Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. I, Part 84

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. I > Part 84

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Elder John SMITH, familiarly known in Kentucky and to many thousands of people elsewhere as Raccoon John Smith, was one of the most remarkable men of the "current Reformation ;" born in Sullivan co., East Tennessee, Oct. 15, 1784, and died at Mexico, Mo., Feb. 28, 1868-aged 83; education limited, but thorough ; joined the Baptist church in Dec., 1804, and from 1808 to 1828 was a preacher in that connection, and for the next 40 years one of the most eloquent, powerful, and trusted leaders of the Church of the Disciples of Christ. Upon his tombstone is inscribed, " By the power of the Word, he turned many from error; in its light he walked, and in its con- solations he triumphantly died."

432

CHURCH STATISTICS.

CENSUS STATISTICS OF CHURCHES IN KENTUCKY.

The statistics of the churches, so far as obtainable, are to be found under the sketches of the several churches. The following are arranged or gather- ed exclusively from the U. S. census :

In 1850, Kentucky had one church to every 532 of population; in 1860, one to 530; and in 1870, one to 490.

The Baptists have the greatest number of church edifices :

1850 1860

1870

1850

1860 1870

Baptist ... per cent. 43.4

36.1

35.6

Episcopal ... per cent. 1.0

1.1- 1.3

Methodist =

34.1

30.5

30.3

Roman Catholic "

2.6 3.8 4.6

Christian

6.0

13.9

16.1

Presbyterian 12.1 11.0 10.5

But the churches do not indicate the proportionate number of communicants, or numerical strength, so well as the sittings or accommodations-for which, see the table below :

Denomination. Year.

Organiza- tions.

Edifices or Churches.

Sittings or Accommodations.

Property.

InKy. In U.S In Ky In U.S.

In Ky.

In U. S.

In Ky.

In U. S.

Baptist ..

1860

788

11,221

267,860|

3,749,551

888,530|

19,799,378

1870

1,004 14474

962|12,857|288,936;

3,997,116 2,023,975

39,229,221

Methodist.

.1850

530

13,302 167,485|

4,345,519

460,755

14,825.070

1860

666

19,883

228,100

6,259,799

808.305

33,093,371

1870

978

25278

818

21,337

244,918|

6,528,209

1,854.565

69,854,121

Christian

1850

112

875

46,340|

303,780

164,925

853.386

1860

304

2,068 104,980

681,016

499,810

2.518,045

1870

490

3,578

436

2,822

141,585

2,079,765

491,303

14,543,789

1860

250

6,406

99,1751. 2.565,949

720,825

26,840,525

1870

306

7,824

285

7,071

100,750|

2,698,244 1,292,400

53.265,256

Roman Catholic1850

1,222

24,240

667,863

336,910

9,256,758

1860

2,550

44,820

1,404,437

695,850

26,774,119

1870

130

4,127

125

3,806

72,550

1,990,514 2,604,900

60,985,566

Prot. Episcopal.1850

1,459

7,050

643,598

112,150

11,375,010

1860

2,145

9,940

847,296

199,100

21,665,698

1870

2,835

2,601

15.800

991,051

570,300

36,514,549

1860

2,128

5,400|

757,637

50,600

5,385,179

1870

7 3,032

2,776

1,650

977,332

16,000

14,917,747

Jewish

1850

600

18,371

13,000

418,600

1870

189

152

1,500

73,265

134,000

5,155,235

Shaker.

1850

1,500

5,150

8,000

39,500

1870

1,600

8,850

23,000

86,900

Universalist

1850

530

2.200

215,115

11,650

1,778,316

1870

719

602

400

210,884

5,500

5,692,325

Unitarian

1850

245

700

138,067

15,000

3,280,822

1870

331

310

700|

155,471

75,000

6,282,675

Total

1850

1,845 38,061 671,053 14,234,825 2,252,448

87,328,801

1860

2,17954,009 778,025 19,128,751 3,928.620 171,397,932

1870 2,969.72459 2,696 63,082 878.039 21,665,062 9,824,465 354,483,581

...

664

2,500

235,219

29,950

2,856,095

Lutheran.

1850

6 1,231

3,050

539,701

23,800

2,909,711

Presbyterian .... 1850

224

4,826

99,106!

