USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 53
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
from Maryland and settled in Mason county, two and a half miles south- west of Washington. In their house, a church was organized in 1786.
" It was at no small cost the Gospel of Christ was preached to the early settlers. The lives of the preachers were in constant danger from the In- dians. Sometimes they were guarded from one fort to another, but oftener plodded their perilous way alone.
"The conference minutes of 1787 show a membership in Kentucky of ninety whites, colored none. In 1787, James Haw was returned to Ken- tucky, with Thomas Williamson and Wilson Lee as his colleagues. At the close of this year, the membership was four hundred and twenty white and sixty colored. In 1788, two circuits, called Lexington and Danville, were formed from or in place of Kentucky circuit. Francis Poythress and James Haw were sent as elders, and Thomas Williamson, Peter Massie, and Ben- jamin Snelling to Lexington, and William Lee to Danville circuit. The membership at the close of this year had increased to eight hundred and twelve white and fifty-one colored. In 1789, Mr. Poythress was the presid- ing elder, while James Haw, Wilson Lee, and Stephen Brooks were assigned to the Lexington, and Barnabas McHenry and Peter Massie to the Dan- ville circuit.
" During this year, the labors of the preachers were attended with ex- traordinary success. The experience of Poythress and Haw, the sound and logical preaching of McHenry, the persuasive eloquence of Wilson Lee and of Brooks, with the zeal, the pathos, and the tears of Peter Massie, together with the earnestness of James O'Cull, a local preacher of remark- able talents, who had just emigrated from Pennsylvania, invested Methodism with a commanding influence. At the close of the year, ten hundred and thirty-nine white and fifty-one colored members were reported-a net in- crease of two hundred and twenty seven.
"In the spring of 1790, Bishop Asbury visited Kentucky, where for the first time an annual conference was held. He was accompanied by Richard Whatcoat, afterward elected bishop, and also by Hope Hull and John Lea- well, men well known in those days as ardent, zealous, and useful preachers. The conference was held, commencing on the 15th of May, at Masterson's station, five miles north-west of Lexington, where the first Methodist church in Kentucky, a plain log structure, was erected.
"A volunteer company, Rev. Peter Massie, John Clark, and eight others, guarded the bishop from Virginia. On the seventh day of the journey they reached Richmond, and on the tenth. Lexington. Bishop Asbury, alluding to this journey, says: . I was strangely outdone for want of sleep. Our way is over mountains, steep hills, deep rivers, and muddy creeks. a thick growth of reeds 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.' On his way, he 'saw the graves of the slain, twenty-four in one camp,' who
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41I
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
had a few nights previous been murdered by the Indians. Thus the fresh graves of the dead signaled the perils that awaited them.
"The conference was composed of six members, namely, Francis Poy- thress. James Haw, Wilson Lee, Stephen Brooks, Barnabas McHenry, and Peter Massie. Three elders were ordained, preaching had noon and night, souls were converted, and the fallen restored. A plan was fixed for a school, called Bethel, and three hundred pounds in land and money subscribed toward its establishment.
"The conference lasted but two days. On Monday, the 17th, Bishop Asbury preached, ten miles from Lexington, to a large number of people, with great power. 'The house was crowded day and night, and often the floor was covered with the slain of the Lord, and the house and the woods resounded with the shouts of the converted.' Thus, the visit of the bishop, the first bishop of any denomination ever in Kentucky, was greatly blessed and a fresh impulse given to the infant church in Kentucky. Remarkable as was his career, born in England, converted when quite a youth, holding public meetings at seventeen, preaching before he was eighteen, appointed by Mr. Wesley to America at the age of twenty-six, and at the Christmas con- ference in Baltimore, in 1784, unanimously elected bishop, there was a singular fitness in his being the pioneer bishop of the pioneer State, sent to organize the pioneer conference.
1 "Two additional circuits in Kentucky, the Limestone and Madison, were added this year, and nine preachers, instead of six, appointed, among them, for the first time, Henry Birchett. David Haggard, Samuel Tucker, and Joseph Lillard. At the close of this year were reported fourteen hun- dred and fifty-nine white and ninety-four colored members, a net increase of four hundred and sixty-three. At the conference of 1800, there were five circuits in Kentucky, to which six preachers were appointed. The mem- bership then reported was seventeen hundred and forty-one."
