USA > North Carolina > Historical papers of the North Carolina Conference Historical Society and the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society > Part 12
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2. A wonderfully fine endowment of common sense and real mental strength commanded respect. This vigorous, penetrating mind and sound judgment saved him from the perils of the superficial and the erratic. Who ever heard Uncle Ivey make a foolish or rash statement in the pulpit or out of it, unless one should consider rash some striking declaration in the pulpit when shouting happy, as with face illuminated, breast heaving, and heart swelling with joy, he ex- claimed: "Brother Stamey, I would say glory to God if it split the sky!" That was the ecstatic fervor of the Hebrew prophet with the burning fire shut up in his bones. If that be rashness, make the most of it.
3. The fine point to his observations and the sound sense under- lying his humor, without any pride of opinion or undue parade of self, made effective appeal to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Moreover, the good-humored way in which he referred to cer- tain well known limitations pleased and amused; as in his reference to singing: "I can do about all Christian duties but sing; and if I get ' to heaven and there is no one there but the Lord and me, and the Lord wants any singing done, he'll have to raise the tune!"
In this delineation, stress has been placed upon the man more than upon the minister; for back of the sermon must be a wealth of personality, if the sermon is to be more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Both of these could be found when George Wash- ington Ivey had an appointment to preach. Sometimes he would go in through the window and preach one of his best sermons to an audience of two or three; then again, the house and the yard would be full-but always a telling message. In the words of one already quoted: "Uncle Ivey was a genuinely great preacher-not in the style of the 'eloquent orator,' but in unique originality, forceful earnestness, well-selected words, doctrinal integrity, and permanent results."
At a session of the Statesville District Conference in Moores- ville, North Carolina, on Friday, July 18, 1902, at eleven o'clock Rev. G. W. Ivey preached. This was his last sermon before a Conference
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of his Church or a representative gathering of his brethren. The memory of that hallowed hour and the heavenly radiance is with me still. His physical eye was dim, but his spiritual vision proved to be wonderfully acute. "The Life and Labors of St. Paul" was the theme. A fine, brief summary of the Apostle's career, a more detailed discussion of his teachings, a vivid picture of his trials and triumphs, with a practical application put with telling point and force, made this a really great sermon. Not great, perhaps, measured by the standards of pulpit eloquence and the demands of literary canons, but great in gospel truth, personal force, and assurance of victory. The tender, illuminating touches dealing with his own personal ex- perience rendered the sermon unforgettable. especially for those acquainted with his more than half-century of loyal, unselfish service, sacrifice and suffering. Personal potency, shot through with gospel fervor backed by heroic doings, spoke that day.
A haunting sense of failure has attended this endeavor to prop- erly delineate the subject before us. The clumsiness of language and the insufficiency of words become apparent in any effort to present a man who had such marked elusive and intangible elements. We miss the tones of his voice and that nameless something about his personality that sets him apart. More than this: the one secret of his power has not been mentioned save by implication. Only those who had the most intimate knowledge knew the abiding secret of this man so at home with the Apostle to the Gentiles that one would have thought that he had been with Paul in the third heaven.
In the prayer-life of this preacher of righteousness, as of every other man of God who has counted for much, is to be found the real source of power and the inspiratoin that sent this White Knight of the Itinerancy on his many rounds of conquest. His son, Thomas Neal, who has many of the noble traits of the father, can best dis- close the secret:
"Looking back over my father's life, I find myself most power- fully impresed with what might be called the prayer-element in that life. The simplicity of his faith in God as a superintending person- ality and as a loving Father was never marred by any of those com- plex questions which are sometimes allowed to shadow the spiritual vision. He knew the Bible as few men know it. He believed it to be the Word of God, and he threw himself as trustfully upon its promises as a child throws itself upon its mother's bosom. It was not strange, then, that prayer became a vital part of his daily life. It was not held in reserve for spectacular occasions when spiritual circumstances became congested in critical experiences, or when the big waves of trouble and sorrow naturally drove the soul to the protecting shores of faith. Prayer with him was not only a daily exercise, but his daily life-as natural as were the duties that belong to daily experi- ences.
