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 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
The following is the roll of his appointments, the date being the year in which the appointment was received: In '15, under the ap- pointment of the presiding elder, Fairfield circuit, Ohio, and at the session of the Ohio Conference in the fall of the year appointed to Cumberland circuit in Tennessee Conference, and the work lying in the state of Kentucky; '16, Jefferson circuit; '17, Franklin circuit; '18, Fountain Head circuit; '19, Bowling Green. In the Kentucky Conference : '20, Hopkinsville; '21 and '22, Maysville; '31, presiding elder of Augusta district. In Missouri Conference: '24 and '25, St. Louis station ; '26 and '27, presiding elder of the Missouri district; '28 and '29, St. Louis station; '30, St. Louis district; '31, left by his request without an appointment; '32 to '35, presiding elder St. Louis district: '36 and '37, Missouri district; '38, Columbia district; '39 and '40, agent of St. Charles College: '41 and '42, St. Charles station and agent of the college; '43, presiding elder of St. Charles district; '44 and '45, presiding elder of St. Charles district; and agent of the college; '46 to '49, presiding elder of Columbia district; '50 to '51, Fayette circuit; '52 to '53, presiding elder of Hannibal district; '54 transferred to St. Louis conference and appointed superintendent of Kansas mission district; '55, transferred back to Missouri Conference and appointed presiding elder of Fayette district; '56 to '59, presiding elder of St. Charles district; '60, agent of Central College; '61 to '62, Fayette circuit; '63 and '64, Brunswick district; '65, Fayette district. '66 and '67, Conference missionary ; '68 io '70, St. Charles district; '71, Conference missionary.
The above is a record of labors in the itinerant Methodist minis- istry extending over a period of fifty-six years, and more or less over the territory now covered by four states. The history challenges our
47
IS24.
wonder and admiration. His times are coincident with the wonder- ful development of the Mississippi valley, and the planting and progress of Methodism in the vast extent of country stretching from the Alle- ghanies to the Pacific coast. When he entered the ministry there were only nine Conferences on the continent, including the two Can- adas, with 695 traveling preachers and 171,931 white and 42.304 col- ored members. Presiding Elders' districts in that day were in some instances bounded by the limits of an entire state or territory, in which there are now from two to four or five annual Conferences. In the various branches of Methodism there are now. perhaps, not less than two hundred Conferences, with more than two million communi- cants and about fifteen thousand traveling and thirty thousand local preachers. At that time the territory of Missouri was a presiding elder's district, attached to the Tennessee Conference, with seven preachers, only one being an elder, and S7S white and 63 col- ored members. At the time he entered the Missouri Conference, in '24, he was one of 21 preachers, and the membership of the entire state numbered only 2,471 whites and 361 colored. This mar- velous history of growth during the period of his own life was often with him a subject of remark, breaking forth, as well it might, into the ejaculation, "What hath God wrought!" It intensified his love of Methodism and prompted the jealousy with which he contended for the integrity of its primitive economy, which had been approved by trial and glorified by its achievements. Invariably and without qualification he was himself true to Methodist economy, and in the office of presiding elder, which he filled more than half of the years of his ministerial life, he upheld its organism and worked its plans and saw and rejoiced in its efficiency.
His ministerial history connects him with the fathers of Ameri- can Methodism, receiving his first adpointment at the hands of Bishop Asbury. Only one year before his ministry began Bishop Coke had died, and in its first year still lived Jesse Lee, the apostle of New England Methodism, and Freeborn Garrettson, who was received on trial in 1776, at the third session of a Methodist Conference in America. when there were only fourteen traveling preachers and about five thousand members on the continent. These were among the few survivors of the founders of the church on the Atlantic sea-
45
ANDREW MONROE.
board, when he joined the ranks of the pioneers of Methodism in the wide wilderness West. The second were worthy successors of the first generation of Methodist preachers, and reproduced its heroic history of toil and privation and triumphs. His early contemporaries were noble men, and he was conspicuous and honored among them. He was associated in intimate friendship and companionship with Roberts and McKendree and Soule, and fellow laborer with men whose names are embalmed in the published histories of Western Methodism.
