USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 24
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The Revolutionary War dispersed nearly all the Episcopal congregations in the State. The majority of the clergy, being Englishmen by birth and sympathy, and being deprived of all means of support, returned to the land of their nativity. "Still there were some four or five ministers who remained steady at their posts, ever ready to administer the ordinances of the Church and consolation to all who applied for them at their hands. These were the Rev. Messrs. Pettigrew, Cuppels, Blount, and Micklejohn; perhaps also, the Rev. Mr. Taylor, in Halifax. Seed was yet left, and a few praying Simeons and Annas still remained." (See letter of Rev. Mr. Miller, published by Rev. Dr. Hawks, dated April 15, 1830.)
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I think it doubtful whether any of these clergymen ever extended their ministrations further west than the county of Orange, where Mr. Micklejohn resided. For many years after the war of the Revolution the children and friends of Episcopacy, few in numbers and feeble in influence, lived in a state of religious destitution and in a condition of despondency border- ing on despair. It was not until the year 1790 that an effort was made to revive their drooping spirits. A convention met in Tarboro, organized a "standing committee," and elected delegates to the General Con- vention. Shortly thereafter, the Rev. Dr. Halling, of Newbern, obtained the necessary credentials, and was ordained by Bishop Madison, of Virginia. A second convention was held in Tarboro in the year 1793; and a third was held in the same town on the last Wednes- day in May, 1794; when and where the Rev. Charles Pettigrew was elected Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina. For some reason satisfactory to himself the Rev. Mr. Pettigrew never made application for con- secration. "It is a melancholy reflection," says the Rev. Mr. Miller, "for me to be obliged to say that no beneficial effects resulted from all these efforts to re- vive the spirit and cause of Episcopacy in the State of North Carolina. Yet such was the fact. They were by no means commensurate with the wishes and hopes of its real friends; for the prospect rather became more dense in gloom. Under the pressure of many complicated difficulties, our wonder will cease that the efforts of the few remaining friends of the Episco- pal Church in this State had so little effect, and that
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a declination instead of a revival took place. The clergy were not only discouraged and dispirited, but were obliged in most cases to turn their attention to other objects in order to procure the necessaries of life. Twenty-three years the stream of time rolled along, and no star appeared in any quarter of our horizon to cheer the gloom that had enveloped our hopes and our spirits. From 1794 to 1817, all was dark and dreary, yet the great Redeemer had not for- got his gracious promise. It was then that the daystar from on high visited us in mercy, when two heaven- sent heralds of the everlasting Gospel came to Wil- mington and Fayetteville, and there laid the founda- tion of the restoration of the Episcopal Church and cause in North Carolina." The "heralds" referred to were the Rev. Messrs. Adam Empire and Bethel Judd.
I cannot better describe the growth and progress of Episcopacy in Rowan County than by giving brief biographical sketches of the ministers who have offi- ciated within its bounds. I will first begin with the name of
ROBERT JOHNSTONE MILLER
He was a Scotchman by birth, and was born and brought up, until his fifteenth year, in the Episcopal Church of Scotland, under the ministry of the venera- ble Bishop Rail, who was upwards of eighty years old when young Miller left Scotland and came to America. At what time he came to this country I do not know; probably a short time before the Revo- lutionary War. He resided in Virginia for some years,
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and about the year 1784 connected himself with the Methodists, who, Mr. Miller says, at that time pro- fessed to be members of the Episcopal Church. In the same year he "rode with Dr. Coke to a conference in Franklin County, this State." Dr. Coke was an or- dained priest of the Church of England who had pre- viously been ordained a bishop by Wesley. Mr. Miller says that, although dissatisfied with the Methodist system-he himself being thoroughly persuaded of the truth of the Apostolic Succession - he nevertheless continued with them through the year 1785, in the Tar River circuit, where in some measure he lost his health; for the recovery of which he came up into the western part of the State. He says that during his continuance with the Methodists they always treated him with respect, and when he withdrew himself from any connection with them, in 1786, "they publicly de- clared that they had no charge against him whatever, and that it was his own voluntary act, in consequence of his disapprobation of their system and rules." About this time the people of the congregation of Whitehaven, comprehending Whitehaven and the lower and upper Smyrna, in Lincoln County, applied to him to take charge of them as a congregation, in the capacity of a lay-reader merely. The people of his congregation were chiefly immigrants from Pennsyl- vania and Virginia. They were a mixed people-Ger- man, English, Irish, and some Scots originally ; but at that time very destitute of any regular religious in- struction. The most of them and their fathers were and had been members of the Episcopal Church. Mr.
