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HISTORY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE BAPTISTS J. H. GRIME
M. L
Gc 976.8 G88h 1415169
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01712 9872
Yours in the Faith, J. H. GRIME.
HISTORY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE BAPTISTS
WITH
Special Reference to Salem, New Salem, Enon and Wiseman Associations
C ONTAINING Sketches of Associations, Churches, Deceased Ministers and Dea- cons, with Ministerial Directory; also Chap- ters on Separate Baptists, Christian Baptists, Feet Washing. Numerous Illustrations. .. BY ..
J. H. GRIME, Cave City, Ky.
Author of "Hereditary Depravity," "Close Commun- ion and Baptists ; " also "History of Round Lick Church," in Manuscript
Baptist and Reflector Nashville, Tenn. 1902
1415169
T O THE Pioneer Heroes, who, through many trials and hard- ships, planted the standard of truth and unfurled the Baptist banner amid the vine-clad hills of the upper Cumberland Valley, this volume is affectionately dedicated.
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In the spring of 1899, the Ministers' and Deacons' meeting of New Salem Association, while in session at Cedar Creek Church, appointed a committee to memorialize Salem and New Salem Associations on the question of a History of the Baptists of this sec- tion. The committee, from sickness and other causes, failed to do so.
In the spring of 1900, at Grant (Buena Vista Church), another like committee, consisting of Elders T. J. Eastes, J. J. Carr, and J. H. Grime, was ap- pointed. In the fall of 1900, the matter was presented to both bodies, and a joint committee appointed by the two Associations to get up a History and put it in permanent form. That committee, in connection with a mass meeting of brethren, held at Round Lick Church, in January, 1901, asked this author to prepare said History. This was concurred in by Enon and Wiseman Associations, and Deacon J. M. Williams was appointed to collect material for said work.
The task has been an arduous one, and the mind which compiled these pages and the hand which penned them have often grown weary, yet no pains, labor, or means have been spared to make this work what it should be. Every effort has been made to
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Borderland 10.00 8-7-67 Inv. PLFW- Special P.O. 4219
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record things as they were. Accuracy has been the motto. Days, yes even weeks and months, have often been spent in unraveling one difficulty. And we wish to acknowledge our appreciation of all the assistance rendered us by the brethren and sisters and friends.
No one is more conscious of the imperfections of this work than the author ; yet he believes that a fair degree of accuracy attaches to all its statements.
It has been a most cherished hope of this author to contribute something to the perpetuation of the names of the Baptist heroes who first planted the standard of truth among the vineclad hills of the upper Cumberland Valley.
No effort has been made at literary excellence, and those disposed to criticise will doubtless find a fruit- ful field. The great object has been to infuse into these pages the spirit of those gone before and give an accurate record of their labors and practices.
Hoping that these pages will inspire some one to nobler deeds and to more faithful service to the Mas- ter, this volume is sent forth on its mission of love.
J. H. GRIME.
Cave City, Ky., April 7, 1902.
INTRODUCTION.
FROM SALEM ASSOCIATION.
The statement of the origin and history of Salem Association is left entirely with the author of this volume. The preservation of our denominational his- tory has been sadly neglected. Brother Grime, my yoke-fellow in Gospel Bonds, has rendered the Baptist denomination a valuable service in collecting and put- ting into book form the organization and history of an Association which contains denominational records and events which should not be lost. I know of no man better qualified for the work than he. Years of diligent search, while living in the territory, with an eye to the importance of preserving valuable denomi- national information, eminently fit him for the author- ship of a book which will be read with thrilling in- terest. It will be read by the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of a worthy ancestry-an an- cestry which laid well the foundation stones of Bap- tist faith and practice in Middle Tennessee. The pro- geny of the present generation will scan its pages with profound admiration and tenderest emotion. The de- nominational historian in the far distant future will grace the pages of history with important and fre- quent quotations from "Grime's History of Middle
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Tennessee Baptists." The times, the men, the terri- tory, the issues, the events, the incidents, and the prin- ciples, coming within the scope of the present volume, easily place it as a valuable addition to our denomina- tional literature. As the memorial stones, carried from the midst of Jordan and pitched in Gilgal by Joshua, were to remind the future traveler who passed that way of the triumphant march of a favored people, so this batch of history, so kindly collected and bound in print by Brother Grime, will indicate to the future pilgrim who passes this way that he treads the old tenting ground of God's Saints who "fought a good fight and kept the faith."
