USA > North Carolina > Historical papers of the North Carolina Conference Historical Society and the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society > Part 13
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By this time the Methodist pioneers had entered the neighbor- hood of his father's home. Through their instrumentality Daniel was converted and became a Methodist preacher. In 1786 he joined the itinerant ranks and after a year each on the Amelia and Halifax circuits was sent as a missionary along the banks of the French Broad river. Daniel Asbury was the first circuit rider to enter the wild solitudes of those beautiful mountains.
At that time the white settlers were few. Only two years before- in 1786-John Weaver, the father of Jacob and Montreville Weaver, and the first settlers on Reims Creek, had reached his new home in that delightful valley. When Daniel Asbury traveled among those mountains all the men in that section of the type of John Weaver could have been counted on the fingers of two hands. The majority of the people were as rough and wild as the savage tribes among which they dwelt. As a consequence, Daniel Asbury suffered innum- erable hardships. The chronicler tells ns; "He was often forced to subsist solely on cucumbers, or a piece of cold bread, without the luxury of a bowl of milk or a cup of coffee. His ordinary diet was fried bacon and corn bread, his bed clap-board laid on poles supported by rude forks driven into the earthen floor of a log cabin."
By the time Daniel Asbury reached his new field west of the Catawba river, in 1789, his personal experiences with pioneer and savage life had been such that the petty persecutions encountered in the foothills of North Carolina did not disturb him in the least. But the man who had defied the Indian's tomahawk and luckily escaped the scalping knife of the savage, fell an early victim to cupid's little arrows. The young circuit rider married Nancy L. Morris, the girl who calmly informed the agitated old German ladies in White Haven
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church that her mother promptly recovered from fits in Methodist meetings.
Daniel Asbury, as was the custom in those days with preachers who married, located, and made his home in the neighborhood of Reho- beth, the first church erected in North Carolina west of the Catawba river. After nine years in the local relation he again entered the itinerant ranks and continued actively therein till age and feebleness necessitated his retirement. The sacred dust of this good man sleeps in the old Rehobeth church yard.
Another name linked with Daniel Asbury is that of John McGee. Methodist historians in obedience to some common authority were accustomed for a long while to say that he was born on the Yadkin river below Salisbury, but W. L. Grissom, who as a historian spared no pains to get the exact facts and usually succeeded, says that John McGee was born on Sandy creek in what is now Randolph county; that his father was Colonel John McGee, who owned a large tract of land, a mill and a country store. At an early age his father died and his mother married Mr. William Bell who lived on Deep river near the road from Greensboro to Ashboro, and whose home later became a stopping place for Bishop Asbury.
In 17SS John McGee entered the itinerancy. A year afterward he became the associate of Daniel Asbury in forming the Lincoln Circuit. Three years later he was appointed to this circuit, he married a Miss Johnson and located in the Rehobeth neighborhood. Five years after his location he moved to Sumner, now Smith county, Tenn., where his brother, William McGee, a Presbyterian minister, preceded him.
Our particular interest in John McGee arises out of his con- nection with the great revival of the first decade of the 19th century and with the introduction of camp meetings into Tennessee and Ken- tucky. One of the outstanding features of religious history on the North American continent will continue to be that great revival which began with a sermon preached by John McGee in a Presbyterian church, upon a sacramental occasion of which Rev. Mr. McGready was pastor. Soon after the very remarkable meetings in Mr. McGready's church the whole community was aflame with the revival fires. In order to meet the demands of this new situation camp meetings were introduced by John McGee and almost immediately became universally popular and tremendously effective in advancing the cause of religion. not only in those new settlements but in practically all parts of the country.
There is a notion even in educated religious circles that camp meetings originated west of the mountains either in Tennessee or Kentucky. 'inis is an error. The first camp meetings were held in Western North Carolina. That, too, six or seven years before the beginning of the "great revival," or the introduction of camp meet- ings beyond the mountains.
