USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 55
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It is an interesting fact that at the last meeting of the synod of Mississippi, in November, 1890, in compliance with the petition from the parties, all the colored ministers and elders within the bounds of the synod were erected into a separate presbytery. The number of communicants in the Presbyterian church in Mississippi may be stated, proximately, as ten thousand.
The church has, from the beginning, thrown its influence into the scale of every philan- thropic movement and every scheme of social reform which has been projected in the state. It has been the vigilant guardian of the sanctity of the Sabbath. It has been the patron of literary and benevolent institutions. It has advocated the purity of public morals. As early as 1829 we find on the records of the Mississippi presbytery a resolution in which the minis- ters pledge themselves to abstain from the use of ardent spirits, and earnestly and affection- ately call upon the churches under their care to co-operate with them in the effort to suppress the enormous evil of intemperance. The attitude of the church at the present time on this subject is stated in certain resolutions of the last synod, to the effect that " while we heartily sympathize with every legitimate and judicious effort to check the prevalence of intemper- ance, and urge upon our ministers and church sessions renewed diligence and faithfulness in dealing with the subject, we hold that the political aspects of the temperance question do not fall within the province of our body as a church court, and that we are, therefore, not at liberty to recommend any particular course of legislation respecting the matter to the civil government"
It only remains to say that the Presbyterian church in Mississippi has always been recognized as a potent and a wholesome leavening element in the body politic. Its mem- bers have been prominent factors in every community in which they have been found. Its ministry has uniformly received the respect to which it has entitled itself by the culture, the integrity and the disinterested devotion to its work which have characterized its mem- bers. With a few exceptions, these meu have consented to live and to die under a yoke of privation and of penury which would have been considered an insuperable objection to an entrance upon any other walk of life. The heroic fathers who led the van in the moral conquest of this primitive wilderness have passed away, and some of them are sleeping in unmarked if not forgotten graves; but their work abides, and a new generation, apparently emulous of their zeal and their prowess has entered into their labors.
The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Mississippi, although fourth in point of mem- bership among the other Protestant denominations of the state, is not widely known over the
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state, especially in the southern part, the reason being that its organized membership is confined exclusively to the northern half of the state. Because of this fact it is but justice to this denomination to allow a brief statement in this sketch, defining its position in the general family of Presbyterianism.
The denomination grew out of what at first appeared to be an unavoidable doctrinal schism in the Presbyterian church in Kentucky. Its first presbytery, from which the church took its name, was organized by Samuel .McAdow, Samuel King and Finis Ewing, regularly ordained ministers in the Presbyterian church. This was the Cumberland presby- tery, and embraced parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. It was organized in 1810. Soon after the organization, a brief authoritative statement was given to the world, setting forth the reasons for the organization of another Presbyterian church. We can do no better than to give that statement here:
"The founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian church; in their licensure and ordination by the Presbyterian church, were permitted to 'except the idea of fatality,' as they believed it to be embraced in the doctrines of unconditional election and reprobation, and an atonement limited to a definitely elected number, as taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Subsequently, having for this been cut off from the parent church, in fixing a standard of doctrines for the Cumberland Presbyterian church, which they organized, they adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith (which is the Presbyterian confession), modified in the fol- lowing particulars:
First. That there are no eternal reprobates.
Second. That Jesus died, not for a part only, but for all men, and in the same sense.
Third. That all infants dying in infancy are saved.
Fourth. That the Holy Spirit operates on all the world, all for whom Christ died, in such a manner as to render all men responsible, and therefore, inexcusable." *
The first work done in Mississippi by Cumberland Presbyterians was by Rev. Robert Bell, who was sent as a missionary to the Chickasaw Indians in 1820. This was in the north- east part of the state. Soon after Bell's settlement among the Indians he was joined by Rev. John C. Smith. Bell continued in this mission for several years, until the agitation of the removal of the Indians, and the final removal resulted in the abandonment of the mission. In the meantime, many white settlers penetrated into this Indian territory. To these early pioneers Mr. Bell and his co-laborers preached, but it was rather incidental, as their time and strength were consumed in maintaining schools among the Indians. But from this incidental seed-sowing sprang the first white Cumberland Presbyterian churches in Mississippi.
