USA > Missouri > Annals of Methodism in Missouri : containing an outline of the ministerial life of more than one thousand preachers, and sketches of more than three hundred ; also sketches of charges, churches and laymen from the beginning in 1806 to the centennial year, 1884, containing seventy-eight years of history > Part 4
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Per
1871
72
118
12479
12669
1843
.14
'72
81
125
13458
13664
995
7
1550
*293
15
.11
'73
88
127
13957
14672
508
3
1590
40
2
.11
'74
82
107
14064
14253
81
1964
374
23
.13
'75
73
112
13951
14136
*117
1649
*315
16
.11
'76
75
95
13582
13752
*384
2
2469
821
49
.18
'77
87
121
13953
14161
409
2
2818
349
14
.19
'78
86
128
14950
15164
1003
7
2871
53
2
.19
'79
83
125
16385
16593
1429
9
3167
296
10
.19
'80
88
145
17230
17463
870
5
4062
895
28
.23
'81
97
146
17940
18183
720
4
4893
831
20
.27
'82
108
151
18284
18543
360
1
6360
1467
30
.34
'83
113
157
19550
19820
1277
7
6332
*28
.32
'84
113
151
21404
21668
1848
9
7302
970
15
.33
This Conference has averaged yearly 20c per member.
Comparative growth of the State and Methodism by decades.
Year ..
Population. .
20845
533
1 to 39
1820
66586
219
1445
171
1 to 46
1830
140455
110
3893
169
1 to 36
1840
383702
173
14227
205
1 to 26
1850
682044
78
4506
*80
25653
80
30159
111
1 to 22
1860
1182012
73
6116
35
41365
61
47481
56
1 to 24
1870
1721295
45
25308
313
42188
2
67496
42
1 to 25
1880
2129091
26
30043
18
55864
32
85907
27
1 to 25
1890
2679184
23
60783
102
90280
61 151063
75
1 to 17
Per cent.
South
M. E. Church
of Increase
Per cent.
Churches.
of Increase
Per cent.
Population.
Methodiststo
Ratio of
1810
of Increase
Per cent.
M. E. Church
of Inerease
Both
.
ANNALS.
CHAPTER II.
SECTION 1.
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea- ture."
1806.
WM. MCKENDREE was born in King William county, Virginia, July 6, 1757 ; was converted under the ministry of Rev. Jno. Easter, in 1787. In the ninth month thereafter Mr. Easter requested him to attend the District Conference, which he did ; and at the close thereof, Bishop Asbury read out : Mecklinburg Ct., Philip Cox, Wm. McKendree. Thereafter he served the following circuits successively : Cumberland, Portsmouth, Amelia, Greenville, Norfolk, Union, Botetourt.
Districts : Virginia, three years; Maryland, two years. In ISoo, transferred to the Western Conference, and appointed to Kentucky district, the only district in the Conference, and which included West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. He was continued in this district five years, and then appointed to Cumberland district, on which he remained until he was elected Bishop in May, ISOS. Henceforth the United States was his parish until March 5, 1835, when at the residence of his brother, Dr. James McKendree, in Sumner county, Tennessee, he ceased to work and live, saying, "All is well. All is well."
One day, soon after his conversion, his father came into the room where he was sitting and addressed him thus : "William, has not the Lord called you to preach the
2
JOIIN TRAVIS.
gospel? I believe he has, and I charge you not to quench the spirit. While you lay sick of the fever, when the doctor and all your friends had given you up for lost, I was greatly afflicted at the thought of you dying in your sins. I applied myself to the throne of grace, and prayed incessantly. While I was on my knees, the Lord manifested himself to me in an uncommon manner, and gave me assurance that you should live to preach the gospel, and I have never lost my confidence, although you have been too careless. 'Quench not the Spirit.'" Noble sire of a worthy son.
Bishop McKendree possessed every essential element of a great man, and having faithfully cultivated his gifts he became truly great. He was great in goodness, and good in his greatness.
One of the best biographies I have ever read is his life written by Bishop Paine.
He was the first Presiding Elder over Missouri circuit, and had charge of the first camp meeting ever held in the territory, in 1807. He also "accompanied his successor on the district, James Ward, to a camp meeting near O'Fallon, in St. Charles county, in ISOS, after which they crossed the Mis- souri river, and held a meeting in the Florissant neighbor- hood. in St. Louis county.
He was buried in the family graveyard; but subse- quently his remains were disinterred and deposited in a vault at Vanderbilt University.