2 The Presbyterian Church well concedes that Rev. David Rice may justly claim precedence over all others, as its pioneer founder and promoter in Kentucky. In 1783, he was among the emigrants to Kentucky. His first active work was to gather into congregational order the scattered broth- erhood of that church, at Danville, Cane Run, and the Forks of Dick's river. Besides his regular duties as a minister of the Gospel, and the organ- ization of a number of congregations, he was zealously engaged in advanc- ing the cause of education. The estimation in which he was held by the public may be inferred from his election as a member of the convention which met in Danville in 1702, to which we have previously referred. In the framing of the first Constitution of Kentucky, he then exerted himself to effect the abolition of slavery. Father Rice, as he was familiarly called, was a man of plain and practical talents. rather than of command or display. His judgment was sound, his disposition conservative, and his deportment
I Collins, Vol. I., p. 446.
2 Collins, Vol. I., p 457
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
exemplary ; just such a combination of traits in a man of purpose and dili- gence, to accomplish large and enduring results in a lifetime. He is said to have spent much time in prayer for self-devotion and discipline. His person was slender, but tall and active; and even at the age of seventy, he was wonderfully alert. He died in Green county, in June, 1816, aged eighty- three, exclaiming with expiring breath: "O, when shall I be free from sin and sorrow ? "
Mr. Rice was followed by Rev. Adam Rankin, who gathered together the Church at Lexington, and by Rev. James Crawford, who settled at Wal- nut Hill, in 1784. In 1786, Revs. Thomas Craighead and Andrew McClure were added to the number. These ministers were shortly after organized into a Presbytery, under the name of the Presbytery of Transylvania, a classical and euphonious epithet which had already found usage in other rela- tions. All these ministers were from Virginia, except Mr. Craighead, who came from North Carolina. Rev. Terah Templin received ordination in 1785, and located in Washington county, where he organized several con- gregations, and faithfully evangelized. Later on, he organized and supplied destitute congregations in Livingston county. Churches were organized at Salem and Paris by Rev. Andrew McClure. Craighead assumed charge of Shiloh congregation, in Sumner county, Tennessee, shortly after arriving in Kentucky. Here he was suspected of preaching the doctrine of Pelagian- ism, and became unpopular. In 1805, a commission was appointed by the Synod of Kentucky, having jurisdiction, which was directed to investigate the question of his soundness. The result was the suspension of Mr. Craig- head from the ministry. Though he made efforts to be restored, this was not done until the year 1824. He shortly after died. Mr. Craighead was a man of commanding talents, and fervid, impressive eloquence. The Hon. John Breckinridge said of him, that his discourses made a more last- ing impression upon his mind than those of any other man he had ever heard.
Among his brotherhood, Rev. John Poage Campbell stood pre-eminent for brilliancy and learning, of the missionaries of the earlier age of the Church. He was a graduate of the Hampden Sydney College, and was licensed to preach in 1792. He assumed charge of the churches at Flen- ingsburg and Smyrna in 1795, and afterward was in charge successively, of the churches at Danville, Versailles, Lexington, and other points. An ap- preciative writer says of him, that he was possessed of an acute and discrim- inating mind, was an accurate and well-read theologian, an able polemic, and decidedly the most popular, talented, and influential minister of his day. A number of his published writings, yet in print, bear testimony to his rare attainments.
In 1793, Rev. James Blythe was ordained pastor of Pisgah and Clear Creek Churches, and to these he ministered for forty years. He ranked with the noted and able ministers of the church, and devoted his talents alike
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THE PRESBYTERY OF TRANSYLVANIA.
to the interests of education as well as the church. He took a prominent part in the establishment of Kentucky Academy; and when that institution was merged into the University of Transylvania, he was appointed to a professorship in the same, and subsequently fulfilled the duties of acting president for over twelve years.