865,602 1,046,075

6,425,137

185

803

9,376 291,855

3.247,069

$570,505 $11,020,855

1860

The Baptists have churches in all of the 116 counties in the state but 3, the Methodists in all but 4, the Christian in 97 counties, the Presbyterians in 77, the Roman Catholics in 49, the Episcopal in 21, the Lutheran in only 6.

In 1860, the average cost of the churches was : 1. Roman Catholic $8,384; 2. Episcopal $7,964; 3. Lutheran $5,060; 4. Universalist $4,492; 5. Pres- byterian $2,883 ; 6. Christian $1,644; 7. Methodist $1,214; 8. Baptist $1,128; 9. Union $759.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

IN 1796, James McGready, a Presbyterian minister, settled in Logan county, Kentucky, and took charge of three congregations-Little Muddy, Gaspar river, and Red river-the latter situated near the state line separat- - ing Tennessee and Kentucky. Mr. McGready was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and had been educated at what afterwards became Jefferson college in that state. He commenced his ministry in North Carolina; was a man of great earnestness, and denounced open sin and religious formalism with unusual severity. On this account, becoming offensive to many of his hearers, he removed to Kentucky, where the effect of his earnest and severe manner was different from what it had been in North Carolina. In 1796-7 indications began of what proved to be a great revival of religion, which in a few years extended over the Green river country and the neighboring portions of Ten- nessee. The latter was then called the "Cumberland country."

Soon after Mr. McGready settled in Kentucky, several other Presbyterian ministers emigrated from North Carolina, and settled in Tennessee ; amongst them William Hodge, William McGee, and Samuel Mc.Adoo, who entered earnestly into the spirit and measures of Mr. McGready in promoting the revival. There was opposition, and some of it came from other ministers of the Presbyterian church. The extension of the religious interest multiplied converts, and new congregations sprang up all over the land. The Presby- terian method of supplying the great and increasing demand for ministerial labor was slow, at that time. Some of the ministers who visited the country were not in sympathy with the revival, and their labors not acceptable. Rev. David Rice, one of the patriarchs of Presbyterianismn in Kentucky, visited the Green river and Cumberland countries, and witnessing the great destitution of ministerial labor, advised the revival ministers to select some pious and promising young men from their congregations, and encourage them to prepare for the ministry as well as their circumstances would permit. It was not expected that they would undergo the ordinary educational train- ing, as the demand was urgent, and the means of such training were beyond their reach. The measure was adopted. Three young men were in a short time advanced to the ministry, and others were encouraged to a preparation for the work. But difficulties grew up. The opposers of the revival of course opposed the measure. The difficulties became so serious that the synod of Kentucky appointed a commission of their body to meet at Gaspar river church, and endeavor to adjust them. The attempt failed. Things rather became worse. Reference must be made to the histories of the times for the circumstances and facts.

There was another question of difficulty between the parties in the church. The young men who were licensed and ordained. excepted to what seemed to them the doctrine of fatality, which appeared to them to be taught in several chapters of the Confession of Faith, and also in the catechismn. They were lionest and serious men; they were compelled to interpret the Confes- sion of Faith for themselves. The difficulties, in their view, were insur- mountable ; still they were advanced to the ministry without being required to adopt the doctrinal standards of the church in this particular. They desired no other modification. These proceedings, as well as the licensure and ordination of what were called uneducated men, were very offensive to the more stringent portion of the membership and ministry of the Presby- terian church. The difficulties were protracted through several years. The revival party considered themselves oppressed and wronged, and when there seemed no hope of redress, three of the revival ministers-who were also members of the Cumberland presbytery which had been constituted, and then again dissolved by the synod of Kentucky-determined to re-constitute

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434

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE

the Cumberland presbytery by their own authority, as ministers of the Pres- byterian church. It was a revolutionary measure ; and of course the Pres- bytery was an independent body. The presbytery was thus constituted, on the 4th of February, 1810, by Samuel McAdoo, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King.

This history explains the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and also of the name by which it is distinguished. The independent Pres- bytery was Cumberland presbytery. The good men who constituted it did not suppose that they were constituting a Presbytery which would develop itself out into a large ecclesiastical organization. It was evidently with them a measure of present self-defense. The providence of God has, however, so overruled that " the little one has become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation." The name of the presbytery-which was entirely local and accidental-has adhered to the people.

Within the limits of Kentucky are seven presbyteries. All these are in- cluded in one synod, the synod of Kentucky. The membership numbers about 15,000.

