USA > North Carolina > Ashe County > A history of the Ashe County, North Carolina, and New River, Virginia, Baptist associations > Part 3
USA > Virginia > A history of the Ashe County, North Carolina, and New River, Virginia, Baptist associations > Part 3
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Elder Solomon Stamper preached the introductory sermon for the convention and Elder Nathaniel Senter was made moderator. John Reeves, for many years clerk of the Mountain Association, was made clerk. There participated in this convention, Bear Creek, Beaver Creek, North Fork and Horse Creek churches, from the Three Forks Association, and Big Helton, Silas Creek, South Fork, Senter and Cranberry churches from the Mountain Association. These had been dismissed by letter from the Three Forks and Mountain associations for the purpose of forming the new association. The Rules of Decorum and Articles of Faith were copied from the Mountain Association and adopted in toto by the convention.
Although this convention met five years before I was born, yet it was to be my privilege to know personally many of the dele- gates who took part in this convention and to work with them. The delegates were as follows :
Horse Creek Church-Nathaniel Ward, Solomon Perry and John Poe.
South Fork-L. Grimsley, J. Sturgill and D. Sturgill.
Bear Creek-George Patrick and John Oliver.
North Fork-Solomon Ham, Z. Eldrith and William Weaver. Cranberry-Solomon Stamper and John Reeves.
Senter-Nathaniel M. Senter, A. McMillan and A. Dickson. Big Helton-R. Kilby, A. Powers and J. Weaver.
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HISTORY OF THE ASHE (N. C.) AND
Beaver Creek-J. W. Hardin and A. Elrod.
Silas Creek-N. Stuart, P. Roberts and J. Stuart.
These nine churches had 617 members. Cranberry was the largest in the group and had 107 members. South Fork, with 44 members vas the smallest.
The first annual session of the Senter Association was held with South Fork Church in Ashe County on September 21st, 1854, with Elder Nathaniel Senter as moderator and John Reeves as clerk. It is recorded that Elder John H. Vannoy preached the opening sermon, his text being Gen. 12:28. There was little of importance done at this session. The next session was held with Beaver Creek Church in Ashe County on Septem- ber 14, 1855, Elder T. Woody preaching the introductory ser- mon from the text I Cor. 15 :58, and the officers of the previous year being re-elected. Two new churches were received at this session, these being Grassy Creek Church, from the Mountain Association and New River, a newly constituted church.
In the minutes of this session appears an obituary of Elder Solomon Stamper, who died October 21, 1854, at the age of 73 years. In this obituary, the deceased was referred to as "Rev." Solomon Stamper, this being the first time I have found the title used before a preacher's name. It came into common usage in the years following but prior to that time a preacher was always referred to as "Elder."
I have been able to locate no minutes of the sessions of 1856 and 1857, but the session of 1858, the fifth year of the Senter Association, was held with Bear Creek Church in Ashe County, with Elder T. Woody again preaching the opening sermon, his text being Isaiah 54:13. Elder Nathaniel Senter was moderator and John Reeves clerk. The association at this time had thir- teen churches and all of them were represented.
At this session Grassy Creek Church sent up a letter asking for advice as to the way to deal with members who were making and selling liquor, "spoiling the youths of our country and bring- ing disgrace on the cause of religion." To this the association made answer as follows :
"We, as an advisory council, advise our churches that if any member or members of our churches use too much ardent spirits, after the first admonition, should be expelled without sending for them. Also, if any member should make or buy spirits and allow a drunken crowd at their
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THE NEW RIVER (VA. ) BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS
house, or still house, so as to constitute a disorderly house, we advise our churches to exclude them."
It is manifest that there had been taking place in the territory of the Senter Association an awakening of the moral sense of the people and they had begun to look with repugnance upon the excesses that many professed members of the church indulged in. Also, people were beginning to think about bettering the educa- tional advantages of their communities and from the minutes of this session it appears that at the session of 1857 there had been a committee named to "devise a plan or platform for the estab- lishment of a school in Ashe County." The committee reported favorably on the project and recommended that the school be "governed by a Baptist of our faith and order." The com- mittee was discharged and it is not recorded that steps were taken then to establish the school. The years that followed were years of tumult, the Civil War beginning within four years, and if they had started it would have been impossible to have made any progress. The fact that this movement started, however, is important, for it shows that our mountain people had it in their minds and hearts to establish a school for their children and we will see how their dreams came true in after years.