Seven cities contested for the honor of being the birth place of Homer. More than seven communities in North Carolina claim the
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first camp meeting in 1801 and 1802 and not one of them will ever be able to establish an unquestioned priority. Even if it could, or if some point beyond the mountains should be able to show that all of these were of a later date than those in the west, what would it matter? For the one first camp meeting was at Rehobeth church in Lincoln county as early as 1794, six years before the "great revival" began. This meeting was conducted by Daniel Asbury, William Mc- Kendree (afterward bishop), Nicholas Watters, William Fulford and James Hall, a celebrated pioneer among the Presbyterians in Iredell county. Three hundred souls were converted in this meeting.
The following year another camp meeting was held at Bethel, about a mile from Rock Springs, and the forerunner of this widely known camp ground. A little while after, Daniel Asbury and James Hall appointed another known as "The Great Union Meeting" at. Bell's Cross roads, three miles north of the present town of Moores- ville on the Statesville road.
When it comes to the question of the original camp meetings, these in Lincoln and Iredell are perhaps the first in all the world except the Feast of Tabernacles among the ancient Hebrews.
In these early camp meetings in North Carolina John McGee got the idea of camp meetings and the spiritual inspiration which he carried to the west and employed for the glory of God and to the forwarding of the kingdom. For this reason, if there were no other, he occupies an important place in our early history, being one of our sons who after a period of invaluable preparation at home, went out to render so large a service to the world.
In conclusion, I desire to mention one striking characteristic of the early itinerant; that is, his intensity without extravagance. His was a Holy Ghost ministry. With great zeal he addressed himself to the realm of the spirit, yet he kept himself free from the folly of religious fanaticism. Many of the people to whom he ministered were illiterate, but he never at any time led them into such fanatical extravagance as in some places became characteristic of those primitive people.
For example, some believed that "Every impression made upon their minds proceeded from the Lord, and they endeavored to obey it no matter what might be its character. One man said that he bad an impression from the Lord that he must sow his corn broadcast. and cultivate it with a wooden plough and a wooden hoe." He acted accordingly but made an exceedingly small crop. "Sometimes they would become exercised about getting married, and one would tell another he or she had a particular revelation that they must be married and if the one thus addressed did not consent, he or she must be damned. Some old maids who had almost quit struggling managed in this way to get husbands."
Such were the ways of religious fanatics, not a few, but let it be said to the eternal praise of Francis Asbury and his apostolic co- laborers that they ministered not to fanaticism, but wrought mightly for the spread of Scriptural holiness over the land.
Methodism and its Founders in Anson County
REV. ALVA W. PLYLER*
N the early summer of 1785 Beverly Allen, a brilliant young Methodist preacher of unbounded popularity, visited friends in Anson, held meetings and organized Methodist societies. This was the beginning of Metho- dism in Anson county and in the valley of the Pedee. At the first annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in America, which began April 20, 1785, in the home of Green Hill one mile south of Louisburg, N. C., Beverly Allen was ordained elder by Bishop Asbury and appointed to the state of Georgia. His new circuit was not for some reason acceptable to the young itinerant and he failed to go to his appointment. In June following the conference in April, Allen is at Charleston, South Carolina, instead of on his Georgia circuit. In a letter to Mr. Wesley he gives the following account of himself:
"It was now (June, 1785) too late in the summer to proceed to Georgia; I, therefore, paid my friends and spiritual children a visit at Anson, in North Carolina and formed what is now called the Great Peedee circuit, where many hundreds flocked to hear the word of the Lord, and many were truly awakened. In autumn, I paid my friends another visit in Anson, where some who had backslidden after my first coming among them were deeply distressed. One night at Colonel Jackson's we had a most affecting season; many were deeply distressed, but in particular two of the Colonel's daughters and a sister of Mrs. Spencer, whose husband was a judge of the Superior Court. These after we had retired to bed continued with such cries and groans that we could not rest, and after awhile we arose and continued in prayer and exhortation till near two o'clock, when God heard our petition and sent the Comforter. In the course of this tour we had crowded assemblies to hear and many were deeply wrought upon. In September I returned with my dear com- panion in travels and sufferings, John Mason, to Cainhoy, where we found the work going on in the hearts of our friends. We spent some- time with them and in Charleston and then took our journey to the North. We visited our friends again on Pedee and the Yadkin where God gave us some gracious seasons. At the conference of 1786, held at Salisbury, I was appointed to take charge of Pedee and Santee circuits, in the former of which we had a blessed ingathering of souls, and in the latter God set a few seals to my feeble labors. I spent some time also in North Carolina, where we had very happy meetings, some falling to the earth, and others crying to God to have mercy on their souls."
