History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 85

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 85

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Mill Creek Church was the second one organized south of the Cumberland River. It was organized in 1798, and went off with the missionaries, where it still remains.

Elder Peyton Smith, who had the care of Overall's church, a fluent speaker and popular among the Baptists, went off with Kurlee, another Baptist minister, to the Free- Will Baptists, and carried a majority of the members of Overall's, Stewart's Creek, and others with them. They remained but a few years with the Free Church, and finally went to the Campbellites and took another portion of the members of those churches with them. This event occurred previous to 1840.

The church at Stewart's Creek continued to decline until it was finally dissolved, and has never been revived.

Nashville Primitive Baptist Church .- In 1834 or 1835 the modern missionary system was introduced into the Cum- berland Association. Elders Howell, Whitsitt, Fuqua, and Bond embraced the new order of things, and carried several

whole churches with them, and, having a majority, they claim the name. The First Baptist Church of Nashville went with the New School party in a body, except one member, old Brother Norvell. Says Rev. Jesse Cox, " I was preaching at White's Creek church at the time, and in passing through Nashville I was requested to preach at a private house at night, and then for a time in the cor- poration school-house. A few members returned from the missionaries, fitted up Norvell's warehouse, and organized a Primitive Baptist Church, consisting of about nine mem- bers of the old church."

This was in the spring of 1838. The Presbytery was composed of Elders James King and Jesse Cox of the Cumberland, and Elder John M. Watson and James T. Tompkins of the Stone's River, Association, and others. In December, 1850, the congregation met for the first time in their present house of worship, on South College Street, near Elm. David Read and Shadrach L. Allen were or- dained deacons in August, 1838; I. I. Garrett, W. C. Turner, A. G. Byron, and J. C. Hood, in April, 1873; S. J. Underwood, W. H. Corbitt, and Samuel M. Dickens, in September, 1878; and William G. Gilliam, in Decem- ber, 1879. William L. Nance, the present clerk, was ap- pointed to that position in June, 1846. The church num- bers one hundred and twenty-three members.

Big Harpeth Church was organized in the south part of the county, eighteen miles from Nashville, in the latter part of May, 1800, with twenty members. Three houses of worship have been built there. The first one was shaken off its foundations by the earthquake of 1813. Elder Garner McConico was ordained a minister at the time the church was organized, and was its pastor until his death, which cccurred in August, 1833. Elder Jesse Cox, an old and highly respected minister, and the only surviving member of that date, was one of the deacons in 1830. Elder McConico died in the same hour in which Elder Cox preached his first sermon. Rev. James King was pastor for one year, and was then succeeded by Elder Cox, until after 1850. The present church is south of the- county-line, and in Williamson County.

The Edgefield Baptist Church was organized in April, 1867, by twenty members of the First Church in Nashville.

Rev. Dr. W. A. Nelson became pastor in September, 1871. There were then but twenty-seven members, who held their regular meetings in a rented office. The membership was largely increased during his pastorate, and a fine brick meeting-house with basement rooms erected on Woodland Street, at an expense of sixteen thousand dollars. A par- sonage, costing two thousand dollars, and a mission building, worth one thousand dollars, were also crected through his efforts. A thriving Sunday-school and two mission-schools are also supported. In a letter to the church, Aug. 7, 1878, Rev. Mr. Nelson writes : " Unremitting toil, together with the most anxious pastoral solicitude, reaching through a period of seven years, have so impaired my health as to make it necessary to sever those tender ties which bind me to a church worthy of a better pastor." In response to his letter of resignation, from which these words were taken, an earnest response came from the church acknowledging his faithful labors in increasing the membership from thirty-

* A contraction of the French Huguenot De La Hunte.

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G. Truet

EZEKIEL TRUETT was born July 28, 1812, in what is now known as Hickman Co., Tenn., about ten miles cast of Centreville. It was then a part of North Carolina. By oral tradition he could trace his ancestry back to the Scotch- Irish settlers of the State. His physique and his sturdy integrity manifested all the traits of character for which we respect those people so highly. He had none of the advantages of an education at school during his boyhood, and he grew up a poor boy, contending bravely for a foot- hold among brave men. His early struggles for a liveli- hood developed a strength and tenacity of character that served him well in maturer manhood. He was married to Winnie Adams, Nov. 1, 1832. They reared a family of seven children, who looked to him for support and an edu- cation, which, though expensive in the absence of the free schools, was won and gained and given to each.

