USA > Tennessee > Bedford County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc, Vol.2 > Part 5
USA > Tennessee > Marshall County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc, Vol.2 > Part 5
USA > Tennessee > Wilson County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc, Vol.2 > Part 5
USA > Tennessee > Maury County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc, Vol.2 > Part 5
USA > Tennessee > Williamson County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc, Vol.2 > Part 5
USA > Tennessee > Rutherford County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc, Vol.2 > Part 5
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Elder Stone has been described as a man of respectable bearing, of spotless character and childlike simplicity, and easily attracted to the strange and marvelous. The above extract would seem amply to justify the description, and also that his judgment was somewhat under the do-
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FRANKLIN COUNTY. Delfan Hodgson
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minion of his imagination. Like Elder Hodge he evidently believed that the "jerks" were the work of God. He said that Dr. J. P. Campbell and himself "concluded it to be something beyond anything we had ever known in nature." Other writers besides Elder Stone have given descriptions of the jerks. The celebrated Peter Cartwright says:
"Just in the midst of our controversies on the subject of the powerful -exercises among the people under preaching, a new exercise broke out among us, called the jerks, which was overwhelming in its effects upon the people. No matter whether they were saints or sinners they would be taken under a warm song or sermon and seized with a convulsive jerk- ing all over. which they could not by any possibility avoid; the more they resisted the more they jerked. If they would not strive against it and would pray in good earnest the jerking would usually abate. I have seen more than 500 persons jerking at one time in my large congrega- tions. Most usually persons taken with the jerks, to obtain relief, as they said, would rise up and dance. Some would run but could not get away. Some would resist; on such the jerks were very severe. To see these proud young gentlemen and young ladies dressed in silks, jewelry and prunella, from top to toe, take the jerks, would often excite my risi- bilities. The first jerk or so you would see their fine bonnets, caps and combs fly, and so sudden would be the jerking of the head that their long, loose hair would crack almost as loud as a wagoner's whip."
Besides other amusing experiences with the jerks, Peter Cartwright relates an account of a very different nature of a man who was jerked to death, which is probably the only case on record. A company of drunk- en rowdies attended a camp-meeting on what was called the Ridge. The jerks were very prevalent. The leader of the rowdies was a very large, drinking man, who cursed the jerks and all religion. Shortly afterward he himself took the jerks and started to run, but jerked so powerfully
that he could not get away. Halting among some saplings he took a. bottle of whisky out of his pocket and swore he would drink the jerks to death, but he jerked so violently he could not get the bottle to his mouth. At length, on account of a sudden jerk, his bottle struck a sapling, was broken and his whisky spilled upon the ground. A great crowd gathered around him, and when he lost his whisky he became very much enraged and cursed and swore very profanely. At length he fetched a very violent jerk, snapped his neck, fell and soon expired.
Peter Cartwright looked upon the jerks as a judgment sent from God to bring sinners to repentance, and to show to professors of religion that God could work "with or without means, and over and above means, to the glory of His grace and the salvation of the world." Lorenzo Dow
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has also left his account of the jerks. He preached in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1805, when about 150 of his congregation were affected with the jerks. He says: "I have seen all denominations of religion exercised with the jerks, gentleman and lady, black and white, young and old without exception. I have passed a meeting-house where I observed the under- growth had been cut for camp-meeting, and from fifty to a hundred sap- lings were left, breast high, on purpose for the people to hold on by. I observed where they held on they had kicked up the earth as a horse stamping flies. I believe it does not effect those naturalists who try to get it to philosophize upon, and rarely those who are the most pious, but the lukewarm, lazy professor and the wicked are subject to it." His opinion was that the jerking was "entirely involuntary and not to be ac -. counted for on any known principle."
It has been stated above that the first manifestations of this strange phenomenon were witnessed at the old Red River Baptist Church. Some authorities, however, say that they first appeared at a sacramental meeting in East Tennessee, where several hundreds of both sexes were seized with this strange affection. The numbers that were affected at different sac- ramental and camp-meetings were various. At Cabin Creek, May, 1801, so many fell that on the third night, to prevent their being trampled upon, they were collected together and laid out in order, in two squares of the meeting-house, covering the floor like so many corpses. At Paint Creek, 200 fell, at Pleasant Point, 300, and at Cane Ridge, in August, 1801, as many as 3,000 are computed to have fallen.
