USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1 > Part 18
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Their next point was " the Jersey Settlement," southeast from Natchez. The members of the church of Rev. Samuel Swazey # which the Spaniards had broken up, cheerfully co.
*The organization waseffected by Rev. Joseph Bullen, who had moved to this vicinity in 1803. He remained its pastor till 1822. He died in 1826
+ It contains the graves of Rev. Joseph Bullen, Mrs Hannah Bullen, the Colemans, Callenders, Curtis, Smith, &c.
į He had emigrated from New Jersey, where he had been a Congre- gational minister for thirty or forty years, with his brother Richard and their numerous families, and others. These he organized into a Congregational Church in about 1772. He was the first minister of the gospel in that territory which then belonged to Great Britain. In
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NATCHEZ.
1800-1810.]
operated with them and united with the few Presbyterian families in their vicinity, and here another preaching station was established. Still further south they established another at Pinckneyville, which at that time was in the Spanish terri- tory, of which circumstance they were not aware.
Of the nine preaching stations they thus established, five were subsequently organized into Presbyterian Churches, and were the germ of the first Presbytery in the Southwest, which, in 1816, in the next decade, extending from the Per- dido River westward over what is now the territory of several entire Synods
The missionaries made their headquarters at Natchez, and supplied these nine stations in rotation. Theye were con- stantly employed in the work for which they were sent. When the time for their departure arrived, the citizens of Natchez held a public meeting to bid them farewell. On his return to North Carolina, Dr. James Hall published in a pamphlet form " A Summary View of the Country, from the Settlements on the Cumberland River to the Mississippi Territory," in which he gave his impressions of the peo- ple, of the manner in which the missionaries were received, and a farewell address to them, adopted at a public meeting of the chief citizens of Natchez. This portion we here quote `(pp. 34 to 40) :
" This is a circumstance, perhaps, peculiar to that country, that the most opulent citizens are the people of the best morals, together with the few possessors of religion in the lower class. This remark will apply with particular force to the citizens of the town of Natchez. For more than four months which I resided in the territory, a great part of which I spent in that town, with one exception, I never heard a profane oath from, or saw the appearance of intoxication on, an inhabitant of the place, who was in the habit of a gentle- man ; but this was far from being the case among the lower class of mechanics, carters, &c. My colleagues and myself were received with much cordiality, and treated by all classes of the citizens with the utmost friendship and attention. We
1779 it was transferred to Spain, which power established in it the Roman Catholic faith. Rev. Samuel Swayze died in 1784, and was buried at Natchez, in the old graveyard which was below Fort Rosalie. It was on a high bluff which has since been washed away by the Mis- sissippi, "the Father of Waters."
12
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NATCHEZ.
[1800-1810.
all had repeated and pressing solicitations to return, in order to make a permanent settlement among them ; and the regret appeared to be common between them and us, that our obli- gations to our respective pastoral charges prevented us from giving that encouragement which to them, we were well assured, would have been highly agreeable.
" Such, indeed, were my attachments to that people on account of their peculiar friendship to us, and the influence which our continuing among them promised, that, in parting with friends, I never experienced more tender sensations, or as they may be called, wringings of heart, than I felt in part- ing both with families and societies; especially as it was under this impression, 'That they should see my face no more.' Let the following address serve as a specimen of the disposition of the people toward us.
"It was presented to us on the day of our departure, and was signed by more than thirty of the principal citizens of the town and vicinity of Natchez, among whom were a con- siderable number of the leading civil characters of the territory :
" Messrs. Hall, Bowman and Montgomery .
" REV. GENTLEMEN : The citizens of Natchez, viewing as arrived the moment of your departure, wish to discover a part of what they feel on this affecting occasion.
" While, gentlemen, we desire to return, through you, our sincere thanks to the Presbyterian General Assembly for their great attention to our dearest interests, we cannot refrain from expressing our cordial approbation of your conduct while amongst us.
Although we have not all been educated in the pale of that Church of which you are ministers, yet we all feel interested in the object of your mission, and disposed to maintain the doctrines you have delivered. For we have pleasingly wit- nessed that, so far from portraying those shades of religious opinions not practically discernable, you have exhibited to us a moral picture to all equally. interesting (and ought to be), equally engaging. Omitting points barely speculative, you have insisted on points radical and essential, and evinced by your deportment a desire to produce a combination of in- fluence to support our common Christain faith.