He won success and a fortune from the hard surroundings, and his later days were peaceful and quiet, although he maintained an interest in business until within a few months before he died, April 25, 1872. He was the founder of the famous enterprise known as " Rosebank Nurseries," the products of which, in later years, have been scattered from the Carolinas to Texas, and from Kansas to Florida. His sterling integrity of character inspired confidence in the products of his nursery, and in after-years, under a new management, with his sons as successors, the business was largely increased, and its products widely scattered.

Eleven States were tributary to its enterprise ; the name Truett's Sons & Morgan made it easy to prosecute the business, because " Truett" was a synonym for honesty.

In appearance he was tall and slender, with an erect bearing in his young manhood. In later days, when de- clining health brought a stoop to his shoulders, his energetic spirit held sway, and the observer would involuntarily be reminded of Andrew Jackson. He was, however, gentle and kind and loving in his disposition, never captious or faultfinding, but charitable in all his thoughts and actions towards those with whom he came in contact. He was peculiarly careful not to be strong in his expressions of op- position, although he was as peculiarly tenacious of his opinions of right or wrong. With a quiet, steady, purpose, he won his aim,-never violent. For many years he was a consistent Christian, and a liberal member of the Baptist Church. During the later years of his life he contributed liberally to the success of the Baptist Church in Edgefield. By his wise counsel the first steps of success were taken, and just before he died, almost entirely by his own means he built a parsonage for the occupation of his beloved pastor. He lived to see his children grown to manhood and woman. hood, married, and settled in life, and all members of a Christian church. By his success in business, and the win- ning of a fortune from the peculiar surroundings and under the disadvantages of his early life, he certainly deserves a prominent place among the representative men of his time.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

one persons to more than three hundred, testifying their deep sentiments of regard for him, and consenting to his dismissal only upon the assurance that his physical health, and possibly his life, required of them the sacrifice.

L. A. Truett, G. W. G. Payne, Andrew McClain, T. E. Enloe, A. W. Webber, and John D. Anderson, all promi- nent citizens, were appointed a committee to wait upon him and present the sentiments of the church. During the next nine months the services were conducted without a settled pastor. Rev. James Waters, of Passaic, N. J., the present pastor, succeeded to the charge in May, 1879. A. W. Webber is clerk of the church, which has now three hundred and fifty-six members. Deacons, G. W. G. Payne, E. H. Hill, L. A. Truett, John E. Lesueur, A. W. Webber, H. W. Buttorff, J. B. Patton, W. H. H. Truett, Charles E. Burton, John W. Ottey, John D. Anderson, W. M. Woodcock, A. J. Harris; Pastors, Rev. George W. Harris, from April 14, 1867, to June, 1867, a portion of which time was unsupplied; Rev. Eugene Strode, Nov. 1, 1868, to June 5, 1870; A. W. Nelson, Aug. 1, 1871, to Sept. 1, 1878; James Waters, from May 25, 1879, present pastor.

The Union Hill Baptist Church was organized four miles west of Goodlettsville, on the White's Creek road, May 28, 1859, with twenty-one members. The first deacons were S. T. Fryer, W. G. Blair, and Andrew Rolen. Mr. R. W. Foster was the first clerk. A comfortable frame house was soon after built. The present house of worship was built in 1878, and has a seating capacity of about two hundred. The present membership is fifty-nine. J. M. Forester is the present clerk. Rev. W. B. Trenary is pastor. Rev. Samuel Carter is also a member of this church. J. R. Cole, R. M. Forester, and Q. C. Fryer are deacons. David Rice, whose death occurred in October, 1878, was for many years a deacon of this church.

Mill Creek Church was organized in 1797 by Elder James Whitsitt. This was one of the most vigorous and important of the carly Baptist churches in this region, and contained upon its rolls the names of many of the earlier pioneers of Davidson County. In 1846 it reported to the Concord connection, to which it belonged, a membership of two hundred and twenty-five. As the population increased its members divided to form other churches in the surround- ing districts. No higher honor can be awarded to the Mill Creek Church than to connect with its history a brief sketch of Elder James Whitsitt, its pioneer preacher.