A man of historic eminence also was the Rev. Archibald Cameron. He was the son of Scotch Presbyterian parentage, and the family moved to Kentucky in 1781, and settled on a farm at the foot of "Cameron's Knob," about six miles from Bardstown. He studied theology under Rev. David Rice, and was licensed to preach in 1795. His labors were largely confined to Nelson, Jefferson, and Shelby counties, and he was mainly instrumental in building up the churches at Shelbyville, Mulberry, Six-mile, Shiloh. Oli- vet, and other points in range. Mr. Cameron's mind was cast in the finest mold, and cultivated to the highest degree. He was a man of great shrewd- ness, and gifted with keen powers of satire. As a pastor, he was highly esteemed and much beloved by the people of his charge: as a friend, he was frank, generous, and confiding ; as a divine, he ranked in the first class, and was regarded by all who knew him as the ablest man in the Synod. He was the author of many published writings of repute, and extensively read.
As early as 1786, the Presbytery of Transylvania met in the court-house at Danville. There were at this time twelve congregations in a fair state of organization. There were present five ministers, Revs. Rice, Rankin, Mc- Clure, Crawford, and Templin. There were also present five ruling elders, Messrs. Richard Steele, David Gray, John Borel, Joseph Read, and Jeremiah Frame.
From the journal of Richard Henderson, of date Sunday, May 28, 1775, we read: "Divine service, for the first time in Kentucky, was performed by the Rev. John Lythe, of the Church of England." On Saturday, May 13th, previous, his diary says, alluding to the grand old elm tree at Boones- borough : "This divine tree, or rather one of the many proofs of the exist- ence 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 Sunday, sevennight, 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."
This was not certainly an auspicious and persuasive beginning for one accustomed to the cesthetic forms and services of the Church of England, and we learn that Mr. Lythe soon after left Kentucky. Of the Episcopal element in the State previous to 1800, Marshall says: "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
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
of the Revolution, which cut off the source of clerical supply derived then mainly from Great Britain. There remained, even in Virginia, a real de- ficiency of preachers. Education is, with this fraternity, a necessary quali- fication for administering the affairs of both Church and State.
1 A church was founded in Lexington as early as 1794, but there was no organized parish until 1809. Thus it may be said that the Episcopal Church did not begin its organized work, and become a factor, as such, in the work of evangelizing Kentucky, in the earlier pioneer days, or until after the year 1800. The same author attests that, not long after the war for inde- pendence, a flood of revolutionary atheism came in, and there was no adequate 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.
2 The following extract from a historic article in the Courier-Journal, of August 2, 1883, gives the origin of the churches of four of the leading denominations in Louisville :
"Many of the early preachers of Kentucky, and among the number John Whitaker, Tarah Thompson, Elijah Craig, William Hickman, Samuel Shannon, John Morris, Benjamin Lynn, Nelson Lee, William Taylor, Joshua Carman, and Henry Burrhett, visited Louisville, and no doubt preached at the forts and court-house, but it was some years before there was a church here. In a view of Louisville taken by Captain Gilbert Imlay, and pub- lished in the topographical description of North America, in 1792, there is a building on the north-west corner of Main and Twelfth streets, presenting the unmistakable appearance of a church. Tradition says there was a church on lot No. 49, originally owned by Jacob Myers, close to the old Twelfth- street fort, which accords with the location of such a structure in the picture of Imlay. And the late Rev. James Craik, in his sketch of Christ church, in this city, states that Rev. Mr. Kavanaugh, an Episcopal minister, came to the Beargrass settlement, in Jefferson county, with the Hites, in 1784. Mr. Craik fixes the date of his coming to Kentucky too early; but the min- ister meant by him was the Rev. Williams Kavanaugh, father of the late bishop of the Methodist Church. Whether he was rector of the church on the corner of Main and Twelfth as early as 1792, or ever, we know not; but we do know that he was rector of an Episcopal church in the city of Louisville as early as 1803, and this was eight years before any other denom- ination of Christians claims to have had a church in Louisville. In those early times it was the custom in chancery suits, when personal process could not be served upon non-residents, to issue what was called a warning order, which, besides being posted at the court house door, and published in a newspaper, was read at church immediately after divine service. Such an
1 Bishop Smith, in Collins' History, Vol. I., p. 438.
2 By Col. R. T. Durrett.
415
THE FIRST CHURCHES IN LOUISVILLE.