In tracing the record of his ministerial life in the printed minutes, we have noted that BishopMorris was admitted on trial at the Confer -. ence held at the close of his first year in the itinerancy, and he has voted for the admission on trial of three other living Bishops,-Bishop Paine in' IS and at the same time the venerable Thomas Maddin, and the year preceding, Jesse Greene; Bishop Kavanaugh in '23; and later yet, as long since as thirty years ago, Bishop Marvin. Another, E. R. Hendrix, for whose admission he voted, has, since his death, been elected Bishop. Among those with whom he was associated in Kentucky in the first year of his ministry, not one, we think, survives. He was the last survivor of the number composing the first Missouri Conference, and none are nowliving of its members in succeeding years down to the year '28, when Jerome C. Berryman was received on trial and N. M. Talbott by transfer from Kentucky. They are now the seniors among Missouri itinerants and are still in the active work. These notes from the minutes make us sensible of this remarkable life. It has run parallel with the history of the church during two generations of workmen, and is identified with marked eras of change and progress.
Other similar incidents in the long course of his private and public life are to the same effect. We may not here narrate them in detail. What Kentucky was, and the characteristics of ministerial life at the commencement of his ministry there, and what the then and now of the once village and now great city of St. Louis, where he began his work in Missouri, and of the state which he has traversed in itinerant labors so extensively, the reader will be left to trace. Much of his career would not be recovered from oblivion- how many sermons he preached (perhaps not less than ten thousand),.
49
IS24.
and how many miles he traveled, what prayers offered, the lonely cabins and isolated settlements visited, the sick comforted, and the dying cheered, and how many souls brought to Christ and assisted and established in a Christian course! This record is on high. What is known would make a narrative full of thrilling incidents and romantic adventure, and above all a noble record of labors abundant in toil and blessedness amidst abounding privations and "weariness and painfulness."
Andrew Monroe's history is a real and the best index to his char- acter. His was an earnest and guileless spirit. His life answered to his purpose and embodied his principles. In this life of a pioneer Methodist itinerant preacher, rightly estimated, what valuable citi- zenship, what elevated philanthropy, what noble disinterestedness, what sublime zeal for the Master! He was eminently a sincere and single-minded man. We know of no nearer approach than his to the lofty aim and cherished joy of the apostles, "the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." He was well fitted and furnished for his calling and career. He had a commanding presence and extraordinary capacity for physical endurance. His intellect was clear and strong. Ile possessed sound judgment and ready sense of the fitness of things and the proprieties of occasions. His social qualities were attractive, moving with ease and dignity in all company, the most rude and the most refined. He combined wisdom in counsel with executive force. Without scholarly attainments he was a wise man. Intimate acquaint- ances must have observed the happy blending of qualities not usually associated. Courageous enough to brave the privations and perils of the wilderness, his spirit was childlike in gentleness. He was posi- tive, and yet not rash. Always prudent, though never sacrificing truth in word or deed, and candid with his brethren and friends, and yet always kind. In all respects, indeed, his was a well-balanced mind and symmetrical character. As a preacher, in his prime he possessed eminent ability. His preaching was distinguished by solidity and strength rather than brilliancy, and was attended by holy fervor. He was pre-eminent in administrative ability as a Church officer. There are few whose ministerial life has been more truly a fulfillment
50
ANDREW MONROE.
of ordination vows and exact copy of the rules of a preacher. We have been struck with his likeness to the portraiture of Bishop What- coat as given in the minutes: "So deeply serious! Who ever saw him trifling or light? Who ever heard him speak evil of any person? Nay, who ever heard him speak an idle word? Dead to envy, pride and praise. Sober without sadness, cheerful without levity, careful without covetousness, and decent without pride. Ile died not pos- sessed of property sufficient to have paid the expenses of his sickness and funeral if a charge had been made, so dead was he to the world!"
His name was known and honored throughout the connection of Methodism. In Missouri, with but little exception, the present com- pany of preachers have entered upon the work of the ministry under his eye, and many of them have enjoyed his training. He was revered and loved as their father in the ministry. They have uni- formly testified their esteem, and, among other usual testimonies of high estimation, he has represented his Conference in every General Conference of the Church except one since he became eligible to a seat in that body, in '20. In his years of declining strength, and particularly at the late session of his Conference, there have been touching evidences of sentiments of affectionate veneration, making him the care of the Church. It was, we know, a great satisfaction to him to have continued in the effective relation till the close-
"llis body with his charge lay down And cease at once to work and live."
