USA > North Carolina > Historical papers of the North Carolina Conference Historical Society and the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society > Part 11
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Randall's is doubtless the earliest preaching-place in the Mont- gomery section. Asbury makes mention of Randall's. So does Jesse Lee in his journal mention John Randall and also C. Ledbetter. Three miles from this ancient preaching-place near the Yadkin is Zoar, the Church of the lveys and Shankles. In the early days a log meeting house-supplanted twice by buildings of later date -- became the gathering place of the Methodists in this section of Stanley.
We may be sure that Zoar in those far-off days was rich with the traditions of the doings of Hope Hull, of whom Doctor Coke speaks in admiration, saying: "Mr. Hull is young, but is indeed a flame of fire. He appears always on the stretch for the salvation of souls." Yea, more than the early impress of this distinguished young itinerant of Maryland was left in this region, for in this field labored many men of might following the organization of Episcopal Methodism in Baltimore in 1784.
But the heroic labors of the early Methodist preachers do not tell the whole story in this region, so indelibly marked by the foot- prints of the circuit riders who went everywhere preaching and singing and calling sinners to repentance. Before the zealous gospel- rangers on horseback came were the Presbyterians, who established schools and churches: and also the Germans, with their Bibles and hymn books and catchisms, who held fast to the religion of their fathers. These established themselves at certain centers and did a pioneer work for religion and education. They did not, however, keep pace with the people who spread abroad wherever land could be had and opportunity offered. Consequently, in wide stretches of
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the country, educational facilities were poor, gospel privileges few, and the Bible largely an unknown book.
Almost every man of any means had a whisky still, all classes drank, and the usual degradation followed. People were ignorant, superstitious, and given over to vicious living. Too often they were left to themselves, only to sink lower in their ignorance, superstition, and crime.
Strange indeed sounded those earnest, Scriptural appeals made to conscience by the Methodist circuit riders. The people flocked by the thousands to hear them; some would scoff, others would remain to pray. Private houses, barns, school houses, and the groves he- came the gathering place for the multitudes to hear these men who, in the face of calm indifference and actual opposition, showed such extraordinary faith and heroic undertakings, such untiring labors and dauntless hardihood. The stirring messages in song and sermon, and the shouts and the testimony of the saved, caught the ear of many and filled the land with eager expectation.
The doings of those days left their impress, and the spirit of the times and the traditions of the early victories have not become a spent force. The advocate of the old-time camp meeting days and men who glorify the doing of the years gone can yet be found through all Western North Carolina. Truly the first half of the nineteenth century proved to be through all that country the palmy days for the old-time Methodist preacher and his colaborers, found among men mighty in prayer and exhortation.
So it may be said with the assurance of certitude that forces and influences and traditions, arising out of heredity and environ- ment, and the incidents of the decades, lay back of, and gave signi- ficance to, the wonderful career of the young Carolinian of so pure a stock who joined the South Carolina Conference at Wadesboro in 1850.
From the country home, still standing, six miles southeast of Albemarle, N. C .. in which George Washington Ivey first faced the morning of life's day, to the honored grave on the hillside, sloping to the sunrise, at Lenoir, N. C., lie seventy-four notable years. Fifty- two of these, without a break, were spent on circuits. In 1900 he missed one appointment, the first on account of sickness in thirty- four years. Up to the last that fine business enterprise and fervent evangelistic zeal, so notable through all the years, knew no abate- ment, attested by the forty-three years added to the Church and the hitherto unknown record of the circuit's paving out in full on missions. A Sir Galahad was he among the noble and heroic men on horseback who have borne the burden and heat of the day on the country circuits of our Methodism. This knightly soul, who allowed nothing to stay his step or to divert his course, rides well to the front in the ranks of the true successors of Francis Asbury.
To follow, even in skeleton outline, a man for fifty-two years on the road would carry us beyond the limits allowed. Doings by decades can scarcely find a place in this paper. I would, however, make brief note of the first ten years of George Washington Ivey in the South Carolina Conference (1850-1860), for these seem to be
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the years in which he was finding himself as an itinerant Mehodist preacher, and most unconsciously setting the pace for the after decades.
