flllliillil ,:/'.::::.>■■ I-.: 1, I i wiiitiii»wwiiMiwiiiiM«iiaiMii»iiaiiHiiiiiiini«iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii HISTORY METHO DIS ,,■»!_■ f .■*... ■ 1 — * .,$., . «. Ji. \ / .A-^ JL jfr^ " "~~ ~ "' I i*^7 > Columbia ©ntoenrttp mttjeCttpofitogork THE LIBRARIES Bequest of Frederic Bancroft 1860-1945 wm ^VVv^.VtLcmv^ ( lcrv^u>; ^o-tW^ h >\Wv.\Ar Ci ^J^^L r> (Dc^vt H-^vob o~y. 113. THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA METHODISM FROM 1786 to 1866 BY Rev. George G. Smith, D.D. Atlanta, Ga. : A. B. CALDWELL, Publisher. 1913 r ?3 COPYRIGHTED, 1913 BY R. O. SMITH '/ £ PREFACE This volume is largely built on the "History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida," published thirty years ago. That history ended at the beginning of the separate existence of the M. E. Church, South. It has been my design to give a view of the succeeding period. I have, however, had no occasion to change materially the current history to eighteen hundred and forty-five, and so have — with some changes — simply transferred to these pages what was found in my first book. The sketches of the members of the Conference are necessarily very short, and to some extent unsat- isfactory, but to make them fuller would be to make the book too large. Vineville, 1912. Rev. George Gilman Smith, D. D. By Bishop Warren A. Candler, D.D., LL. D., Rev. George Gilman Smith, D.D., the historian of Georgia Methodism, was born at Sheffield, a county seat then in Newton County, now in Rockdale County, on December 24, 1836. His parents were Dr. George G. Smith and Susan A. Smith (nee Howard). His father was a physician of ability, but served as Postmaster in Atlanta from 185 1 to 1855. He was a man of marked intel- lect, unfaltering integrity, and great purity of character. His mother was from the well-known Howard family, which has borne such a creditable part in the history of the States of Mary- land, Virginia and Georgia, and was a woman of uncommon graces of mind and heart. Her piety and intelligence were dis- tinguishing characteristics, and her maternal influence had much to do with moulding the life and character of her distinguished son. Among his ancestors may be mentioned Rev. Isaac Smith and Rev. John Howard, men of power among the ministers who" have contributed to the making of American Methodism. In his veins flows some of the best blood of Ireland, Scotland and France, received from ancestors who came to America in Colonial days. Dr. Smith was never of vigorous constitution in his youth, but it has been characteristic of him at every period of his life that he has made such physical strength as he has possessed go far in carrying on the various works to which he has set his hand. He showed an early fondness for books, especially books of poetry and history. While he was yet a child, his parents went to reside in Oxford, Georgia, the seat of Emory College. In that village of culture and religion he spent most of the first ten years of his life. When he was ten years of age he went with his parents Rev, Geo. G. Smith, D.D, Georgia Methodism. 5 to live in the young town of Atlanta, then first beginning to at- tract attention as a commercial and social center. At twelve years of age the serious, earnest boy undertook work as a clerk in a store. But no engagement drew his heart away from books. He learned much in a school taught by his mother, and studied clas- sics with J. T. McGinty, of Atlanta, and J. W. Rudisill, of San- dersville. These studies he pursued in the years 1853, 1854 and 1855. Subsequently he spent a term and a half at Emory Col- lege, but was never graduated. For a time he was a clerk in the postoffice in Augusta. In 1857 he was admitted on trial in the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has spent his life in that ministry, serving as chaplain in the Confederate army as well as in the many important pastorates. The foregoing facts show the struggle he had in early life, and the difficulties he met in acquiring an education. Nothing daunted by all these obstacles, Dr. Smith has made himself a man of learning by habits of persistent and careful study. While doing the work of an itinerant Methodist preacher, he studied rhetoric, logic, philosophy, history and natural science, as well as theology. He has been, and is, an omnivorous reader of all that is worth reading. He is especially well acquainted with the great authors of classic English, and by his careful study of them he has acquired for himself a most charming and luminous style. He is the author of a number of excellent volumes, among which may be mentioned, "The History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida," "The Life and Letters of Bishop James O. Andrew," "The Life and Times of Bishop George F. Pierce," "The Life of Bishop Francis Asbury," and "The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People." Besides these larger works he has written many smaller works for children and youth. When it is remembered that he has done much of this literary work while engaged in the active ministry the amount of his labor appears most remarkable. And it must not be forgotten that while a chaplain in Phillip's Legion he was wounded in 1862, and has scarcely seen a day of health since. During all these years 6 History of he has kept a cheerful face, a warm heart and a busy hand. He richly deserves all the honor that has been done him. From Emory College he received the Degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Divinity. He is one of the Vice-Presidents of the Methodist Historical Society of New England, an honor given him in recognition of his great work in the department of Methodist history and biography. He knows the history of Geor- gia and the history of Methodism more perfectly than any living man within the limits of the commonwealth. The men and movements that have been involved in this history he has studied with the utmost care. But even beyond his admirable intellectual gifts and literary attainments, Dr. Smith is loved and admired for noble moral characteristics. He has followed God and wrought righteousness in the beauty of Christian simplicity, re- vealing in all his life a loving and faithful heart. With the aged he is a companion ; with the middle aged a wise friend, and with the little children, even in his age and feebleness, he is still "Dear Brother George." If any man who knows him does not love him it is a discredit to the unloving soul which withholds from him its affection. Unworldly, unselfish, incorruptible and unwearying, he has lived for the highest ends, and waits in life's twilight the rich reward of Christian fidelity, which no temptation has been able to overcome and no trial has been able to overthrow. He has been twice married. On September 28, 1859, he was married to Miss Sarah J. Ousley. After her death, he was mar- ried to Miss Nannie L. Lipps. In all the relations of public and private life he has showed the virtues and excellences of the most elevated Christian charac- ter. Georgia has produced no worthier son than George Gilman Smith, D. D. Georgia Methodism. 11 James Quillian — Freeman T. Reynolds — George C. Clarke — William J. Cotter — Conference at Louisville in May, 1845 — Methodist Episco- pal church, South, organized, and the first Georgia Conference under the new organization held in Athens in January, 1846 — The Georgia Conference has a membership of 49,000, with seven districts — Brief review of progress made— James Anthony — Thomas F. Pierce — Wil- liam A. Simmons — Eustace Speer — Discussion of doctrine of Entire Sanctification — Henry Crawford— Patrick Arminius Wright — Wiley G. Parks — Charles Fullwood — John M. Bonnell — Conference meets in Middle Georgia — Separate churches established for the colored people — Discreditable church buildings — The whole State mapped out, but much of the work very hard — Development of the gold districts — Conference of 1847 — Edward L. Stephens — James W. Hinton — Lewis J. Davies— Charles R. Jewett in Marietta — Conference of 1849 — Joseph Stanton Key — Michael A. Clontz — W. R. Foote — Albert Gray — Alex M. Wynn — Theophilus S. Harwell — David J. Myrick — John C. Sim- mons, Jr. — Charles W. Thomas — W. H. Thomas. Chapter III. 1850-1855. Conference of 1850 — James M. Dickey — Atlanta a station — James L. Pierce sent to the new station — Dr. Thomas R. Pierce — William Pope Harrison — Richard J. Harwell — Thomas H. Jordan — William T. Norman — Harwell H. Parks — John E. Sentell — John Strick- land — Conference of 1851 — Lewis B. Paine — James W. Trawick — Jacob R. Owen — Edmund P. Birch— John H. Grogan — 'Robert F. Jones — John H. Mashburn — John H. Harris — Benj. W. Perry — A period of transi- tion, old circuits remodeled, new churches built; improvement both in country and city — Only nine stations in the State, but many strong circuits — Hon. J. J. Jones — Bishop Soule, who had adhered to the South, being with Bishop Andrew unequal to the great work, were reinforced by the election of Bishops Robert Paine and William Capers — Piney Grove Sunday-school in Lincoln county the oldest continuous school in the State, with one Superintendent for fifty years — The people rally to the support of superannuated preachers and widows and orphans — as yet the new church is without foreign missions — the schools all doing good work — the Southern Christian Advocate under charge of Dr. Wightman (later a Bishop) — Southwestern Georgia improving rapidly under the care of Walter Knox — the Conference of 1851 — W. F. Conley — Lemuel T. Allen — Increase for the year 4,000 members — Mis- sionary collections $18,000— Joshua G. Payne — Wesley P. Pledger — James G. Worley — W. S. Baker — Dennis O. Driscoll — Robert B. Lester — Philemon C. Harris — Conference of 1852 — John W. Brady — Isaac M. Craven — Daniel G. Cox — John B. McGee — W. D. Shea — Conference of 1853 — W. G. Allen — Thomas Boring — W. M. Brewer — Joseph Chambers — David T. Holmes — Albert M. Rowland — Weyman H. Potter — Wesley F. Smith — William M. D. Bond — Marshall F. Malsby — Noah Palmer — Robert N. Cotter — James H. Reese — Jackson Rush — Conference of 1854, first ever held in Atlanta — One of the largest and most remark- able classes ever admitted in any year — J. O. Clark — John W. Burke — James T. Ainsworth — Thomas T. Christian — Alvan J. Dean — Francis X. Forster — Milford Hamby — George G. N. McDonnell, who was over fifty years in the ministry — Oscar P. Fitzgerald (later a Bishop) — E. T. McGhee over fifty years in the ministry — General Conference 12 History of of 1854 meets in Columbus, Ga. — Book concern established in Nash- ville — George P. Pierce — H. H. Kavanaugh and John Early elected Bishops — Americus made a station — Jesse R. Littlejohn sent there — Colored missions prosper — The work of the church progressing in all directions — Conference of 1855 meets at LaGrange — Class of twenty admitted — One future Bishop on the list — Francis A. and James Orson Branch— Frederick R. C. Ellis— Robert L. Wiggins- Hard work in South Georgia and in Florida — Missionary collection reaches $19,000— J. Blakely Smith made book agent— David W. Cal- houn — j hn W. McGee — John W. Turner — Benj. F. Breedlove — James V. M. Morris — Habersham J. Adams — W. F. Cook — Peter M. Ryburn. Chapter IV. 1856-1860. Conference of 1856 held in Americus — Class of twenty admitted— Robert W. Dixon— W. H. Moss— W. A. Parks— Wiley T. Hamilton — W. T. McMichael — Alex M. Thigpen — George H. Patillo — John W. Reynolds — Robert W. Lovett — E. T. Gates— Thomaston made a station — the church not prospering equally with other interests in the State — Missionary collection reaches $21,000 — Conference of 1857 meets in Washington — A decreasing membership— Financial depres- sion falls upon the country and collections fall off heavily — Unfortu- nate controversies with the Baptists — A large class admitted — Lewis L. Ledbetter — Whitfield Anthony — John T. Norris — Newdaygate B. Ousley — George W. Yarbrough — Edward J. Rentz — George G. Smith, the compiler of this history, enters the ministry — David R. McWil- liams still in the work — The depressing year of 1857 followed by the cheering and phenomenal year of 1858 — Great revivals — Increase of 6,000 in membership — 'Missionary collections reach $23,000 — Confer- ence of 1858 meets in Columbus — A large class admitted — Many of the older Presiding Elders give way to younger men — Britton Sanders — Olin S. Means — John J. Morgan — James L. Lupo — John L. Berry — W. C. D. Perry — Young J. Allen, who became the Dean of the Mission- ary corps in China with nearly fifty years of service to his credit — Charles A. Moore — Edward A. H. McGhee — James Y. Bryce- — Hamil- ton G. Horton — John W. Simmons — Thomas B. Lanier — Robert F. Williamson — Atticus G. Haygood, later a Bishop, and one of the great figures of the nation — Conference of 1859 meets in Rome — Decrease of over 2,000 in membership — Missionary collection passes $24,000 — A book depository established in Macon with John W. Burke as agent — Gibson C. Andrew — Ebenezer G. Murrah — Sanford Leake — Robert A. Seale — James T. Lowe — Great development in the State — Rapid Railroad building — Many new and flourishing towns — Number of sta- tions largely increased — Improvement in educational standards in the ministry — Greater liberality of the church in matters of discipline — Good schools found in all sections of the State except the Wire Grass country and the mountains — No literary examinations made of ap- plicants to the ministry, but the standard improving. Chapter V. 1860-1866. The last year of the old regime — Mr. Lincoln elected President and the whole country in ferment — The Conference of 1860 meets in Augusta — Increase of 5,000 in membership — Missionary col- lections reach $29,000— A verv large class admitted on trial — J. R. Georgia Methodism. 13 Parker — Norman D. Morehouse — John M. Lowry — W. W. Oslin — Wes- ley Lane — W. W. Stewart — A period of intense excitement, and seces- sion the only subject of discussion — The country thrown into Civil War — Many of the preachers go to the army as Chaplains, others as soldiers — Conference of 1861 meets in Atlanta — A small class admit- ted — John K. Leake — The criminal career of W. A. J. Fulton — Isaac S. T. Hopkins — Anderson Joseph Jarrell — J. R. Gaines — The war in- creases in intensity and violence — The Conference of 1862 meets in Macon — People show a good spiritual condition notwithstanding the trials of the times — The smallest class ever admitted up to that time — William Asbury Dodge — William C. Dunlap — Robert A. Holland — Con- ference of 1863 meets in Columbus — All the business of the country in chaos — -Villages and towns crowded with wounded soldiers — A small class admitted— William C. Malloy— Willis T. Caldwell— Eldridge K. Aiken — J. O. A. Cook — 1864 a year of horrors— A large part of the State a great battlefield — Devastation and ruin everywhere — Confer- ence for 1864 meets in Athens in January, 1865. Only three admitted on trial — George T. Embry — Peter A. Heard — The war comes to an end — A large majority of negroes slough off and go into other churches — Revival fires begin to blaze — The Freedmen's Bureau established by the Federal Government, and does some good work — Conference of 1865 meets in Macon — Eleven admitted on trial — E. S. Tyner — Charles J. Oliver — James M. Stokes — 'Robert J. Corley — Fran- cis G. Hughes — Major General Clement Evans one of this class — W. P. Rivers — The close of the war finds the membership 5,000 less than at the beginning — The Missionary collection 90 per cent, less — The General Conference of 1866 to meet at New Orleans in May — Radi cal changes considered — The Southern Christian Advocate moved from Charleston to Augusta, and thence to Macon — Dr. McTyiere (later Bishop) leader of the progressives — Use of organs had greatly increased in the churches — The General Conference makes radical changes and provides for the division of the Georgia Conference — Four new Bishops elected: McTyiere, Wightman, Doggett and Mar- vin — Conference of 1866 a small class — John W. Heidt — Benson L. Timmons — R. R. Johnson — Francis B. Davies — W. McCauley — Josiah Lewis, Jr. — M. L. Robison — 2,000 increase during the year 1886 — The Conference divided into the North Georgia and South Georgia Con- ferences. Chapter VI. Methodism in the Cities. First foothold obtained in the cities is in Augusta — Episcopalians first on the ground— Solomon Frink — Ed- ward Ellington — The Revolution results in Episcopal clergymen leav- ing the country — People without church privileges — First effort of Methodism in Augusta in 1789— Nothing accomplished until 1798, when Stith Mead took hold of the work— He built a church where St. John's church now stands — Presbyterians come in 1808, and the Baptists about 1818 — Ebenezer Doughty — Mrs. Mann — Asaph Waterman— John Garvin— Levi Garrison— Nicholas Snethen— Britton Capel — Hugh Porter — The Augusta church grows slowly — Augusta united with Louisville in one charge — Great work done by Asaph Waterman, for many years the leading layman — He finds a worthy successor in John H. Mann— Some leading families adhere to Methodism— Many of the best men succeed one another in the work, but it moves slowly — 14 History of Under Henry Bass a decided forward movement takes place — From that time forward, notwithstanding occasional bad years, there was a steady gain — Handsome new church built in 1843 — Other churches built, until now the city is a stronghold, with a number of excellent congregations and beautiful churches. The Work in Savannah. Savannah indeed a hard field — Some of the best men of the church are worn out in fruitless struggle against the conditions prevailing— Samuel Dunwoody— McVean — Cooper — Rus- sell — All struggled without results — First real gain made under Wil- liam Capers in 1819, and a solid foothold gained as a result of the labors of Capers and his successor, John Howard — Savannah en- joyed in these years the ministry of the very strongest men in the church — To Wesley was added Trinity, and later Andrew Chapel — Now Savannah rejoices in the addition of Wesley Monumental church, to which the church at large contributed, and which is one of the orna- ments of American Methodism. Methodism in Macon. Methodism was established in Macon almost with the foundation of the city — Within eight years after the city was founded, the Methodist church was strong enough to entertain the Conference — Well served by strong men — Their influence greatly in- creased by the establishment of the Wesleyan Female College — Macon Methodism steadily grew until today it is one of the strong centers of the church, there being in the city, and its suburbs, several ex- cellent congregations with handsome edifices. Methodism in Columbus — Columbus laid out in 1827 — Made a mission in 1828, and James Stockdale appointed to the work — The church grew from the start, and in a few years gained a strong membership — Within twelve years from organization shows a membership of 970 — A handsome new church then built, absolutely free of debt on the day it was dedicated — The growth may be seen from the fact that the city today has five churches for white people and a number for the colored. Athens. One of the first of the towns to have Methodist preaching, but up to 1825 had no church — Up to 1817, Hope Hull's house was the preaching place — and for the next eight years the professors of the College supplied the people with church services — In 1825 the Metho- dists built their first church — The sons of Hope Hull and Gen. David Meriwether give it strong and loyal support — The church grew and multiplied in numbers, and enjoyed the ministry of many strong men — The young church shares the usual vicissitudes, but on the whole there is a gain — In 1857 a second church is built — Athens noted for its saintly women — Dr. Henry Hull, son of Hope Hull, for over fifty years an official member of the church in Athens. Atlanta. Youngest town, but now the largest city in the State, shows same sort of record in Methodist church work, being now one of the strongest Methodist cities in the country — Upon the establishment of the church in 1847, with great difficulty, a subscription of $700 was raised to build a church, and the shell of the building erected — The First Methodist church the first to hold regular religious services in the city — Local preachers render valuable work, and in three years the town was set apart as a station — W. H. Evans does a great work in the earlier years — After the destruction of the city by Sherman, when the period of rebuilding set in, the church kept pace with the increase in population — Today Atlanta Methodism is powerful in num- Georgia Methodism. 15 bers and thoroughly well equipped with handsome and commodious places of worship. Chapter VII. Poverty-stricken and uneducated, the early Methodists hungered for education — Hope Hull established Rehoboth Academy prior to 1800 — Another established at Salem, Clarke county; later it was taken under the charge of the Conference — Randolph-Macon is extended support from Georgia — A Manual Labor School established near Covington — Ignatius Few promotes the movement which results in the establish- ment of Emory College — It was incorporated in 1837 at Oxford, near Covington — Ignatius Few its first President — Alexander Means and George W. Lane were the professors — Judge Longstreet succeeds Dr. Few — Bishop Pierce succeeds Judge Longstreet. Then come Dr. Means, Dr. Thomas, Dr. Luther M. Smith, Dr. Osborn L. Smith and Dr. A. G. Haygood — Upon Dr. Haygood fell the burden of rehabilitating the college after the devastation of war — Dr. Isaac S. Hopkins suc- ceeds Dr. Haygood — Dr. Warren A. Candler succeeds Dr. Hopkins — Dr. Dowman succeeds Dr. Candler — Dr. Dowman succeeded by Dr. James A. Dickey, the present incumbent — Artemas Lester, a young circuit preacher in the mountains, founds Young Harris College, which has grown into a prosperous institution. Female Colleges. As early as 1830 an agitation began for a higher class of schools for girls — Elijah Sinclair proposes that Macon shall establish a college for young women, where degrees can be conferred — The idea took root, an organization was effected and George L. Pierce elected president — The school has had very checkered fortunes, almost destroyed at times by financial panics, but through the devoted and unselfish work of its friends it has survived all mutations, and is now one of the best known and most highly esteemed of our female colleges — Andrew Female College, at Cuthbert, and LaGrange Female College have both had prosperous careers, and are most useful insti- tutions. Sunday-schools. In the very beginning of Methodism, Mr. Wesley recognized the usefulness of Sunday teaching for children — The first of which we have record in Georgia was at Milledgeville in 1811 — Shiloh in Jackson county, and the old school in Lincoln county, which has had such a remarkable career, come next in order — The father of Jesse and Isaac Boring was the Superintendent of the Jackson county school — He was a remarkable man, who learned to read after he had children of school age and became a man of wide influence, repre- senting his county in the General Assembly — A Sunday-school estab- lished in Savannah in 1820 — In 1831, the Conference takes up the Sunday-school work in a systematic way — From that time forward, the growth of Sunday-school work has been the growth of the church. Missions. All the work of the pioneer church missionary — it may be truly said that it constituted an organized missionary society — After the first hard years, the preachers began regularly taking up collec- tions for specific mission work — The first record we have, for the years 1819 and 1820 shows $2,658 collected— For four years of that period $14,716 was collected — There was a regular missionary society organized in 1821 — 'Missions established among the Indians, and great numbers of missionaries sent to the colored people — Many missions among the Indians very successful, especially those among the Chero- 16 History of k ees — a great organized work done among the negroes after 1831, though previous to that the preachers had seen to it that they had the Gospel preached to them— By 1860 the collections grew to nearly $30,000 per year — The war nearly destroyed the missionary work of the church, but with resolute courage it was resumed after the war, and today the two Conferences in Georgia give annually immense sums for the propagation of the Gospel throughout the heathen section of the world. Benevolences. In the early days the people too poor to organize benevolent societies — In 1806 was organized the Society for Special Relief and several small bequests were made to it — In 1836, a society incorporated as the Relief Society, which was later changed to the Preachers' Aid Socity — Various small bequests have been made to this society, and it is still in existence and doing much good. Orphan Homes. Through the efforts of Dr. Jesse Boring, orphanages were established, one near Decatur for the North Georgia Conference, one near Macon for the South Georgia Conference — Both of these have done great and good work. Review of the work of the church and its application — Supplemental word on the changes in the church during the past forty-five years and its present condition. ^ir Jonx Wesley Wesley Monumental Church, Savanna] CHAPTER I. 1735- John Wesley said that the second Methodist society ever organ- ized in the world was organized in Savannah, Georgia. Mr. Wesley was not doctrinally a Methodist when he organ- ized that society, but he was in a fair way to become so. We may safely say that Methodism, as far as her peculiar doc- trines are concerned, was born in Georgia, for here it was that he who was to give them form, and to defend them and to propa- gate them, emerged from the darkness of mystical delusion, broke the shackles of churchly tradition, and became fully convinced of those truths which, as Wesleyan, have had so mighty an influence in the world.* In a history of Methodism in Georgia this fact must find place, and while Wesley's life in the State is not strictly Methodist his- tory, yet we shall not be violating the unity of the story by glanc- ing at it in this introductory chapter. The province of South Carolina swept from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi, and although Charleston was near one hundred years old, and country settlements had been made on the east side of the Savannah for over a century, all west of the river was an unbroken wild. The prisons and poor-houses of England were full, and a colony not for paupers and criminals, but for those who might become so without help, was decided upon by some philanthropic London- ers, George II. granted to them, as trustees, all that area of land from the Savannah river to the Mississippi, and James Ogle- thorpe, afterwards General, was by them selected to plant the colony in it. He came across the sea with a small body of emigrants, and on the high bluffs of the Savannah, near an Indian village, he founded the City of Savannah. He brought an Episcopal clergy- man, Dr. Henry Herbert, with him, and soon a rough building — a kind of tabernacle — was erected. The Salzburgers, who came with Mr. Oglethorpe, brought with them also a pastor ; and these two clergymen, one a Lutheran and the other an Episcopalian, were the first in Georgia. Mr. Samuel Quincy succeeded Dr. Herbert, but he soon became dissatisfied and resolved to return 'Wesley 's Journal, and Lives of Wesley. 18 History of to England. When Mr. Oglethorpe decided to make a voyage to England for new emigrants, he was anxious to secure a minister for the parish. The field was a hard one. The man who undertook the work of tilling it needed a soul crucified to the world. Air. Oglethorpe, when he reached London, was told that there was a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, who would meet all his demands. He was John Wesley; mystical — rather too much for England, too strict and careful in his own conduct, and too exacting in his demands upon others, for those times, but just the man to teach colonists going to the wilds, and Indians who had never left them the way to Heaven. Wesley had already refused the rectorship of his father's parish, but it might be that he and his gifted young brother would consent to go to Georgia. So Mr. Oglethorpe offered to John and Charles Wesley minis- terial charges in the new colony. John Wesley had now for six years been a Fellow of Lincoln Inn, Oxford ; and engrossed with his studies and striving with the ardor of an ascetic of the early days to satisfy the demands of an exacting conscience, he had no wish to go out into the busy world. But when Oglethorpe's appeal reached him and his brother Charles, that he might become more thoroughly dead to the world, and that he might lead the Indians to Christ, he consented to leave England and come to Georgia. Benj. Ingham, Chas. Dela- motte and Charles Wesley came with him. The Simmonds in which they sailed left Gravesend, Oct. 14, 1735, and reached Savannah Feb. 8, 1736. Four months of sea travel necessarily makes voyagers well acquainted with each other, and this voyage brought Mr. Wesley in contact with some persons whose services to him, and through him to the world, have been of untold value. Among the voyagers were some Moravians and Salzburgers. Of how Mr. Wesley became interested in them, of how they taught him more fully the way to Jesus, his biography tells. When he reached Savannah, he had about come to the conclusion that he needed to be taught the first principles of Christian faith, and by Spangenberg, the Moravian, and by his Lutheran companions, he was taught what he had needed most to know — the doctrine of a free justification by faith, and of the Spirit's witness. He accept- ed these truths as of God, but he did not so soon enter into the liberty which they were designed to bring to him. All the while he was in America he was a slave in fetters. The old traditions of ecclesiasticism, the vagaries of the Mystics, and the gloomy doc- Georgia Methodism. 19 trines of Taylor and Law, under whose shadow he had lived, were not so easily escaped from. Savannah, which was his parish, was a small village, poorly built, and populated by a motley company. The most of its in- habitants were English people from the humbler classes. There were a few Portuguese Jews, and the German colony of Salz- burgers was only twenty miles above at Ebenezer. There was a colony of Scotch Highlanders at the mouth of the Altamaha, and a settlement at Frederica, besides a few French at Highgate, near Savannah. Mr. Oglethorpe had his headquarters at Fred- erica, for this was the point nearest the Spanish possessions in Florida, and was threatened by their forces, and Charles Wesley was his chaplain and secretary there. There were perhaps three hundred white persons in the colony. Mr. Wesley began his work with great ardor. Adopting the usages of the early Church, he endeavored to bring his parishioners to adopt them also. On Sun- day morning at five he read prayers, at eleven he preached and administered the communion ; in the afternoon he taught the children the catechism, and had thus a Sunday-school, one of the first, if not the first, in America. Then he preached to the French colony at Highgate in their own tongue. During the week he visited from house to house. He reproved and rebuked with all authority. He positively refused to deviate from the old rubrics of the Church, refusing even to baptize a babe unless its parents would consent to its being immersed. He made two or three trips to Frederica, where Charles Wesley was rector, and here his bold- ness offended his hearers. He conversed with the Indians and tried unsuccessfully to get access to them. He gave himself to the most diligent efforts to secure that crucifixion to the world for which he longed, refusing to talk upon any but religious topics. The result of his rigid life, and not less rigid teachings, was that the displeasure of the parishioners became greatly aroused. This received additional strength from the exercise of what he be- lieved was a righteous discipline. He had but eighteen communi- cants, and one of these he repelled from the communion. She had been very dear to him, and this only intensified the anger of her friends. Perhaps no act of church discipline, of so slight importance, has ever created more discussion than Mr. Wesley's course to- wards Mrs. Williamson, who had been Miss Sophia Hopkey. She was a sprightly and attractive English girl, the niece of Mr. Causton, who was one of the leading men in the colony ; she came over in the ship in which Mr. Wesley came, and they were for 20 History of some time attached friends. The relations between them have not been fully understood, and because of this the fair name of Mr. Wesley has more than once been assailed, if not with open slan- der, yet with gross innuendo. He gave to Henry More the true account of all relations between them, and of his course in the matter of discipline. From More's account we are able to give the history. She was an attractive girl, whom Mr. Wesley thought to be a sincere inquirer after a holy life. They were four months to- gether. He was young, gifted, handsome, and with bright worldly prospects. She was apparently amiable, and certainly very at- tractive. He taught her, advised her, and a genuine affection on his part sprang up towards her. Love makes a scholar blind, but it did not blind the quiet Germans to the fact that she would not do for Mr. Wesley's wife. She evidently was not averse to mar- rying the young rector, and expected confidently that he would engage himself; but Mr. Wesley consulted his German friends, and they advised against it, and he ceased his visits to her. This was after they reached Savannah. A Mr. Williamson gladly took the vacated place, and soon Miss Hopkey became Mrs. William- son. Savannah was a gossiping village. Mrs. Williamson was young and thoughtless ; and untrue and harsh things were said about Mr. Wesley, which he believed came from her ; and believing she was unfit to partake, he passed her over at the communion. Her uncle and husband and all her friends were of course angry. They went to the courts with it. Mr. Wesley tried to get a trial, and when he could not, much to the relief of the colony and to his own, he took shipping for England after he had spent nearly two years in Georgia. His stay had been a painful and profitable one to himself. He had not hoped to find his work a bed of roses. He found it more thorny than he had expected. He hoped to have gone into the wilds and to have found the untamed children of the forest, and like Francis Xavier or Las Casas, have been their teacher and father; but he found himself pent up in a little gossiping English village, filled with godless adventurers, women not good, and men worse. He had never had any contact with them. He had lived in what was really a cloistered obscurity. His one idea was to save his soul ; his one feeling was contempt for the world; but they — his parishioners — "their talk was of bullocks." They had come to Savannah to get large estates, not to go to prayers at five o'clock in the morning; and to have free license, not to observe all the ancient forgotten rubrics of the Church. Georgia Methodism. 21 He did the best he could, and only when satisfied he could do the colonists no good did he resolve to return, as Charles had al- ready done, from whence he came. The startling inquiry of Spangenberg, "Have you faith in Christ? Have you the witness in yourself?" still rang in his ears, and the one ruling aim of his life now was to repose his soul in simple trust on Jesus, and secure the Spirit's testimony that it was done. He was a servant, not a son. The good seed sown in Georgia in his heart did not die. The old truth, to him so new, now embraced with the mind, became afterwards the food of his heart; and while Mr. Wesley never returned to Georgia, this truth did, and in his teachings he lived again where he had spent so many stormy days. But it was a half-century after he went away before John Major and Thomas Humphries came to Georgia with this truth, to do the work he would fain have done. As the ship that bore John Wesley to London passed Grave- send, another, American bound, with George Whitefield on board, sailed for Savannah. This remarkable man, who had been so attached to John Wesley and his brother, at Oxford, and had sooner found the light, was the first Methodist preacher who ever preached in Savannah. Methodism was a sentiment before it became an ecclesiasticism. Its central idea was justification by faith, and a consciousness of it. The experimental, rather than doctrinal, was its mark ; and though George Whitefield differed from John Wesley with reference to predestination, and was not connected with his societies, yet he was truly a Methodist Episco- palian.* His fervid eloquence, his evangelical preaching was more pleas- ing to the colonists than the frigid High Churchism of Mr. Wes- ley, and soon all the villagers — for Savannah had in it but five hundred people — attended his ministry. After spending a year in his parish he decided to return to England for priests' orders, and to raise funds for an orphan house to be founded at Bethesda, near the city. For nearly thirty years he was a frequent visitor at Savannah, and was always gladly welcomed, and his influence for good remains to this day. In 1769, he brought with him from England a protege, Cornelius Winter, who was the first missionary to the negroes. Winter had been a wild boy belonging to the lower order of Englishmen. He was converted under Mr. Whitefield's preaching, and after laboring with him as a kind of assistant, he was induced to come to America by his patron as a teacher of the *Life of Whitefield. Jay's Life of Cornelius Winter. 