I am glad to see in the present volume the faces of many brethren and the biographies of others who laid the foundation of Baptist faith and practice in the original territory of Salem Association. This part of the book will be read with tender emotion and will lead us back amid the hard fought battles of other years ; and the origin and history of the old churches will acquaint us with pastors, deacons, clerks, and membership of God's obedient children who are on the other side. To me, the present volume is a voice from the dead. It is a joyful reminder of battle- scarred veterans. What a task of mingled joy and sorrow to turn the pages of this, to me, blessed book and look on the faces or read sketches of ministers with whom I have labored in word and doctrine, who are now on the other side of the silent river. What
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blessed memories crowd into my soul as I read of those whose voices I have heard, whose hands I have grasped, and with whom I have sat in the pulpit in the years gone by. They are at rest. As I think of them, I remember the sainted Jas. Barrett, E. B. Hay- nie, John W. Bowen, Natty Hays, William Suite, Louis Dies, Richard Lyon, Zack Lyon, L. H. Bethel, J. J. Martin, J. M. D. Cates, J. C. Brien, Moses Allen, M. A. Cathcart, Henry Bass, Johnny Hearn, D. N. Jarrard, William Hunt, H. W. Pickett, A. J. McNabb, William Grimmet and Morgan Green. The above list of fallen ministers, with whom I have preached and prayed, sung and wept, exhorted and shouted, will grace the pages of any honored history recording the labors of men who wrought for the good of men and the glory of God. Some of them were unlettered, 'tis true, and some were men whose learning and infor- mation compare favorably with the foremost men in our Baptist Zion.
It is a pleasure to read the origin and history of the churches I have had the honor to serve as pastor and to learn who were my predecessors and suc- cessors and what is interesting to me along this line will be interesting to all pastors. And then, too, the members of these and all the other churches will be deeply interested in reading their own history in the calling of pastors, election of deacons, and other church work.
Another interesting feature of the book is, it gives
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the present work of an Association organized eighty years ago. I look with a sacred love on the faces of living, active ministers and read of their work and churches. We will soon be with the Fathers. Our children and grandchildren will soon read of us as we now read of those who occupied before us. And a pleasing thought is, they will read from the same book.
Another interesting feature of the book is, the in- formation it gives on the subject of divisions growing out of missions and methods, the significance of de- nominational names, the Baptists, the Missionary Bap- tists, who they are, the Primitive Baptists and who they are, etc.
I rejoice that the labors of a few good men and women eighty years ago in launching Salem Associa- tion are to be recorded and preserved. I am glad that their fidelity to Baptist faith and practice was un- compromising. I am happy to know that their loyalty to the faith was honored of God in building an As- sociation which in the eighties was the largest in Tennessee. Four Associations now occupy the orig- inal bounds.
I am glad to have been born within the bounds of dear old Salem Association and to have been baptized into the fellowship of one of her churches thirty-four years ago. Since my ordination thirty-two years ago I have missed but two sessions of her meetings. Within her bounds I began the conflict and here I
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expect to fight my last battle and lie down with the Fathers to sleep in hope of a Glorious Resurrection. Some day amid rustling wings and bursting tombs I expect to rise, and with Salem's redeemed meet the Lord in the skies.
May this book be read with interest and profit by the brotherhood. May its author live long upon the earth and be useful in his day and generation. May the pastors, churches, deacons, and clerks, with God's help, push the work committed to them by the Fathers. May Salem Association, whose history is faithfully written herein, be upon the earth when Jesus comes. May this little volume be found filling its mission a thousand years hence.
"Lord, when thou mak'st thy jewels up, And set'st thy starry crown ; When all thy sparkling gems shall shine Proclaimed by thee thine own ; May we, a little band of love, We sinners, saved by grace, From glory unto glory changed Behold thee face to face."
