USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 52
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Around the fireside, in the field of daily work, and at the neighborly gatherings, the episodes and incidents and stories of Indian warfare inter- ested parents and children, master and servant, and neighbors and friends, far more than those of the hunt, the gossip of the community, or the general news of the day. Of Indian hostilities, of Indian character, and of In- dian atrocities, even the children heard recitals, until all these came to be looked upon as necessary parts of the life they had to live. The earliest lessons learned by the children were the duty and methods to fight Indians. Hence, the mother or maiden, the child ten years old, and the faithful col- ored servant, beside the husband and master, were ever trained and ready to resist the attack of the savage. with gun, or ax, or knife, if the emergency called them into action. Many an instance of an Indian slain by the heroic defense of mother or wife, of the gallant boy, and of the brave and faithful colored servant, was rehearsed among the fireside stories of the day, some of which we have incidentally given in the narrative of this history.
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402
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
· The circumstances of such a life of perpetual warfare, which were indi- vidualized in every household, and to every member thereof, irresistibly tended to inspire a spirit of combativeness, and to cultivate a habit of in- tensely-active belligerency. The impulsive and excitable characteristics thus fostered and developed to almost an abnormal extent, for the full period of a generation, the lapse of time through the two succeeding generations until to-day, has not been sufficient to entirely eradicate. The descendants of the earliest race of Kentuckians are yet an impetuous, strong-willed, and excitable people, traits which came to them by honest inheritance, and from sires whose faults were ever less conspicuous than their honest and generous natures and noble deeds.
If the Indian could be trained to imperturbable stoicism in the presence of dangers and sufferings, no less was the child of the forester taught to be iron-nerved and inflexible in the emergency of assault and conflict with the most desperate of foes. Courage was the cardinal virtue, and an indis- pensable one. To halt or hesitate in the hour of duty, to evince the emotions of tremulous fear or of unnerved timidity, was to invite the suspicions or imputations of cowardice, not less to be dreaded than the alternative of death itself. Such a life was but a school of experience, in which every trait of manhood needed amid the vicissitudes of war, the privations of frontier life, and the individualities of isolation, was developed.
Religion and Church Organizations had their rude and chaotic beginnings during the ordeal years of pioneer life. The first ministers of the religion of Christ came out, as did their comrades, as adventurers to spy out the land, and, with a single exception or two, drifted back and forth to either side of the mountain range, in the restless currents of humanity that ebbed and flowed in the same channels for years. These found many of their brethren in the drift of the current, broken away from their old church moorings in colonies or States, and afloat with the uncertain tides upon which they had thrown themselves.
1 Owing to the constant alarm from savage depredations, and the other stirring incidents peculiar to new settlements amid the wilds of an unbroken forest, there seemed to be little concern manifested for religion. The min- isters had but few opportunities for preaching, yet they did preach at the stations, and with effect on the minds of many, if not on all. They, of course, were compelled to adapt themselves to the fare and usages of the people around them, for it was no fit time for respect of one person more than another.
2 Though the Indians had resolved that Kentucky should never be occu- pied, yet they held the unctuous soil, and the inviting attractions with which nature had adorned the land, and some made up their minds to return here. and here to live and to die. They were no less determined in the execu- tion of this resolve than other pioneers.
I Collins, Vol. II., p. 416.
2 Benedict's History of the Baptists, pp. 212-28.
4º3
ORGANIZATION OF BAPTISTS.
The. Baptists, by the coincidences of antiquity, the spirit of aggressive evangelism, and their predominance among the immigrating element, may best lay claim to being called the pioneers in religion of all the Protestant organizations of the day. They came with the earliest permanent settlers. In 1776, as we have before mentioned, Rev. William Hickman commenced his labors in the Gospel ministry. 1 We find him, in that year, preaching at Harrodsburg. He was. the first to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ in the valley of Kentucky. He was on a tour of observation merely, and, after a stay of several months, returned to Vir- ginia, remained for several years, and then located in this State. For fifty years, he faithfully labored in his adopted field. In 1779, John Tylor, Joseph Reding, Lewis Lunsford, and several other ministers of Vir- ginia, visited Kentucky.
