USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 23
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In 1807, Iredell circuit, embracing Iredell County, was set off from the Yadkin and Salisbury circuits, into a new pastoral charge. As the gospel spread, other circuits were formed. In 1831-33, Stokes, Randolph, Davidson, and Wilkes circuits were formed. In 1834, Salisbury and Lexington constituted a pas- toral charge, Thales McDonald being pastor. In 1836, Salisbury was made a station, R. O. Burton being pas- tor. In 1836, Mocksville circuit is made. In 1845, Jonesville circuit was set off. In 1848, Taylorsville was set off, and in 1850, Forsyth. The formation of these pastoral charges indicates the growth of Method-
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ism in the valley of the Yadkin. Just one hundred years ago, Methodism entered this section and began its work of evangelization, with the capital in hand of twenty-one communicants and one preacher. Out of this mustard seed so small in beginning has grown a gospel tree, whose fruitful branches spread over a large scope of country.
THE RESULTS
Salisbury station, Salisbury circuit, Mooresville circuit, Mocksville and Davie circuits, Iredell, Alexan- der, Wilkes, Yadkin, Surry, Mount Airy, Davidson, Stokes, Forsyth, Winston, Uwharie, Statesville, Statesville circuit, are the pastoral charges which have grown out of the original circuits of Salisbury and Yadkin, with thirty-seven local preachers, 8,200 mem- bers, 4,294 Sunday-school scholars, one hundred four churches, seven parsonages-the churches and parsonages valued at $88,650. These charges paid, in 1876, for religious purposes, $9,219.40.
METHODIST MINISTERS BORN AND REARED IN ROWAN COUNTY
REV. MOSES BROCK
was a native of Rowan, now Davie County ; joined the Virginia - North Carolina Conference in 1820. For more than forty years he bore a conspicuous part in building up Methodism in Virginia and North Caro- lina. When the occasion called out his full strength,
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"he was eloquent and eminently successful" as a preacher. He was naturally witty, full of good humor, eccentric, and original. He finished his useful days in Tennessee, where he died in good old age.
REV. RICHARD NEELY
was a native of Rowan, born 1802, entered the Ten- nessee Conference in 1821. He was a successful mis- sionary among the Cherokee Indians. Died 1828. "He was a man of good mind, pleasing manners, a pious and useful minister."
REV. JOHN RICH
a native of Davie, born 1815, joined conference in 1840. "A peerless preacher and sweet - spirited Christian." Died in Davidson County in 1851.
REV. S. M. FROST, D. D.
born in Davie, joined conference in 1846. He labored many years in North Carolina as an eminent minister and successful teacher. He is now living and preach- ing in Pennsylvania.
REV. L. L. HENDREN
born in Davie in 1822, joined conference in 1845. He is now an influential member of the North Carolina Conference, and one of the most prominent presiding elders in the connection.
REV. H. T. HUDSON, D. D.
born in Davie 1823, entered conference in 1851, and is now pastor of the Methodist Church at Rockingham, N. C.
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REV. ABRAM WEAVER
a native of Rowan, entered conference in 1851, located in 1860, moved to Missouri, and joined the Baptist Church.
REV. JAMES F. SMOOT
born in Davie, joined conference in 1856, located in 1875, is now a teacher in Iredell.
REV. S. D. PEELER
born in Rowan, entered conference in 1854, is now pastor of Yadkin circuit.
REV. CALVIN PLYER
born in Rowan, entered conference in 1861, located in 1873, is now living in Salisbury.
REV. WM. C. WILSON
born in Davie, entered conference in 1863, is still a minister in good standing, though at present is with- out any pastoral charge, because of family afflictions.
REV. WM. C. CALL
born in Davie, joined conference in 1867, is now in charge of Snow Hill circuit.
REV. LEONIDAS W. CRAWFORD
born in Rowan, entered conference in 1868, and is now stationed in Salisbury.
REV. JAMES WILSON
born in Davie, entered conference in 1871, is now in charge of Mount Airy Academy.
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
After this brief and imperfect sketch, the writer desires to append a few remarks.
First, the late Peter Doub, D. D., did more than any other minister to instill the peculiar doctrines of Methodism into the minds of the people living in Rowan and Davie Counties. He preached all over this country for many years to vast assemblies at- tending the camp-meetings and quarterly meetings.