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Miller agreed to become their public reader, to cate- chize their children, and to bury their dead. Both he and the congregation mutually resolved and agreed to adhere to the Episcopal Church, to which they were alike bound by the strong ties of hereditary preposses- sion, and of love and affection strengthened by con- viction. A congregation was organized, church ward- ens and a vestry were chosen, and an act of incorpora- tion obtained from the General Assembly. Prayer books were scarce. The congregation had a few English ones, and he procured two of the first edition from Philadelphia. He also had printed in Salisbury a catechism, to which he added an explanation of the two covenants, and the feasts of the Christian Church, together with some religious terms not generally un- derstood. The most of the congregation were under the necessity of receiving the sacraments from the hands of a Lutheran minister who lived in the vicinity. With him, Mr. Miller formed an intimate acquaint- ance, and with his ministerial brethren also who lived in the adjacent counties of Rowan, Guilford, and Ran- dolph. Mr. Miller says they pressed him with the plea of necessity to accept ordination from their hands, mentioning that the Rev. Dr. Pilmour had done so during the time of the Revolutionary War. A number of Presbyterian clergy with whom he was intimate recommended the same course; and his congregation earnestly requested him to accept such ordination, as- suring him that they would be perfectly satisfied with his ministrations. He consented to receive ordina- tion from them, not as a Lutheran minister, but as an
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Episcopalian. In the letters of orders which they gave him, they bound him to be subject to the dis- cipline and rules of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. In administering the ordinances and offices of the Prayer book, Mr. Miller says he paid as strict attention to the rubrics as circumstances and situation would admit.
In the year 1803, at the request of the congregation, and of the Lutheran ministry and their congregations, and after several consultations held for the purpose, a convention met in Salisbury, and formed a union and constitution, which adopted the leading features of the General Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Under this constitution, which was drawn up by Mr. Miller as aforesaid, he continued in union with the Lutherans until the year 1818. He says, "our success in introducing order and regularity throughout our charges, and in extending their boundaries, was far beyond any expectation en- tertained by us at the commencement." In the year 1794, Mr. Miller was invited by the Episcopal clergy of the State to attend the convention which assembled at Tarboro in May of that year, and was also furn- ished with a certificate that he had been elected a member of the standing committee of the Diocese. Mr. Miller attended the convention, and took with him a member of the laity of Whitehaven Parish, who rep- resented the parish in the convention. The organiza- tion of the congregation of St. Michael's Church, Iredell County ; Christ Church, Rowan County, and St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, arose in some measure
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at least from Mr. Miller's labors amongst them for more than thirty years, before either parish was re- cieved into regular union with the Diocese. Mr. Miller says, Christ's Church was organized as a congregation during his "connection with the Lutheran Synod; and St. Luke's, Salisbury, by our lamented and venerated Father in God, Bishop Ravenscroft, Monday, Septem- ber 8, 1823. Miss Chrissie Beard-now in her eighty- second year-one of the most highly respected ladies of Salisbury, says Mr. Miller also preached at a log church, about five miles above town, on the old Wilkes- boro Road. This church was built for Mr. Miller by Mrs. Elizabeth Kelly, John Howard, and other neigh- bors; and Episcopal services were frequently held there. The same lady also says that she remembers perfectly well that her uncle, Lewis Beard, when she was a child, went to Charleston, and brought back with him a number of catechisms, which were eagerly sought for and highly prized by all the Episcopal families, who studied them attentively themselves, and made their children learn them. The introduction of these catechisms must have been some time about the year 1806. In 1818 the long declining and almost obliterated cause of Episcopacy began to revive in this State. "In that year," says the Rev. Mr. Miller, "the beloved and Rev. Adam Empie, who was then the rector of St. James' Church, Wilmington, and one of the honored and principal instruments under God of the blessed and I may say glorious work, entered into a correspondence with me touching my standing in the Church, and the state of religion in this section
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of the country. To him I stated my situation, and that of the people then under my care, and their and my connection with the Lutherans. This union was from first to last our own individual act. And at the time when I was ordained by them, I had expressly reserved my right and liberty, with those under my care, to return and unite in full union and without any impediment, with the Episcopal Church, whenever it should please God to revive her in this State." The result was that he attended the fifth annual Convention of the Diocese, held in Raleigh, April 28, 1821. It was the third convention over which Bishop Richard Channing Moore, of Virginia, had presided. Mr. Mil- ler, at this convention, was ordained by Bishop Moore, a deacon and priest-the first in the morning and the second in the evening of the same day, to wit: May 2, 1821. It is reported that when Bishop Moore read Mr. Miller's certificate of ordination, he said to him, "you belong to us." This anecdote is told as if Mr. Miller for the first time then conceived it his duty to obtain Episcopal ordination. But it is plain from what has been said that he had never faltered in his purpose to obtain Holy Orders from the Church of his fathers, whenever a favorable opportunity presented itself. He had never ceased to consider himself a member of that Church. I have not access to the earliest journals of the Diocese, but I have no doubt Mr. Miller became a candidate for Orders shortly after the correspondence with the Rev. Mr. Empie began.