22 History of Africans, who were being now introduced in numbers as slaves, to cultivate rice and cotton on the seaboard. Winter found a friend in James Habersham, who had come a year before as Mr. Whitefield's teacher, but who was now a merchant, and was installed as catechist on the plantation of a retired Episcopal clergyman. He met with such poor success in his work, and found the planters so bitterly opposed to his preaching to the slaves, that after the death of Mr. Whitefield, in 1770, a year after he had reached Savannah, he resolved to return to England to secure ordination. This he failed to do on account of his Methodism, and so he fell into the ranks of the Nonconformists, among whom he was a leading man till his death. Georgia, in her infancy, had thus the ministry of John and Charles Wesley, Benj. Ingham, Delamotte, Whitefield and Winter — men whose names are familiar to all students of church history as instru- ments in the now historic Methodist reformation. CHAPTER U. The Trustees for Georgia were many of them wealthy dissent- ers, and for over twenty years after the settlement of the colony there was no religious establishment. Perfect religious freedom was guaranteed, save to the Catholics. Jews, Presbyterians and Lutherans were side by side with the Church of England men. With the first body of colonists came an Episcopal clergyman, who became rector of the first parish. This was Dr. Henry Her- bert, who remained in Georgia only three months; *he died on his passage home, and was succeeded by Samuel Quincy, a native of Massachusetts, who came to Savannah in May, 1733. He held service in a hut made of split boards. He met with much oppo- sition and hard usage, and only left the colony after John Wesley came. Of Wesley's history while here we have already spoken. Charles Wesley and Benj. Ingham, the spiritual father of the Countess of Huntington came over with John Wesley and labored at Frederica; by 1737 they had all returned to England. Mr. Whitefield came, as we have seen, just after Mr. Wesley left; he remained two years. The church at Frederica did not prosper, nor did the one at Savannah. In 1755, the Trustees surrendered the colony to the Crown, and the Church of England became the established church. Parishes were formed; in three of these there were churches : one in Savannah, one in Burke county, and one in Augusta. The Churches outside of Savannah were served by missionaries sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. There seems to have been no pros- perity in this church, and there were perhaps not fifty communi- cants in all the colony. Although the Parish of St. George in Burke had a church where is now Old Church, and a glebe at- tached, they could not provide for a rector, nor retain one. At the Revolution the field was entirely abandoned, and for near twenty years after its close we have been able to find no foot- print of an Episcopal clergyman. Methodism had over twelve thousand members in her fold before an Episcopal bishop ever visited Georgia. The Salzburgers were a band of pious Austrians. who adhered to the doctrines of Luther, and who were driven from their native hills by Catholic persecution. Frederick William, of Prussia, gave them a shelter in Friesland, and his relative, George II., offered them a home in Georgia. A colony of them came in the *Bishop Stevens' Mem. Sermon, p. 9. 24 History of first shipload of emigrants, and found a home in what is now Effingham county, some twenty miles from Savannah. They afterwards removed their village to a healthier location, and call- ed their new town Ebenezer. They were a pious people, indus- trious and frugal, and their pastors men of fine intellectual cul- ture. They spoke, however, only the German tongue and pre- served their German usages, and were not aggressive. No growth was to be expected save from within and from immigration. The German immigration, however, chose the rich valleys of Pennsyl- vania in preference to the pine woods of Georgia, and the Luther- ans in Georgia had grown but little to the period we are now reaching. They had one church at Ebenezer, one in Savannah, and one in Goshen, in 1786. The first colony of Presbyterians came in 1735, and fixed their settlement at the mouth of the Altamaha, at a place they called New Inverness, which is now Darien. This colony had Pastor McLeod as their spiritual guide. How long they remained there, or whether they ever built a church, we can not discover. It is probable the colony was soon broken up and the colonists scattered. There are a large number of Highland names in Lower Georgia — McLeods, MacPhersons, Mclntoshes, and the like, which probably owe their origin to these immigrants. A second body of Presbyterians were induced by Georgia Galphin, a Scotch-Irishman and an Indian Trader, to come over and settle in Jefferson county, then St. George Par- ish. They were dissenters from the Scotch Church, were Scotch- Irish people, who followed Mr. Erskine. The first Presbyterian church of which we have any authentic account was in Savannah, and was established in 1760. A few years before that, however, a colony of English Congregationalists came over to this country, and after spending a short time in New England, came south to Dorchester, S. C., and thence to Liberty county, in Georgia, where they built Old Midway Church. They were people of some means, and had a ministry of genuine piety and great intel- ligence. Counting these with the Presbyterians, there were in all three Presbyterian congregations in the State prior to 1786. In 1773, Sir James Wright made a new purchase from the In- dians, and that fine country north and west of Augusta was bought. It was settled by emigrants from Virginia and North and South Carolina. Daniel Marshall, who had been a Congre- gationalist, and then a Baptist, came near that time, and a little before him. Edmund Bottsford, another Baptist, from South Car- olina, crossed the river into Burke county to preach. He founded Bottsford Baptist church near the same epoch that Daniel Mar- Georgia Methodism. 25 shall founded that of Kiokee.* Silas Mercer came soon after. These three were good men and great men, and worked with great zeal, itinerating through the country. Some of them were arrested by the Episcopal magistrates and fined, but they went on in their work. In 1784, the first association was organized, which consisted of six churches, three of which were in South Carolina. There was then, in 1786, in Georgia, as far as we can get the facts, three Episcopal churches without rectors, three Lutheran churches, three Presbyterian, and three Baptist. We may safely say there were not five hundred Christian people in all. The colony now numbered eighty thousand inhabitants, white and black. The social features of the country were those of all frontier settlements. In another chapter, we have endeavored to represent them. The field was indeed a wide one, a hard one, and yet an inviting one. What Methodism had to do in changing this wild into a garden, we are now to see. In December, 1784, the Methodist Episcopal church of America was organized, and in the spring of 1785, the first Methodist preacher was sent to Georgia. *Campbell 's Baptists. CHAPTER III. 1 786- 1 794. The first Methodist society in America was probably organized by Robert Strawbridge, in Maryland, before 1766*. During that year, in a sail-loft in New York, at the instance of a good woman who had been a Methodist, Philip Embury certainly or- ganized a society.f Robert Williams, in Virginia, was at work soon after, and then Mr. Wesley sent Mr. Rankin and Mr. Rodda from England to take charge of the societies. More laborers were needed, and when Mr. Wesley made a call for volunteers to come to America, Francis Asbury offered himself, and in the autumn of that year sailed from Bristol to Philadelphia. The war of the Revolution began and ended. All the English preachers, at its beginning, returned to England, save Francis Asbury, whose love for the American Methodists was stronger than his love for England. There were no sacraments, and there were no ordained preach- ers. Mr. Wesley saw something must be done for America, and acting in accordance with his views of church polity, he decided to ordain a bishop for these churches, and so ordained Dr. Thomas Coke, who was to come to America, and set apart Mr. Francis Asbury for the superintendency of them. The preachers were summoned from their circuits, and they assembled in Baltimore, in December, 1784, and met at the Lovely Lane Meeting House, to organize the Methodist Episcopal church of America. Mr. Asbury and Thomas Coke were elected to the Episcopal office, and then Mr. Asbury was ordained by Dr. Coke, assisted by Otterbein and other elders. Dr. Coke was to be a joint Bishop with Asbury, but he was little more than a bishop in name, and upon Asbury reposed the great burden of overseeing and directing the efforts of the evan- gelists. No man could have been chosen better suited to the place. There were now ten thousand Methodists in America, much the largest part of them in Maryland and Virginia. Asbury realized the importance of the frontier, and at once sought to occupy it. The Western frontier was the county of Transylvania, in Virginia, now the State of Kentucky. The southern was the State of Georgia. The First Conference, after the Christmas Conference of 1784, *Letter in Pacific Methodist, t Stevens' History. Georgia Methodism. 27 was held in North Carolina, at the house of Green Hill, who was a local preacher. Here Beverley Allen, who had been a traveling preacher for several years, was ordained an elder, and appointed to Georgia. The conference at which he was appointed included in it all the preachers of Virginia and North and South Carolina who could be present ; yet they were accommodated in one country house. Dr. Coke, with his fiery impetuosity, had excited great hostility to himself and the societies, as he passed through Vir- ginia, by his vehement attack upon domestic slavery. When he reached North Carolina, finding that the laws of the State, even then, forbade emancipation, he exercised a prudence unusual with him, and preached simply the Gospel ; but the Conference, through his influence, passed the most decided resolutions against slavery, and insisted that the Church should take earnest measures to secure immediate emancipation. These resolutions accomplished nothing except to throw more serious obstacles in the way of the already embarrassed preachers. When Paul and Barnabas went forth on their missionary tour through slave-holding Greece, they went from the Primitive Church unhampered with instructions about slavery ; but the chil- dren were wiser than the fathers, and it required the experience of a few sad years to teach Asbury and his associates that both master and slave would perish if they persisted in their course. The first herald of Methodism to Georgia had a sad and tragic history. He began to travel in 1782 in Virginia, and for a while traveled with Asbury,* preaching with great zeal and success. There was quite an emigration from Virginia to Wilkes county, in upper Georgia, after the Revolution, and as his brother was living in that section after Allen's location, it is probable that he had already removed there when Allen was appointed to the State, and that he had, besides, acquaintances and friends. Al- len was at this time a man of fine personal appearance, and an interesting and zealous preacher, and large crowds attended his ministry. Allen, however, did not come to Georgia at that time, but seventy members of society were reported at the next con- ference gathered by some unknown local preacher. f He then came to Georgia, and was an assistant presiding elder to Richard Ivy, and the next year was sent to South Carolina again, and stationed on Edisto Island. Here he committed a flagrant crime, £ and in 1792 was expelled from the connection. He seems now to have returned to Georgia and gone into mercantile busi- *Asbury's Journal. tWMte. J Mood. 28 History of ness with his brother, Billy Allen. He became embarrassed finan- cially, and while in Augusta was threatened with arrest for debt by the United States Marshall, Major Forsyth. He refused to submit to arrest, and when Major Forsyth attempted to take him forcibly, he killed him. He fled to Elbert, was captured and imprisoned. He was released by a mob of the citizens,* and fled to the wilds of Kentucky. Here he practiced medicine, and in his house Peter Cartwright boarded when a boy at school. f We have no further authentic tidings of this gifted, but, alas ! wicked man. He was, as far as we can find from the minutes, the first apostate Methodist preacher in America. For some reason Bishop Asbury always distrusted him, and so expressed himself to Dr. Coke.J He had done but little for Georgia his first year in it, and when the Virginia Conference met at Lanes, in North Carolina, Thos. Humphries and John Major volunteered to come to the State, and were appointed to succeed him.** The States of South Carolina and Georgia were thrown into one district, and James Foster was made presiding elder. He was a Virginian and had been a preacher since 1776. He had traveled first in Virginia for two years, but excessive fasting and excessive labor in the open air had destroyed his constitution, and he was forced to locate. He removed to South Carolina, where he found some emigrant Methodists, and formed a circuit among them. He then re-entered the conference, and took charge of the dis- trict of South Carolina and Georgia. || This toil was too great for him. His mental as well as his bodily strength gave way, and he retired finally, after one year on the district. He spent the rest of his life in visiting among Methodist families, conduct- ing their family devotions with much propriety, though unable to preach to them. He was a good preacher, noted for his amenity, his fine personal appearance, and his usefulness. § Thomas Humphries, who was placed in charge of the Georgia work, was a Virginian. He entered the conference at Ellis Meet- ing house in Virginia, and after traveling three years in Virginia and North Carolina, was appointed to Georgia in connection with Tohn Major; after traveling a few years in Georgia he re- moved to South Carolina where he itinerated a short time. He then married a lady of wealth and position, and located in the bounds of the Pedee Circuit, South Carolina. Here he did good work as a local preacher. § He was a fine-looking man, with an exceedingly bright eye, which sparkled and flashed when he was *Mood. t Cartwright 's Life, t Asbury 's Journal. **Lee's Life, p. 183. ||Stevens' History M. E. Church. $Travis. Georgia Methodism. 29 excited. He preached with great earnestnes and power, and was remarkable for native wit and fearlessness.* With him to Georgia came John Major, the weeping prophet. He, too, was a Virginian, who had entered the conference with Thomas Humphries, Philip Bruce and John Easter. He was a man of unquestionable piety, and in the pulpit was remarkable for his pathos and power. He did hard work in Georgia and endeared himself to all the people. His constitution gave way under the tax he laid upon it, and when Francis Asbury came to Georgia, Major wasted by disease and near his end, met him in South Carolina. The dying preacher was unable to get to the first conference, and died at the house of Bro. Herbert, the grand- father of Mrs. Dr. E. H. Myers. Asbury, on his visit to Georgia afterwards, visited his grave to drop the tear of loving remem- brance upon it. He says of him in the minutes: "John Major, a simple-hearted man, a living, loving soul, who died as he lived, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, ten years in the work, useful and blameless. "f The two preachers started from conference for their work. They probably came at once to Wilkes county, where there were a few Virginia Methodists, and then began to explore and map out the country. They found the people everywhere destitute of the Word. Save one or two Baptist churches organized by Daniel Marshall and Silas Mercer, there was no church of any name north of Augusta. In a preceding chapter, we have given a view of the church privileges of the people. The western boundary of the State was the Oconee River, the southern the Florida line ; in all this area there was not more than seven Christian minis- ters. The settlements were upon the creeks and rivers, and the inhabitants were thinly settled all over the face of the country. The dwellings were pole-cabins in the country, and even in the cities were built largely of logs. There were no roads — only pathways and Indian trails. There were no houses of worship, and the missionaries preached only in private dwellings. The work had all to be laid out, and for the first year it is probable the two preachers visited together the setlements which were thick- est, and organized societies when they could. From the minutes we conclude that they compassed the country from the Indian frontier, on the north, to the lower part of Burke county, on the south. During this year four hundred and thirty members were brought into the society, the larger number in Wilkes. Among *Dr. L. Y. Pierce. t Minutes. 30 History of them was Thomas Haynes of Uchee Creek, and Henry Parks, of whom we shall have more to say. The people among whom they labored were none of them rich and none of them poor. The land was good and open to all. Cat- tle ranged over grass-covered woods, and hogs fattened on the mast of the forest trees. There was no money, and but little need of it. Luxury was an impossibility to men so remote from cities and seaports. The people were without religion, but they were free from many of the temptations to which those in more thickly-settled communities are exposed. There was some in- fidelity among the upper classes, but perhaps none among the mass of the people. They were free from licentiousness, dishonesty and cowardice. They drank to excess ; they fought on muster-days ; they gouged and bit each other ; they spent the Sabbath in fishing, hunting and seeing after cattle ; and they were somewhat indolent, too content with their condition ; they had, however, the elements in them out of which to make good characters — strong sense and much nobility of soul. Humphries and Major found the harvest- field bending with the ripened grain, and they thrust in the sickle to reap abundantly. Among those converted we have mentioned Henry Parks. He was a strong, brave, energetic young man, who, from North Carolina, with his new wife and one child, came to Elbert county, where he was employed to oversee a new plantation. His wife was Elizabeth Justice, wdio had been bap- tized in Eastern Virginia by that good man, Devereaux Jarratt; she became early a Methodist, but her husband had never seen one of this sect so often spoken against. They lived together a little while on the banks of the Yadkin, in North Carolina, out of reach of her preachers, and then came to Georgia, in which there were few preachers of any kind, and no Methodists at all when they first reached the State. One day, the news was brought that two Methodist preachers would preach near them. She easily persuaded her husband to go and hear her ministers. He went, and for the first time heard the doctrine of universal atone- ment and possible salvation for all, preached by the sainted Major. He determined, if he could, to be saved. He was soon converted, joined the Methodist church, made his house a preaching-place, and afterwards, with the help of his friends, built a chapel. God prospered him as far as he wished to be prospered in worldly mat- ters, an blessed him with a large family. Of these, William J. Parks was the youngest son. Henry Parks was a very striking character. His life had been calculated to make him what he Georgia Methodism. 31 was. In the wilds of Kentucky and of southwestern Virginia he had spent some of his early years, combating the hardships of the frontier and confronting the savage tribes of the West. Then in the army, a brave and untiring soldier, and then in the new lands of Georgia, he was forced to bring into exercise every manly quality; and after he became a member of a despised sect of Christians, his courage was well added to his faith. His descendants are among the leading Methodists of Georgia, and are very numerous. Though the old patriarch passed away in 1845, st iU ms good works do follow him. The preachers had done good work during the year, and at the conference they were reinforced. Georgia was made a sepa- rate district, and Richard Ivy was sent as presiding elder. Cir- cuits were now laid out. The Burke circuit, including all that section south and southwest of Augusta, was placed in charge of Major, with a young man, Matthew Harris, to assist him. Thomas Humphries and Moses Park took charge of all the coun- try north and northwest of Augusta. Of Ivy, the presiding elder, the minutes say: "He was from Virginia, a little man of quick and solid parts. He was a holy, self-denying Christian that lived to be useful. Many of the eighteen years that he was in the work he acted as an elder in charge of a district." Ware tells the following anecdote of him: "The conduct of the English preachers, who had been loyal to their King, had excited towards the Methodist preachers a gen- eral feeling of distrust on the part of the patriots. The native American preachers were all in full sympathy with the colonists, but often they had to encounter this, to them, painful and dan- gerous suspicion. Some soldiers in New Jersey, where Ivy was preaching, had loudly threatened to arrest the next Methodist preacher that came along. Ivy's appointment was near where the army in the Jerseys was in camp. He went to his appoint- ment. The soldiers came, and the officers, walking to the table, crossed their swords upon it. The brave little man took for his text, 'Fear not. little flock.' As he preached he spoke of the folly of fearing the soldiers of freedom, and throwing open his bosom, he said: 'Sirs, I would fain show you my heart; if it beats not high for liberty, may it cease to beat.' The soldiers were conquered, and they left the house, huzzaing for the Metho- dist parson." After traveling in Virginia and North Carolina, he came to Georgia, where he was made Presiding Elder. After four years' service his health gave way, and the needs of an 32 History of invalid mother called him back to Virginia, where, a year after his location, he passed to his final reward. The preachers pursued their labors with great zeal. A won- derful success attended them, and at the end of the year there were over eleven hundred members in the society. The church had nearly tripled its membership in one year. The next conference was held at Charleston. Dr. Coke was present with Asbury. Coke records his joy at the success of the work in Georgia as well as in South Carolina. This success was great, but not to be wondered at. The col- liers of Kingswood were not more destitute of the Gospel than the pioneers of Georgia. Ivy, Major and Humphries were no common men. They belonged to a peculiar and hitherto unknown sect, and men heard for the first time the doctrines of a universal atonement and the Spirit's witness. They came in crowds to hear the preachers ; and Humphries with fiery appeals, and Major with tender entreaty, presented the broad invitations of the Gos- pel. Then, too, the preachers went everywhere. Wherever there was a settlement, and a private house could be secured as a preach- ing-place, there they were. During this year, Humphries must have preached in Augusta, and perhaps in Savannah, but all that was accomplished was in the rural settlements. The Washington Circuit was much the largest. It included all that section of northeastern and eastern Georgia above Augusta. It was peopled by a sterling class of settlers, and among them there were some Virginia Metho- dists. The Baptists were already there, and so perhaps were a few Presbyterians. In the lower part of the work, Jefferson, Screven and Burke, the people were older settlers and were pos- sessed of larger estates. The prominent families were either adherents of the Episcopal church, and were without any pastoral care, or were Presbyterians. In the east of the country were some Baptists, but among them there were many who had no religious privileges, and Methodism was not without her blessing to them and to all. The interest was now sufficient to call for the visits of a Bishop, and in April of 1788 Francis Asbury visited Georgia for the first time. Francis Asbury, to whom the Methodists of Georgia are more indebted than to any man living or dead for what they are, was an Englishman. He was born in Birmingham, England, in April of 1745. He was converted when a boy, and began to preach before he was seventeen years old. He was a traveling H ^ M '■ / '- >i w H S H ^ ^ Q HH Cfl 3 n W (- B i-Ih o -*' ~ *ij U) - o w 2 teP v. . The Wesley Oak. Georgia Methodism. 35 preacher in the English connection before he was twenty-two; he traveled for three years in England, and in 1771, volunteered to come as missionary to America. For five years before the Revolution began, he spent his time as preacher in charge and as superintendent in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The English preachers, although they deplored the course of the mother country as well as that of the colonies, were loyalists, and as soon as the war was fully upon the coun- try, returned to England — all but Mr. Asbury. He would not leave his post, and endeavored to avoid censure by preserving a strict neutrality. He became an object of suspicion to the pa- triots in Maryland, and retired to Delaware, where, with Judge White, he remained in such retirement as was needful, working, however, all he could, and before the war ended he was as far south as North Carolina. We have already marked the fact that Mr. Wesley appointed him superintendent of the American societies, and sent Dr. Coke to ordain him. Mr. Asbury, whose views of church government were not entirely at one with Mr. Wesley's, refused to be or- dained unless he was elected by his peers. This was done unani- mously, and he was made a superintending Bishop by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. He now began his episcopal work. Thirty years afterwards he ceased from it to die. He had been a Bishop but little over three years when he came to Georgia to hold the first Georgia Conference. At this time he was forty-three years old. He was of medium stature, rather low, of delicate frame. His eye was bright and clear ; his hair lay smoothly on his forehead, and was even then sprinkled with gray. In manner he was grave and dignified. His voice was firm and commanding. He was gentle as a wo- man at the fireside or with his brethren, but he was as inflexible as granite where principle was involved. Censure reached him very quick, for he was peculiarly sensi- tive; but he never allowed it to change his course. He never spared himself nor those he loved. The work — the Master's work — was all to him. He led ; he said follow, not go ; and the foremost soldier found his brave general at his side. His story is the story of a hero. In no annals is there to be found the tale of greater devotion to Christ and humanity, than in the story of Francis Asbury's life and labors. The conference which he had appointed was to be held in the forks of Broad River, then in Wilkes, now Madison county, probably at the home of James Marks, who lived there and who 36 History of was a Methodist. Leaving Charleston on the fourteenth of March, in company with Isaac Smith, he made his way up the Saluda and to the Broad River Quarterly-meeting in South Caro- lina. Here he met Mason; and here too was Major, who had come to meet him. Consumption was wearing this saintly man into his grave; but he was well enough to speak after Asbury had preached. After being benighted and lost the next night, they crossed the Savannah, and in the forks of Broad River, he says in his Journal, the next day the conference assembled. There were ten members present — six members of the confer- ence and four probationers. The good Major was not able to meet with his brethren ; on his way to conference he sank, and near the time it ended its session he went to rest. Who were the members of this conference? Richard Ivy, Thomas Humphries, Moses Park, Hope Hull, James Connor, Bennett Maxey, Isaac Smith and Reuben Ellis were certainly of them. Who was the tenth? Probably Mason from the adjoin- ing circuit in South Carolina. Of these only six were to remain in Georgia. Three or four of them were but boys; the rest un- married men of mature years. They had a prospect before them at which any heart save the Christian's might well quail. They were to travel through the wilds of a frontier, to swim creeks and rivers, to sleep in smoky cabins, to preach every day to many or few. They had no hope of receiving more than twenty- four pounds Continental money for support, and it would have been a wild hope to have expected that. They had the prospect of saving souls, and what were rags and penury in comparison to that? They received their appointments, and the Bishop and visiting preachers bade farewell to the picket-guards, who were to hold the frontier, and they were left alone. One among them, how- ever, we shall see often in the course of this history. A man he is who is to make his mark in Georgia, who is to exert an influence in Church and State such as few men have exerted. This was Hope Hull — if not the father of Georgia Methodism, yet the man who was to be second to no other in fostering it. He was born in Worcester county, Md., in 1763, and at the first conference held after the organization of the church, he was admitted. He was at that time a young house carpenter of Baltimore. He was a man of large frame, with a broad forehead, a clear blue eye, heavy over-hanging eyebrows, and one whose expres- sion of face indicated a decided character. Of the large class Georgia Methodism. 37 admitted, he was destined to the highest distinction and the greatest usefulness. From that conference he went forth as assistant to Joshua Hartley on Salisbury circuit, in North Caro- lina. The Salisbury Circuit was a large and important one, which had been traveled the year before by Jesse Lee and Isaac Smith. The next year he was placed in charge on the Amelia Circuit, Virginia; but before the end of the year, perhaps in its beginning, he was sent to the Pedee Circuit, South Carolina, where in connection with Jeremiah Mastin, he was engaged in a most wonderful revival, and gathered into the societies eight hundred and twenty-three members, and had twenty-two preach- ing-houses built.* His great ability and his remarkable success made him the valued aid of the Bishop; and now that his old presiding elder, Richard Ivy, was in Georgia, he came with As- bury, and was appointed to the Washington Circuit. He was called the Broad Axe Preacher, because of the power of his min- istry. His style was awakening and inviting. He dealt in no broad generalities, but portrayed the heart with a precision that astonished his hearers. He told them what they thought, how they felt and what they did, with such wonderful exactness, that many thought he had learned of them from those who knew them. He was very earnest and full of unction. His voice was clear as a clarion and of immense power, and he sang with great sweetness. The anathemas of the law were followed by him with the sweet comforts of the Gospel.** With James Con- nor to assist him, he was sent on the Washington Circuit. Pe- tersburg, in Elbert, was the largest town north of Augusta, and was in his circuit. Washington was a small village in a very prosperous and growing country. The country, embracing more than a half-dozen of the at present counties of Georgia, is still one of the most desirable in the State. At this time it was just being settled, and was one of great loveliness. The grand groves of oak and hickory had not been felled save in occasional spots. The annual fires of the Indian had kept down all undergrowth, and the demands of the stock-raiser had still called for those annual burnings ; so that grass and flowers and flowering shrubs covered the sur- face of the earth with a vesture equal to that of a regal park. Herds of deer and flocks of turkey were still on hill-top and covert. The settlers had for only a few years peopled these delightful hills, and had only robbed them of their wildness. They were many of them from among the best people of North *Dr. Coke. **Dr. L. Pierce, in Sprague. 38 History of Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. As yet, cotton-planting was not engaged in extensively, and while there were a few slaves, none of the unpleasing features of slavery were in view. The slave lived in almost as good a house as his master, dressed in the same homespun garb, worked with him in the same field, went with him to the same meeting, sat with him in the same class, and at communion knelt at the same board. There were a few families who occupied high positions in other States, who had come to Georgia, not because they were poor, but in order that their descendants might become rich. They identified them- selves with Methodism in many instances. There were as yet no artificial distinctions in society. The aristocrats of the older States, Georgia did not have in her territory. There were no Patroons, Baronets, Caciques, or Land- graves. Among such a people there was promise of a rich har- vest for Methodism, and it was won. David Meriwether, Thom- as Grant, Henry Pope, John Crutchfield, Samuel Rembert, and others who would have blessed any church, were received in the societies in these early days. The Richmond circuit was served this year by Matthew Harris, and included Richmond, Columbia, Lincoln and Warren, and probably the country as far west as Hancock. The Burke probably included all Burke, Jefferson, Washington, Screven and Effingham counties. This was the older section of the State, and Moses Park and Bennett Maxey did grand work in it. There was still growth, and the membership was largely increased during the year. There was reported at the conference 1,629 against 1,100 of the year before. The second conference in Georgia was held in 1789, at Grant's meeting-house, in Wilkes county. This was the first completed church building among the Methodists in Georgia. It was lo- cated not far from Washington, in the neighborhood of Thomas Grant. Bishop Asbury left Charleston late in February, and crossing the Savannah River at Beech Island, reached Augusta on the third of March ; and riding directly through, he came to the home of Thomas Haynes, on Uchee Creek, in now Colum- bia county. Thomas Haynes was a Virginian, who had been much annoyed by these stirring evangelists, who had set Meck- lenburg and Brunswick counties in a blaze. That he might get rid of these troublesome fellows was one of the inducements to move to the wilds of Georgia. He settled on the good lands of Uchee Creek. His cabin was soon built, and away from churches and religious influence, he became, he said, a ringleader in wickedness. One day, not long after he was comfortably Georgia Methodism. 39 located, he saw a man in the unmistakable uniform of a Metho- dist preacher riding up to his gate. His wife was a Methodist. He called to her and said: "Well, wife, I left Virginny to get rid of these fellows— your preachers, but my cabin is scarcely built before here is one of them again." His old Virginia hos- pitality and fraternal feeling for one of the same heath was too much for his prejudice, and so Thomas Humphries found a welcome, and Thomas Haynes was soon converted. He was born for a leader, and he became the ruling spirit in his neigh- borhood. Here at his house Asbury made an annual halt on his rapid journeys. Coke, Lorenzo Dow, McKendree, made their homes with him. He had a church near by, and he was a true overseer of the flock. His word was generally law. His peculiarities were striking. Blunt, positive, determined, men knew what to do when he spoke out. There was a good local preacher near by who preached an insufferable time. He could not stop. One day the circuit preacher was expected, and for some reason did not come. The preaching hour was twelve, and as it was long after time, the people made ready to go home. Brother A. suggested that they should have a sermon — he would preach ; the people demurred. It was too late ; he would preach too long. Brother A. said no, he would only preach half an hour. Uncle Tommy, or the Squire, as men called him, said they must stay and hear him the half-hour. They consented, but, alas! when Brother A. reached his limit of time, he had just begun to reach the first of his sermon. "Time's out, brother," said the old squire, and taking up his hat he left the house, and the congregation followed him.* He raised a large family, and few families have been more dis- tinguished for intelligence and piety. One of his sons was a member of Congress and preserved his Christian character in politics; another was a distinguished physician, and his grand- children are now among the most respectable people in Georgia and Alabama. At his house Mr. Asbury stopped for the first time this March day, in 1789, and rode thence to Thomas Grant's. Here the second conference in Georgia held its session. Among other things before the conference, the question of establishing a school was the leading one. It was decided to buy five hundred acres of land, which could be bought at that time for one pound Continental money per acre, and a subscription was to be raised for the buildings, to be paid in cattle, rice, indigo or tobacco. *MSS. — From Miss Kate Thwent, his granddaughter. 