'The first camp-meeting ever held in Christendom was in the year 1800, at the Gaspar river meeting-house, in Logan county. It was held by the promoters of the great revival of which the Cumberland Presbyterian church was an outgrowth. The practice was continued for many years; but as the country became settled, and the ministrations of the Gospel became more regular, and especially more abundant, the necessity which originated these large religious gatherings passed away, and, of course, they ceased to be held.

It has been stated that one of the subjects of difficulty in the Presbyterian church which gave rise to the new organization was-the advancing of men into the ministry who had not acquired a regular literary and theological educa- tion. And yet, in 1825-when the church was but fifteen years old- measures were adopted with great unanimity by the Cumberland synod, at that time the highest judicature of the church, for the establishment of a college with a special view to the education of the ministry. The very men, too, about whose defective education the original presbyterial controversy arose were leaders in this movement. They thus gave their explicit sanction to a high order of education on the part of the ministry. They themselves had entered the ministry, and labored with abundant success without such an education-because the exigency of the church called for them, and the attainment of an education at the time and under the circumstances was impossible. This is a practical view of this question as it presented itself to them in 1805, and again in 1825.

The contemplated college was located at Princeton, and opened in March, 1826, as a manual-labor school; each student being required to spend two hours daily in such labor as an ordinary farm requires, and to board at a common boarding-house. A farm was purchased, a faculty of instruction appointed, every thing necessary for carrying forward the enterprise fur- nished. Rev. F. R. Cassitt was elected president, and Hon. Daniel L. Mor- rison, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. These two, with the assistance of several young men, managed the instruction to the close of 1830, when Judge Morrison resigned. Various changes were made in the faculty until 1842, when the president, and all the professors except one, re- signed, and connected themselves with what has become Cumberland uni- versity at Lebanon, Tennessee. The college survived, however, some twelve or fifteen years, having laid aside its mannal-labor . feature ; but at length went down. It was an experiment. The object was to diminish the expenses of an education, and at the same time to promote health and practical habits. The system did not work well; it was not adapted to the habits of those portions of the country from which the chief patronage of the institution was derived.

The theology of Cumberland Presbyterians is conservative. It rejects the extremes of both Calvinism and Arminianism. On this subject the church calls no man master. There is, however, no looseness. Its doctrinal status is distinctly defined. It has a Confession of Faith. It has some theological works, which it receives as helps, but its highest authority is the Bible. Cumberland Presbyterians reject the doctrine of predestination, as taught

435

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

in the theological symbols of the Presbyterian church, under the head of " The Decrees of God." It seems to them to make too close an approach to the necessity of the ancients. At the same time they receive as scriptural and full of comfort the doctrine of " The Final Perseverance " of believers in faith and holiness. These two doctrines are regarded by both extreme Calvinists and extreme Arminians as essential links of one theological chain. Cumberland Presbyterians believe that they have no essential connection- that while the one is true and salutary in its influence, the other is not true, and that its practical influence is pernicious.

A brief notice of some of the leading ministers of this denomination, whose labors have been mainly identified with Kentucky, will be in place here.

FINIS EWING, a member of one of the most respectable and prominent families in south-western Kentucky, was a native of Virginia, but in early life settled in Tennessee ; thence removed to Kentucky, and lived for many years in Christian county. While living there he performed the chief labors of his ministerial life. He was one of the young men advanced to the ministry in the progress of the revival, and who constituted the independent Cumberland presbytery in 1810. Late in life he removed to Missouri, where he died in 1842. His sons are now prominent men in that State. He has always been regarded, if not the father, one of the fathers of the Cum- berland Presbyterian churchi.

. ! FRANCEMAY R. CASSITT was a native of New Hampshire; educated at Middlebury College in Vermont ; emigrated to the south-west about 1820, and became the first president of Cumberland college at Princeton ; was one of the originators of the Religious and Literary Intelligencer, the first paper published under the auspices of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He was a man of fine culture, and a respectable preacher. He spent his latter years in Tennessee, and died there in 1863. Dr. Cassitt published .the " Life and Times of Rev. Finis Ewing," and was for a number of years editor and publisher of the Banner of Peace.