"Such dispositions and exertions we consider as proper
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1800-1810.]
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NATCHEZ.
and necessary to counteract the influence of infidelity, which had almost produced alarming symptoms of moral and social depravity ; and it is with pleasure we add that since your coming among us, we have observed some indications of a beginning change in opinions and habits.
It would, gentlemen, be too great a restraint upon our feelings, not to mention, also, the great pains taken by one of you to instruct us in things merely material,* and we trust we were morally affected by the explanations given to us of those sublime and beautiful laws which govern nature, as well as religiously disposed by your unfolding the far more interesting principles of grace in the moral system of things whose indistructable nature shall survive the general wreck of our present physical existence.
" Influenced by considerations so affecting to our mental feelings, we offer you our thanks for the faithful execution of your well-timed mission among us ; and our minds follow you with sincere wishes for a safe return to your respective residences.
" Receive, gentlemen, the unfeigned expression of our con- current sensations, and permit us to add an earnest solicita- tion for your return to our territory. Should this, however, be impracticable, you will please to exercise your influence in procuring and sending others, whose zeal and abilities may operate to accomplish the incipient reformation your labors have instrumentally effected.
" We are, Reverend Gentlemen, with sentiments of grateful esteem, your much obliged, most obedient servants,
"JOHN STEELE, &c."
This seems much in favor of the propagation of the Gospel in that country, that the most oppulent citizens and influen- tial characters appear to be most forward for its encourage- ment. One of their most wealthy and enlightened citizens expressed himself to me in these or similar words :
" Besides promoting the great object of religion, I think that a learned and respectable ministry would have a happy influence to meliorate the state of civil society among us with respect to morals, and would be the best means for the pro- motion of literature."
* This refers to a course of lectures on Natural Philosophy, held weekly by one of us, in the town of Natchez.
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Respecting the bulk of the citizens, it may be affirmed that, for hospitality to strangers, for politeness of manners, and sumptuous living among the oppulent, they may vie with any part of the Union.
They left the territory in April, 1801, after receiving this extraordinary address, set their faces toward the wilderness, and returned to Carolina over the same long and perilous route by which they had come. They found the territory of Mississippi exceedingly destitute of religious privileges and teachers. "Only one Episcopalian," says Dr. Hall, "one Methodist and two Baptist clergymen, besides a few exhorters, all illiterate except the former, are in the Territory." Dr. Hail gives a conjectural statement as to the population at that time, but the census, which was then being taken exhibits a population exclusive of Indians, of 8,850 of whom 3,489 were slaves. The pamphlet published by Dr. Hall is mostly occu- pied with a description of the country as to its history, settle- ment, revolutions, general appearance, soil and produce, cli- mate, manners, character and customs of the people, trade and commerce, curiosities, hurricanes, Indian tribes, and contri- buted no little to awaken a general interest in it which advanced its settlement. In a religious point of view, hardly any domestic missionary efforts of the present century have been covered with greater success or wakened a deeper inter- est in this department of Christian effort.
Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Hall was at this time pastor of Beth- any and Concord churches in the Presbytery of Concord ; James H. Bowen, pastor of Eno and Little River in the Pres- bytery of Orange; William Montgomery, pastor of Greensboro and Little Britain churches in Georgia. He was born in Shippensberg, Pa., in 1768. In his early youth his father migrated to North Carolina. He was a graduate of Mount Zion College, Winnsboro ; was ordained by the Presbytery of South Carolina in 1795; he married the sister of Gen. Lane, who in 1862 was a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States on the ticket with John C. Breckenridge for the President .* In 1811 he returned to Mississippi with his family
"He was one of the original members of the Presbytery of Hopewell ; in 1797 was pastor of the Churches of Siloam and Little Britain, then of New Hope, from the pastorship of which he was suspended under the censures of Presbytery in May, 1802, and again restored at the petition of the Congregation in November of the same year. He was dismissed from the Presbytery of Hopewe 1, in 1814-1815.
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REV. WILLIAM MONTGOMERY.
