USA > North Carolina > Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers > Part 42
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" PRÆFECTUS ET CURATORES COLLEGII MONTIS SIONIS, Omnibus et singulis ad quos hæc literæ pervenerint.
Salutem in Domini.
Notum sit quod nobis placet Auctoritate publico Diplomate nobis commissa, Humfredum Hunter, candidatum primum in Artibus Graduum competentem examine sufficiente previo approba- tum Titulo graduque Artium liberalium Baccalaurei adornare. In cujus Rei Testimonium Literis Sigillo Collegii munitis nomina subscripsimus.
" THOMAS H. McCAULE, Prof .- l. " JOHN WINN, " JAMES CRAIG, S Trustees."
" Datum in Aula Collegii, apud Winnsburgium, in Carolina Me- ridionali, quarto Nonas Julii, Anno Arce Christi millesimo septua- gentesimo et octogesimo septimo."
Having pursued the study of theology about two years, under the Presbytery of South Carolina, he received license to preach the gospel, in the following words, viz. :
" Bullock's Creek, Oct. 15th, 1789.
" The Presbytery having examined Mr. Humphrey Hunter on
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the Latin and Greek languages, the sciences and divinity, and being well satisfied with his moral and religious character, and his knowledge of the languages, sciences, and divinity, do license him to preach the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ,-and affection- ately recommend him to our vacancies.
" JAMES EDMUNDS, Mod'r. "ROBERT HALL, Presbyt. Clerk."
A call, in the usual form of the Confession of Faith, was made out for Mr. Hunter, from the congregations of Hopewell, on Jef- frey's Creek, and Aimwell, on Pee Dee, in South Carolina, and signed the 1st day of October, 1791, by the following names :- Thomas Wickham, Gavin Witherspoon, John Ervin, L. Derkins, Hugh Ervin, Thos. Cann, Jerem. Gurley, Aaron Gasque, Wm. Stone, John Gregg, Joseph Burch, Hance Davis, Joseph Jelly, Hugh Muldrow, Jas. Greer, John Carson, W. Flagler, Wm. Gregg, James Thompson, James Hudson, Joseph Gregg, Thos. Hudson, John Cooper, David Bigem, John Orr, James Orr, J. Baxter, Wm. Wilson, Henry Futhey, G. Bigham, Alexr. Pettigrew, Wm. Mul- drow, J. Muldrow, jr., James Cole, John McRee, John Wither- spoon, Thomas Canady, Robert Gregg.
Probably not a man that signed the call now lives ; but the pre- ceding list may direct some of their descendants to a parent's name, at the same time it shows to us the manner of signing a call some fifty years ago. The salary promised was £120 sterling per annum, about $533,334 cts.
Mr. Hunter's name first appears upon the records of Synod as a member in 1793.
In the year 1795, Mr. Hunter removed to Lincoln County, and became a member of Orange Presbytery on the first day of its first meeting, at Bethphage, Dec. 24th. The same year, by act of Synod, the Presbytery of Concord was set off, consisting of twelve members, of which he was to be one. Upon a call, made out in the usual form, for half his time, by the inhabitants of Goshen congregation, promising him sixty-two pounds ten shil- lings current money of North Carolina, or fifty pounds in gold or silver dollars at eight shillings, and gold in proportion, the follow- ing names appear, viz. : Robert Johnson, Robert Johnson, Jr., Andrew Johnson, Joseph Dickson, Wm. Rankin, Henry Davies, John McCaul, Robert Alexander, James Martin, James Rutledge, James Gullick, Benjamin Smith, James Dickson, William Moore, Jonathan Graves, David Baxter, John Moore, Samuel Caldwell, Robert Curry. This call he accepted, March 30th, 1796.
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It would be interesting to the present inhabitants of Unity con- gregation, which was united with Goshen in the labors of a pastor and in his support, their call having been presented and accepted March 30th, 1796, could the signers of the call from that congre- gation be given ; it, however, was not found among the papers of Mr. Hunter. These two congregations embraced the region of country lying along the west side of the Catawba, from some dis- tance above Beattie's Ford, to the South Carolina line, and from the river to the large congregation of Olney, at that time flourishing and extending over a large section of the country southwest of the Court-House.
