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 5
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WILLIAM C. STRIBLING, a character worthy of the pen of a ready writer, was born in Albemarle county, Va., March IS, 1795; converted October 12, 1810; licensed to exhort, 1812, and to preach, January 24. 1S13; admitted on trial into the Tennessee Conference in October of the same year, and sent to Clinch circuit under Ben Malone; 1814, Missouri circuit : 1815, Henderson, Ky. ; 1816, Green River ; IS17, Fountain Head : 1SIS, Madison ; IS19, Danville ; 1820, Lexington and Georgetown; IS21, Lexington ; IS22, Mount Sterling ; IS23, located ; readmitted in IS24, and served Mount Sterling, Limestone and Fleming circuits, and located again in IS27. He died in Jacksonville, Ill., December IS, IS72.
Mr. Stribling was more than an ordinary man. Bishop Kavenaugh said in his semi-centennial sermon that he was "the most remarkable preacher he had ever known." He was a veritable book-worm. He read everything and forgot nothing. His style was sometimes stilted. A young man was once smoking in his presence, when he broke the follow- ing jargon over his head :
Sir, the deleterious effluvia emanating from your tobacconistic reservoir so obfuscates my ocular optics, and so distributes its infec- tious particles with the atmospheric fluidity surrounding me, that my respirable apparatus must shortly be obtunded, unless through the abundant suavity of your pre-eminent politeness, you will disembogue that luminous tube from the pungent, stimulating and sternatory ingredient which replenishes the rotundity of the vastness of its cavity.
JACOB WHITESIDES and NACE OVERALL were both admitted on trial in the Tennessee Conference in IS14, and sent to Missouri ; the first to Cold Water and Merrimac, and
16
WILLIAM STEVENSON.
the other to New Madrid. Jacob Whitesides traveled the Missouri the next year; after this he spent six years in the Conference in Illinois, sometimes on circuits and sometimes supernumerary. He located in 1822; was readmitted into the Arkansas Conference in 1827 and located again in 1829; readmitted in 1830, and died in Hempstead county, Arkan- sas, in 1860, after a pilgrimage of more than eighty years.
Mr. Overall traveled three years more in Kentucky and Tennessee and located in ISIS.
1815.
The Tennessee Conference, at its session held in Beth- lehem meeting-house, Wilson county, Tenn., October 20, 1815, admitted fourteen preachers on trial, four of whom were sent that year to circuits in Missouri, as follows: New Madrid, Philip Davis ; Belleview, William Stevenson ; Cold Water, Benjamin Proctor; Boonslick, Joseph Piggott.
After this PHILIP DAVIS traveled the following circuits : Spring River, Missouri, New Madrid, St. Francois, Cape Girardeau and Saline ; all of which were in Missouri, except Spring River, which was in Arkansas. He located in IS22.
WILLIAM STEVENSON was appointed to Hot Springs in Arkansas in 1816, and reappointed there in IS17. In ISIS we find him presiding elder of Black River district, in Arkansas, although he had been a traveling preacher but three years. He was received into full connection and ordained elder in 1817. He was continued on the district three years. In 1820 the name was changed to Arkansas. He located in 1821, but reappears again in 1822, and is appointed missionary to Arkansas. The next two years he served the Arkansas district ; the next he was appointed to Natchitoches, La., and in IS26 was transferred to the Missis-
17
ISI5.
sippi Conference, and appointed to the same charge. In IS27 he was appointed to presiding elder of Louisiana dis- trict, on which he was continued four years ; 1831, Monroe district ; 1832, superannuated ; and his name disappears in IS36. Bishop McTyeire says of him :
Win. Stevenson was born at Ninety-Six, in South Carolina, and though forty-seven years old when admitted into conference, he did thirty-nine years of most valuable labor. He itinerated from Mis- souri through Arkansas and Louisiana to Texas. He was a good preacher, a great preacher, the people said.