1800-1810.]
and there labored faithfully till his death ; was at one time President of Jefferson College at Washington, the capital of the Territory, and afterwards pastor of Ebenezer and Union churches for thirty-seven years. He was an excellent class- ical scholar and kept up the study of the Latin classics to the end of life. His favorite was Horace, whom in old age he familiarly called "his friend Horace," many of whose odes he could repeat from memory. In his youth he had great per- sonal endowments, was a pattern of manly beauty, dignified in his bearing, yet candid, kind and frank, and singularly ani- mated in his delivery. The two churches which have been mentioned were not his only charge but those which he served during the chief part of his ministry in the West. They were in the Scotch colony in Jefferson County, and under his labors grew to be the most influential as well as the largest country churches in the Synod. He was a profound Theologian, a thorough Calvinist and a jure divino Presbyterian. His prompti- tude and punctuality to his engagements were perfect even to a fault, but begat punctuality on the part of his people. Only twice, at the death of his wife and at the death of his son, did he fail to meet his appointments, and then he sent a messenger to mike known the cause. His salary was a small one, amounting from his two churches to some $300. But by the assistance of a friend he became possessed of a valua- ble piece of land. From the one negro servant he brought from Georgia proceeded a numerous family ; he was thus provided with a competence in old age, and left something to his heirs. He rode even in his old age through flood, storm and rain to his appointments. His last hour at length came. He rode to church thirteen miles through the rain and preached in dam > clothes. Pneumonia was the result. Like the soldier oa the mirch or on the eve of an engagement he braved the element, true to the banner of the Cross under which he en- listed. He died in 1848.in great peace and was laid by the side of the wife who preceded him.
"The voice at midnight came, He started np to hear ; A mortal arrow pierced his frame. He fell but felt no fear.
Tranquil amid alarms, It found him on the field, A veteran slumbering on his arms, Beneath his red cross shield.
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MISSIONARIES TO THE NATCHEZ. [1800-1810,
The pains of death are past ; Labour and sorrow cease ; And life's long labour closed at last. His soul is found in peace.
Soldier of Christ, well done ; Praise be thy new employ ; And while eternal ages run, Rest in thy Saviour's joy."
Venerable old man ! A favorite with the young to the end of life ; held in veneration in his own churches, by other de- nominations, and the people at large ; a genial companion, an honest man, a true minister of Christ. His son William, a candidate for the ministry, of great promise, died a member of the Senior Class in Oakland College. Another, Rev. Samuel Montgomery, is pastor (in 1871) of Union and Bar- salem Churches. Mr. Bowman, another of the three Mission- aries settled in Georgia, and afterwards in Tennessee, where he died.
(Abridged chiefly from "Beginnings of Presbyterianism in ' the Southwest, published in the S. W. Presbyterian for 1871.)
The Synod of the Carolinas still nursed this Missionary field. In October, 1801, they re-appointed Rev. Wmn, Mont- gomery, of the Presbytery of Hopewell, and Mr. John Mat- thews, a licentiate of Orange Presbytery, as Missionaries to the Mississippi Territory, from the 15th of November, to act as long as they shall judge convenient. Mr. Montgomery did not go at that time, but Mr. John Matthews performed his tour of service, read his report to the Synod in October, 1802, and received its thanks for his diligence. They also appointed Hugh Shaw a Missionary to the Natchez, and as Mr. Matthews expressed a desire to return, a commission was ordered for him, and the Presbytery of Orange was ordered to ordain him, should he go. The Synod at the same time appointed a commission of Synod to attend regularly to their Missionary operations. In October, 1804, Rev. Daniel Brown and Malcolm McNeil were appointed Missionaries to the Natchez for six months or more, and in October, 1805, Rev. James Smylie, who had been appointed by the commission of Synod and had been ordained by Orange Presbytery, made a favorable report of his mission to the Mississippi Territory, and presented a letter addressed to Synod, asking for further aid. Mr. Smylie was born in North Carolina in about 1780,
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REV. JAMES SMYLIE.
