USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 12
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CATHOLICS
The church of St. Mark's on West Main Street of Richmond is the tangible fruits of Catholic influence that goes back to the earliest days in Madison County. The communicants in early days were served by priests from Bardstown, then by 1853 by priests from Lexington and Mt. Sterling. Either the courthouse or the home of a member served as mission stations in the county. In 1858 there were three mission stations; Richmond, Boonesborough, and Rogers- ville with 150 communicants.
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In 1865 the Richmond mission purchased a lot on West Main Street and erected a small frame church, which continued to be served from Lexington until 1874 when it was assigned its first resident pastor but in 1887 it again became a mission attached to the Winchester parish.
In 1905 property was purchased at North Second Street and Moberly Avenue for a parish rectory and home for the Mission Band of the Central Mountain Counties of the Diocese. In 1906 the little church on West Main had just been remodeled when it was destroyed by fire. Two years later it was replaced by the present stone church of simple design but striking beauty. In 1917 a new pastoral residence was constructed on the adjoining lot.
By 1913 the mission work connected with the Richmond church included ten missions and stations in seven mountain counties. Only recently a mission was established at Berea. A Catechetical center was opened in Richmond in 1948 and land was purchased in 1953 on which the church plans to erect a parochial school in the near future.
The present pastor, Very Reverend Monsignor Oscar L. Poole was appointed to the Richmond church in 1930 and has been a beloved shepherd of the flock these many years .- History of the Diocese of Covington.
WHITE'S MEMORIAL
The Silver Creek Chapel was erected by Mrs. Margaret Faulkner White Breckinridge, later Mrs. Robert L. Breck, on land given by her son, George D. White in 1876. The chapel was intended as a memorial to her first husband, William H. White. She erected the chapel with the hope that it might be a blessing to the community and that a Presbyterian Church might be organized for its oc- cupancy.
Her hopes were not in vain, for within two years by transfer of membership and confession of faith, the membership had grown to thirty-five and it had been reported to the Presbytery of Tran- sylvania for organization.
In 1923 when the church was at its strongest, a Sunday school room and kitchen or serving room were added in the rear. This ad- dition was very beneficial to the church and especially to the women who were known for serving fine food which meant much in
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the meeting of current expenses of the church.
Since unfortunately there was another church of the same name in the county, in 1948 this church voted to change its name to White's Memorial in honor of the family who established it and served it faithfully in its early years. Today it has about fifty mem- bers and is the only rural Presbyterian church in the county to have weathered the changing times.
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH
The Christian Science Church of Richmond was organized about forty years ago. It has had a small and often transcient member- ship through the years, but has consistently held its two meetings each week. Its present place of worship is over the Margaret Burnam Shop on North Second Street.
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
The Church of Christ was organized several years ago and held its meetings in a business house down town until an attractive little church was recently erected at East Main and Baker Streets. The late Dr. Noel B. Cuff, Personnel Director and Professor of Education at Eastern Kentucky State College, was a moving factor in the organization and development of this new church and at the time of his recent death was serving as temporary pastor.
BAPTIST
The various religious sects that were preaching their doctrines along the seaboard in colonial days soon followed the first settlers of the west in their long trek. Perhaps the first to establish them- selves in Madison County were the Baptist even though the first sermon in the territory which later became Kentucky was preached by Rev. John Lythe, an Episcopalian, at Boonesborough on May 28, 1775.
William Bush of Virginia came in with Boone, being one of the party who preceded Col. Richard Henderson to Kentucky, cutting the Wilderness Road through to Boonesborough. Bush arranged for land for his friends back in Virginia and planned to bring out about forty families of relatives and friends most of whom were Baptist in 1780. Because of the war and the unsettled condition in Ken- tucky they stopped off at Holston, N.C. and made three crops there
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before moving on to Boonesborough late in 1783. This was one of the "traveling churches" that came from Virginia where they had been bitterly persecuted by the state church.
The first Baptist church organized in Madison County territory was the Tates Creek Church of Regular Baptist in 1783 or '85 and John Tanner was their first pastor. Before leaving Virginia, he had been shot and seriously wounded by a certain Mr. Dawson, who was incensed because Tanner had baptized his wife. Later he served a term in jail for preaching. The Tates Creek Church prospered until early in the new century when Alexander Campbell began preaching the new doctrine, which won many followers and de- pleted many of the already established churches of their members. Tanner refused to either examine or baptize Campbell converts.