BENJAMIN PROCTOR, who was admitted this year and appointed to Cold Water, traveled but one year. Fifty years ago my father lived near where Prairie Home now is, and Benjamin Proctor lived some two or three miles cast of us. His house was the place for preaching and class-meeting in the neighborhood. One of the most distinct pictures hang- ing far back in the halls of my memory is that of going there to class-meeting. I can see the stack of benches in the yard, the people ride up, dismount, hitch their horses, meet about the gate, shake hands and engage in conversation. Now they carry the benches into the house, which is soon filled with devout worshipers. Now I hear them singing :
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, With all thy quickening powers;
Come, shed abroad a Saviour's love In these cold hearts of ours.
The class leader now stands up and reads the fifth chap- ter of James ; then-
A charge to keep I have A God to glorify ;
when all stand up and sing; then, all kneeling, a devout prayer goes up to the throne of grace from the leader. Ay,
IS
JOSEPH PIGGOTT.
from all ; for the many hearty amens show that all join in the prayer. Another song. Now they "speak one to another" of their religious enjoyments and prospects. The "Lord hearkens and hears. "He is in the midst of them. They sing, pray, talk and shout as "the Holy Ghost gives them utterance." Nothing in that picture is more distinct than the shouting ; and though I was only three or four years old those meetings are doing me good yet.
Mr. Proctor was the first preacher of whom I have any distinct recollection. I thought he was, except my father, the best man in the world. I still think that all who bear that honored name ought to be good.
JOSEPH PIGGOTT, also admitted on trial this year, served the following charges : Boonslick, two years ; New Madrid, and St. Francois, Belleview and Saline, two years. His name disappears in 1820. I regret that I can get no further clue to this good man who planted Methodism in the center of our great state. He was the second man who began and ended his ministry in Missouri. His mother was a widow, and was afterwards one of the charter members of the church in St. Louis.
JOHN SCHRADER began his itinerant career in IS13. His appointments were : Henderson, Ky., Vincennes, Blue River, Ind., Missouri, Mo., Vincennes, Ind., Spring River, Ark., Indian Creek, Corydon, Ind., and located in 1821. 1816.
JOHN SCRIPPS was born in England. He came to Missouri when a boy and settled near Cape Girardeau, where Samuel Parker found him in ISog. (Parker had known the family in Virginia. ) He entered the Conference in 1814, being the third preacher who started from Missouri. His
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1816.
first and second appointments were in Illinois, Patoka and Illinois. His labors in Missouri commenced in 1816 on Cold Water ; 1817, Boonslick ; ISIS, Cape Girardeau ; 1819, Boonslick and Lamine; 1820. Blue River, Ind. ; 1821, Arkansas district, two years : 1823, St. Louis station ; 1824, superannuated, in which relation he continued till-, when he located. He settled in Rushville, Illinois, where he died, beloved and regretted by all who knew him. Mr. Scripps served the Missouri Conference as secretary twelve years. Hle wielded the pen of a ready writer, and con- tributed much valuable information to the periodical press of his day. Dr. McAnally quotes largely from him in his "Methodism of Missouri," to the great delight and profit of his readers. Although but five years of his active labors were given to Missouri, yet the Annals of Methodism here must perpetuate his memory. He was elected to the General Conferences of 1820 and 1824. When in his prime he was regarded as THE preacher of the Missouri Conference.
J. C. HARBISON also started from Southeastern Missouri, entering the Conference with John Scripps. His appointments were : 1814, Fort Massac and Little Wabash ; IS15, Cash River ; 1816, Belleview and Saline ; IS17, Buffalo, two years. He was the first secretary of the Missouri Con- ference. He was elected as such at the session when he was received into full connection ; hence, before his admission. But alas! exultation sometimes goes before a fall. In his case it was but too true. He was expelled in IS20. "Let him that standeth take heed."
JOSEPH REEDER, received on trial into the Missouri Conference in 1816 ; traveled as junior preacher on Belleview and Saline, and discontinued at the end of the year.
20
ALEXANDER M'ALISTER.