received his classical and theological education under Rev. Dr. Caldwell, at Guilford, was licensed by the Orange Pres- bytery, by whom he was ordained in 1805. He settled at Washington, the Capital of the Territory, and took the charge of the congregation which the Missionaries who preceded him had collected. This he organized in 1807, into a regular church with twenty members and three elders. It received the name Salem. It was afterwards removed to Pine Ridge, four miles distant, and was known as the Pine Ridge Church. He removed in 1811 to Amite County and was actively en- gaged in Missionary labors and organizing churches in Missis- sippi and contiguous parts of Louisiana. He was for many years pastor of Bethany and Friendship Churches and the teacher of a classical school, and many of the leading men of that region are indebted to him for their early education. In 1814 he travelled on horseback through the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations to Tennessee to induce the Presbytery of West Tennessee to petition the Synod of Kentucky for the erection of a Presbytery in the Southwest. In 1815 that Synod erected the first Presbytery of Mississippi, which was organized March 16, 1818, with the Perdido river for its eastern boundary, with a jurisdiction extending indefinitely westward. This. was the commencement of a contested claim of jurisdiction between the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia and the Synod of Kentucky, afterwards expressed in a memorial from the former body to the General Assembly. Probably it was the greater proximity of the Presbytery of West Tennessee to Mr. Smylie's residence which led to this application. In 1836 the Chilicothe Presbytery addressed a violent abolition letter to the Presbytery of Mississippi, which Mr. Smylie answered. It was an enlargement of a sermon on the subject of slavery which he had preached extensively before, and which is said to have been of great use to the members of the Legislature and other public men in their researches on the same topic. In his old age he devoted himself exclusively to the religious instruction of the negroes. He anticipated Dr. Jones in preparing a catechism for them which received the sanction of the Synod of Mississippi. He was a close observer and thinker, had an acute and original mind, was an accurate Greek and Latin scholar, a good theo- logian, and like Mr. Montgomery a jure devino Presbyterian. He was twice married, left one child by each marriage, who
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OTHER MISSIONS.
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still survive him. He died in 1853, aged about 73 years. He kept an accurate diary which may be of historic value and is in the hands of his nephew, Rev. John A. Smylie, of Milford, Texas. (Southwestern Presbyterian, of February 23d, 1871.)
For so much of missionary labor performed during this decade, and followed by such lasting consequences, is the Southwest indebted, under God, to the old mother Synod of the Carolinas and to the churches of this State and her sisters, North Carolina and Georgia. Precious, and blessed in its fruits, is the communion of saints, and pleasant were the bonds which, in those days, bound these affiliated churches together. The noble structure was rising, its living stones cemented together, the mystic body was growing, held in union by that which every joint supplieth. And still shall it grow into nobler and more majestic proportions, unless through our own sins it shall please Him who "holds the stars in his right hand," and " walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks," " to remove our candlestick out of his place."
Nearer at home also were these missionary labours ex- tended. In 1801 Thomas Hall, a licentiate of Concord Pres- bytery, was appointed to itinerate through the Carolinas and Georgia, for the space of eight months. He read his report before Synod and received its thanks for his diligence. In October, 1803, the Commission of Synod reported that they had commissioned eight missionaries within the bounds of Synod, one of whom, Wm. C. Davis, was to visit the Catawba Indians. Reports were heard from these missionaries, and it was " ordered that the Rev. Wm. C. Davis act as a stated missionary to the Catawba Indians until our next stated meet- ing of Synod ; that he superintend the school in that nation, now taught by Mr. Foster, and that he obtain the assistance of Rev. James Wallis as far as may be convenient. Ordered that the several Presbyteries under our care be directed to pay particular attention to the subscription business for the support of the missionaries, especially as we now have a promising prospect of teaching the Catawba Indians to read, and pay some attention to the gospel. In 1804 Murdock Murphy, a licentiate of Orange Presbytery, was appointed for the lower part of South Carolina. We have seen, p. 119, that he was settled as pastor of Black River Church (Win-
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OTHER MISSIONS.
1800-1810.]
yaw) in the following year. He was afterwards pastor of the Midway Church, Liberty County, Georgia, and thence emi- grated to Florida. From the minutes of the commission and the reports of the missionaries to the Synod of the Carolinas in 1805, it appeared that the school among the Catawbas had been conducted at considerable expense ; the proverb about "the new broom" had been fulfilled; at first the Indians were much interested in the instructions and exhortations of the teacher, but after a while grew weary ; and that there had been but little preaching among them. The prospect was not flattering. The commission was reappointed, but in 1806 reported that they had done nothing. The synod itself ap- pointed three missionaries, Dr. James Hall, Wm. H. Barr, a licentiate of Orange, and Mr. Thos. J. Hall, to itinerate within their own bounds.