40 History of We can see in this movement the far-seeing wisdom of the young Marylander, who had just entered fully into the Georgia work. The Bishop remained in Georgia only a week, and re- turned to Charleston. It was on his return from this weary journey that he received the famous letter from Mr. Wesley, so carefully preserved and so frequently published by our Episcopal friends, in which the mistaken old man complains of his dear Franky for allowing himself to be called a Bishop, and for found- ing a college and not a school, in Maryland, and allowing it to be named for himself and Dr. Coke. Poor Asbury!— an exile from England, riding, sick and weary as he was, five thousand miles a year, poorly clad, worse paid, with a single eye for the glory of God, to be charged by his dearest friend with worldli- ness! It was too painful, and he received it, as well he might, as a bitter pill. "No man," said Mr. Wesley, "should call him Bishop;" but he had called himself a genuine Episcopos, and had acted in character. It was indeed a cruel misjudgment of Asbury, and a harsh and uncalled for rebuke. Richard Ivy was again on the district, and as Beverly Allen had returned to Georgia, he was associated with him as an assist- ant elder, a kind of roving evangelist. James Connor, who had been on the Washington circuit, was sent to Augusta to organize a church there. If he went, he did not stay long, and six months after he was dead. He was from Virginia, had entered the conference in 1788, and had traveled only two years. He was a man of solid understanding, was in- dustrious and improving. He promised great usefulness to the church, but in the midst of his usefulness he died. He was bless- ed, say the minutes, with confidence in his last hour. Moses Park was on the Washington Circuit with Wyatt An- drews. Andrews traveled one year in Georgia, and went thence to South Carolina — and to Heaven, for he died the next year, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, praising God to the last. Hull went this year to the Burke Circuit. There was a great revival in it, and it more than trebled its membership. Hull writes to John Andrew in November of this year: "Oh, the sweet views I have had lately ! Come on, my partners in distress ! Glory to God ! Amen ! Let it go round, our Jesus is crowned ! All hail ! Glory! Amen! All's well, my soul is happy! If I had some happy Christians, I could shout a mile high." The conference of 1790 convened at Grant's again, but the Bishop made a more extensive journey through the State. He crossed *he Savannah at Augusta, and rode to S. C. Church,. Georgia Methodism. 41 in Richmond county. This, then, was the first Church in Rich- mond — but where was it? From here he went to Briar Creek. On a beautiful bluff, near the great Briar Creek Swamp, stood for many years a church. The lands around it were rich, and the population considerable; but with the growth of the planta- tions and the exodus of the white people, it gradually declined in importance, and was finally given up to the negroes. This was probably the first Methodist church in Burke county. The first church in the county was the old St. George Episcopal church, which, with its glebe of forty acres, was located six miles south of Waynesboro. After the Revolution it was aban- doned by the Episcopalians, and, reverting to the Government, it became, finally, the property of the Methodists. These were, as far as we can discover, the only church buildings in Burke. The population of the county was considerable, since we find, in an old document protesting against the rebellion of the colony, the names of over one hundred families from Burke alone. In company with Hull, he went across the county to Jefferson county, where George Galphin, the great Indian trader, had a trading-place. This was near Louisville. He passed up the Ogeechee River, and preached near Fenn's Bridge, and still up the Ogeechee to its fork ; here he examined some land for the school. He was at H's; where was this? It is evidently in War- ren county, and not many miles from the home of Bishop Pierce, in Hancock. The purchase does not seem to have been made. Asbury says there was an abundance of provisions, both for man and beast, but the houses were generally pole cabins, and the rides were long and wearisome. The conference met at Grant's again, and if all its members were present, there were ten in all. Among them was Bennett Maxey, a Virginian, who, after several years of hard service in Georgia, returned to Virginia, where he extended, says Bennett, his labors far into the present century. He was placed in charge of the Richmond Circuit. John Andrew, another present, was the father of James O. Andrew. He was originally from Liberty county, and lived in the famous Medway settlement. He received much kindness from Mr. Osgood, the good pastor of the church there, and after the birth of his son, he named him James Os- good, in his honor. He entered the conference in 1790, and was the first native Georgian ever admitted into the traveling con- nection. He was a man of more than usual education for those times. After his marriage, which was to Mary Cosby, of one nf the best families in Wilkes, he located and engaged in mer- 42 History of cantile business. He was unfortunate in trade, and became in- volved. Church discipline was stern, and often pitiless in those days, and the high-spirited old pioneer was wounded in the house of his friends, and withdrew from the church, only to return to it after his son's elevation to the highest office in its gift. His life was a pure one, and his death one of triumph. He died in Clarke county nearly forty years after this time. The harvest truly was great, and the laborers were few. Of all who traveled in Georgia, Hope Hull was the only elder. The strong men are nearly all gone. Major was dead. Humphries had removed finally to South Carolina. Beverly Allen had left the State to return to it a disgraced and ruined man. The only workers were young men, inexperienced and unculti- vated. The results of this sad condition of things will be seen in the future. This conference was held at Grant's. This was in Wilkes county. Daniel Grant, here spoken of, was the father of Thomas Grant, who was for so long a time a prominent layman in Geor- gia. In Hanover county, Virgina, in the middle of the last cen- tury, there was a sad state of religion. The only pastors were a set of parish priests, whose profligate lives even went beyond that of the English clergy at that time. Among the leading citi- zens of that county was an Episcopalian named Morris. He be- came interested about his soul, and was converted through the reading of an old copy of Luther's sermons. He invited his neighbors to come and hear the sermons. They came in such numbers that a house for their accommodation was needful, and he built one. In other parts of the country there came requests for him to come and read sermons. The same result followed, and Morris's reading-houses were in several parts of Hanover. They met on Sunday, and, without singing or prayer, a sermon was read. A Mr. Robinson, of New Jersey, a Presbyterian, pass- ing through Hanover, remained one Sunday at Morris's and ob- served the strange worship. He preached to the people. They insisted he should stay longer as he returned from Charleston. He did so; there was a revival, and he organized a Presbyterian church. When he prepared for his departure they insisted on giving him some money; he refused to take it. They put the money in his saddle bags. He consented to take it for the use of a young man then at the Log College in New Jersey, and promised to send him, as soon as he was through college, to Virginia. This man was Samuel Davies, one of the most elo- Georgia Methodism. 43 quent preachers America has ever produced. Grant was a mem- ber of his church, and Thomas Grant was baptized by him. lhe Grants removed to North Carolina, and the elder Grant was an elder in the Presbyterian church there. In 1784, they removed to Wilkes county. In the county there was no preaching save an occasional sermon from Silas Mercer, at a private house At last John Major and Thomas Humphries came. Grant heard them and invited them to take his house into the circuit. I hey did so, and he and his wife soon, as the phrase was, joined in society. Thomas was then a married man. He had been a Revolutionary soldier and a surveyor of western lands. His father's teachings had not been lost, and he had preserved a pure life He was an earnest seeker but was not converted for some time After he heard the Methodists, many of the difficulties which had been in the way of his happy conversion were removed. He ^ave up his Calvanism and soon after joined in society with his wife He was then living with his father, and was a well- to-do farmer The Grants soon built a church, the first in Geor- gia • but before the church was built the conference met at their house The second in Georgia was held there. In 1791, he entered into mercantile business. He shipped tobacco and other farm products to Savannah and exchanged them for West India produce. His business prospered and he began to enlarge it. He shipped his produce direct from Savannah to Liverpool. In 1801 he went to New York. The journey was three months and three days long. When he was in New York he found a pious Ouaker who kept a boarding-house, and made his home with him. He sought out the only society of Methodists 111 New York, then meeting in John Street, and had sweet Christian intercourse with them. In one of his visits he found that they were just completing a meeting-house which cost the immense sum of eleven thousand dollars. God greatly prospered him in his business, but he was not injured by it. He was a true friend to the itinerant preacher, and kept a room in his house known as the Prophet's chamber ; in a bureau drawer he kept clothing already made, fitted for short men, long men, fat men and lean men, so that any preacher who reached his house cold and wet could change his apparel. After the opening of the new country east of the Ocmulgee, he established a store in Randolph, now Jasper county, and after his first wife's death and his second marriage, he removed to Monticello. Here he was very active in church work, and bemoaned the sadly dead state of the church. In 1827 the revival fire which burned all 44 History of over the State reached Monticello and the community was greatly blessed. He had now almost retired from the world and was waiting for his change. He made his will, and left a handsome legacy to the church. This bequest was divided between the South Carolina and Georgia conferences after his death. The share of the Georgia conference was fifteen hundred dollars and sundry lots of land. Few laymen in Georgia were more cultivated, liberal and pious than Thomas Grant. He was of that small group in Wilkes who gave all their influence and much of their wealth to assist a struggling church. He died in great peace in 1828, and Dr. Lovick Pierce preached his funeral discourse. David Meriwether* was an Englishman in his ancestry. His family had been a leading and wealthy one in Virginia, and when George Mathews, afterwards Governor, purchased largely of Georgia lands and removed to Georgia, David Merwether came with him. He became a Methodist in 1787, and continued one till his death. He had been a leading man in the State, and he became one in the church. He was connected by marriage with Hope Hull and John Andrew, and although he was in public life, President of the Senate, and United States Commissioner, when the Methodists were very humble, and although he had large wealth when the Methodists were very poor, he was always a bold, simple-hearted member of the Church. He removed to Athens, and was one of the first members of the Society there, and died peacefully after reaching a good old age. He left a family, who have preserved and transmitted his virtues and his Methodism. Philip Mathews had already traveled one year, and was now with John Crawford on the Savannah Circuit. He traveled but a few years longer. After having been stationed in Georgetown, South Carolina, he withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal, and joined the more recently organized Protestant Episcopal church. Mr. Asbury mentions in his journal that a friend in Screven county showed him a letter from Mr. Mathews — evidently Philip Mathews — in which he said Mr. Wesley was convinced of As- bury's iniquity. This iniquity was probably a failure to recog- nize the merits of Hammett and Mathews. Mathews settled in Georgetown, S. C, and Travis makes this mention of him: "An Episcopal clergyman, Philip Mathews, once a Methodist preacher, attended one of my prayer-meetings. We had a gracious time. Several lay prostrate on the floor, speechless and apparently life- *Gilmer's Georgians. Georgia Methodism. 45 less. The parson went about feeling first the pulse of one and then of another ; finally he came to me and said : 'Mr. Travis, I want you to pray for me.' 'Well,' I said, 'kneel down here, and I will pray for you.' 'Oh,' said he, T want you to do it privately.' " We know nothing more of his history. The Savan- nah Circuit probably included the counties of Screven, Effingham, Chatham, Bryan, Bulloch and Liberty. Hope Hull was appointed to Savannah Town. Of his stay there we have given a full account in our chapter on Methodism in the cities. This was a sad year and the beginning of sadder ones. There was decline everywhere. The zealous young preach- ers were neither old enough, nor strong enough, for the burden. The religious reaction had begun, and it continued for nearly ten years. Hull had been unwisely taken from the field in which he was reaping so grand a harvest, and sent where there was no hope of accomplishing anything. No wonder he writes to John Andrews : "My soul has been among lions." Then, too, the storm of controversy was raging. The Baptists and the Presby- terians were Calvanists, and they had strong men to defend their views. The Methodists were Arminians ; and Pelagian and Uni- tarian are not now names more odious to Evangelical Christians, than Arminian was in the last century. There was, on the side of the Calvinists, Marshall, Bottsford, Mercer, Father Cum- mings, and others who were strong men, and the Methodist preachers were young and perhaps not fully equipped for the battle. Asbury found the controversy raging and deprecated it. He thought we had better work to do. He came on his annual visit in the spring of this year. He rode through the Sa- vannah Swamp to a Brother H's, probably in Screven county, and after preaching to a congregation of four hundred, went thence to Old Church, and thence to Waynesboro. He met here an intelligent and hospitable Jew, named Henry, who took him home with him, and with whom he read Hebrew till a late hour. While here he heard heavy tidings, probably of Beverly Allen's fall in South Carolina, which depressed him much ; but he left all with the Lord, and joining Bishop Coke, they went together to the seat of the conference. It was at Scott's. Scott's was a new meeting-house in Wilkes county, not very far from Meri- wether's and Grant's, in the same section. This was the first visit of Bishop Coke to Georgia. He was a Welshman by birth, well-born, well-bred, and well-educated ; for a while he was a skeptic, then he was an unconverted curate convinced of the truth of Christianity, but by no means a Chris- 46 History of tian ; then he was a warm-hearted Gospel preacher, and because he was so, he lost his curacy. He attached himself to Mr. Wes- ley, who valued him highly, and as we have seen, Mr. Wesley sent him to America. He was very decided, and almost rash in his temper — one who did not understand America or the Ameri- cans — one whose restless spirit forbade his being confined in any single field. He loved America, but he did not suit it, and the American preachers soon found that his absence from America was a greater blessing than his presence, and he spent his last active year in a work which he did suit, the great mission work of the Wesleyan church. Few men have spared themselves less, and few men have ever lived whose souls were nobler than that of Thomas Coke. We found, says Asbury at conference, that the peace with the Indians, and the prosperous trade with them which followed the new settlements in Greene, and Hancock and Clarke, the buying of slaves, had so engrossed the minds of the people that the preachers had not had the success they hoped for. Despite an increase of the Savannah River Circuit, there was a decrease of near two hundred members in the State. Richard Ivy took the district again, and John Andrew and Hardy Herbert the Washington Circuit. Hope Hull had Burke once more. Among the new laborers introduced into the field was Hardy Herbert. He was quite a young man from North Carolina, one who had been pious from his childhood. He traveled one year with the saintly Isaac Smith, and another with Thomas Humphries, and now Bishop Asbury brought him to Georgia and placed him with Adrew on the Washington Circuit. Hull writes to Andrew : "Take care of dear Brother Herbert, for my sake, for Christ's sake, and for his own sake." He seems to have been exceedingly lovable and highly gifted. The next year Bishop Asbury took him with him to Virginia, and stationed him in Winchester. His strength gave way, and he located, married, and died in Norfolk, Virgina. when he was but twenty-five years old. In the spring of 1792, Asbury came once more, entering Geor- gia from Barnwell district into Screven county, and thence through Burke county northward. He passed through Waynes- boro, and attempted to preach. He left the village in no good humor with it, saying: "Let preachers or people catch me here till things are mended and bettered." The next day, Sunday, he spent in prayer, burdened with the weight of the church. The preachers were leaving the field. He rode on up the country to White Oak, in Columbia county. The weather was cold, the Georgia Methodism. 47 houses were open, and from seven o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock in the evening he was forced to ride before he could break his fast. The home in which he was housed was not comfortable, nor were the people religious. He simply says: "I have had my trials this evening." The snow fell the next day, but he rode on to Washington, where conference met. Bishop Asbury, in his journal, states that the conference met in Washington. There was no church in Washington for nearly forty years after this, of which we can find any mention, and the conference must have been held in the neighborhood, at Coke's Chapel, as the next year the Bishop preached for the first time in Washington. There was, he says, great sifting, and one member of the body was suspended.* The already depleted ranks lost two of its best laborers, for Hope Hull went with the Bishop as his traveling companion, and Hardy Herbert went to take an appointment in Virginia. Ivy was for the fourth and last year on the district. Jonathan Jackson came to Georgia and took the place of John Andrew, while Andrew located, to return to the work no more. Jackson was from North Carolina. He was, says Mood, a very son of thunder, dealing out the terrors of the Law until the wicked would almost flee from the house. He remained in Georgia only one year, then returned to South Carolina, and thence to Virginia, where he traveled a district reaching far beyond the Alleghanies. He came again to South Carolina, where he was honorably located. Travis, who knew him well, says that while his preaching talents were not brilliant, his sermons were always calculated to do good. He was a man of great holiness, and when the Lord came he found his lamp trimmed and burning.** George Clark took his first appointment this year. He trav- eled three circuits in Georgia and then located. He was the first preacher on the banks of the St. Mary's. After his location he lived in Union district, South Carolina. He was a man of con- siderable wealth, but one of great plainness of dress and manner. His goodness was unquestioned, and he did much for the church. He lived to an advanced age. Two new circuits were formed, the Elbert and the Oconee. The Oconee was served by John Clark : "This," says James Jenkins, who traveled it the next year, "was a two-weeks' circuit, extending from the Sweet-water Iron Works in Warren county, to the banks of the Oconee, then the frontier." The lower part of Greene, all of Hancock, and a part of Washington and Warren must have been included in *See Journal. **Methodism in Charleston. 48 History of it. The next year there was one meeting-house, mentioned by Jenkins, Jackson's Meeting-house, but this year the work was just laid out. Hancock county had not, as yet, been separated from Greene and Washington, and Clark's work was in these counties. The country was a fertile one, but the fact that the Indians were just across the river made it a perilous one to travel in. There was peace then, but no man knew how long it would continue. The Elbert Circuit was separated from that of Wilkes, and contained 186 members. This county had been laid out from Wilkes two years before, and it was one of the most thickly populated in the State. This then was the state of the work up to the conference of 1793, when Georgia was con- nected with South Carolina in one conference. The conference met in Washington again, Bishop Asbury having crossed the river at Augusta, and riding directly to Haynes, and thence to Washington. The brethren decided to unite the two conferences, and after a session of great love, they ended the sitting. He returned to South Carolina, by turning his course from Haynes, by Buckhead in Burke, on to Savannah. He visited Ebenezer and the Orphan House of Whitefield, and preached in Savan- nah. This city then had about five hundred houses of all sorts, and he supposed about two thousand inhabitants. There was a Lutheran church in it and a Presbyterian. The Goshen church, in Effingham, was offered to Mr. Asbury by Mr. Bergman, the pastor at Ebenezer, on condition that he would have the pulpit supplied once in two or three weeks on Sunday. This session of the Georgia conference was the last held for nearly forty years. James Jenkins came this year to the Oconee Circuit. He was in the second year of his ministry and was now twenty-eight years old. He lived for many years after this, and continued in the local and traveling ministry all the days of his life. He was a stern man, who believed the world needed more rebuke than comfort ; one who was possessed of great fearlessness and a most unbending will, and who allowed nothing to cause him to swerve from what he believed was the true path, and who demanded the same steadiness of others. Subject to great depression, as- sailed by fierce temptation, neither his words nor his manner in- dicated that he basked in sunlight. He was the bold denouncer of sin, and most earnestly proclaimed what he believed to be the penalties of a life of sin. His history properly belongs to South Carolina, and a full sketch of him will be a graphic chapter in that history. We can, however, take the liberty to tell again Georgia Methodism. 49 the story so touchingly told by Bishop Capers, in his autobiogra- phy, of his first encounter with him. He was at Jenkin's house his first year, in 1809. "Well, have they sent you to us for our preacher?" "Yes, sir." "What, you! and the egg-shell not dropped off of you yet? Lord have mercy upon us! and who have they sent in charge?" "No one but myself, sir." "What, you! by yourself ? You in charge of the circuit ? Why, what is to become of the circuit? — the Bishop had just as well sent nobody. What can you do in charge of the circuit?" "Very poorly I fear, sir; but the Bishop thought you would advise me." "So, so. I suppose I am to take charge of the circuit for you, and you are to be what I tell you." "I would be very glad, sir, if you would." "Did ever ! What ! I, a local preacher, take charge of the circuit? And is it that you have come here for? How can I take charge of it? no! no! But I can see that you do it; such a charge as it will be for these days — the discipline goes for nothing." Of course the young timid preacher cowered under these merci- less blows of the well-meaning but erring old man. The next time he came he received another flagellation ; but that night he heard the dear old wife remonstrating with her husband for his severity. "Why, Betsy, child," he said, "don't you know I love Billy as well as you do, and I talk to him so because I love him?" Billy, as he called him, was no longer afraid, and the next morning disarmed the old preacher by telling him what he had heard the night before, and changed the frown into a laugh. But this was years after ; he was now a young man and was now alone on the Oconee circuit ; it probably included Han- cock, a part of Greene and Washington, and was traveled in two weeks. With this year's work well done, Richard Ivy left Georgia never more to return to it. In two years he is in his grave. He did noble work for the young State. He was the Great Heart of his day, and he braved all the perils of this frontier, and bore all the privations his office called for. His district extended from the Savannah to the Oconee, from the St. Mary's to the moun- tains. When he began his work there was not a single church building in his district. He had seen the membership of the so- cieties quintupled. He had extended his line — a skirmish line, it 50 History of is true — from below Savannah to the borders of the Indian na- tion. He had only young men, almost without education, to rely upon to aid him. He had no mission funds, no reserve of ministerial force to bring up; never had man a more difficult task, not often has man done the work better. Reuben Ellis was his successor on the district. He had, be- sides, five appointments in South Carolina. His district extended from Charleston, in South Carolina, to Greene county, in Geor- gia — from the Saluda to the Altamaha. Reuben Ellis was one of the first and one of the most faithful of the early preachers. Save the record that the minutes present of his fields of labor, and the short memoir they gave of him, we know very little of one whose life must have been full of stirring incidents. He was born in North Carolina, and began to travel during the Revo- lution in 1779. He preached in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. When presiding elders were first appointed, in 1785, he was one — first in North Carolina, in the east and west of this State, among pine forests, swamps and mountains; then on a district extending from Salisbury to Columbia, S. C, with only four circuits in it. He mapped out the work in the frontier country of upper South Carolina, and after four years of hard work there he was sent to Georgia. He traveled this laborious district, including nearly all of two States, but one year, and then returned to the scene of his early labors in Virginia and Maryland. In Baltimore, in 1796, he died. His old comrade in arms, his brother beloved, Richard Ivy, went home a few months before him. They joined the conference together, trav- eled the same circuits and the same districts, were alike holy and laborious, and entered into their reward near the same time. In personal appearance they were unlike. Ellis was very large in body, but feeble in constitution. The Bishop, who had been his bosom friend for twenty years, said of him : "It is a doubt whether there be one left in the connection higher, if equal to him in standing, piety and usefulness." He began his work in Georgia under many difficulties. The Bishop was unable to supply the field with laborers as it should have been supplied. He could only send such men as he had — James Tolleson was one of the best of them. He came from South Carolina to the Washington Circuit. He remained in Georgia for but one year. He was a man of fine promise, who filled several of the most important stations with "dignity and diligence." He died in great peace in Portsmouth, Virginia. From this time, for nearly forty years, there is no separate Ciias. Wesley. *' ■ ! f??ttS*- : Dr. Alexander Means. President Emory College. Georgia Methodism. 51 meeting of the Georgia Conference, and this affords a proper point from which to survey the first years of the church in Geor- gia. The Methodist preachers have now* occupied this territory for nine years. They have met everywhere obstacles of serious kind, but they have had a wonderful success. We have alluded to the odium attached to them for being Arminians, and the distrust of their patriotism, and the needless difficulties Dr. Coke's great imprudence in denouncing slavery, before he had been three months in America, had caused. Then there was their mode of doing things — their revival services, their class meetings, their love feasts with closed doors, and their stern rebukes of all sin. The membership, when they began to work in 1786, was next to nothing, and, despite all the difficulties in the way, Methodist societies now dot the State from the very door of the Creek and Cherokees to the cities on the sea-coast, from Florida to the Blue Ridge. The work has been outlined, the important points seized, and though the force is small, yet it will hold its own against all comers. There were some things, however, decidedly in favor of the preachers. The people were starving for the Word ; they were literally without God in the world. The very peculiarities of the preachers brought out congregations to hear them. They wore straight-breasted coats, broad-brimmed hats ; they looked as no other men, and preached like no others ; they often stamped and screamed, wept, threatened, exhorted and invited. All felt that they were deeply in earnest. The power of the Spirit attended their labors, and many who came to scoff remained to pray. Yet how heroic was the endurance demanded ! There was probably not a bridge in Georgia ; there was not a turnpike ; in many whole counties there was not a pane of glass ; in some not a saw mill nor a framed building. Pole-cabins, with bedaubed cracks, a dirt floor, and a stick-and-dirt chimney, where one room furnishes living room and sleeping room, were the houses of the people. As we have seen, the circuit preacher found no churches ready for him, oftentimes no preaching places selected, not a sin- gle member of the Society. He came into a section, he sought out the kind-hearted settler, and left an appointment for that day two weeks at his cabin, and on that day he came. A cabin full of the neighbors was there. The men were dressed in hunt- ing-shirts, and either bare- footed or with Indian Moccasins on ; the women in the plainest garb of country-made stuff" — nearly all of them simple-hearted and ignorant. The preacher preached, •Minutes. 52 History of souls were convicted, and after a fearful struggling there was a thorough conversion. The preacher finished his sermon, and on a puncheon the plain food, simply "lye hominy" and bear or deer meat, was set. After dinner he must ride on, for there was another appointment miles beyond. A creek was in the way — he swam it ; he had no road, but a blazed pathway through the woods led him to the settlement. He received no money for the people had none. His clothing was of plainest material, often patched, often ragged. Bishop George (says Dunwody) said, "if our poverty was our purity, some of us ought to be purified ere long." I noticed, said the preacher, a large slit in the Bish- op's own coat, and this was thirty years after this time. It was not often he received even his small allowance. Henry Smith, of Maryland, came to conference in these days with four dollars as his total yearly receipts. Some of the preachers had a small patrimony, which they spent in the work. When a man married, he located ; when he died, they sold his horse and books, and paid his burial expenses ; and when he wore out, he wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood, cherished kindly by his brethren who were able to shelter him. The Georgia people were nearly all poor at this period — the Methodists the poorest of the Georgians ; and while in Wilkes and in some of the eastern counties there were some families of wealth and influence who adhered to the Methodists, the general state of the country and the church was, in 1793, such as we have tried to picture it. CHAPTER IV. 1 794- 1 804. The United Conference made one, and known thereafter as the South Carolina Conference, met in the forks of Broad River, Abbeville district, South Carolina, January 1, 1794. The conference was much straitened for room, having only one chamber twelve feet square to confer in, sleep in, and for the accommodation of the sick; for one of the brethren (P. B.), probably Philip Bruce, was quite unwell, and so was Asbury. They, however, completed their business, and ordained four eld- ers and six deacons.* This year the entire State of South Carolina, and all of the State of Georgia then settled, was included in one district, which was placed in charge of Philip Bruce. The circuits were dimin- ished in numbers, and there were only three, with six preachers. Hull took an appointment at this conference for the last time, as at the next he located, to return to the itinerancy no more. Philip Bruce, the new presiding elder, was one of the princes of early Methodism. He was a Virginian, and a direct descend- ant of those Huguenots who, exiled from France because of religion, came to Virginia. He entered the conference with Thomas Humphries and John Major, in 1783. He had now traveled twelve years, and from the date of his eldership had been on districts. His districts were large and important, sweeping from the At- lantic seaboard to the Ohio. Wherever the post of difficulty and danger was, he was found. Carolina and Georgia needed him, and he came to give his services to these important but feebly manned conferences. He was a man of fine personal appear- ance, with the striking features of a French Huguenot. His ex- pression was calm, dignified and determined ; his manner most elegant, and graceful. f He had an intellect of decidedly high order, and a heart thoroughly consecrated to the work of the church. $ He was a man of such spirit and judgment that As- bury leaned on him as a second self. He was the corps com- mander on whom that general most relied. He never located for he never married. He traveled for thirty-seven consecutive years, then was superannuated, and spent his last days in Ten- nessee, though still holding his connection with the Virginia con- ference. At length, full of years and honors, he died. *Asbury's Journal. tSprague and Bennett. {Bennett. 54 History of Could Bruce have given Georgia, as Ivy had, his entire time, a great work must have been done, despite the times ; but, with two great States to travel over, he could do but little towards meeting the demands of any single section. He remained only one year on the district, and then returned to Virginia. It is not possible, however desirable it may be, to give a full account of all the laborers in Georgia at this period. The old men who might have told us of them are gone. There were neither church newspapers nor magazines in those days, and locating, as most of the preachers did, long before their death, they drop from the minutes. Of Douthet, Russell, Posey, Clark, and King, the Geor- gia preachers, we know scarcely anything; of some of them only the name. The next year there was not one of them this side of the Savannah. The year 1794 was a dark year for all the churches in Georgia, and especially for Methodism. Laborers were imperatively de- manded; but what had the church to promise to men for a life of such toil and sacrifice as she required? All things seemed adverse to religion, the country was being opened up rapidly, emi- grants were pouring into the new lands along the banks of the Oconee, and with the usual results of unsettled society. Political strife was high, the leading men of the State were duellists and infidels, and the whole State was in a blaze of angry fury, be- cause of the recently perpetrated Yazoo sale. The State Legis- lature had sold to a private company, for $500,000 all that grand domain west of the Chattahoochee, and which includes now the States of Alabama and Mississippi. This matter engaged the people, rather than going to week-day preaching or attending class-meeting. There was nothing remarkable then in the de- creasing numbers in society. The conference met in Charleston, January 1, 1795. The scarcity of laborers rendered it impossible to supply all the work, and one man could no longer de- vote himself to the presidency of the district. The Savannah, Oconee and Elbert Circuits were given up, and merged into the Washington, Burke and Richmond. Josias Randle was placed on the Burke Circuit, and in charge of the district. The Wash- ington Circuit had declined in membership from nine hundred to three hundred, and there were now reported in the societies of the State only 1,028 members, the membership five years be- fore having been double that number. The State was increasing rapidly in wealth and population, but the church could no longer furnish the class of traveling preachers demanded. Hope Hull had located, and opened a High School at Succoth Academy, Georgia Methodism. 