"I would not pull the curtain (continues the son) and expose to the unsympathetic gaze those daily seasons of communion with God which were held sacred by him, but I must be somewhat definite. No noon passed that had not found him keeping his daily private engage- ment with his Father. No twilight came that did not find him
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enfolded somewhere within the shadows and keeping that engage- ment. Precious to me is the memory of those far-off days when, after the frugal supper of the parsonage, I saw him absenting him- self for a season in a retired room. We children early learned that he had gone aside to talk with God. This was seen by the subdued look on his face as he would call the family to prayer. He would never allow any circumstance, unless it was exceptional and extreme, to prevent this family worship both morning and evening. He was as true and faithful in the exercise of this priestly duty and privilege as any man I ever knew. We children, doubtless, thought at times that he was somewhat rigid in calling us in every time and under all circumstances; but we do not think so now. That faith and that devotion explain to us now that they were but the natural factors of a life truly 'hid with Christ in God.' They have served to explain the victory of that life which was a constant struggle, and which only those Methodist itinerants with a large family to support, in a time when the land was prostrate and the powers of darkness were on every side, can fully understand."
But the journey had been long and rough and the hardships many these fifty-two years going up and down the land, so the time had come for the old circuit-rider to turn his face homeward. Many felt that he ought to remain with them and continue to shed his heavenly radiance as he went preaching the gospel, but God said, "It is enough." He attended his fourth Quarterly Conference at Grace Chapel, November 1 and 2, in his usual health, having met every appointment for the year. At the close of the communion service, he led the congregation in an unusual prayer, even for him. He seemed to be within the gates of the city and talking with God, says his presiding elder, and all were wonderfully lifted by his power. After the services he joined the crowd in the grove for dinner. He went to Ebenezer Church to preach a funeral sermon at three o'clock. He had been preaching about twenty minutes from the text, "Fight the good fight of faith; and lay hold on eternal life" ( I Timothy 6:12), when the call came, as he said, "Eternal life is . The . sentence never was finished. He was carried, unconscious, from the pulpit to a house near by, and on Tuesday he was removed to the parsonage at Granite Falls. Friday morning, November 7, 1902, the forty-seventh anniversary of his marriage, he passed up to enjoy the "eternal life" on high.
At daybreak he passed, and a dawn more glorious than any across the hills of Western North Carolina greeted his vision fresh from the eternal hills. Batallions of angels, better than any Bunyan ever dreamed of, must have gathered over the mountains that triumphant morning. The old circuit-rider was going home.
When King Arthur passed, Sir Bedivere groaned, "The King is gone;" when the knightly-souled circuit-rider, George Washington Ivey, passed, many felt that he had gone to be King among the uncrowned followers of Francis Asbury who have ridden forth, unlike the knights of old to redress human wrongs, but to spread Scriptural holiness over these lands.
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The Early Circuit Riders of Western North Carolina
REV. ALVA W. PLYLER*
HAVE not written this paper to bestow eulogies upon the first circuit riders, who wrought so well in Western North Carolina, although the temptation in that direction is exceedingly strong. My desire is to give a plain, unvarnished account of these young itinerants who with- in our borders rode in the forefront of the oncoming Methodist hosts.
The first circuit riders to enter Western North Carolina were the preachers on the Transylvania circuit, a circuit of Virginia that first appears in the conference minutes of 1776. Four years later in May, 1780, the Yadkin circuit with twenty-one members, the fruit of the labors of the preachers of the Transylvania circuit, was established and Andrew Yeargan was appointed to travel this new territory.
The boundaries of the new circuit cannot be located with any degree of accuracy. To the south and west as far as the Florida pen- insula and the Pacific Ocean there was not a single Methodist cir- cuit rider at work, and on the east the nearest circuit was the New Hope, formed one year before with its western border little, if any, west of Haw River. Hence on every side except on the North the unoccupied territory stretched away beyond the reach of the most resolute and aggressive itinerant.