2 In 1780, many Baptists removed to this REV. WILLIAM HICKMAN, State, chiefly from Virginia; but it was not until the next year that there was an organized church. This was the Gilbert's creek church. When Lewis Craig left Spottsylvania county, Virginia, most of his large church there came with him. They were constituted when they started, and were an organized church on the road; wherever they stopped, they could transact church business. They settled at Craig's station, on Gilbert's creek, a few miles east of where the town of Lancaster, Garrard county, is now situated. There were now a number of efficient ministers in Kentucky.
In 1782, several other churches are known to have been constituted, viz: Severn's valley 3 after Elizabethtown, and Nolin, both now in Hardin county; also Cedar creek, now in Nelson county. +
In 1783, the first Baptist church, and the first worshiping assembly of any order, was organized on South Elkhorn, five miles south of Lexington, by Lewis Craig, principally out of members dismissed from the church on Gilbert's creek. This church was for forty years one of the most prosperous churches in the State; but its candlestick has been removed. 5
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 : sentinels would be placed to guard against surprise from the Indians, while the minister, with a log or stump for his
I Taylor's History of Ten Churches, p. 43.
2 Collins, Vol. I., p. 415.
3 Benedict, Vol. II., p. 542.
4 Asplund's Register of 1790, P. 32.
s History of Ten Churches, p. 50.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
pulpit, and the heavens for his sounding-board, would dispense the word of life and salvation.
"In 1785, three associations were organized, viz : the Elkhorn, compris- ing all the Regular Baptist churches then north of the Kentucky and Dix rivers; the Salem, comprising all the churches of the same order south of those rivers, and the South Kentucky, comprising all the Separate Baptist churches in the State. These associations, which were constituted of some three or four churches each, increased with great rapidity. In 1790, there were attached to them forty-two churches and thirty-one hundred and five members, viz: Elkhorn, fifteen churches and thirteen hundred and eighty- nine members; Salem, eight churches and four hundred and five members ;. and South Kentucky, nineteen churches and thirteen hundred and eleven members. The population of Kentucky at that period was about seventy- three thousand. So there was one Baptist to about every twenty-three in- habitants. Besides, there were many churches not yet associated, and many members just moved into the State who were not yet attached to the churches. There were, too, at this period forty-two ordained ministers and twenty-one licentiates, or one ordained minister to every eighteen hundred and twenty-five of the inhabitants. This was a tolerably fair proportion of Baptist leaven to the whole lump of people. 1
"Among the ministers of that day were John Gano, Ambrose Dudley, John Taylor, Lewis Craig, William Hickman, Joseph Reding, William E. Waller, Augustine Eastin, Moses Bledsoe, John Rice, Elijah Craig, William Marshall, and other kindred spirits, men of ardent piety, untiring zeal, in- domitable energy of character, of vigorous and well-balanced intellects, and in every way adapted to the then state of society. Pioneers to a wilderness beset with every danger and every privation, they were the first ministers of the brave, the daring, and noble spirits who first settled and subdued this country, such men as the Boones, the Clarks, the Harrods, the Bullitts, the Logans, the Floyds, and the Hardins would respect and venerate, and listen to with delight and profit. Some of them survived many years the men of their own generation. But age seemed to bring to them few of its infirm- ities. They retained almost to the last the vigor of their manhood's prime, and, although they could not be called literary men, they were nevertheless. distinguished for their intelligence, for commanding talents, for profound acquaintance with the doctrines of the Bible, and were possessed of a knowledge of men and things which eminently qualified them to be teach- ers and guides of the people.
"In 1793, an attempt was made to bring about a union between the Regular and Separate Baptists, which failing of success, sundry churches of the South Kentucky Association withdrew from that body and organized the Tate's Creek Association. 2 The oldest churches in this association were organized at the dates following: Tate's creek. now in Madison county,
I Asplund's Register, p. 33.
2 Benedict, Vol. IL, p. 238.
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THE "GREAT REVIVAL."
1785 ; White Oak, in the same county, 1790; and Cedar Creek, now Crab Orchard, Lincoln county, 1791.