ALEXANDER MCALISTER Was converted at one of Jesse Walker's meetings at the residence of John Scripps, in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, and entered the itinerant ranks in 1816. Here are his fields of labor: Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, Spring River, Boonslick, Missouri, Illinois, St. Louis circuit. He located in IS22, readmitted in IS2S, and made presiding elder of Cape Girardeau district, which he served two years ; 1830, Missouri district ; 1831, St. Louis district ; 1832, located again, and some ten years afterwards, preached his last sermon, and died in the house where he was spiritually born.
Though a mechanic, with a very limited education at the begin- ning of his ministerial career, he very soon attained a high position as a minister of the gospel. Indeed, he seems to have had few equals, and fewer, if any, superiors in his field and day. His strong mind, original power of thought, clear perception and cool judgment soon made him the favorite champion of the cause he had espoused; and these, combined with his indomitable energy, decision of character. and strict habits of study and business, placed him in the front rank of the ministry, where he made a deep and lasting impression on the public mind.
1817.
RUCKER TANNER, admitted in IS17, traveled New Madrid and St. Francois, Cold Water and A'Bouff, and dis- continued. Admitted on trial again in 1829, and appointed to Hot Springs jand Mt. Prairie, but shortly after Conference died at his home in Hempstead county, Ark.
WILLIAM TOWNSEND, also admitted in 1817, served Boonslick, Missouri, New Madrid, Arkansas, Pecan Point and Shoal Creek, Illinois ; and located in 1823.
SAMUEL GLAZE was admitted on trial by the Ohio Con- ference in 1816, where he wrought on Deer Creek and Zanes-
2I
ISI9.
ville circuits. He was transferred to Missouri in ISIS, and appointed to Cold Water and A'Bouff; 1819, Cape Girardeau ; 1820, Blue River, Ind. : 1821, Belleview ; 1822, superannuated, and died at his brother's, in St. Louis county, in September, IS24. "He was converted in his youth, was a useful and acceptable preacher. He fell a martyr to his work."
WM. R. JONES was admitted on trial in 1816, and traveled Cash River and Big Bay two years ; ISIS, LaMine. He was expelled in 1819. A sad end for the first man that traveled in the bounds of what is now the Southwest Missouri Confereace.
1819.
ISAAC W. PIGGOTT, a brother of Joseph, and probably the sixth preacher who started from Missouri, entered the Conference in 1819, and was sent to Cold Water and A'Bouff, St. Louis circuit, Mississippi, Ill., two years, and located in IS24.
1820.
JOHN HARRIS, of the class of 1816, traveled two years in Illinois, one in Arkansas, and entered Missouri in 1819, when we find him on Boonslick [and La Mine; 1820, Belleview ; 1821, Mt. Prairie, Ark. ; 1822, Arkansas ; 1823, Fishing River, Mo. ; 1824, Belleview; 1825, Fishing River ; IS26, La Mine ; 1827, superannuated. He is still remembered by the older members at Pilot Grove. He was born in 1792, and died in Pulaski county, Ark., October, 1865.
JOHN McCORD was admitted on trial in IS20; traveled Gasconade and St. Francois circuits, and discontinued in IS22.
23
W. L. HAWLEY.
W. L. HAWLEY, of the same class, served Missouri circuit, and discontinued in IS21.
WM. MEDFORD, admitted in ISIS, was first sent to Harrison circuit in Illinois ; then Spring River, in Arkansas ; IS20, Buffalo circuit, Mo. ; 1821, Missouri circuit; 1822, Saline circuit ; IS23, Potoka, Ind. ; 1824, Mississippi circuit, Ill., two years ; 1826, Atlas ; 1827, located.
JAMES SCOTT entered the itinerancy in 1819, and located in 1823. He traveled Cedar Creek circuit in 1820. The other three years were spent in Illinois and Indiana. Mr. Scott probably began his ministry in Missouri, starting from the Boonslick circuit.