Dr. Hall in his report to Synod in 1807 says : "Approach- ing the low country in South Carolina, the professors of reli- giou became less, and the bigoted attachment to party doc- trines appeared to be stronger. These doctrines which they call their principles, are so frequently brought into the pulpit, that sometimes a private member of one of those denomina- tions, when he goes to hear a preacher of the other, expect- ing what will come forward, has his scriptural notes prepared and reads them against the doctrines delivered, on which issue is joined, and the doctrines are debated in the presence of the congregation. From these and other circumstances, it appears that few attend on the preaching of the gospel except the bigoted adherents to their respective parties." Mr. Wil- liam H. Barr also read his report. Both were commended as exhibiting "great industry and much labor."
In 1808 the Commission of Synod reported that they had appointed Dr. Hall, Rev. E. B. Currie and Mr. Wm. H. Barr. Mr. Currie had not been commissioned. The others read long and interesting reports. The Rev. Dr. Hall had trav- elled 1132 miles, preached 40 times, and received $64.68. He thought it would be more advisable to cherish our own va-
*It was probably during this missionary tour that Dr. Hall preached his sermon from Prov. XIV, 31 . "Righteousness exalteth a nation; bnt sin is a reproach to any people," before the Court at Barnwell, and more fully before the Court of Laurens District, in South Carolina at their spring Session, A. D., 1807. Printed at Raleigh by William Boylaf 1807, pp. 25, 12mo.
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OTHER MISSIONS.
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cancies than to establish new societies, and recommended vigorous exertions on the part of Synod to encourage the education of young men for the ministry. Mr. Barr con- curred with Dr. Hall that it would be better to change mis- sionary action from the itinerant to the supplying our vacan- cies with more regular preaching."
In urging the cause of education, Dr. Hall says : "Other. wise, our churches, if any should remain must be supplied with ignorant and illiterate preachers, or they must receive foreigners, which past experience has for the most part shown not to be very eligible ; as we may expect little except the dregs of European Churches. Should none of these be the case, our people must sink into ignorance and barbarism, and stand exposed to every wind of doctrine." Mr. Barr appears to have been a most industrious missionary.
A commission of Synod was appointed, "to regulate the whole of the missionary business, to meet the first Wednes- day of November, at Unity Church, Indian Lands, of which Dr. Hall was appointed moderator."
In Oct., 1809, the Commission reported that they had ap- pointed Dr. Hall and Rev. Andrew Flinn to act as mission- aries to the vacancies within their bounds. Mr. Flinn did not fulfill the appointment. Dr. Hall spent four months and thirteen days in the mission, travelled 1545 miles, preached sixty-nine times, held three communions and several evening societies. "Previously to departure from home, he had ex- tracted four hundred and twenty questions from our Confes- sion of Faith and disseminated them through eight of our va- cancies for the perusal of the people until he should return to finish his mission, at which time they were to be called upon for public examination." The success of this was very encouraging.
Great irregularities in connection with the revivals and camp-meetings had sprung up in the congregations of Long Creek and Knobb Creek in Orange Presbytery. The Pres- bytery had appointed in 1804 a large and able Committee to examine into these and deal in some suitable manner with them. Some who were laymen laid claims to special divine guidance, and moved as they said, by a divine impulse had administered the ordinances of the Supper and Baptism. For these and other irregularities many had been suspended from the privileges of the Church. He spent considerable
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1800-1810.]
time in the Knobb Creek congregation and heard from some of the most intelligent and pious their heartfelt lamentations and horror at their past extravagances, and their gratitude to God that they were not given over to the most wild and de- lusive fanaticism. "When I fell into those extraordinary exercises," said one of them, "I found such pleasure in them that I would not think of parting with them ; yet when they went off, I found the power of religion so declining in my heart, that I was conscious that in that state I never need expect to enter the kingdom of Heaven ; and they have cost me many sleepless hours in prayer and wrestling with my own . wretched heart, before I could give them up." "Let some, however," says Dr. Hall, "think unfavorably or even lightly, of those deep and heart-affecting exercises, both distressful and joyous, to which no doubt we have all been witness and many of which, if we judge by their fruits, we have reason to believe, were produced by the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit, by which from an overwhelming sense of divine things, these effects were produced upon the body."
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