Beverly Allen, who laid the foundations of Methodism along the Pee Dee in 1785, in the valley of the Cape Fear in 1784, and in 1783 organized the church
Methodist in Salisbury, North Carolina. preached through the later years of this eventful and fruitful decade of Methodist history in South Carolina and Georgia to the multi- tudes that flocked to his ministry.
* Address at the Charlotte District Conference, Wadesboro. N. C., July 18. 1917.
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His early career was meteoric, indeed, but he became a little" later a painfully tragic figure. He was energetic, ambitious, a man of ideals and amazingly popular, yet, unfortunately, without poise or patience, self-centered, and overflowing with egotism. The career of such a man could not be otherwise than tragic.
Peter Cartwright, a pioneer Methodist preacher of Kentucky and Illinois, as quoted by Dr. A. M. Shipp in his Methodism in South Carolina, says of Beverly Allen:
"Dr. Allen, with whom I boarded, had in an early day been a travelling Methodist preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was sent South to Georgia as a very gentlemanly and popular preacher, and did much good. He married in that country a fine, pious woman, a member of the church; but he like David in an evil hour fell into sin, violated the laws of the country, and a writ was issued for his apprehension. He warned the sheriff not to enter his room and assured him if he did he would kill him. The sheriff rushed upon him, and Allen shot him dead. He fled the country to escape justice, and settled in Logan County, Kentucky-then called 'Rogues' Harbor.' His family followed him, and he practiced medicine. To ease his troubled conscience, he drank in the doctrines of Univer- salism; but he lived and died a great friend to the Methodist church."*
At the conference of 1786, which began in Salisbury, N. C., February 21, and continued three days, the customary time of those early conferences, the Pee Dee circuit to embrace the river valley from a few miles below Salisbury to Georgetown, South Carolina, was formed and Beverly Allen, an elder, Jeremiah Masten and Hope Hull were appointed to this new circuit.
The Pee Dee circuit was not a new one in the midst of others already established, but on the contrary, much of the adjoining terri- tory was at that time unoccupied by the Methodists. Only two years before the Salisbury circuit, in the Lower Yadkin valley, appeared in the conference minutes for the first time, and not until the next year, 1787, was the Bladen circuit formed to cover the broad section from the borders of the Pee Dee circuit to and including the valley of the Cape Fear. The same year that Jeremiah Masten and Hope Hull were planting new churches along the Pee Dee. the Santee circuit that reached from Charleston, South Carolina, to within ten miles of Charlotte, North Carolina, began its existence. Not till three years later did the pioneer preacher permanently establish Methodism in North Carolina west of the Catawba river.
The Pee Dee circuit, therefore, dates from the beginning of that period when the newly organized Methodist Episcopal church in America began to cover every part of the country, no matter how sparsely settled, with a network of circuits, and sent the itinerant to each nook and corner of the broad land. While the foundations of the new American nation were being placed by heroic pioneers the Methodist circuit rider was constantly on hand and became one of the master-builders of the nation and of the kingdom of God.
* Allen had been deposed from the Methodist ministry two years before he shot the officer who attempted to arrest him.
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Jeremiah Masten, when on the Pee Dee circuit, was in the second year of his ministry, having served one year on the Williams- burg circuit, Virginia. After one year on the Pee Dee, he gave three to Holston and located in 1790. His successful labors along the Pee Dee were long held in grateful remembrance and his name was incorporated into many households.