In 1786 the Otter Creek Church known as the Separate Baptist was organized, joined the Tates Creek Association, and erected a stone building. By 1824 it had built up a membership of 124, but by 1829 the Campbellites had made such inroads on them that the congregation was soon dissolved.
The Viney Fork on Muddy Creek was founded in 1797 as the United Baptist. During the great revival it added 221 new mem- bers but by 1830 Campbell had all of them except 46. That same year the Tates Creek Association met at Viney Fork and during its session passed a resolution severing connection with every church that held to the doctrine of Campbell. In the early forties the schism reduced the number of churches in the association from 19 to 10.
In 1828 the "Particular Baptist" Church was erected in Richmond as a result of a split in the Mt. Nebo Church. This group derived its name from their belief in the "Great doctrine of particular re- demption." In 1843 they changed its name to the "Predestinarian Baptist Church at Richmond and as such exists today on North Second St." In 1839 this church excluded Nathaniel Sims and his sister Isabel Taylor because they had opened the meeting house doors, contrary to orders, to the Campbellites. In 1862 this building was taken over as a hospital for sick and wounded soldiers for several months following the Battle of Richmond. In 1873 or '74 the government paid $350 to the congregation for the use of the build- ing.
The Flat Wood Church began in 1801 and later had its dif-
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ficulties also with the new doctrine. In 1843 the congregation threatened to dismiss one member because he had joined the Masons.
The church at Union came into existence in 1812 but by 1830 a majority of its members had become followers of Campbell or Reformers. This church, unlike most of the other disrupted congre- gations, compromised with the dissenting element, built in 1848 a new brick church jointly and both shared it until 1893 when the Baptist purchased the interests of the Reformers and are still going strong today.
The Old Cane Springs Regular Baptist Church was organized in 1803 and a large brick meeting house was erected in 1812-13. In 1806 David Chenault, who had been pastor at Flat Wood became pastor, and with others of the same name played an active part in the life of this congregation for many years. During the year 1812 there were 101 additions to the membership and only five lost. Sixty-one of the new members came by experience. The dea- cons were strict in discipline and did not hesitate to exclude members for imbibing too freely, for slander, for playing thimble, and one brother was excluded for striking his wife when "they fell out and fit." The church stands today a reminder of the stirring days of the Civil War period, but for several years it has not been on the active list.
The First Baptist or Missionary Baptist Church of Richmond was organized in 1867 by members of Richmond, Republican, Speedwell and Waco contingents and met in the courthouse for sometime, then in Green's Opera House, which stood on the present site of the Glyndon Hotel. Later they purchased a half interest in the Primitive Baptist Church and worshiped there on a half-time basis until 1908, when they secured the other half of the property. They continued in this building until 1923 when the construction of the new modern plant was begun.
From a meager handful of communicants First Church has grown into one of the largest and most active congregations in the city. The Missionary Baptist Church has grown by division and today there are three other congregations with good homes, the Calvary on Big Hill, the Broadway St. Church and the Rosedale Street Church.
Other churches established before 1828 were Hay's Fork, Red
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Lick, Round Top, White Oak, Pond, Salem, and Silver Creek.
The Baptist Church in Berea was organized in 1896 and held services in Hanson Hall until a small church was erected and out- grown by 1910. A new building was dedicated in 1916. It was damaged extensively by fire in 1925 with the result that it was en- larged and modernized to its present satisfactory condition.
The Pilot Knob Church erected in 1947 on the site of the old church is one of the attractive new rural churches. Two other new Baptist congregations near Berea deserve mention, the Bethel Bap- tist Church of Scaffold Cane, which was erected in 1948, and the Middletown one in 1947. The Gilead Church, also, functions in the County.
The First Baptist Church at Irvine and B Streets was organized in 1844. Little is known of its history until thirty-three years later where Madison Campbell was its pastor and the church boasted of a membership of 700. At one service in 1879, 1500 spectators were present when Elder Campbell baptized sixty-three colored people in Richmond. He continued as pastor of this church till shortly before his death in 1897. "All respected him, rich and poor, high and low, black and white." This congregation has a commodi- ous brick church that meets all of its physical needs.