Goshen was a place of occasional preaching at a very early period of the settlement of the region west of the Catawba. Its location was decided by a singular circumstance. A stranger pass- ing through the country, probably in search of a proper place for emigration, took sick, and after a length of time, died. During his sickness and the previous short sojourn among the people along the west bank of the Catawba, his pleasing manners gained him the sympathies of the whole settlement. He was buried on the brow of a gentle declivity. One family after another chose to bury their dead on the declivity by the stranger ; and that spot be- came the place of interment for the whole neighborhood. In choos- ing the place for their tent for public worship, and afterwards for the church, their reverence for the dead led the inhabitants to the same spot. The first church stood a few rods from the present, at one corner of the burying-ground.
Before the erection of Goshen and Unity as churches and con- gregations, the nearest places of worship were Steele Creek, Centre, Hopewell, Charlotte, and Olney. To these places the most con- tiguous neighborhoods resorted, till the increasing numbers, as well as the distance, rendered the organization of the two congregations necessary. Owing to the small number of clergymen and the habits incident to a frontier settlement, the bounds of the congrega- tions were large, and the border families rode far for the ordinances of the Gospel. In this unavoidable arrangement, there were, in the early settlement of the country, many advantages that went far to counterbalance all the difficulties that arose from the distance to the house of God.
For many years before his death, Mr. Hunter became pastor of Steele Creek church, having received their call in 1805, and devoted to the people of that charge part of his unremitting labors ; the re- mainder he gave to New Hope, having been released from Goshen
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in 1804. At his death the people of Steele Creek had the privilege of giving him a place of sepulture, and of erecting a marble head- stone to his grave.
His own taste, and the necessities of his neighbors and parish- ioners led him, in the almost total want of good physicians, to pay some attention to medicine, and to prescribe in cases of necessity. His success became burdensome, and threatened, for a time, to interfere with his ministerial duties and his proper atten- tion to his own family concerns. This laborious attention to the physical maladies of his people was never a source of pecuniary profit ; it was the exercise of his benevolence.
As a minister he was always distinguished for his evangelical sentiments and orthodoxy according to the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church. In his preaching he was earnest, un- assuming, and often eloquent. Possessing a strong mind with powers of originality, and trained by the discipline of a classical education under men capable of producing scholars, he consecrat- ed all his talents and acquirements to preaching the everlasting gospel, counting all things but loss for the excellency of the know- ledge of Christ Jesus. In his advanced years his infirmities very much contracted his active labors, without impairing the vigor and discrimination of his mental powers, or the fervency and faithful- ness of his preaching.
He possessed in a high degree a talent for refined sarcasm ; and his answer to triflers with his office or the great truths of religion, and sticklers for unimportant things, was a shaft from this quiver that pierced to the marrow. His benevolence as a minister, and his tenderness as a neighbor, forbade its use in his social intercourse. Honest objections, and difficulties arising from want of knowledge or proper reflection, he would meet kindly with truth and argu- ment ; sophistry and cavils he considered as deserving nothing but the lash which he knew how to apply till it stung like a scorpion.
His habits of preparation for the pulpit, like those of the labori- ous men of his own generation and the days preceding, were reading, prayerful meditation, and short notes. As he wrote no sermons in full, he of course never read his discourses from the pulpit. A close observer of men and things, a close reasoner, he was classic in his style and systematic in his preaching. His con- gregations were well instructed in divine truth according to the orthodoxy of the Confession of Faith; and were sufficiently tried to test their knowledge and their faith during the excitements and discussions that accompanied the great revival.
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REV. HUMPHREY HUNTER.
He met death in a manner becoming a Christian minister, re- signed and unshaken, and expired on the 21st of August, 1827, in the 74th year of his age. The writer of a short memoir that ap- peared the year succeeding, the only one of Mr. Hunter that ever was given to the public, concludes thus,-" The stars of the Re- volutionary contest are rapidly setting. They shine with addi- tional lustre as they go down from our view. They leave behind them a generation blessed with the light of their example, and permitted to gather the fruit of their toils. Another mighty revo- lution must take place before such a cluster of worthies will live and labor together. When, therefore, they pass from the stage of action, let not their posterity cease to venerate their names and re- cord their virtues."
Mr. Hunter was above the ordinary stature, of a robust frame, and dark complexion. His eye indicated great intrepidity of cha- racter, and at times sternness, and sometimes the withering sar- casm that he knew how to wield with so much power. Of great simplicity of manners, his strong feelings and great candor made him above all affectation ; sincere in his friendship, ingenuous in his dealings with men ; while the evil feared him, good men loved him,-and as they knew him better they only loved him the more.
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CHAPTER XXIX.
CENTRE CONGREGATION.
