USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present : together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee, V.2 > Part 28
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River, and from the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains to the Cumberland Mountains. It contained thirty-nine congregations, eleven of them in Virginia, three in North Carolina and twenty-five in Ten- nessee.
In 1797 the Presbytery of Union was set off from Abingdon, embrac- ing Rev. Hezekiah Balch, John Casson, Henderson, Gideon Blackburn and Samuel Carrick, living in Abingdon Presbytery in Tennessee, Rev. Samuel Doak, Lake and James Balch. In 1793 the city of Knox- ville was laid off and the Rev. Samuel Carrick commenced laboring there and at the Fork Church at the confluence of French Broad and Holston. four miles distant. Mr. Carrick was the first president of Blount College, retaining that position from the time of its establishment in 1784 to his death in 1809. New Providence Church was established at the present site of Maryville in 1793 or 1794, by the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, who was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Abingdon in 1792. After peace was made with the Cherokee Indians, he undertook a mission to that na- tion and by his self-sacrificing labors among them laid the foundation for the subsequent successful mission of the American Board among the Cherokees. In 1799 Greeneville Presbytery was laid off from the upper end of Union. Greeneville Presbytery was dissolved in 1804.
The Presbytery of Transylvania had charge of the churches on the Cumberland River until 1810, when the Presbytery of West Tennessee was erected with four members. In this year the Rev. Gideon Black- burn left Maryville, where he was succeeded by Rev. Isaac Anderson, who was the principal agent in establishing the Southern and Western Theological Seminary, incorporated as Maryville College in 1821. In 1811 he took charge of Harpeth Academy near Franklin and preached in five different places within a radius of fifty miles, one of those five places being Nashville, his efforts resulting in the establishment of a church in each place, these churches being erected into a Presbytery. Churches and ministers rapidly increased in Middle Tennessee. The Presbytery of Shiloh was created in 1816, from the Presbytery of Muhl- enburg in Kentucky and the Presbytery of West Tennessee, Shiloh ex- tending nearly to the southern portion of the State. In 1823 Dr. Black- burn was succeeded in Nashville by the Rev. A. D. Campbell, who was himself succeeded in 1828 by the Rev. Obadiah Jennings. In 1824 Dr. Phillip Lindsley came to Nashville as president of Cumberland College, which was changed to the University of Nashville in 1826, In 1829 the Presbytery of the Western District was organized with five ministers, and in 1830 the first Presbyterian Church in Memphis was established.
Following is given briefly the synodical relations of the different
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presbyteries which were wholly or in part in Tennessee: At the forma- tion of the General Assembly the Presbytery of Abingdon was attached to the Synod of the Carolinas, but in 1503 it was transferred to the Synod of Virginia. The Presbytery of Greeneville belonged to the Synod of the Carolinas. The Presbytery of Union belonged to this synod until 1810, when it was transferred to the Synod of Kentucky. In 1817 the Synod of Tennessee was organized, being composed of the Presbyteries of West Tennessee, Shiloh, Union and Mississippi, they being detached from the Synod of Kentucky. The Presbytery of Mis- souri was attached to the Synod of Tennessee in 1818, but transferred to the Synod of Indiana in 1826. The Presbytery of French Broad was erected in 1825, and of Holston in 1826. The Synod of West Tennessee was formed in 1826, consisting of the Presbyteries of West Tennessee, Shiloh and North Alabama, to which was added, in 1829, the Presbytery of Western District. In 1829 the Presbytery of Mississippi became & part of the Synod of Mississippi and South Alabama, and the Synod of Tennessee was composed of the Presbyteries of Abingdon, Union, French Broad and Holston. These four presbyteries with those of West Ten- nessee and Western District, representing the strength of the Presby- terian Church within the limits of the State, contained in 1830 an aggre- gate of nearly 100 churches and 71 ministers.