Our young circuit rider served, as junior preacher, Union in 1851; Edgefield, 1852; Waterloo, 1853; Pendleton, 1855; as preacher in charge, McDowell, 1845; Monroe, 1856-57; Morganton, 1858-59; Marion, S. C., 1860. During this first decade prior to the Civil War, he was ordained a deacon, January 9, 1853, by Bishop Capers; an elder, November, 1854, by Bishop Pierce. On November 7, 1855, he married Selina R. Neal, of McDowell. These dates indicate the years the young preacher was assigned to labor with his seniors and then allowed to try his apprenticed hand on tasks of his own, as he does the work of the Conference course and starts on the "long walk" with the gracious and helpful companion of all his after years.
A letter, the last before his marriage, written to the bride-elect two weeks before the coming event, is phrased with characteristic reserve, but filled with a tender and loving devotion.
Another letter, dated Monroe, North Carolina, December 24, 1855, written to his young wife at Albemarle, North Carolina, tells of his first round on the Monroe Circuit. This missive breathes the tenderest love, and intimates the painful sacrifice of separation from his bride of six weeks, as he forgoes the pleasures of the Christmas time and the fellowhip with his "home folks" in a loyal effort to do the work assigned him. But these demands, domestic and festive, did not constrain this young circuit rider to loiter in the path of duty or for a pretense personal to neglect a round on his circuit. Strikingly significant becomes this incident in the golden glow of life's sunset.
One need not overtax the imagination to form some general conception of the hard, exacting labor of the modest, untrained young preacher on these big circuits in a day when all were ex- pected to endure hardness as good soldiers of the cross. Doubtless his abiding interest in young preachers and his consideration for them continued to reinforce the memory of his own experience in those trying years.
During the period of the Civil War, George Washington Ivey served Lincolnton, 1861-62; Shelby, 1863-65. Rev. M. S. Davis of the Western North Carolina Conference, then a boy, remembers the "large, well-fed itinerant mule" which their preacher drove. He adds: "Brother Ivey was a noble boy with the other boys." Further testi- mony from the same source is: "He was always a most welcomed visitor in our home and in the Cleveland homes, because his visits were of the best pastoral type, giving pleasure and spiritual profit to all the family."
The next four years (1866-69) find our itinerant, in the vigor of manhood, serving the first three quadrenniums in and around Lenoir. The impression made on a boy at Blair's school-house, now Cedar Valley Church, by the new preacher that year are recalled by Rev. H. M. Blair, editor of the North Carolina Advocate:
"The school let out for church service. Soon the new preacher rode up, strong, vigorous, ruddy, in manhood's prime, wearing leggings
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extending well above the knees. He dismounted and tied his fine horse. After shaking hands with those around, with saddlebags on his arm, he walked in and announced a hymn. The tones of the voice and the manner of the man seemed strange to the boy; but before the service closed, the new preacher had won not only the boy, but the entire congregation. This grip tightened with the years."
Another of the same circuit, who also joined the Church under this popular preacher, was Rev. D. H. Tuttle, of the North Carolina Conference. Note his striking words:
"With him punctuality was proverbial. Uncle Ivey was there when he said he would be there, both in personal and public appoint- ments. He did not 'stand around' before or after preaching. With sadlebags on his arm, he walked from horse to pulpit, speaking courteously to and shaking hands with those near and others who came to him. After preaching, he mingled more freely with the people, inquiring after the sick and infirm. Soon he was off to dinner with some member of the congregation, sometimes to a well- tc-do home, sometimes to a poor one."
Much the same record was made and a like character sustained the thirty-two years following these first two decades mentioned. The average periods of service became longer: 1870-72, Morganton; 1873-76, Lenoir; 1877-80, Rock Springs; 1881, Clinton; 1882, Ruther- fordton; 1883-85, Newton; 1886-87, Iredell; 1888-89, Statesville; 1890, Leasburg: 1891-94, Newton; 1895-97, Rutherfordton; 1898-1901, Lenoir; 1902, Caswell, his last. The more than half a century spent on circuits without a break was largely given to the region of the foot- hills of North Carolina, as becomes evident in this long list of appointments. But these dates do not contain the history of those toilsome days and months and years. That record is nowhere save in the Archives on High. The prayers and sermons and exhortations at camp meetings, in little country churches, and out under the open heavens can never be gathered and given a place in any story, though they live on in lives made better and in the songs of the redeemed around the throne.
