ness of her effort in behalf of the schools that she has not been frightened away from this goal by the bugaboo of 'getting into politics,' but has bravely gone to two legislatures with her petition. Though it has been balked each time by the clever tactics of a few representa- estry committee : a State Board of Forestry ; a technically trained forester; a state forest reserve; and county fire wardens. Mrs. Maury is the author of a book entitled 'Our Native Trees,' which was published by the Federation in 1910 and presented to every club in the state and to every member of the legislature. It is beautifully illustrated with photographs of noble Kentucky trees. Ken- tucky having no state forester to prepare such a manual, and the state not being ready to sup- ply to her people free, as other states have done, this information as to their native trees, Mrs. Maury, and the Federation, by the prep- aration, publication, and distribution of this volume, have done a splendid service to the State. A bill making blue grass the state flower and the tulip the state tree, advocated by the Forestry committee, has yet to be passed by the legislature. Mrs. Maury's book
451
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
is a notable achievement, and the continued educational work carried on by the Forestry committee is producing a sentiment that will eventually force laws for the preservation of forests in Kentucky.
"It is impossible to tell here in detail of the work of Kentucky women, or even of the women of certain organizations, in the found- ing and maintenance of hospitals, orphan asylums, Rescue Homes for girls; such in- stitutions as the Home for Incurables or the Kentucky Children's Home Society for which state appropriations have been obtained ; tuber- culosis sanatoria and dispensaries; visiting nurse associations, societies for the organiza- tion of charity; or of their work for city cleaning and beautification, for parks and play grounds for children ; for the introduction of kindergartens and of manual and industrial
training ; or for the preservation and marking of historic sites. Suffice it to say that, if by some horrible catastrophe all the women of Kentucky, on whose shoulders now partly rest the many institutions and movements for the amelioration of human conditions in existence in the state, should be suddenly withdrawn from 'public affairs' the social structure em- braced in those two words would be likewise in danger of sudden and horrible collapse.
"It is not within the province of the present sketch to name the Kentucky women who of late years have contributed to the field of liter- ature stories, poems and essays of which Ken- tucky may well be proud. The present writer has tried to sketch only such joint action of women as may be properly classed as public work, in that it is in the interest of the whole commonwealth."
CHAPTER LVIII.
THOMAS TINSLEY, PIONEER PREACHER-SEVERN'S VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH-METHODIST
PIONEERS OF THE WORD FIRST ANNUAL METHODIST CONFERENCE-BISHOP ASBURY- PRESBYTERIANISM FOUNDED THE EPISCOPALIANS-KENTUCKY FULLY PROTECTS CATH- OLICS-FATHERS WHALEN AND DE ROHAN-REV. STEPHEN T. BADIN-FIRST PERMANENT ASSISTANT-WORK OF FATHER AND BISHOP FLAGET-BISHOP DAVID AND THE SEE OF LOUISVILLE.
Among the first of those who came to Kentucky to face the fierce savage and the stern ordeal of pioneer life, there were not lacking ministers of the gospel-some of them, perhaps, impelled by the same fierce desire to improve their condition in life by taking up land, as were their lay brothers whom they accompanied. Daniel Boone's brother, Squire Boone, whose story has hith- erto been told, was a Baptist preacher, but as there were no other white men in Ken- tucky at that time than himself and his brother. it is not probable that he indulged in much preaching to a congregation of one. He and his brother found themselves so busily engaged in looking after their tem- poral safety that there was little time left for spiritual affairs. To the late Rev. J. H. Spen- cer's "History of Kentucky Baptists" the author is indebted in large part for the fol- lowing statements in connection with the Bap- tist church, in the early history of the state.
The first Baptist preacher known to have been in Kentucky, except Squire Boone who came before any settlement was made, was Thomas Tinsley. Beyond the fact that he was in Harrod's Station and was regularly preaching there on Sundays in the spring of 1776, but little is known of him. William
Hickman, who visited the station at this time and who afterwards became an eminent preacher among the early Baptists of Ken- tucky, in a narrative of "Life and Travels," says: "We got to Harrodsburg the first day of April. (Year not stated). Myself, Thomas Tinsley and my old friend, Mr. Mor- ton, took our lodgings at John Gordon's, four miles from town. Mr. Tinsley was a good old preacher, Mr. Morton a good pious Presbyterian, and love and friendship abounded among us. We went nearly every Sunday to town to hear Mr. Tinsley preach, I generally concluded his meetings. One Sun- day morning he laid his Bible on my knee and said to me, 'You must preach today,' saying that if I did not, he would not. I knew he would not draw back. I took the Book and my text and spoke perhaps for fifteen or twenty minutes, a good deal scared, thinking that if I left down any gaps he would put them up. He followed me with a good dis- course, but never mentioned any blunders." How delightfully sincere and simple-minded these good men of that early day were is plainly shown in the above extract, and in those few words is found about all that is known of Thomas Tinsley, the first Baptist minister who ever preached in Kentucky, or,
452
453
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
as far as is known, in any part of the great west. At what time he came to Kentucky or whence he came is not known.