55 three miles from Washington. John Andrew was also teaching in Wilkes. The newly settled sections of the country always demand the highest order of men; but, alas! whence were they now to come? The Georgia district took the same shape it had when Richard Ivy first came in 1788. The preachers in charge were Randle, Moore, Guerry, Wilson Tankersly. Of these three had just entered the conference, and of them only Josias Randle was to remain in Georgia for any length of time. How many separate societies there were then in Georgia we can not tell. From the records of the Baptist church we learn that there were twenty-six churches,* and perhaps half the number of preachers. There was certainly not less than a hundred congregations to which the Methodists preached. It is evident, from a survey of this period, that the great revival from 1786 to 1791 had lost its power, and there was a general religious declension, which continued till near the beginning of the new century. The conference met in Charleston again Janu- ary 1, 1796. Bishop Asbury was present, and there were about twenty members of the body. The session was a peaceful one, and the tide of religious interest rose high. The Bishop at this conference received the tidings of the burning of Cokesbury Col- lege. It had been an ill-advised enterprise ; but the determined Dr. Coke, against Asbury 's calmer and better judgment, entered upon it, and then returned to England, leaving his already bur- dened colleague to carry the additional and very heavy weight. It was now burned, and Asbury gave himself to work more pleasing and successful than building a college. f Jonathan Jackson and Josias Randle were appointed to the Burke Circuit, and Jackson was to have charge of the district, but the design was for each of them to visit the older sections of the State, and endeavor to establish Methodism there. Samuel Cowles, another Virginian, who was to do much work for the Church in Georgia, came this year to the State. He had been a dragoon with Washington's Light Horse. In the battle of Cowpens he swept down with upraised sabre upon a British trooper, whom he disarmed, and was about to cut him down. The trooper gave him the Masonic signal of distress, and he spared his life. Years after, he met his old foe in Thomas Darley, a brother-in-arms, in the South Carolina Conference. As Asbury was making a journey through Virginia, he spent a night at Samuel Cowles' mother, and with them left a good book. Through its influence the family was converted, and Sam- *Campbe]l's Baptists, t Asbury 's Journal. 56 History of uel became a preacher. He traveled for some years, then located and settled in the new county of Warren. Here he labored as a local preacher, and as there was Cowles' Iron Works in the county, he probably became an iron-maker. He removed to Monroe County in its early settlement, and died a good man, at a good old age. Asbury crossed the river not far from Augusta, and rode through the city, whose streets, he mentions, had been ploughed into deep gullies for two miles by the angry waters of the Savan- nah. On this visit, for the first time Asbury preached in the city in the old St. Paul's Church, which was, at that period, free to all. His congregation consisted of 400 hearers.* He rode on through Columbia County, and after preaching at White Oak, was forced to ride fifteen miles after sermon before he could get his dinner. He swam Little River in Wilkes, and on Friday was at Combs' Meeting House, and that evening at Gartrell's. The next day he rode to the school at Coke's Chapel, three miles from Washington. Here Hope Hull had his academy. He then preached at Pope's Chapel, and crossed the river into South Carolina at Petersburg. There was but little change, and no improvement in the condition of things this year. The General Conference met every four years. It was com- posed of all the traveling elders of the Church. The main body of its members were therefore always from those conferences nearest to the place of meting, which had been and was Balti- more. It met this year in that city, and we have the first printed record of its doings. At this conference the form of a deed of settlement for church property, based upon the one so sternly required by Mr. Wesley in England, which aimed to place the property where neither the ambition of preachers nor the whims of congregations could af- fect it, was decided upon. Rules were adopted for the graduation of deacons to elder's orders. Provision was made for the publi- cation of a magazine like the Arminian Magazine in England. Specific rules were adopted, evidently at the instance of Dr. Coke, for the regulation of the students in our seminaries. These rules were Spartan enough in their sternness, and entirely impractica- ble. The plan for a chartered fund was adopted ; slavery came in for its share of fruitless legislation. The preachers were in- structed to proceed against all who retailed spirituous liquors, as in the case of all other immoralities. The allowances for the * Journal. Georgia Methodism. 57 preachers were fixed at sixty-four dollars for a man, and the same for his wife, with nothing for family expenses. During the year a decline of forty members was reported in the Georgia Conference. It will be remembered that church dis- cipline was summary and certain in those days. Three times absence from class, a ribbon, a ruffle, or a ring, and the preacher erased the name from the class-book. To be turned out of so- ciety was a constant dread of the conscientious member, and a neglect to enforce discipline the most serious charge against a preacher. The Novatians of the early church were scarcely more rigid in discipline than the early Methodists, therefore these figures do not indicate no success in winning souls. The Conference of 1797 met in Charleston, and this time Coke was with Asbury. There were cheering reports, says Asbury's Journal, from Georgia, but there are certainly none in the printed minutes. The appointments this year were the best which had been made for several years. Enoch George, afterwards Bishop, took the district, and James Jenkins was preacher in charge of the Washington Church. Hope Hull was placed as a supply on the Augusta station, though it does not appear that he went there; if he did, it is certain he organized no church. Randle, with two young assistants, was in lower Georgia. Enoch George was a Virginian, and when he came to Georgia was about thirty years of age. He had been converted under the flaming ministry of John Easter, and entered the ministry soon afterward. After traveling a very hard circuit in North Carolina as a supply, he entered the conference regu- larly. He came at once to South Carolina, and after a few years on circuits was made presiding elder. This year he was on the Georgia District. There were only three circuits in his district, but they covered almost the whole State. Six preachers had all the work to do. The church had not prospered since Richard Ivy left the State and Hope Hull located. No presiding elder had been able to give it all his time, at a day when it needed it most. George came in good time. He was the man for the oc- casion. He was rather gross-looking. His hair was thick, bushy and long. He was very careless in his dress, and was not prepossess- ing in his appearance ; his voice was rich and sweet, his enuncia- tion clear and distinct. In prayer he had wonderful power. In preaching he wept, and all about him wept. His piety was deep 58 History of and beautiful,* his consecration to the work entire, and his suc- cess in winning souls was great. He gave himself to his work in Georgia with great zeal, and with his coming the ebbing tide was stayed. It did not until a few years after rise to a flood, but it ceased to ebb. James Jenkins was now on the Washington Circuit, and we get the first view of its boundaries. It included the at present counties of Greene, Taliaferro, Wilkes, Lincoln, Elbert, Hart, Franklin, Madison and Oglethorpe. There were now a number of church buildings erected. Among them was Burke's Meeting house and Liberty Chapel, in Greene. At Lib- erty Chapel, Jenkins exhorted after George, and a man in uni- form came forward, and falling at his feet, begged him to pray for him; others came likewise, and this, says Jenkins, was, as far as he knew, the beginning of the custom of public profession of penitence, or in Methodist parlance, going to the altar. The meeting, he says, was such a noisy one that he wondered the horses did not take fright. f The Conference of 1798 met in Charleston, but for the first time Asbury was absent. He was sick in Virginia. The disease of his lungs, which finally caused his death, had so alarmingly threatened him then, that his physicians forbade his traveling. The responsibility of the appointments rested with Dr. Coke; but he was assisted by Jesse Lee, who had been requested by Asbury to go to Charleston. Dr. Coke, on his journey from England, had been captured by a French privateer, and after being strip- ped of all his other goods, with his books and papers, had been landed on the Virginia coast, and had reached the Virginia Con- ference. He now came South with Jesse Lee. The Conference concluded its session without having accomplished anything of special note. Enoch George, strong as he was, broke down in the work, and did not return to the Georgia District but was succeeded by Ben- jamin Blanton. He was a Virginian, who had been ten years in the work. He began his itinerancy in the mountains of Virginia, and ended it in Georgia. After traveling the district this year he located and settled in Oglethorpe County, where he lived a useful local preacher for many years. He married this year a Miss Huet,J and, as was universally the custom, ceased to itiner- ate. He was a pure, good man, who always took the greatest interest in the church and did much for it. When an old man, in love-feast one day, he said "that he thought, when he had been forty years in the wilderness, he would have been called to *Dr. Luckey in Sprague. t Jenkins' Life, 83. J Jenkins. Georgia Methodism. 59 cross Jordan ; but he had been now over forty years in it, and he was still browsing on the banks of the river." He re-entered the conference in his old age, and was at once superannuated. His family, in 1845, had gone to the camp-meeting, and he was to follow, but that evening, being quite unwell, he remained with his wife and some of his children at home. That night he sat up in bed and prayed aloud for the last time with unusual power, and the next day he sank calmly to sleep on the bosom of his Lord. He was thrice married, and his descendants are at this time among the most useful members of the church to which he gave his early life. After the adjournment of the conference, Lee visited Georgia, going as far west as the Oconee, in Greene County, and returning in February. He crossed the Savannah at Barksdale Ferry. He says he was greatly comforted with his visits to Georgia, where he spent twenty-seven days, and preached twenty-one sermons. The country was much better than he expected to find it, and the parts in which he traveled were chiefly settled by Virginians. They lived well, but appeared to him to be ungovernable in church and state. It was a good country for corn, tobacco and cotton, and also for oats, wheat and potatoes. In the pine woods there were a great many salamanders, which perhaps were not found in any other State in the Union. He expected that there would be a great revival of religion in Georgia soon.* In this hope he was not disappointed, as we shall see. George Dougherty was appointed this year to the Oconee Cir- cuit, which was again called into existence. The Cherokees and Creeks were on the western bank of the river still, but the fields of the white settlers were on its eastern borders. The circuit was a large one and a hard one, and courage was demanded from the man who was to do the work, and there never was a braver heart in a frail body than that which beat in the bosom of the inexperi- enced boy who was sent to these wilds. He had only one eye, was pitted with smallpox, and was most careless about his dress. He had no outward marks of greatness, but we doubt whether the American pulpit ever had in it a truer genius or a more regal soul than George Dougherty. This was his second year, and the only one spent in Georgia. He then returned to South Carolina, where he toiled faithfully until the burning soul consumed his frail frame, and, in what should have been the vigor of his life, he died.f He was, we have said, a genius, and his attainments were remarkable. "He used," said old Dr. Pierce, "to visit my father's * Jenkins. tSprague. 60 History of house, and when on his district my first year I read to him from the English Bible, while he compared the version with the original Hebrew." There was much infidelity in those days, and Dough- erty gave careful study to the science of apologetics. His attain- ments here amazed those scholarly men who heard him. His ser- mons were rich in original thoughts, full of pathos and power. His denunciations of sin were fearless and stirring. The mob in Charleston, angered by his faithfulness, once nearly caused his death by pumping water upon him from the town pump, and he was only rescued by the courage of a good woman, who rushing to the pump, stuffed her apron in the spout.* Bishop Andrew was rarely more enthused than when telling of the traditions of his pulpit power, and Dr. Lovick Pierce, who knew him well, so carried away as when telling the story of his eloquence, learn- ing and piety. When the history of Methodism in South Carolina is written it may be that he will be placed on his true pedestal. To the present generation he would be almost unknown, save for the faithful labors of a Presbyterian, the good Dr. Sprague, who from Bishop Andrew and Dr. Pierce, gathered the remaining frag- ments of fact from which to erect his monument. The last con- ference he attended was in the bounds of the only circuit he had traveled in Georgia. Bishop Asbury's health having improved, he came to Georgia in November. He crossed the Savannah above Augusta, and stop- ped with Wm. Tait, and preached at Tait's Chapel. Wm. Tait was related to Judge Charles Tait, the great friend of W. H. Crawford, and afterward senator in Congress. The Judge was himself the friend of Asbury, and in after years Asbury was entertained at his own home. He went from thence to Ralph Banks. Ralph Banks was his host often after this. He was a remarkable man and brought up a remarkable family. On one of Asbury's visits to Elbert, he mentioned that he stopped with Ralph Banks, whose handsome and healthy wife, thirty-six years old. had twelve children. From this family sprang some of the leading Methodist families in Georgia, and of eight sons, every one of them arrived at distinction, and several of them acquired great wealth, and all of them preserved their Methodist connec- tions. Their descendants are today a numerous and influential people in the State, and nearly all of them leading Methodists. From that home he went to Franklin Countv to the home of Henry Parks, and then turning his course southward he came to Charles Wakefield's, in Oglethorpe, and sent Jessee Lee to visit *Mood. Georgia Methodism. 61 the Ogeechee, while he remained behind to nurse Benj. Blanton, who was sick. The next day he rode to Burrell Pope's, riding from one plantation to another on Blanton's stiff-jointed horse, which he said he would not ride except to save souls or the health of a brother.* Jessee Lee having accomplished his work, returned to Asbury, and they went to Henry Pope's. They now turned their course westward, and in December, 1799, he preached in Greensboro. Here there was a Presbyterian church, the first mention we have of one in upper Georgia ; it was estab- lished by Father Cummings, the first Presbyterian minister in this part of the State. The county of Greene had been a separate county for thirteen years, and it is probable that from the very first it had been included in the bounds of the Washington Cir- cuit. Although we had no church in Greensboro, there were sev- eral in Greene County, such as they were ; one at Burke's, one at Crutchfield's, and at Little Britain, which was ''open at the top, bottom and sides. "f Hope Hull, Josias Randle, Samuel Cowles, and Wm. Partridge, met the good Bishop, and they had a family meeting at Mother Hill's. She was probably the mother of Whit- man C. Hill, and lived in Oglethorpe County. They had quarterly meetings at Mark's, and rode twenty miles to Hope Hull's, near Washington. He preached at David Meriwether's, and took sad- dle for Augusta. All the trading of the country was then with Augusta, so that the roads were wretched. They, however, ploughed through the mud, and reached the city by the Sabbath. Here Asbury says he heard a sermon in the morning and preached one in the afternoon. Asbury now recrossed the Sa- vannah and entered into South Carolina, and went to Charleston, where the conference session was to be held. During all this journey Jesse Lee traveled with Bishop Asbury, and was his most efficient colaborer. No two men could have differed more in everything except the aim, grand and glorious, to which each of their lives was directed. Lee was large in body, and Asbury del- icate. Lee was full of humor, and Asbury grave and thoughtful. Lee found a joy in the encounter with difficulties, and to Asbury the sweet quiet of home was the delight of life. Lee in the mid- dle ages would have been Richard of the Lion Heart, Asbury, St. Francis of Assisi. Lee had ere this made his power felt over the whole connection. From the Penobscot to the Oconee he had labored. Like some brave knight of the olden time, his massive form and the flashing battle-axe had been seen where the foes were the strongest and their ranks were the thickest. He had * Asbury 'a Journal, tlbid. 62 History of gone to New England alone and unfriended, and, against intoler- ance the fiercest and opposition the sternest, he had planted Meth- odism in all that land. He will appear in our history in an after- day more than once, but not as we would have desired to see him, as the episcopal colleague of Francis Asbury. Had this intrepid, energetic, earnest Virginian, in middle life, been chosen instead of the shrinking, retiring and aged Whatcoat, to the office of Bishop, the Church had been better served when she needed service most, and the overburdened Asbury relieved and assisted. Samuel Cowles returned again to Georgia, and was on the Washington Circuit. He was accompanied by Alexander Mc- Caine. McCaine was a young man of fine person and of fine gifts, and was destined to occupy a high place in the Church, for he was stationed in after-years in the leading cities of the East. After thirty years of active and efficient ministry among the Epis- copal Methodists, he left his old associates and was one of the founders of the Methodist Protestant Church. He occupied a prominent place in this body till his death, which occurred in 1856. He lived to see the church of his early love, for whose welfare the best energies of his young and mature life were put forth, sadly torn and divided ; to see Snethen, Shinn and Jennings in bitter strife with their old colleagues; he lived to see all the smoke of battle pass away, and until almost all remembrance of the strife had ended, and to see some of his own children and grandchildren in the church which he had left ; and to have the kindly care of the ministers in his last hours ; and when he died, it was from the altars of the Methodist Episcopal Church the old hero was buried. Nicolas Waters came from Maryland to take place on the Burke Circuit. He was the brother of Wm. Waters, the first native American who entered the traveling connection. He en- tered the ministry in 1776, located in 1779, re-entered the con- nection, and finally died in Charleston in 1804. He was at this time fifty years old, and had been really at work since 1772, though not regularly licensed till four years later. He was a con- secrated man, distinguished for his moral courage, ardent zeal, and unwearying labors. His heavenly-mindedness and uniform simplicity of deportment greatly endeared him to his brethren.* His family removed to Georgia after his death, and one of his grandsons, W. W. Oslin, died a member of the conference. The Church gained ground, though slowly. The membership *Mood and the Minutes. Georgia Methodism. 63 was 1,318. For the first time Augusta appears in the minutes, and Methodism in Georgia reports one considerable town in her list of appointments. For fifteen years the preachers had been at work, but they had made up to this time no impression on the two important towns in the State. There were really only three of any size in Georgia — Savannah, Augusta, and Petersburg, in Elbert County. In none of these had the Methodists a church building, and in only one of them a society. The Conference of 1799 met at Charleston. Bishop Asbury was able to come to it, and to preside. Josias Randle was forced to locate for a time. It was a deplorable necessity indeed that called for the location of such men as Richard Ivy, Reuben Ellis, Hope Hull, Benj. Blanton and Josias Randle; but excessive labor, ex- posure to all kinds of weather, and preaching every day, and hard- ships of every kind, were too much for the strong men even of that iron age, and they were driven from the work not only by their family needs, but often by failing health. At this conference Stith Mead, who was reported as being on the Burke Circuit with Wm. Avant, became regularly a member of the conference. In our chapter on Methodism in the cities, we have given a full sketch of this father of Methodism in Augusta. Georgia had long needed such a man, if she had not deserved him, and he came not a moment too soon — the very man for the very time. Blanton took the district for the second and last time. Samuel Cowles was the only one of the old line who remained in Georgia. There was an entirely new detachment sent to the field. Stith Mead was sent as preacher on the Burke Circuit, and with him was Wm. Avant, with the evident design of leaving Mead in Au- gusta, in which he was trying to build a church. Tobias Gibson was sent this year as missionary to the Natchez country, John Garvin to the St. Mary's. While all Georgia west of the Oconee was in the possession of the Indians, there was a considerable body of white settlers on the banks of the Mississippi, in what was called the Natchez Country. Some of them had floated down the Ohio and Mississippi in flatboats, to those fertile lands in what is now Adams County, Mississippi. To them Bishop As- bury desired to send a preacher, and Tobias Gibson volunteered to go. He was a South Carolinian, and was, at this session of the conference, twenty-nine years old. He had entered upon the work as a traveling preacher when twenty-one, and had faithful- ly traveled hard circuits in North and South Carolina. There were then more hardships to be met with in traveling to the banks of the Mississippi than a voyage to China now entails. To reach 64 History of his new field Gibson rode on horseback to the falls of the Cum- berland at Nashville, thence took a canoe, and finally reached the settlements near Natchez. Here he labored for several years, the sole missionary to this, the most remote of the American settle- ments, and here, a few years afterwards, he died in great peace. Like one of the first missionaries — even Barnabas, he was a good man, full of faith and the Holy Ghost.* From the same conference, Jesse Lee, with John Garvin, a young Englishman, who had just come from the African coast, where he had been laboring as a missionary, and who had been appointed to the settlements on the St. Mary's, went on a visit to this, the most remote southern point of the American settlements. Florida was the possession and under the government of the Spaniards. Along the banks of the St. Mary's and of the Sa- tilla, and in the pine country back from the coast, there were a number of settlers, and the town of St. Mary's was a place, even then, of some importance. The year before, George Clark had been a missionary to them, and had formed a small society in Camden and Glynn Counties. There was one church, and one only, as far as we have been able to discover, south of Savannah. This was the Midway Congregational Church, in Liberty County. Lee left Savannah early in January, and rode Asbury's old gray — who, as the Bishop says — suffered for it, through the lower part of South Carolina, to Savannah, and thence to the St. Mary's. There was a most remarkable snow storm, at this time, snow fall- ing to the depth of two and a half feet. He reached Savannah and then rode through the wilds. The first night he was forced to lodge in a deserted log-cabin without doors, and with thirty or forty hogs for room-mates. He reached St. Mary's on the 18th, and preached in the Court House. He rode on, preaching every day, and found a rough people, many of whom had never heard a sermon, f He left Garvin there and returned to Charleston. At the end of the year Garvin reported fourteen in the society. The Confer- ence for 1800 met in Camden, S. C. It met at nine A. M., and ad- journed at twelve, and had an afternoon session. These sessions were chiefly religious meetings. Each preacher told his experi- ence, and each one had his character thoroughly examined. Every night there was a band meeting. Isaac Smith then lived in Camden, and it was at his instance that the session was held there. Two others and himself sus- tained the South Carolina Conference, but then it was composed *Mood and Minutes. tDr. Lee, Life of Jesse Lee. Georgia Methodism. 65 of less than thirty members.* The conference did not hurry through its work, for it sat for five days. There were two clerks to keep the journals, and one for the minutes. The sixty- four dollars allowed for the yearly expenses of the preachers, was paid from a general fund collected on the charges. From the Bishop to the humblest preacher, the salary was the same, and this year it was all paid, save a trifle. The conference lost one of its most efficient laborers in the lo- cation of Benjamin Blanton. It was his last conference as an effective preacher. Stith Mead was now placed in charge of the Georgia District. A better appointment could not have been made, and from this time for nearly ten years the work in the State went on with steady prosperity. Mead was an eminently useful preacher. He was not a highly gifted man, nor were his sermons, judged as intellectual produc- tions, great ; but he was deeply pious, untiring in his labors, fer- vent and pathetic ; he sang well, and sang many revival songs of his own composing. In addition to this, he was an accomplished gentleman, of elegant manners, and of good cultivation for those times. He found ready admission to all circles, and as much the larger number of the people were from Virginia, of which State he was a native, his influence was decided. He had therefore great success in his work. Samuel Cowles now went to the im- portant Oconee Circuit, and John Garvin to Augusta. Moses Black, who did good work in the West in after-time, was this year on the Burke Circuit, and Isaac Cook also received an ap- pointment in Georgia. Britton Capel was sent to the Washington Circuit with Buddy Wheeler. Capel was a Virginian, and had been two years in the work. He traveled for eleven years, and located in 1810. He was an active and useful preacher, and while he was an itinerant had the most important charges. f After his location he became dissatisfied with the Episcopal form of government, and in com- mon with Eppes Tucker and several others of the early preach- ers, he left the Methodist Episcopal Church for the Methodist Protestant, and in that communion he died. In May of this year the General Conference met in Baltimore and Richard Whatcoat was elected Bishop, defeating Jesse Lee by four votes after a tie vote had been had. Lee, who had been really a bishop for some years, and who had been so nearly elected, was assured of *Asbury 's Journal. tDr. L. Pierce. 66 History of misrepresentation having been made, and succeeded in fixing it upon the guilty party, and that fact accounted for his defeat. Among those who had labored in Georgia who were present was Philip Bruce, James Tolleson, and Jesse Lee. The confer- ence continued in session for two weeks. Asbury was sick and was much depressed in spirits. He was anxious to retire from the episcopal office, but the conference passed a vote of approval and requested him to continue in it. The rule requiring a preacher to give account of his presents was rescinded. Tolle- son proposed a delegated general conference, which proposal was negatived. Tolleson moved the allowance of the preachers be increased to eighty dollars per annum, which was carried. It was moved that the Bishop should have a committee to assist him in making the appointments, which was not assented to. Very important changes took place in the management of the publishing interests. The whole of the assets of the concern were $4,000 ; the indebted- ness, $3,000. Ezekiel Cooper, however, was a business man of fine capacity, and he took charge of the book concern, with a salary of $250 per annum, clear of board and house rent.* On the 29th of November, Asbury, with Bishop Whatcoat, reached Augusta. They found the indefatigable Mead had suc- ceeded in securing all that was needful for building the church. Whatcoat preached at Mr. Fary's dwelling house, and in the af- ternoon Asbury preached at St. Paul's Church. He says we had the honor of the priest's company. As there was quite a number of French refugee Catholics from Hayti, it is probable that the priest was a Roman Catholic. The next day Whatcoat and As- bury went to Squire Haynes, on Uchee Creek, thence to Scott's, and on to Grant's. On Sunday they were at Coke's Chapel, near Washington. Hope Hull was of course there, and exhorted after Asbury. From Washington they came southward into Warren County, and preached at Heath's. Crossed the Ogeechee at Thweat's Bridge, passed through Powelton, and came thence to Edmund Butler's, in Hancock. There had been a meeting house here long enough for the old one to give way to a new one, which was not yet completed. f This was in 1800. The first missionary to Hancock came in 1792, but it is probable that this church was in the old Richmond Circuit, and was founded before Hancock County was laid out, which was done in 1703. They then return- ed, and passing through Oglethorpe and Elbert, crossed the river at Martin's Ferry. *General Conference Journal, t Asbury 's Journal. George Whitefield. Bishop James ( ). Andrew Georgia Methodism. 67 The great revival tide which swept over America came in blessing to Georgia this year. The Baptists participated largely in it, and during the next year, 1802, over 700 new members were reported in one association.* At this conference, January 1, 1802, there was reported 2,094 white and 400 colored. On the 31st October, Asbury, Whatcoat, and Nicolas Snethen entered Augusta. The church was now so far completed that it could be occupied. The congregations were large, but there was no considerable awakening. Nicolas Snethen, who came with Asbury, was a Marylander, and was one of the most eloquent and cultivated men of the connection. He afterwards, in com- mon with many others, went into the Methodist Protestant Church and had much to do in giving shape to an organization more in accordance, as he thought, with his firmly held views of religious liberty.f The three travellers pursued their usual route, visiting Wilkes, and on to Petersburg. This was then a young town, in which there were eighty stores ; now not a cottage remains. Snethen had been very popular at Augusta, and Asbury, at the re- quest of the congregation there, sent him back to spend some time in the city. The Bishop speaks of the sweet peace which filled his heart as he went from cabin to cabin, turning the cabin into a court. $ At Henry Pope's they found good quarters. Here the Bishop wrote in his journal : "Why should a living man complain : But to be three months together, where you have only one room and fireplace and half a dozen folks about you, strangers perhaps, the family for certain. Hence, you must meditate here, preach, read, write, pray, sing, talk, drink, eat and sleep, or flee to the woods." On Sunday, at Pope's, the congregation was not far from a thousand people. The Bishop preached ; Hope Hull and Stith Mead exhorted. Then they rode to General John Stewart's, and by Liberty Chapel to Rehoboth, in Warren. There was a great meeting at Heath's. The love-feast began at nine and continued till three o'clock. Eight souls were converted that day. The Bishop preached in the woods, but was interrupted by the singing and shouting. 1 1 He now came to Sparta for the first time. Han- cock County, of which Sparta is the county site, was laid out in 1793. Sparta was, therefore, a frontier village not ten years old when this visit was made. Quite a number of Virginians from Dinwiddie County, several of them followers of Devereux Jarratt, an Episcopal minister *Oampbell 's Baptists. tSprague's Annals, {Asbury 's Journal. || Journal. 68 History of and the early friend of the Methodists, were settled here. Among them was that good man, John Lucas, who was for so long a time the pillar of the Church in that section. Asbury preached in the village, probably at the Court House, as there was no church there at this time. This is the first mention we have of Sparta. The first preaching done in the village was prob- ably by the preachers on the Richmond Circuit, and the first time it was made regularly an appointment was probably when George Dougherty came to the Oconee Circuit in 1799; but before Sparta was settled there were several appointments in Hancock and some in Washington, in which county a part of the present Hancock was included. Asbury left Sparta and rode into Washington County and through Jefferson, preaching in Louisville, then the capital of the State, and by Coxe's Meeting house in Burke, back to Augusta. This Coxe's Meeting house was probably the pres- ent Mt. Zion, in the northern part of Burke County. He thus made an extensive tour ; important results followed it. In two weeks after they left Georgia, conference session be- gan in Camden. This was on January 1, 1802. The tour they had just ended had prepared them for a judicious arrangement of the work. It was entirely reorganized. The circuits took the names of the rivers which flow through them, and we are at some trouble to locate their boundaries. The Broad River and Little River Circuits occupy the territory formerly included in the Washington Circuit. The Broad River, which runs through the lower part of Elbert, gave the name to the circuit which included the upper part of Wilkes, Oglethorpe, Madison, Franklin and Hart Circuits ; the Little River, the lower part of Wilkes, Lin- coln, Taliaferro, and Columbia ; the Apalachee, a part of Ogle- thorpe, Greene, Clarke, and a part of Warren ; the Ogeechee, the old Burke and Richmond Circuits ; and the Oconee, Hancock, Washington, and a part of Warren. We have been thus partic- ular, for no true idea of the labors, successes, and failures of the preachers can be gathered without a study of the geography of the State in those times. Augusta continues a station. The conference, after a session of great peace, adjourned, having paid each preacher his stipend of $80 per year. Stith Mead was again on the Georgia District, and Isaac Cook was placed on Apalachee Circuit. Samuel Cowles was on the Oconee, John Campbell goes to St. Mary's, and J. H. Mellard to the Ogeechee. Josias Randle had now re-entered the work, and with Britton Capel was on Little River, and Milligan and Russell were on Broad River. The work was ably manned, and with the stirring, Georgia Methodism. 69 soul-fired Mead at their head, the preachers had a glorious fu- ture before them. James H. Mellard, who was this year on the Ogeechee Circuit, was in the second year of his ministry. He was a little man, thin and pale, but very wiry and full of pluck and energy. He traveled the Union Circuit the year before this, and was now sent to the Ogeechee Circuit. After this he was sent to George- town, S. C. Finding the people would not go to church, he went to the market house to preach. The mob brought down a drum, and tried to keep him from being heard ; but he preached more earnestly. They threatened to drown him, but the intrepid little preacher kept on.* That year there was a great revival in George- town. He traveled till 1810, when he located. He removed from South Carolina, in the early settlement of Alabama, to that State, where he died.f He preserved a pure character to the end, and his zeal for the Church knew no abatement. As a traveling preacher, the only charge made against him was that he would not turn people out of the Church. This was a year of great revival. Beginning in Kentucky in 1799, there was a work of grace, the most wonderful America had ever seen, which swept over the whole land. Camp meetings grew out of it, and they advanced it. Cook, McGee, McKen- dree, in the West ; Jesse Lee, Douglas, Ballew, in Virginia ; Stith Mead. Hope Hull, Randle, Blanton, in Georgia ; Tarpley, Dough- erty, Myers, James Jenkins, in South Carolina — constituted a corps of evangelists such as are not often met with. It was not a swollen summer torrent which exhausted itself in an hour, but a steady stream of blessings for years. The church was vitalized in all its parts. It never increased more rapidly in numbers and in spiritual power. From 1800 to 1812 the revival fire blazed. There was constant effort to save souls, there was intense spiritual interest, and there were those strange phenomena which have al- ways attended great religious excitements. Men and women fell senseless under the weight of their emotions. The excited soul deprived the mind of all control over the body, and there were jerking exercises, barking, dancing, and many other physical ex- travagances. The timid were alarmed at this. The more thought- ful deplored its wildness, while the more superstitious confounded these mere physical manifestations of excited feeling with religion itself. The Christian philosopher has neither to lay aside his com- mon sense, his philosophy, nor his faith, to account for all this. It was neither directly of God or of the devil. These phenomena *MooNNELL., Pres. Wesleyan Female Colli ~> BISIK »P KN< "Ml M. MAUVIN. Georgia Methodism. 