Ilis end was peace. Ilis memory is blessed. His dying charge to the Church, it is known to the writer of this, was a burden upon his soul in late years : "Tell the brethren to stand up for the integ- rity of Methodism." It was in substance the peroration of his address at the celebration of the Semi-Centenary of Methodism in St. Louis. His words, taken down as they fell from his lips, are before us. They were spoken with emphatic and even impassioned utterance. "Let us," he said, "stand up for purity of doctrine, sir-sound doc- trine -- the sound, deep, Christian experience of God's love and God's grace in the heart. And oh! let us never forget that our sufficiency is of God. We may found churches and multiply congregations and prosper in externals, but we fail and God will raise up another people,
51
IS24.
if the vitality of religion and the power of God be not preserved in the Church."
Lengthy as is this memorial tribute, it is closed with much unsaid, which might be appropriately said. The writer mourns with those most deeply affected by this bereavement, having been, nearly forty-five years ago, baptized by him in infancy, and honored and blessed by his friendship and ministry to himself and his father's house.
JESSE GREENE. Next to the name of Andrew Monroe, that of Jesse Greene properly stands in the Annals of Mis- souri Methodism. He was the seventy-sixth preacher and ninth presiding elder. In some respects he was the greater man of the two. At the time of his death he had traveled, more extensively than Monroe, the entire state, Arkansas and the Indian Territory having been his parish for twenty- three years, while the labors of his colleague and peer were confined mostly to St. Louis and North Missouri. No man in the Missouri Conference traveled so nearly over every inch of its territory as did Jesse Greene. Then as a preacher, especially on controverted subjects, he was Monroe's superior. Probably in this field, in his day, he scarcely had an equal. Had he lived as long as Monroe did, he would have been to the St. Louis Conference what the former was to the Mis- souri-the acknowledged father and leader of his Confer- ence, universally beloved by all his brethren.
Jesse Greene was born in East Tennessee on French Broad River, November 29, 1791 ; hence was exactly eleven months old when Andrew Monroe was born. He was born again at Winton's camp ground in 'oS, and soon after was licensed to exhort by John Bowman, when just seventeen years old.
53
JESSE GREENE.
From October, '14, to May, '15, he served in the army of his country. His license to preach bears the date of Feb- ruary 15, '17, and was signed by John Henninger, presiding elder. At the next session of the Tennessee Conference he was received on trial and appointed to Ash circuit; '18, Clinch ; '19, Hartford; '20, Powell's Valley ; '21, New River, two years; '23, transferred to Missouri Conference ; '24, Cape Girardeau district, three years; '27, Boonslick circuit ; '2S, Missouri district, two years ; '30, Arkansas district : '31, Cape Girardeau district ; '32, Missouri dis- trict, four years ; '36, agent for St. Charles College ; '37, Boonville district ; '3S, Lexington district, three years ; '41, Columbia district, three years ; '44, Lexington district, three years ; April IS, '47, New Jerusalem, forever.
The above list of appointments is copied from the min- utes of the Conferences. In his journal, published in his life, a volume of 280 pages prepared by his wife, he tells us that he was changed by the presiding elder from Clinch to Abing- don circuit, and towards the close of the year returned to Ash circuit.
During the six years he traveled in Kentucky, East Tennessee and Virginia he kept a journal of his life and labors. He preached almost every day, and the services held by him when no conversions occurred were the exception rather than the rule. I think I have never read a diary of a preacher who was so nearly all the time in a revival. His journal is singularly free from any reference to the hardships he endured, the poor fare on which he subsisted. His friends and co-laborers, Jesse Cunningham and Creed Fulton, have lifted the veil and given us a slight view of his privations. Take one incident given by the latter: "The mantle of snow,
53
1824.