It should be noted that much of the immigration into this Indian country was from the sections where Cumberland Presbyterians had established churches. By and by demands began to increase for Cumberland Presbyterian preaching. This was not true of south Mis- sissippi, which had been settling up long prior to this, even before 1810, when the church first assumed an independent existence. Very few Cumberland Presbyterians went to that portion of the state. Most of the settlers in this part of the state were from the Atlantic states, where Cumberland Presbyterians never attempted to penetrate, so numerous were the calls in the West. This fact accounts largely for the absence of the church in lower Missis- sippi. The first congregations were not organized much before the beginning of the removal of the Indians (1833). It was stated in the church paper in 1836 that all the congregations in the state had been organized in the preceding five years. The first presbytery, known as
* For a fuller statement see "Our Position, or Cumberland Presbyterians in Relation to the Presbyterian Family." by Rev. W. J. Darby, D. D., Cumberland Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn.
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the Mississippi, held its first meeting at Gallatin, in Copiah county. Its original members were Thomas J. Bryan, Robert Molloy, Samuel W. Sparks and Isaac Shook. This first meeting was in April, 1832.
During the early period the struggling congregations suffered much because of the secu- larization of many of the ministry. For several years after the opening of the Indian country the spirit of speculation ran high and wild. This period was regarded as a golden opportunity to amass fortunes. This wild spirit seized the ministry. The sentiment was largely prevalent that Mississippians would not listen with any respect to a preacher who let this golden opportunity for independence slip, and then expected the people to support him. The advice to the preacher was: "Get you a plantation and hands to cultivate it; get them paid for; and then you can go preach as much as you please." Unfortunately for the Cum- berland Presbyterian church in Mississippi, and other churches as well, too many of the min- istry acted on this advice. One instance will suffice to illustrate this secularized condition of the ministry. I quote from McDonnold's history: "In the diary of the Rev. Isaac Shook is an account of a visit to a Mississippi town in 1834. There were seven hundred inhabitants, and among them five Protestant ministers all secularized. One was a merchant, one a school- teacher, one a lawyer, and two slavedrivers, as Shook calls them. They were seizing the golden opportunity to secure independence. Shook began a series of meetings. By and by the schoolteacher began to attend. There was a revival. Then the merchant, who also sold whisky, came of nights and grew wonderfully zealous, but he still sold whisky. The others would drop in occasionally, but took no special interest. The meeting closed. One of these preachers was afterward silenced; all of them utterly lost the confidence of the people. The town became noted for its contempt of Christianity."
During this early period much was lost to the church because of the scarcity of conse- crated preachers. An illustration of this we find in the history of the evangelistic labors of Mr. Shook. In May, 1832, finding himself, as if by accident, in the then little town of Columbus, he was prevailed upon to hold a series of services. The interest spread. He held meetings in the surrounding country. Within two months there were three hundred conversions. Of these, Shook received only twenty into the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The reason of this, as given by Mr. Shook, was that he did not encourage them to join the Cumberland Presbyterian church, because he saw no means of supplying them with the word. He says these twenty would go nowhere else.
Besides those already mentioned, who figure in the early establishment of the church in Mississippi, many others should be mentioned. The evangelistic labors of H. H. Hill were greatly blessed. This was in 1832. Especial mention should be made of Rev. R. L. Ross, who was a convert of these meetings. Many are the congregations that were established by him. About the last work of his devoted life was the establishment of the church in Merid- ian. In 1834 Rev. W. S. Burney began his work in the state by holding camp meetings. He was assisted by A. P. Bradley. Great success attended them. To these names should be added those of Jefferson Brown, Joseph Harrison, Cyrus Wilson, Elane Waddell, Jabez Hickman and F. M. Fincher. Later on came Wayman Adair, Joe Bell, James W. Dickey and F. E. Harris, besides others equally as worthy of mention. While the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Mississippi has never established male schools of a high grade, being convenient to Bethel college and the Cumberland university, Tennessee, denominational schools, yet she has not been indifferent to the matter of education. Very early (1838) we find one of her leading ministers, the Rev. Richard Beard, afterward professor of theology in the Cumberland university, in charge of Sharon academy, in Madison county. His influence and labors were of great help to the church in the state.