99 "Did you swim any creeks?" "Yes I did. I swam three." The old man lovingly laid his hand on the young preacher's head. "Why, did you, boy? Well, George, I think you'll do, after all." For once Brother C. admitted he was wrong. The minutes report large increase on the Ogeechee District, where James Russell, in the glory of his strength, sweeps a conqueror. Lovick Pierce, on the Oconee District, had but a single elder in his district, while the experienced and popular Capel had three, and one of them was Russell ; yet the increase is in about the same ratio. Pierce visits every part of his district, reaching even Jeffersonton, near the Satilla, a few miles from Florida. This incessant travel broke in upon his habits of study, fostered by station life. His Greek books were laid aside to be taken up no more, and his habit of writing as he studied was necessarily at an end. The annual conference met in Charleston, Dec. 23, 1809. There had been a great revival on the Little River Circuit, and one on the adjoining circuit, in South Carolina. Asbury was de- lighted by the news which reached him of rich and poor in Geor- gia coming to Christ. The Oconee District was reduced in size, and Jos. Tarpley was placed on the Sparta District, which embraced all the coun- try south and west of Sparta. Lewis Myers returned to Geor- gia and was placed on the Ogeechee District, which Capel left as he left the conference, by location. Myers had gone from the State years before, a junior preacher, and after doing impor- tant work in South Carolina, he was called to the charge of a district. Georgia had three presiding elders such as she has not often had. Myers, the oldest of them, sturdy, energetic, earnest, and al- ways sensible. Tarpley, of fine person, very eloquent and moving in preaching, and very popular in his manners ; and Lovick Pierce, who was a marvel in his youth to the grandfathers of those to whom he was a marvel in his vigorous age. These leaders, upon whom so much rests, had the State divided among them, and, attended by a corps of pious and devoted men, had gone forth on their work. Hilliard Judge, a Virginian by birth, was in Georgia this year, 100 History of and for several years after this. He was a very handsome man, and of very courtly manners, his style in preaching was very pleasing and attractive, and improving constantly, he rose to great eminence in the Church, occupying its most important sta- tions, and was the first Methodist preacher elected to the chaplaincy of the South Carolina Legislature. He located in his maturity, and died not long after. James Russell and John Collingsworth, men of great power, and John McVean, of whom we have given a sketch in our ac- count of Savannah Methodism, were men of experience. The rest were young men, and one who traveled the Apalachee Cir- cuit, if not to be a great man, was to lead a grand life. A great- hearted, brave, self-sacrificing man, who, amid a thousand diffi- culties, continued his ministry to the end, which came fifty years from this time. This was Jno. S. Ford, the first missionary to the west of Louisiana. He was born in Chester District, S. C, and was at this time only twenty years old. His father died when he was a child, and his mother, after her second marriage, removed to North Carolina. She was of Presbyterian lineage and education, and taught her son the catechism. When he was about fourteen years old the wave of revival rolled from Ken- tucky into western North Carolina, and some of his friends going to a camp-meeting returned to their homes converted. At a prayer-meeting held in the neighborhood they began to shout and clap their hands, and young Ford was deeply impressed. When the Methodist preacher came into the section to organize a class, his mother and himself joined the society. At nine- teen he applied for admission into the traveling connection, and was appointed to Apalachee, a large and important circuit, as the third man. He was young and timid, but he did his work well, and success attended his labors. We shall see him again in a more difficult field.* Richmond Nolley,f who was to be his associate in the far West, was admitted into full communion at this conference. A few years before this, while a clerk in the store of John Lucas, at Sparta, under a sermon of Lovick Pierce, at the Sparta Camp- ground, he was awakened and was converted. He spent one year in Georgia, and one in Charleston, and this year returned to Georgia. The next year he went to the far West. Of these two young heroes we shall speak hereafter, even though after 1812 they are mentioned as being in the Western Conference. After a great revival there is other work to be done, and a * Ford's MSS. t Bishop McTyiere. Georgia Methodism. 101 very important part of church work in early Methodist days was excision. Get them into the society, train them well ; but if they will not be trained,. cut them off. This was the process. Lewis Myers especially believed in amputation, and, believing it did good, he never allowed his sympathies to control his surgery. Wince they might, but the amputation went on. There was no considerable increase reported at the conference which met in Columbia, S. C, December 23, 1810. It met in the house of Governor Taylor, then Senator, and after a session which seems to have been pleasant enough, but without anything of special interest, the conference adjourned and the preachers went to their work. The districts remain unchanged, and the same presiding elders had them in charge. Alexander Talley, the first of three broth- ers who were to do good service for the Church, entered the conference this year. He was a Virginian by birth, but his father had removed to Greene County. He was sent to the Ocmulgee Circuit, with Drury Powell. He afterwards went as missionary to the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi, and when they left Mississippi for the far West, he went with them there, and remained in the work until he died. He died in Louisiana in 1840. Thomas Y. Cooke was sent to Milledgeville. He was the first stationed preacher ever stationed in the then capital of the State. The town was now eight years old, and its position as the capital had drawn quite a bustling and intelligent people to it. The new Methodist church had not long been made ready for occupancy. It was located where is now the cemetery. There were 102 members in the station, and it was consequently the largest station in the State. Augusta had but sixty- four white members, and Savannah three. Warrenton, which was set apart as a station, with John Collingsworth for its pastor, did not re- main such but one year, and was then returned to the Warren Circuit. One name occurs in the appointments this year which was long on the minutes of the South Carolina and Georgia Conferences — the name of Whitman C. Hill, who was for many years one of the most, if not the most successful worker in the State. He was from the respectable and wealthy family of Hills in Oglethorpe County. He had enjoyed all the advantages which those early days gave him, and was a man of very fair attainments. He spoke with great fluency and correctness, and was very moving in his appeals. His soul was ablaze with evangelical fervor, and wherever he went souls were converted. His wife, the 102 History of daughter of Isaac Smith, of precious memory, was his efficient assistant in his work, laboring in a woman's sphere continually to do good. We shall meet him often as our story progresses. On the banks of the Tombigbee, in the southern and western part of Alabama, was quite a body of American settlers. Pen- sacola and Mobile were the ports to which came the peltry of the Indians and the goods of the traders. Prior to the purchase of Louisiana and the opening of the Natchez Country, there were a few whites, who had already left the white settlements and squatted in the Nation. They were a lawless and licentious crew ; but after the invention of the cotton-gin, and the purchase of Alabama from Georgia, the number of settlers increased, and their characters improved. Some of them came from North Caro- lina, by the way of the Tennessee River, to near Huntsville, and thence through the wilderness to the Tombigbee, and then on rafts and in small boats to the settlements.* Others came from the Natchez Country, and others from Georgia. In 1803 Lorenzo Dow, making his way to Natchez, came into this country. He found quite a number of settlers in one group, and a few scattered along the river seventy miles. He left a chain of appointments, which he afterwards filled. He was probably the first Protestant, as well as the first Methodist preacher, who ever preached the Gospel in Alabama. f This visit was made in 1803. Tobias Gibson and Moses Black, both of whom had traveled in the South Carolina Conference, were in the Natchez settlement, and after Dow had visited this country, they came from the West, and preached in it ; but it was not until 1808 that Asbury resolved to send the frontiersmen of Alabama a preacher. At the conference at Bush's, in Greene County, Matthew P. Sturtevant was selected for the work. Stur- tevant was a Virginian of moderate gifts, and without the ca- pacity to organize and build up a work requiring as much hero- ism and skill as this new field demanded. He, however, went into the wilderness and began his work; his health soon failed, and when Col. Geo. Foster, the father-in-law of Dr. Pierce, went on an expedition to the Tombigbee, he found the lone missionary sick and discouraged, and he brought him back to Georgia with him.J Michael Burge had gone to his aid, and he continued the work until Jno. W. Kennon came, and at the Conference of 181 1, Jno. S. Ford was sent to the mission. The labors of Burge and Kennon we are reluctant to pass over without more than mention, but what else can we do? We get a glimpse, and only *Pickett's Aalabama. tDow's Life. JDr. Pierce. Georgia Methodism. 103 a glimpse, of the good men ; see them in the wilds, pursuing their lonely work of love, and see the results of it; but of the laborers, and where and how the work was done, we know and can know nothing. Since Dow was at Tombigbee, until Ford came, we know nothing definite; but in his old age Ford wrote an account of his stay at Tombigbee, which we have been fortunately able to secure. He had traveled his first circuit as third man on Apalachee, and had gone to see his mother in North Carolina. He did not go to conference, and was waiting for his appointment. It came at last. The Tombigbee. It was 500 miles away — 300 miles through the Indian Nation. There were trails instead of roads ; there were rivers to cross, without bridges ; there were no houses to shelter the traveler ; the swamps they had to cross were only inhabited by the alligator, the panther, and the bear; and the young preacher sent to the work was only twenty years old. He, however, did not delay, but bade farewell to his mother and to his affianced ; for, young as he was, he had for two years been engaged to be married to a sweet mountain girl, whose hand, five years after, he came to claim, and then turned his face to the far West. Despite the sober dignity which the pages of a history like this may justly demand, the poetic beauty of this scene must for a moment arrest us. The humble North Carolina home, the simple-hearted Christian mother, the weeping, shrinking, timid girl, to whom the young preacher was all in all ; the short, ruddy- faced, determined boy; the wild woods, the deep rivers, the rude frontiersmen ; the unpaid toil ; the intrepidity ; the Christ-like love — all these pass before us as we see Jno. S. Ford leaving his mother's home for the Tombigbee. "Every Christian," says Vinet, "is a hero ; every Christian minister a leader of heroes." But such heroism as this is rare, because rarely demanded. He shall tell his own story : "Our conference was held in Columbia. News then traveled slow, and it was some time before I found out where I was to go ; when it came I was surprised somewhat. "I was appointed a missionary to Tombigbee Mission, in the Mississippi Territory. But I had determined to go where I was sent. I therefore delayed not, but fixed up, and bade farewell to my dear afflicted mother, brothers, and sisters, and to her who was now dearer to me than all others, and started to my distant field of labor. It was a long way. Between 400 and 500 miles of it had to be performed on horseback, and 300 of it through an uncultivated wilderness, inhabited only by the Indians. 104 History of "I had to pass through the circuit I had traveled the previous year. Brother Osborn Rogers was on that circuit, and the first Sabbath after I left I spent with him at one of his appointments. There were two other preachers appointed to the Mississippi field besides myself, but I found when I got to Georgia that they had gone on and left me behind, and it seemed I would have to go alone through the wilderness; but this looked like an almost impossible thing, as it was winter and the streams almost full. But I found a young man in Athens, a student in the college, who wanted to go through to visit his parents in Natchez. We concluded to join and go through together. We got a wallet of provisions, a hatchet, and some cooking utensils, two blankets apiece, and took the wilderness. There were then no white in- habitants from the Ocmulgee in Georgia to the settlement on Tombigbee. We had to lie out ten nights and travel eleven days before we got through. During our journey we had a great deal of rain, some snow, and one heavy sleet. The water-courses were all full, and few of them bridged, and but few ferries. We had to carry over our things on logs, and swim our horses through. On the eleventh day we ate our last cake for dinner, expecting we should have to do without bread that night, but fortunately we got into the Basset's Creek settlement, and to the house of Brother John Dean, who received us cordially and supplied ev- erything needed to make us comfortable. I felt very grateful to my Heavenly Father that He had brought us all through safely the dangers and difficulties of the way, and directed us to such a kind friend and brother, in that distant and strange country. I was now in my mission, and this was one of my pleasant homes during my stay in that mission. Brother John W. Kennon was already on the mission, and had been during the past year, but he was not able to be in that neighborhood for some days. My traveling companion, after resting a day or two, went on towards Natchez. There was a pretty good society in this neighborhood, and the Friday after my arrival was fast-day. I attended meet- ing and preached for them, and they seemed rejoiced and thank- ful for my safe arrival. I felt encouraged and hoped to see good times among them, and in this I was not disappointed, for we had a revival and many were added to the Church during the year. Brother Kennon came on in a few days, and I went around the mission with him. It extended from the neighborhood on Tombigbee to the upper settlements, including the Basset Creek, fifteen miles from its mouth on Bigbee; thence to the upper set- tlements on Buckatuna, down that to Chickasawhai, and down Georgia Methodism. 105 that sixty or seventy miles ; then to Leaf River, and thence back to Chickasawhai ; then to St. Stephens', then down Bigbee to the neighborhood of Wakefield. "Our appointments, few and far between, were scattered over a large country. We had long rides, hard fare, too much water in winter, and but little in summer, but we found many kind, affectionate friends. They were mostly new-comers, and not prepared to extend accommodations to us as well as they wished ; but when they did as well as they could, we felt satisfied and grateful. I shall ever remember them kindly, especially Brother John Dean and his family. They treated me as a son — may God bless them ! So, also, I may say of Brothers John McRay, Boy- kin, Godfrey, and many others. I found Brother Kennon to be a pious man and a good preacher, a kind and affectionate brother in Christ. We labored in harmony, and with some suc- cess. We formed new societies, and had some churches built. "This was the year of the 'earthquake,' as it was called, from the shaking of the earth in 1812. This produced general alarm, and many who had been skeptical and entirely indifferent about their future welfare were waked up. Our congregations in- creased. They began to think the Bible was true and our preach- ing of importance. I was asked if the Bible said the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunken man. I told them it did, got the place and read it to them ; and when they felt the earth in motion again their fears were alarmed, and they cried to God for mercy, and through the influence of the Holy Spirit many were led to exercise faith in Christ, and obtained forgiveness and a change of heart, and were made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We had a gracious revival, and added many to the Church." The next year the Tombigbee Mission and the name of Ford are not found on the minutes of the South Carolina Conference, but on those of the Western, where he appears as sent to the Attakapas. This was still farther to the west, beyond the Mis- sissippi, on the borders of Texas. Four preachers had volun- teered to come from Georgia to his aid. They were Lewis Hobbs, Richmond Nolley, Thomas Griffin, and Drury Powell. Saml. Dunwoody was to come with them, but, being a delegate to the general conference, which met in May, he could not come then, and never came. Ford left Nolley and Drury Powell on the Tombigbee Circuit, and in company with Hobbs and Griffin went on to the Natchez Country. They found some old Methodists on Pearl River, then reached the Red Lick settlement, now Vicks- burg, where they left Lewis Hobbs. Then the two young preach- 106 History of ers, Ford and Griffin, crossed the Mississippi and were in Louisi- ana. It had for not quite ten years been in the possession of the United States, and was only thinly peopled by any class of settlers, and by very few Americans. Griffin went north towards the Arkansas line, and Ford towards the south. As they traveled together before they reached the point from which they were to take different ways, they came to a small log-cabin. It had been built by James Axley, and was one of the first Methodist churches in Louisiana, and one of the first west of the Missippi. Axley had traveled in these prairies a few years before, and having been lit- erally starved out, unable to get food for his horse, and unable to travel without him, he started for his home in Tennessee. He had to stop a few weeks for his horse to recruit, and while he was resting, with his own hands he built a church. This was the only church Ford found. Methodism had now been six years in Louisi- ana, but had accomplished but little. Ford soon found himself in the prairies to which he had been sent. They were wild and untracked, filled with deep bayous, dangerous streams, and wild swamps. Now and then he found a body of settlers of many nationalities — negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, Spaniards, French- men, Creoles, and Canadians, alike in neither language nor cos- tume, in nothing but godlessness. Here the young preacher pur- sued his arduous work. He remained for two years on the west of the Mississippi, then two more years in Mississippi, and after five years' absence from North Carolina, was appointed to the Nolachucky Circuit in Tennessee. He returned home before he began his work. His sweetheart, faithful all the time, was wait- ing for him, and as he had fairly won his bride, he was married as soon as he returned, and then went to his work.* He traveled a few years, and reluctantly located; then returned to Georgia and labored as a local preacher, re-entered the conference, was driven to location again by insufficient support, and again re- entered the work, and in it died. He was for a long time superan- nuated. He was a dignified, meek, gentle old man, who, although almost stone deaf himself, used to preach to others a Gospel he could not hear himself. He was much beloved by all who knew him. The dear wife who had been the joy of his heart in youth and manhood and age, died a few years before him, and the deaf old man, now doubly lonely, waited for the Master's call, which came in 1871, when he went home. Asbury visited Georgia again this year, having been nearly three years absent. He entered the State below Augusta, and *Ford's MSS. Georgia Methodism. 107 preached at Old Church, the first time in over twenty years, and thence to Lovett's, in Screven. These Lovetts were the parent stock of those who are doing the Church service now. He passed through Effingham, and went to Savannah, where the good Dr. Kollock had several kind interviews with him. He was accom- panied on this visit by Henry Boehm, who preached in German for the Salzburgers. He found that Lewis Myers, then presid- ing elder, had secured a lot for a new church in Savannah. He returned to South Carolina, and thence to Camden, where the conference met, Dec. 31, 181 1. The session seems to have been one of great harmony, and the reports indicate that the year in the entire conference had been one of great prosperity. Dur- ing its progress there had been a net gain of 3,380 members. There were now eighty-five effective preachers on the roll. The districts in Georgia remained as they were. The Milledgeville Circuit disappeared, and the Cedar Creek took its place. Cedar Creek runs through Jasper and Jones, and the Cedar Creek Cir- cuit included Jasper, Jones, Baldwin, and a part of Putnam. It included a fine country, which had been settled for eight years with a good people, who had means and energy. The number of members reported in it was 845. The most important circuit as to numbers was the Broad River, which had 1,427 members. The Apalachee had 1,034, and the Little River, 742. The Sparta had 742. Then came the circuits in the more thinly settled coun- try: the Washington, which had only 298, and the Ohoopee and Satilla only 100 each. The Alcovi had 986. The Louisville, 517. There were three small stations, Milledgeville, Augusta, Savannah. Milledgeville was the most prosperous station, and in Savannah there was still only three members. During this year the war with England was declared, Savan- nah was threatened by the English fleets, and troops from Geor- gia were called for. Up to this epoch the Methodists and their preachers had been denounced by their enemies as Tories ; but they now came so bravely to the call of the country, that from this day the accusation ceased. At this conference delegates were elected to the general con- ference provided for in the session of 1808. The legislative bod- ies of Methodism have, like all other features of her economy, been the offspring of necessity — the children of Providence. First, there was the quarterly conferences of Mr. Wesley's societies in America, and then the annual meeting of all the preachers, and then the general conference, of which all the elders were mem- bers, and which met every four years. The first regular general 108 History of conference was held in 1792; of this no minutes are preserved; the second in 1796, of which we have given account. There was a kind of legislative council, of which Richard Ivy, of Georgia, was one of the first members, and of which the histories of Methodism give a full account, but concerning which our his- tory need do no more than make mention. The delegated gen- eral Conference was to meet in May, 1812, in New York, and at this session of the South Carolina Conference delegates were elected. They were Lewis Myers, Lovick Pierce, Jos. Tarpley, Daniel Asbury, W. M. Kennedy, Samuel Dunwoody, Jno. B. Glenn, Jos. Travis, and Hilliard Judge. We can not get a proper view of Methodist history by the mere recital of current events and the mere portraiture of the workers. We must pause now and then, and survey the ground over which we have passed, and mark the changes which have passed over church and State. Georgia had undergone great changes in the last ten years, and Georgia Methodists had passed through a very important period. It has now been nearly thirty years since the first Metho- dist came, and the children of those who were converted then, and some of those who began to preach, now enter into the work of the ministry themselves. Even the frontier counties of Geor- gia have largely lost the rudeness which always belongs to new settlements, and the older counties of the State have taken on many of the pleasant features of refinement and cultivation. The early Methodist preachers were a peculiar people. This they knew themselves, and they were not disposed to deplore the fact. They believed Christians ought to be a peculiar people, and especially preachers, and not to be conformed to the world. The old discipline was the guide-book, and no army officer ever regarded more strictly the army regulations than a faithful preacher his discipline. Asbury had brought with him, from England, the dress and habits of an English Wesleyan, and as Wesley was Asbury's model, so he was in his turn the model of the American preach- ers. The dress of both preachers and people was as marked as that of the Quakers. A preacher who did not wear a straight- breasted coat was in sinful conformity to the world. It was not the coat he wore, but the motive which led him to wear any but a straight-breast, that made it an offense. The hair was to be cut short, and brushed neatly down on the forehead. No preacher ever thought of wearing a beard. It would have been almost as offensive as a heresy. The good brethren would have lost all Georgia Methodism. 109 confidence in his piety if he had been so worldly. The pantaloons of the French had taken the place of knee-breeches, and there was some disposition to wear newly-invented suspenders, or galluses, as they were called. This was very objectionable, and the young preacher who used these convenient articles, had to account for it. Bishop Capers tells how an old brother said to him once: "Brother Capers, I do love you; but oh, them gal- luses!" And there is a tradition that in one quarterly conference a young probationer was complained of for wearing them, and forty years afterwards another for not wearing them. Men and women all dressed with perfect plainness. These details are historical and are not simply amusing, for a great principle lay at the base of this to us apparently trivial matter. Dress was running the world wild. Extravagance and impurity were alike fostered by it, and Methodism, aiming to develop an inner life, did not do ill when she endeavored to train her children to use that which was outward, and not abuse it. The hour for rising was generally four o'clock, winter and summer. From that time to six the preacher read and prayed. After prayers with the family, and breakfast, he mounted his faithful horse and was off to his appointments. He preached about twelve o'clock, and invariably held class with his flock, whom he had not seen in twenty-eight days, and would not see again for twenty-eight days more. He went home with some good brother, and frequently preached again at night. This he did every day in the week except Monday. His colleague and himself met that day, and it was a rest day. If he had a wife, he tried to get to see her then ; but generally he was single, and spent the day with his colleague. There was a conscientious exactness in filling appointments, and to do that he braved all weathers and dared all dangers. The rides were long, the exposure great, the labor exhausting. All this required men of iron, and but few preachers were able to endure it long; and health giving way, one by one they sank into their graves or retired from the work broken down in body. The salary allowed was eighty dollars per annum. Up to 1804 it had been sixty- four dollars ; before a federal currency it had been twenty- five pounds Continental money. A wife was allowed the same as her husband. This was paid out of quarterly collections, taken at first by the preachers, and then by the stewards. Each preacher re- ported everything he received to the conference, presents and all, until the law regarding presents was repealed. If there was a deficiency, the conference made it up, if it was able to do so. There was no provision made for family supplies. If a preacher 110 History of married and had no property of his own, he had no alternative but to locate after his family grew too large to board around with him. The effects of a disease remain when the causes which gave it being have passed away. The limb once paralyzed remains long useless, even after the clot of blood which effected the injury has been absorbed, and it is often years before the habit of use re- turns. So in the Church. When Humphries and Major began their ministry the members of the societies were few. The people were all poor, and in 1812 the same usages which obtained in 1788 were still existent. They had come down to children who believed their ancestors to have done just right ; and now, when Methodists were a well-to-do, and many of them a rich people, the same old habit of giving a quarter of a dollar per quarter continued. The preachers, as we have seen, were liter- ally forced to retire from the work, or to remain single. The first Methodists, for the support of the ministry, gave little and gave it reluctantly. Why was this? Was it the love of money — a criminal penuriousness ? We think not. The same Methodist who gave twenty-five cents per quarter to his self- denying preacher, kept an open house and entertained a whole quarterly conference ; he would go twenty miles to a camp-meet- ing and feed hundreds. He would oftentimes give the old preacher a home as long as he lived. He would stop every plow, and send every slave to meeting on a week day. No poor ever cried to him in vain for bread. No sophistry could induce him to take more than legal interest for his money ; yet he did not give liber- ally to support the preacher, and as yet there were no missionary societies among the Methodists. There were no paid preachers in those days. There was a doubt whether they ought to be paid. The clergy of Virginia, from which State the fathers of these Georgians came, had been supported by a reluctantly paid tobacco tax, and the very thought of a hireling ministry was obnoxious to the mass of the people. The Baptists preached for nothing, and gloried in it. Humphries, Ivy, Major, had received comparatively nothing; why should their successors need so much. Then the preachers said nothing about money, except to discourage its accumulation. To get men to cease from drunkenness, horse-racing, gambling, and Sab- bath-breaking, to secure their conversion, to induce the worldly girl to lay aside her rings, and ruffles, and the gay young man his worldly ways, and to go to class, and speak in love-feast, and pray in the family, and maybe preach — this was the object at Georgia Methodism. Ill which they aimed. They said but little, and that little always timidly, about the religious use of money, and thus our fore- fathers in the ministry prepared the way for their own banish- ment from the work they loved so well. The people were generally plain, and generally with but little education, but they were men of sturdy character. There was now and then a home of elegance, but mostly the homes were simple. Industry and prudence were the chief virtues next to piety. There was no want in all the land. The religious habits of the Methodists were as marked. When a man was converted in those days, he expected to shout ; he expected to get happy at every circuit-preaching day and at every class-meeting. He expected, when he joined the Church, to go to circuit-preaching and camp-meeting. He expected to pray whenever he was called on ; he expected to pray three times a day in private, and to abjure all the vanities of the world. This was what he believed the life of a good Methodist demanded. So, when the young girl, happy in her new experience, came home from the camp-meeting, where she had been converted, she took off every ruffle and frill from her dress, every flower from her bonnet, every ring from her fingers. She had made up her mind to live a life of consecration and simplicity, and to take up her cross, as she called it at all times. So she was ready to pray in the family, to pray in class-meeting, and to pray in church, and was an angel of mercy to those around. This was what the early Methodists calculated on, and this was what they did. They did not expect to support a married preacher, and they did not do it until they were convinced it ought to be done. The discipline of the Society, as the Church was called, was rigid and certain. Every man, high or low, knew he would be called to account for any violation of rule, and so directed his steps. The Iron Duke lived before himself in his kinsman, John Wesley, and the same spirit which ordered an unfaithful quar- ter-master to be shot, ordered an unfaithful member to be cut off, or an inefficient preacher to private life. The discipline of the English Methodists was introduced into the Methodist Epis- copal Church in America. The local preachers of those days were numerous and effi- cient. They knew they had work to do, and they did it. The circuit preacher came to only four of his twenty-eight appoint- ments on Sunday, and the Sabbaths fell to the local preachers. They led the way into new fields. They assisted at every quar- terly and every camp meeting. They oftentimes had to ride fifty 112 History of miles to get to them; but they were there. We are painfully conscious of our inability to give to those good men the place they are entitled to, but no effort of ours has been sufficient to rescue many honored names from unmerited oblivion. The faith- ful class-leader, the only pastor of the flock in those days, was invaluable when the preacher in charge was not expected to be more than he was, the preacher in charge. The steward's office, so important now, was only of small value when all that was required of 900 members was to pay up their $100. There was in, a large circuit, embracing several counties, only seven and these circuit stewards, as they were called, visited the churches occasionally, and took what the people were willing to give. They had no system, and did not see the need of one. David Meriwether or Thomas Grant could have paid the whole assessment for the Little River Circuit, and never felt the loss of the money. So the people were not trained to do anything sys- tematically in this direction, nor was there much improvement for several years after this. CHAPTER VI. 1812-1816. The districts retain the same presiding elders. The Oconee District, over which Lovick Pierce presided, had in it only three appointments, Apalachee, Broad River, and Oconee, but they stretched from the Savannah River to the Ocmulgee, and from the upper part of Jackson County to the lower part of Putnam. Samuel M. Meek, a gentle, gifted man, was sent to Milledge- ville. During this year he established the first Methodist Sunday- school in Georgia of which we have been able to find any men- tion.