To come succesfully through the Civil War, through the orgies .of Reconstruction, and through all the hard times so well known in the South, made exacting demands of a circuit rider with a big family to rear. Often receiving less than six hundred dollars a year, the marvel to many was how well "Uncle Ivey" got on. Perhaps Brother Tuttle states the secret:
""Let 'nothing be lost' was a life motto with him. Money, time, strength, anything of any measure of value, was carefully saved and put to use. He was an example of economy. On no other basis could he have laid up enough to educate his sons and daughters."
Economy, industry, skill, and good sense aided him in the sec- ular side of life. The same principles that made him a successful preacher, pastor, friend, and Christian worker entered into all earthly affairs with George Washington Ivey. He did not partition his life off into compartments. All life was a sacred obligation to him. In all things he was in co-partnership with God, and in every way looked for God's blessings upon the effort of his hands.
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This faithful and industrious circuit rider could do more than preach and pray and exhort, though few could do either of these quite so well as he. His versality was marked. He could cook, were the family sick; mend shoes, did it become necessary; repair the parson- age, if the occasion demanded; and put the premises in shape, wherever he set his hand to the work. He always had a good garden, counting it needed economy to have a fine horse, a good cow, and the best garden in the community. He loved his garden and corn patch, and usually beat his neighbors to snap beans, roasting ears, and tomatoes. He was industrious and a hard worker, and never shirked the worst part of any job in hand.
Naturally, a man so industrious, so genuine, so given to doing the hard and difficult tasks, had a contempt for certain people who make a marvelous pretense and promise of performance. In a sermon he said: "The religion of some folks reminds me of a cornstalk fire -while ablaze, it makes you think it will burn the world down; but go to the place ten minutes later, and you can't find a spark." This characterization is about as apt as that at another time, when he said some members of the Church reminded him of a wheelbarrow: "The only way you can get them to go is to get behind them and push them along."
In this portayal of George Washington Ivey, it must be growing increasingly evident that he did not belong to the common run of mortals, nor did he move on a dead level with the mass of Methodist preachers. He did not belong to the crowd, and was not willing to keep company with those lost in the commonplace. Certain inci- dents in his life set him apart, and fill us with a desire for more of his tribe. To think that he should protest with eager haste against having the degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred upon him, and that he should positively refuse to consider a good station offered him, passes all understanding. The old saying attributed to Solomon, that "there is nothing new under the sun," went out of date about that time.
Not that he was seeking after notriety by being odd, or that he was making a show of rejecting all honors-for he did represent his Conference in the General Conference at Memphis in May, 1894- but from a sense of unworthiness and insufficiency did he positively push aside the crown. In speaking to one of his most intimate personal friends about the degree of D.D. offered him, he said: "It might spoil me; it certainly would cause more to be expected from me-more, perhaps, than I could deliver." So he declined with thanks, and would not rest until the authorities assured him that the matter had been dropped. As to the station, we will let his pre- siding elder, Rev. R. M. Hoyle, state the case:
"In .596, I think it was, his eyes failed, but he went on filling his appointments as before. The roads were rough and his fine horse was full of life. Sister Ivey was uneasy, as were many of us who knew the case, fearing some mishap on the rough roads; but he feared nothing. I talked it over with Aunt Ivey, and told her that I thought I could arrange for him. At his fourth Quarterly Conference, just before Conference, I laid the matter before him, and told him
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I had a station that would pay him more than he was getting there, and that the people had asked for him and would be delighted to have him live with them. I called his attention to the fact that Sister Ivey and his friends were anxious that he have a charge where he would not be exposed, at least while his sight was so deficient. He heard all I had to say, and his reply was in these words, near as I recall: 'I love those people up there, but don't send me to a station. I never did that kind of work. I might not succeed in that class of work. Just let me finish my work on the circuit where I began.' I, for a little while, tried to change his mind, but his mind was fully made up; so all I could do was to yield."