ALEXANDER CHAPMAN was a native of Pennsylvania, but began his ministry in Kentucky. His home was in Butler county ; his ministrations extended to many of the counties around. He was a very popular and effective preacher, a natural orator, with a fine personal appearance, and the dignity and bearing of a gentleman. No man of his time was more useful in that whole region. He died in 1824.

WILLIAM HARRIS was a plain and an original man; in person tall and strongly built; his educational advantages limited ; he was in the fullest sense a self-made man. He was an early subject of the revival, but did not enter the ministry until after the constitution of the independent Cumberland presbytery. He was a strong preacher, unequal in his manner ; sometimes he fell below himself; at others, was overpowering. He and Mr. Chapman lived in adjoining counties, and labored a great deal together. Their names are still household words in a large space of country. Several of Mr. Harris' sons entered the ministry. One of them, David Rice Harris, was among the first students of Cumberland college. He became rather distin- guished as a teacher, and was also an excellent preacher. Both the father and the son died some years ago.

HENRY F. DELANY, after amassing considerable property at the practice of law, professed religion, and devoted himself to the ministry. He was a man of great earnestness and power in the pulpit. He delivered the first address on the subject of Temperance that the writer ever heard. It was not a set address, but seemed rather a spontaneous talk, delivered in one of the judicatures of the church. It was brief but expressive, and good seed was sown. Mr. Delany died near Morganfield, in 1531 or 1832.

The BARNETTS were an extraordinary family in their time. John, William, and James Y. Barnett were brothers, and all ministers of the Cumberland

436

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE

Presbyterian church. John Barnett lived and labored in Caldwell county. He had a long, and at one time troublesome connection with the financial department of Cumberland college. William Barnett was one of the most powerful and popular preachers of his time. He lived a number of year's in Christian county, then removed to Henderson, and finally to western Tennessee, where he died in 1827. James Y. Barnett lived and labored in Christian county.

MILTON BIRD was a native of Kentucky. In his early ministry he went with others as a missionary to western Pennsylvania, and remained some years. Returning to Kentucky, he became connected with the Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Publication, located in Louisville. His latter years were spent in Caldwell county, in charge of Bethlehem congregation. He was successively editor of the Union Evangelist, published at Uniontown, Pa., of the Watchman and Evangelist, at Louisville, and of the Saint Louis Observer, at Saint Louis. The Theological Medium was originated by him, and under the denomination of the Theological Medium and Cumberland Presbyterian Quarterly was continued to the commencement of the late war. Dr. Bird also published a work some years ago on the Doctrines of Grace, and a short time before his death, in 1871, wrote a life of the Rev. Alex- ander Chapman.

A. M. BRYAN, D. D., and H. S. PORTER, D. D., were natives of Kentucky, where they spent the years of their early ministry. The former died in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1861; the latter in Memphis, Tenn., in 1855. They were worthy representatives of Kentucky, in the homes of their adoption.

DAVID LOWRY was raised in Logan county, Ky., professed religion, and entered the ministry in early life; has been an earnest and laborious preacher for now (1872) more than fifty years. He has lived in Tennessee, Minnesota, Iowa, and now lives in Missouri. He has been an eminently useful minister, and has done something in the way of authorship.

HIRAM A. HUNTER is (1872) in the 73d year of his life, and 52d of his ministry. He is still rendering efficient service by his pulpit ministrations.

Cumberland Presbyterians derived their animus from their fathers of the revival, and, of course, are favorable to revivals. They are doing what they can in promoting the kingdom of Christ among their fellow-men. They are strictly Presbyterian in their order of church government.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

EPISCOPAL CHURCH, IN KENTUCKY.

THE history of the Episcopal Church in Kentucky can not be understood without some knowledge of the same church as it existed in Virginia, during the period when Kentucky was a part of that ancient commonwealth.

The early settlement of Virginia was with a distinct Christian purpose- the preaching of the Gospel to the heathen natives. This is prominently set forth in all the constitutions and charters under which that settlement was made. The Church, with her faiths, her sacraments, and a part of her min- istry, was an integral part of the colonization of the state from the beginning, and continuously. Every-where, with the spreading population, substantial edifices for public worship were erected, and competent provision made for the maintenance of all the decencies and proprieties of Christian religion. The influence of these institutions, and of the faith which they embodied, was most benign and salutary. They gave to the age of the Revolution its noble character and its deep-seated principles, the force and momentum of which have come down, with gradually decreasing power, to our own day. But with these institutions and with their proper effect and influence, was mingled the fatal leaven of secularity.