LEVEN GREEN Was this year on La Mine circuit, and discontinued at the end of his first year. Nearly fifty years ago he was a local preacher in Greene county, Missouri, where he died.
SAMUEL BASSETT, admitted this year; traveled Saline and St. Francois, Cedar Creek, Hot Springs and Mt. Prairie ; IS23-4, supernumerary ; 1825, Madison station, Ill. ; 1826, located.
We have now gone over fourteen years, and had forty- six men to pass before us.
Of these, twenty-five spent but one year each in Mis- souri, and two of them-Oglesby and Lindsey-did not remain a full year. Six spent but two years; five, three ; one, four ; two, five ; three, six ; one, seven ; one, eight ; one, thirteen, and one (T. Wright), sixteen ; making an aggre- gate of 128 years of service. As near as can now be ascer- tained, seven, namely, Wright, Harbison, Scripps, J. Pig- gott, McAlister, I. N. Piggott, and Jas. Scott, were licensed to preach in Missouri.
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IS20.
Proctor, Reeder, Hawley, and Green discontinued at the end of their first year ; McCord at the end of his second year. The others were all admitted into the Conference and ordained. Those who discontinued are slightly over ten per cent. of the entire number.
Eight of the forty-six, over seventeen per cent., served as presiding elders in Missouri; five of them represented the Missouri Conference in the General Conference, and one was an honored bishop.
Here we pause that we may view the land cultivated by these faithful toilers, and glance at the fruits of their labors.
"Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room."
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MISSOURI CIRCUIT.
SECTION II.
WORK DONE.
"Ile that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
Taking the printed minutes as the source of informa- tion, 1So6 is the first Annal of Methodism in Missouri.
But here, as elsewhere, the Methodist Church, like everything else, has a prehistoric period. The written his- tory of Methodism dates from November 11, 1739; yet the leaven had been in the barrel of meal ten years, having been deposited therein in Oxford in 1729. It "broke out" in London when the foundry was opened for religious worship.
In 1798 John Clark, a local Methodist preacher, stood on a rock in the Mississippi river, near the western bank, not far from Herculaneum, and preached to the people on the bank the first Protestant gospel sermon ever heard on the sunset side of the "Father of Waters."
In 1804 Joseph Oglesby, a traveling preacher from Illinois, visited and preached in the Murphy settlement where Farmington now is.
In 1Soo John Patterson came from Orange county, N. C., to Upper Louisiana, and settled on Cold Water Creek in what is now St. Louis county. Mr. Patterson had a large family of children and grandchildren. They were Protestants. The Roman Catholic church was the estab- lished church of the Territory, and no other could then law- fully exist therein. But the heroic John Clark would cross the river (he lived in Illinois) in a skiff, after nightfall, make his way to the Patterson settlement, preach and return to the east bank of the river before daylight. The proba-
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ISO6.
bilities are that he organized a class there before the coming of John Travis in 1806. At all events the Cold Water Church, which is still intact, is, so far as can be ascertained, the first class organized in what is now Missouri, and also the first west of the Mississippi river.
I am indebted to Mrs. David Frazier (nce Patterson) of Corder, Mo., for a list of the charter members. They were: William and Asenith, Elisha and Lucy, John and Jane Sanders, and Polly Patterson ; Sallie Jamison, Gilbert Hodge and wife, Jehu and Penelope Brown, Allen Mannon and wife and Amy James-16.
John Clark sleeps in the Cold Water graveyard, having come thereto in IS33. An extended sketch of this great and good man can be found in "Methodism in Missouri" by Dr. McAnally.
It is impossible at this date to ascertain when, where and by whom the next classes were organized. The proba- bilities are that John Travis, who was appointed to Missouri circuit in 1So6, though the territory was then called Upper Louisiana, organized classes on both sides of the Missouri river, if Clark had not done so before he came. The circuit was named for the river. He reported 106 members and two circuits-Missouri and Merrimac-to Conference in ISO7. He also held a camp meeting on Cold Water, which was attended by W. McKendree, presiding elder, A. Goddard and J. Guinn. As these heroes crossed the river at Herculaneum and fell in with John Travis on their walk to the camp meeting (forty miles north) the proba- bilities are that he had organized classes on the Swashin or Joachim creek, on Big river, in the neighborhood of
26
COLD WATER CIRCUIT.