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The Rev. Mr. Miller, even after he had resolved to obtain Episcopal ordination, still continued to adminis- ter the sacraments, and to preach to the congregations under his care.
There is an old record of Christ Church, in the handwriting of Mr. Miller, from which several of the first leaves are missing. From this it appears that Mr. Miller was in the habit of administering the holy rite of confirmation to all who would receive it at his hands. He administered confirmation for the first time in Christ Church, Rowan County, some time previous to the year 1820. The record concerning it is missing. The date of his second confirmation is the third Sunday in April, sixteenth day, 1820, when he confirmed twenty-four persons.
The following record is preserved of the early com- munions in the same church.
Fourth communion, date not given, fifty-one com- municants ; fifth, April 16, 1820, forty-four communi- cants; 1820, fifty-eight; 18 , number not given.
The next communion was after Mr. Miller had re- ceived Episcopal ordination, November 4, 1821- thirty-six communicants, with this note-"day very unfavorable, a number that had given in their names unable to attend. Collected $2.961/4. (Signed) Robert J. Miller, Rector."
Fourth Sunday in May, 1822, entered as the seventh communion-though it must have been the ninth- twenty-four communicants ; eighth (?), July 3, 1823, forety-eight communicants ; tenth ( ?), Sunday, August 21, 1825, fifty-one communicants. At the convention
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of 1821, Christ Church was admitted into union with the Diocese. Allmand Hall attended as the first dele- gate. This gentleman was the ancestor of quite a number of distinguished Episcopal families in North Carolina. One of his daughters married Mr. Cham- bers McConnaughey of this county. Mrs. McCon- naughey is still living, and has always been a devoted Christian and churchwoman. One of her daughters married Dr. John L. Henderson, whose family reside in Concord, and are members of the new Episcopal congregation there. Another daughter married Dr. Thomas Hill, recently a vestryman of St. Luke's Parish, but who has removed to Goldsboro. A daughter of Mr. Allmand Hall married Dr. William McKoy, of Clinton, Sampson County, the father of the Hon. Allman A. McKoy-one of the most capable and acceptable Judges of the Superior Court now on the bench.
The Rev. Mr. Miller removed to Burke County, and took up his residence at St. Mary's Grove, a short time before the year 1821. During that year St. Andrew's Church was organized as a parish, and Mr. Miller became its rector. Notwithstanding his removal to Burke County (now Caldwell), Mr. Miller did not entirely lose sight of his flock in Iredell, Rowan, and Lincoln Counties, but for several years continued to make periodical visitations from time to time of the congregations and families committed to his care. He is remembered with great affection and esteem by some of the older people-as coming down on such oc- casions, preaching at the little churches and other
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places, catechizing the children and baptizing a great many, distributing the bread of life to the faithful, visiting the Episcopal families as he had opportunity, and like some other old gentlemen of that day wearing the old-fashioned knee-breeches.
St. Peter's Church, Lexington (then of Rowan), was admitted into union with the Diocese at the (Ral- eigh) convention of 1822-delegate, Alexander Cald- cleugh. The delegate from Christ Church was Ben- ton A. Reeves.