JOHN TRAVIS was born in Chester District, S. C., Nov. 3, 1773, was converted when young, and received into the Western Conference at the session held at Ebenezer meeting house, on the Nolichucky river, in Green county, East Tennessee, Sept. 15, 1806, and sent to Missouri, which
3
I So6.
was only a paper circuit. This meeting house in the Earnest settlement was one of the first, if not the first, house of worship built in Tennessee. From it the first preacher is sent to Missouri.
Young Travis, the son of a widow, in obedience to the command of the Master, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel," came to Missouri, formed a circuit, traveled it, held, with the help of his presiding elder, Wm. McKendree, and James Guin, a camp meeting, and returned to the Conference, at the close of the year, two organized circuits with 106 members. A good beginning. His second charge was Wilkinson circuit, in Mississippi ; then Roaring River ; next Green River, two years ; thence to Livingston, Dover and Holston successively, one year each. In 1815, after having traveled eight years, he located and married Miss Cynthia Taylor, and settled on a farm in Liv- ingston county, Ky., where he spent the remainder of his life.
After he located, he studied medicine and entered upon the practice of physic, which he followed till old age and the loss of sight compelled him to rest. He became totally blind about fourteen years before his death; but he continued to preach occasionally after the loss of sight, until he became too feeble from the infirmities of age. He died Nov. 11, 1852, aged 79 years, and was buried on his farm beside his wife, who had died in 1849.
Mr. Travis was a man of a very high order of ability. He had a remarkably quick perception and was ready for emergencies. Was a man of great firmness, was positive in his convictions, and never hesitated to express or defend them. He was richly endowed with qualifications of head and heart for a leader and teacher of men.
Mr. Travis was a very proper man to be associated with the great and good McKendree in planting Methodism in the fertile soil of Missouri.
JAMES WARD.
1807.
JAMES WARD, the third preacher and second presiding elder in Missouri, was born and brought up in Princess Anne county, Maryland, by a widowed mother, his father having died when he was but a child. He was licensed to preach in 1789, and soon after employed by the presiding elder, Richard Whatcoat, to fill a vacancy on Dover circuit, Dela- ware. He was admitted on trial into the Baltimore Confer- ence in 1792, and appointed to Holston circuit. The next year he traveled Salt River circuit. From this period until ISo7 he was most of the time in the valleys and mountains of Virginia, the last four years of which period he served the Greenbrier district. In ISo7 he was transferred to the Western Conference and appointed to the Lexington circuit, but removed during the year to the Cumberland district, to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Wm. McKendree to the Episcopacy. This was the only year Mr. Ward was connected with the work in Missouri. The two years fol- lowing he traveled the Kentucky district, then one year on Shelby circuit, next two years on Salt River district. Located in 1814, and readmitted into the Kentucky Confer- ence in IS2S, in which he traveled ten years more, being superannuated two years. In IS40 he was placed on the superannuated list, where he remained until April 13, 1855, when he closed his eventful life, near Floydsburg, Ky., in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and the sixty-third of his ministry.
"The heavenly inheritance was bright before him to the last moment. His sun went down without a cloud." Mr. Ward was a good preacher, a good man, and eminently useful.
5
ISO7.
JESSE WALKER. Any book purporting to give the Annals of Methodism in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri or Illinois, that did not contain an account of Jesse Walker would be exceedingly defective. Of the more than one thousand names that glitter on the roll of Methodist preachers in Missouri, none shine with a steadier ray than his. He was our morning star, a bright and shining light, that ushered in the reign of gospel light and religious liberty on the sunset side of the Mississippi river. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make His paths straight." No other man did so much for Methodism here, during the first decade of its history as he. Not that he was a greater man than those who preceded or followed him; in some respects all of his pred- ecessors and many of his successors were his superiors. Yet no one impressed himself more deeply upon the com- munity nor accomplished more good than he.
Mr. Walker emigrated from North Carolina and settled some three miles below Nashville about the beginning of the present century. Here he united with the Methodist Church and was licensed to preach. He was poor and had a wife and three children to support. Nothing but a profound sense of duty could have induced him to enter the itinerant ranks at a time when almost every preacher, who married, located.
He was received on trial into the Western Conference in 1802, and sent to form the Red River circuit. In 1803 he was sent to Livingston, thence to Hartford two years. In IS06 he was sent to Illinois to form a circuit there ; 1807, Missouri circuit ; ISO8, Illinois ; ISog and ISIo, Cape Girar- deau ; ISII, Illinois. In 1812 he was appointed to Illinois district, which included Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas,
6
JESSE WALKER.
where he was continued four years. For the next three years he was the presiding elder on the Missouri district.