Into this vast territory where the first log for a Methodist meeting house hand not been cut, Andrew Yeargan bravely went, and after him in the next few years followed those circuit riders who preached the gospel to every scattered settlement of the hill country and moun- tains of North Carolina.
At this juncture let us take a glance at the soil in which was about to be planted the Methodist mustard seed that should eventu- ally become a great tree.
Among the early settlers of Western North Carolina the Scotch- Irish must ever hold a conspicuous place, both on account of their rela- tive number and the superior character of these Presbyterian immi- grants. On both sides of the Yadkin and at other points in the colony the Germans in great numbers had rooted themselves to the soil. In addition to these English, Irish, Dutch, and representatives of many other European nationalities, were scattered among the Carolina hills. Yet with all these, this section of the country as late as the War of the Revolution, and for a good while after, was sparsely populated and these scattered inhabitants of Piedmont Carolina with the few white settlers of the mountains were subject to pioneer conditions, and un-
*Address at the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society, at Asheville. November 14, 1917.
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acquainted with many things that we are accustomed to regard as the necessities of civilized life.
There was not a postoffice, newspaper, or respectable highway in all this section of the country. In 1790 Edenton, Washington, Newbern and Wilmington were the only post offices in North Caro- lina. As late as 1812 there was not a newspaper published west of Raleigh. The only schools were the "old field schools" with a term ranging from four to twelve weeks and a curriculum of "reading, writing and arithmetic." To these wholly inadequate educational agencies may be added a few classical academies established by the Scotch-Irish, particularly Presbyterian ministers.
In the territory of which I write there was not a city or town, only a few straggling country villages, Charlotte and Salisbury being the largest of these. But Charlotte, twelve years after the Mecklenburg declaration, was a village of only 276 inhabitants-153 whites and 123 colored. The industries consisted of a saw mill, a flour mill, a blacksmith shop and three stores. And this phenomenal growth was the result of an impetus given that good Scotch community by per- manently establishing the county seat in 1774, and in 1777 building the Liberty Academy.
The religious needs of the people at that time were provided for only in part. The Scotch communities and the Moravians from the first had been quite well supplied with ministers and churches. The German people at a comparatively early date had built some Lutheran and German Reformed churches, but they were in need of ministers. A few Baptist churches, Grassy Branch in Guilford being the most prominent and influential, were ministering to the religious needs of scattered communities. But great sections of the country were spiritually destitute.
Unto this people living under the conditions as indicated, came the Methodist circuit rider to join with all who were striving to promote Godliness and spread scriptural holiness over the land, but at the same time, to wage a relentless warfare upon every agency of evil.
Andrew Yeargan, first among these itinerants from the stand- point of time, as already noted, probably confined his labors to the. Yadkin valley. Among his preaching places were George McKnight's, on the Yadkin River near Hall's ferry. McKnight's became very prominent in early Methodist history. Not only was it a frequent stopping place for Bishop Asbury, but the Conference met there in 1789 and again in 1791.
Mr. Yeargan preached, also, at John Doub's in Forsythe county (then Stokes). Peter Doub in his autobiography says that his father and mother went seven or eight miles to hear Mr. Yeargan preach and after the sermon his father invited the preacher home with them. On his next round a month later he came and preached, then a little while afterward organized a society of six or eight members, two of whom were John Doub and his wife. Doub's Chapel in the same
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' neighborhood is the present-day representative of that early church in John Doub's home.
Beal's meeting house erected in 1780 or 1781, and, located on the north side of Hunting creek near Anderson's bridge in the north- western part of Davie County, bears the distinction of being the first church in all that section, if not in Western North Carolina.
Local tradition has preserved the following story of an early incident in Beal's meeting house. After closing a warm and moving sermon, the preacher walked down into the congregation and in the midst of a fervent exhortation laid his hand upon the head of an old man and said, "My friend, don't you want to go to heaven?' Whereupon the stranger with much emphasis replied, "Man, for God's sake go off and leave me alone; I don't live about here: I came from away up in the mountains."
At this same church in a Quarterly Conference, September, 1795, the presiding elder asked as usual, "How much had been contributed for the support of the ministry." Charles Ledbetter, the circuit rider, answered not a word, but in reply held up one pair of socks. Yet the people of that day complained that the circuit riders preached for money.
