USA > Virginia > Prince Edward County > Prince Edward County > A history of Prince Edward County, Virginia: from its formation in 1753, to the present > Part 15
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Chaplain J. M. Robeson, who was later wounded in battle.
Lieutenant W. P. Hazelgrove.
Charles R. Bugg.
Robert E. Warnick.
John N. Garland, killed in action, October 1918.
Robert B. Rogers.
Guy Lancaster, wounded in battle.
Junius Wilson.
March Moffett.
Haynes Lancaster.
In July, 1918, four more stars were added for Roy Moffett. Joseph A. Poole.
M. B. Coyner.
C. F. Walker.
In September, 1918, another star was added for
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Robert W. Bugg, member of the Student Training Corps, of Hampden-Sidney College.
Mr. Holbrook resigned on May 1, 1920, to take charge of the new mission work in the suburbs of Norfolk.
Upon the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Holbrook, the Ves- try called the Rev. Frederick Diehl, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, who ac- cepted the call, and began his second rectorship of the Farm- ville Church on October 1, 1920.
The value of the property, including both the Church and the rectory, is set down as $19,000.
The membership, in September, 1921, was given as 95, and the total income from all sources, as $3,126.00.
The following are the officers for the current year, 1921:
Vestrymen : Charles F. Bugg; George M. Robeson; J. L. Bugg: J. A. Garland; A. T. Gray; Fred. M. Bugg; W. C. Newman.
Senior Warden : Charles F. Bugg.
Junior Warden : George M. Robeson.
Treasurer : J. L. Bugg.
Secretary : J. A. Garland.
1
Sunday School Superintendent: J. L. Bugg.
President, Women's Auxiliary: Mrs. W. C. Duvall.
President, St. John's Guild : Mrs. J. A. Garland.
President, Junior Auxilary : Miss Ilma Von Schilling.
President, Little Helpers: Miss Virgilia Bugg.
Organist : Mrs. Roberta Large.
Choir Mother: Mrs. Munro Gordon Jones.
President, Ladies' Aid Society : Mrs. Carrie Taliaferro.
Sunday School Teachers: Miss Virgilia Bugg; Misses Edith, Maud and Carrie Taliaferro; Miss Mary E. Peck; Mrs. R. E. Duvall. The Rev. Frederick Diehl teaches the Bible Class.
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THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY
Methodism was slow in entering the State. following after the Episcopal, the Presbyterians, the Quakers, and the Baptists had obtained a more or less secure footing in Vir- ginia.
To the Rev. Robert Williams belongs the honor of planting Methodism in Virginia. He was born in England. He had labored extensively in Ireland. He received from Mr. Wesley a license to preach under the authority of the regular Missionaries in the new American Mission field. He was ex- tremely poor, so that his passage to America was paid for him by a Mr. Ashton, who came over in the same vessel.
Williams landed at New York in the fall of 1769. He thus came in advance of Messrs. Boardman and Pillmoor. He continued his labors in the city of New York until the close of the summer of 1771. In the meantime Boardman and Pill- moor had arrived in the new world, having landed at Glou- cester Point, in New Jersey, on the 24th of October, 1769, from whence they went to Philadelphia. Williams visited Philadelphia and received a general license to travel and preach, from the hands of Pillmoor. After a visit with Strawbridge, the father of Methodism in Maryland, he, in the spring of 1771, returned to New York city.
The date of the beginning of Williams' work in Virginia, is 1772, when early in that year, he landed at Norfolk, and at once opened his mission. He preached his first sermon at the door of the Court House in that city. He mounted the steps and sang a hymn, which resulted in a curious crowd gathering to see what it was all about. The hymn finished, he knelt where he was and prayed. He then announced his text and proceeded to preach to a most disorderly crowd of people, quite unused to such a spectacle. Owing to the ex- treme plainness of his diction, he was charged with "swear-
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ing." This grew out of his frequent use of the words: "hell," "devil," "damned," etc. He was voted "crazy" by the frivol- ous people who heard him.
However, a few hearts were touched, and these sincere people received him into their homes and cared for him.
"The tree of Methodism was thus planted in an uncon- genial soil, but, watered from on high, it struck its roots deep, and put forth goodly branches, bearing much fruit."
After this beginning in Norfolk, Williams went over to Portsmouth and, under a couple of persimmon trees, preached the first Methodist sermon ever heard in that town. Among those converted under his ministry in Norfolk, was Isaac Luke, a citizen of Portsmouth, and a member of the Epis- copal Church, who invited him to come over to Portsmouth, and who befriended him in his work in the two cities.