James Whitsitt, one of the most noted and successful early Baptist ministers of Davidson County, was converted in 1789, at the age of nineteen years, and immediately took upon himself the duties of the ministry. Ho received a license to preach within a few months. In 1780 he traveled with the family of his uncle, James Menees, Esq., to the valley of the Cumberland. He soon returned to his old home in Virginia, whence, ten years later, he returned to Tennessee, and in 1792 settled upon Mill Creek. During his stay in Virginia he had ceased from Christian work. In 1794 he became awakened, and was restored to fellow- ship in the Mill Creek Church. He soon assumed pastoral charge of four churches in succession, as they were organ- ized, dividing his time between them. These were Mill

Creek, Concord, in Williamson County, and Rock Spring and Providence, in Rutherford County. A few years later the Antioch Church was organized, and he exchanged one of his charges outside the county for that.

For his second wife he married Mrs. Elizabeth Wood- ruff, a member of the Mill Creek Church. In his old age he was connected with the Second Baptist Church of Nash- ville, which he supplied during the summer and autumn of 1848. In October he preached his farewell sermon, ending in these words :

" This is our last interview. I am old and rapidly sink- ing. The winter is almost upon us, during which I cannot visit you, and before the spring comes I shall die. Fare- well."

This was, indeed, his last appearance in public. He died April 12, 1849, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and the fifty-third of his ministry.

The Smith's Spring Baptist Church was organized Nov. 15, 1874, in the third civil district, nearly two miles south of Stone's River, by Revs. T. N. Fuqua and W. A. Whit- sitt, with twenty-one members. Rev. Mr. Fuqua was pas- tor until his death, when he was succeeded by Rev. W. A. Whitsitt, the present pastor of Gethsemane Church. Rev. J. H. Casson is the present pastor. The deacons are J. T. Towns and R. F. Sweeney ; clerk, J. H. Towns.

A house of worship was built in 1877. There is a pros- perous Sunday-school in connection, of which Mr. J. B. Fuqua is superintendent. This church is connected with the Concord Association. For many years this was known as McCrory's Creek Church. In 1846 it numbered three hundred and thirty-five members, and was the largest so- ciety in the Concord Association.

The name of Providence Church has disappeared from the records. This was located at Reynolds' Mill, in civil district number fourteen, and was a member of Stone's River Association in 1837. In 1845 it reported one hun- dred and fourteen members.

Colored Baptist Churches .- The First Colored Baptist Church of Nashville was organized in 1852, by the colored portion of the First Baptist Church of that city, with one hundred and forty members. Rev. Nelson G. Merry, the janitor of the present church, became pastor, and has con- tinued to occupy that position until the present time. Elder Merry was an " Old Virginia" slave in his younger days, but his mistress, a Christian lady, removed to Ten- nessce, and on her death freed her slaves, among whom was Mr. Merry, then a young man. A meeting-house had been built for the colored members of the white church in 1849. It was again rebuilt and enlarged in 1859 and 1865, and torn down to make way for the present church, which was built in 1873. This is one of the finest churches owned by colored people in the South. It is of brick, with stone finish, and cost twenty-eight thousand dollars. Through the original eloquence of the pastor, who is also president of the State Colored Baptist Convention, this church has obtained a wide reputation, and is much frequented by visitors of both races. The membership is twenty-three hundred. The house of worship was seriously injured by the gale of February, 1880, but was at once repaired.

A Second Church was established in Nashville in 1855,

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32.4

HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

and now numbers six hundred members. Rev. A. Buchanan is pastor.

There are four Baptist colored churches in Edgefield, with eleven hundred and eighteen members. The First, Rev. R. Vandavell, pastor, has five hundred and fifty mem- bers. Mount Zion, Rev. I. Bransford, pastor, has five hundred members. Mount Nebo Church, Rev. P. H. Ben- son, pastor, has twenty-five members, and the Fourth Bap- tist Colored Church has forty-three members. Rev. J. Stubbs is pastor.

All these churches were organized since 1864. They, together with the Second Church of Nashville, hold prop- erty valued at fourteen thousand four hundred dollars.

There are thirteen colored Baptist churches in the county, outside the city of Nashville. These are as follows :

Trimble Spring Mission, J. W. Husky, pastor.

Otter Creek Church, Rev. J. Litton, pastor.

White's Creek Church, Rev. W. Shelby, pastor; four hundred and five members.

Ebenezer Church, Rev. H. Fuller, pastor.

St. James' Church, Rev. H. H. Harding, pastor; two hundred and ten members.