order was entered by our old chancery court in the cases of Corneal against La Cassagne, and Hite against Marsh, at the September term, 1803, and directed by the court to be posted at the court-house door, published in the the Farmers' Library for eight weeks, and 'read at the Rev. Williams Kava- naugh's meeting-house, in Louisville, on some Sunday immediately after divine service.' We now have before us a copy of the Farmers' Library, in which this order of the court appears; and we take it for granted that Rev. Williams Kavanaugh read it to his congregation in Louisville, and that he had a church there at the time, as stated by the order of the court, in which to read it. He was originally of the Methodist denomination, but became an Episcopalian in early life, and continued in that faith. In 1806, he moved to the town of Henderson, in Kentucky, where he died the same year, in charge of the Episcopal Church there.
"In 1811, the Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin erected a Catholic Church near the north-west corner of Tenth and Main streets, which was the sec- ond church in our city. It was a framed house, upon the Gothic style of architecture, and quite an improvement upon the log-house in which Rev. Williams Kavanaugh had officiated. The ground between this church and Eleventh street was used as a graveyard; and years afterward, when Elev- enth street was cut through to the river, and when the warehouse upon the corner of Main and Eleventh had its foundation dug. the coffins, the bones, the cerements, and even the flesh of some buried there were shockingly exposed to public view. One grave was opened whose occupant, once a beautiful young woman, had a history full of that sorrow which strikes to the depths of the heart, but we have not space to tell it now.
" In 1812, John and James Bate gave to the Methodist Church the south half of half acre lot No. 131, on the north side of Market street. between Seventh and Eighth. Here a brick house was erected, in which Bishop Asbury, traveling through the country in 1812, preached on Wednesday, October 22d, and about which he made the following note in his journal : 'I preached in Louisville at 11 o'clock in our neat brick house, thirty-four by thirty-eight feet. I had a sickly, serious congregation. This is a growing town and a handsome place, but the falls or ponds make it unhealthy. We lodged at Farquar's.'
"The fourth church in the city was built by the Presbyterians, on the west side of Fourth street, between Market and Jefferson, in 1816. It was famous for its sweet-toned bell, which not only summoned to serious worship, but began the fashion of ringing at 10 o'clock at night, which has since been one of the peculiarities of our city. This church was burned down in 1836, and nothing about it was more universally regretted than the loss of the bell.
"In 1825, Christ church, on the east side of Second, between Green and Walnut streets, was built, on a lot given by Peter B. Ormsby. Mr. Ormsby was then the owner of a five-acre lot where the church was built, and it was
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
his purpose to give to the church ample ground. But before the deed was made his financial affairs changed, and he could only give the ground cov- ered by the walls. This venerable building was the second Episcopal Church in our city, and though altered and improved to keep pace with the demands of modern taste, it is yet the pioneer church in Louisville."
It would be the gravest error to suppose that, taken as a whole, the pioneer people of Kentucky were below an average of the most civilized and enlightened people of any State or nation of their day. It is true that the country, like all new and distant countries receiving their pioneer popu- lation, was a refuge for the time, as Texas, California, and Mexico since, for some outlaws and desperadoes, whose aim was more to evade the admin- istration of justice than to find homes and fortunes by the venture. Yet even these were not ignorant or inexperienced men usually.
1 It requires both intelligence and enterprise to produce voluntary change of country, or even of habitation; and what may be assumed with confidence is, that there were to be found in this population as much of talent and intel- ligence as fall to the lot of any equal number of people promiscuously taken either in Europe or America. This stock of intellect was not, however, of native growth, for there had not been time to mature that. We need only look to the fact of emigration, as the source of populating the country with adults, to explain the superior degree of information obvious among the people at the time. Quite a number among the ministers, as well as of the men of other learned professions, of public officials, and of private life, had finished their education in the best institutions of the East. Hence, we find among the clergy, at so early a day, men of great pulpit power, eloquence, and learning.