The eighth annual convention of the Diocese assem- bled in Salisbury, in the old Lutheran Church, in the spring of 1823-seven clergymen being present. The Revs. Gottlieb Shober and Daniel Scherer, and Col. Henry Ratz, delegates from the Lutheran Synod, were in attendance as honorary members of the convention, in pursuance of articles of agreement between the con- vention and the Synod. The delegates from Christ Church were John Cowan, Benjamin Lightell, and Samuel Fleming ; from St. Peter's Church, Lexington, James R. Dodge, Dr. William R. Holt, and Dr. Wil- liam Dobson.
The Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft, of Virginia, was elected the first Bishop of North Carolina. He was consecrated to the Episcopate May 23, 1823. On Saturday evening, September 6, 1823, Bishop Ravens- croft preached on Confirmation in the old courthouse in Salisbury (services being held there by request). On the next day he preached, both morning and evening, in the Lutheran Church; administered the Holy Communion to about forty persons-one-third
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of whom were colored; and confirmed thirteen per- sons, among whom were Miss Chrissie Beard, Mrs. Eleanor Faust, Mrs. Susanna Beard, Mrs. Elizabeth Kelly, Mrs. Mary Beard, Misses Camilla and Loretta Tores, Mrs. Mary Locke, and Misses Margaret Burns, Mary Hampton, and Mary Todd.
At this, his first visitation, Bishop Ravenscroft or- ganized the parish, on Monday evening, at the house of Mrs. Susanna Beard, on Innes Street, between Main and Church Streets, just opposite the present residence of Mr. R. J. Holmes. The old house is now occupied by Mrs. Rutledge and family.
On September 14, 1823, the Bishop visited Christ Church, confirmed fifty persons, and administered the Holy Communion to sixty-three persons. Doubtless a good many of those who had been previously con- firmed by Mr. Miller were again confirmed by the Bishop.
St. Luke's Parish was admitted into union with the Diocese at the (Williamsboro) convention of 1824, and Dr. Lueco Mitchell attended as a delegate. Dr. Stephen L. Ferrand, the father of Mrs. Mary S. Hen- derson, and of Mrs. Ann Haughton, deceased, at- tended the (Washington) Convention, April 21, 1825, as a delegate from the same parish. Bishop Ravens- croft reported that he had visited Christ Church on the thirteenth and fourteenth of October, 1824, and "though the weather was bad, preached to good con- gregations." On the second day he was assisted by Mr. Miller, administering the Holy Communion to thirty-eight persons. Returning to Salisbury, after
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service by Mr. Miller, on Saturday the sixteenth, he preached on the seventeenth, being Sunday, confirmed eight persons, and administered the communion to six- teen persons, assisted by Mr. Miller. "In the after- noon divine service was again performed. The con- gregations respectable, both forenoon and afternoon." On the eighteenth, the Bishop left Salisbury, in com- pany with Mr. Miller, and on the nineteenth, at the house of Mr. Mills, in Iredell, he confirmed five per- sons. Mr. Mills' family formed the Episcopal part of the former joint Episcopal and Lutheran congrega- tion of St. Michael's, which the Bishop had visited in the year 1823. Mr. Mills' family afterwards consti- tuted the main strength of the Episcopal parish of St. James. The Bishop reached Mr. Miller's "hospita- ble mansion" on the twenty-first. On the twenty- fourth, in St. Andrew's Church, Burke County, eight- een persons were confirmed, "a numerous congrega- tion" being present. On the twenty-sixth, he preached at St. Peter's Church, Lincoln County, to a small con- gregation, and on the twenty-seventh, in the same church, confirmed seven persons. Mr. Miller assisted in the service. On the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth, he officiated at Smyrna, without any appearance of interest on the part of the few who attended."
On the thirtieth and thirty-first he officiated at Whitehaven, assisted by Mr. Miller, and confirmed nine persons, and "administered the Holy Communion to a small number of serious people." On the fourth of November he performed divine service again at
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Whitehaven, preached on the subject of Confirma- tion, and administered that rite to seven more persons.