Much interest has been felt and much in- quiry made as to which is the oldest church in Kentucky and what was the date of its constitution. In 1825 Rev. Spencer Clack, an accomplished scholar and at that date a mem- ber of Simpson's Creek church in Nelson county, now the Bloomfield church, was clerk of the Salem Baptist Association, which body, fearing that its minutes would be lost if not put in more permanent form, made the fol- lowing order: "The clerk is requested to make out a condensed history of the associa- tion and present it at our next meeting." Mr. Clack prepared the report, from which the following is taken: "On Saturday, October 29, 1785. four regular Baptist churches met at Cox's creek, Nelson county, by their dele- gates, in order to form an association. and after a suitable sermon on the occasion preached by Rev. Joseph Burnett, proceeded to business, Joseph Burnett being moderator and Andrew Paul, clerk. Letters from four churches were read: Severn's Valley, con- stituted June 18. 1781, no pastor; Cedar Creek, constituted July. 1781. Joseph Burnett, pastor, number of members not stated; Bear Grass, constituted January, 1784, nineteen members, John Whiteacre pastor; Cox's Creek, constituted April 17, 1785. with twenty-six members, name of pastor, if any. not given."
The late Samuel Haycraft of Hardin county, a born historian, a member of the Severn Valley church and a contemporary of several of those who entered into its constitu- tion, published a history of the church in 1857 in the Christian Repository in which he states that it was constituted June 18, 1781, as above stated, under a green sugar tree about a half mile from the present limits of Elizabethtown. Among the original members were Joseph Vanmeter and his wife Letty, their son Ben-
ham and Hannah, his wife, and three colored persons, Mark, Bambo and Dinah, servants of Joseph Vanmeter. How strange this will ap- pear to those persons who. in other days. imagined that colored people in the southern states were reckoned along with horses, mules and cattle by their owners.
Among the early members of this church were many distinguished citizens of whom may be named John LaRue, in honor of whom the county of LaRue was named: Robert Hodgen from whom the county seat of La- Rue, Hodgenville, received its name ; General Duff Green, afterwards of Washington City, and Thomas Helm, grandfather of Governor John L. Helm, and great-grandmother of IIon. George HI. Yeaman and Rev. W. Pope Yea- man, and other distinguished citizens. "Of the descendants of the original members of the old church," says Mr. Haycraft, "many able ministers have gone forth to declare to the multitudes the blessed message that glad- clened the hearts of their ancestors amid the toils and dangers of the savage-infested wil- derness."
Mr. Haycraft, a grandson of the Jacob V'anmeter above mentioned, further writes of these early churches. "There are facts and circumstances connected with the early history of the church with which the present genera- tion is little acquainted. When this present widespread and favored country was a wilder- ness ; when not a human habitation was to be found between Louisville, then called the Falls of the Ohio, and Green River, save a few families who had ventured into Severn's Valley, a dense, unexplored forest, and com- menced a rude settlement far from the haunts of civilized man, there the lamented John Garrard, a minister of God, came like Jolin the Baptist, 'the voice of one crying in the wilderness,' and finding a few of the disciples of the Lord. like sheep without a shepherd, they were collected together into what was afterwards known as Severn's Valley church.
454
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
It has ever borne the same name, none having dared and it is hoped never may, to lay in- pious hands upon it by changing its venerable name."
Collins states that the first Baptist church was organized in 1781, known as Gilbert's Creek Church at Craigs Station, a few miles east of the present site of Lancaster in Gar- rard county, but does not give the month and day as does Mr. Haycraft in his sketch of Severn's Valley church; so that is impossible at this date, one hundred and thirty years later, to say which is correct.