" In 1798, the number of churches in the Elkhorn Association being thirty-three, and its territory extending from the Holstein on the south to Columbus, Ohio, on the north, and from the mouth of Beargrass on the west to the Virginia line on the east. it was deemed expedient to dismiss the churches north of Licking river for the purpose of forming a new or- ganization, and accordingly the Bracken Association was constituted. The oldest churches in this association are Limestone Creek, now extinct, near the present city of Maysville, and Washington, both constituted in 1785, and Mayslick church, constituted 1791.
" The general harmony of the denomination was undisturbed, and their progress steady and healthful. In 1799, commenced what is known to this day as the . great revival,' which continued through several years. During its prevalence, the accessions to the churches in every part of the State were unprecedented. The Baptists escaped almost entirely those extraordinary scenes produced by the jerks, the rolling, and the barking exercises, which extensively obtained among some other persuasions of those days. The work among the Baptists was deep, solemn, and powerful. During the re- vival, large additions were made to the churches everywhere."
1 Meanwhile, a settler had reached the county of Madison, who was des- tined to exert a wide influence upon the future religious elements of East Kentucky. Dissatisfied with the laws of Virginia relating to its established church and its ministry, Andrew Tribble had left his home in Louisa county, Virginia, crossed the wilderness. and found a residence in the northern part of Madison county. Before leaving Virginia, he had been a prominent participant in all the struggles for religious liberty which had agitated the churches of that State, and called forth the celebrated remonstrance for religious liberty by James Madison, in 1785. He had been a delegate to the famous Separate Baptist Association, which met at Craig's meeting- house, in Orange county, in 1771. He had heard the strong dissensions between Samuel Harris, John Waller, and Elijah Craig. He had witnessed the imprisonment of Lewis Craig and John Waller, at Spottsylvania court- house, in 1768. He had heard their sermons through the windows of the jail. He found congenial spirits in Samuel Tate and George Boone, already settled in Madison county. He organized the Tate's Creek Baptist Church, and became its first pastor. This venerable church soon stretched its arms all through Eastern Kentucky, and exerted a wide influence for good from Kentucky river to Cumberland Gap. It was the parent of the Tate's Creek Baptist Association. Prominent among its pioneer members were the Boones, Hoys, Chenaults, Jarmans, Newlands, Woods, Grubbs, Good- loes. Lipscombs, and Tinstalls. Besides Andrew Tribble. its pioneer min- isters were George Boone, Thomas Jarman, David Chenault, and Richard
1 Manuscript notes of William Chenault's History of Madison County.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Morton. The history of this church has been imperfectly written, but its influence is engraven upon hundreds of prominent names in the Baptist denomination of Kentucky. Three important stations in the neighborhood of Boonesborough were founded by its members, and but few events affect- ing the welfare of the State, south of the Kentucky river, occurred in which they did not participate.
The Roman Catholic Church sent out a front wave of immigration to the wilds of the West, and mainly from the counties of St. Mary, Charles, and Prince George, in Maryland, which had been settled under Lord Baltimore, and a band of colonists professing the faith of this religion. Already, the enthusiasm which had set so many people of the other colonies in motion toward the West had extended to Maryland. Though strongly attached to the faith of their church, and bold and hardy in adventure. the perils and privations of the isolated life of the wilderness established a common sym- pathy of secular interest with all settlers, that made them very tolerant to each other in their religious differences.1 Indeed, they and others came mainly as adventurers, seeking to improve their worldly fortunes, not as Catholics or Protestants ; and it was only through the all-abounding mercy of God, that here and there, individuals among them were saved from ship- wreck of faith.
2 The Catholics made common cause with their brethren in providing for the security of their new homes in the wilderness, and in repelling Indian invasions. Several of their number were killed or dragged into captivity on their way to Kentucky; others passed through stirring adventures, and made hairbreadth escapes.