* He studied medicine with Dr. Byrd, and located at the next conference. Henry Bass was on the Apalachee Circuit this year, and though it was his first year, he was in charge. He was from Connecti- cut. At twenty-one he came to North Carolina. In Fayetteville he was converted and joined the Church, and soon after entered the conference. He began in 181 1 a travelling ministry, which continued for forty-nine years. His first circuit was in Georgia, but he did the most of this work in South Carolina, and there ended his life. He was an earnest worker and a very successful one. He was in Augusta in 1819, when there was the most gra- cious revival that city had ever known. He was in Savannah in 1 81 7, when Methodism made an advance it never lost. He enterprised and built the first parsonage in the State. He was laborious, careful, devotedly pious, and very useful. His last days were days of great suffering and of great peace. He married a Georgia maiden, a lovely young Methodist, in Augusta. He left behind him two sons, faithful ministers of the Word, Dr. W. Capers Bass, of Macon, Ga., and Prof. Henry A. Bass, of South Carolina. James Russell was sent to Savannah this year. Savannah was still a forlorn hope. There were but three white members in the society. A church lot and some building material had been secured, but the house was not built. Lewis Myers desired the Bishop to send the most famous man of his time to help him in the important work ; and Russell was sent. He left the country to which he was so well suited, to enter into the city for which he had no fitness at all. He left a people who rarely heard any *Mrs. Troutman. ... History of oreachine but that of plain men, to go where for years the mat ch- preacmng oui ui«i r Kolloch and the scarcely less at- less eloquence of D^Henry Kohoclw hearf Sun . dTv Ct, HeTefttcoVnry white "he Methodists were numerous and SslVrDan e'l Boon e othe limits of a child's nursery Rus- selTeeded room for work, and encouragement in it but the city ^ordcd'tim but «^ t °PP°r t i \t r mallth h adhe°dl d n : ^rbyTe-nchrrne'n^of mfelJuenS, confd not be e,o q uent ^frJ&X ra^ccit tt Trsn grass from the ^ en, red into traT, made some successful contracts wd. .to qnar- ^rmaTters then began to do business of various kinds for his fr ends in tl eTnterfor. Success attended him. He made money S-^^J^ s o i gJ Russell was a things in Hfe is a bankruptcy, when the bankrupt is conscious of unrTdttnes but knows others do not so regard his course; when he ha s never intended to injure any man, but knows he has done so Poor Russell! he had held so high a place among his breth- ren And now to be denounced, by those who once loved him and h^ored him, as one who had deceived and defrauded them ! He was a hopeless bankrupt. He could not, if he had had capac- ^Tave Covered himself, and alas! he had lost ^ what ^va aJL rer to him than all, his ministerial place. He ocated ms fSulv had ^own up around him; he struggled hard to support thSn n AvgJsta he used to make a scanty hying by using a whTelbarrow fo carry packages. t He was still a young^ W rare had broken him in heart and m body. He had gnen Ms yolnm a nd yonng manhood to the work of the ministry; he *Dr. Pierce. tMrs. Waterman. A CIRCUIT RIDER OF THE EARLY DAYS. DR. W. H. FELT< »N. Georgia Methodism. 117 was fitted for nothing else. He was still permitted to preach as a local preacher, and Stephen Olin heard him at that time with unmixed delight.* The lamed eagle would attempt to soar as had been his wont, and, crippled as he was, he soared like an eagle still, but he soon grew weary, and came to earth again. He never lost his Christian integrity. His name was never sul- lied with the stain of intentional wrong. He was as meek, and gentle, and patient, in the days of his adversity, as he had been joyous, and brave, and generous in other' times. None now re- call him save to honor him as the wonderful genius who had consecrated all to Christ and brought many souls home to glory. He died in 1825, at Dr. Meredith Moon's, in Abbeville, S. C, when he was about forty-five years of age.f The general conference met in May, 1812, in New York. Bish- ops Asbury and McKendree were both present. It was the last general conference Asbury ever attended ; ere the next he was in Heaven. The general conferences before this had had their ses- sions with closed doors, excluding every one except elders, who composed the body ; but now all the preachers in full connection were admitted into the gallery as spectators. Bishop McKendree presented the first Bishop's Pastoral, which was referred for con- sideration to the respective committees. Lewis Myers was on the Committee of Episcopacy. The presiding elder question again came up, and some very strong men from the east and north argued that the office should be made elective. The dele- gates from the south and west opposed this view then, and_ at future times. It was, however, only defeated by a small majority. James Axley endeavored unsuccessfully to have a new law introduced into the discipline, forbidding the distillation and re- tail of spirituous liquors by members of the Church. This was voted down, on the ground that we had already decided that such persons should be dealt with as in case of other immoralities. A motion to forbid members of the Church from buying lottery tickets was presented, and action was deferred to the next gen- eral conference. The slavery question as usual came up, but was quietly disposed of by a motion to lay the subject on the table. J. Early introduced a resolution which for many years stood in the discipline, to forbid the giving of treats at elections. The South Carolina delegation seems to have been a very quiet one, only one motion having been made by Lewis Myers, and none by any other of the delegates. *See letter in the first issue of the Christian Journal. tDr. Sprague, Bishop Wightman, Dr. Pierce, and others. 118 History of The conference continued its sessions till May 22d, when it adjourned to meet in Baltimore, May I, 1816. As its hour of meeting and adjournment were from nine to twelve, and from three to five, it was really in session more hours than the conferences of the present time, which remain together for one month. The war was now upon the country, the Indians as well as the British were in arms and the hostilities stagnated all trade, so that there was general alarm and depression. It was not to be wondered at that there should be for the first time in several years a decrease of members. In the Sparta District the decrease was nearly 400, and in the Ogeechee over 200 ; but in the Oconee there was a considerable increase, so as to nearly offset the lapse in the other two. There were no considerable revivals, and this was the beginning of years of constant, though slow decline. The total number of members reported at the Conference of 1813 was 8,453 whites and 1,450 colored. Jno. B. Glenn, who was on the Ohoopee Circuit, was from Chester District, S. C. He was converted when he was twenty- one, and joined the conference in 1809. He traveled for some years, then located, and after living in Jones and Meriwether counties in Georgia, finally moved to Alabama, and settled in Auburn, where he died in 1869. He was a good and useful man to the end. The conference met at Charleston, December 19, 1812. Bishop Asbury was present. To reach the conference the feeble old man had ridden on horseback from Kentucky, where he was in October, over the mountains of East Tennessee and North Caro- lina, and on to Charleston. The weather was severe, and he often had to swim his noble horse, Fox, through the swollen streams. Although it does not properly belong to this history, we can not forbear giving one view of this noble old man's trav- els when he was nearly seventy years old. Leaving Charleston January 7th, he rode through the swamps of eastern South and North Carolina, suffering much from long rides, insufficient ac- commodations, and excessive cold. By the 8th of February he was at Norfolk, Va., and then, facing the cold March winds, he went northward through Eastern Maryland to Baltimore, which he reached on the nth of March.* By the 5th of April he was in Pennsylvania; on the 1st of May in New York, to attend the sessions of the general conference ; in June he was in Connecti- * Asbury 's Journal. Georgia Methodism. 119 cut, suffering from high fever; passing into Massachusetts, he returned to New York, and held Conference in the upper part of the State ; then through Western New York into Pennsylvania, among the mountains and the Germans ; across into Virginia, and back again to Maryland by September ist; through Pennsyl- vania again to Ohio by the nth of September, and into Ken- tucky by the 7th of October ; southward through Kentucky, across Cumberland Gap to East Tennessee, and thence to Charleston. f To any one who will take the map of the United States, and consider not only the geography but the topography of the coun- try through which the old Bishop and his faithful young com- panion traveled, the accomplishment of such a journey by such a man will appear almost incredible. He says that the session of the conference was a pleasant one, and that the preachers saw eye to eye in making the appoint- ments. The arrangement of the Georgia work was changed. Lovick Pierce left the Oconee District, and Joseph Tarpley was ap- pointed to it. The Sparta District ceased to be, and its circuits were divided between Joseph Tarpley and Lewis Myers. Lovick Pierce was stationed in Milledgeville. During this year a draft for soldiers was ordered, and, as preachers were not excluded, he was drafted with the militia. The colonel of the regiment offered him the chaplaincy of it, which he accepted, and was sta- tioned at Savannah. Here he began to read medicine, and pre- pared himself for that location he saw was inevitable, under the then condition of things. At this conference Lovick Pierce brought up from the Broad River Circuit the recommendation of James Osgood Andrew. He was the son of John Andrew, the first native Georgian who had joined the traveling connection. James Andrew was not a prom- ising-looking lad when he was somewhat reluctantly licensed by the quarterly conference to preach ; but he was a good boy, of good parentage, and might make a useful man, they thought. Preachers were needed, and so the conference, on the recommen- dation of his presiding elder, received him on trial, and he was sent as second man, on the Saltcatcher Circuit, in Barnwell and Beaufort Districts, S. C. His own estimate of himself was low, but not lower than that of some who composed the quarterly conference which licensed him. It required the entreaties of Epps Tucker to induce them to grant him license. He was re- quired to preach, and after he came out of the church, mortified t Ibid. 120 History of at his failure, he was comforted by one of the brethren saying to him, "James, I voted for you, but if I had heard that sermon I would not have done it." James did not go to Camden to con- ference, but received through the preacher on the circuit his appointment. A kind friend gave him a little black pony which he called Cicero, and he started for South Carolina, on his life- long work in the traveling ministry.* W. M. Kennedy was his presiding elder, and it was well for the sensitive boy that he was, for Kennedy saw the brilliant mind of the young preacher, though the simple-hearted brethren of the quarterly conference did not. The crust on the diamond does not hide its beauty from the lapidary, and W. M. Kennedy was a judge of jewels. Thomas Darley was now a local preacher in the bounds of the circuit, and he did the boy every service which judicious counsel could do. The year ended, and he had done well. He was not re- quired to go to conference, and went on a visit home to receive his appointment to the Bladen Circuit, in North Carolina. He was now in charge of a large circuit, with 600 members scat- tered over three counties in North Carolina and one district in South Carolina. There were many poor people in his circuit, and in one part of it the people had neither bread nor meat, but lived on peas, buttermilk, and honey. There were a number of Scotch Highlanders in the bounds of his work, who spoke noth- ing but Gaelic. They were rigid Presbyterians, but not sober, and the old Scotch pastor was himself too fond of a glass. The pious ones among them were known as new lights. f Amid these surroundings the future Bishop prepared for con- ference. There was at that time no examination into literary proficiency. The great question was as to the young preacher's piety and zeal, his success in winning souls, and his firmness in executing the discipline. While the circuit had not increased much in numbers, it was evident to the conference that young Andrew was not a failure. He went now to his first conference, which met in Milledgeville. He was sent in charge of the War- ren Circuit, in Georgia. It was large and important, extending from Warren to Richmond, and including Warren, Columbia, and Richmond Counties. There were in it near 800 members — no small charge to a young man just admitted into full connec- tion. Gause, his companion, was somewhat eccentric, who, after traveling a little while as Methodist, formed a now extinct body known as the Benign Society, and died in communion with the *From himself. tHis own reminiscence as published in S. C. Advocate. Georgia Methodism. 121 Baptist Church.* His next appointment was Charleston. He was the third man on the station, and two other young men, G. Christopher and Thomas Stanley, were with him. Timid and sensitive he always was ; but now, in his twenty-third year, to be thrust into a large city was a great trial to his courage ; but he did his work well. He was by this time a preacher of real power. He had been trained by constant practice for the pulpit. He had a mind of great native grasp, a heart full of deep feeling, a taste of the nicest order, and his expression was full of earn- estness, tenderness, and pathos. He was fervent and fearless. His imagination was glowing, and although he was but a young man, he commanded the admiration of all who heard him; and though so young, was even then the peer of many of the fore- most. There was a Scotch merchant in Charleston, named Mc- Farland, who had a lovely daughter, Amelia. The family were all Methodists, and Amelia not the least devoted. The young preacher was not invulnerable, and in his fourth year he found himself deeply in love with his young parishioner, and engaged to be married to her. Now, there is nothing wonderful in this, and it requires no special amount of courage in a young preacher in this day to marry a good girl, when he has graduated into elder's orders ; but not so then. The good Asbury had reached old age unmarried, and so had McKendree, and Bruce, and Lee. The preachers who married, located; and if Andrew married ere he was twenty-three, his elders thought he would be lost to the Church as an itinerant. Lewis Myers, yet unmarried, was noted for the severity of his castigations when a young preacher was so infatuated as to marry early and when Andrew knew all this and took the gentle Amelia as he did to be his wedded wife, he evinced the depth and ardor of his affection. He married her, and proved the falsity of the predictions and the folly of the scourging, and during thirty years of toil she was the joy of his life and the light of his home. With his young bride he went to Wilmington, N. C, for two years, and then to Columbia, S. C, for one, and in 1820 returned to Georgia, and was sta- tioned at Augusta, where we will see him again. Samuel Dunwoody was appointed at the Conference of 1812 to go to the Mississippi District, but, being a member-elect to the General Conference, did not go, and was sent at this con- ference to St. Mary's, which had been a station for two years, but continued one only during this year. 'Leaves from the Diary of an Itinerant. 122 History of Samuel K. Hodges joined the conference this session, and was sent on Little River Circuit. He continued in the work in some relation until his death, in 1842. He was a leading man in Georgia, and exerted a great deal of influence both in church and State. He was a man of finest business capacity, and was an effi- cient presiding elder the larger part of the time that he was an effective preacher. He was presiding elder on the Columbus Dis- trict, when he was taken seriously ill and died at his home in Columbus, saying that for thirty years he had been trying to get ready for the change, and was not afraid to go. He did much for the Church in Georgia, and to his sagacious labors much of her present prosperity is owing. Anthony Senter, who had been a blacksmith, and who had left his forge for the pulpit, was on the Sparta Circuit this year. He was a good man, with a strong mind and a warm heart. He filled important places, and died of consumption in Georgetown, S. C, in 1817. Allen Turner's name appears as junior preacher on the Wash- ington Circuit. It stood upon the minutes for forty years after this. He was an unlettered boy, but one whose very heart- depths had been stirred by his religious conflicts, and who had found a rich peace in a simple faith. He was a man of very marked peculiarities, strong in his convictions of what was right, and bold in asserting them. He dressed in the style of the older Methodists, never allowed himself the luxury of a laugh, and appeared to be a man of great austerity, but was really a man of exquisite gentleness. He was afraid of no man, and fought fear- lessly when his principles were attacked. Judge Longstreet, who was his great friend, wrote some articles in favor of instrumental music in churches. Uncle Allen assailed him right gallantly, and made a brave tilt, even though he failed to unhorse his an- tagonist. Did a preacher wear a beard, or shave on Sunday, he might expect an attack from this censor omnium. He did much very hard work, and did it cheerfully; and when old age and mental weakness prevented him from doing regular and efficient service, he was always engaged in trying to do good. He was wonderfully gifted in prayer, and was a man of mighty faith. He was as well known and as highly respected as any man of his time, for "e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side." His good wife died some time after him, and his oldest son, Jno. Wesley, himself a very useful man and a traveling preacher, passed away not long after his father. Thomas Stanley was from Greene County. He had applied Georgia Methodism. 123 for license to preach and -°— ^ ence; but, before the presidmg el r left ^ the heart failed him, and he ^f^^ptrce, his presiding elder, plication for admission. After Lovick . r ic : , v had gone to conference Stanley t^^ a ^n one horse, and he rode rapidly after ^^"inle to have his secured another, and reached the conference in t ^ name V»^^*&^£££^t** of the cated, and settled in Athens , wn a staUon Female Academy. While there Athens v and he was employed to take charge of ^£™*™tat son, stationed, preacher -there. ^^^^ bo ved his head submissively, a promising boy, died. While he dow devoted to the church of his early love LouisTffle Circuit, N 't' a of ThtTb^rrNi hola Y s Ale°xa!;de^a U nd John We. Tey S °w n ho°al ente^d tL' South Carolina Con ference and d,d good work in it Nicholas Ta ley was hcen d o prea ch by D . Lovick Pierce when h £ w " m ** °^" ^ ,£ work and con- t t ime 'itl tih r Ws n de C atr fi y fty yea\ atr^rds. He was often tinued in it till his aearn uny y Carolina Conference. Church was ^ag^tupwh^ r he w^ ^^ ^ Columbia aC, o many yea ^ ^^ was an elegant ^ ^« m g^ ^^ ^ sta _ Lucius Q. C. De ^ an \P ert ' f oiethorpe County, and was tioned in Augusta. Hew « f rom U b iet p / ^ ^ of French extraction^ « ^^ofhim, furnished by Bishop 124 History of Pierce, Osborn Rogers, James E. Glenn, Joseph Travis, all of whom had labored in Georgia, were located. Lovick Pierce had now been a married man for two years. Up to this time no man had continued long in the itinerancy after his marriage, and, indeed, it was a necessity that a mar- ried man should locate. There were no parsonages. The cir- cuits were of immense size. There was no provision to shelter or feed his family. His promised income was only $80 per year. So well recognized was this fact, that no preacher was under any disapproval who retired, and a glad welcome always awaited him when he was able to come back. For several years the name of Lovick Pierce is no more seen on the minutes, and two gen- eral conferences convene, and his is not among the list of dele- gates. We can but deplore the sad necessity which drove him from the field at the time he was so much needed. He married a Miss Foster. Her father, Col. Foster, was an energetic, active, and successful planter, and a leading member of the Church ; and her brother, Col. Thos. Foster, a lawyer of distinction, and afterwards a member of Congress. She was a woman of re- markable character, and has a right to a place in the History of the Church in Georgia. She was one of those women who la- bored not with Paul, but with one of Paul's successors in the Gospel, for many weary years. She had married a Methodist preacher. She loved his work, and she never impeded him in his way. A home was necessary, and she remained at it and brought up the children, while her faithful husband was away at his appointments. She never complained of her lot, but bore her part bravely. She deserves a place beside him, so honored and so loved, in the affections of the Church. The same presiding elders were appointed at this conference to the same districts. There were but four traveling elders in the State, apart from Myers and Tarpley, and the three best workers among them, Mason, Hill, and Russell, had small sta- tions. The circuits were left almost entirely to the charge of young and inexperienced men. _ The war, too, was upon the country still. Financial depres- sions, losses and anxieties, were on every hand. The Church suffered, and there was decline during the year. In December, Bishop Asbury came on his last tour to Geor- gia. Sick and aged, he still worked on, and was now on his way to conference. Crossing the river at Elbert County, he met Joseph Tarpley, and they went thence to Samuel Rembert's. His heart was cheered with the accounts Tarpley gave him of camp- Georgia Methodism. 125 meetings on the various circuits, and while at Rembert's, he received from John Early an account of that famous camp-meet- ing in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where a thousand per- sons were converted. He left Elbert and came to Athens, where he found Dr. Brown had much improved things at the college. He went thence to Milledgeville, stopping at John Turner's, in Hancock, Nicholas Ware's, and Bro. Holt's, and reached Mill- edgeville. This was the last conference he ever attended in Georgia, and the last Hope Hull ever attended at all,, as it was the first to which James O. Andrew, then closing his second year, had come. Milledgeville was a sprightly young town ten years old, the capitol of the State. A church had been built, which was not yet finished, and Bishop Andrew mentions in his reminiscences that the stumps were still in the streets. Bishop Asbury was suffering much with his cough, and could barely preach, but tried to do so, and for the last time spoke to the church in Georgia, and to the preachers who loved him so well, and who now wept most of all that they should see his face no more. There were a number of valuable men who re- tired from the field — men who had done faithful work in Geor- gia — Jonathan Jackson, Wm. Capers, Henry D. Green, James C. Rogers and James Russell, all located, and while there were a number who entered the work, there were none among them who afterwards reached any considerable distinction. Lewis Hobbs, the beautiful Christian of whom we have spoken, who had worn out his life in hard labor in the West, died during the year. Lewis Myers and Joseph Tarpley still continue on the districts. Milledgeville, which has been a station, ceases to have inde- pendent existence, and becomes an appointment in the Cedar Creek Circuit. There was a very small decrease in the mem- bership, and there are evidences of a state of stagnation in church work. The conference met in Charleston, Dec. 23, 181 5. It was a sad meeting. Only once, since the South Carolina Conference was organized, had Francis Asbury ever been absent ; but now he came not, and would come no more forever. He, resolute to the last, had made an earnest effort to reach the conference, and had come nigh to the city, when he grew too feeble to travel farther, and reluctantly consented to remain in his sick-room. McKendree was present, and presided ; daily communication was kept up between Asbury, thirty miles away, and his brethren. We know nothing, other than the minutes tell us, of this last conference Asbury strove to reach. 126 History of The appointments to the districts continued as they had been. A few new preachers came to the State, and Thomas Darley was sent to the Louisville Circuit. There were a few other elders in the conference besides himslf — Hill, Dickinson, Hutto, Sewell, Jno. B. Glenn, and Whitman C. Hill. The most notable man of the corps of preachers was Thomas Darley, an Englishman by birth, who had been one of Tarleton's troopers. Of his encounter with Samuel Cowles, of Washington's Legion, we have already told. By some means Darley was left in Amer- ica when the English troops were withdrawn, and under the ministry of Isaac Smith he was converted. He traveled a few years, then located, then re-entered the work, and in it died. His family resided in Jefferson County, and he traveled the works to which he was sent until 1830, when he was superannuated. He removed to Harris, then a new county, in 1832, and died there in great peace during that year. Dunwoody says of him: ''He was a powerfully awakening preacher, and many a hard-hearted sinner was made to quail before the convincing power of the truth." He was eminently successful in winning souls to Christ. Among the new names which appear this year we find the familiar name of Dabney P. Jones. He was on the Broad River Circuit. He was a homely little man, of good mind, and of great sprightliness of character. He traveled some years, and then located, and thus remained until his death long afterwards. He was a devoted temperance man, and an eminently successful worker in the cause for which he was State lecturer. He was very popular and very useful ; he labored efficiently in the local ranks, and moving in the early settlements of the new purchase west of the Flint River, he found ample field for all his labors. lie preached the first sermon ever preached by a Methodist in the city of Newnan. James Bellah was a junior preacher of the Sparta Circuit. He was already a married man, and had a home. He was a man of good parts, and very useful. He traveled many of the hardest and some of the best circuits in Georgia. He was a tall, slender man, of dignified and impressive look, and preached with much earnestness and pathos. Tie belonged to the third set of Metho- dist preachers, and was the peer of any among them. He came after the unmarried pioneer had laid out the fields for tillage — when there was hard work and rough work demanded, when the majority of the people were comparatively uneducated, but when the coarser features of the frontier had passed away. He came when married men of experience were in demand, but Georgia Methodism. I 27 when the Church had made no provision for their support, and w ho must as he did, support themselves. He came from g e purest motives, and labored hard, and died in the work He was he brothe of Morgan Bellah, who, the very year his health Tailed took up his work where he laid it down, and who con- tinued a good and useful man for half a century EUjah Bird was sent to the Saltilla Circuit He wasaSouh Carolinian, a good man, possessed of marked Panties but noted through a long life for his love for the Church For man) years he wis local and his home was long a preachers resting place. His wife was remarkable for her saintly character, and did much to assist him in his work. . The minutes— our only authority— tell a sad story this year for there was a decline of over 700 members reported. As most of the preachers were young men, inexperienced in keeping rec- ords it is probable there were statistical errors, but still the tact remains that the decline which began in 1812 still goes steadily onward. Dn It r this conference the delegates to the general conference which was to meet in May 1816, were elected They consisted of Lewis Myers, Daniel Asbury, Joseph Tarpley, W. M. Ken- nedy Thomas Mason, Hilliard Judge, Sam 1 Dunwoody, Anthony Senter, Jno. B. Glenn, James Norton, Solomon Bryan, Henry Bass, Reuben Tucker, and Alexander Talley. The conference adjourned, and Asbury, as soon as he could turned his face northward. He wished if it were God s will that he might be able to reach Baltimore by the time the general con- ference met in May. He had gone by slow stages towards Balti- more He had reached Richmond, and preached his last sermon sitting upon a table in the old church there. He began his jour- ney again, and in the house of a kind friend in Spottsylvama County, March 21, 1816, God gave to his beloved sleep, and Francis Asbury rested from his toils. From 1767 to 1816 he had been unwearying in his labors ; nearly fifty years he had spent in striving to win souls. He had worked on two continents, and had travelled more miles on horseback over America, than per- haps any man in it. He had suffered much physical pain, for he was never at any time perfectly well. He had braved every dan- ger and been exposed to every privation, yet he had never swerved. Than Francis Asbury a nobler soul never lived— a braver, truer, gentler, more unselfish ; and to no man does Geor- gia owe a greater debt than to him. With his death we may close this chapter and resume our story with the account of the Gen- eral Conference in 1816. CHAPTER VII. 1816— 1823. The General Conference met in May, 1816, in Baltimore. McKendree, the only Bishop living, was present and presided. This was an interesting and an important session. The dread of episcopal power seems to have been growing, and the same spirit which had called forth the effort to make the presiding elder's office elective, for the protection of the travelling preachers, now gave being to a petition from certain local preachers in Georgia for redress of grievances. Who these were we do not know ; but we may conjecture that Epps Tucker and Britton Capel, who afterwards united with the Methodist Protestant Church, and were strong men, were the leaders in the movement. The right to deacons' and elders' orders had already been accorded to the class petitioning, but this memorial asked for representation for them in the Annual Conferences, and the privilege of having sal- aries for their ministerial services.* This was probably the first appearance of that cloud which burst forth in such a storm six six years later. The usual committees were elected, and Lewis Myers was placed on his old committee on Episcopacy. Again the question of electing presiding elders was up on a motion from New England. After a very prolonged discussion the vote was taken, and the motion lost by a large majority. Two additional Bishops were elected — Enoch George and R. R. Roberts. The amount to be allowed a travelling preacher was increased from $80 to $100 per annum, and for the first time it was required of the charges that provision should be made for the family sustenance of the preachers. A course of reading and study was recommended for candidates for membership in the conference.f A committee was appointed, called the Committee of Safety. It consisted of Joshua Soule, Enoch George, and Samuel Parker. The report of this committee is an interesting document. The committee found the Church infected with many heresies. Pe- lagianism and Socinianism were preached in many of the socie- ties. The discipline was not properly enforced. Pews were sold. The civil law was used to collect ministerial support ; this was evi- dently in New England, though not so stated. The rule on dress was disregarded. Some preachers were arbitrary in administer- *General Conference Journals. tJournals. Georgia Methodism. 129 ing discipline. The circuits were too small, and there was too great a tendency to confine ministerial labor entirely to the Sab- bath. A Methodist magazine was again ordered, which began its life in 1818. James Axley brought forward his favorite measure to forbid the members of the Church from distilling and selling whiskey, and at last he had a resolution passed forbidding preachers from doing it. At this conference the report of the committee on the vexed question of slavery was carried after a motion of concur- rence had been made by George Pickering, a leading member from New England. This resolution was as follows : "There- fore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official station in our church hereafter, where the laws of the State in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and permits the liberated slave to enjoy freedom." This resolution was long known as the compro- mise measure, and was the cause of much after-discussion. The Book Concern, though it had grown from nothing in 1796, to a capital of $80,000 in 1816, was somewhat embarrassed ; a change of officers was made, and Joshua Soule, and Thomas Ma- son who had travelled in South Carolina, were elected agents. On the 24th of May, 1816, the conference adjourned.* With the death of Asbury, and the senior episcopacy of Mc- Kendree, some very silent but important changes entered into episcopal methods. From that time the cabinet, as the assembly of the presiding elders and Bishops was called, became an insti- tution. Asbury consulted no one in making his appointments. He knew every part of the work ; he knew every preacher ; he had great and not unwarranted confidence in his own judgment ; he had been invested with this almost absolute authority when the Church was small and the preachers few, and, conscious of purity in its exercise, he was unwilling to surrender any part of it. But McKendree, with more caution and better judgment, clearly saw that appointments could not be wisely made by the mere motion of any one man's mind, and he felt the need of and called for consultation with the elders ; from this time it became a fixed custom. To many of our readers, unfamiliar with the mode of making appointments at conference, an explanation of the man- ner of making them may not be uninteresting. The Bishop calls the presiding elders into secret session soon after the meeting of the conference. In this council each pre- siding elder is the guardian of his own district, seeing after the *Jonrnals. 130 History of interests of both preachers and churches under his care. He states to the Bishop and the council what he thinks is best for the Church in his district; what circuits shall be formed; what stations established ; what preachers shall be changed, and where they shall be placed. The whole council consider the matter and make suggestions. The Bishop sits as umpire, and, after mak- ing his own views known, makes the final decision. McKendree was now almost an old man. Years of the hardest work had worn him down, and though he was still a stronger man than Asbury had been for many years, he was by no means vigorous. Enoch George and R. R. Roberts, two men of full strength and in middle life, were now his colleagues. Roberts was a Western Marylander, who had spent his youth in the wilds of Western Pennsylvania. He was a mighty hunter and loved the frontier and frontiersmen with all their ways. He had been converted early, and had early begun to preach. His preaching was of high order, and he especially evinced fine administrative qualities, and after having been a presiding elder, was selected at the General Conference of 1816 for Bishop. He was a man of large brain, large body, and large heart. He re- moved, after his election to the Episcopacy, to the wilds of In- diana, and lived and died in a log-cabin. His modesty was of the highest order, and the story of some of the most striking manifestations of it has been carefully preserved. One of these had its scene in South Carolina, and Travis knew the preacher concerned in it.* Roberts, on his way to conference, had reached the home of a Methodist in South Carolina, after dark one even- ing. The family had already supped. The Bishop made the ordi- nary request of a benighted stranger for lodging; this was granted, and he came in. He was a man of huge form, was dressed very plainly, and had nothing about him that betokened a man of position. The family were in a pleasant mood; the young preacher, a sprightly and agreeable man, was with them, and the Bishop was expected. The hours passed merrily by, but the Bishop did not come ; the quiet stranger in the corner did not receive much attention, and when the hour came for retiring he went to his room. In a little while the young preacher fol- lowed. He found the old man on his knees in prayer and became assured that he was a Christian. When he arose from prayer he said to him : "You are a member of the Church?" "Yes, sir." * Travis ' Autobiography. Georgia Methodism. 131 "Which way are you traveling?" "To Columbia." "Why, that is where our conference meets; we are expecting the Bishop; do you know him?" "Yes, sir; I traveled with him." "Why! did you? What is your name?" "Roberts." "Roberts! why, not Bishop Roberts?" "Well, that's what they call me." The young preacher insisted upon calling the family up and having supper, but the Bishop would not consent, nor would he allow him to make him known. The next morning the Bishop left, and when he met his young brother in Columbia he was especially kind to him. The conference met at Columbia, December 25, 1816. Bishops McKendree and George were present. Bishop George had visited his old friends in Georgia, and now joined McKendree at Colum- bia. McKendree had made his journey through the Cherokee Nation to the seat of the conference.* There was considerable change, as there always had been, among the Georgia preachers, but none in the shape of the work; church affairs were moving in the old ruts. Charles Dickinson was appointed to the Ocmulgee Circuit. "It was," says Dunwoody, "a large and laborious circuit, consist- ing of twenty-eight appointments for twenty-eight days. It in- cluded Twiggs, Wilkinson, parts of Jones and Pulaski Counties. The rides were long — a distance of from twelve to eighteen miles was between them." Dickinson needed a helper, and Lewis Myers employed James Dunwoody, the younger brother of Samuel Dun- woody, to assist him. There were some parts of the circuit in Twiggs, where the population was considerable and the people wealthy; but in the larger part of the work the people were few and very poor. Charles Dickinson was a good man, of no great gifts, f but full of zeal and of very deep piety. He only traveled a few years, when he was taken sick at his home in Washington County, where he died in great peace. $ Whitman C. Hill had with him on the Little River Circuit a young man who was to do great and good work for the Church. This was Andrew Hammill. He was from South Carolina, and was of Irish descent ; he had been early a Christian, entered the conference at twenty years old, and traveled for nearly eighteen *McKendree's Life. t Dunwoody 's Life. J Ibid. 132 History of years, when he died. He was a man of remarkable gentleness and piety, a diligent student, and distinguished for the purity and clearness of his style as a preacher. We shall often see him in the progress of this history, since he was from this time to that of his death constantly engaged in the Georgia work.