Of this early period Smith says in the "His- tory of Kentucky." "After the close of the American Revolution, a flood of Baptists poured into Kentucky, chiefly from Virginia, and churches began to spring up everywhere in the wilderness. It was still a time of great peril. Before houses of worship were erected, the worshipers would assemble in the forest, each man with his gun and sentinels would be placed to guard against surprise from the Indians, while the minister, with a log or a stump for his pulpit and the heavens for a sounding board, would dispense the word of life and salvation." And they dispensed it with no sparing hand, tradition stating that some of their sermons occupied nearly two hours in their delivery. The author, in his boyhood days, at a country church has known the services to begin at eleven and continue until one o'clock or later ; and he had to sit in the church and appear to listen, or later take what was sure to come to him. Those of to- day in the city churches, who object to a ser- mon more than twenty-five minutes in length, have no idea what they have missed by not having been born and reared in the country much more than half a century ago.
"In 1790 there were three Baptist Asso- ciations in Kentucky, forty-two churches and 1,311 members. In the population of 7.500, in round numbers, there was about one Bap- tist to twenty-three persons. To minister to
the spiritual needs of the people there were forty-two ordained ministers and twenty-one licentiates. . . . This venerable church soon stretched its arms all through eastern Ken- tucky and exerted a wide influence for good from Kentucky river to Cumberland Gap. The history of this church has been imperfectly written but its influence is en- graven upon hundreds of prominent names in the Baptist denomination in Kentucky. Three important stations in the neighborhood of Boonesborough were founded by its mem- bers, and but few events occurred affecting the welfare of the state, south of the Ken- tucky river, in which they did not participate."
The Methodist Episcopal church, with that missionary spirit which has characterized it from the days of Wesley to the present, turned its eyes early to the Kentucky field and, in 1786, of the five new circuits added to what might be termed its General Confer- ence, Kentucky was one of these and thus six years before the district became a state, the Methodist itinerants were in the forest wilds on their holy mission. The first two of these who came in 1786 were James Haw and Ben- jamin Ogden. The first named of these re- mained for five years, afterwards going to Tennessee, where he subsequently withdrew from the Methodist and joined the Presby- terian church, in which he continued preach- ing until the time of his death years after- wards. Benjamin Ogden preached for a time in Kentucky after his coming in 1786, but was later transferred to the Cumberland circuit in middle Tennessee. He died at Princeton, Kentucky, in 1834, having been for nearly fifty years a minister. These two, Haw and Ogden, were the first Methodist ministers sent to Kentucky by a conference, but they were not the first Methodist ministers to come to the then western frontier.
"In 1784," says Smith, "a local preacher by the name of Tucker, while on his way with his kindred and companions, descending the
455
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
Ohio in a boat to Kentucky, was attacked by Indians. Mortally wounded, by his bravery and presence of mind, he rescued the boat and his comrades, among whom were the women and children and then fell on his knees and died, shouting praises to God. But as early as 1783, Rev. Francis Clark, accom- panied by John Durham, a class leader and others of his neighbors with their families, left Virginia and settled in Mercer county. He organized the first class in the far west about six miles from Danville and appointed John Durham as its leader. Clark stands pre- eminent as the founder of Methodism in Kentucky."
state, it will seem strange to know that the conference over which Bishop Asbury, at risk of his life, had come to preside, was composed of but six persons : Peter Massie, James Haw, Wilson Lee, Francis Poythress, Barnabas Mc- Henry and Stephen Brooks. There was preaching at noon and night, some were con- verted and others who had wandered from the fold were restored to fellowship. Three elders were ordained, plans for a school to be called Bethel were arranged, and three hundred pounds in money and land subscribed for its founding.
Bishop Asbury, whose name is revered to this day, was born in England ; was early con- verted, began holding meetings at seventeen years of age and at eighteen was preaching. He was sent by Mr. Wesley to America when he was but twenty-six, and at Baltimore, in 1784, was unanimously chosen a bishop.