Rev. John Tillett did more than any other man in putting down intemperance and distilleries in Davie County. Rev. Baxter Clegg was the most useful and successful teacher. Out of his academy, located at Mocksville, came many useful ministers, lawyers, phy- sicians, and citizens. Methodism, both in Rowan and Davie, is also much indebted to such ministers as : Revs. J. W. Childs, Abram Penn, James Reid, Joseph Goodman, S. D. Bumpass, William Barringer, N. F. Reid, D. D .- all gone to their heavenly reward; and a host of others whose names we have not space to mention.
THE METHODIST CHURCH OF SALISBURY
The Rev. J. J. Renn, late pastor of the Salisbury Methodist Episcopal Church, writes concerning its history as follows :
The Rev. Peter Doub, D. D., was presiding elder in this district during the years 1825-29. During these four years 2,738 souls were converted at meetings which he held in person, and more than seven thou- sand in the bounds of the district. About that time ministers from both the Virginia and South Carolina
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METHODISM IN ROWAN
Conferences preached occasionally at the courthouse in Salisbury, among whom were Moorman, Travis, Tate, Stork, Martin (who is still living in South Carolina), and others. This, with the deep revival influence then working, resulted in the building of a Methodist church in the town of Salisbury.
The first Methodist church in Salisbury was or- ganized in November, 1831, with thirteen members, four of whom are still living (1880), viz .: Miss Adelaide Clary (now Mrs. Rowzee), of Salisbury; John C. Palmer, now of Raleigh; and James Glover and wife, now of Davidson County. One name of the others is lost. The rest were Mrs. John C. Palmer, Mrs. Mary Hardy, Miss Margaret Shaver, Mrs. Slater, Mrs. Samuel Fraley, Alexander Biles, Mrs. Eunice Cowan, and Miss Sarah Bailey.
This church was in the Virginia Conference. Charles P. Moorman was the first preacher in charge. The first Quarterly Conference was appointed to be held in the courthouse, in November, 1832, but the Presby- terian brethren kindly offered the use of their church, which was gratefully accepted, and so the first Meth- odist Conference ever convened in Salisbury was held in the Presbyterian church, presided over by that singular man, "the stern, the inflexible, the devoted, the self-poised, the brave, the witty, the fearless Methodist preacher, Moses Brock," who was at that time presiding elder of the district.
At that Quarterly Conference, money was raised, and a comfortable wooden church was completed early in the following year (1833). With the exception of
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
one year, the church was a part of the Salisbury circuit, until 1845. In 1834 it was made a station, and served by Rev. R. O. Burton. It then went back to the cir- cuit. During this time (between 1833 and 1845), it had for pastors Revs. Messrs. T. McDonald, Tinnen, Yarrell, and others. Rev. Thomas S. J. Campbell traveled this circuit in 1835.
In 1845, it became a permanent station, with Rev. S. Milton Frost, pastor. The presiding elder was the Rev. Joseph Goodman. This year there was an ex- tensive revival, and about seventy-five were added to the church. There was another revival in 1848, under Rev. L. Shell, which greatly strengthened the church.
EPISCOPACY IN ROWAN COUNTY
BY JOHN S. HENDERSON, ESQ.