Olive Branch Church, Rev. W. G. Parks, pastor ; one hundred members.

Edgefield Junction Church, Rev. S. Pride, pastor; thirty- seven members.

New Hope Church, thirty members.

Mount Gillem Church, Rev. G. Amos, pastor ; sixty-five members.

Hermitage Church, Rev. N. Drake, pastor.

Shiloh Church, Rev. M. Mason, pastor.

Ewing Hill Church, Rev. James Burton, pastor. Neely's Bend Church, Rev. S. Dismuke, pastor.

METHODIST CHURCHES.

Methodist Episcopal Church South .- In the year 1837, Benjamin Ogden, a young minister who had been admitted on trial the year previous with Presiding Elder James Haw, passed from the wilderness of Kentucky into " the Cumber- land Country" of Middle Tennessee, and became the first Methodist preacher in the beautiful and fertile basin of which Davidson County forms a part. He was then a young man twenty-three years of age, inured to hardships as a soldier of the Revolution, naturally brave, and espe- cially adapted to the life of a messenger of the gospel in the new settlements along the Cumberland and its tributa- ries. At the close of his first year's labors he reported sixty-three members, four of whom were colored persons. Richard Dodge and Frank Prince were the first persons who joined the Methodist Society. The hostile savages kept the feeble and scattered settlements in a state of alarm which forced them to go armed to worship, while the preacher, trusting in the truths he was sent to preach, passed unprotected, or sometimes accompanied by an armed escort, through the dense and unbroken wilderness from one settlement to another, Mr. Ogden, who formed the Cum- berland Circuit, was succeeded in 1788 by James Haw and Peter Massie. Francis Poythress came to the Cumberland in 1789 as presiding elder, with Thomas Williamson and

Joshua L. Hartley, preachers. Their field of labor extended through all the new settlements in Sumner County and the surrounding country.

Among the prominent first members were Isaac Linsley, William McNeilly, and Lewis Crane, father of Rev. John Crane. Mr. Linsley, a man of talent, who settled at Eaton's Station in 1780, began to exhort soon after his conversion in 1787. His son, Isaac Linsley, became a prominent preacher. John Bell, Jonathan Stephenson, Henry Birch- ett, and others preached successively in Nashville and vi- cinity. Rev. Mr. Massie, the first to pass from this life while here, died suddenly Dec. 19, 1791, at the house of Mr. Hodges, near Nashville, and was buried by a negro ser- vant,* who alone felled an ash-tree, framed a receptacle for the body in the open grave, and completed the solemn rites of burial during the sickness of his master, Mr. Hodges.

Another early preacher was Rev. Col. Green Hill, a member of the Provincial Assembly in 1774, and financial agent of North Carolina in 1776, whose journal records: " 1796, Tuesday, June 21 .- I preached at Mr. Thomas Edwards, to very attentive people. Wednesday went to Mr. Colliers, at Irish Station, nine miles above Nashville. Sun- day heard Brother Duzan at Nashville, and preached from Colossians i. 27, 28. Some people went away, but the greater part quietly attended. June 29, we came to brother Richard Strothers', three miles from Nashville ; an appoint- ment at the preaching-house at this place for circuit preach- ing.'

At this time the rides were long, the pathways narrow and dim ; deep and narrow streams were to be crossed, with no bridges. It was common to lie in the woods or swim and make your way wet, hungry, weary, and cold to an open cabin, where, after a repast of the coarsest kind, sleep was had upon the floor or a rude hard bed, exposed to the inclemency of the weather in winter or to vermin in sum- mer. The preachers were gladly received by good people who loved the gospel, and who sometimes gave them home- spun clothes, of which they were not ashamed.

Thomas Wilkerson preached here as early as 1802, in company with Levin Edney, who continued on the Nash- ville Circuit the next year, and then settled on the Harpeth River, at what has since been known as Edney's Chapel.

Zadok B. Thoxton, a native of North Carolina, who had immigrated to Middle Tennessee in 1791 or '92, was con- verted at a prayer-meeting in Cage's Bend, commenced preaching about the year 1800, and in 1805 was assigned to Nashville Circuit.

Previous to 1796 the Yearly Conferences met at various places, to suit the convenience of the preachers. The jour- nal of 1796 bears record that " for several years the Annual Conferences were very small," and that " they wanted that dignity accompanying a large body of ministers, and which every religious synod should possess." These and other inconveniences were removed by the formation of six Annual Conferences, of which the Western Conference embraced Kentucky and Tennessee, and held its first session at

" This servant's name was Simeon. He became a local preacher, and lived to about the age of ninety years. He was universally respected both by white and colored people.