The first Catholic emigrants to Kentucky, with whose history we are ac- quainted, were Dr. Hart and William Coomes. These came out in the spring of 1775, and after tarrying several weeks at Drennon's Springs, in Henry county, settled at Harrod's station. Here Dr. Hart engaged in the practice of medicine; and the wife of William Coomes opened a school for children. Thus, in all probability, the first practicing physician and the first school teacher of our infant Commonwealth were both Roman Catholics. A few years later they removed with their families to Bardstown, in the vi- cinity of which most of the Catholic emigrants subsequently located them- selves. Previously to their removal, however, they were both actively employed in the defense of Harrod's station during its memorable siege by the Indians in 1776-7. William Coomes was with the party which first dis- covered the approach of the savages : one of his companions was shot dead at his side, and he made a narrow escape with his life.
In the year 1785, twenty-five families of Catholics emigrated to Ken- tucky from Maryland, with the Haydens and Lancasters, and settled chiefly on Pottinger's creek, at a distance of from ten to fifteen miles from Bards-
I Webb's Catholicity in Kentucky, p. 24.
2 Collins, Vol. 11., pp. 486-7; Webb's Catholicity in Kentucky, p. 27.
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THE FIRST CATHOLIC MISSIONARY.
town. They were followed, in the spring of the next year, by another colony led out by Captain James Rapier, who located himself in the same neigh- borhood. In 1787, Thomas Hill and Philip Miles brought out another band of Catholic emigrants, and they were followed in 1788, by Robert Abell and his friends ; and in 1790-91, by Benedict Spalding and Leonard Ham- ilton, with their families and connections. The last-named colonists settled on the Rolling Fork, a branch of Salt river, in the present county of Ma- rion.
In the spring of the year 1787, there were already about fifty Catholic families in Kentucky. They had as yet no Catholic clergyman to adminis- ter to their spiritual wants, and they felt the privation most keenly. Upon application to the Very Rev. John Carroll. of Baltimore, then the ecclesi- astical superior of all the Catholics in the United States, they had the hap- piness to receive as their first pastor the Rev. Mr. Whelan, a zealous and talented Irish priest, who had served as chaplain in the French navy, which had come to our assistance in the struggle for independence. He remained with his new charge till the spring of 1790, when he returned to Maryland by the way of New Orleans.
After his departure, the Catholics of Kentucky were again left in a des- titute condition for nearly three years ; when they were consoled by the appearance among them of the Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin, who was sent out as their pastor by Bishop Carroll. of Baltimore, in the year 1793. This devoted and indefatigable religious pioneer still lingered in venerable old age above the horizon of life, labored with unremitting zeal among the Cath- olics of our State for more than thirty years; and even after this long term of service, though worn down with previous exertion, and persuaded to travel and take some relaxation for his health, he still continued to work at intervals in the vineyard which he loved and so long cultivated. When he first came to Kentucky, he esti- mated the number of Catholic families then here, at three hundred. REV. STEPHEN THEODORE BADIN.
After having remained alone in Kentucky for nearly four years, Rev. M. Badin was joined by another zealous Catholic missionary, like himself, a native of France-the Rev. M. Fournier, who reached the State in Feb- ruary, 1797. Two years later, in February, 1799, another arrived, the Rev. M. Salmon, likewise a Frenchman. But these two last-named clergymen did not long survive the arduous labors of the mission. M. Salmon, after
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
a serious illness contracted by exposure, was suddenly killed by a fall from his horse near Bardstown, on the 9th of November, 1799; and the Rev. M. Fournier died soon after, on the Rolling Fork, probably from the rupture of a blood-vessel.
Their places were filled by the Rev. Mr. Thayer, a native of New Eng- land, who had once been a Congregational minister in Boston, but had become a Catholic, and had been promoted to the ministry in that church. He arrived in Kentucky in 1799, having been sent out, like the rest, by Bishop Carroll, of Baltimore, the venerable patriarch of the Catholic Church in America; and he remained in the State till 1803. After his departure, M. Badin was again left alone for about two years, until the year 1805.
This year is memorable as marking the arrival of one among the most active and efficient of the early missionaries, the Rev. Charles Nerinckx, a native of Belgium, who, like many others, had been compelled to leave Europe in consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolu- tion. He labored without cessation, both bodily and mentally, for nearly twenty years ; and he died on a missionary excursion to Missouri, in 1824. He erected in Kentucky no less than ten Catholic churches, in the building of which he often worked with his own hands. Two of these were of brick, and the rest of hewed logs.