JOHN T. OAKLEY.
Henderson's X Roads, Tenn., March 10, 1902.
FROM NEW SALEM ASSOCIATION.
The preservation of the history of the churches of of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Godly Ministers who founded them, is, or should be, a work dear to every Baptist heart.
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The Baptists, standing as they do for a regenerated membership, the baptism of believers only, the Holy Scriptures the only authoritative rule of faith and practice, salvation wholly by the grace of God, the entire separation of Church and State, complete religious liberty, they, being responsible to a sover- eign God, should be diligent to publish their principles to the world. It is certain none others will do so, except incidentally. In their opposition and persecu- tion, they record the principles they oppose, and these principles so mutilated and corrupted as to frame an excuse for their conduct.
Some thirteen years ago New Salem Association was formed of churches that had been regularly dis- missed from Salem Association, which had been in existence since 1822. Many have been the trials .through which they have passed, but "Thus far the Lord hath led me (us) on," and "Here we raise our Ebenezer." "Thank God and take courage."
The Lord has raised up among us some mighty men of God whose lives were a benediction to the churches and the world. The histories of some of these were almost lost, but our brother, by his zeal, has rescued them from oblivion. He now brings them forth in a printed book that will preserve their memo- ries for the encouragement and instruction of future generations.
Brother J. H. Grime, having been selected by Salem and New Salem Associations for this work, has done
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it well and faithfully. He has labored with diligence and perseverance, sparing neither time nor expense to accomplish the work assigned him. He has thus brought the two Associations in particular, and the great Baptist brotherhood in general, under lasting obligations for the preservation of this valuable bit of the history of the Lord's people.
I bespeak for the work a hearty reception, that it will be read and preserved with a grateful pride, and that our minds and hearts will be stirred to emulate the glorious examples of self-sacrificing devotion furnished us by the Baptists of these Associations and those nearly related to us.
To Brother Grime a debt of gratitude is justly due. By this work he is entitled to be enshrined in our memories, and remembered with love and gratitude.
This history will be a monument to his devotion to the cause, and while perpetuating the memory of our fathers, the pioneers in the work in our beloved Tennessee will justly perpetuate the memory of him who has done so nobly in preserving history. The Lord bless the book and the author.
Grant, Tenn., March, 1902. T. J. EASTES.
FROM ENON ASSOCIATION.
I gladly give my feeble endorsement to this entire work, and more especially to so much of it as deals with the history of the Enon Association, its churches, ministers, and members.
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Just such a work as this is needed, and no one is better qualified to write it than Brother Grime, and I am sure that most of its readers will be surprised at the great amount of information it contains. Coming generations will rise up and call him blessed who has bestowed so much painstaking care and labor to pre- sent in permanent form the daring deeds, the true moral courage, the works of love, the living working faith and Godly heroism of their fathers.
No people have accomplished more with so few op- portunities and such unfavorable environments. Those noble men of God, in the face of untold difficulties, often seemingly insurmountable, plunged into the al- most impenetrable forests, climbed the rugged hills, crossed the turbid, rushing streams in the face of their bitter enemies, and conquered the land for Christ. Most of them were what the world calls illiterate. Yet, with a heart all aglow with love to God and men, no danger could affright them, no difficulty hinder them, and no obstacle, however great, impede their onward march. They read God's Holy Word by a torch light, a flickering candle, or a grease lamp, digging deep for its precious treasures of truth, with the one grand purpose of giving it to their fellow men. Their souls set on fire by God's boundless grace, they unfurled the gospel banner to every passing breeze, and with the Sword of the Spirit in hand and grace in their hearts they led the advancing hosts to most glorious victories and left to us an inheritance richer
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than all the gold and diamonds of earth. And now, God has raised up our dear brother to give to us in this permanent form brief sketches of their lives and labors. May their heroic deeds and faithful labors inspire us, who read this book, with greater courage, loftier aims, higher motives, and nobler ambitions May God's richest blessings rest upon every one who reads these pages. W. H. SMITH.
Horse Cave, Ky., February 24, 1902.