From this time on until the year 1861 the Presbyterian Church in Tennessee continued to grow and prosper. In that year the General Assembly at Philadelphia passed what has since been known as the Spring Resolutions, which hopelessly divided the Presbyterian Church in the United States. All of the churches in Tennessee, as was to be ex- pected, cast in their lot with the Presbyterian Church South. The his- tory of this movement with its causes, as seen by the Southern Presby- terians, is given largely in the language of the minutes of the Southern General Assembly, and is here introduced. A convention of twenty dele- gates from the various Presbyteries in the Confederate States of Amer- ica met at Atlanta, Ga., August 15, 1861, of whom Rev. J. Bardwell was from the Presbytery of Nashville. This convention said with reference to the separation of the Presbyterian Church into two bodies:
"While this convention is far from ignoring the pain of separation from many with whom it has been our delight as Presbyterians to act in former years, it cannot conceal the gratification which it experiences in the contemplation of the increased facilities for doing a great work for the church and for God afforded by the severance of our previous politi- cal and ecclesiastical relations.
"Our connection with the non-slave-holding State, it cannot be denied,
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was a great hindrance to the systematic performance of the work of .evangelization of the slave population. It is true that the Northern por- tion of the Presbyterian Church professed to be conservative, but th" opposition to our social economy was constantly increasing. Conserva- tism was only a flimsy covering for the evil intent which lay in the heart of the Northern churches. In the last General Assembly Dr. Yeomans, a former moderator of the assembly, regarded as the very em- bodiment of conservatism, did not hesitate to assign as a reason for the rejection of Dr. Spring's resolution that the adoption of it, by driving off the Southern brethren, would forever bar the Northern church against all efforts to affect a system of involuntary servitude in the South."
At a meeting of ministers and ruling elders which met at Augusta, Ga., December 4, 1861, for the purpose of organizing a General Assem- bly of the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America, the following members from Tennessee were present: Synod of Mem- phis-Chickasaw Presbytery. William V. Frierson and H. H. Kimmon; Memphis Presbytery, John M. Waddel, D. D., and J. T. Swayne; the Western District, James H. Gillespie; Synod of Nashville-Holston Presbytery, J. W. Elliott and S. B. McAdams; Knoxville Presbytery, E. O. Currey and Joseph A. Brooks: Maury Presbytery, Shepard Wells; Nashville Presbytery. R. B. McMullen, D. D., and A. W. Putnam; Tus- cumbia Presbytery. James H. Lorance and L. B. Thornton.
The title of the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America, and also the confession of faith, the catechism, the form of government, the book of discipline and the directory of worship were also adopted, only substituting the words Confederate States for United States. At this session of the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church of the Confederate States of America an address was de- livered setting forth the causes that impelled them to separate from the church of the North, in which they said:
"We should be sorry to be regarded by the brethren in any part of the world as guilty of schism. We are not conscious of any purpose to rend the body of Christ. On the contrary our aim was to permit the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.
We have separated from our brethren of the North as Abraham separated from Lot-because we are persuaded that the interests of true religion will be more effectually subserved by two independent churches. Under the circumstances under which the two countries are placed they cannot be one united body. In the first place the course of the last assembly at Philadelphia conclusively shows that should we remain together the polit- ical questions which divide us as citizens will be obtruded upon our
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church courts and discussed by Christian ministers and elders with all the acrimony, bitterness and rancor with which such questions are usually discussed by men of the world. A mournful spectacle of strife and debate would be the result. Commissioners from the Northern would meet commissioners from the Southern conferences to wrangle over the question which have split them into two conferences and involved them in fierce and bloody war. They would denounce each other on the one hand as tyrants and oppressors, and on the other as traitors and rebels. The Spirit of God would take His departure from these scenes of confusion, and leave the church lifeless and powerless-an easy prey to the sectional divisions and angry passions of its members. The characteristics of the man and the citizen will prove stronger than the charity of the Christian. We cannot condemn a man in one breath as unfaithful to the most solemn earthly interests of his country and his race, and com- mend him in the next as a true and faithful servant of God. If we dis- trust his patriotism our confidence is apt to be very measured in his piety. The only conceivable condition, therefore, upon which the church of the North and the South could remain together as one body with any prospect of success, is the vigorous exclusion of the questions and passions of the former from its halls of debate. The provinces of the church and State are perfectly distinct. The State is a society of rights. the church is the society of the redeemed. The former aims at social order, the latter at spiritual holiness. The State looks to the visible and outward, the church to the invisible and inward. The power of the church is exclusively spiritual, that of the State includes the exercise of force. The constitution of the church is a divine relation, the constitu- tion of the State must be determined by human reason and the course of events.