This great revival lasted through the years 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1803, and resulted in the conversion of many thousands of people, though probably no very accurate estimate of the number was ever made. Per- haps its most prominent peculiarity was that it was a spontaneous out- burst of religious emotion among the masses. There was no great revival preacher like Wesley or Whitefield; there were no protracted meetings, at which by a long-continued and united effort, a revival was grad- ually brought about; but the camp-meetings were the result of the re- vival, which in an unusual manner came upon both preacher and people .. Another characteristic of the revival was this: doctrinal and dogmatica! discussions were dispensed with. Their value seems to have been for the time being entirely overlooked. The efforts for the ministers were chiefly, if not wholly devoted to the excitation of the emotions, to impressing upon the minds of the multitudes the great religious truth of the impos- sibility of escape from punishment for sin, except through repentance. and the acceptance of Christ as the Savior of the world; hence, the peo- ple labored under a powerful conviction of the necessity of reformation
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in their daily lives, which is always of infinitely greater importance than the doctrine of the decrees. The doctrines that were uttered were mainly those of Arminians and Pelagins rather than those of Calvin; doctrines which appeal more directly to the heart and the common intellect than those that were temporarily neglected. When the great excitement had died away, however, the discussion of doctrines was again renewed, to some of the features of which especially, such as were results of the re- vival itself, we shall refer after giving an explanation of the probable cause or causes of the jerks. These bodily agitations, which within the State of Tennessee were, strange as it may at first appear, confined almost exclusively to the Methodists and Presbyterians, although they were ex- perienced to some extent by the Baptists. But to the Presbyterians be- long the credit of first putting a check to and largely diminishing this wild extravagance. A minister of this denomination at a great camp- meeting at Paris, Ky., in 1803, arose, and in the strongest language denounced what he saw as extravagant and even monstrous, and imme- diately afterward, a part of the people under his leadership, took decided ground against the jerks. From that moment the wonderful movement began sensibly to decline.
Many good people of those times together with the leading divines, as has been seen above, unaccustomed as they were then to referring effects to natural causes, and supposing the church, as compared with the rest of the world, to be under the special care of Divine Providence, considered these bodily agitations to be manifestations of Divine power, looked upon them as miracles attesting the truth of religion as those on the day of Pentecost. Others believed them to be the result of the machinations of Satan, and designed by him to discredit religion gener- ally, and camp-meetings and revivals in particular, which he feared would convert the world and destroy his power. But it does not necessarily follow that because good Christian people believed them to be the effect of Divine power that they really were so, Although generally supposed then to be so, they were not by any means new or peculiar to those times. Such agitations were common and remarkably violent in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys. They bear a close resemblance to what was known as the jumping exercise in Wales, described by Dr. Haygarth in his treatise on " The Effect of the Imagination in the Cure of Bodily Diseases." Besides these instances of these exercises there were in France 200 years ago, more wonderful manifestations than any recorded as having been witnessed in Tennessee. A quaint old book written in 1741 by Rev. Charles Chauncey, a noted divine, entitled “A Wonderful Narrative and Faithful Account of the French Prophets, their
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Agitations, Ecstacies and Inspirations," states that " an account of them would be almost incredible if they had not happened in view of all France. and been known all over Europe. From the month of June, 1688, to the February following, there arose in Dauphiny and then in Vivarias (an ancient district in France, now the departments of Ardeche and Haute-Loire) 500 or 600 Protestants of both sexes who gave themselves out as prophets, and inspired with the Holy Ghost. The sect soon became numerous; there were many thousands of them. They had strange fits, and these fits came on them with tremblings and faintings, as in a swoon, which made them stretch out their arms and legs and stagger several times before they dropped down. They remained awhile in trances, and uttered all that came into their mouths. They said they saw the heavens opened, the angels, paradise and hell. When the proph- ets had for awhile been under agitation of body they began to prophesy, the burden of their prophecies being ' Amend your lives, repent ye, for the end of all things draweth nigh.' Persons of good understanding knew not what to think of it-to hear little boys and young girls (of the dregs of mankind who could not so much as read) quote many texts of Holy Scripture. The child was thirteen or fourteen months old, and kept then in a cradle, and had not of itself spoken a word, nor could it go alone. When they came in where it was the child spoke distinctly in French, with a voice small like a child but loud enough to be well heard over the room. There were numerous children of from three, four and five years old, and so on up to fiteen and sixteen, who being seized with agitations and ecstasies delivered long exhorta- tions under inspiration," etc.