Other Baptist churches of the city and county that are de- serving of mention are as follows: The Richmond Predestinarian, the Concord Predestinarian, Elizabeth Predestinarian, Mt. Pleasant, New Liberty, Mt. Nebo, Stoney Point Predestinarian, Otter Creek Farristown, Goodloe Chapel, Middletown, Paint Lick, and Peyton- town.
METHODIST
The first Methodist preachers to come to Kentucky, James Haw and Benjamin Ogden, were sent out by Bishop Asbury in 1786 and Haw was soon found preaching at Estill's Fort in Madison County. "A mighty revival of religion" soon began and many of the converts became Christian leaders in Central Kentucky. One of these con- verts was Joseph Proctor, the great Indian fighter and hero of the Battle of Little Mountain. He organized Proctor's Chapel on higher ground up from Boonesborough about 1790. Shortly before 1811 the congregation moved from this log church up to near the Lexington pike, erected a more substantial building on land given
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by John Bennett, and changed the name to Providence. During its later years it shared a minister with the church in Richmond. The church had become weak and, with the erection of the Red House Church in 1892, Providence ceased to function.
Joseph Proctor was ordained a local preacher by Bishop Asbury in 1809 and served the church faithfully till his death in 1844.
By 1796 the following churches had been added to the method- ist roll: Green's Chapel, Muddy Creek, later called Friendship, Irvine, and Concord which was about five miles east of Richmond. The Madison Circuit was first formed in 1811 and by 1836 it had sixteen preaching places. The Richmond congregation is first men- tioned in 1833, but it did not erect a church building until 1841, when it purchased a lot at the corner of Second and Irvine Streets. A second church of brick was built on the same lot and dedicated in 1882. Again their quarters were outmoded and a new structure with modern educational quarters was erected at Main and Church streets and dedicated in 1927.
Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in America, made his first trip to Kentucky in 1790 accompanied by eighteen men armed with thirteen guns. They passed through the present site of Rich- mond on their way to Lexington to attend the first Methodist con- ference in the Kentucky territory. He came through the county again in 1809 and states in his diary: "Stayed at kind John Ben- netts and preached at Bennett's Chapel. Capt. Irvine took me horne with him. The way led through Richmond on Monday and on over the Long Hill."
The College Hill Church was organized in an early day and played an active part in struggle over the division in the church. It is today one of the stronger rural churches.
The Doylesville Church was established about seventy-five years ago, but Waco and Bybee churches are of more recent date. A Methodist Church was organized in Berea in 1907 and a house of worship was built and dedicated in 1911. In 1948 the plant was modernized with a two story addition in the rear. Other Methodist churches in the county are as follows: Allen Chapel, A. M. E., White Hall A. M. E., River Hill, New Bethel A. M. E., and the East End Methodist.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church of Richmond was organized with nine members in 1872 by Malinda McClannihan
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Cobb, the mother of J. W. Cobb. Their first meeting was held in a box car on the Louisville and Nashville railroad. They moved to a log cabin just across from the present site of Thornberry's Grocery on Water Street. In 1774 they found themselves on Hill Street, where they built a small church. In 1903 they built a brick church at Francis and E. Streets. The present larger modern brick edifice was erected on the same site in 1927.
The first pastor of this church was C. T. Shaffer of Cincinnati, a student at Berea. He walked to andfrom his parish and accepted whatever might be given him for his services. When in town he lodged at the home of Mrs. Cobb on First Street.
It is interesting to note that Mrs. Cobb belonged to William Holloway, a Union sympathizer who lived in the beautiful old home now known as the Telford Community Center. Her husband belonged to Er. D. R. McCreary, and after the war he remained in the McCreary home until his death. There his body was em- balmed and later removed direct to the Four Mile Pike Cemetery for burial.
The Early Church of God is evidently the only one of that sect in the county.