The next session of the Senter Association was held with Silas Creek Church, beginning on September 23, 1859, with a sermon by Elder Lowry Grimsley. Elder Nathaniel Senter was elected moderator and John Reeves clerk. I found only accounts of routine business in the minutes until I came to a query from Beaver Creek Church, as follows :
"How shall we receive a member who belongs to the Jef- ferson Association ?"
The answer was :
"We advise our churches to receive all that went off from them by acknowledgment. Those that have joined the Jef- ferson Association and have been baptized by those we be- lieve to be in this order, must come in by experience and bap- tism."
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HISTORY OF THE ASHE (N. C.) AND
CHAPTER V. THE UNION BAPTISTS, THE UNITED BAPTIST ASSOCIATION AND OTHER THINGS.
Those who have read Lewis Carroll's story of the adventures of Alice in Wonderland, will remember those very interesting characters, the Walrus and the Carpenter, who, after a period of association marked by nothing out of the ordinary, found themselves at a point where they had to consider many diverse things.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To speak of many things; Of shoes and ships and sealing wax; Of cabbages and kings."
So, I may drop the thread of my narrative for a while, with the view of picking it up again when I have covered several other things that properly belong in this book, because of their effect upon Baptist growth in this territory. In doing this I expect to be able to explain, in a measure, the reasons for the hostility of the communicants of the Senter Baptist Association to those of the Jefferson Baptist Association, an organization not hitherto mentioned, but which has been in existence for nine or ten years before the action of the Senter Association referred to in the last chapter.
It is probably just as well to chronicle here, briefly, the origin of the Union Baptists, who still hold forth in this mountain coun- try, though few in numbers and weak financially and otherwise. In 1858 when the Senter Association met with Silas Creek Church, the enmity between the North and the South was already being felt in the mountains. It has been a source of surmise and conjecture to many people, that there were so many Union sympa- thizers in the mountains of western North Carolina, but to me there is nothing strange about it. Our mountain people were not slave-owners. Most of them were barely one generation removed from the hardships of pioneer days and they had not accumulated wealth enough to enable them to own slaves. In addition to that, the mountaineer wherever you find him, is a lover of freedom himself and is always the last man to deny free- dom to others. There was no liking for the institution of slavery in the mountains.
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THE NEW RIVER (VA. ) BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS
Naturally, the strife between the two factions became keen and it crept into the churches. In 1848 the Mountain Association had gone on record, very positively, as favoring the dismissal from the church of all persons who allied themselves with the missionary movement or any sort of secret order, no matter how meritorious its purposes. This was taken to mean in those days a prohibition of membership in the Sons of Temperance and the Masonic Order, but in the days of the war and following the war, this ruling of the Mountain Association was used for other pur- poses. When the Union League, a secret order, came into exist- ence following the war and Union sympathizers began to join it, the dominant party used the edict of the Mountain Association against the Union League men, and where they could muster enough votes, they ousted the Union Leaguers from their churches. If the Union League members and sympathizers could poll the most votes, the other faction was kicked out and so it went. There was hatred and bitterness and bloodshed. When I was a child I remember neighbor shooting down neighbor be- cause of differences of opinion on political matters, such as the slavery question.
One prominent Baptist minister, with a record of usefulness behind him and who served faithfully and effectively in the years that followed, was so much stirred up over the slavery question and the troubles that had followed in the wake of the war, that he was heard to exclaim in meeting at Silas Creek Church :
"The time has come when the two parties can not live to- gether in the church. I'll see every rebel hung as high as Haaman's gallows before I will fellowship them."
Evidently, there were many of his way of thinking, for the disturbance spread and in 1867 we find ninety horses tied in the lane at the home of Rev. R. Jones of Ashe County, and more than one hundred Baptists who were Union sympathizers, gath- ered there for a consultation, looking to the formation of an association of their own.
"In view of the distracted cause of religion in this country," to quote the minutes of their first meeting, "and particularly among Baptists, a meeting was appointed to be held with Silas Creek Church on the fourth Saturday in August, 1867, for the purpose of taking the whole matter into consideration and devising some course to pursue in the future."