The ministers partook somewhat of the temperament of the people around them, and were but little less combative and aggressive with their creeds and doctrines than were the common people with their rifles and implements of war. The differences between Romanist and Protestant would be sometimes brought to issue in public debate, while Baptists, Pres- byterians, and Methodists wrangled before deeply interested audiences, or through their publications at times, among themselves, over the possibility or impossibility of reconciling God's foreknowledge with man's free agency, over election and reprobation, eternal decrees, and all those issues that vexed the souls of Calvin and Arminius so many years before. The doc- trines of the mode of baptism, and of infant church membership also, came in for a share in these ecclesiastical polemics, as they have done ever since. The orthodoxy of some of the evangelical churches was much disturbed and perplexed by the very early intrusion of Unitarian doctrines; and from this cause, the old grounds of controversy between Arius and Athanasius were again fought over in the wilderness of the Occident, as they had been, cen- turies before, in the temples of learning and refinement in the Orient.
I Marshall, Vol. I , p. 442.
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417
EVENTS OF THE PERIOD FROM 1800 TO 1815. .
CHAPTER XXIII.
(1800-12.)
Presidential contest of 1800.
Kentuckians gratified at the election of Jefferson.
Issues of the campaign.
Heated contest.
Wise administration hitherto.
Judge McClung, of the Kentucky Fed- eral circuit, legislated out of office by the general law.
First insurance and banking in Ken- tucky.
Changes of courts.
Intendant Morales, of New Orleans, proclaims the privileges of Mississippi trade canceled.
Threatening resentment.
Spain cedes Louisiana to France in se- cret treaty.
Protest of United States Government.
Monroe minister to France, with full powers to purchase or resist.
Consul Napoleon offers to sell to United States for sixteen million dollars.
Monroe accepts.
Louisiana transferred to the United States.
Great religious revivals in Kentucky. Phenomenal exercises.
Sweep the country. Greenup elected governor. Jefferson re-elected.
John Breckinridge attorney-general of the United States.
First pension in Kentucky.
Burr's conspiracy. Blannerhassett's island headquarters. Kentucky the theater.
Burr's plans. His associates. Arraigned by Colonel Daveiss. Trial and acquittal. Pledges to Clay.
His abortive efforts. Failure.
Reflections.
Old conspiracies unearthed by legisla- tive investigation.
Sebastian received two thousand dollars a year. from Spain.
Compelled to resign from the Appellate bench.
Nicholas and Innes involved.
New testimonies of recent date from the archives of Spain, at Madrid, in regard to Spanish intrigues in Kentucky.
Copies filed at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. All the facts unearthed.
Interesting revelations.
Intendant Miro's letter to Valdes, secre- tary for the Indies, at Madrid.
Wilkinson's treasonable pledges.
His letters in cipher to the intendant.
Involves the names of his Kentucky friends.
His agent, Dunn.
Letter to Miro.
What Kentucky will do. All leading men favor secession except Colonel Marshall and Muter.
Act of Congress disappoints.
Plans next.
Wants a place of refuge in Louisiana, in case of failure.
English agent Connelly.
Disposal of him.
Wilkinson writes Miro that money is the prime mover.
He has advanced five thousand dollars.
Says "two thousand five hundred dol- lars will attract Marshall and Muter on our side."
Congressman Brown for secession.
Intrigue in constitutional convention. Same intrigues in Tennessee.
27
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Seceders establish the " State of Frank- land " there.
Sevier governor. His arrest and trial.
Daring rescue by his friends from the court-room.
Right of navigation and trade restored. Quiets discontent.
Disconcerts plans.
Agency and intrigue renewed through Power.
Stipulates for Spain to furnish one hun- dred thousand dollars.
Ten thousand dollars sent to Wilkinson. His hesitation.
Now major-general of the United States army.
Wilkinson tried and acquitted.
Ben Hardin on Sebastian.
Nicholas' and Innes' defense.
Brown's exoneration.
Venerable Judge Muter resigns. Henry Clay's birth and early life.
Genius and character.
Locates at Lexington, in 1798, at the age of twenty-one years.
Rapid advancement to success.
First official promotions.
Opening political career.
His leadership and speeches.
Madison president.
General Charles Scott governor.
His message.
Strained relations with England.
Bank of Kentucky chartered.
Census of 1810.
Battle of Tippecanoe.
Colonels Abraham Owen and Joseph H.
Daveiss killed.
Biographic sketches.
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