Potosi, on the Merrimac, and about Manchester; also in the Murphy settlement.
I suppose the Missouri circuit, to which Jesse Walker was sent this year, embraced all the settlements contiguous to and on both sides of the Missouri river and the Merrimac, to which E. Wilcox was appointed, all near and south of that stream. Jesse Walker heid two camp meetings in the summer of ISOS, one north and one south of the river. Bishop McKendree (for he had been elected bishop in May, and James Ward had taken his place on the district) was at both of them. Two hundred members-an increase of eighty- seven per cent .- were reported to Conference. 1808.
The third circuit, named Cold Water, appears this year .. The Missouri circuit was now entirely on the north of the: river. It retained its name twenty-six years, and in IS33 was changed to St. Charles, by which it is still called. The Cold Water circuit embraced all the country between the Missouri and Merrimac rivers and the Merrimac all south of that stream, reaching probably as low, as Cape Girardeau. This circuit produced the first Missouri preacher in the person of Thomas Wright.
During this Conference year, in ISog, Samuel Parker, who was then the presiding elder, visited the town of Cape Girardeau and preached in it. He stopped with the Scripps. family, which he had known in Virginia. He employed a local preacher, Z. Maddox, to form a circuit, which he did, and to which Jesse Walker was sent that fall, who immedi- diately organized a class in town which, so far as now known, was the first organized in a town in that territory.
27
ISog.
From this class John Scripps entered the ministry, and for years ranked with the first preachers of the Conference. In some respects he was the leader. Methodism, however, has had a precarious career in that Catholic town.
The first church building was blown away by a hurri- cane. The second crushed by a snow storm. Then the ecclesiastical storm of 1844 rent the membership in twain. I believe the town was left off for a while, but it now sup- ports a stationed preacher, though it has never been strong enough to entertain an annual Conference.
Five hundred and eighty-five members were reported to the Conference of 1809, an increase of 184 per cent. 1809.
As already noted, Cape Girardeau circuit came upon the roll, this year being the fourth charge. During the year beginning on Good Friday of 1810, Parker, Walker and Wright held the first camp meeting ever held in the county, at which but eight laymen were present to partake of the Lord's supper.
Such men as McAlister, Scripps, Eaker, U. C. & B. H. Spencer entered the ministry from this circuit; also J. S. Frazier. In addition to these, the names of Cook, Davis, Miller, Harrel, Randle, Williams, and Snyder were some of the early Methodists.
1810-11.
No new circuits appear for these years, but a small loss in membership reported.
1812.
This year the name Missouri was given to the territory. The first camp meeting was held in Ste. Genevieve-now Madison county-by Thos Wright, and New Madrid circuit
2S
SALINE CIRCUIT.
first appears in the list of appointments. This may have been in part the product of the earthquakes of the pre- ceding year. However, Jesse Walker visited New Madrid in ISog or ISIo, organized some classes and formed a circuit, though it was connected with Cape Girardeau till this year. It is the fifth circuit and is still a good charge. The town. has sometimes been a station. The names of Emory, Aikin, Hatcher, Woodard, Jackson and others are immortal. E. G. Frazier is the only person whom I know to have been licensed to preach by the charge. Churches were built in an early day, but I know not the date thereof. Increase this year, 73 per cent.
1813.
No change save a small increase.
1814.
Saline, the sixth circuit, named for a creek in the Southern part of St. Francois county, falls into ranks this year.
This circuit has the honor of having licensed the Nestor of Missouri Methodism to preach, and of having recom- mended him to the annual Conference. I mean J. C. Berryman, the oldest Missouri Methodist preacher now living. More recently it has sent forth J. H. DuLany and J. R. Eddleman. The settlement on the creek was known as New Tennessee. Here John McFarland, one of the early preachers, lived, labored and died. One of the earliest churches, a stone building, was erected here. The tenth session of the Missouri Conference, and the fifth held in the state, was entertained in this neighborhood in IS25.