In IS19 and IS20 he was Conference (Missouri) mis- sionary ; IS21, missionary to St. Louis City ; 1822 and IS23, missionary to the state of Missouri, "with special directions to give attention to the Indians in the bounds of the Confer- ence ;" IS24, missionary to the settlements between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and to the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Clark. From IS25 to 1829 he was a mem- ber of the Illinois Conference and missionary to the Indians ; IS30, Chicago mission ; IS31, Mission district; IS32, Chicago district, and missionary to Chicago; 1833, Chicago mission ; IS34, superannuated, and died at his home in Cook county, Ill., October 5, IS35, while his Conference was in session.
No other man ever performed. thirty-two years of more continuous labor on the frontier, where greater sacrifices were required, or more hardships were endured, than the above list of appointments indicate. He was always in the van of the Lord's hosts, and largely at his own charges.
But this sketch must not be extended to much greater length, though there is much to tempt the writer's pen to linger longer here. Two brief extracts from those who wrought with him must close the paragraph.
Dr. A. L. P. Green, in writing of him, says:
He was a character perfectly unique, he had no duplicate. He was to the church what Daniel Boone was to the early settlers; always first, always ahead of everybody else, preceding all others long enough to be the pilot of the new-comer. The minutes in his case are no guide, from the fact that he was sent by the bishops and presiding elders in every direction where work was to be cut out. His natural vigor was almost superhuman. Jie did
7
ISOS.
not seem to require food and rest as other men; no day's journey was long enough to tire him. no fare too poor for him to live on; to him, in traveling, roads and paths were useless things, he blazed out his own course; no way was too hard for him; if his horse could not carry him, he led the horse, and where his horse could not follow he would leave him and travel on foot; and if night and a cabin did not come together, he would pass the night alone in the wilderness, which with him was no uncommon occurrence. Looking up the pioneer settler was his chief delight, and he found his way through hill and brake as by instinct; he was never lost, and, as Bishop McKendree once said of him in addressing an annual Conference, he never complained. As the church moved west and north, it seemed to bear Walker before it. Every time you could hear from him, he was still further on, and, when the settlements of the white man seemed to take shape and form, he was next heard of among the Indian tribes of the northwest.
The following pen picture was drawn by Bishop Morris :
A man about five feet six or seven inches high, of rather slender form, with a sallow complexion, light hair, blue eyes, prominent cheek-bone and pleasant countenance, dressed in drab-colored clothes, made in the plain style peculiar to the early Methodist preachers, his neck secured with a white cravat and his head covered with a light-colored beaver, nearly as large as a lady's parasol-that is Jesse Walker."
EDMOND WILCOX Was admitted on trial into the Western Conference in 1804. He discontinued at the end of his first year ; was readmitted in 1So7 and appointed to Merrimac circuit in Missouri, and located in ISO9. He traveled one year in Missouri and two elsewhere.
1808.
SAMUEL PARKER, the sixth preacher and third presid- ing elder in Missouri, was born in New Jersey in 1774, and was converted when fourteen years old. He was received into the Western Conference on trial in IS04 and
S
ABRAHAM AMOS.
appointed to Hinkstone circuit; 1805, Lexington ; 1806, Limestone ; 1807, Miami; ISOS, Indiana district, which he served four years. This was a new district, and only included Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. He next went to Deer Creek circuit, then to Miami district, then to Ken- tucky district, on which he was continued four years. Here he married Miss Alethia Tilton, the daughter of a local preacher. In 1819 he was appointed presiding elder of Mississippi district. This was his last appointment. He died in Mississippi, December 6, 1819.
Mr. Parker was a brilliant man, an eloquent preacher and a sweet singer. Vast crowds attended his ministry, and many people were brought to Christ and added to the church by his labors.
ABRAHAM AMOS entered the traveling connection in ISO3, and filled successively the following charges: Natchez, Miami, Mad River, Guyandotte, Licking, Livingston, Mis- souri and Illinois. He located in ISIO.
JOSEPH OGLESBY was born in Virginia, July 3, 1782 ; was converted in Jefferson county, Ky., when eighteen years old, and soon after licensed to preach ; entered the Western Conference in 1803 and appointed to Miami circuit ; in IS04, Illinois. During this year he visited Missouri and preached in the Murphy Settlement, where Farmington now is. This was pre-historic in Missouri Methodism. IS05, Little Kanawha ; 1806, Shelby ; IS07, Nashville ; ISOS, Merrimac. Here his health failed and he returned to his father's, in Kentucky, and asked for a location, which was granted to him in ISog.
Re-entered the Conference in ISII, and served succes- sively, Salt River, Flemingsburg, Mad River and Cincin-
9
ISO9.
nati and Miami circuits, and located again, because of ill health, in 1815.