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In this connection especial mention should be made of the Rev. Stanford G. Burney. Through the special efforts of Rev. W. S. Burney and Elder James G. Trigg, of Oxford, Mr. Burney was induced to come to Mississippi from Tennessee, and take charge of what was known as Mount Sylvan academy, in Lafayette county, and which had been established the year previous by the Rev. Robert Morris, of Masonic fame. This was in 1846 or 1847. In the meantime Mr. Burney was active as a preacher. When the church estalished Union Female college, Oxford, Mr. Burney became its first president. This was in 1854. This school is still maintained by the Mississippi synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. As a teacher Mr. Burney did much good for the denomination. For years he was pastor at Oxford, succeeding the Rev. W. S. Burney, who organized the congregation. Perhaps no preacher throughout north Mississippi had greater reputation and influence than S. G. Burney. He is now professor of theology in Cumberland university.
But this sketch would not be complete without a notice of the educational efforts of the Rev. Leonard Cooper. Soon after the war he established at Daleville a school of high order- Cooper institute. Mr. Cooper continued this school for many years, educating many young men for the ministry of the church. Not only so, Mr. Cooper took rank as one of the lead- ing educators of the state. All things considered, perhaps Mr. Cooper contributed as much, and probably more, to the educational interests of the state, and of the denomination in the state, as any other one Cumberland Presbyterian.
Space forbids a further notice of those among the laity, as well as among the ministry, living as well as dead, who have given of their thought and substance in the establishment of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Mississippi. As pickets they have stood faithfully on the border line of the denomination. In serving their church, they have served the state none the less. To the social, material, educational and religious interests of the state Cum- berland Presbyterians have contributed faithfully and liberally. Cumberland Presbyterians are Presbyterian, though not Calvinistic (they reverence John Calvin as much as any man, living or dead, should be reverenced), and that means they are a liberty-loving and a liberty guarding people, whether in the church or in the state. With them the liberty of conscience and head is a priceless jewel and they have but little respect and less patience for the man or institution who would interfere with either.
The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Mississippi, while not large, is making a steady advance. Like other churches and institutions of the state, it suffered much by the war and the reconstruction period. Also by the shifting of the white population from the rural dis- tricts to the towns and cities. But the denomination is fast adjusting itself to this new con- dition of things. Its ministry is all the time improving, comparing favorably with that of any other denomination in the state.
The outlook is encouraging. The membership is becoming more and more active to the matter of state evangelization. Infant congregations are all the while being planted under the supervision of a state superintendent of missions and Sunday-school work, but unfor- tunately the calls for such work are more numerous than can be supplied. Yet there is one encouraging feature in the failure to answer all the calls, namely, that the denomination as such is appreciated and demanded in the state. There are at present, 1891, in round num- bers, seven thousand communicants. This does not include baptized children, but the actual membership in communion. There are one hundred and fifty congregations. There are fifty- one regularly ordained ministers, and twenty-four licentiates and candidates, making a total of seventy-five. There are now five presbyteries: Bell, Oxford, Mississippi, New Hope and the Yazoo. These are all embraced in one synod, the synod of Mississippi, and they include
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the northern half of the state, there being no congregations, or few at least, south of Winston and Attaln counties. There are congregations at Corinth, Tupelo, Oxford, West Point, Colum- bus, Starkville, Meridian, Coffeeville, Grenada, Batesville, Kosciusko, Louisville, Water Val- ley, besides other smaller towns. Of course the country districts come in for a large share.