spread over hill and dale. glittering under the sunbeams be- neath an ice-bound forest, spread up and down those high walls of nature, were superlative sublimity. The day was fast wearing away as we were descending a mountain decliv- ity, rendered not a little serious from the apprehension that the slip of horses' feet would have precipitated us into the greatest perils. The valley below presented nothing to the eye but a wild and cheerless wilderness, apparently the char- tered home of the ferocious children of the woods. Thus the scene and approaching evening turned the soul back upon itself, and I thought of night and a place of rest-of the home I had so lately left. With anxious look I turned to Brother Greene and said: 'What kind of people and place shall we have to-night?' He instantly answered, 'You will soon see.' After toiling about two miles further, we found the place. But who could describe it? Although I saw it, stayed with it, and tested it, I cannot show it as it was. A miserable log cabin, cracks all open, a sort of pen for horses, constituted the improvements. Brother Greene led on to the door. As he crossed the floor he smote a pig, which came squealing and dashing by me. The next animal he raised was a dog. This creature, being chastised, fled, uttering many cries and lamentations. There was also a gander reposing in one part of the house. The good woman said : 'Brother, the gander is sick ; I will have him taken out.' The floor of the house was deeply covered with dirt and ashes. There was absolutely no bed in the house. On a scaffold, set in one corner, the family passed the night. Our supper was fat bear meat, coarse corn bread and wild tea. But now Brother W. arrives and seems glad to find us in his house, and certainly he rendered us very important service in keeping up a log-
54
JESSE GREENE.
heap fire to war against the terrible cold. The hour of rest being come, prayers passed, we spread down our bear-skins for beds, used our saddles for pillows and our cloaks for covering. Thus arranged we 'endured hardness as good soldiers,' until about midnight, when we had to raise our brother to renew our log fire. At last came welcome day. We touched lightly as we passed the bear meat and other breakfast dishes. Brother Greene notified me that I must preach that day. The hours seemed to hasten. Soon the sons and daughters of the caves began to appear. O, what hoosiers they were ! Such costumes I never saw. I tried to preach to them on 'By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?' My poor effort soon ended ; Brother Greene closed with a brief but forcible exhortation, which produced great effect."
I suppose the above is a fair sample of much of the ex- perience of our hero as he threaded his way over the moun- tains of his native state, and through the swamps and across the prairies of his adopted Missouri. But he has naught to say of these privations and hardships, which he deemed but light afflictions, not worthy to be compared to the glorious privilege of preaching Christ, and Him crucified, to the new settlements in the caves and valleys of the mountains of the East and the swamps and plains of the West.
Of the twenty-four years spent west of the Mississippi river, twenty-one were spent on districts; nearly as many years in the presiding eldership, as Andrew Monroe, though Monroe was nearly twice as long in the itinerancy as Greene. His quarterly meetings were " times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." The people expected the quarterly
55
IS24.
meetings to be times of revival, and were seldom disappointed in Jesse Greene's day.
His life contains many letters written to him by preach- ers and laymen from different parts of the state, showing how he was loved by them, and how much they prized his friend- ship and counsel.
While on the Lexington district. which then embraced the Indian missions, he made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Todd, to whom he was married in June, 1839. Miss Todd was born in Bristol, England, in 1812, came to New York City in ISIS. A few years after the family settled in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, where they formed the first Methodist class ever organized in that section, and of which Mary became one of the charter members. David Terry was the first pastor.
In 1838, Thomas Johnson visited New York in search of a teacher for the Shawnees. David Terry, then secretary of the missionary society, recommended Mary Todd. The society employed her. In the midst of winter, after a voyage of six weeks, by coach and boat, she reached the Shawnee mission, where she continued to teach till IS41.
In IS44 Mr. Greene was again appointed to Lexington district. He located his family in Lexington, and, dying while on the district, his family still live there. Mary Todd proved to be a fit companion for Jesse Greene. She is still zealous in the cause of the Master, in whose service she has spent a long and useful life, loved and respected by all who know her. May her last days be her best. Gone home.
The writer of this rejoices that in childhood he was ded- icated to God in baptism by Jesse Greene, but mourns sincerely that he has never measured up to him in the
56
JESSE GREENE.
abundance of his labors, and has fallen much farther behind him in the measure of his usefulness.