A perennial fountain of humor and a ready wit made Uncle Ivey attractive, and at times wonderfully effective. As is too often the case, this characteristic did not mar his character nor render ludicrous his efforts. His rare good sense and genuine Christian instincts saved him from perpetrating untimely jests or of sinking to the level of a buffoon. He was too prudent and considerate in word and deed to be guilty of rash, foolish, or ill-advised speech. Due consideration preceded the words of his mouth. Somehow there was an element of finalty about many of his observations-not much remained to be said. His approach to a discussion from a new angle often ended the argument, so far as he was concerned, and, at times, to the satisfaction of all. Some brethren were discussing the right or wrong of women's preaching. After displaying much elo- quence and dispensing no little wisdom, without conviction or change of heart, they appealed to Uncle Ivey for his opinion. He gave it in a sentence: "Brethren, I don't know, but there is one thing I do konw-I know I was not called to stop them."
With the jest or shrewd observation often went a pungent say- ing one did not care to forget. Among the many, Rev. M. D. Giles is authority for one that should not perish. It so well shows up the absurdity of much sermonizing that it should point a moral, if not adorn a tale. Here is the story:
"A sister denomination in Lenoir, North Carolina, had invited a young divine to come and preach them a trial sermon. He took for his text, 'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider' (Isaiah 1:3). The young minister gave an elaborate description of the many uses of the ox. He said: 'You can draw great logs with him and carry many burdens upon him, and when he is old and wornout you can fatten and make beef out of him; and you can make mattresses of his hair, leather of his hide, combs of his horns, glue of his hoofs, and you can lubricate machinery with the tallow taken from his meat,' etc., etc. Rev. W. L. Sherrill, of the Western North Carolina Conference, was at that time stationed in Lenoir, Brother Ivey on the circuit, and they both heard the sermon. Next morning Brother sherrill met up with Brother Ivey and asked: 'Brother Ivey, how did you like the sermon last night?' Brother Ivey answered: 'Well, he had a great many good thing to tell us about the old ox, but in my humble judgment he left out the best part; he never said a word about the tripe.'"
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The most hopeless of all failures overtaking any man is for him to fail with his family; this George Washington Ivey did not do. The crowning vision of his life's success is gained from this hilltop. No survey can be made here and now, nothing more than the names called of the notable group who cherish the memory of those two dear souls who carried them from parsonage to parsonage and walked before them with all fidelity, sincerity, and good conscience. As the goings of Abraham could be traced by the smoke of his altar fires, so the little parsonage-homes of Western North Carolina were sanctified by the altars erected there by this servant of God in a later day.
William Parsons, Clara Marinda, Thomas Neal, Mary Rebecca, Joseph Benjamin, Harriet Moore, Emma Lou, George Franks, Lizzie Brown, and Eugene Claywell, were the children. Mary Rebecca and Lizzie Brown died in childhood. Clara Marinda and William Par- sons passed away after reaching maturity, the latter being a promi- nent physician of Lenoir. Six of the family remain, an honor to the name they bear. Thomas Neal edits the Christian Advocate. of Nashville, Tennessee .* Joseph Benjamin, of Charlotte, a merchant, George Franks, of Hickory, interested in cottton-milling, and Eugene Claywell, of Lenoir, an electrician, are each to the front in their fields of endeavor. Not one whit behind the sons are the two daughters, Harriet Moore White and Emma Lou Foard, of Greensboro and Statesville, North Carolina. To the white-souled circuit rider and his genuine helpmeet these sons and daughters owe a debt they are realizing more and more since the old familiar faces are no longer with them; and they are coming to appreciate the demand once they thought exacting. The clearer vision gained by experience and distance discloses to them the value of the rigid rounds of their early days.