"Had these principles been sturdily maintained by the Assembly of Philadelphia, it is possible that the ecclesiastical separation of the North and South might have been deferred for years. But alas for the weak- ness of man those golden visions were soon dispelled. The first thing that led our presbyteries to look the question of separation seriously in the face, was the course of the assembly in venturing in determining as a court of Jesus Christ, which it did by necessary implication, the true interpretation of the Constitution of the United States as to the kind of government it intended to form. A political theory was to all intents and purposes propounded which made secession a crime, the seceding States rebellious and the citizens who obeyed them traitors. We say nothing here as to the righteousness or honesty of these decrees. What
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we maintain is that whether right or wrong the church had no right to make them. She transcended her sphere and usurped the duties of the State. The assembly, driven from its ancient moorings, was tossed to and fro by the waves of populace; like Pilate it obeyed the clamor of the multitude, and though acting in the name of Jesus, it kissed the scepter and bowed to the mandates of Northern frenzy.
" Though the immediate occasion of separation was the course of the General Assembly at Philadelphia in relation to the General Government and the war, there was another ground on which the independent organi- zation of the Southern church could be scripturally maintained. The unity of the church does not require a formal bond of union among all the congregations of believers throughout the earth. It does not de- mand a vast imperial monarchy like that of Rome, nor a strictly council like that to which the complete development of Presbyterianism would naturally give rise. As the unity of the human race is not disturbed by its division into countries and nations, so the unity of the spiritual king- dom of Christ is neither broken nor impaired by separation and division into various church constitutions, and so forth."
The same assembly ventured to lay before the Christian world their views of slavery, and their conclusion was that the church had no right to preach to the South the extirpation of slavery any more than they had to preach to the monarchies of Europe and the despotisms of Asia the doctrine of equality, unless it could be shown that slavery was a sin. For if slavery were not a sin, then it was a question for the State to settle. The assembly then attempted to prove that slavery was not at variance with the Bible, and therefore not a sin. The argument on this point can not be here given, but it was the same that was always relied upon to prove that slavery was not necessarily a sin. Thus was the Pres- byterian Church of the South launched upon its individual existence.
The minutes of the General Assembly do not give any statistics of value previous to 1863. The fund for church extension was then but $142.75, of which $100 had been appropriated to a church in Tennessee, and $30 to one in Georgia. In this year according to the best estimate that can be made there were 5,830 members of the Presbyterian Church in Tennessee. In 1865 the name of the church was changed to the Presbyterian Church of the United States. Thus the Spring resolutions compelled the organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church. The necessary result of political legislation by the General Assembly of 1861 was to force the entire Southern constituency out of that connection. The Southern Assembly earnestly asserted that the church was a non- secular, non-political institution, that it was wholly spiritual in its nature
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and mission, and entirely separate from and independent of the State, and this position it has ever since maintained. This conception of the true nature of the Church of Christ has caused the Southern Presbyte- rian Church to reject all overtures made by the Northern General As- sembly looking toward a reunion, for both Old and New School Presby- terians in the North (a distinction scarcely known in Tennessee) per- sisted in the utterance of political doctrines, which, whether true or false. they were inhibited from uttering by the Bible and by their own statute law. These utterances, which the Southern church regards illegal, re- main unrepealed and upon the records, preventing the two churches from uniting into one. No disavowal of them has been made, as of words in- considerately uttered in times of excitement, and until such action shall be taken by the Northern church it is improbable that a reunion will ever be effected. In 1866 in Presbytery of Memphis there were 1,184 communicants; the Presbytery of the Western District, 1,058: Presby- tery of Holston, 987; Presbytery of Knoxville, 123; Presbytery of Nash- ville, 1,320, and in the Presbytery of Alabama. 1,164. Total, 5,836.