FROM WISEMAN ASSOCIATION.
The study of the history, lives and testimony of those preceding us, who have been accounted faith- ful and true, is certainly praiseworthy, and of great advantage. Paul was ready to recount the faith, suf- ferings, and patience of the holy men and prophets, who lived before his day, to animate his brethren to greater valor. Surely then, with advantage, we can study the history of those who form such a conspicu- ous part of this work.
It is a matter which I feel to be of the highest im- portance, that Baptists and their children should be thoroughly conversant with the history of their own denomination. It is especially important that they should know of the conflicts and hardships through which noble men of God passed in other ages, and that they should be taught the grand principles for which these noble worthies earnestly contended and
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were ready, many of them, to seal their testimony with their own life's blood.
There has been a time in the past when Baptists were not accorded the privilege of writing their own history, but were dependent upon their enemies to record their doctrines while their own bodies burned at the martyr's stake. We feel glad in our hearts to know that this is not true at present; for beneath the blazing sun of religious freedom Baptists can now write their own history and none dare intimidate or molest.
The author, in writing this book, has bestowed upon the Baptists of this Upper Cumberland Valley a last- ing benediction for which those now living will ever be grateful. Their progeny also, in generations to come, will rise up and call him blessed. They, too, will read with interest how our ancestry, in the long ago, lifted the banner of King Immanuel and planted the truths of our blessed Savior, which are more last- ing than the hills of earth, in these fertile plains of ours.
We bespeak for this work a wide circulation in the homes of our Baptist brotherhood.
WM. M. S. WILKS.
Enon College, Tenn., March, 1902.
HISTORY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE BAPTISTS
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL VIEW.
The coming of Baptists into this part of the State was from Virginia, North Carolina and South Care- lina. Some, it is true, stopped first in Kentucky, afterward removing to Tennessee.
It is but natural that the reader will inquire from whence did they come into these States? Passing by the establishment of Baptist churches in the colony of Rhode Island, we come to the establishment of the first Baptist Church in the city of Boston, which oc- curred March 28, 1665, with five charter members who had been baptized in England. The names of these charter members were Richard Goodall, William Turner, Robert Lambert, Mary Goodall and Mary Newell. This church being thoroughly organized and equipped for business (see church records as recorded in Armitage Church History, 2 ed. page 319) soon began to extend her borders. On January 3, 1682, we find Humphrey Churchwood, one of the members, at Kittery, Maine, with a band of brethren gathered about him. These were organized into a regular Bap- tist Church September 25, 1682, with William Screven as pastor. He then made the trip all the way to Bos- ton to be ordained by the church under whose author- ity they were constituted. Persecution, however, soon arose in Maine against the infant church, and to escape the rigors of religious intolerance they fled to South Carolina and "settled on the Cooper River, not
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far from the present city of Charleston." Here they found some Baptists from England and, in 1685, they united and constituted a regular Baptist Church on the west bank of the Cooper River. This was the first Baptist Church organized in the South, and in 1693 they moved their place of meeting to Charleston. (See Armitage, p. 324. )
There is still another source of the Baptists of South Carolina about which I wish to speak. In June, 1701, in the counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen, Wales, sixteen Baptists were constituted into a regular Bap- tist Church with Thomas Griffith as pastor. They at once set sail from Milford in church capacity and landed at Philadelphia in the September following where the "church emigrant" went ashore on Ameri- can soil. In 1703 they purchased 30,000 acres of land from Wm. Penn in New Castle County, Delaware, and gave this new purchase the title of Welsh Tract, and soon they were settled, giving their church a permanent home, from which it took the name of Welsh Tract Church.
"As early as 1736 this church dismissed forty-eight members to emigrate to South Carolina, where they made a settlement on the Peedee River, organized the Welsh Neck Church there, which during the next century became the center from which thirty-eight Baptist churches sprang in the immediate vicinity." Armitage, p. 333. From these two sources came the early Baptists of South Carolina, who founded the Charleston Association in 1751. This Association was constituted upon the old London Confession of Faith, which is a very strong Calvinistic document. It might be remarked just here that this is the original of the Philadelphia Confession of Faith and was adopted as
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a statement of doctrine by all the early churches and Associations of America, with the exception of one small Association which soon became extinct.