For many years he had charge of six large congregations, besides a great number of minor stations, scattered over the whole extent of the State. Like M. Badin, he spent much of his time on horseback, and traveled by night as well as by day. On his famous horse, Printer, he very often trav- eled sixty miles in the day; and to save time, he not unfrequently set out on his journeys at sunset. He often swam swollen creeks and rivers, even in the dead of winter. He frequently slept in the woods; and on one occa- sion, in what is now Grayson county, he was beset by wolves during a whole night, when he was saved, under the divine protection, by his presence of mind in sitting on his horse and keeping his persecutors at bay by hallooing at the top of his voice.
1 There was also a Catholic settlement, in 1790, in what is now Breckin- ridge county, and another on Cox's creek, or Fairfield, in 1795. Both were in Nelson county, as it was then composed. Quite a colony of the brother- hood came into Kentucky by way of Maysville, then Limestone, about the year 1787, their destination being Pottinger's creek; but their route led them through that portion of Scott county which is now Woodford; and here the beautiful and fertile lands so enchanted them with the luxuriant growth from the virgin soil, that they determined to seek no farther an abiding place. The fair prospect that stretched out to them offered every worldly advantage they could hope for elsewhere. When this settlement was visited by Revs. Badin and Barrieres, in 1793, it was reported to con- tain about twenty-five families. Many of the descendants of these, yet
: Webb's Catholicity in Kentucky, p. 88.
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ORGANIZATION OF THE M. E. CHURCH.
retaining the faith of their fathers, may be found scattered through Wood- ford, Scott, and Franklin counties, very worthy and respected citizens.
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1 The Methodist Episcopal Church held three conferences in 1786 in the United States-one in North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia each. Of the five new circuits added to the jurisdiction of these, was that of Ken- tucky. This is the first mention of Kentucky in conference minutes, six years before she became a State, and in May of this year, James Haw and Benjamin Ogden were appointed as the first regular itinerant preachers sent to this newly-created field of labor. Rev. Haw spent five years in minis- terial labor here, three years as superintendent of this district. In 1789, he was in charge of the Lexington district, and the next year was transferred to the Cumberland circuit in Tennessee. Before the termination of this year, he was reported as among nine ministers "who were under a location through weakness of body or family concerns." Settling in Sumner county, Tennessee, in 1795, he became dissatisfied and joined the O'Kelly branch of Methodism, which had separated from the parent church on the sub- ject of episcopacy and the elective franchise.
2 In 1800, he attached himself to the Presbyterian Church, and continued to preach for years after. Ogden was admitted on trial at the conference in 1786 and sent to Kentucky as a traveling preacher, and, the next year, was the first minister to bear the message of the Gospel to Middle Tennes- see, on the Cumberland circuit. He labored on, through many vicissitudes, for almost fifty years in the work he had chosen, and died in 1834, near Princeton, Kentucky, uttering to the last his "wish to die, having the whole armor on, contending like a good soldier for the prize."
But these were not the first ministers of that church who ventured to the wilderness. Others had voluntarily embarked their fortunes upon the rest- less tide, mainly to better their worldly condition. 3 In 1784. a local preacher by the name of Tucker, while on his way, with his kindred and companions, descending the Ohio to Kentucky in a boat, was attacked by Indians. Mortally wounded, after, by his bravery and presence of mind, he had rescued the boat and his comrades, among whom were the women and chil- dren, he fell on his knees and died, shouting praises to his God. But as early as 1783, Rev. Francis Clark, accompanied 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 the site of Danville, and appointed Durham its leader. Clark stands pre-eminent as the founder of Methodism in Kentucky.
+" Methodist families had also settled in other portions of the district. Among the first was that of Thomas Stevenson, who, with his wife, among the first converts to Methodism on the American continent, had emigrated
I Bangs' History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. I., p. 221. 2 Collins, Vol. I., p. 445.
3 Short Sketches of the Work of God in the West.
4 Collins, Vol. I., pp. 445-6.
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