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IS15.
1815.
The name of Merrimac circuit was changed to Belleview. Missouri circuit was divided, and the seventh new charge in the territory, and the second north of the river, was named Boonslick. A circuit was organized in Arkansas and called Spring River. This was the Genesis of Methodism in that state. The year's work resulted in an increase of 17 per cent. in the membership.
1816.
This year is worthy of note as that in which the Missouri Conference was organized. The work in Missouri was begun by the Western Conference, fell into the Tennessee Conference when it was organized in 1812, and is now circumscribed to the territories of Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, and called by the middle name. The first session was held at Shilo meeting house in Illinois terri- tory (where Belleville now is), which was the first house of worship built by and for the Methodists in the far west. There were two districts, Illinois and Missouri. The latter contained two appointments in Arkansas, one of which, Hot Springs, bubbled up this year, and to which the apostle of Arkansas Methodism, William Stevenson, was appointed.
The appointments for Missouri were:
Missouri district, J. Walker, presiding elder; Missouri circuit, John Shraeder; Boonslick, Joseph Piggott; Cold Water, Jno. Scripps ; Belleview and Saline, J. C. Harbison and Jos. Reeder ; Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, Thomas Wright and Alex. McAlister. In all there were eight preachers, five of whom, Piggott, Scripps, Harbison, Wright and McAlister, had commenced their ministry in Missouri. Half of this octave team-Walker, Wright, Scripps and
-
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ST. FRANCOIS CIRCUIT.
McAlister-were true heroes. and by their toils and triumphs made immortal names, and left a priceless heritage to their sons in the ministry of Missouri Methodism.
1817.
Missouri circuit brought forth another child, and they named it Buffalo. The name indicated strength, and the future development attested its appropriateness. Cape Girardeau was divided, and the new circuit called St. Francois. The travailing pains also yielded 50 per cent. increase in the membership.
1818.
Four new circuits appear in Arkansas, which, with the two previously noticed, were formed into a district, to which W. Stevenson was appointed, though in the Conference only three years. No further notice will be taken of Arkansas.
La Mine circuit, the tenth in Missouri, and the first in what is now the Southwest Missouri Conference, was this year set off from Boonslick. John Scripps, who had traveled this (Boonslick) mother of circuits the previous year, has left the following interesting sketch of it.
"My circuit extended on the north of the Missouri river from Cote Sans du Sein to Grand River, and on the south side from Jefferson City to near where Lexington now is. On the night of February IS, ISIS, I preached in Edmondson's Bottom, in the farthest house on the south side of the river. On the twentieth of July I preached to twenty or thirty per- sons in the Petitsau Plains, forty miles higher up the river."
He found Boonville, a small village, not on his plan, but . procured a preaching place in a private house and took it in his circuit.
31
ISIS.
The first class was organized in Boonville by Justinian Williams, then a local preacher, September, ISIS. The charter members were: Justinian Williams and wife, Frederick Houx and wife, Allen and Louisa Porter. Boon- ville was made a station in ISto, and was the first station, outside of St. Louis, made in the state. Dr. N. Hutchinson, Charles Waters, R. S. Leverage, G. W. Caton, J. G. Goshen, and B. S. Wilson were stewards; the last was recording secretary. In 1844, R. R. Thompson, J. W. Harper, Allen Porter and Jos. Eckard became official members. R. R. Thompson joined the church in Virginia in 1832, came to Boonville in 1836 and when he died a few days ago, April 20, 1SS6, had been a member of the church in Boonville nearly half a century, forty-six years an official member, most of the time recording steward. Louisa Porter, the last of the charter members, died only a few months ago. Captain Howard, who joined in 1838, is now the senior member. Caleb Jones was for a long time an official member.
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