GENERAL DAVIDSON fell on the eastern bank of the Catawba, on the western borders of Centre Congregation, resisting the passage of the British forces under Lord Cornwallis. After the celebrated victory of the Cowpens, Morgan hastened with his numerous prisoners towards Virginia, taking his route through Lincoln county, North Carolina, in the direction of Beattie's Ford, that he might place the army of Greene between him and the British army. Cornwallis moved up the western side of the river to intercept him and recover the prisoners ; Greene moved up the eastern side to meet and succor his friend.
Here commenced the trial of generalship and skill between the two commanders, which was decided at the battle of Guilford, in the following March. The three bodies having about the same distance to march, to reach the ford, everything depended on the speed of Morgan's forces, encumbered as they were with their numerous rest- less captives. Greene left his army, and with a small guard rode across the country, and by his presence cheered the soldiers of Morgan to still greater speed; they gained the ford first. The morning after the crossing, Cornwallis was on the southern bank, hot in pursuit, but disappointed of his prey. The river, during the succeeding night, became swollen from the abundant rains ; and the two days of delay to the British army, gave Morgan that advance towards Virginia, that his Lordship turned his whole attention to Greene, from whom he could not, with honor, retreat,-or cease to pursue.
Leaving General Davidson with the North Carolina force, to delay the crossing of the enemy as long as possible, Greene hastened on, in the rear of Morgan, to throw the Yadkin between him and his advancing foe. Graham's rifle company was stationed at Cowan's Ferry, a few miles below Beattie's Ford, where, after some manœuvres, the passage was at length attempted, and kept up a galling fire on the British line, as it waded the Catawba. Many officers and privates went down the stream or disappeared beneath the waters, pierced by their deadly balls. General Davidson, attracted by the firing, rode to the bank for observation, accompanied
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by Colonel Polk, of Charlotte, and the Rev. Thomas H. McCaule, the pastor of the congregation that now lay in the track of the hos- tile armies. In a few moments he fell from his horse, dead, by a rifle shot. As the British infantry used muskets only, it was supposed that a tory, who had acted as guide to the enemy, and knew David- son, gave the fatal shot from the opposite bank. No one ever . claimed the honor of the death of the most popular man in the re- gion ; and his rank did not protect his body from being plundered to nakedness. The militia and volunteers now gave way, and has- tened after Greene, who was in Salisbury refreshing himself, with Mrs. Steele, in preparation for crossing the Yadkin.
General William Davidson was born in Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, 1746, the youngest son of George Davidson. The family removed to Carolina in 1750. Young Davidson was educated at Queen's Museum. He was major of one of the first regiments raised in Carolina during the war. The monument voted by Congress has never been erected. His body, buried without a coffin, lies like that of his friends, Dr. Brevard and Hezekiah Alexander, without a stone to mark the place.
The boundaries of Centre congregation were originally large, and, with the limits of Thyatira, filled a broad space from the Ca- tawba to the Yadkin : they began at John Cathey's, south of Beattie's Ford, on the Catawba; from thence to Matthew M'Corkle's and Thomas Harris's ; from thence to David Kerr's, on the old Salisbury Road; from thence to Galbraith Nails, northeast corner; from thence to John Oliphant's ; from thence down the river to the first- named place.
The first Presbytery that met between the two rivers held its sessions in Centre ; the first meeting of Concord Presbytery was in Centre ; and there too the " Synod of the Carolinas" was organized. The tradition is, that the first white child born between the two rivers was in Centre, in a tent pitched upon a broad flat rock; the name of the child is not certain, supposed however to be Mary Bar- net, granddaughter of Thomas Spratt, that settled finally near Char- lotte, and held the first court of Mecklenburg county at his house.
The location of Centre Meeting-house was a matter of compro- mise in 1765. The various missionaries that had been sent to preach in the southern vacancies, had previously held meetings for public worship at Osborne's meeting-house, and various private houses in the different neighborhoods. By the persuasions of the delegates sent by the Synod of Philadelphia, the various preaching- places were given up, and a centre spot chosen for the permanent
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worship of the large congregation which lies partly in each of the two counties, Iredell and Mecklenburg. The names of many fami- lies embraced in this congregation were notorious in the Revolution, particularly those of Brevard, Osborne, and Davidson.
The inhabitants were of the same race as those of Sugar Creek and Hopewell ; of equal spirit in public matters, and as decided in religion ; and were building their cabins at the same time with the congregation of Thyatira.