In 1870 the following were the number of communicants: Presby- tery of Memphis, 1,913; Presbytery of the Western District, 1.034: Presbytery of Holston, 1,571; Presbytery of Knoxville, 856; Presbytery of Nashville, 2,074: Presbytery of North Alabama, including 4 churches in Alabama, 12 in Mississippi and 23 in Tennessee, 1,804; a total of 9,252. In 1880 the following were the statistics: Presbytery of Mem- phis, 2,041; Presbytery of the Western District, 939; Presbytery of Columbia, 1,713; Presbytery of Holston, 2,030; Presbytery of Knoxville, 1,227; Presbytery of Nashville, 3,388; a total of 11,338. In 1885 the statistics were as follows: Presbytery of Memphis, communicants, 2,055): churches, 36; Sunday-school scholars, 1,448. Presbytery of the West- ern District, communicants, 1,375; churches 25; Sunday-school schol- ars, 533. Presbytery of Columbia, communicants, 1.599; churches, 25; Sunday-school scholars, 1,061. Presbytery of Holston, communicants. 2,136; churches, 38; Sunday-school scholars, 1.241. Presbytery of Knoxville, communicants, 1,314; churches, 25; Sunday-school scholars, 1,098. Presbytery of Nashville, communicants, 3,393; churches, 34; Sunday-school scholars, 2,673. Total communicants, 11,872; churches, 183; Sunday-school scholars, 8,054.
The Baptists also profited by the great revival, but perhaps not to the same or a proportionate extent, as did the Methodists. They were in Tennessee as early perhaps as any other denomination. In 1781 they had six organized churches holding relations with an association in North Carolina, which, with a few others, were in 1786 formed into the
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Holston Association, the first association formed in the State. Among the first Baptist ministers in East Tennessee were James Keel, Thomas Murrell, Matthew Talbot, Isaac Barton, William Murphy, John Chastine, Tidence Lane and William Reno. These ministers usually settled on farms and made their own living by tilling the soil or by teaching school, preaching Sundays, or at night in schoolhouses, in private houses, in im- provised meeting-houses or in the open air, as the case might be. In 1790 the Holston Association had 889 members, and in 1800 it had 37 churches and 2,500 members. In 1802 the Tennessee Association was organized in territory in the immediate neighborhood of Knoxville. Some of the ministers connected with this new organization were Duke Kimbrough, Elijah Rogers, Joshua Frost, Amos Hardin, Daniel Layman and William Bellew. In 1817 Powell's Valley Association was organ- ized with 12 churches. In 1822 Hiwassee Association, consisting of 10 churches, was organized, which, in 1830, was divided into two associa- tions, the new. organization being named Sweetwater Association, and be- ·ing composed of 17 churches and 1,100 members.
In Middle Tennessee the first Baptist Church was organized it is be- lieved in 1786, by Joseph Grammer, on Red River. In 1791 the "Red River Baptist Church" was founded on the Sulphur Fork of Red River. This and other churches in existence at that time were organized into the Mero District Association. Soon afterward other churches were or- ganized in the vicinity of Nashville: Mill Creek Church, four miles south of the city, Rev. James Whitsitt, pastor; Richland Creek Church, six miles west, Rev. John De La Hunte (afterward Dillahunty), pastor, and another church a little further west, of which the Rev. Garner McConnico was pastor. On account of internal dissensions this association was dis- solved, and in 1803 the Cumberland Association was formed. When this association became too large it was divided into two, the new organi- zation being named the Red River Association. In 1810 the Concord Association was formed, its territory having Nashville for its center. In 1822 this association was divided and Salem formed with twenty-seven churches. Among the ministers active in this part of the State in addi- tion to those mentioned above were the following: Joseph Dorris, Daniel Brown, John Wiseman, Joshua Sester, John Bond and Jesse Cox.