Rather than an effort to portray the man in the home and to set forth the impression he made on the young, I well let Dr. Edward Leigh Pell, of Richmond, Virginia, speak out of his experience:
"As I began a moment ago to recall Uncle Ivey as he appeared to me in my childhood days, my mind went back to the pictures of Old Testament heroes which we children used to wonder over in the big Family Bible we had in our home in these wondering days. That was not unnatural. It would have been strange if I had not often gotten him mixed with those Old Testament heroes, for it seemed to me he was always behaving like them. He did not do the terrible things they did, but he was always doing hard things and brave things. You could see that he was not afraid of anybody in the world, but it did look sometimes as if he were afraid of having an easy time. He never seemed to know what an easy-chair on the front porch was for. We were living next door, and I have searched my memory in vain to find a picture of Uncle Ivey lolling about and enjoying himself after a hard week's work. He always had a big circuit, and no man worked harder when he was away at his appoint- ments; but when he came back-I may be mistaken, but it seems to me you could always tell when he had just returned home by an *Since this was written Thomas Neal Ivey has died, in the year 1923.
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usual burst of sound coming from the direction of the woodpile. He liked to do hard things. He just lusted for hardship; and he found it. Of no man of his time could it be more truly said that he endured hardship 'as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.'
"I said he was always doing brave things. He was as brave as Elijah. A boy would had a hard time of growing up a coward in sight of Uncle Ivey's home. His moral courage filled the atmosphere. He no more shrank from duty than he shrank from labor. He would no more violate his conscience than he would commit murder. He could feel as deeply as any man I ever knew; yet he never hesi- tated to crucify his feelings for duty's sake. If he had been a surgeon, I am sure he would have operated on his own child rather than shift the responsibility on anyone else, though he knew that the first stroke of his knife would cut his own heart in two. He could do the bravest thing a father ever did; he could come home to his family after a long absence, and while his heart was yet full of tenderness toward his children he could, if duty required, punish every one of them for any serious lapse of conduct while he was away. I don't think that he ever had to punish them all at one time, but he could have done it, and he could have done it as righteously as a prophet of old, without the aid of anger and solely from a sense of responsibility to his God and a sense of obligation to his children.
"In after years, when I came to know him again, I was old enough to see farther into the depths of his heart; and while the image of Elijah was still there, it was almost transparent, and I could look through it to the image of Him of whom Elijah was the forerunner. And ever afterwards, though his face was still as strong as a giant's Uncle Ivey made me think of Jesus. There was a tenderness in it, in spite of its strength, like the tenderness of a little child, and when it lighted up-
"By the way, did anybody ever see a human countenance light up as Uncle Ivey's always did when he began to talk about the Master and tell how he expected to see him one day face to face?"
A volume is needed to record the numerous incidents and anec- dotes, ludricous, humorous, and pathetic, told of Uncle Ivey. Many of these were recited by himself at his own expense to the full, as when he would tell of the good, simple-minded, illiterate old brother who came up after the sermon and said: "Brother Ivey, I sure did like your sermon today. You made it so plain and thin I could see through it."
Most of these stories have been repeated so often that one can- not be sure of the original edition free from all revisions and an- notations. But they are all based on facts, and the many versions attest high admiration and affectionate good-will bestowed by a great people upon a noble, true, and godly man. What Abraham Lincoln is to the American people and Zebulon Baird Vance is to the State of North Carolina, as the traditional source and the abiding center of striking incident and ancedote, George Washington Ivey is to the Methodist people of Western North Carolina. They will not willingly let his memory perish or the unique character of his per- sonality die.
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Why this wonderful hold on all classes of all the people secured by this Methodist circuit-rider, and, better still, how did he con- tinue to grip them as "with hooks of steel?" He did not lift up his voice in the concourse, and seemed wholly unconcerned about the plaudits of the crowd. The humble Nazarene never more surely sought to escape popular applause than did this lowly follower of Him who went about doing good. At least three notable elements impressed all who came to know and estimate this man of God:
1. A strong, rugged, genuine manhood overshadowed all he did. His candor, his earnestness, his consistency, impressed all. His persistent purity of life and prudent piety in all his religious con- duct convinced every one that a consistent, conscientious Christian man bore the vessels of the Lord and broke the bread of life to the people. No barrier hedged him from the folks, and no ecclesiastical vestments concealed him from public scrutiny. Uncle Ivey was will- ing to be known through, so the people came to know him intimately and to trust him without reserve.
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