* Anderson Ray, who was this year on the Warren Circuit, was for a long time a useful traveling and local preacher. He was a man of moderate gifts, but of great industry and piety. The corps of preachers in Georgia was not at this time remarkable for mental power. There were some men of excellent capacities, but the most of the preachers were young and inexperienced men, of ordinary ability, and either from this or some other cause to us unknown the Church continued to lose ground, and a further decrease of 500 members was reported this year. The next con- ference was to meet in January, 181 8, and was to have met in Louisville, but the appointment was changed to Augusta, and it met in that city. Bishops McKendree and Roberts were present. James Norton, whom we remember as one of the early workers in lower Georgia, was the traveling companion of Bishop Mc- Kendree. The Bishop and himself had left the seat of the Mis- sissippi conference attended by Thomas Griffin, who conducted them as far as Fort Claiborne, in the Tombigbee country. They then entered the Indian country. The creeks and rivers were high, and the country for miles was inundated. After many perils, in one of which they narrowly escaped being drowned, they reached the east bank of the Chattahoochee, and, although the Indians were not peaceable, made their way safely to the white settlements. They finally reached the hospitable home of John Lucas, near Sparta, and, in company with Lewis Myers, reached Augusta. "There was," says Bishop Paine, in his Life of McKendree, "some delicate and eventful business, which was attended to. What this was we can not tell." This conference met January 27, i8i8.f During this year Hope Hull followed Asbury to Heaven. He had been a local preacher for twenty-five years, but had been a zealous worker for the Church all the time. Hull was in all re- spects a great man. In person he had a large body and short limbs. He had a large, commanding head, a fine eye, and exceedingly bushy eyebrows. $ He was a man of quick decision and of great firmness. Like most great men, he possessed striking peculiari- ties, some of them relating to little things. One of these was •Minutes. tPaine's Life of McKendree. }Dr. Pierce, in Sprague. JUDGE A. B. LONGSTREET, President Emory College. REV. LOVICK PIERCE, D. D. Georgia Methodism. 135 always to wear an old hat. As old as Father's Hull's hat, was a proverb in Northeast Georgia.* His clothing was always too large for him, especially his boots. Once, the story goes, he complained of a pebble in his boot; when he drew it off, it had in it a small pair of candle-snuffers. He had remarkable pene- tration, and was thought to possess the power of discerning spirits. One day in class he met a man who said he was like old David, and had his infirmities. "Yes," said Father Hull, "and I am afraid you are like old Noah too — get drunk some- times, "f It was a centre shot, for the man was much given to the bottle. He had great influence with the leading men of the State, and the State University owed much to his fostering care. He bequeathed his name and his virtues to his children, one of whom, Asbury Hull, was a leading lawyer and statesman in Georgia, and another, Dr. Henry Hull, once professor in the University, a useful Methodist of Athens. It was now necessary to make some changes in the district presidents : Joseph Tarpley took the Oconee District, and Saml. K. Hodges was placed on the Ogeechee; Lewis Myers was sent to Charleston; Nicholas Talley came to Georgia again, to the important Sparta Circuit, and James Dunwoody, just admitted, was sent with him as junior preacher. James Dunwoody was living in 1875, although he had then been for many years, against his will, superannuated. He was a long time a very devoted, laborious, and self-sacrificing preacher, whom we shall often see. During this year Samuel Dunwoody came from South Carolina, and preached a stirring and able sermon on the love of money. He attributed nearly all the evils which the world had known to covetousness, and especially charged the decline of Methodism to this source. Solomon said in his day there were those who said erroneously the old days were best ; and though Mr. Wesley endorsed Solomon, he said sadly, before his death, that the Meth- odists were no longer what they were. And still the same cry is heard ; but there seems to have been much truth in Dunwoody's statement, for there was another year of decline, and another loss of 500 members. For now nearly eight years there had been only decline. The churches lost in members and lost spiritual power. Even the Apalachee Circuit — to which Dunwoody was sent, Barnet's health having failed — although one of the best in the conference, was in a cold, dead state. Hodges, the new presiding elder, was eminently fitted for the 'Bishop Andrew, in Sprague. tlbid. 136 History of office. He preached well, and in managing a district had few superiors. He was about six feet high, of sallow complexion, dark eyes, was very fluent in speech, and his judgment was of the best order. He had entered the conference with Jas. O. Andrew, and nominated him for the episcopal office, to which he was elected. Elisha Callaway was junior preacher on the Satilla Circuit. This was a hard circuit, and Callaway rarely had any other kind. He was an admirable frontiersman, warm-hearted, cheerful, courageous. He was a man of rare ability of character, full of generosity and tenderness. He transferred finally to Alabama. The conference met in Camden, Bishop Roberts presiding. A new district was now laid out, consisting of circuits which had previously been in the Ogeechee and Oconee Districts. It was called the Athens District. Joseph Tarpley was placed upon it. It consisted of the Broad River, Grove, Apalachee, Alcovi, and Sparta Circuits. The Grove Circuit is the only one of these cir- cuits whose boundaries we have not endeavored to indicate. It consisted of those churches and preaching-places which were in the upper part of the State, bordering on the Indian Nation. The present counties of Hart, Madison, Franklin, Jackson, and a part of Clarke, were included in it. David Garrison, an elder, was this year in charge of it. He had been a local preacher for several years before he joined the conference, having been licensed in 1806. He traveled consecutively for ten years, and when his health gave way he was superannuated, and continued in that relation until the year 1842, when he died. He was a sober, pious, humble Christian, a plain, practical, spiritual, and useful preacher, a great lover of the doctrines and discipline of the Church. His voice failed him ere his consciousness, and he signified that all was well by raising his hand.* \Y. B. Barnett was presiding elder of the Oconee District, which included only five circuits, but they embraced all the west- ern and lower parts of the State. Samuel K. Hodges had the Ogeechee District. Asbury Morgan was in charge of the Ohoo- pee and Darien Circuits. He was now a deacon, and had traveled two circuits in South Carolina before he came to Georgia. He was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, Aug. 25, 1797, and before his twenty-first year was a traveling preacher. He ad- vanced rapidly, and after he had traveled ten years, while sta- tioned in Charleston, he died of the stranger fever, the 25th of *Rev. W. J. Parks. Georgia Methodism. 137 September, 1828. He was not a man of splendid talents, but was acceptable and useful.* His widow long survived him, and one of his daughters became the wife of J. Blakely Smith, who was himself a useful traveling preacher, and was long secretary of Georgia and South Georgia Conferences, and who died while he was presiding elder of the Americus District, in 1871. Raleigh Green, another young man, was junior preacher on the Apalachee Circuit. He traveled only a few years, and then located ; afterwards, when an old man, he returned to the work, and in it he died. He was engaged in worldly business, and, like most preachers, was not successful, but preserved his Chris- tian character in the midst of his losses. f George Hill, the junior preacher on the Warren Circuit, was destined to an early grave, but to a life of great usefulness be- fore he was called away. He was born in Charleston, and was the son of Paul Hill, Esq. He was a brilliant boy, and began to preach at twenty years old. He traveled for only nine years, but in that time was placed in the most important charges. He was a powerful and an eminently successful preacher. Mathew Raiford was received this year. He was only nine- teen years old. He traveled several years in South Carolina, and afterwards on some of the hardest circuits in Georgia. He went as an assistant to Isaac Smith on the Creek Mission. He was a faithful man all his life, and "though sorely afflicted in his last years, retained his Christian confidence strong to the end. He died at Dr. James Thweat's, in Monroe County, in his fifty- third year." Asbury Morgan visited Darien, then a prosperous town at the mouth of the Altamaha, this year. It had been set- tled in 1735 by the Scotch Highlanders, but the settlement had been broken up ; but now, as cotton sought shipment from the interior by way of the largest river in the State, the town at its mouth was growing in importance. The use of the only church in it was refused to the Methodists; but Morgan secured a counting-house near the river, and a plank was made a bridge from the bluff; when the worshippers were molested, the plank was used as a drawbridge. In 1831, Brother Shackleford, a devoted Methodist, moved to the place, and a church was soon built, and a revival followed — the first in Darien. $ Jno. L. Jerry was a junior preacher on the Broad River Cir- cuit this year. He was of French descent, his father having come over with General La Fayette, to assist the American colo- *Minutes. tlbid. JDr. Myers, in S. C. Advocate. 138 History of nies. He joined the Church when young, and entered the con- ference at twenty-five years of age. He was on the frontier most of his life, traveling the hardest circuits in East and West Florida. In 1827, after ten years' work, he married, and located and settled in East Florida. After seven years in retirement, he re-entered the traveling connection, and remained in it till he died. He died of congestion of the brain in 1859. He was a very brave and a very self-sacrificing man, and one of great faith. On one occasion, at St. Augustine, he was threatened by a priest with imprisonment.* He fearlessly pointed to the Ameri- can flag, and defied him. At another time, as he was riding alone through the Florida wilds, he found himself near a ferry, without means to pay for crossing. Dismounting, he prayed to God for help, and on his way back to his horse found a Spanish doubloon. He was not an educated man, but a man of great common sense, and was very successful in his work. His name is precious to Florida Methodists. The Ogeechee District was now enlarged by the addition of the Black Swamp Circuit in South Carolina. The chapter now drawing towards its end is one of the saddest in the history of Methodism in Georgia. There had been no advance, but a constant and painful decline. The State was prosperous, but the Church was never less so. So the minute figures say, and we have no access to other sources, for we are possessed of less information concerning this time than of any period before or since. The Methodist Magazine began its life in 1818, but there is in it no news of Georgia work. Better times were coming. During the year 1819 Bishop Capers, who was stationed in Savannah, writes that Warren County, in which John Mote and Jno. L. Jerry were the preachers, was in a flame throughout, and at the camp-meeting there were over one hun- dred converted, and over two hundred had joined the Church. There was a great revival in Augusta, under Henry Bass, and altogether a better promise in the conference. John Simmons was on the Apalachee Circuit this year, and received another appointment, when he located. He was zealous, simple-hearted, and devotedly pious, and labored cheerfully as long as he lived. He located and did good work in Butts and Pike Counties ; after the settlement of Oxford, he fixed his home there, and there educated his sons : Dr. Jas. P. Simmons, now dead, who was a useful layman ; the Rev. W. A. Simmons, of *Minutes. Georgia Methodism. 139 the North Georgia, and the Rev. Jno. C. Simmons, of the Pacific Conference. During the year, for the first time in sev- eral, there was some increase, the minutes reporting 7,166 whites against 7,083 of the year before. Wm. Capers was in Savannah this year, and Henry Bass in Augusta, and in both of these cities there was decided improve- ment in church matters. The conference met in Charleston, January 13, 1820. Bishop George presided. He was among his old friends and co-laborers. Over twenty years before he had left South Caro- lina and Georgia, after having done noble work in them, and now he returns to his old home with the highest office in the gift of the Church. James Dunwoody, who was received at this con- ference into full connection, says of the Bishop : "He was greatly animated, and I think I have scarcely ever known a more thrill- ing or solemn season."* The three districts retain their shape; but Burnett, who was in the Wire-Grass Country, and whose health had failed him, re- tired, and James Norton took his place. He had been the pio- neer in this region years before, and had first proclaimed the Gospel to its scattered inhabitants. He had been hard at work, honored by his brethren with successive seats in the General Conference, and deeply beloved by his Bishops, especially by McKendree, with whom he had been a traveling companion. James O. Andrew was sent to Augusta. It was his eighth ap- pointment. He had developed wonderfully as a preacher, and had now a wife and two children, and was the first married preacher ever stationed in that city. Thomas Samford, who was at work in Georgia, this year began a ministerial life, which continued till his death nearly fifty years afterwards. He was a poor boy, the son of a widowed mother. Placed in the family of a good South Carolina Methodist, he was converted, and his faithfulness in his duties kept him with them for some years. He came to Georgia and became a preacher. He possessed a mind of very fine texture, and was a diligent student. He was a small man, retiring, absent-minded, timid, but remarkable for his pulpit gifts. Few men have had higher repute for the pulpit power than he had. He was placed on the best circuits, stations, and districts while in Georgia. He after- wards transferred to Louisiana, and thence to Texas, where dur- ing the war he died. He was noted for his gentleness and his *Dunwoody's Life. 140 History of charitableness, and was universally beloved. We shall see him often. At this conference, the delegates to the General Conference of 1820 were elected. They were: Sam'l Dun woody, Wm. Ken- nedy, Joseph Travis, James Norton, Lewis Myers, Daniel As- bury, Wm. Capers, James O. Andrew, and Sam'l K. Hodges ; of these every one except Father Asbury had traveled in Georgia. It was a large and very able delegation, and it was well that it was so, for there were trying days just ahead. McCaine was elected secretary, and the Bishops presided in turn. The im- portant Committee on Episcopacy was elected by ballot, and Lewis Myers was again placed upon it. Wm. Capers was placed on the committee to consider the local preacher question, and Kennedy was chairman on the Sunday-school Committee. The session was long and stormy. Some cases of appeal from the Baltimore Conference, which had located two traveling preach- ers without their consent, called out the strong men. Wm. Capers on the side of the appellants, and Stephen George Roszell, in defense of the conference, the other. Then came the election of a Bishop, and Joshua Soule was elected over Nathan Bangs. James Axley brought forward the slavery question, as he always brought forward something to excite discussion. It was left as before. By far the most exciting and important measure was the proposal for the election of presiding elders. From 1808, at every general conference, this measure had been presented, and three times it had been rejected. It was now, however, brought forward again by D. Ostrander, of New York, and finally car- ried ; with this action of the body McKendree and Soule were much displeased. They believed it an unconstitutional, and a radical and dangerous change. Soule refused to be ordained a Bishop while this law remained in the discipline, and McKen- dree refused to carry out the measure until the conferences should decide by a three-fourths vote that they desired it. Those ques- tions of the power of the general conference, which were to be so ably discussed in 1844, were now for the first time broached. Apprehending serious trouble, the execution of the law was by vote of the conference suspended until 1824; and as Soule re- fused the office, no other Bishop was elected, and after a most exciting session the body adjourned. James O. Andrew was a silent member of this conference, the first to which he had been elected as a delegate, and the only member of the South Carolina delegation who took active part in the discussions was Wm. Capers. Georgia Methodism. 141 The next South Carolina Conference met January n, 1821, in Columbia, S. C. Bishop George was again president, though Bishop McKendree was with him. At this conference Joseph Tarpley, after a most useful career, located, and the Athens District had a new presiding elder; this was Isaac Smith, one of the earliest of the Methodist preachers in South Carolina, and one whom we have already mentioned as having been present at the first Georgia Conference in 1788. He was a Virginian by birth, the grandson of an Episcopal minister. His father, Thomas Smith, was a farmer in Kent County, Virginia, and died while his son was still small. When the Revolutionary war commenced, he entered the army and served with Washington and La Fayette for three years. He was an orderly sergeant, and was so well known by La Fayette, that when the Marquis was in America, on meeting him at his mission, near Columbus, the ardent Frenchman caught him in his arms, and the old soldier, now a missionary, after asking his old commander about his prospects for Heaven, commended him to God in prayer. He had been well taught the Episcopal cate- chism, but knew nothing of personal religion until after the Revo- lution was over. He saw it manifest among the Baptists of Norfolk, and soon after heard Asbury preach. He was con- verted, and in 1783 began to preach, and in 1784 entered the con- ference at Ellis' Meeting-house, in Virginia. He traveled in Vir- ginia and North Carolina for two years, then came southward for twelve years ; he was a most laborious traveling preacher. During that time he married Ann Gilman, a cousin of James Rembert, and, when his family cares forbade his traveling, lo- cated and settled in Camden, S. C. He was the father of Methodism in the town. His home was the stopping-place of all the preachers. He was the trusted friend of Asbury, McKendree, George, and Soule. Asbury visited him every year from the time of his election as Bishop, till his death. He was much loved and honored. In his house Bishop Capers made his first public prayer, and he and two others entertained the South Carolina Conference at its first meeting in Camden. After a life as a local preacher of great usefulness, he re-entered the conference in 1820, and remained in it till his death in 1832. At the time of his appointment to the Athens District, he was about sixty years old. He was selected the next year to take charge of the mission to the Creek Indians at Fort Mitchell, near the present city of Columbus. He won the affections of the red men, and labored among them with some success. After several years 142 History of in the wilds he was superannuated, and spent the remainder of his life in such labor as he could do, visiting as far west as the Natchez Country, where his daughter Mary, the wife of Hope Lenoir, was living. He returned to Georgia, and died in Monroe County, at the residence of Whitman C. Hill, who had married his daughter Jane. When asked on his dying bed how it was with him, he repeated the beautiful lines of Wesley, as with his clasped hands he looked toward the sky : "There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart are there, And my Eternal home. For me my older brethren stay, And angels beckon me away, And Jesus bids me come." Few since the days of the Apostle John have been more holy and lovable than this old soldier. Rising at four in the morn- ing, he spent the time in prayer, singing and reading the Bible until six o'clock. He was called the St. John of the Carolina Conference. His two sons, Isaac Henry and James Rembert, were local preachers of fine ability; one of them, Dr. James Rem- bert Smith, was living in 1875. The other, after years of useful labor, died about 1870. Several of his grandsons are also travel- ling preachers. He was a man of dignified and gentle bearing; he had a good English education, and while a plain preacher, was an earnest and acceptable one. The South Carolina Con- ference was so much attached to him, that, when the conference was divided, although their old father was in the Georgia terri- tory, they would not allow him to be transferred, but retained his name till the last. He was devoted to the religious teaching of the negroes and the Indians, and was so esteemed by the negroes, that, in a time when all the white men were doomed by the rebellious blacks to death, the only ground upon which they consented to the massacre of Father Smith was that it would be kindness to him to send him to Heaven. While he was on the Athens District, he licensed Wm. J. Parks to preach. Of him we shall have much to say in the future of this history.* Jno. B. Chappel. just admitted into full connection, was this year on the Grove Circuit. He was born in Lincoln County, Ga., and was converted when twenty-three years old. He was *Sprague's Annals, and Stevens' History. Georgia Methodism. 143 first a local preacher, and entered the conference in 1819. He was a very acceptable and useful preacher, preaching by day when he could get a congregation, and by night when they would not come out by day. In all his circuits he was blessed with gracious success, and revivals followed his ministry. He broke down in the work, and settled in Oglethorpe County. After returning from a camp-meeting in Elbert, he was taken suddenly ill, and died praising his Redeemer to the last.* During this year Wm. Capers was much in Georgia. He had been selected to establish a mission among the Creeks, and was to raise funds for the purpose. He went twice to the Nation, spending the intervals soliciting contributions to the society. f How well he succeeded is evidenced by the fact that the South Carolina Conference paid into the missionary treasury more than all the conferences together — all of New England paying but seventy-nine dollars, and South Carolina Conference alone $1,3744 His heart was in the work, and the zeal with which he labored was inspiration to all. One new circuit was made in the Wire-Grass Country, called in the minutes Lapahee. It should be Alapaha. It joined the lit- tle Ocmulgee on the north, and extended to the Florida line in the south. J. J. Triggs, an Englishman by birth, was placed in charge of it. He was possessed of decided ability, and did good work. After traveling a few years, he located, and resided in Burke County till his death. James Dunwoody was on the Little Ocmulgee Circuit. He says that it was a three-weeks' circuit for one preacher. The population was sparse, the rides were long. The people were very poor, living in log huts; and often during cold winter nights, as he slept in these cabins, the wind poured in upon his head all night long. In windy weather the wind blew down the large stick-and-dirt chimneys, and mixed lumps of clay and soot with the not enticing food. The country was much infested with flies and mosquitoes, but the young itinerant, sick and weary as he was, did his work until conference. This was but a specimen of the work in Norton's District. This district extended from near Milledgeville to St. Mary's, and Norton himself broke down un- der the labor. || During the year there was no increase, but a decrease of over four hundred members. The conference met in Augusta, Janu- *Obituary notice in Minutes. tWightman. tMethodist Magazine for 1824. || Dunwoody 's Memoir. 144 History of ary, 1822, Bishops McKendree and George presiding. A very great change was made in the line of the white settlements in Georgia by the acquisition of new and valuable territory from the Indians. This rendered the extension of the conference boundary needful, but this was not done until the next year. John Howard, who came to Georgia the year before, and who was stationed in Savannah, was in Augusta this year. He was from North Carolina, and was born in 1792, and at this time was thirty years old. After receiving an excellent common school education, he entered the store of his brother, Henry B. Howard, of Wilmington, N. C., where he was carefully trained as a mer- chant. The Methodists in Wilmington at that time were an hum- ble and despised sect, and although his mother had been con- verted years previously, under the ministry of LeRoy Cole in Vir- ginia, she had not been able to withstand the opposition she had met with, and was living out of the church. One day as he, a boy of sixteen, was passing by, he saw a group of people gathered under a tree. He drew near, and heard a colored man preaching.* This was probably Henry Evans. He was convicted under the plain man's preaching, and sought and obtained the pardon of his sins. He became an active and valuable member of the Church, and from being a class-leader was licensed to exhort. He was a successful merchant. A happy family was growing up around him, when an unexpected, and as he regarded it, an imperative call of Providence came to him to leave all and follow his Master in the work of the ministry. John McYean had been stationed in Georgetown ; he seems to have been a good man, but would now and then be overcome by an old weakness for wine. While in Georgetown he fell, and Joseph Travis came to John Howard with an earnest request that he would take his placet He did so. The next year he entered the conference, and in it he died. He was, when he began to travel, about twenty-five years old. He was a man of very handsome person, of rather stout frame, florid complexion, clear blue eyes, and raven black hair. He was very fluent and earnest, and had a fine voice, and was a sweet singer; an accomplished gentleman in manner, very earn- est and energetic, he at once was very successful and popular. He rose rapidly in the conference, and after having been on one circuit, and then in Charleston and Georgetown, he came to Geor- gia. He was eminently useful in Savannah ; afterwards he was in Augusta, where the same success attended him. He then re- *His own Memoranda, t Travis. Georgia Methodism. 145 turned to South Carolina, where, after having been stationed for three years, he located, and taught school in Charleston. He removed to Georgia and re-entered the conference in 1828. In 1830 he removed to the young city of Macon, in which he re- mained till the time of his death in 1836. He was a man of fine business qualification, and was secretary of the Georgia Conference when he died. Twice he was a delegate to the gen- eral conference, and in the Cincinnati General Conference, the May before his death, made an impressive and effective speech against abolitionism. Few men ever labored in South Carolina and Georgia who have left a better record. His education, if not advanced, was excellent as far as it went, and his English was pure and elegant. He was full of zeal and fire — one who knew how to move the hearts of men — a master of sacred song, and wherever he went the revival influence went with him. Savannah, Augusta, Greens- boro, Washington, Milledgeville, and Macon, were specially indebted to him. He had entered the conference from the purest motives and at great personal cost, as far as this world was concerned. He was much esteemed by all, and especially by the people of Macon, who erected a monument over his grave. On the Sparta Circuit, with Thomas Sam ford, the minutes place Wra. Parks. He was afterwards well known under his full name of Wm. J. Parks. He was the son of Henry Parks, whom we have seen as one of the first converts to Methodism in Georgia. He had been reared in the backwoods, and had no educational advantages save such as the old field-school gave. He gave in his short autobiography an account of his first school. The teacher was an old drunkard. One day the boys turned him out, and after they had beaten and tied him, and smeared him with mud, he surrendered, and gave the school a treat, which was a gallon of zvhiskcy, which he drank with his scholars. He soon went as far as an old field-school would allow, and then went to the new Methodist school at Salem, to study grammar. Here he was licensed to preach. A more unpolished country lad has rarely appeared before a quarterly conference for license to preach. His skin was as dark as an Indian's, and his hair as straight. His manners were simple and unpretending, and when he joined the conference, he had known but little of life, save what he had seen in the quiet settlement in which he had been reared. He was twenty-three, and already married. His wife was in every way suited to him, 146 History of and much of his usefulness and success was owing to the ster- ling character and deep piety of his good Naomi. He was sent to the Sparta Circuit, a long way from his up-country home. Thomas Samford was his senior preacher. The Sparta Circuit at that time included in its boundaries some of the best lands in the State, and many of the people in it were rich and aris- tocratic. He says but little of his first year; but his second, when alone among a people who knew him and could value him, was a year of triumph. Of his work here on the Gwinnett Mission, our history will tell. He labored on, improving every day, making his power more and more felt. After traveling for three years, receiving scarcely any pay, he located, that he might better prepare himself to work for nothing, and then returned to the conference. He was made a presiding elder, and soon evinced a remarkable fitness for the place. He early won his position of leader on the conference floor, and never lost it as long as he was disposed to hold it. For two years he was a mission- ary, for fourteen presiding elder ; for four he was stationed ; he was a circuit preacher for twelve, and an agent for ten.* Wm. J. Parks was in every respect a remarkable man. He was na- tively endowed with a brain of large size and remarkable bal- ance; he had no crotchets. His preaching was always clear as sunshine, and oftentimes as cheering. His striking and homely illustrations, his strong logic, his excellent diction, his genuine fervor, all united to make him a most entertaining and profitable preacher. He called a spade a spade, and, while not disposed to controversy, was not afraid of it. His courage was of the finest type, whether it was to maintain an unpopular side in conference debate, to administer rebuke, or to endure hardships, he was brave enough for all. In perfect knowledge of Alethodist law, in skill in debate, he had no superior. If defeated, he never lost his good humor, but fell in heartily with all the measures that were adopted. He never became a querulous old man — was bright and cheerful to the last. He was simple as simplicity, and always plain in speech and dress. Despising shams, he never failed to expose them ; loving the good and the true, he never failed to uphold it. He was thrice married, and few men have been so blessed in married life. He died in great peace, in Ox- ford, Georgia, in December, 1873, a few days before the meet- ing of the Georgia Conference, having just entered his seventy- fourth year. *His own MSS. Georgia Methodism. 147 Isaac Smith having been chosen to superintendent the newly established Creek Mission, Samuel K. Hodges was appointed to the Athens District. Allen Turner was made presiding elder on the Oconee. On the Ohoopee Circuit, which included Emanuel, Bullock, and Bryan Counties, two young men were placed — Thomas L. Wynn and Peyton L. Wade. Thomas L. Wynn was the father of Rev. Alexander W. Wynn, who has been so long a time a useful member of the Georgia Conference, and to him we are indebted for the following sketch of his excellent father. Thomas L. Wynn was also the brother-in-law of Bishop An- drew, having married a daughter of Alexander McFarlane, of Charleston. Thomas L. Wynn was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Wynn. He was born in Abbeville District, S. C, June 27, 1798. Through the instructions and example of his pious parents, he was in early life the subject of divine awakenings and convictions, and when thirteen years old was most happily converted to God ; but from the influence of thoughtless company he afterwards lost his first love, and was for several years in a lukewarm state. It is somewhat remarkable that even prior to his early con- version he was impressed with the belief that he would become a preacher, which impression doubtless contributed largely in re- straining him from all evil and immoral practices, especially dur- ing the years of his lukewarmness and loss of living faith. His childhood and youth were passed without blemish and above re- proach. In the autumn of 181 5 he was restored fully to the divine favor and became ever henceforth a serious, determined, and most zealous Christian. His impression that he would be called to the ministry was now ripened into a deep and settled conviction ; but, under perplexities not unusual to persons in similar circumstances, as well as on account of his youth, he for some time took no direct steps in that direction. Finally he yielded to his conviction, formed his purpose, and gave himself to the work of God, and at the close of 1817 he was licensed to preach and recommended as a candidate for admission into the South Carolina Conference. Up to this period Mr. Wynn had enjoyed good health, but during his arduous and zealous labors in Charleston his health began seriously to fail, and symptoms of the fell disease which finally cut short his useful life appeared. On the 19th November, 1823, he formed a most happy union in marriage with Miss Sarah Harriet McFarlane, fourth daughter of Alexander and Catha- rine McFarlane, of Charleston. His wife was the sister of Bishop 148 History of Andrew's first wife and of Mrs. John Mood, each of whose hus- bands were then in the South Carolina Conference, and she was, indeed, in every way well qualified for an itinerant preacher's wife — amiable, intelligent, pure, pious, devoted to Christ and His cause, and also beautiful in person. In 1824 he was stationed in the city of Savannah, Ga., and for 1825 in Wilmington, N. C. During both of these years he was more or less feeble, and with difficulty performed all his numerous duties, and at the close of 1825 received a superan- nuated relation for one year. Rest from constant labor and preaching, and judicious treatment, soon restored his health, and for 1827 he was stationed in Georgetown, S. C. This year a most violent attack of bilious fever brought him near to death. On the 7th of February of this year — 1827 — he was deprived by death of the companionship of his devoted wife, leaving him the charge of an infant son three weeks old, whom God spared and who was for many years a member of the Georgia Con- ference. For 1828 he was stationed in Camden, where his health im- proved; for 1829 he was appointed to the united towns of Wash- ington and Lexington, in Georgia, where his health seemed fully restored. In 1830 he was again stationed in Charleston, S. C, but here his onerous duties soon told fatally on him, for in the spring he was attacked with hemorrhage of the lungs, attended with other alarming symptoms, and after suffering much, with- out prospect of speedy recovery, by advice he left for the up- country. Reaching Camden, he was prostrated with another violent bilious fever, which prevented his going farther. This was succeeded by a most rapid consumption, of which he died on the 9th of October, 1830. The exercises of his mind and the manifestations of the grace of God which he experienced during his last illness were peculiarly edifying. His pious widow (for early in 1829 he was married again, most happily, to Miss Sarah J. Cook, of Camden) says: "His illness seemed to have troubled his spirits ; and sometimes he was bowed down under manifold temptations. But again, God would dispel the cloud, and give him to rejoice. About ten days before his departure he was particularly blessed. 