The entrance of the Methodist church into Mississippi was the commencement of Prot- estant Christianity in the same country. On March 30, 1798, the Spanish government ceased to exist in the western part of the Mississippi territory, then known as the Natchez country, and was immediately succeeded by that of the United States. For more than thirty years before this a Protestant population had been gradually accumulating in the Natchez district. This country, not very accurately defined, was claimned as belonging to the English colony of Georgia, and after the Revolutionary war it was claimed as belonging to the United States. This afforded reasonable belief to border settlers that Protestant Christianity would soon be protected. But the first Protestant families coming into this country had to endure much hardship and persecution from the Spanish Catholics. At this time Bishop Francis Asbury was general superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States. So soon as he had learned that the Spanish government in the Natchez district had been super- seded by that of the United States he determined to send missionaries into it, and the Rev. Tobias Gibson, of South Carolina, volunteered for that service; and accordingly, at the next meeting of the South Carolina conference, Mr. Gibson was appointed to that new, important and hazardous ministry. Mr. Gibson was then twenty-eight years old and in the eighth year of his ministry. At that time the white settlements in Mississippi were confined to a very narrow strip of country extending along the Mississippi river from Fort Adams to Wal- nut Hills, now Vicksburg. All the rest of Mississippi, all Alabama, with the exception of some settlements close around Mobile, and a considerable part of Georgia was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited solely by Indians. As a journey through this trackless wilderness would be extremely hazardous, Mr. Gibson took the more circuitous route by way of Nash- ville, Tenn., and the Mississippi river. So, after traveling six hundred miles on horseback, he reached the Cumberland settlement, then in the state of Georgia, at or near where Nash- ville now stands. Here he sold his horse and procured a canoe, into which he packed his traveling equipage, with a supply of provisions, descended the Cumberland, then the Ohio and then the Mississippi, and landed at Natchez about the last of March, 1799.
Mr. Gibson's ministry was the only Methodist, and with very little exception the only Protestaut ministry within five hundred miles of Mississippi for several years. It was very successful. In the first year he gathered into the church sixty members. The second year the church was increased to eighty, and in 1801 to a hundred. This Natchez country was now included in the South Carolina conference. This Natchez country took its name from a large and powerful tribe of Indians who once inhabited this region, but the name in time came to be confined to the then little town of Natchez and Fort Rosalie. The South Caro- lina conference, of which Mississippi was a territorial portion, formed Natchez into a circuit, as its geographical country pastorates are called. They generally consist of four or five local country churches under one pastorate. This Natchez circuit included nearly or quite all of the Mississippi territory. Mr. Gibson was reappointed to Natchez in 1801 and again in 1802. In 1802 he traveled on horseback to a conference held in Harrison county, Ky., to procure ministerial help. At this time this Natchez circuit was placed in the Western con- ference, so called, which then included the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and part of Virginia. Mr. Gibson was for several years the only Methodist preacher within five hundred miles of his field of labor. Although Methodist preachers were increasing every
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year, the demand for their services in the West increased in a greater ratio. At this session of the Western conference, held in Kentucky, Moses Floyd, a young preacher from Georgia, volunteered to go to Natchez and was accepted by the bishop. At this conference Natchez circuit was placed in the Cumberland district, with John Page as presiding elder. Mr. Gibson's health having seriously failed, the Natchez church was placed in charge of Mr. Floyd. Mr. Gibson's health continued to fail and he died in April, 1804.
In 1805 Natchez circuit had two preachers, Launer Blackman and T. C. N. Barnes. It throws light on these times to state that during the first five years of his ministry Mr. Black- man traveled in five states-Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi. In order to reach Natchez he traveled fourteen days in the savage wilderness, and eleven of the fourteen nights he slept on the ground, with his saddlebags for his pillow and the sky for his covering. He was an orator of high order and of social qualities that endeared him to all classes.