CHAPTER X The Clays
GENERAL GREEN CLAY
G F ENERAL GREEN CLAY was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, August 14, 1757. He was a descendant of a British soldier sent to Virginia in 1676 to put down Bacon's Rebellion. He came from Virginia as a young man to what is now Madison County, staying for a short time in Fort Estill, as he stated many years later in a deposition, in which he gave the names of other occupants of the fort. He settled on land where, in 1799, he built a brick residence which his son Cassius M., many years later, developed into the palatial mansion, White Hall. General Clay owned tens of thousands of acres of land in Kentucky. He served in the Virginia legislature from Kentucky and represented Madison County in the Virginia convention called in 1788 to ratify the Federal Constitution, voting against ratification. He helped form the second constitution of Kentucky in 1799 and ably represented Madison County in both houses of the State legislature. General Clay commanded three thousand Kentucky troops, in 1813, to avenge the "Massacre of the Raisin," inspiring General Harrison with such confidence in his military ability, "that he placed that post under his command; and he subsequently defended Fort Meigs against fifteen hundred British Canadians and five thousand Indians under Tecumseh."
General Clay died, October 31, 1828, and was buried on his estate within a few hundred yards of White Hall. A very modest monument marks the grave of this illustrious, early citizen of Madison County.
CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY I
General Cassius Marcellus Clay, son of General Green Clay, was born in Madison County, October 19, 1810. He graduated with distinction from Yale University in 1832, having the singular honor, or invitation, of giving the Washington Centennial address in New Haven, on February 22, 1832, then and there delivering his "first anti-slavery speech." In June, 1845, he founded at Lexing-
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Joel T. Hart's Bust of Cassius M. Clay I
Gen. Green Clay, 1757-1828
Christopher (Kit) Carson, 1809-1868
-
Cassius M. Clay I, 1810-1903
C
One of two cannons used, in 1845, by Cassius M. Clay to defend The True America. Colt Revolver presented to Mr. Clay by President Lincoln, in 1861, in appreciation of his defense of the White House and Navy Yard in Washington during the excitement occasioned by the siege and surrender of Fort Sumter. The revolver is in possession of Caperton Burnam, Richmond.
L
White Hall, the home of Green Clay and his son Cassius M. Clay.
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ton, Kentucky, an anti-slavery paper called The True American, which he published for more than a year at the peril of his life. Though opposed to slavery and to the annexation of Texas, he served as captain in the Mexican War, and so endeared himself to his company of Kentuckians that, on his return, Lexington gave him a public reception, and Madison County presented him with a beautiful sword. The sword is on display in the Berea College library. In 1848, Harpers and Brother published The Writings of Cassius Marcellus Clay, including Writings and Addresses. Horace Greeley, the distinguished editor of the New York Tribune, wrote a Preface and a Memoir for the volume. The book contains Clay's Washington Centennial Address at Yale in 1832 and much of the contents of his True American, an emancipation paper, the first number of which appeared June 5, 1845.
Mr. Clay served several terms in the Kentucky legislature; he gave land and money to the movement which produced Berea College; and he was a candidate for the Vice-Presidency before the Republican convention in 1860. He was one of the earliest emancipators, and no man of prominence in the United States manifested greater courage in fearlessly asserting his constitu- tional rights in assailing the institution of slavery. In 1862 he was commissioned Major-General of Volunteers by President Lincoln. He was minister to Russia during Lincoln's and John's administrations, and he always claimed the credit for the purchase of Alaska in 1867. In 1886 he published the first volume of The Life, Memoirs, Writings and Speeches of Cassius M. Clay. The second volume was never finished. Mr. Clay escaped death by violence many times and survived his bitterest and greatest enemies. He died July 22, 1903, near the age of ninety-three. The grave of Madison County's most picturesque and prominent son and cousin'is in the Richmond Cemetery.
Cassius M. Clay was a connoisseur of art and letters. His home, White Hall, became therefore a veritable museum. Joel T. Hart's marble bust of Mr. Clay, sculptured in Italy, was probably the most valuable item in his collection. It also graced the home of his son, Brutus Junius, until after his and his wife's deaths (1932, 1942), when the University of Kentucky obtained it.
Mention might well be made of the influence Mr. Clay probably had at Chicago on the nomination of Lincoln in 1860. "Madison 1. Citizen.