As to how long Williams continued his labors in Nor- folk and Portsmouth, we have no accurate information, but, in the fall of 1772, he was joined in his work there by Wil- liam Watters, who accompanied him on his return from a visit to Maryland. On their journey from Baltimore to Nor- folk, the two held a meeting at King William Court House, in the home of a Mr. Martin who had kindly entertained them overnight. Along the entire route of three hundred miles, they preached at every convenient place and opportunity, finding everywhere an appalling lack of "experimental relig- ion." They were the first Methodist preachers who ever passed through this part of the new world.
Weary and worn with toil, they at length reached Nor- folk to take up again the work begun there. They found the field a most difficult one. After spending the winter of 1772 in Norfolk and vicinity, Williams went, in February, of 1773, to Petersburg, and introduced Methodism officially into that town. He was invited there by two citizens of the place
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whose names will ever remain identified with the beginnings of Methodism there; Gressett Davis and Nathaniel Young. As elsewhere, so here, the other denominations were found fairly well entrenched. Williams preached his first sermon in the theatre, which had been opened for religious services through the instrumentality of Davis and Young.
After laboring in, and about the town for several weeks with but little to encourage him, Williams was furnished a horse by his two young friends and set out, in true Methodist fashion, to preach in the country round about the city. In a short time a generous revival rewarded his work in the country, which was destined to spread Methodism over .every part of the State of Virginia and North Carolina. In this part of the State, Williams was much encouraged in his work by the sympathy of Archibald McRoberts and Dever- eux Jarratt, ministers of the Episcopal Church.
On the 14th of July, 1773, the first American Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, assembled at Philadel- phia, when the whole number of members was reported as 1160, viz: New York 180, Philadelphia 180, New Jersey 200, Maryland 500, Virginia 100. Six circuits were formed and ten preachers appointed. Virginia appears in this entry : "Norfolk, Richard Wright; Petersburg, Robert Williams."
The whole of 1773 was spent by Williams in preaching and forming Societies in that part of the State south of Petersburg, during which time the Lee family was received into the Society; Jesse Lee being a conspicuous representa- tive of that noble family.
On the 26th of September, 1775, this splendid "soldier of the Cross" entered into "that rest that remaineth for the people of God." In his "Journal" Bishop Francis Asbury thus refers to the event : "Tuesday 26, Brother Williams died. The Lord does all things well; perhaps Brother Williams was in danger of being entangled in wordly business, and
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might thereby have injured the cause of God. So he was taken away from the evil." On Thursday, Bishop Asbury preached his funeral sermon. Every trace of the burial place of this pioneer of American Methodism has been lost. Not even the rudest stone is left to mark his resting place.
Robert Williams preached the first Methodist sermon on Virginia soil; formed the first Methodist Society; printed the first Methodist book; was the first Methodist Minister to marry; aided in building the first Methodist Church build- ing; made out the plan for the first Methodist circuit; was the first Methodist minister to "locate;" the first to die; the first to be buried in Virginia soil; and was the first Metho- dist preacher to enter heaven from Virginia! A pioneer in things Virginian, surely !
At the Christmas Conference, held in Baltimore, Decem- ber 25, 1784, the Methodist Societies definitely took the form of a Church organization, in the strict and proper sense, with the title, "The Methodist Episcopal Church." Francis As- bury and Thomas Coke were, at this time, elected to the office of "Superintendents of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America," the first in a long and honorable line.
The "O'Kelly Schism" that had so long agitated the body, and that finally culminated in the "Christian Church;" the body possessing the proper legal right to the use of that title; came to a head at the Baltimore Conference of Novem- ber 1st, 1792, when O'Kelly and his immediate adherents withdrew from the Conference to establish the "Republican Methodist Church," as it was at the first called. In 1801, O'Kelly changed the name of his party, by formally re- nouncing the first name chosen and announcing the new name to be "The Christian Church."
The question of slavery agitated the Methodist Church long before it became a national question under the impulse of northern propaganda, and many efforts were made by the
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young Church to stamp it out, at least in as far as it affected Methodists. The movement that ultimately resulted in the emancipation of the slaves, was in reality a southern move- ment, in which the Methodists had an high and honorable part, later taken up by northern agitators. At the annual Con- ference, held at New Bern, N. C., February 10, 1813, the fol- lowing series of resolutions were adopted :
"1. The preachers shall instruct the colored people in the principles and duties of religion.
2. To search out and pay particular attention to all the classes of colored people in the bounds of their stations and circuits.
3. If any member of the M. E. Church be found guilty of carrying on, directly or indirectly, the trade of slave speculation, he or she shall be expelled the Church." Bishops Asbury and McKendree presided over this Conference.