The Bishop, in his address to the convention of 1825, said "that he was happy to be able to state that the principles of the church and of pure religion were gaining ground among her members, among whom there were not a few whose zeal was coupled with knowledge and whose faith was manifested by their works, and in general more consideration was given to the subject. In the western section of the Diocese the prospect was very discouraging, though not without hope. With the exception of the congregation at Wadesboro, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Wright, which was second to none in any Diocese for sound- ness in the faith and exemplary holiness; and the congregation of Christ's Church, Rowan, which is numerous and regular, and in the main sound as Episcopalians, though not without exceptions; and a few recently organized in Salisbury, there is nothing at present to be depended upon. In the immediate neighborhood of the Rev. Mr. Miller, they have com- menced retracing their steps, and will in time, I trust, recover from the paralyzing effect of the attempt to amalgamate with the Lutheran body, and the unjusti- fiable conduct of some of the missionaries heretofore employed, in abandoning the Liturgy altogether in their public services. In Lincoln, the effects are most visible, and likely to be most injurious ; yet had we the means of giving and continuing to them the services of a faithful clergyman, my hope is good for the revival of the church even there. Some very influential men
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are engaged in the cause, and there is sufficient ability, could it be roused into action, to give it success."
November 13, 1825, the Bishop visited Christ Church, Rowan, where he preached and administered the Holy Communion to fifty-six white and three col- ored communicants.
Mr. Miller made a report to the convention at Hills- boro, May 18, 1826, covering a period of two years :
Baptisms-St. Andrews, Burke County, 21; In Iredell and Rowan, 85; In Lincoln, 35; On Johns and Catawba Rivers, II. Total, 152.
Communicants-St. Andrew's, 15; Christ Church, 50; Whitehaven, 17; Smyrna, 7; Mr. Mills', 17. Total, 106.
Marriages, 5; burials, 12; paid to Bishop's salary, $20.00; candidates for confirmation at St. An- drew's, II.
Mr. Miller attended the convention at Salisbury in the year 1829. His report shows that he was confining his labors almost exclusively to the little parish of St. Andrews. He made another report to the convention at Washington, in 1834, in which he stated that, al- though enjoying in other respects a good state of health for one of his years, he was very often pre- vented from attendance on the appointments that were made for him by sudden and severe attacks of a pain- ful complaint with which he was afflicted. He died early in the summer of 1834, having lived a long life full of years and usefulness in the service of his Mas- ter. He was a truly pious, sincere Christian-and not- withstanding his apparent inconsistencies of conduct
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was devotedly attached all his life to the Church of his baptism; and he was instrumental in a larger degree than any other one person in keeping alive a knowl- edge of Episcopacy in the western part of the State. Wherever he went, his ministrations were always wel- come. Mr. Miller's descendants are numerous, one of whom-Miss Amanda Haigler-is the wife of Mr. Lewis V. Brown, late of Salisbury, but now of Denton, Tex.
Bishop Ives, in his address to the convention of 1835, thus alludes to the death of this venerable and saintly servant of God :
"I notice with unfeigned sorrow, the death, during the past year, of the Rev. Robert Johnstone Miller, of Burke County, a clergyman of whom we may em- phatically say, for him to live was Christ and to die is gain. Brethren of the clergy, let us follow his ex- ample of humility, of faith and patience, that ours may be his crown of eternal glory, through him who has washed us from our sins in his own blood."
It was through the instrumentality of Mr. Miller that fraternal relations were established between the Lutheran Synod and the Episcopal Convention, by a mutual interchange of delegates from one to the other for several years previous to the consecration of Bishop Ravenscroft. Before the Revolution, the Swedes and German Lutherans in the American colonies, almost without exception, are understood to have conformed to the Episcopal Church. In a report made to the Bishop of London, in 1761, the number of "church people" in Pennsylvania is put down at sixty-
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five thousand, of whom forty thousand were said to be Swedish and German Lutherans "who reckon their service, etc., the same as that of the Church of En- gland" (Wiberforce, American Church, 133).
The Rev. Robert Davis, whose history is unknown to the writer, officiated in this section of the State, co- operating with Mr. Miller, in the years 1821-23. I find his name included in the list of the clergy for North Carolina, in Sword's Almanac for the year 1822, the whole number of clergy being put down at nine, among whom were the Revs. Richard S. Mason (Newbern), and William Hooper, professor in the University of North Carolina.
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