"He was readmitted into the Indiana Conference in 1832, and served the church efficiently, both on circuits and as presiding elder."
He died in Louisville, Ky., at the home of his youngest son, March 20, 1852, having reached his three score and ten less four months.
"As a preacher he ranked with the more prominent in the church. Without the advantages of early education, by close application and untiring industry he attained to emi- nence as a minister of the gospel. In religious controversy he was a master. Although sometimes metaphysical, yet his sermons were generally practical and experimental. He was a man of acute mind, ready utterance and an able divine."
JOHN CRANE was born in Eaton's Station, two miles below Nashville, Tenn., in 1787 ; was converted when eight years old; became an itinerant preacher when nineteen. He served in regular order the following charges, beginning in 1806: Holston, Deer Creek, Cold Water, Missouri, Green River and Duck River circuits. On the last he fin- ished his work, and on the fourteenth of February, 1812, entered into rest, and on the banks of Duck River, Tenn., waits the resurrection of the just. He was gifted, earnest and zealous, and his brief life was one of great usefulness. 1809.
DAVID YOUNG was born in Virginia, March 7, 1779 ; admitted on trial into the Western Conference in 1805, and was sent to Salt River circuit, but soon after changed to Wayne ; 1806, Livingston,-these were in Kentucky. In
IO
THOMAS WRIGHT.
ISO7; Nashville, Tenn. ; ISOS, White Oak, Ohio; ISog,. Merrimac, Mo. ; ISIO, Marietta, Ohio, two years ; IS12, Muskingum district, three years ; superannuated from IS17 to IS21 : IS22, supernumerary ; 1823, Conference missionary,. two years : 1825, Zanesville station ; IS26, Lancaster district, four years ; 1830 to 1833, superannuated ; 1834, Cambridge circuit : IS35, Zanesville district, four years ; 1839, super- annuated. in which relation he continued to the close of his useful life. He died November, IS5S, aged seventy-nine years.
Mr. Young was always himself; he had a mental and moral identity, and could no more be another in character, opinion or action, than in form and feature. Hence, by some, he was regarded as eccentric, which, when put into plain English, means Mr. Young- had the courage, upon all subjects and at all times, to think, speak and act for himself. He copied no man in tone, gesture or action. He followed in the wake of no man's opinions blindly. When he settled on an opinion, it was intelligently done, and seldom needed to be done over again. Among his prominent characteristics were
decision and firmness. * * * As an orator he had but few equals. In style, he was clear, logical and chaste; when roused, grand and over -. whelming. He was always equal to the occasion. His voice was. musical, his enunciation distinct, and, as a reader of the Holy Scriptures and communion service, I have never met in our own or sister church, his equal. He was fifty-three years a member of an annual, and six times a member of the general Conference. *
* His love for the church moved his pen while writing his last will, in which he bequeathed her most of his fortune. His last words to the. writer were: "I am calmly, though through great physical suffering, nearing my better home."
THOMAS WRIGHT, the eleventh preacher and seventh presiding elder in Missouri, was the first who began and ended his labors here. He was born in South Carolina .. While yet a child his parents moved to Kentucky ; thence
II
I So9.
west of the Mississippi river, where, in ISO3, he was con- verted, probably under the ministry of John Clark. He most likely joined the church under John Travis, and was licensed to preach, it is reasonable to suppose, in 1So7. In ISOS he was employed by the presiding elder to supply the place of Joseph Oglesby on the Merrimac circuit, where he increased the membership nearly six hundred per cent. In ISog he entered the Western Conference, and served succes- sively and successfully the following charges: Merrimac, Missouri, Merrimac, two years ; Cape Girardeau, two years ; Saline, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, Belleview and Saline, two years ; A'Bouff and Cold Water, Cape Girardeau district, three years ; Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, where on the fourteenth of February, 1825, he finished his work and entered into rest, having spent thirteen years on circuits, and three as presiding elder.
Mr. Wright was the revivalist of the Conference, and was a most successful and popular preacher. Many of the old people of Southeast Missouri remember him to this day and love to talk of his zeal in the Master's cause.
One of my wife's sisters bears his honored name. She- is now the widow of the Rev. Jas. R. Burk.
ISAAC LINDSEY was admitted on trial in ISOS, and sent to French Broad circuit in East Tennessee ; ISog, Cold Water, Mo. ; ISIo, Silver Creek, Ky. ; then Red River, Goose Creek, Somerset, Red River, Lebanon, Tenn. He located in IS16, and settled in his old neighborhood, on the Cumberland river, prospered in business and was mur- dered for his money.
12
JOHN M'FARLAND.
1810.