According to the theory of the Episcopal church, the ministry, as well as the church itself, is of Divine institution, and derives all its powers and ca- pacities for good from the Divine appointment. But the rulers of the state in England did not see the use of compliance with this appointment of God in the new planting of the church in America. They undertook to dispense with the most essential part of that Divine institution-the Episcopate. It is true that the Episcopate was nominally continued as a part of the constitu- tion of the church in this country, by making the whole of the North Ameri- can colonies a part of the Diocese of London. But this, for its practical in- fluence, was little better than a mockery of the Divine institution in the regard of this church. Besides, towards the close of the 17th and through the whole of the 18th century, religion was at a low ebb in England, as in all Christen- dom. Almost as a matter of course under such circumstances, the ministers who came to this country, with some high and honorable exceptions, consisted for the most part of those who, unable to obtain a living at home, consented to go into banishment in the colonies. What else could have been expected from such a clergy-without Episcopal supervision-without any sort of con- trol but that public opinion which they were to form-but the looseness of man- ners and the coldness and vapidness of doctrine which history and tradition tell us were characteristic of so large a proportion of the clergy !

Then came the shock of the Revolution. Many of these shepherds deserted their flocks and left the country. Others, of more patriotic instincts, joined the. Revolutionary army, or became lawyers and politicians. Not long after, the flood of French revolutionary Atheism came in, and there was no suffi- cient barrier to oppose it. Skepticism, or a contemptuous indifference to religion, prevailed to a deplorable extent among the educated classes. This description applies with even more emphasis to Kentucky, as the frontier, than to the older portions of Virginia. The Hon. Humphrey Marshall, in his History of Kentucky, published in 1824, writes of 1792: " There were in the country, and chiefly from Virginia, many Episcopalians, but who had formed no church-there being no person to take charge of it. At the period of separation from Virginia (1792), it might have been hazarded as a prob- able conjecture, that no Episcopalian church would ever be erected in Ken- tucky. There is, however (1824), one pastor who has a church in Lexington. Education is, with this fraternity, a necessary qualitication for administering

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438

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF

the affairs of both church and state. The forms of their worship are highly decorous, and their discipline calculated to make good citizens." (Cited in Appendix to Journal of Convention of 1859.)

From the same Appendix we learn that the church in Lexington was founded as early as 1794. But there was no organized parish until July 2d, 1809, when the first vestry was elected-consisting of John Wyatt, John Johnston, W. M. Bean, John Jordan, Wm. Morton, David Shirley, Walter Warfield. The Rev. James Moore had been, a few months before this elec- tion of the vestry, formally chosen, perhaps by the congregation, as the first minister of Christ Church, Lexington; to officiate once in two weeks, at a salary of $200 per annum. But Mr. Moore must have been officiating, with- out a regular engagement and without salary, for some time; for we learn that he came to Kentucky in 1792, as a candidate for the Presbyterian ministry, conformed to the Episcopal church in 1794, and became the first minister of Christ Church, Lexington. In 1798, he was acting president of Transylvania University and professor of logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and belles-lettres. He is described as learned, devoted, courteous, and liberal.

In 1814, the parish still further perfected its organization by agreeing to the constitution and canons of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States. John D. Clifford was appointed a delegate to the general convention held in Philadelphia, May, 1814. June 6th, 1819, Mr. Lemuel Burge was ordained deacon by Bishop Chase, at Worthington, Ohio; Mr. Burge died in Feb., 1820. The next regular rector was the Rev. Geo. T. Chapman, D.D., in July, 1820; he was rector of Christ Church for ten years-during which time the little brick chapel gave way to a church building of good appearance for that day, of brick, and stuccoed to imitate stone.

Six clergymen (who settled in Kentucky) educated in this country, went to England for holy orders-because of the continued refusal to send bishops to this country. Of these, three-Judge Benjamin Sebastian, Dr. Gant, of Louisville, and Dr. Chambers, of Bardstown, obtained eminence in other pro- fessions. The other three, who also received letters of orders abroad-Rer. Messrs. Johnson, of Nelson county, Elliott, of Franklin county, and Crawford, of Shelby county-seldom exercised their sacred office, and did little or nothing towards establishing the Church of their faith and of their fathers, in Kentucky .*

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. I, Part 84

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn Publication date: 1874 Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452