During the Revolutionary war, the Rev. Thomas Harris McCaule was pastor of this large congregation, having been ordained in 1776, when the congregation covered about ten miles square. Little is known of his early life. Scarce of the medium height, of a stout frame, and full body, of dark, piercing eyes, a pleasant coun- tenance, and winning manners, with a fine voice, he was popular both as a preacher and as a man. Public-spirited, he encouraged the Revolution ; and in the time of the invasion, went with his flock to the camp, and was beside General William Davidson when he fell. Of so much repute was he, as a public-spirited man, that he was once run for the Governor's chair, and failed in the election by a very small vote. His classical attainments were such, that after the peace, when Mount Zion College was established at Winnsborough in South Carolina, he was made its principal Pro- fessor. Many eminent ministers were trained under his instruction.
Who was Mr. McCaule's predecessor is not now known, and his successor is equally undetermined. Dr. McRee, in his manuscripts, tells us that there was a flourishing classical school in the bounds of Centre at a very early period, and after continuing about twenty years was broken up by the invasion. In this school he was him- self educated; also, Professor Houston of Princeton College, Rev. Josiah Lewis, Colonel Adlai Osborne, Dr. Ephraim Brevard and others. But he does not tell us whether Mr. McCaule was con- nected with the school. A part of the time it was carried on by a Mr. McEwin.
Dr. James McRee, who ministered for about thirty years to this congregation, was born May 10th, 1752, about a mile from the present place of worship, on the place now owned by Rufus Reed, Esq. His parents were from the County Down, Ireland, and emi- grated soon after their marriage. " They belonged," he says, " to the Presbyterian denomination, talked often about the reformation from Popery, the bloody Queen Mary, the battle of the Boyne, the death of Duke Schomberg, the gunpowder plot, and the accession of William, Prince of Orange, to the British throne."
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From his description of his father's library, we can have some idea of the man, and probably of the times and neighborhood, as it is not spoken of as extraordinary, except in its size. It consisted of the Holy Bible, the Confession of Faith, Vincent's Catechism, Boston's Fourfold State of Man, Allein's Alarm to Sinners, Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, and his Saint's Rest. As a specimen of the religious reading of Centre congregation, it is commendable, considering the difficulty of procuring books, and the fact that few possessed more. The religious sentiments formed from these vol- umes were not likely to be erroneous or inefficient. He further adds that it was the custom every Sabbath day, to ask the questions of the Shorter Catechism to each member of the family in rotation ; and the young people that could not repeat them, were not con- sidered as holding a respectable rank in society.
At the age of twenty-one, he entered the junior class in Prince- ton College, in the year 1773, having received his common and his academic education while residing in Carolina. After receiving his degree of A.B., he spent a year as private tutor in the family of Colonel Burwell Bassett, in New Kent county, Virginia. The winter of 1776 and 1777 he passed reading theology, under the direction of " his highly esteemed former teacher and friend, the Rev. Joseph Alexander, of Bullock's Creek, in South Carolina." In April, 1778, he was licensed by Concord Presbytery to preach the gospel ; and in the November following he was settled in his own house in Steele Creek congregation, as pastor of the church, having been united in marriage to Rachel Cruser of Mapleston, New Jer- sey. He continued with this congregation about twenty years.
During the time of his being pastor of this congregation the sub -. ject of psalmody was extensively discussed, particularly in relation to the introduction of Watts's Psalms and Hymns. Mr. M'Ree de- livered a course of sermons on the whole subject of Psalmody as part of Christian worship, and condensed the substance of his dis- courses into an essay of great clearness and force, which has not been surpassed for strength of argument or clearness of expression. Should an essay on that subject be demanded by the times, Mr. M'Ree might, though dead, still speak to posterity.
The scenes of his early ministry were too deeply impressed upon his mind to be erased by an absence of forty years. In a letter to W. L. Davidson, dated Swannanoe, January 26th, 1838, he says,- " If my desires were fully gratified, I should yet see, with my feeble vision, the meeting-houses of Steele Creek and Centre, the grave- yards in which my relations, friends, acquaintance, contemporaries,
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lie. And not only these, but all the surrounding congregations, which were generally vacant when I settled in Steele Creek, and which I often visited as supply. Often have I ridden in the morn- ing to Bethel, Providence, Sugar Creek and Hopewell, and returned home in the evening of that day. These scenes, these doings, now while I am writing, are as fresh on my mind as the events of yes- terday."