JOHN MCFARLAND began his itinerant career in ISIO, and traveled Merrimac, Cape Girardeau, Cold Water, Cold Water and Merrimac, Saline, and located in 1815. Read- mitted in 1819 and appointed to Belleview and Saline. He again located in 1820, and spent the remainder of his life on Saline Creek, New Tennessee settlement, Ste. Genevieve county, in the capacity of a local preacher. Both in the itinerant and local ranks, he was faithful, capable, earnest and useful, and left the odor of a good name in Southeast Missouri.
GEO. A. COLBERT traveled Cold Water in ISIo, and located in 1814.
1811.
JOHN CORD was born in Maryland, converted in IS06, joined the Western Conference in ISII, and was sent to Missouri circuit; after which he traveled in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He died in IS27.
DANIEL FRALEY entered the Conference in ISIo, and was sent to Illinois circuit ; ISII, Cold Water; 1812 and IS13, Madison and Salt River in Kentucky ; then three years in Ohio, and located in IS17. 1812.
JESSE HALE was admitted on trial in the Tennessee Conference at its first session, and sent to Missouri circuit, two years ; 1814, Livingston, Ky. ; 1815, Cape Girardeau ; 1816, Illinois ; 1817, - -; ISIS, Illinois district ; 1819, Missouri district : 1820, New Madrid circuit ; 1821, -; IS22, Illinois circuit ; 1823, Indianapolis ; 1824, Missouri district ; 1825, Arkansas district, four years. Mr. Hale was a strong man, and gave sixty years of faithful service to Missouri.
13
IS12.
A contemporary says of him: "He was an abolition- ist of the Garrison type, and did not hesitate to preach against slavery, both publicly and privately, and thereby caused much hard feeling among the members of the church." For opinion's sake he transferred to Illinois Con- ference in 1829.
BENJAMIN EDGE was admitted on trial into the Western Conference. The following appointments were his fields of labor : Licking, Roaring River, Hartford, French Broad, Opelousas, La., Sandy River, Salt River, Patoka, Cape Girardeau, Breckenridge, Richland, Livingston, Lee, Powell's Valley.
This brings him to ISIS, when he served one year as traveling companion of Bishop McKendree ; 1819, Tennessee Valley ; 1820, superannuated. In IS21 he was transferred to the Virginia Conference, where he served six years more on circuit ; superannuated in 1827. Mr. Edge was effective twenty-two years, during which time he labored as an itiner- ant in Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennes- see and Virginia. He attended the session of his Conference which met in Norfolk, Va., February 10, 1836, and a few days after it adjourned he left that city for the "city whose builder and maker is God." Mr. Edge was a good man, a faithful Christian, a zealous preacher, and was the means of turning many "from darkness to light."
WILLIAM HART entered the Western Conference at its last session held in Cincinnati, October 1, ISII, and wrought in the following fields: Henderson, New Madrid, Stone's River, Clinch, Tennessee Valley, supernumerary, one year ; Jefferson, two years. Because of ill health he located in 1819.
RICHARD P. CONN.
"No one performed his duties with greater fidelity than Wm. Hart."
1813.
RICHARD P. CONN was also admitted in ISHI, and trav- eled as junior preacher, Clinch, Lebanon and Cold Water and Merrimac, and located in IS14.
The history of R. P. Conn affords a melancholy instance of the results of the labor and suffering the preachers of that day were called to undergo. * * Exposure and toil bereft him of reason, and after suffering long, a sad example of a mind in ruins, he passed to his final acount.
'THOMAS NIXION was received on trial into the Tennes- see Conference at its first session, held at Fountain Head. November 10, 1812, and appointed to Somerset circuit, in Kentucky. In 1813 he comes to New Madrid, Mo. In IS14 he goes to Lee circuit, in East Tennessee. In IS15 we find him on Wilkinson circuit, in Mississippi. He was a traveling preacher, and, like most of his contemporaries, had an opportunity to see the country. Twenty-two years of his life were given to the itincracy, mostly in Mississippi. He located in 1834.
1814.
SAMUEL H. THOMPSON was admitted on trial in ISog, and traveled Nolichucky, Clinch and Knoxville circuits in East Tennessee ; then Christian in Kentucky. Having trav- eled four years and graduated to the order of an elder, he is appointed presiding elder of Missouri district, which he served three years. In 1817 he was put in charge of the Illinois district. The residue of his useful life was spent in that state on districts and circuits. He died there in 1841. Mr. Thompson headed the delegation from Missouri to the General Conference of 1820. Dr. McFerrin "met him in.
15
IS14.
the General Conference at Baltimore in 1840, and found him to be a man of sweet spirit."
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