The first instance on record of the elevation of a colored man to ministerial orders by the Virginia Conference, oc- curred at the Petersburg Conference of the 18th of March, 1824, when David Payne, of Richmond, a free man of color, was graduated to the office of Deacon. Payne subsequently went to Liberia as a missionary, where he died at his post of duty.
Methodism was slow in taking root in Prince Edward County. While great progress was being made in virtually all the surrounding counties, Prince Edward seemed to re- main comparatively neglected until a rather late date. This was partly owing to the fact that in the east and west journies of the Apostle of Methodism, Francis Asbury, and his co-workers, the line of travel seemed to take them either to the north, through Dinwiddie, Amelia, Buckingham; or to the south, through Brunswick, Lunenburg, Charlotte. What-
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ever may have been the cause, it remains a fact that Prince Edward County appears but rarely in the earlier records of the Church. In 1805, on their journey to the Conference at Granville County, N. C., the two veterans, Francis As- bury and Richard Whatcoat, passed through Prince Edward County, doubtless exhorting the saints on their way. At a later date, while Presiding Elder of the Meherrin District, the celebrated John Early held a remarkable Camp Meeting at Prospect, where, it is said, that in seven days about one thousand persons professed conversions.
ยท In a mere sketch of such a mighty movement, it is ob- viously quite out of the question to go into details, hence the progress of Methodism in the County will be best followed through the brief historical sketches of the local churches of the county.
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THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH, FARMVILLE
The following sketch of the early history of the M. E. Church, Farmville, was made by the Rev. Staunton Field, November 7, 1846, and is to be found in an old Registry Book of the Church :
"A brief history of the rise and progress of Methodism in this place may not be without interest and importance for future reference when the present generation shall have passed away.
Up to the year 1833 this was merely a casual preaching place for the Methodist Ministry. In that year, under the administration of the Gospel, by that evangelical and zealous Minister, the Rev. William B. Rowzer, who had charge of the Prince Edward Circuit, the first class was formed, and Meth- odism formally introduced and established. From this time Farmville appeared upon the plan of the Prince Edward Circuit, up to the "Great Revival," as it was called, of 1837.
It seems from the best information we can obtain, though it appears somewhat remarkable, that the first house of wor- ship was commenced in 1831, and completed in '32; a year previous to the formation of the first class. The Rev. John Early was at this time Presiding Elder of the District, then included in the Lynchburg District, through whose active in- strumentality, no doubt, the building was commenced and finished.
In the year 1837, as above mentioned, under the ministry of the Rev. John W. Childs; Dr. A. Penn, Presiding Elder, it pleased Almighty God to visit the infant Church here, with a powerful and sweeping revival. The meeting was con- tinued from day to day successively, for several weeks, and resulted in the conversion of many souls. It may be recorded as a remarkable fact, that the store doors were closed, and
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business generally suspended, during the exercises of the meeting. This circumstance will go to show the extraordi- nary character of that revival, and is a lasting memorial of the deep and pervading interest which must have been experi- enced by the whole community. Many who are on their way to Heaven, and some who have already reached that happy place, will, throughout the dateless periods of eternity, look back upon that occasion as the brightest era in their existence.
This revival so fully and firmly established Methodism here, that the brethren, believing that it would be important to its further prosperity and success, requested to be set off as a station, distinct from the Circuit, which was accordingly done in the following year, and the Rev. Jesse Powers was appointed the first stationed Minister in this place. By his zeal and piety as a Christian Minister, and especially as a Pastor, the station was sustained, and abundantly blessed of the Lord.
The following year, 1839, the church being too small, in the estimation of many, and without a suitable place for the accommodation of the colored people, it was thought advis- able that a new and more commodious house should be erected. Accordingly, the present house of worship was commenced in '39 and completed in 1840.
The Rev. George W. Blain, of precious memory, suc- ceeded Bro. Powers, and at the Conference of 1840, which assembled in this place, was returned in charge of the station. With alternate successes and reverses, the cause of Metho- dism moved on, without any great display of Divine power in the conversion of souls, up to the year '42, at which time, under the administration of the Rev. Jacob Manning, Pastor, and the Rev. H. B. Cowles, Presiding Elder, the Church was again visited with a "season of refreshing from the pres- ence of the Lord." Many valuable members of the Church were brought in at that time, and many, we trust, will remain pillars in the temple of the Lord, to go out no more forever.
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The Rev. Thomas H. Jones succeeded Bro. Manning in the charge of the station. Nothing of special interest oc- curred during this year. There were some few conversious and accessions to the Church. The Rev. J. L. Knight was the next preacher in charge of the station for the year 1845. There was no revival this year and no incident which we have gathered up worth recording. These are some of the most prominent circumstances and events connected with the growth of Methodism in this place, set forth hastily and in the most simple and unvarnished manner, and may serve, if for no other purpose, to give some data upon which to con- struct a more comprehensive and extended account, by some more able or competent pen."