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LITTLE

Roth A Shrug

ROBERT ANDERSON YOUNG, D.D., is a Tennessean, having been born at Campbell's Station, Knox Co., Jan. 23, 1824. Few ministers of his age are more widely known in the South than Dr. Young. He is probably the most successful pastor in the Church. He can take charge of a run-down station, and make an eminent success where other men failed. He leaves no part of his work undone; he accomplishes a great deal, but does it in such a quiet, systematic manner that one never suspects what he is doing. He works untiringly, and manages so as to make the best possible use of all the material in his church. He is pro- verbial for his punctuality,-never a moment behind time, and yet never in a hurry; his services commence at the appointed time, and if he says he will pay a debt on the first day of the month, he does exactly what he has agreed to do. As a preacher he has few equals; he is a power in the pulpit, and after preaching for four years to one congre- gation will have more hearers the fourth year than the first,-in other language, we may say that he wears well.

The doctor, physically, is a remarkable specimen, standing six feet seven inches in his socks, and weighs two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and has no surplus flesh. He has published, we think, only two works,-one called " Person- ages," and the other " A Reply to Ariel ;" and in addition he has for many years contributed a great deal to magazines and Christian Advocates. He is a fine correspondent, and a general favorite as a writer.

He is the son of Capt. John C. Young, United States

Army, who was a graduate of the University of North Carolina. Dr. Young united with the Methodist Church in August, 1842 ; was licensed to preach in January, 1845, when about twenty-one years old. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Paine, at Clarksville, Tenn., in 1848, and elder by Bishop Andrew, at Athens, Ala., in 1850. Without his knowledge or consent he was transferred from the Tennessee to the St. Louis Conference, where he remained seven years, returning to Tennessee in 1860. He has been secretary of the Tennessee Conference for twelve consecu- tive years. He was first elected to the General Conference of 1860, and has been re-elected to every subsequent ses- sion, and has served in that body on the committees of Itinerancy and Missions, and is at this time a member of the Board of Missions. He received his A. B. from Wash- ington College, East Tenn. ; D.D. from Florence Wesleyan University, of which latter he was president for three years. He was elected secretary of the Vanderbilt University May 9, 1873, and the Tennessee Conference at its last session assigned him to that work, which now occupies his entire time, and will require him to travel extensively. Dr. Young has done all kinds of ministerial work, having traveled circuits, filled stations, and served five years as a presiding elder. He preaches well, yet never writes his sermons, and does not even use notes in the pulpit. Take him either as a preacher, pastor, presiding elder, Conference secretary, president of a university, financial agent, or as a business man, he is a success.

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The nativity of the subject of this biographical sketch was in the county whose history we write, and the whole of his useful and honorable life was spent there. The prominent part he bore in shaping its history during an active career of manhood for more than forty years properly deserves to be incorporated in this record. Powhatan Wooldrige Maxey was one of fourteen children-seven sons and seven daughters-of William and Margaret Maxey, who moved from Virginia in 1804 and settled in David- son County. Of this large family but one was his junior. His parents were in comfortable pecuniary condition, and enabled to rear their children becomingly and with a fair share of education procurable at the time, and to dispense in addition a generous hospitality, for which they were noted. Members of the Methodist Church, they kept open doors for the preachers of that faith in the early day, and those patriarchs of the Church, Bishops Asbury and Mcken- dree, as did all others, found a place of welcome sojourn beneath their roof- tree.

He was born within a stone's throw of the spot at which he died,-a few miles east of Nashville,-May 7, 1810. At the age of sixteen years he was entered an apprentice to the trade of tinsmithing with William H. Moore, a venerable citizen of this county, still surviving beyond his four- score years. This pursuit he followed, engaging in it on his own account in 1835 or 1836, until his retirement from active business in 1864. His establishment was for many years one of the leading houses, in that line, in the city of Nashville. His character as an artisan and merchant was irreproachable for fair dealing and integrity and marked by industry and energy, which enabled him to acquire quite a fair estate. He resided in the city until the year 1850, when he purchased a farm three and a half miles on the pike leading to Gallatin, adjoining the homestead of his father, on which he built a new residence.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 85

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013