Hope Hull, a native of Maryland, was also in the second year of his itinerant career, which was one of great distinction. His first work was on the Salisbury circuit, then the Pee Dee one year, after which he went to Georgia where he spent the remainder of his useful life except the year 1792, when he served the Hartford circuit in Connecticut, Bishop Asbury having taken him to assist Jesse Lee with the work in New England. Mr. Hull located in 1795, and built an academy in Wilkes county, Georgia. In 1802 he moved to Athens, Georgia, became one of the founders of the University and was at one time its president. He died October 4, 1818.
Of Hope Hull Bishop Coke wrote in his Journal:
"Mr. Hull is young but is indeed a flame of fire. He appears always on the streach for the salvation of souls Our only fear con- cerning him is that the sword is too keen for the scabbard-that he may lay himself out far beyond his strength. Two years ago he was sent to a circuit in South Carolina which we were almost ready to despair of; but he with a young colleague (Mastin) of like spirit with himself, raised that circuit to a degree of importance equal to that of almost any in the Southern States."
Lorenza Dow, that unique genius who was to the first years of the ninteenth century what Billy Sunday is to the present day, describes the impression Hope Hull made upon him in Connecticut when as a boy he heard him preach for the first time.
"There was much talk," says Lorenza Dow, "about the people called Methodists who were lately come into Western New England." There were various reports and opinions concerning them. Some said they were the deceivers that were to come in the last times: that such a delusive spirit attended them. That it was dangerous to hear theni preach, lest they should lead people out of the good old way which they had been brought up in, and that they should if possible deceive the very elect. Some on the other hand said they were a good sort of folks.
"A certain man invited Hope Hull to come to his town, wh) appointed a time when he would endeavor, if possible, to comply with his request. The day arrived, and the people flocked out from every quarter to hear as they supposed, a new gospel. I went to the door and looked in to see a Methodist; but to my surprise he appeared like other men. I heard him preach from 'This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners.' And I thought he told me all that ever I did.
"The next day he preached from the words, 'Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered.'"
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Dow says that toward the close of the sermon Hull pointed his finger toward him and said, "Sinner, there is a frowning Providence above your head and a burning hell beneath your feet, and nothing but the brittle thread of life keeps you from falling into endless perdition. But, says the sinner, what must I do? You must pray. But I can't pray. If you don't pray then you will be damned." And as he brought out the last expression, he either stamped with his foot on the box on which he stood or smote with his hand upon the Bible, which both came home like a dagger to my heart. I had liked to have fallen backward from my seat, but saved myself by catching hold of my cousin who sat by my side, and I durst not stir for some time lest 1 should tumble into hell."
Dr. Lovick Pierce, in a careful estimate of Hope Hull as a preacher, says among other things:
"Mr. Hull was a fine specimen of what may be regarded an old fashioned American Methodist preacher. His oratory was natural, his action being the unaffected expression of his inmost mind. Not only was there an entire freedom from every thing like mannerism, but there was a great harmony between his gesticulation and the expression of his countenance. He seemed in some of his finest moods to look his words into his audience."
Ruben Ellis, elder, Henry Bingham, Lemuel Andrews and Henry Ledbetter were the preachers on the Pee Dee circuit in 1787.
Ruben Ellis, a native of North Carolina, had been in the traveling connection ten years and continued an itinerant preacher till his death in 1796, while stationed in Baltimore. As a Methodist circuit rider, he gave nineteen years of faithful and devoted service. Of this man of God Bishop Asbury, not given to fulsome eulogy, said: "It is a doubt whether there be one left in all the connection higher, if equal, in standing piety and usefulness."
Mr. Bingham was born in Virginia, entered the work as a circuit rider in 1785 and died in 1789. Mr. Andrews, after four years of ser- vice as an itinerant, died in 1790. Both these young circuit riders proved themselves faithful and zealous ministers during their quau- rennium of service.
Henry Ledbetter gave seven years to the itinerant ministry and the remainder of a long and consecrated life to service in the local ranks. His first work was in Anson, as was his last year's labar as a circuit rider. When he ceased to travel, Montgomery county for a number of years became his home. Later he moved to Anson where he died and his sacred dust rests in the Wadesboro cemetery. Upon the marble slab that covers his well kept grave are inscribed the following dates: Born January 1769; converted and joined the church at 13; began to preach at 19; died April, 1852.