This old Welsh Tract Church which emigrated from Wales became the nucleus around which or from which were formed a number of churches which were constituted into Philadelphia Association as early as 1707. It was missionaries from this Association, viz., Benjamin Miller, Peter Vanhorn and John Gano, who first planted the true Baptist standard in North Caro- lina. This was about the middle of the eighteenth century. It is true some Free Will Baptist churches had been planted in the State by Paul Palmer and his converts prior to the coming of these missionaries into the State. These Free Will or General Baptist churches were all reorganized and their irregular bap- tisms corrected. (See Burkitt & Reed's History Ke- hukee Association.) These missionaries were joined by Robert Williams, of South Carolina, and Shubael Stearnes, of Virginia, and together they laid the foun- dation for the establishment of the Kehukee Associa- tion in 1765 upon the regular London (Calvinistic) Confession of Faith.
The first Baptist churches in the State of Virginia were planted by missionaries from the churches of London, England, and the Philadelphia Association.
I have in detail given the origin of Baptists in these States, because from these sources have come the Baptists of Tennessee.
As to the origin of Welsh Baptists, they date back to the days of the apostles or to the age immediately following. No beginning for them, this side of that, can be successfully established. The most natural solution of this question is, that the apostle Paul and
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his co-laborers first planted the Baptist standard on the British Isles. Clement, the fellow-laborer with Paul (Phil. 4: 3), in his epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 5, has this to say: "Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the East and West, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the West, and suffered martyr- dom under the prefects." ( Ante Nicean Fathers, Vol. I, p. 6.) In the above, Rome is taken as the center, and the extreme limit of the West would be Spain and the British Isles.
In addition to the above, Davis in his History of the Welsh Baptists, pp. 6-9, has this to say: "About fifty years before the birth of our Savior the Romans invaded the British Isle, in the reign of the Welsh King Cassibellan; but having failed, in consequence of other and more important wars, to conquer the Welsh nation, made peace and dwelt among them many years. During that period many of the Welsh soldiers joined the Roman army, and many families from Wales visited Rome, among whom there was a certain woman named Claudia, who was married to a man named Pudence. At the same time Paul was sent a prisoner to Rome and preached there in his own hired house for the space of two years, about the year of our Lord 63. Pudence and Claudia, his wife, who belonged to Caesar's household, under the bless- ings of God on Paul's preaching were brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus and made a profession of the Christian religion. Acts 28: 30; 2 Tim. 4: 21. These together with other Welshmen,
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among the Roman soldiers, who had tasted that the Lord was gracious, exhorted them in behalf of their countrymen in Wales, who were at that time vile idolaters. . . . The Welsh lady Claudia, and others, who were converted under Paul's ministry in Rome carried the precious seed with them, and scattered it on the hills and valleys of Wales; and since that time, many thousands have reaped a glorious harvest. . . . We have nothing of importance to communicate re- specting the Welsh Baptists from this to the year 180, when two ministers by the name of Fagamus and Damicanus, who were born in Wales, but were born again in Rome, and became eminent ministers of the gospel, were sent from Rome to assist their brethren in Wales. . In the same year, Lucius, the Welsh King, and the first king in the world who embraced the Christian religion, was baptized. . .. About the year 300, the Welsh Baptists suffered the most terrible and bloody persecution, which was the tenth perse- cution under the reign of Dioclesian. Here as well as in many other places the blood of the martyrs proved to be the seed of the church." Baptist Per- petuity, pp. 367, 368.
The most natural conclusion drawn from the above facts is, that Paul, after his release from his first im- prisonment went with these Welsh converts to their home land and thus, as Clement says, carried the gos- pel "to the extreme limit of the West." From this time on the mountain fastnesses of Wales, as well as the valleys of Piedmont, served as an asylum for per- secuted Baptists. It was of these Baptists planted by the apostle Paul that the "Old Welsh Tract Church" was formed. And from it have sprung the Baptists of Tennessee.
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