Further on this book pays some attention to the Quakers: "They had indeed, the names of Quakers given them from that extraordinary shak- ing or quaking as though they were in fits or convulsions. Then the devil roared in these deceived souls in a most strange and dreadful man- ner. I wondered how it was possible some of them could live." The Rev. Mr. Chauncey in order to set at naught all pretense that there was any genuine inspiration in all the foregoing, cites many instances of the sayings and doings of Christ, and then says: "These be some of the proofs of the divine mission of Jesus Christ and His apostles. Compare the strangest and most unaccountable instances in the foregoing letter with the miracles recorded in the gospel and they sink into nothing. They carry with them, closely examined, the plain marks of enthusiasm, or collusion, or Satanic possession:"
Reference to the above paragraphs will show that Dr. Haygarth's opinion was that these exercises were due to the imagination. and that
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the Rev. Mr. Chauncey thought they were due to enthusiasm, collusion or Satanic possession. The enlightened reason of the present day would instantly discard the idea of Satanic possession, and, as nothing but deceptive appearances can be attributed to collusion, it follows that only enthusiasm remains as a rational explanation for the genuine agi- tations or ecstasies, that is supposing Mr. Chauncey to have enumerated all the causes. It will be rememberel, too, that the manifestations in this State and Kentucky were checked and diminished by the opposition, first, of a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Mr. Lyle, at Walnut Hill, in September, 1803, and then by the united opposition of others who, like him, looked upon them as monstrously extravagant. The Rev. Dr. Blythe cured a lady of his congregation by threatening to have her car- ried out of the church at the next repetition of the paroxysm, and the Doctor himself at one time felt, through sympathy, an approaching paroxysm, and was able to ward it off only by continued and determined opposition. This was the means used by the Baptists to prevent them, and they were very generally successful. The inference would therefore seem to be that under powerful emotional preaching calculated to arouse the ecstacies or the fears of the congregation, the imaginations of some would be so powerfully wrought up that the nervous system was very greatly affected, and that through sympathy others less imaginative would experience the same affliction, which the will-power could success- fully resist, except where the individual resisting was overcome by the combined influence of the mentality of numerous other people. The phenomenon was nothing more than religious enthusiasm carried to a very great excess. It was in all probability a nervous disease, having but little or no effect upon the general health. Though neither proving nor disproving the truth of religion, all such extravagances tend to the discredit of religion, and all proper means should be employed if neces- sary to prevent or discourage such folly and excess.
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It should be mentioned in this connection that those who, during the progress of the revival opposed the "bodily agitations" as extravagant and tending to the discredit of religion, were looked upon by enthusiasts as being opposed to the revival, hence the division of the people into "revivalists" and "anti-revivalists." These distinctions, however, were but of temporary duration, terminating when the revival had spent its force, Other results also followed, some of which were transient, others permanent ; some deplorable, others gratifying. "At this unhappy mo- ment, and in this unsettled state of things, when religious feeling ran high, that extravagant and (as we believe ) deluded race-the Shakers- made their appearance, and by a sanctimonious show of piety and zeal
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drew off several valuable Presbyterian preachers and a number of un- wary members, doubtless to the great injury of the cause of rational Christianity."