England is the only European country which failed to establish her church, in all its perfectness, amongst her colonies. In Spanish America, as early as 1649, Davila estimates the staff of the Spanish church to have been-one patriarch, six archbishops, thirty-two bishops, three hundred forty-six prebends, two abbots, five royal chaplains, eight hundred forty convents, be- sides a vast number of inferior clergy. Religion was almost entirely neglected in the early settlement of the American colonies of England. Some form of the Christian religion was nominally patronized, and estab- lished by law in each colony-but very little attention was paid to giving to the people full and genuine reli- gious privileges. The non-Episcopalians were generally much better off than their brethren of the Church of England. The latter were never allowed to have in any colony either a synod or a bishop. There was no power of obtaining Episcopal ordination in America. Candidates for the ministry were required to cross the Atlantic to receive Holy Orders. This was both costly and full of peril. One in five of all who. set out re- turned no more. It is stated that, in the year 1724, about twenty young men, graduates from Yale College, who wished to obtain Episcopal ordination, being dis-
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
couraged at the trouble and charge of going to Eng- land, either abandoned the ministry altogether, or accepted non-Episcopal ordination. The non-Episco- pal denominations each possessed their own system in perfection. "It is hard," was the complaint of the "Churchmen" or "Episcopalians" at the time, "that these large and increasing dispersions of the true Protestant English Church should not be provided with bishops, when our enemies, the Roman Catholics of France and Spain, find their account in it to provide them for theirs. Even Canada, which is scarce bigger than some of our provinces, has her bishops, not to mention the Moravians, who also have theirs. The poor church of America is worse off than any of her adversaries. She has nobody upon the spot to com- fort or confirm her children-nobody to ordain such as are willing to serve." The colonies were all nom- inally under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, who lived more than three thousand miles away, and who never pretended to visit America at all. Nearly all the Episcopal ministers were missionaries in the pay of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. So far as religious advantages were concerned North Carolina seems to have been some- what worse off than any other colony, but there was more religious liberty and toleration-and there never was any such thing known here as religious persecu- tion. All Christian denominations, during the seventeenth and the greater part of the eighteenth cen-
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EPISCOPACY IN ROWAN
turies, believed that some form of Christianity should be established by law as the church of the State. Such a thing as the perfect religious toleration and freedom we now enjoy was then unknown anywhere. The Church of England, until the period of the Revolution of 1776, was the religious establishment of the Prov- ince of North Carolina, and up to that date there was no period when the adherents of that church did not constitute at least one-half of the population. But there were very few clergy. In 1764, Governor Dobbs reported that there were then but six clergymen in the Province, although there were twenty-nine parishes, and each parish contained a whole county. Governor Tryon, in 1767, in his report of the state of religion in the Province, "observed with pleasure that religion was making a very regular progress." He recom- mended "the greatest caution in the choice of gentle- men sent over as ministers, the inhabitants of this Province being strict inquisitors into the moral charac- ter and behavior of the clergy; and that the latter will attract but little esteem and do but little good if their lives are not truly exemplary and agreeable to their profession." In 1770, the number of the clergy had increased to eighteen, while the population of the Province probably exceeded two hundred thousand.
I have been unable to ascertain whether there ever was a fully organized parish in Rowan County before the Revolutionary War. Rowan was erected into a county and parish in 1753, and the name of the latter was
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
ST. LUKE'S PARISH
Before the year 1768, it is probable that ministers of the Church of England may have occasionally visited the county, but there is no tradition that any minister of that church had theretofore been located in the parish. This seems to be plain from the follow- ing extract of a petition from sundry inhabitants of the county of Rowan.
"To the Governor, his Majesty's Honorable Coun- cil, and the House of Burgesses of North Carolina :
"The petitioners complain: I. That his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects in this county, who adhere to the liturgy and profess the doctrines of the Church of England as by law established, have not the privileges and advantages which the rubricks and canons of the church allow and enjoin on all her mem- bers. That the Acts of Assembly calculated to form- ing a regular vestry in all the counties have never in this county produced their happy fruits. That the county of Rowan, above all counties in the Province, lies under great disadvantages, as her inhabitants are composed almost of all nations of Europe, and instead of uniformity in doctrine and worship they have a medley of most of the religious tenets that have lately appeared in the world; who from dread of submitting to the national church, should a lawful vestry be estab- lished, elect such of their own community as evade the Acts of Assembly and refuse the oaths, whence we can never expect the regular enlivening beams of the Gospel." Williamson, in his History of North
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Carolina, from which I have copied the above (p. 258), makes the following comments of his own: "The petitioners go on to pray that means be taken for compelling persons chosen vestrymen to take the oaths prescribed, or such other means as may produce a regular lawful vestry. There were thirty-four sub- scribers to the petition; six of them made their marks, and some of the other signatures are hardly legible. When thirty-four such persons could propose that six or seven hundred should be taxed for their accom- modation, they certainly had need of gospel that teaches humility." The "humility" which these peti- tioners had need of was universally lacking in the Christianity of those times. But it is doubtful whether these petitioners proposed to do what Williamson charges them with-that is to "tax" other people "for their accommodation." The proposition to lay a tax does not seem to be even implied from any of the lan- guage of the petition. Because they wished a "lawful vestry" is no proof that they desired the vestry to levy and collect taxes for religious purposes. And because some of the petitioners "made their marks" is no proof that they were utterly ignorant, uninfluential, and disreputable. A great many very respectable and intelligent people in those times were unable to read or write. I have been unable to ascertain the names of the signers of this petition. I think probable, however, that it was chiefly signed by residents of the town of Salisbury, and that it therefore represented but a mere fraction of the "church people" of the county. The date of this petition is not given, but I am inclined to
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
think it must have been some time between the years 1764 and 1768. Salisbury, according to the current tradition, was originally settled by a few English churchmen from the cathedral city of Salisbury in England, and owes its name to that circumstance.