The Yadkin circuit does not appear in the minutes of the confer- ence of 1781, but one should not conclude therefrom that the work had been abandoned. Frequently in those early days, especially amid the confusion incident to the war, the names of circuits failed to be incorporated in the conference records. But in 1782 and regularly thereafter the Yadkin circuit appears in the minutes and speedily became a fruitful field for Methodism.
At the Conference of 1783 the Salisbury and Guilford circuits were formed, the Salisbury from the Yadkin and the Guilford largely from the New Hope. The Salisbury circuit with thirty members had for its preachers Beverly Allen, James Foster and James Hinton.
The Methodist historian reads that first name, Beverly Allen, with mingled emotions of admiration and pity for the brilliant young preacher of unbounded popularity who this year organized the first Methodist society in Salisbury, the next laid the foundation of Metho- dism in the valley of the Cape Fear, then along the Pee Dee in 1785, and through the later years of that eventful decade preached in South Carolina and Georgia to the multitudes that flocked to hear him.
A charter member of the Salisbury society has left the fol- lowing account of Allen and of the first introduction of the Methodists into Salisbury.
"Soon after my return to Salisbury, at the close of the war, it was announced that there would be preaching in a school house by a new kind of people, called Methodists. I knew nothing about that people, either good or bad, but rejoiced at the prospect of hearing the gospel. I went early expecting to see a minister resembling the old parsons; but judge of my surprise, when instead of a stout, good looking, finely dressed gentleman with gown and surplice, in silk stock- ings and silver buckles, in walked a slender delicate young man
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dressed in homespun, cotton jeans. Though plainly attired, I per- ceived in his countenance unusual solemnity and goodness."
That was Beverly Allen, whose early career was meteoric, indeed, but a little later he becomes a painfully tragic figure. He was ener- getic, ambitious, a man of ideals and amazingly popular, yet, unfor- tunately, without poise or patience, self-centered and overflowing with egotism. The career of such a man could not be otherwise but tragic. For such conflicting forces within must inevitably lead to a crash with their environment. This is exactly what occurred when he discarded ecclesiastical regulations, later the demands of ethical life, and finally lifted himself in violence against the individual appointed to enforce the civil law.
Jesse Lee with Isaac Smith traveled the Salisbury circuit in 1784. On his first round Lee went down the Yadkin as far as Randall's near Norwood and Charles Ledbetter's across the river in Mont- gomery county, which shows that the Salisbury circuit at that date extended down the Yadkin as far as the mouth of the Uwharrie river. Jesse Lee met with great success on this circuit. Of courtly bearing and commanding presence, abounding in wit, richly endowed with a wide range of intellectual gifts, and withal very religious, he was accustomed to a cordial welcome in any circle. Only New England gave him a cold reception.
"Apostle of Methodism to New England," the first Methodist his- torian, who at the General Conference of 1800 received on the first ballot as many votes for Bishop as Whatcoat, who was elected on the third ballot by a majority of four votes, Jesse Lee was one of the great men of his day, and the receding years detract nothing from his reputation.
He was a great worker and also a great wit. He enjoyed this gift in others and for that reason delighted in the following:
He with some other preachers came up to a farm house about dinner time. It was the harvest season. The gentleman of the house had some of his neighbors helping him cut wheat that day and a bountiful dinner had been prepared for the harvest hands. But the hungry preachers were seated at the table first and did full justice to the dinner prepared for the harvesters. When the men from the wheat-fields got to the table there was a look of disappointment in their faces, but one of them with much gravity asked a blessing:
Oh Lord, look down on us poor sinners,
For the preachers have come and eat up our dinners.
We have now reached that period when the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, newly organized at the "Christmas Conference," 1784, in Baltimore, began to cover every part of the country, no matter how sparsely settled, with a network of circuits; and sent the circuit rider to each nook and corner of the broad land. At this time the foundation of the new American nation was being laid and the Methodist itinerant was everywhere on hand to join as one of the master builders of the nation, as well as of the Kingdom of God.