About the same time other sects sprang up, known by the respect- ive names of "New Lights" or "Stoneites," "Marshallites," "Schismat- ics," etc. By these "heresies" the Synod of Kentucky lost eight mem- bers: B. W. Stone, John Dunlavy, Richard McNamar, Robert Marshall, John Thomson, Huston, Rankin and David Purviance. Marshall and Thomson after a time returned to the Presbyterian faith. The "Stone- ites" or "New Lights" were a body formed mainly through the efforts of Elder Stone, after he had decided to abandon Presbyterianism altogether. This new body was called by its adherents the "Christian Church." while by outsiders it was called by the name of New Lights. They held many of the views which afterward characterized the Campbell reforma- tion, especially the famous dogma of "baptism for the remission of sins," and Elder Stone intimates in his book pretty plainly that in adopting it the "Disciples of Christ" or "Campbellites," as the followers of Alexan der Campbell were originally called, had stolen his thunder. When the Campbell reformation reached Kentucky Elders Stone and Purviance united with the reformers, and thus the Southern branch of the old "Christian Church" finally disappeared. Since then the name of Dis- ciples, or Campbellites, has been exchaged for the old name of the "Christian Church." Elders Dunlavy, McNamar, Huston and Rankin joined the Shakers.
Another but more remote result of the great revival was the expulsion from the Presbyterian Church of a portion of the membership by whom was formed the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The necessities of the Presbyterians at that time in Kentucky and Tennessee were peculiar. In 1801 a few Presbyterian clergymen formed an association which was named the Transylvania Presbytery. On account of the great numbers added to the ranks of Christians by the revival there was not a suffici- ency of educated ministers to supply the demand. This presbytery felt justified in ordaining to the ministry some young men who had not re- ceived a classical education. In 1802 the Transylvania Presbytery was divided into two sections, one of which was named the Cumberland Presbytery, and which included the Green River and Cumberland Coun- ties. In 1804 a remonstrance signed by Revs. Thomas B. Craighead, John Bowman and Samuel Donnel was sent to the Synod of Kentucky against the proceedings of the Cumberland Presbytery in several par- ticulars, amongst other things in licensing uneducated ministers. Being
#"Recollections of the West," by Rev. Lewis Garrett.
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE .. 659
taken completely by surprise, and thinking the citation of at least doubt- ful legality, the Cumberland Presbytery refused to appear before the synod when cited. At the meeting of the synod in October, 1805, a commission consisting of ten ministers and six elders was appointed to investigate the entire subject, vesting this commission with full synod- ical powers to confer with the members of the presbytery and to adjudi- cate upon their Presbyterial proceedings. Notwithstanding that the Cumberland Presbytery considered this commission vested with uncon- stitutional powers, they all, except two ministers and one elder, appeared before it at the appointed time and place. There were present ten or- dained ministers, four licentiates and four candidates. The commission after censuring the Presbytery for having received Rev. Mr. Haw into connection, and considering irregular licensures and ordinations, deter- mined to institute an examination into the qualifications of the young men to preach. This examination the young men resisted on the ground . that the Cumberland Presbytery was competent to judge of the faith and abilities of its candidates. The result of this refusal was that the com- mission adopted a resolution prohibiting all the young men in connection with that Presbytery, ordained, licensed and candidates, from preaching, exhorting or administering the ordinances until they should submit to the requisite examination. The revival preachers, however, resolved to continue preaching and administering the ordinances, and encouraged the young men to continue the exercise of their respective functions. They also formed a council, consisting of the majority of the ministers and elders of the Cumberland Presbytery, of which most of the congre- gations in the Presbytery approved. In October, 1806, an attempt was made at reconciliation with the synod, but the synod confirmed the action of the commission with reference to the re-examination of the young men, and at the same time dissolved the Cumberland Presbytery, attach- ing its members not suspended to the Transylvania Presbytery. The revival ministers determined to continue their work in the form of a council, until their case could go before the General Assembly, which met in May, 1807. At this meeting of the Assembly their case was ably presented, but that body declined to judicially decide the case. The synod, however, upon the advice of the Assembly, revised its proceed- ings, but was unable to modify them. Finally in 1809 the General As- sembly.decided to sustain the proceedings of the synod. Thus the Cum- berland Presbytery was effectually excluded from the Presbyterian Church. However, another attempt at reconciliation with the synod of Kentucky was made, their proposition being to adopt the Confession of Faith except fatality only. To this proposition the synod could not accede.