It is impossible to estimate the number of people in the county who were adherents of the Established Church-but I think it probable that they amounted to at least one-fourth or one-third of the whole popula- tion. A great many of the old families were un- doubtedly members of the Church of England. Nearly all the English people and their descendants naturally belonged to that Church. So did the Welsh. More than half of the Protestants of Ireland have always owed allegiance to the same religious faith. I think it probable that the following-named persons, living in this county before the Revolution, were Church of England people : John Frohock, William Giles, Mat- thew Locke, Maxwell Chambers, James Macay, John Dunn, William Temple Coles, Benjamin Boothe Boote, James Carter, Hugh Forster, William Churton, Rich- ard Viggers, William Steele, Thomas Frohock, Matthew Troy, James Kerr, Daniel Little, Alexander Martin, Francis Locke, James Dobbin, Alexander Dobbin, Archibald Craige, David Craige, James Brandon, John Nesbit, Anthony Newnan, James Smith, and Richmond Pearson. The Howard family were also here then, and were members of the Eng- lish Church.
Very little is known about the efforts that were made to organize Episcopal congregations in this county
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EPISCOPACY IN ROWAN
during the period before the Revolution. The tradi- tion is that the Rev. Theodore Drane Draig came to Salisbury in the year 1768 or 1769, and almost im- mediately succeeded in having a chapel erected in the Jersey Settlement, about nine or ten miles east of Salisbury - somewhere near where Dr. William B. Mears now resides. Dr. Draig remained here about four years, but failed to organize the parish upon a legal and permanent foundation. "For on Easter Monday, 1770, when an election, according to the then law of the Province, was to be held for the pur- pose of electing vestrymen, the Presbyterians set up candidates of their own and elected them, not with any design that they should act as vestrymen but solely for the purpose of preventing the Episcopalians from electing such as would have done so." The Rev. Robert J. Miller relates this anecdote on the authority of Dr. Anthony Newnan, John Cowan, Sr., and others of the old people of Salisbury. Mr. Miller makes the following comments of his own: "This (election and its consequences) caused much bitter animosity to spring up between the parties, and so, much discour- aged the reverend gentleman. Perhaps the approach of the Revolutionary War had its influence also, but be that as it may, after a four years' fruitless effort to organize an Episcopal congregation in this section, he left it as he found it, without any." Dr. Draig was a great friend of Mr. John Dunn, who is said to have been instrumental in persuading him to come to this parish. The usual place for holding the services in Salisbury was the large house of Mr. Dunn, situated
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
on what is now the northeast corner of Innes and Church Streets-on the same lot where Mr. Phillip P. Meroney resides. Mr. Dunn is said to have been a good Churchman. His house was decorated with ever- greens as regularly as Christmas Day would come.
Governor Tryon, being in Salisbury on the twen- tieth day of May, 1767, went into the office of John Frohock, Clerk of the County Court and Register, "and examined all the registry books, and fully approved of the method they were kept in. Colonels Palmer and Waddell were in company with the Gov- ernor. Colonel Palmer found lying in one of the books a copy of a call to the Rev. (Richard) Sankey, read it to the Governor, and at His Excellency's request, took it with him to take a copy thereof." (See Register's book 6, p. 397.) The clerk's office was then kept in the house of Mr. William Steele. I think that this call may have been made by a vestry of St. Luke's Parish. Elections for vestrymen were held every three years, and I suppose the polls were usually opened at the proper times. It is probable, therefore, that elections were held on Easter Monday, in the years 1758, 1761, 1764, 1767, and 1770. Mr. Sankey seems to have been in Rowan as early as the year 1758-for on the fifth day of September, 1758, he married John Braley to Sarah Carruth, of Rowan County (Register's book 7, p. 302). He is said to have been a Virginian and a Presbyterian. But I think it probable that he had re- ceived Episcopal ordination. I can find out nothing satisfactory about him. He must have returned to Virginia before the date of Governor Tryon's visit.