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G. Proctor of St. Joseph, Michigan, who was one of the five sur- viving members of the split rail convention" stated, in 1911, in an address before the Hamilton Club of Chicago that during the confusion over the choice of a candidate of the Republican Party for President, Clay spoke as follows:
" 'We are on the eve of a great civil war,' began Mr. Clay, but we of Kansas were used to strong words and smiled. The Ken- tuckian looked at us sternly and continued:
""We know what your platform plans are and I am here to say that if a candidate is nominated on that platform the South will make an attempt to dissolve the Union. Your southern border extends from Maryland to Missouri and on this side stands a determined body of men, resolute that the Union shall not be destroyed except after a most desperate struggle.'
"'It makes a great difference to you whom you nominate,' thundered on the tall Kentuckian, 'and it makes a much more vital difference to us. Our homes and all we possess are in peril. We demand of you a candidate who will inspire our courage and confidence. We call upon you to nominate Abraham Lincoln, who knows us and understands our aspirations. Give us Lincoln and we will push back your battle line from the Ohio River to the Tennessee, where it belongs. Give us Lincoln and we will unite the strength of our Union sentiment with the Union army and bring success to your legions. Do this for us,' pleaded the speaker, 'and we will go home and prepare for the conflict.'"
" "We saw things from a new angle. It was no longer a question of fighting slavery, but of saving the Union. Lincoln was nom- inated.'"
(See E. Polk Johnson's A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians, Vol. II P. 822.)
Soon after Mr. Clay's death The Literary Digest for August 8, 1903, quoted Henry Waterson, the able editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal as stating:
"He [Clay] was a man such as the world sees but once, and a character known to all. He, more than any other one man, stood for the world's idea of a Kentuckian-bold, fearless, gen- erous, kind quick to avenge an insult, and equally quick to for- give a wrong, an orator and a hand-to-hand fighter.
"By some he was loved, by others he was hated, but by all
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he was feared and by most he was respected. He made his mark in whatever department of life he was thrown. Possessed of a will which brooked no obstacle, when once he set his hand to the plow there was no turning back until the end of the furrow. He rode roughshod, and cared not a whit whose toes were injured in the riding. He was editor, politician, duelist, author, and statesman, and acted each part with an originality and spice which lent him new interest."
The New York Mail and Express, according to the same number of the Digest, said:
"Henry Waterson describes Clay as a giant and as a lion. He was a giant who never directed his own strength, a lion who lashed his power into the shreds of aimless rage. Yet through- out his fretted years there runs a strain of great-heartedness and of lovable quality that made men condone his eccentricities.
"Undoubtedly, the entire life of Clay was changed when he was a college lad at New Haven. There, thirty years before the civil war, he listened to the eloquence of William Lloyd Garrison. The emotional youth became at once an abolitionist, although his parents were slaveholders. Returning to Kentucky, he plunged into politics; but his campaigns were those of 'fiery epithet' and fierce denunciation,' breathing alike defiance to his foes and in- dependence of his allies. His stump speeches were delivered with a bowie knife in his boot-let and a brace of revolvers at his hand. When he edited The True American, an anti-slavery paper, his desk was fortified with iron doors, behind which were cannon loaded to the muzzle . . .
"Thus he glimpses here and there, fitfully but never potentially, in Kentucky and national politics, supporting Taylor, Fremont, and Lincoln. He attracted the gentle astonishment of Lincoln, who reckoned, however, his influence on a border state sufficient to warrant his appointment as Minister at St. Petersburg. His eccentricities startled the court of the Czar with their disregard of etiquette. When one recalls the importance of our diplomatic relations with Russia during the Civil War, this appointment seems the more surprising . .. "
BRUTUS JUNIUS CLAY I
An older brother of Cassius M. Clay, Brutus Junius Clay (1808-
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1878) was born at White Hall, Madison County, graduated from Centre College, and in 1827 settled in Bourbon County. Soon he became noted as a successful breeder of high grade stock. In 1840 he was elected to the State Legislature, and about the same time he was also elected President of the Bourbon County Agricultural Society. In 1853, he was honored with the president of the State Agricultural Association, to which he was re-elected. In 1862, Mr. Clay was chosen to serve the Ashland District in the lower House of the 35th Congress, becoming Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. He was also a member of the Com- mittee on Revolutionary Pensions. He built "Auvergne" in Bourbon County just off the pike between Paris and Winchester, which is today the palatial home of his grandson, Cassius Marcellus III.
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