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HISTORY OF THE ASHE (N. C.) AND
This meeting was held at the stated time and place and Rev. R. Jones presided. C. J. Fowlkes and S. F. Anderson were made secretaries. After the object of the meeting had been explained by the presiding officer, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted :
"Whereas from the late condition of public affairs, the churches have become disordered and confused and in some instances have departed from that purity of discipline re- quired by the Word of God and from that simplicity of the gospel as it is in Jesus, and whereas there are those among us who have not only attempted to Lord it over God's Heri- tage by interpolating and questioning both the political and civil rights in the churches, but have violated every prin- ciple of our common humanity as well as every moral prin- ciple of the Bible by acts which are notorious to all; and whereas it is certainly the duty of those who name the name of Christ to depart from iniquity and as it is due to the world and the cause of God that our position should be known,
"Therefore be it resolved, 1st, that it is the duty of the churches to deal with and put among them all who may have violated the moral precepts of the Bible by robbing, pilfer- ing, plundering and depriving their fellow beings of life without just cause or due process of law. Or in such churches where that class may have a majority to sustain them, let the minority adopt the language of the Apostle and withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly. But no man's political principles alone, unconnected with crime, shall be a bar or test of fellowship.
"Resolved, 2nd. That the benevolent institutions of the day should not be any bar or test of fellowship, but all should be free to sustain or not sustain as they may choose.
"Resolved, 3rd. That we believe it is the duty of the churches to encourage an enlightened, efficient and pious min- istry and afford them the means to study and show them- selves approved of God, workmen that need not be ashamed.
"Resolved, 4th. That all Baptists of good standing, with- out regard to political principles, unconnected with crime, be invited to meet in a general convention at Fox Creek, Va., on the 2nd Monday in September next for the purpose of forming an Association on the above principles, and such
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THE NEW RIVER (VA.) BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS
churches as may choose to send up delegates for that pur- pose, and these resolutions as far as possible be sent to the several churches and explained."
The reader will find much in this statement with which he can sympathize. For the most part it is a straight-forward declara- tion of Christian principles, far in advance of those expressed by the Mountain Association when it outlawed Masons and the Sons of Temperance. Naturally, it attracted many Baptists of char- acter in all parts of this mountain country and when the meet- ing was held at Fox Creek Church on September 9, 1867, there were many delegates present and seven churches handed in let- ters. Elder R. Jones again presided and S. F. Anderson was secretary. In the minutes of this meeting appear the names of Elder John Adams, Elder A. Powers and Elder William Halsey. Elder J. A. Caudill, and the following laymen :
J. B. Parsons, J. A. Jones, J. Thompson, J. F. Sturgill, W. Elliott, E. Parsons, and others.
This body of men decided to establish an association and it was called the Mountain Union Baptist Association. For many years after the Civil War they were called "red strings," a term of derision much used by their enemies. A red string was the badge of the Union League.
It is not my purpose to follow the fortunes of this branch of the Baptists further than to relate that they have grown since 1867 to four or five small associations. They are very unpro- gressive. They do not pay their pastors any salaries and they give nothing to missions, home or foreign, and nothing to be- nevolence. They have established no schools and they have no newspapers or other religious periodicals. Occasionally they hold protracted meetings and occasionally you will find a church that conducts a Sunday School. They were the first denomina- tion in the mountains to insert foot-washing as a church ordinance in their Articles of Faith.
Their ministers are usually poorly educated and the support they receive from their churches is meagre indeed. In spite of this, I have always found them faithful and earnest in the dis- charge of their pastoral duties. They are always extremely courteous, one to another, and if five or six of them happen to meet at the same church on the same day, each preacher is given the opportunity of preaching, and they almost always improve
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HISTORY OF THE ASHE (N. C.) AND
the opportunity. I have known six to preach, one after another, from the same pulpit on the same day.
It was my privilege to know most of the preachers that took part in the organization of the Mountain Union Baptist Associa- tion and many of those who followed them. Their first modera- tor, Rev. R. Jones, was a man of sterling Christian character. A. Powers was a great preacher and could repeat more Scripture from memory than any man I ever knew. J. A. Caudill was a warm-hearted, earnest preacher who did much good.
Harking back to that day in 1851 when the Mountain Associa- tion went on record as advising all of its churches to expel from their membership all those who joined the "Sons of Temperance," I wish to show the effect that the association's edict had upon the Baptist churches of that day and time. At that time Elder Aaron Johnston, a brother of my mother, was a member of Beaver Creek Church, in Ashe County. He was turned out of the church because of his membership in the proscribed organization and he said long afterwards that he was turned out of the church for doing the best thing he had ever done in his life. He kept his pledge.