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In those days the feeling was well-nigh unanimous that the Christian religion must be established and maintained as the law of the State. Nothing proves this more plainly than the "instructions" given to the delegates from Mecklenburg County in 1775.
"13. You are instructed to assent and consent to the establishment of the Christian religion as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and more briefly comprised in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, excluding the thirty-seventh article, together with all the articles excepted and not to be imposed on Dissenters by the act of toleration, and clearly held forth in the Confession of Faith com- piled by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, to be the religion of the State, to the utter exclusion for- ever of all and every other (falsely so-called) religion, whether Pagan or Papal, and that the full, free, and peaceable enjoyment thereof be secured to all and every consistent member of the State as their inalien- able right as free men, without the imposition of rites: and ceremonies, whether claiming civil or ecclesiastic power for their source, and that a confession and pro- fession of the religion so established shall be necessary in qualifying any person for public trust in the State. If this should not be confirmed, protest and remon- strate.
"14. You are instructed to oppose to the utmost any particular church or set of clergymen being in- vested with power to decree rites and ceremonies, and to decide in controversies of faith, to be submitted to.
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under the influence of penal laws. You are also to op- pose the establishment of any mode of worship to be supported to the opposition of the rights of conscience, together with the destruction of private property. You are moreover to oppose the establishing an ecclesiastic supremacy in the sovereign authority of the State. You are to oppose the toleration of the Popish idola- trous worship. If this should not be confirmed, pro- test and remonstrate."
It is somewhat remarkable that the North Carolina patriots of 1776 never protested against any evils out of the existing religious establishment. This is con- clusive proof that they did not consider an established church an evil at all; and that the ecclesiastical laws then on the statute books must have been very mildly and rarely enforced.
All persons holding office in the Province of North Carolina before the Revolution were required, in ad- dition to the usual oath of office, to take certain oaths appointed by Act of Parliament for the qualification of public officers, and to repeat and subscribe "the test." The latter oath made the renunciation of the doctrine of transsubstantiation a necessary qualifica- tion for office. This declaration seems to have been repeated and subscribed every time the Court met. I find the following entry on one of the old Superior Court dockets :
"North Carolina, Salisbury, to wit:
"I, A. B., do declare that I do believe in my con- science that there is not any transsubtantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of
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bread and wine at or after the consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever, etc.
"(Signed) : James Hasell, C. J.
Edmund Fanning, A. J. William Hooper freland burn his Michael x burn mark "September Superior Court, 1767."
I never knew before that Edmund Fanning, the Hillsboro Tory, was an Associate Judge of the Supe- rior Court. Wheeler does not mention the fact in his "Sketches." Fanning presided over the Court at Salisbury frequently, as the records abundantly prove.
I have not been able to locate the exact spot where Dr. Draig's chapel was, in the Jersey Settlement. Miss Chrissie Beard says "the congregation drank out of Mrs. Kelly's spring." She thinks it was very near the spot where Dr. Meares now lives. I have heard from several sources that there is a deed on record conveying a lot of land to certain trustees for the use of the Episcopal Church-supposed to be the very ground where the Jersey chapel was built-but I have not yet been able to find the deed referred to, not knowing the names either of the grantor or of the grantees.
Among the names of the old ante-Revolutionary Churchmen was Alexander Martin, who lived in Salisbury until Guilford County was erected. He had a brother who was a clergyman of the Church of Eng-
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land, and lived in Virginia. The former was quite a distinguished man. He was a prominent lawyer by profession, and was frequently commissioned by the crown to hold the District Court at Salisbury. He presided over the Court which was held on the first day of June, 1775, during the sitting of which Captain Jack passed through on his way to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, with the Mecklenburg "Re- solves" of the thirty-first of May. He was a colonel in the Continental Army, and fought under LaFay- ette at the battle of Brandywine. He was elected Gov- ernor of the State in 1782, and again in 1789. He was also Governor in 1781, during the enforced absence of Governor Burke, who had been captured by the Tory Colonel Fannen, of Chatham. He never married. The last office he held was that of United States Senator, to which he was elected in 1799. He died in 1807.
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