Farmville, Nov. 7, 1846.
S. FIELD,
In connection with the notable fact, cited by the above historian, that the first building was erected before the formal organization of the Church, the transfer of the property, lot 19, in the plan of the Village of Farmville, from James Madison and Susan his wife, to Thomas Scott, John A. Scott, John Clarke, Nathaniel Jackson, Charles Venable, Joseph E. Venable, and Thomas Almond, Trustees of the M. E. Church, South, is recorded, under date of February 6, 1833, in Book 21, at Page 183, in the Registry Office in Farmville. The consideration was the sum of $150. The Church has re- tained the original site to the present day.
The membership in 1846 had reached the respectable total of 118, many of whom, however, were colored. Both white and colored were members of the same Churches in those days. Discipline was very rigorously enforced as evidenced by notations set opposite many names, such as: "Expelled for dancing;" "Expelled for intemperance;" "Withdrawn in preference to standing a trial."
The following note occurs during the ministry of the Pev. Frank Stanley, 1860: "I leave Farmville tomorrow for
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Conference, and have transferred from the Richmond Church Advocate, my letter of 22nd of last March, and have only time to record my sense of gratitude to God and my thanks to all the members of this Station, and, indeed to all the people, for their uniform kindness to myself and family; for the ample support they have given us, notwithstanding they have this year expended about $4,000 in improving the Church, have paid the Conference Collection, and given liberally for missions and to the poor. This has been one of the happiest and most successful years of my ministry. This book will show a large increase of members. May God make them per- fect in holiness and keep them all blameless unto the Day of Christ. I pray my (unknown) successor not to let the numerous Class of colored Catechumens be neglected."
FRANK STANLEY, Farmville, 14, Nov., 1860.
The membership at this time was 155.
LIST OF MINISTERS WITH NOTES
1838. Jesse H. Powers.
1839. George M. Blain.
1840. Benjamin B. Miles.
1841. Jacob Manning.
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1842. Thomas H. Jones.
1843. Wm. J. Norfleet. Deceased, Jany. 1881.
1844. J. L .. Knight.
1845. Stanton Field.
1846. Wm. H. Rohr.
1847.
J. C. Garlick.
1848. J. D. Blackwell.
1849. J. C. Newberry.
1850. Josephus Anderson.
1851. Josephus Anderson.
1852. Oscar Littleton.
1853. Charles H. Hall. Died, 1872.
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1854. Wm. W. Berry.
1855. Joseph J. Edwards.
1856. Joseph S. R. Clarke.
1857. Joseph S. R. Clarke.
1858. John S. Rees. Died in 1861.
1859. Frank Stanley.
1860. Nelson Head.
1861. Nelson Heal. Died in Baltimore Conference 1903.
1862-1865. Wm. E. Judkins.
1865-1866. Jacob H. Proctor.
1866-1867. C. C. Pearson. Left the Church for Epis- copal.
1867-1869. Oscar Littleton. Died July 31, 1910. Buried at Farmville. For 60 years a member of the Virginia Con- ference.
1869-1870. Wm. E. Edwards. Died in 1902.
1870-1872. F. M. Edwards.
1872-1873. George M. Langhorne.
1873-1876. James F. Twitty, D. D.
1876-1880. Leonidas Rosser, D. D.
1880-1982. Joshua Hunter.
1882-1886. Wesley C. Vaden.
1886-1889. W. E. Evans, D. D.
1889-1890. T. McN. Simpson, D. D.
1891-1894. James Cannon, Jr., D. D. Later Bishop. 1894. R. H. Bennett, D. D. (3 months.)
1894-1895. G. W. Wray.
1895-1899.
T. McN. Simpson, D. D.
1899-1901. J. S. Hunter.
1901-1903. T. N. Potts, D. D.
1903-1905. J. B. Winn, D. D.
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1905-1909. S. C. Hatcher, D. D.
1909. W. T. Green.
1910-1911. W. R. Proctor.
1911-1912. W. G. Porter.
1912-1913. S. A. Donahoe.
1914-1916. G. H. Lambeth, D. D.
1916-1919. Jno. T. Bosman, D. D.
1919. G. H. Spooner, D. D.
This Church had in the various branches of the service during the Great War, forty men.
Captain H. H. Hunt went overseas as Captain of a Com- pany from Farmville, served at the front and was made Major.