In 1786 the Pee Dee circuit, that extended on both sides of the river from Georgetown, South Carolina, to the mouth of the Uwharrie, where the Yadkin becomes the Pee Dee, had its beginning. This same
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year when Jeremiah Masten and Hope Hull were planting churches along the Pee Dee, the Santee circuit that reached from Charleston, South Carolina, to within ten miles of Charlotte, North Carolina, came into existence. In 1787 the Bladen circuit was formed to cover that broad stretch from the Pee Dee to and including the Valley of the Cape Fear River. Two years later Methodism was permanently estab- lished west of the Catawba River by John McGee and Daniel Asbury.
From the foregoing observations it becomes clear that circuits were being formed with amazing rapidity all over North Carolina and South Carolina. In like manner was the work carried on whenever the white man had fixed his habitation.
At that period when Bishop Asbury, "the prophet of the long road," lead his knights of the saddle-bags into every nook and cor- ner of the new American nation, we should not overlook those migrations of the people called Methodists who materially contributed to the establishment of the Methodist Church in hitherto unoccupied territory.
An interesting migration of this sort is connected with the plant- ing of Methodism west of the Catawba river in Western North Caro- lina. "In 1787 a number of Methodists moved from the Brunswick cir- cuit in Virginia and settled in Lincoln county, North Carolina, near the Catawba river. As they journeyed to a new home, in the spirit of true pilgrims, they were not unmindful of 'a better country, that is, a heavenly.' Morning and evening the incense of prayer and praise ascended to God from the altar of their devotions; and occasionally an experience meeting or love-feast was held by night in their camp. Such a meeting chanced to be held by them on the banks of the Roanoke river, when it pleased the Lord to visit and bless this pious band in a manner so remarkable that the deep forest was made vocal with their triumphant songs of joy, crying, glory to God in the high- est. A planter of intelligence and wealth, attracted by the sound, came with his servants to investigate the unwonted scene. 'Friends,' said he, 'this is indeed a strange proceeding; what is the meaning of all this?' John Turbyfield for the rest answered in the spirit of meek- ness and love: 'Sir, we are all professors of religion, members of the Methodist church, journeying to a new home; we have engaged in our accustomed devotions; the King has come into our camp and we have been made very happy-glory be to God!' "*
These devout Methodists in their new home were without preach- ing till the fall of the next year when the Rev. Mr. Brown, a young local preacher from Virginia, visited the country with a view of locating there. Upon invitation of Rev. Mr. Miller, the pastor of Old White Haven Lutheran church, the young Methodist preached with great zeal and his words were in demonstration of the Spirit. Those Metho- dists who had been in George Shadford's meeting on the old Bruns- wick circuit in Virginia could not restrain their emotions, although in a Lutheran church. The widow Morris raised a great shout, where- upon, the old German ladies panic stricken rushed to Nancy L. Morris,
*Grissom, "History of Methodism in North Carolina"-Page 272.
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the widow's daughter, and exclaimed, "Your mother has a fit, indeed she has, and she is going to die." With surprising calmness the daughter answered, "My mother is subject to such fits; she will soon recover."
To this company of early Methodists in the wilderness in the sum- mer of 1789 came Daniel Asbury and John McGee, preachers on the Yadkin circuit, and these two itinerants formed the Lincoln Circuit which embraced not only Lincoln county, "but also Rutherford and Burke with portions of Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties in North Carolina, York district in South Carolina, and that part of Spartan- burg and Union districts which lies north of the Pacolet river."
With the early history of this old circuit is bound up, never to be separated, the name of Daniel Asbury, to whom the Methodist Church owes a tremendous debt. At the age of sixteen Daniel Asbury went from his childhood home in Fairfax County, Virginia. to Ken- tucky, where he was captured by a band of Shawnee Indians and carried to the far west. After five weary years in captivity, subjected to the hardships and deprivations of savage life, he escaped and hastened on the long dangerous journey to his Virginia home, where even his mother failed to recognize her lost son whom she mourned as dead.
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