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It had been the custom of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina to ordain men to the ministry who adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith, with the exception of the idea of fatality taught therein, and the Transylvania Presbytery had also permitted ministers in their ordi- nation vows to make the same exception if they chose. Most of the Presbyterian ministers who had lent their aid in the promotion of the re- vival were men of this class. When, therefore, the acceptance in full of the Westminster Confession of Faith was required of them, they found it impossible to yield without violating their convictions as honest and con- scientious men. Thus the doctrine of fatality became an impassable bar- rier between them and the Presbyterian Church. Neither could they, on account of differences of doctrine, conscientiously unite with any other Christian body. Besides, as they regarded the Presbyterian as the most Scriptural form of church government in the world, they determined to form a Presbytery independent of the Presbyterian Church. Accord- ingly, on February 3, 1810, the Rev. Finis Ewing and Rev. Samuel King, and licentiate Ephraim McLean proceeded to the humble log resi- dence of the Rev. Samuel McAdoo, in Dickson County, Tenn., and submit- ted to him the proposed plan of forming a new and independent Presby- tery. After earnest prayer that evening until midnight, the next morn- ing he decided in favor of the proposal, and on that day, February 4, 1810, at his residence, was formed the first Presbytery of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church. Before their adjournment Ephraim McLean was ordained.
""The next meeting of the new Cumberland Presbytery was held in March, 1810. At this session it included four ordained ministers " (the four above named), "five licensed preachers: James B. Porter, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Robert Bell, James Farr and David Foster, and eight candi- dates: Thomas Calhoun, Robert Donnel, Alexander Chapman, William Harris; R. McCorkle, William Bumpass, David McLinn and William Bar- net. After a few months they were joined by the Rev. William McGee. These men were the fathers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. They adopted as their standard of theology the Westminster Confession of Faith, excepting the idea of fatality."# This "idea of fatality " was supplanted by the following particulars: First, that there are no eternal reprobates. Second, that Christ died not for a part only, but for all mankind. Third, that all infants dying in infancy are saved through Christ and the sanctification, of the Spirit. Fourth, that the Spirit of God operates on the world, or as co-extensively as Christ has made the atonement, in such manner as to leave all men inexcusable. With these
*"Origin and Doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church." -- Chrismcn.
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exceptions the Cumberland Presbyterians adopted the Westminster Con- fession of Faith, and thus was established in Tennessee a new Christian denomination, professing a system of doctrine midway between Calvin- ism and Arminianism, for further particulars respecting which the reader is referred to sectarian writings.
After encountering and overcoming numerous obstacles, this church was in a few years established on a firm foundation. At the fourth meet- ing of its Presbytery, in October, 1811, a vain attempt was made to effect a reunion with the Presbyterian Church, but this church, though then and for many years afterward willing to unite with the mother church on "proper conditions," would, rather than recede from its position and preach the doctrines of her confession of faith, prefer to maintain a dis- tinct organization, and labor on according to the best light given them. Their success in this new theological field was from the first very great and very gratifying. In 1813 the original Presbytery was divided into three Presbyteries, and in October of that year the members of these three Presbyteries met at Beech Church, Sumner County, Tenn., and formed the Cumberland Synod. At the first meeting of this synod a committee was appointed to prepare a confession of faith, discipline and catechism in conformity with the expressed principles of the church. This committee, which consisted of the Revs. Finis Ewing, William McGee, Robert Donnell, and Thomas Calhoun, reported the result of their labors to the synod in 1814, by whom their confession of faith was adopted.
The numbers of Cumberland Presbyterians continued steadily and quite rapidly to increase. In 1820 they had numerous churches not only in Tennessee, but also in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Alabama. In 1822 they had forty-six ordained ministers, and in 1826, eighty. A general assembly was then deemed necessary by a por- tion of the clergy, and the plan of a college to be located at Princeton, Ky., was adopted. In 1827 the number of ordained ministers was 114. In 1828 the synod discussed the subject of forming a general assembly, and to carry the idea into effect, divided the synod into four-those of Missouri, Green River, Franklin and Columbia. The first general as- sembly met at Princeton, Ky., in 1829. To illustrate the rapidity of the growth of this church in membership it may be stated that in 1822 there were 2,718 conversions, and 575 adult baptisms; in 1826, 3,305 conversions and 768 adult baptisms; in 1827, 4,006 conversions and 996 adult baptisms. In 1856 there were 1,200 ministers of this denomi- nation, and 130,000 members, and since that time their growth has been proportionally rapid. The college established in 1828 at Princeton, Ky., was named Columbia College.
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