The first annual conference of the Meth- odist church in Kentucky assembled at Master- son's Station near Lexington, May 15, 1790, and was presided over by Bishop Asbury. Accompanying him were Richard Whatcoat, who was afterwards to become a bishop, In 1783, there came to Kentucky Rev. David Rice, the founder of Presbyterianism in the west. He was an earnest Christian man, well fitted for the arduous duties of a pioneer. Zealous in the cause of the church and its twin, the cause of education, he at once became a popular member of the small community with which he had cast his lot. Public-spirited as a citizen the people sent him as a delegate to the convention which met at Danville in 1792. His course in the con- vention which framed the first Constitution of Kentucky, was marked by his earnest efforts to bring about the abolition of slavery, in which he was unsuccessful. What might have been the result had he succeeded! Per- haps Virginia would have followed in the footsteps of her first-born, and after her others of the southern states, until the curse of slavery would finally have been lifted from the land and the horrors of internecine war avoided. Mr. Rice was an earnest, dignified, good man and did more than any other to bring the Presbyterian church into prom- Hope Hull and John Leawell. Asbury, the first bishop who had ventured into the west- ern wilds, was guarded throughout his jour- ney from Virginia, by a volunteer company composed of the Rev. Peter Massie, John Clark and eight others. On the tenth day after leaving Virginia the party reached Lex- ington in safety, though much worn by the hardships of the journey across mountains and streams and through the pathless forest. Bishop Asbury afterwards said of this jour- ney : "I was strangely outdone for want of sleep. Our way was over mountains, steep hills, deep rivers and muddy creeks, a thick growth of weeds for miles together and no inhabitants but wild beasts and savage men. I slept about an hour the first night and about two the last. We ate no regular meals, our bread grew short and I was much spent." He relates that on the way he saw the graves of twenty-four persons in one camp, who but a few nights previously had been murdered by the Indians. To those who know of the thousands of Methodists found today in the inence in the state. His great labors ceased
456
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS
only when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-three years, dying in July, 1816. He was followed by other earnest, good men, who kept alive the fires which he had lighted.
In 1786, the Presbytery of Transylvania, which recalls Colonel Henderson's futile efforts to found a state under that name, met at Danville-the first Presbytery ever assem- bled in the district of Kentucky, there being twelve Presbyteries represented and five min- isters present. These latter were Reverends Rice, Rankin, McClure, Crawford and Temp- lin.
The question of who first held religious services in Kentucky is yet a mooted one, nor does its solution particularly affect the then religious status of the frontier, but the jour- nal of Col. Richard Henderson dated Sun- day, May 25, 1775, notes the following : "Divine service, for the first time in Ken- tucky, was performed by the Rev. John Lythe of the Church of England." It is supposed that Colonel Henderson meant on the date of the entry in his journal. This is fairly con- clusive evidence as to the date of the first service, and whether it be correct or not, it is to the credit of the early settlers that, in the midst of almost daily alarms and incur- sions of the savages, they could and did find time for worship. Colonel Henderson fur- ther says of a great elm tree at Boonesbor- ongh: "This divine tree, or rather one of the many proofs of the existence from all eternity of its Divine Author, is to be our church and council chamber. Having many things on our hands, we have not had time to erect seats and a pulpit but hope by Sun- day sennight, to perform divine service in a public manner, and that to a set of scoundrels who scarcely believe in God or fear a devil. if we are to judge from the looks, words or actions of most of them." Those who have formed opinions unfavorable to Colonel Hen- derson by reason of his efforts to establish the new state of Transylvania, may be led to
revise them on learning that he was what might be termed a "blue-stocking" Presby- terian. That he had no exalted opinion of many of those whom he met at Boonesborough is evident from the vigorous quotation from his journal, above given. That he was pos- sessed of an intimate acquaintance with the strength of English language cannot be doubted-a characteristic still inherent in his amiable and excellent descendants yet to be found in Kentucky.
It does not appear that Mr. Lythe remained long in Kentucky; perhaps the vigorous de- scription of some of the people at Boones- borough, as given by Colonel Henderson, may have been an impelling reason for his early departure.
The first settlers in Kentucky, coming for the most part from Virginia, were either Bap- tists or members of the Episcopal church with, of course, some from other churches and perhaps, a large number from no church. Marshall says in his history of the state: "There were in the country, and chiefly from Virginia, many Episcopalians, but these had formed no church. there being no parson or minister to take charge of such. This very relaxed state of that society may have been occasioned by the War of the Revolution, which cut off the source of clerical supply. derived then mainly from Great Britain. There remained, even in Virginia, a real defi- ciency of preachers. Education is, with this fraternity, a necessary qualification for ad- ministering both the affairs of church and state."
The first Episcopal church was founded in 1794 at Lexington, but there was not organ- ized a parish until 1809. Marshall relates that after the Revolutionary War, a flood of atheism swept over the country and that skepticism or an indifference to religion pre- vailed even among the educated classes. The effects of a long period of warfare are not limited to the horrors of the battlefield or
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.