At about the same time Elder Richard Gentry and his son, Capt. W. H. Gentry, were turned out of Old Fields Church, in Ashe County, for the same offense. I heard it related when I was just a boy that a fine old lady, member of Old Fields Church, rose to her feet in the church meeting and, with much feeling, addressing the moderator, said :
"Brethren, I want you to consider what you have done today, and think of the effect that it will have upon the young men of our community. You have received back into your fellowship today one man who confesses that he has been drunk and you have excluded two of our best men because they wouldn't drink." My recollection is that her name was Hartzog. She was a daugh- ter of Elijah Calloway. Another daughter of his became the mother of Mrs. W. C. Fields, of Mouth of Wilson, Va., a leader among women in southwest Virginia.
The ousting of men of this type from Baptist churches was not confined to Ashe County. Over in Alexander County, North Carolina, Elder Robert Steele was expelled from the church for the same reason. Soon thereafter, he and three other preachers from Alexander and Wilkes counties journeyed over into Ashe County and joined forces with Elders Johnston and Gentry in
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THE NEW RIVER (VA.) BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS
rounding up progressive, forward-looking Baptists and getting them together in church organizations. These men organized the famous old Bethel Baptist Church. The preachers who came to Ashe County with Elder Steele were Elders J. J. Watts, J. H. Watts and Z. B. Adams. A little later, Elders Johnston and Gentry went over into Alexander County and helped Elder Rob- ert Steele and his associates organize one or more churches of the same character, these finally forming the Taylorsville Bap- tist Association.
The leaven spread. Within a very few years there were many churches like Bethel Church and on November 11, 1859, we find them meeting in a convention at Zion Hill Church in Wilkes County for the purpose of forming a new association to be known as the United Baptist Association. I propose to go into detail as to the organization of this association, for the reason that it was the first association in our mountain country to come out boldly for missions, Sunday-schools and temperance. It required courage of an unusually high degree to do the things that this association did and much of our Baptist achievement, of which we are so proud today, would not have been possible if these splendid men had not lived and wrought so wonderfully.
It is recorded that the convention opened with a sermon by Elder William Pool and that Elder S. Ferguson was elected moderator and P. Eller, clerk. Entering into the organization of the United Association, were three associations, viz .: Lewis Fork, with eleven churches; Lower Creek, with four churches. and Taylorsville with eleven churches, a total of twenty-six. These churches reported twenty-six ordained preachers, these being :
Richard Gentry, Aaron Johnston, J. Reed, R. L. Steele, J. G. Bryan, William Pool, J. Crouch, P. Tritt, G. Swaim, H. Holts- law, S. P. Smith, William Church, S. Ferguson, P. Grimes, L. Pipes, H. M. Stokes, J. H. Brown, L. Land, J. McNeill, A. W. Vannoy, J. B. Green, E. Tilley, J. H. West, D. Austin, M. Aus- tin, I. Oxford.
In addition to these there were six licentiates, as follows :
J. B. Greene, Jr., D. Welborn, J. Barnes, A. B. West. Walker and J. H. Spainhour.
The following churches participated in this epoch-making con- vention :
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HISTORY OF THE ASHE (N. C.) AND
From the Lewis Fork Association-Pilgrim Church, repre- sented by E. Davis and F. H. Foster, delegates; Lewis Fork, M. Walsh, L. Triplett and A. J. Proffitt, delegates; Little River, Elder Wm. Pool, S. Medlock and P. Barnes, delegates; Beaver Creek, Elder J. H. Brown, Thomas Carlton and J. F. Ferguson; Pleasant Hill, J. T. Baker, B. Ellis and A. A. Jolly; Zion Hill, J. Barnes and D. Welborn; Three Forks, Elder J. G. Bryan, J. Crouch and N. A. Pool; Macedonia, William Teague, D. War- ren and J. Martin; New Hope, Elder J. McNeill, J. H. Spain- hour and P. Eller; Walnut Grove, R. Brock and C. Low; Mt. Zion, E. K. Walsh, A. B. West and W. J. Miller.
From the Lower Creek Association-Union Church, repre- sented by Elders I. Oxford and J. H. West; Antioch, Elders M. Austin and D. Austin and W. S. Pool; Dover, Elder H. Holt- slaw, Thomas Reed and W. R. Pennell; Kings Creek, Elder E. Tilley and Thomas Isbell.