Many of the most prominent people of Anson county of the present day are direct discendants of Henry Ledbetter.
From the foregoing facts about these first itinerants who were sent to Anson as the vanguard of a host that were to follow through the coming years, it is clear that these men were excellent types of the early Methodist circuit rider. Some of them died early, others after a
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few years married and located, a few rose to eminence, and all were young, or comparatively young men.
The first Methodist preachers in Anson, as elsewhere, began by preaching in the homes of the people, or under the trees in favorable weather. For years private houses and brush arbors were used in many instances as preaching places, but at a very early date the people called Methodists began to build for themselves churches, generally of logs, and with no lack of ventilation. For the pioneer invariably practices Puritan simplicity whether it is a part of his religious creed or not.
These churches at first were built upon lands donated for the purpose without the formality of titles, as a rule, and if title papers were made none of them have gone to record and been preserved.
This is true of the most historic place, from the Methodist view- point, in all Anson county; namely, the preaching place and meeting house .. nown as Jackson's. Bishops Coke and Asbury were there April 6, 1787; Asbury visited Jackson's again April 1, 1789; he was there again on Cliristmas day 1794, and also February 20, 1800. Bishop Asbury and Bishop Whatcoat visited Jackson's meeting house February 16, 1801, when Whatcoat preached.
Yet prominent as the place was, no record can be found, after diligent search, to show a single trace of its location. Traditional knowledge of all sorts that reaches back as much as a hundred years is so exceedingly meagre in this section of country that one would hardly expect to find any information from that source and in this his expectations are fully realized. To find even the section of the county in which this early meeting house was located becomes more .... ficult in that Bishop Asbury, upon whom we rely for what infor- mation is available, fails to mention Jackson's given name, and at that time a number of Jacksons resided in Anson.
But beginning with a clue offered by Beverly Allen when he said that a sister of Samuel Spencer's wife was at Col. Jackson's the night of the memorable meeting, mentioned in a quotation from Allen in the early paragraphs of this paper, I found after a long and tedious search in the Clerk's and the Register's offices in the court house at Wadesboro and by reference to the Colonial Records the following facts:
That a daughter of Judge Samuel Spencer of Anson became the second wife of Isaac Jackson, who had figured as a leader of the Regulators during Governor Tryon's administration, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, became a large land owner of Anson county and was otherwise prominent in his community, and in all respects fills the measure of the Jackson who occupies a conspicuous place in Asbury's Journal, and he is the only Jackson who does. Unquestionably, Isaac Jackson who lived east of Lilesville near the Pee Dee river was the frequent host of Bishop Asbury and built a church. presumably, in the neighborhood in which he lived. But no trace of its exact location can anywhere be found.
The oldest recorded deed to church property of any denomina-
.
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tion in Anson county is the deed made by Thomas Tarlton to trustees in 1791. This church is known as Long Pine, and the present church stands a little more than half a mile east of the original site. The next oldest recorded deed is that of a Baptist church on Smith's Creek. That deed was made four years later, in 1796.
The Long Pine deed contains some rather interesting features. For instance the following:
"The trustees shall permit the preachers known by the name of Methodist and appointed and approved by the Yearly Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church and no other persons to have and enjoy the free use of the premises; that they may preach and expound God's Holy Word and upon further trust and confidence and to the intent that said persons preach no other doctrine than is contained in the Reverend John Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and four volumes of sermons."
On July 4, 1804, Francis Clark and wife gave one acre of land upon which was to be erected a church by the name of Tabernacle. This early church was located somewhere on the lower waters of Jones creek.
Melton's meeting house with two acres of land was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, July 2, 1810, to be used by the Methodists alone, according to instructions given the trustees. Melton's Church, which went down many years ago, was near White Store.
White's church with one acre of land was conveyed to the Methodist Church for the exclusive use of the Methodists on August 14, 1810. This church, no longer in existence, was located in Lanes- boro township, ten or twelve miles from Wadesboro.
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