At the session of the Western conference held in Scott county, Ky., Natchez circuit was divided into four circuits, Wilkinson on the south, Claiborne on the north and Opelousas, in Louisiana, being added. These four constituted a district called the Mississippi district, and Mr. Blackman, though only twenty-four years of age, was appointed presiding elder. He was the first presiding elder ever in Mississippi. He was a man of extraordinary labors, visiting many places and organizing churches.
In 1806 Natchez had two preachers, Mr. Barnes and Thomas Larley. In 1807 C. W. Cloud was appointed to Natchez circuit. This year the first church edifice was built in Natchez.
Drifting down those brief sketches, necessarily in great haste, we come to 1810. Here we meet with Miles Harper, a most extraordinary man. He came from Tennessee, was junior preacher on Natchez circuit. Though not a man of extensive learning he had rare gifts as a public speaker. His voice was strong, musical and captivating. The power of his preach- ing was immense. His converts were many. But he was not a student, and like many preachers who cease to study, he to a considerable extent outlived his usefulness. In 1829 he retired from the itinerancy and died a local preacher in 1843.
Perhaps the most remarkable man of the Natchez preachers in those times in some respects was John Johnson. He was from Virginia. He was entirely illiterate until about twenty years old. Working daily on a farm, he engaged the services of an old negro man to teach him to read. Spending his evenings in this way he soon mastered the spelling book and could read the Bible. He was licensed to preach and soon became a power in the pulpit, and was received a member of the Western conference, preached two years in Ohio and then came to Mississippi, and for many years was one of the most powerful and effective preachers of his time.
Another of the most noted and most useful preachers of the Southwest in those early times was William Winans. He was a very complete self-made man; never went to school; born in 1788; worked in an iron foundry; was admitted into the Western conference in 1808; trav- eled two years in the Northwest and was sent to Mississippi in 1810 and was soon appointed presiding elder. He was a very constant reader and with great natural endowments soon acquired a high position. He was a member of every general conference from 1824 until his death in 1857. He was uniformly regarded one of the best debators in the general con- ference.
To notice the preachers who distinguished themselves in those early times would lengthen these brief notes too much. Natchez district, which included this whole region of country,
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continued a portion of the Western conference, which included nearly the entire Mississippi valley until 1813, when the Mississippi conference was organized. This improved things greatly. Now we have a conference at home. The first session of the Mississippi annual con- ference was held at the residence of the Rev. Newet Vick, about five miles southwest of where Fayette now is, in Jefferson county, Miss., on November 1, 1813. Present: Samuel Sellers, president; members, Miles Harper, Richard Nolley, Lewis Hobbs, John S. Ford, John Phipps, John Shrock, William Winans, Thomas Griffin, John I. E. Bird; William Winans, secretary. The bishop ordering the conference could not get there on account of Indian troubles, but appointed a president pro tem.
At the next session, in 1814, Simon Gentry, Jonathan Kemp, Peter James and Josiah Dougherty were received on trial. This second session has been for some time confounded with the first, but Rev. J. G. Jones, in his history of Methodism in Mississippi, holds as above, which is, no doubt, correct.
The conference now embraced what is Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, with other adjacent, but not well-defined territory. For a few years the operations of the church were considerably interrupted by hostile armies or troops. The Creek Indian war, and the British invasion caused much disturbance, but still the church increased.
The first conference attended by bishops was in 1816. Bishop Robert R. Roberts trav- eled some four hundred miles on horseback, mostly through a wilderness country to get to it. It was held in the country near Natchez. Ten preachers were assigned to as many pastoral charges. Five of these were in Mississippi, two in Alabama and three in Louisiana. These were all circuits, each one including several separate congregations. The first station was Natchez, in 1826.
This much of detail has been necessary in order to give the reader some idea in outline of Methodism in this country in its formative state. Henceforth the necessary brevity of these notes require that we proceed much faster and deal less in particulars. After the Indian and British troubles were settled the church increased much more rapidly, and a few years separate annual conferences were set apart in Louisiana and Alabama respectively, and the Mississippi conferences were confined to the state of Mississippi and included that part of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi river, except the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
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