From the Taylorsville Association-Fishing Creek Church, represented by H. Curtis, E. B. Salmons and S. Smith; Taylor Springs, Elder J. R. Green, A. L. Williams; Mt. Gilead, E. Ellis, R. Hines and A. A. Hines; Taylorsville, Elder S. Fergu- son, E. C. Harrington and C. Jones ; Liberty Grove, Elder R. L. Steele, J. Palmer and S. Harrington, Jr .; Pleasant Grove, Elder H. M. Stokes and A. M. Foster; Bethel, Elders Richard Gentry and Aaron Johnston; Concord, G. W. McIntosh, J. H. Gycler and E. Turner ; Oak Forest, D. Edwards, A. M. Parks and A. H. Martin ; Senter, Elder J. Reed, E. C. Oxford and B. Reed; Mt. Airy, Elder P. Grimes.
I wish that I could give in detail the story of this convention. A few extracts from the minutes, which appear below, will be sufficient to show that these men were far ahead of their day and generation :
"Whereas, the Lewis Fork, Lower Creek and Taylors- ville Associations, being met in convention by delegates from the different associations at Zion Hill for the purpose of uniting in one association, in order to be enabled to carry out the gospel principles of missions and temperance, hav- ing become united as a Missionary and Temperance body, we adopt the following constitution :
"Art. 2: In the selection of delegates the churches shall pay strict regard to the moral and intellectual qualifications of the ones appointed.
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THE NEW RIVER (VA. ) BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS
"Art 11: This Association shall withdraw her fellowship from any church in her confederacy who holds members in fellowship who distill, vend or use spirituous liquors as a beverage."
The association also adopted a resolution favoring Sunday- schools and asked each church to make report annually to the association of the number of students and the number of verses in the Bible memorized by the students.
The next minutes of this association which I have been able to find, cover the meeting beginning October 16, 1862, with Kings Creek Church in Caldwell County. The Civil War was in progress at this time and we find Rev. W. R. Gwaltney, repre- senting Army Colportage, present as a visiting brother. At this session no less than thirteen churches were under investigation for having violated Article 11 of the association's constitution, quoted above, and fellowship was withdrawn from three. The association continued to ring true on missions, education and temperance.
It is good to note in the minutes of this session that Elder S. P. Smith preached a missionary sermon on Sunday and that a collection for missions was taken, amounting to $12.07. It is also recorded in the minutes that the churches had sent up to the association a total of $67.30, to be divided as follows :
Foreign missions, $6.25; Home missions, $10.2212; Educa- tion, $5.8712; Colportage, $4.85; Clerk's compensation, $6.00; Printing, etc. $34.10.
Both of the churches located near Jefferson, in Ashe County, were represented at this meeting. These were Liberty Chapel, with Elder S. Trivett as pastor, and Bethel, of which Elder Aaron Johnston was pastor. Bethel Church was later moved to a point in the Beaver Creek section, eight miles south of Jefferson, where it still stands and is a flourishing church.
Elder Aaron Johnston, first pastor of Bethel Church, remained its pastor until his death on July 31, 1878. He was my ma- ternal uncle, the son of James Harvey Johnston, who came to Wilkes County from Granville County, North Carolina, in 1806 or thereabouts. He married Elizabeth Johnson in Wilkes County in 1806 and settled on Beaver Creek, in Ashe. He was a farmer, school teacher, justice of the peace. He died on August 8, 1848. His son, Aaron Johnston, was worthy of his sturdy father, inheriting many of his splendid qualities and lovable
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HISTORY OF THE ASHE (N. C.) AND
traits. He was truly a wonderful preacher, as many who are still living can well attest. During all of the long time that he served Bethel Church as its pastor he would accept no salary, but worked on his farm for a living. "Though dead, he yet speaketh" and will continue to speak as long as good old Bethel Church shall last. He is buried in the old cemetery at the church he loved so well.
Liberty Chapel, organized by Elder Richard Jacks, passed out of Baptist history some time between 1862 and 1867. In the latter year, when I was going to school at the old Jefferson Academy, about a quarter of a mile outside of Jefferson on the Beaver Creek road, I remember seeing a few scattered shingles from the old church building on the ground where the church had stood. Elder S. Trivett, its last pastor, acquired the old building and moved it into Jefferson, where he converted it into a barn. He quit the ministry, became a merchant and later studied law. He went into politics and was elected to the Legis- lature from Ashe County in 1874. Afterwards he moved to Morganton, N. C., and later to Clay Center, Mo., where he be- gan preaching again. The last I heard of him he was still preaching and was practicing "Faith Healing." He had many admirable qualities and everybody loved him. I remember him as a man of splendid physique, pleasing in appearance, and a speaker of rare eloquence.
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