Dr. C. B. Crute volunteered, June 21st, 1917, and was appointed 1st Lieutenant in the Medical Department, and was attached to the British Forces overseas and was promoted to be Captain. He saw service in France, Belgium, Italy, Egypt and India. After two years service overseas, he re- turned to America, and was stationed at Fort Whipple Bar- racks in Arizona, and later was transferred to Fort Mc- Pherson, in Georgia, from whence he received his discharge and returned to Farmville to re-enter his profession as a private citizen.
Dr. T. G. Hardy volunteered in June, 1917, and saw ser- vice overseas as 1st Lieutenant in the Medical Department in France, both at the front and in hospital work. He was discharged in January 1919, and resumed his private practice in Farmville.
Dr. J. S. Burger enlisted in the Medical Department with the rank of 1st Lieutenant, and served at Camp Meade throughout the war.
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Paul Barrow enlisted in the Navy and died in Hampton Roads of pneumonia.
Walker Paulett enlisted as private, and was promoted to be 1st Lieutenant and, in the fight in the Argonne Woods, led his company for many days with conspicuous bravery.
Edward Davis enlisted as a private, was promoted to be Sergeant and, when all his superior officers were killed, wounded or captured, led his Company, reduced to a hand- ful, for days in the thickest of the fight.
Emerson Jarman volunteered early and was assigned to the regular army, and promoted to be 1st Lieutenant. He did not get overseas.
Joseph Jarman, James Cowan, Mack Cowan, F. Law- rence Orange, James Lipscomb, Henry Wood, Zenas Chap- pell, Walker Drummeller, and Howard Whitlock, saw ser- vice in the ranks overseas.
Willard Hart saw service overseas as an expert marks- man with the Marines.
T. A. Gray, Jr., C. B. Collyer, R. H. Paulett, and Gates Richardson, saw service with the Aviation Corps, but did not get overseas.
John Foster saw service with the Wireless Department overseas.
Walter Gray got as far as England, but did not succeed in getting to the trenches.
E. A. Chappell, J. H. Lewis, Jr., F. L. Carter, Harry Mottley, John A. Morris, Wallace Duvall, Lewis Whitlock, and C. B. Cunningham saw service in the homeland.
Womack Gray was detained in America in preparation for work in the Medical Department.
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O. H. Whitten saw service in the navy but did not suc- ceed in getting overseas.
Among the Student Army Training Corps, were W. P. Venable, Jr., J. B. Wall, Jr., Archer Paulett, Reginald Ven- able, and Ernest Garland.
Judge J. M. Crute, from whose article this sketch is made, says: "At this late date (March 19, 1920), with all the records turned in, it is impossible to give a correct report. Several of those across the sea were promoted to Sergeants and Corporals, who enlisted as privates."
Dr. T. G. Hardy, Dr. J. L. Jarman, Mrs. J. L. Jarman, Mrs. T. G. Hardy, E. S. Martin, and Dr. J. M. Lear, were prominent in the work of the Red Cross in the county. The work of Mrs. Jarman with the women of the county was a notable contribution to the work of the Prince Edward Chapter of the American Red Cross.
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THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH, PROSPECT .- OLIVE BRANCH CIRCUIT
This is the oldest M. E. Church organization, in what is now Prince Edward county and is composed of two preach- ing appointments in the county, viz: Prospect and Olive Branch. It is the mother of Methodism in the county. Orig- inally it was attached to the Lynchburg Circuit.
The Church organization was in existence for some con- siderable time before the property was secured, as a meet- ing house was already upon the land purchased for Church purposes by the Society in Prospect, July, 14, 1820. The land then purchased consisted of one acre and was conveyed by Robert Venable to Charles Venable, William Johnston, David Anderson, Jesse Bradley and Samuel Venable, in trust for the M. E. Church, for Church purposes. (See Deed Book 117, page 139, in the Clerk's Office at Farmville.)
Approximately the same situation obtained at Olive Branch appointment, a meeting house being already upon the property, and in use for Church purposes, prior to the actual acquisition of the land by the Society. The property, one acre and building, was conveyed by Benjamin Boatwright and his wife, Mary W. Boatwright, to Rev. William Johnson, Rev. James McNeal, Edwin Gray, Thomas Andrews, Joel Elam, John C. Owen, Charles W. Wilkerson, James Martin and Charles Venable, in trust for the M. E. Church for relig- ious purposes, July 9, 1829. (See Deed Book 20, page 242, in the Clerk's Office at Farmville.) An additional piece of property was subsequently obtained for the use of the So- ciety, adjoining the first parcel, from the same parties, January 17, 1834, making up the present property. (See Deed Book 21, page 196, in the Clerk's Office at Farmville.)
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