I am strongly tempted to say much more about this good and great man, but, as his memory has been perpetuated in a valuable volume written by his widow, I forbear, and only add: He died away from home, but among friends in Henry county, Missouri, where he had been protracting a quarterly meeting on the Warsaw circuit, W. W. Jones, P. C. There he at the same time " his body with his charge laid down, and ceased at once to work and live."
He was first buried in the family burying ground of his special friend and brother, Judge Drake.
His wife afterwards had the remains removed to Lex- ington and deposited in the Machpelah cemetery. In 1850, the St. Louis Conference erected a monument over his grave, which bears the following inscriptions :
First Side. In Memory of Reverend Jesse Greene, born Nov. 29, A. D. ISO1. Died April IS, A. D. 1847.
Second Side. A pure Christian, a wise Counselor, a faithful minister, a pioneer of Methodism in Missouri-he bore a conspicuous part in the councils and itinerant labors of his Church. and fell at his post.
Third Side. I heard a voice from Heaven saying un- to me, " Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow them." Rev. 14, 13.
Fourth Side. The members of the St. Louis Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, have erected this monument over his remains. A. D. 1850.
Mr. Greene represented his Conference three times in the General Conference.
.
57
IS24.
The following lines, written by his wife, will appropri- ately close this sketch :
Thou hast gone, my beloved, to mansions of rest, From sorrow, from sighing, from sickness and death,
Thy years have been numbered, thy labors are done, Thou dwellest in glory, and the victory hast won.
Whilst thy lot in probation, thou wert faithful and true, In the cause of thy Master, with Heaven in thy view, And dauntless thy spirit, whilst o'er the rough surge, To rescue the lost from destruction's dread verge.
Thy object through life was to live for thy God, 'Twas the delight of thy heart to distribute His word, The commission received in the days of thy youth, Thou ne'er didst relinquish; but gloried in truth.
There were thousands who listened to the heart-searching theme, As it fell from thy lips; while Salvation's bright beam Illumined thy mind, and reflected the ray Upon numbers who join thee in endless day.
Thy highest ambition, while sojourning here, Was to live under God's smile and to dwell in his fear ; The flatteries of men thy pure soul could not stain, While earth's highest encomiums were uttered in vain.
Fixed was thy purpose to win a bright crown Amid angels and seraphs to have eternal renown, To gaze upon him who suffered for thee, And to dwell in the presence of the great One in Three.
But a loved one now mourns, say, why didst thou leave Thy companion in silence and sorrow to grieve? While five infant children are of a father bereft, With whose example and counsel they'll never be blest.
Say, shall we e'er meet you in climes that are fair, Where parting is ended and weeping is o'er, Where death shall not enter our pleasures to sever, But where sanctified love shall unite us forever?
58
ANDREW LOPP.
Say, canst thou gain the permission of Heaven's blest King To suffer thy spirit around us to wing,
To follow us through our pilgrimage here,
'Till we're permitted to join thee in a holier sphere?
ANDREW LOPP was admitted on trial in 1823 and sent to- Arkansas circuit. The next three years his appointments were in Missouri, as follows: Saline and St. Francois, Belle- view, New Madrid. He located in 1827. 1825.
JOHN DEW was admitted on trial by the Ohio Confer -. ence and traveled thirteen years in that Conference and Illi- nois, and was transferred to Missouri in 1825, and appointed to Missouri district ; 1826, St. Louis station ; 1827, transferred back to Illinois, where he continued to fill important appoint- ments till 1834, when he located. His history belongs to- Illinois.
WILL B. PECK began his itinerant career in Tennessee in 1820, came to Missouri in 1825, and served as second preacher of St. Louis and Gasconade, and located in IS26. 1826.
WILLIAM HEATH and JOHN W. YORK entered the Con- ference this year. Whence Mr. Heath came and how he got into the Conference, the minutes do not tell. I first find his name on the minutes in connection with Missouri circuit in 1826. The next year he was ordained elder and appointed to St. Louis circuit ; 1828, Belleview; 1829, Union ; 1830,. Gasconade mission ; 1831, Conference agent for Sunday School, tract, and missionary societies ; 1832, name does not appear ; 1833, located. Rev. J. H. Ross says of him :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.