After giving up Steele Creek, various vacancies were presented to him for consideration ; Pine-street Church, Philadelphia, Princeton, New Jersey, and Augusta, Georgia, and his native congregation Centre. " The shortness of life, the uncertainty of all things here, extensive acquaintance, relations, numerous friends, a pleasant, health- ful country, native soil, all combined and said, stay where you are." He was settled in Centre in 1798, and continued pastor of the church about thirty years.
On account of infirmities of age he gave up his pastoral charge, and removed into the mountains and resided with his children. In the year 1839, he said his children, grandchildren, and great-grand- children, amounted to eighty. He said he preached more than one thousand times in Steele Creek church ; and at that time not one was living that used to meet him there as members of his church; that he laid in Steele Creek grave-yard his father and mother, five bro- thers and two sisters ; that he preached in Centre about two thou- sand times ; and that on leaving his congregations he was unable to preach a farewell on account of his own feelings.
In writing to W. L. Davidson, of Centre, from Swannanoe, he says, " We often think of you. The faithful friend, who has lived with me almost sixty-one years, often says ' Betsey Lee Davidson.' Mr. Addison put it into the mouth of Cardinal Wolsey to say, ' the king shall have my service, but my prayers for ever and for ever shall be yours.' Here, among the mountains, I may terminate the few last days that may remain of a long life ; but my warmest affections and best wishes will never be withdrawn from the place of my na- tivity. The present inhabitants, as to me, are nearly all new comers ; I wish them well; and sincerely wish that they may do better in their day than their fathers have done, who have gone before them, and purchased for them, at the high price of their blood, a rich in- heritance.
" May the decline of your lives, which has already made its ap- · pearance, be attended with many and rich mercies ! May your last days be your best days ; and may your final departure, like the set- ting sun, be serene and full of glory !"
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CENTRE CONGREGATION.
Of middling stature, handsomely proportioned, agreeable in man- ners, winning in conversation, neat in his dress, dignified in the pulpit, fluent in his delivery, he was a popular preacher, and re- tained his influence long after he ceased to be active in the vine- yard. Always a friend of education ; in the latter part of his life he became increasingly anxious for the prosperity of academies, colleges, and theological seminaries, to meet the wants of the rising generation ; deeply convinced that the welfare of his beloved coun- try depends upon intelligence, morality and religion. He closed his career March 28th, 1840.
Bethel and Prospect are both within the old bounds of Centre. Davidson College, that took its name from General William David- son, has its location also in Centre, which still continues a large congregation, and for many years has been but a short time unsup- plied by a regular minister. Davidson College will be noticed in another place. Mr. Espy, that ministered here for a time, lies buried in Salisbury, and is noticed under the head of Thyatira. The grave- yard of Centre has monuments for the following names of families settled in its bounds before the Revolution :- Davidson, Rees, Hughes, Ramsey, Brevard, Osborne, Winslow, Kerr, Rankin, Tem- pleton, Dickey, Braley, Moore and Emerson.
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CHAPTER XXX.
POPLAR TENT AND ITS PASTORS.
IT has ever been an acknowledged rule of propriety, that in po- litical discussions and excitements which relate to persons and affairs rather than principles of constitutional right and natural justice, the ministers of the gospel should keep themselves un- committed, and, in the exercise of unalienable rights as citizens, maintain the character of ministers of the King of kings, who bring the offers of mercy alike to all. There are, however, times when the excitements in society involve the greatest interests and the most valuable and dear privileges ; when truth and justice, liberty and morality, are struggling against power and oppression ; when the spirits that are thirsting for a better state of things, re- quire all the support that can be brought to their aid from the seen and the unseen world, from the succors of things temporal, and the powerful influence of things eternal. Then the ministers of the gospel must mingle in the strife, bringing from the treasury of the Lord the all-sustaining truths of revelation ; drinking deep of the fountains of life to keep their own spirits pure, and putting to the lips of the brave and the weak-hearted, in the fierce strug- gle, the pure water of the living stream. No strength is so abid- ing and resistless, no courage so daring and yet so cool, as that which rests for its help on the unchanged truth and government of the eternal God. Such a time and such a conjuncture was the American Revolution. And many ministers of the gospel went down into the struggle. Some sat in the councils of deliberation and resolve, and others bore the fatigues of the camp, partaking of the trials of their fellow-citizens in their bloody contests. In Carolina, Hall and McCaule encouraged their fellow-citizens, their flocks particularly, as soldiers ; Balch, and Pattillo, and Caldwell, aided in the councils and high resolves of Convention and Provincial Congress, and others endured the miseries of an invaded people, plundered but not subdued.
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