Up to this time there had been but little if any trouble in the church respecting doctrines. There was very general if not universal assent to the great fundamental doctrines of the church, which were strictly and with some of the ministers hyper-Calvinistic. These were particular and unconditional election and reprobation, that Christ died only for the elect. that none of the elect could by any possibility be lost, and that none of
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the non-elect could by any possibility be saved. But now the doctrine of election and the extent of the atonement, whether it was general or limited in its design, began to agitate the church. A similar contro- versy occurred in castern Kentucky about 1780, resulting in a division of the denomination into regular and separate Baptists. The result in Tennessee was the same, only more widely felt. The origin of this con- troversy in Tennessee seems to have been as follows: Elder Reuben Ross, who had emigrated from North Carolina in 1807, settling near Port Royal, Montgomery County, and preaching mainly in that and Stewart County for many years, during his early ministry became much troubled and perplexed over the doctrines of election and predestination. He could not reconcile with his own ideas of justice the thought that God in the plenitude of His wisdom and goodness had doomed to ever- lasting misery and to eternal bliss separate portions of the human race, from before the beginning of time, without reference to their merits or de- serts, simply because it was His own will and pleasure so to decree. His study of the sacred Scriptures led him to the opposite conclusion. The sacred writings declare that God's tender mercies are over all His works, that He is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that fears Him and works righteousness is accepted of Him.
Upon his arrival in Tennessee Elder Ross found his fellow Baptists entertaining rigid Calvinistic views with great tenacity, and although out of respect for the opinions of the many great and good men who had lived and died in that faith he had not publicly opposed their doc- trinal teachings, yet he could not but doubt their correctness, and in order to fully satisfy his judgment of the Biblical soundness of his own views he brought to bear on the study of this question all the faculties of his mind, using all the means in his possession to the investigation of a sub- ject which he felt to be one of the most important in the entire range of Christian theology. In the Old Testament no passage bearing upon this subject is more remarkable perhaps than that found in Ezekiel, chapter xviii, verses 21 to 32 inclusive. These various texts seemed to him to prove conclusively that man's salvation is conditional instead of uncondi- tional, and the more he studied the Bible the more settled was he in the conviction that this is the true position. The underlying principle of ends accomplished by the adoption of means is everywhere visible in na- ture and the world, and using this as an analogy Elder Ross had his con- viction strengthened that salvation, if obtained at all, is obtained or achieved by or through etforts put forth by ourselves, or that it is condi- tioned on the employment of proper means. The first sermon in which this doctrine was clearly and distinctly enunciated was preached in July, 1817,
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at the funeral of Miss Eliza Norfleet, who had died a short time previously at Port Royal, Tenn. This sermon was a remarkable one, not only for the deep impression made on the minds of the auditors, but also for the im- portant consequences which followed. The substance of the sermon was that although the human race is in a state of alienation from God on account of disobedience and rebellion against His laws, yet Christ, by His suffering and death had made an atonement sufficient for the sins of the whole world; that salvation is free to all who will accept the terms. repentance, faith, love and obedience, to become followers of the meek and lowly Jesus; that while the Holy Spirit is given to influence men to believe in Christ, yet He never operates on the human soul in such a way or with such power as to destroy its free agency, and hence with man is left the fearful responsibility of determining whether he will be saved or lost, that the election spoken of in the Bible is not uncondi- tional, but always has reference to character and conduct, etc.
Having finished his sermon he descended from the pulpit or platform erected in a grove of shady trees, and without exchanging a word with any one returned directly to his home, twenty miles distant. His auditors generally approved of the sentiments expressed in his sermons. but a small group of elderly, dignified and gray-haired men, who could clearly see the tendency of such preaching, earnestly attempted to decide on what course it was best to follow. At length it was decided to send Elder Fort to expostulate with Elder Ross upon the strangeness of his views, and to persuade him, if possible, to reconsider his position and save his church from the great reproach that must otherwise come upon it of falling into the grievous heresy of Arminianism. Elder Fort en- tered upon the execution of his mission, saw Elder Ross, and returned to his friends converted to the views of Elder Ross. The new views spread quite rapidly among the Baptist Churches, as all new views upon re- ligious doctrines are sure to spread more or less widely. whether scrip- tural or unscriptural, true or false.
The preaching of the new doctrines went on. In some churches the majority of the members were in their favor; in some the majority were in favor of the old, while in others the members were about equally divided. If any one, dissatisfied with the new or old doctrines preached in his church, desired to sever his connection therewith, he was given a letter of dismission to any other church holding views similar to his own. In 1823 Christopher Owen, a worthy member of Spring Creek Church. of which Elder Ross was then pastor, preferred charges against him of preaching unscriptural doctrine, but as the church decided by a unanimous vote that the charge could not be sustained, it was withdrawn. In the
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