'Death,' said he, 'has lost his sting. Feeble nature has sometimes feared to meet the enemy, but it is all with God.' At another time he exclaimed, 'Heaven, what a delightful place! How can you wish to be detained from it?' About seven o'clock, the evening before he died, he requested me to bring his two dear little children to Georgia Methodism. 149 him, and as he embraced them he said, 'They will soon be father- less;' then, with his eyes swimming with tears, and looking up to Heaven, he continued, 'Father of the fatherless, take care of my children!' Then giving them back to me, he said, T have given both them and you to God, and now I have nothing more to do but to wait the will of my Lord.' During the night his kind physician said to him, 'Mr. Wynn, I think your end is draw- ing near.' He gave him in reply an affectionate look, embraced him, and thanked him with great tenderness for all his attentions to him. After this he exclaimed, 'Glory to God ! Glory ! Hallelu- jah! repeating the expression several times. He seemed to be slumbering most of the night, saying many things indistinctly, about 'angels,' 'the blessed,' etc. At one time I aroused him, saying, T was afraid he did not lie easy.' He smilingly replied, 'I sleep so sweetly in Jesus.' Thus he seemed to slumber until half -past six in the morning, when he opened his eyes and looked affectionately on all around him, and then closed them until the resurrection morning." In his Conference Memoir, published in the Minutes of 1831, it is said of him as follows : "Brother Wynn possessed extraor- dinary abilities as a preacher. From childhood he was studious and thoughtful; and, although his opportunities for acquiring knowledge in early life were, perhaps, rather limited than liberal, his after-habits were such as to render him respectable both for his literary and theological attainments. In this respect he was a fine example of what a Methodist preacher can do to improve his mind, if he will be studious — though it must be acknowledged that Brother Wynn possessed a capacity for improvement far above what is common, even among preachers. His perception was quick, his understanding strong, and his judgment well bal- anced. He loved to reason on a right subject, and he reasoned well. This gave a distinguishing character to his pulpit labors. They were sure to exhibit an able argument, as well as a warm application. As a preacher, altogether, he richly merited the high estimation in which he was held ; and what he was, by the grace of God, as a man and a Christian, let his death-bed speak. By his death the church has lost a son and a servant, much lamented and long to be remembered." Peyton L. Wade was the colleague of Thomas L. Wynn. He travelled only a few years, and then married a very wealthy and a very excellent widow lady, and located. He was a fine busi- ness man, and his wealth greatly increased, so that at the time of his death, which did not take place for over forty years from 150 History of this time, he was the wealthiest Methodist preacher in Georgia. He was a warm-hearted man to the last, and many a travelling preacher found in him a sympathizing friend. Elijah Sinclair appears as on the Appling Circuit, which was perhaps the poorest and hardest circuit in the State. Sinclair, after years of great usefulness, became involved in speculation, met with disasters, and was expelled from the Church. Save that it is due to his memory to say that the charge was merely one of this character, we should have passed over this sad rec- ord in silence. He afterwards returned to the Church, was li- censed again to preach, and died in peace. If our history has taught any lesson, it has taught to men in the ministry the great danger of deviating from the line of duty to engage in secular business, especially commercial life. Beverly Allen, Joseph Tarpley, John Andrew, James Russell, Elijah Sinclair, Raleigh Green, all suffered much, and some fatally from this cause. There seems, too, to be a real fatality about trade to a preacher. Many have entered into it, and few of them have escaped bank- ruptcy and life-long distress. On the Oconee District this year, under the efficient eldership of Allen Turner, there was considerable prosperity. On the sand-hills in Emanuel, in Washington, at the camp-meeting in Twiggs, there were revivals. In Liberty County and in Wayne over ioo joined the Church. Thomas L. Wynn, says the pre- siding elder, kept unceasingly at work, hardly taking time to eat. The most distant circuit in the South was Satilla and Amelia Island, and this was the date of the establishment of the Church at Fernandina. There was a small increase during the year. The total number of members reported at Savannah in 1823 was about 7,400 white members. At this conference, 1822, Elijah Sinclair, as we have seen, was appointed to St. Mary's and Amelia Island. Amelia Island was the northernmost limit of the province of Florida. On the northern end of the island, within a few miles of Cumberland Island, in Georgia, and twelve miles from St. Mary's, was the town of Fernandina. The island was not thickly inhabited, but it had some commercial importance as the port of East Florida. During the war of 1812, it had been a depot for contraband traders, and after the slave trade was abolished in the United States, cargoes of slaves were brought to this port, and many of them smuggled into Georgia. A few persons of English and Scotch descent had settled on the island, and some of them were engaged in planting on a considerable scale. They were Prot- YOUNG J. ALLEN, D.D., LL.D. REV. R. At time nt' death, 1912, \V. LOVETT, M.l>.. oldesl Alumnus of Emory College. Georgia Methodism. 153 estants. Among them was Donald McDonnell, a Scotch High- lander, who had married first an English lady on the island, and then a lady of Savannah, of French and Huguenot lineage. A Mr. Seaton, of New York, had settled on the island as early as 1812, and thus Sinclair found a few sympathizers, as he, the first Protestant preacher who had entered Florida, came in 1822. Donald McDonnell was the early friend of the mission- aries, and at his house for many years there was a preaching place. His son, the father of Rev. Geo. G. N. McDonnell, of the South Georgia Conference, was converted some few years after this on the mainland, under the ministry of Rev. John L. Jerry, and afterwards with his father and mother joined the Methodists, as there was no Presbyterian church in the section. We may safely say that the first Protestant preaching in Florida was on Amelia Island, and was either done by Elijah Sinclair, or his predecessors on the St. Mary's Circuit. Fernandina is now a promising and attractive little city, about a mile from the old Spanish town of that name, and the Protest- ant bodies are well represented in it. The Ogeechee District was partly in South Carolina, and our old friend Joseph Travis was upon it. Washington Town, al- though it had but fourteen members, was now considered strong enough for a station, and Thomas Darley was sent to it. For nearly thirty-five years the Methodist preachers had been preaching regularly at Coke's Chapel, three miles from the village, and in the academy, and as the fruit of the toil there were fourteen members and no church building. The members of the Church in the State, as the conference minutes report them, were fewer by 500 than they had been ten years before. Why was this? It was not emigration; the new lands of Georgia were not yet open, and few had gone to Ala- bama or Mississippi. It was not because the fields had been abandoned, for the preachers had supplied the circuits despite the hardships of the work. We can only conjecture the true answer to this question. Several causes seem to have united to produce this effect. It was a time of great temporal prosperity. Fortunes were being rapidly made, and the love of money was eating up the Church. The invention of the cotton-gin in 1800, the closing of the slave trade in 1808, and the increased effort before that time to crowd the poor heathens into the market ; the new and very fertile lands purchased in 1804, which were now producing cotton most largely ; the invention of the steamboat, and the cheaper 154 History of transportation of cotton from Augusta, which made that city the great cotton depot of Georgia, had all rendered the rapid se- curement of fortunes by farming not only a possibility, but almost a certainty. The church-member grew rich, and had nowhere to bestow his goods. His habits of economy and in- dustry continued, he had no calls upon his benevolence, and as extravagance was not the fashion, he spent little, gave nothing away. The circuits were very large. What was originally the result of the scarcity of men and the sparse population of the country, was now persisted in for the sake of economy. The circuit preacher only came every twenty-eight days, and then remained only part of one day. The support accorded to the preachers was entirely insufficient; the people had been poor, and they could not believe they were not poor now. In the first days the preachers had only hoped to get a scant sum, enough it might be to clothe them, and now the wealthy member was unwilling to pay more. Thus the able and experienced men were driven otit of the field by their inability to stay in it. Pierce, Tarpley, Capel, Jenkins, had followed Hull, Hum- phries and Ivy to the local sphere when they were needed most, in the itinerancy, and when they were in the ripeness of their power. Even those who remained were forced to have farms of their own, oftentimes very remote from their circuits. There were yet but two parsonages in the State, one in Augusta and one in Savannah, and in these places the Church advanced. The ministry were not equal in culture to the demand, for, although the masses were not equal to the ministers, there were a large number of cultivated people in the State, who were far ahead of most of the preachers ; as yet there was not a single classical scholar, except Jos. Travis, among the preachers in Georgia. Then too there was great disaffection among some of the local preachers of prominence. The excitement which, a year or two later, culminated in the formation of the Methodist Protestant Church, was now arising. Everything moved on in the same old way. New churches were not built, only one new school had been established ; no superannuated preachers were supported. The circuits were of the same size, and the preachers pursued the same methods, of which we have spoken in our account of the Church in 1812. There were, as yet, no Sunday-schools of which we can find any account, save a few in the larger cities — one in Savannah and probably one in Augusta. Milledgeville having ceased to be a Georgia Methodism. 155 station, the first Sunday-school established there had no doubt died of neglect. The Church was torpid, but not dead. The camp-meetings and the quarterly meetings were still great oc- casions, and all Georgia was on the eve of the greatest revival it had ever known, and the Church was about to take an ad- vanced position from which she has never been driven. This it will be the duty of the next chapter to tell. CHAPTER VIII. i 823- i 830. Although the State of Georgia, after the sale to the United States of all the territory which is now comprised in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, nominally included in her boun- dary all that now belongs to her, yet the Indian title to a large part of it was not extinguished. All the country west of the Ocmulgee and north of the Chattahoochee was held by the Creeks and Cherokees. The country on the east side of the river was, for that time, thickly settled ; on the west, where there were thousands of acres of fertile land, the wild Indian had his hunting-grounds. A treaty was made by the United States with the Indians in 1818 and in 1819, and a part of this country was opened to the white settlers. This section, which was surveyed and laid out into lots of 202^/2 acres, in 1821, extended to the Flint River. In 1825 the remainder of the Creek land was purchased, and in 1838 the Cheokees were re- moved to the far West. The new lands were rapidly settled. At the conference which met in Savannah, February 20, 1823, Bishop Roberts presiding, important advances were made in the Georgia work. Several new missions were established in the conference. This was the beginning of that wonderful work since done in the domestic field by the Missionary Board. The Missionary Society of the M. E. Church had been in existence but a short time, when this first appropriation was made to Georgia. The corps of preachers in Georgia was a strong one. Milledgeville was again made a station, and Wm. Capers, in order that he might be near to the Creek Mission, was placed in charge of it. Capers was now in the prime of his man- hood, and his fame as a preacher and as a Christian gentleman was as wide as American Methodism. He did not confine him- self to Milledgeville, but travelled much in the interests of the mission, and made his power felt throughout the State. Mil- ledgeville, after having had separate existence as a station, had, since 1814, been an appointment in the Cedar Creek Circuit, and, of course, was worse off at the end of ten years in the cir- cuit than it was when it was united with it. The establishment of a station, and the appointment of Dr. Capers to it, was a re- vival of its spirit. There was no parsonage, and during the first part of the year he left his family in South Carolina. Mrs. Georgia Methodism. 157 Clark, the Governor's wife, was a Methodist, and when the executive mansion was vacated for the summer she requested her pastor to occupy it with his family. The next year a parson- age was secured, the third in the State.* Dr. Capers came to the capitol at a time when it was the centre of the most intense political excitement, and when the hope of doing anything for the Church was almost a vain one. The political excitement in the times of Troup and Clark was exceedingly bitter; and inasmuch as men, not principles, were the objects of contest, a bitter personality entered into all the political controversies. Preachers as well as people were de- cided in sentiment, and they were popular or otherwise, accord- ing to their political complexion. Mercer, Danl. Duffy, Hodges, and many others were not only Troup men, but were openly avowed participants in the contest. Fortunately for Dr. Capers, he was from South Carolina, and alike the friend of Gov. Clark and of Gov. Troup, his successor; but still this intense state of feeling was unfavorable to his work. So, while he did wonder- ful preaching and much of it, preaching at the penitentiary at sunrise, at the church at eleven o'clock, at three p. m., and at night, there was no considerable addition to the membership during the year.f Wra. Arnold returned now to the work, and was sent on the Cedar Creek Circuit. Arnold was one of the holiest and most lovable of men. He had no doubt greatly improved as a preacher since we last saw him, and was exceedingly popular and useful. Thomas Samford was on the Sparta Circuit, and John B. Chappell on the Alcovi. Wiley Warwick, who had travelled as early as 1804 in the bounds of the States of North and South Carolina, having now removed to Georgia, re-entered the active work, and was sent on the Grove Circuit. George Hill took the Monroe Mission, Andrew Hammill the Yellow River, and Wm. J. Parks the Gwinnett. The Athens District had not often before or since been sup- plied with stronger men. Lovick Pierce, after a location since 1814, now returned where his heart had always been, to the travelling connection. His family were located in Greensboro, where he had resided from the time of his location. He had not been idle, but had been hard at work preaching and cultivating the powers of his wonderful mind. He was now able to return to the work, and *Life of Capers. tCapers' Life and Minutes. 158 History of leaving his family for four-fifths of the time, he served again his old flock in Augusta. James O. Andrew was sent to Savan- nah. If matters had not improved in Georgia after this, it was not because she was unsupplied with able preachers. As we have seen, the new purchase was now mapped out. Al- ready had the local preachers been at work forming societies and waiting for the conference appointee to come. The counties had not been settled a twelvemonth before the missionary was in them. George Hill was on the Monroe Mission. His mission included Monroe, a part of Bibb, Upson, Crawford, Pike and Butts counties. Although he came in 1823, and the appointment first appears, he was not the first travelling preacher in Monroe. Andrew Hammill had been before him. He had been appointed to assist Isaac Smith in establishing the Creek Mission; but for some cause, after going out to it, he had been released and re- turned to Georgia, and in the latter part of the year he had gone into Monroe to establish the Church there. John Wimbish, a local preacher, afterwards in the conference, had been preach- ing in the county, and had organized some churches. Hammill established several, and had a church built near the present Mt. Zion. This church was the first in all probability in all the coun- try now included in the territory of the mission. It was built the last of 1822.* The section to which Hill was sent, the then county of Mon- roe, which included the territory of a half-dozen counties now, was one of the first in the new purchase. It is still a good county, with a delightful climate and excellent people, but the lands are no longer what they once were. The Creek Indians, who lived on the west side of the river, kept the woods burned that they might have free access to the deer, and that the grass might give to the herds good grazing, so that the beautiful hills richly clad with fine timber were all grass covered. The purest and clearest brooks rippled over their pebbly beds, and when the forest was felled production was abundant. A county so enticing, bordering upon the white settlements and given away by the State, could not long wait for population, and very soon after it was granted it was thickly settled. Many Methodists came from the older States, and when George Hill came, he found a church already organized. He was most admirably suited to his work. Energetic, pious and eloquent, great success attended him. He came one winter day across the Ocmulgee •Kecollections of J. B. Hanson and other old members. Georgia Methodism. 159 to the home of Enoch Hanson, long a good man and a devoted Methodist, in whose house there was a church, now known as Ebenezer. The appointment had been sent by the missionary, and not received, and Hill found only some little boys at the home. One of these was the at present Rev. J. B. Hanson; with them he spent his first Sunday on his mission. His circuit began at Ebenezer, he went thence to Salem, thence to Damas- cus in Bibb, through the thinly settled pine woods of Bibb to Rogers, Culloden, and into Upson, and back through Butts to the point from which he started, having twenty-four appoint- ments, which he filled in one month. There are now ten itiner- ant Methodist preachers in the territory over which he travelled. The first preaching in Upson was at the house of a Mr. May- brey. The first in Pike, at a little log church near Josiah Holmes', a few miles from Barnesville. There were already, as early as 1823, several local preachers of ability in the circuit. Among them was Moses Matthews, who had been a travelling preacher as early as 1805, Thomas Battle, an energetic, sprightly little man from Warren County, Osborn Rogers, and many valua- ble laymen from the eastern counties. Oren Woodward, Dr. Jas. Thweatt, Major Tarpley, Holt, and Dr. James Myrick, were leading officials in that early day. Dr. Myrick was one of the most saintly men of his time. He was for fifty years class leader at Damascus. He lived no day without an evidence of his ac- ceptance with God. The little closet in which he used to pray with his open Bible before him, bore upon the floor where he had knelt three times a day for fifty years, the evidence of how long and how frequent had been his prayers. His house was the preacher's home, and his stirring, noisy, merry wife — ■ Aunt Nancy, as she was called — was the fast friend of every travelling preacher. His brother-in-law, Col. Wm. C. Redding, was to the church at Salem what Dr. Myrick was to that of Da- mascus ; he was long the recording steward of the large circuit, and was one of the most valuable laymen of his day. With such material at his hands, and such a workman as Hill, the suc- cess attending him was not to be wondered at. Monroe re- mained a mission only one year, and in a few years the Monroe Circuit was one of the best in Georgia, a place it has continued to hold to the present time. The Yellow River Mission joined the Monroe Mission on the north. It was so named from one of the branches of the Oc- mulgee, which rises in Gwinnett County, and flows southward. The Mission included the present counties of Newton, Walton, 160 History of Henry, Fayette, and Clayton. No part of the country was re- markably fertile, but all was sufficiently so to attract many set- tlers. Wealthy cotton planters sought the richer lands of the West, but plain, provision-raising Methodists sought these cheaper lands, nearer their old homes. Hammill had grand suc- cess in this field, and gathered up a church of 350 members. The Gwinnett Mission, which Wm. J. Parks travelled, was in a rougher country. There were hills and mountains, the lands were not so good, and there was but little inducement to men of wealth to move where cotton was not produced. The country was, however, soon settled, for lands were very cheap, a lot of land being often bought for a pony. It was now being settled rapidly, but not thickly. "Often," says the missionary, "I travelled for miles without even a settler's blaze to direct me." The county town of Gwinnett was Lawrenceville. One Sunday morning, early in 1823, the people of the new village were as- sembled for worship in the log court-house, when the new preacher came in. He was dressed in the humblest garb of the country. His coat was of plain country jeans, cut in the old Methodist style, and fitted him badly. A copperas-dyed linsey vest, coarse pantaloons too short for him, blue yarn socks, and heavy brogan shoes, completed the dress of a dark-skinned, stern-looking young man, of whom the people had never heard. A broad smile passed over the face .of a congregation themselves not most fashionably arrayed ; but before the sermon was through it changed to a smile of satisfaction that he had come ; for, to use the language of the section, they found they had a "singed cat," who was far better than he looked.* Wm. J. Parks was among a simple-hearted, plain people, eager for the Gospel, and his heart was full of zeal. They came in great numbers to hear him, and the results of the year were so encouraging that the young preacher was returned, and at the end of 1824 he reported 561 white members and 31 colored. New log-churches sprang up all over the county, and many valuable people were gathered into the Church. The father of Jesse and Isaac Boring had moved to these wilds, and these two young men received their first in- struction in the art of preaching from Wm. J. Parks. The work in the new purchase presented those difficulties common to recent settlements — the humblest cabins for shelter, the plainest people for hearers, and the hardest fare — but there was compensation in the success which attended his labors, and *Recollections of the Mother of Col. G. N. Lester. Georgia Methodism. 161 the eagerness of the people for the Gospel, for they often walked, eight miles to hear preaching. The list of appointments called for thirty sermons in thirty days. It was no wonder with such practice as this Parks became so useful a preacher.* The Appling Circuit in the low country was this year made a mission, and Adam Wyreck was sent to it, and a mission in the southwest of the new purchase was organized, to which two preachers were sent, John J. Triggs and John Slade. To reach this appointment they had to ride through the Indian nation for a long distance, and had to ride in all four hundred miles from the conference. Triggs had gone out from the last conference, to organize the mission, and now an assistant was sent to him, John Slade, who was recognized as the father of Florida Methodism, though he was not the first to preach the Gospel in the new territory. He was born in South Carolina, and was now thirty-three years old. He had travelled one year as a supply before 1823, but now for the first time entered the travelling connection, and was appointed to the Chattahoochee Mission. After travelling about seven years he located, and gave useful labor as a local preacher, to the building up of the Church in Florida. He re- entered the Florida Conference in 1845, and travelled in it till his death in 1854. He was a fine specimen of a man. He was tall, well proportioned, with a fine face. He sang well and preached with power. f The country in which Triggs and Slade preached was in the corner of three States, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Their circuit was an immense one. The people were perhaps the rudest in the States, and though now and then, on the better lands, they found some thrifty settlers, generally they were the poorest and most ignorant class of stock-raisers. While Triggs and Slade carried the Gospel to these pioneers on the West, J. N. Glenn was sent to the oldest city of America, St. Augustine, in Florida. He was the first missionary to East Florida, though Elijah Sinclair had preached on Amelia Island, two years before him. Florida, while a Spanish province, had excluded the Protestant missionaries, but now it was open to them. Young Glenn found only one member of the Church in the old city, but during the year succeeded in raising a society of ten members. Allen Turner was the Presiding Elder of the Oconee District, and his district extended into Florida. He held a quarterly meeting, the first ever held in Florida, at St. Augus- *Eecollections of Wm. J. Parks. tSprague. 162 History of tine, and forty-two persons knelt at the communion. A church in St. Augustine was finally built, and the mission for some years had a feeble existence, but after the growth of Jacksonville, and the opening of the interior towns, it was abandoned. From so efficient a band of workers we might naturally ex- pect rapid increase, and we are not disappointed. During the year there was an addition of nearly two thousand members in the bounds of the Georgia work, the total number footing up 10,013 white, and 2,700 colored. The next conference met in Charleston, February 19, 1824. Bishop George presided. The salaries of preachers were very deficient, and the funds of the conference were not sufficient to pay them forty per cent, of their claims. When it is remembered that this deficit in the funds was simply in the matter of quarter- age, not including table expenses, and that this quarterage, when all was paid, .was but one hundred dollars per annum, the amount of privation which the preachers knew may be conjec- tured. At the close of the session, the Bishop held up a purse of silver money with eleven dollars in it, and said he "had that morning met a black woman in the street, who gave him that and said, 'Give that to Jesus,' and asked the conference what he should do with it. One brother said, 'Give it to the most needy,' but no preacher was willing to tell how poor he was. One said, 'Here is a young brother who is not able to pay for stabling his horse,' so he gave him some of it, and finding out some others very needy he divided it among them."* At this conference an advanced movement was made into the new territory of Florida, now being rapidly peopled, and a dis- trict was made. Josiah Evans was placed in charge of it. It was called the Tallahassee District, and Evans was not only presiding elder, but in charge of the Tallahassee Mission also. Florida, which had been but recently opened to the Protestant missionary and to the American settler, presents features more unique than any of the Southern States. Florida west of the Chattahoochee is almost a continuous belt of pine woods, now and then broken into by rich hammocks and low swamps. Mid- dle Florida, from the Georgia line to the gulf, and to the With- lacoochee River, is one of the most fertile, and especially one of the best cotton-producing sections in the South ; while East Florida presents almost every diversity of feature of which a semi-tropical country is capable. The St. John's, rising in the *Dunwoody. Georgia Methodism. 163 everglades, made its way northward to the sea ; there were rivers and lakes, there were wild prairies, and orange groves, and live oak forests, all as yet untenanted save by the Seminole and by herds of deer and cattle. The Indians had, in a great measure, vacated middle Florida, and there was now a number of good settlers pouring into that part of the State. There were some men of wealth and intelligence. Tallahassee, the seat of gov- ernment, was already the centre of considerable refinement; but while there was refinement, there was wild dissipation, and the gambler and duelist were there beside the adventurous planter and the young merchant. The settlers were scarcely in the hammocks, and Tallahassee had but recently been laid out, before the missionary came. Jo- siah Evans, who was on the Tallahassee mission, was not a gifted, nor was he a polished man. He was rough and almost unfeeling at times, but he was a brave man, who was used to work, and willing to do it. Morgan Turrentine and John L. Jerry were with him in this work. Such success attended them that at the next conference 571 whites and 107 blacks were re- ported as being in the Church in the district. Wm. Arnold was again on the Cedar Creek Circuit, James Bellah on the Alcovi, Thomas Samfoid on the Appalachee, and Wiley Warwick on the Grove, and Whitman C. Hill on the Walton. The work was never better manned before or since. The towns, since Methodism had begun its work in the State, had been sadly neglected. Dr. Lovick Pierce, always progres- sive, had seen the evil resulting from the kind of service which the circuit preacher rendered, had earnestly advocated more at- tention to these important county centres. A change was now inaugurated, and Athens and Greensboro were united, and Lo- vick Pierce was sent to them. Warrenton and Louisville were united, and Thomas Darley was sent in charge. Tilman Snead was on the Warren Circuit this year. He died during the year 1875, when he was nearly ninety years old. He was born in Wilkes County, May n, 1786, but his fam- ily moved to South Carolina in less than two years ; in 1799 they removed to Augusta, and for eight years he remained behind a counter. When he was eighteen years old he removed to St. Simons Island and remained there for four years. There were but few Methodists in South Carolina when he had re- sided there, and it was in Augusta that his mother, in a private house, joined the Church. On his return from St. Simons, a few miles from his home, in a meeting-house of the Bush River 164 History of Circuit, young Snead was converted, and under James Russell he joined the Church; he was soon licensed to exhort and preach. He travelled consecutively for fifteen years, and then located; in his old age he became dissatisfied with the Church of his early love, and withdrew and formed the Southern In- dependent Church, and after its failure remained out of any communion, although living a holy life and in good accord with his old brethren till his death.* At this session of the conference delegates were elected to the general conference, which was to meet in Baltimore in May. The delegates from the South Carolina Conference were Lewis Myers, Nicholas Talley, Samuel K. Hodges, James Nor- ton, William Capers, James O. Andrew, Samuel Dunwoody, Wm. M. Kennedy, Lovick Pierce, Jos. Travis. The excitement of four years before on the suspended reso- lutions, with reference to the election of presiding elders, had not subsided. Bishop McKendree felt impelled to defend his course. This he did before the conference, and in his course he was sustained. In the interval of the conference, that which was then known as the Radical Controversy had been growing in heat, and the Mutual Rights newspaper was in existence in Baltimore. This controversy had already brought some of the ablest and best men of the Church into collision. McCaine, Snethen, Shinn, and Jennings were on one side, while Roszell, Soule, Capers, Myers, and Williams, of the travelling ministry, were on the other ; but Dr. Thomas E. Bond, a local preacher and physician in Baltimore, the brother of John Wesley Bond and father of the late Dr. Thomas E. Bond, had made his ap- pearance as a defender of Episcopal Methodism, and had made his power felt as no other man had. The questions at issue had been brought into the election for delegates, and the confer- ences had shown their opinion on them by their choice of dele- gates. The veto power of the Bishops and the election of two more were the points of contest. The conservatives were in the majority and carried their measures. Lewis Myers, who had always been bitterly opposed to the early marriage of preachers, seconded by Samuel Dunwoody, had a resolution referred to the Committee on Itinerancy, which provided that no preacher who married before he had travelled four years should receive quarterage or an allowance for family expenses. The general conference was too merciful 'Letter from him written March 8, 1875, when he was 89 years old. Georgia Methodism. 165 to pass such a resolution. After a close ballot, Joshua Soule and Elijah Hedding were elected Bishops, each receiving just enough votes to elect him. They were both New Englanders, and possessed many features of character in common. The suspended resolutions were again laid over for four years, and the conference, after the transaction of the usual business ad- journed. Joseph Travis was now for his fourth year on the Ogeechee District. Travis made his home in Washington, and relates an incident in his life on the district which resulted very happily for the Church. We have spoken in a previous chapter of a visit Bishop As- bury had made to the home of Capt. Few, of Columbia County, to see his son, who was serious. The boy grew up to manhood, was educated at Princeton, and became an infidel. He was proud of his philosophical skepticism, and did not hesitate to avow and to defend it. He was now living in Augusta, and was practising law. He sent for Travis to come and spend a few days with him. While there. Col. Few told him of his nar- row escape from death from hemorrhage. At family prayer he stood up, while the remainder of the family knelt. After the ladies retired, he introduced his favorite subject. The dispu- tants were both able men, and the discussion continued to a late hour. "Then," says Travis, "I determined to try the argu- mentuni ad homincm on him, and asked him if he felt no fear of death when he thought he was about to die ; to which he replied that for a few moments he felt somewhat curious, but that, as soon as he could rally his natural powers, all was calm." Travis then retired. In a few moments a servant came for him from Col. Few. He hastened to him, and found him bleed- ing from the lungs. Taking him by the hand, the colonel said : 'T told you but a few minutes ago I was not afraid to die ; but, oh, sir, it is not so." He recovered from this attack, and Tra- vis induced him to read Fletcher's Appeal. He became con- verted to the truth, and afterward a sincere Christian and an active preacher, whom we shall often see.* It was while Travis was on this district that he reluctantly gave license to preach to a young Vermonter, who was teach- ing an academy in Abbeville District, S. C. This young man was Stephen Olin.f Andrew Hammill was made Presiding Elder on the Oconee District, and Saml. K. Hodges on the Athens. •Travis' Autobiography, tlb. 166 History of The conference for 1825 met in Wilmington, N. C, Jan. 20th, Bishop Roberts presiding. The Ogeechee District which Travis had travelled was now abolished, and the Savannah and Augusta Districts were formed. Wm. Arnold continued on the Athens District, and the Oconee District ceased to be while the Milledgeville Dis- trict was organized. Up to this time, since the State was di- vided into districts, the old Ogeechee and Oconee Districts, named after the rivers, had held their places, and the circuits were named, like them, after rivers and creeks, but there was now a new method of naming them — the districts were called after the principal towns in them, and the circuits bore the names of the county towns, or the counties in which they were. Andrew Hammill's hard work had been too much for his strength, and he retired on the superannuated list. Nicholas Talley came again to Georgia as Presiding Elder on the Augusta District. Wm. Crooks, a young man who after- ward for many years did fine service in South Carolina, came as junior preacher on the Appalachee Circuit with James Bellah. Isaac Boring was with Wm. J. Parks on Broad River Circuit. He was the son of excellent Methodist parents. They had re- moved from Jackson County to Gwinnett, while the country was new. The educational advantages of young Boring were such as could be secured in the frontier counties. Before he was twenty, he began to preach, and continued his work until 1850, when he died suddenly of cholera, at the General Con- ference in St. Louis. If not a brilliant, he was a highly gifted man. One whose clear head, and whose determined will, and whose consecrated heart, made him a most valuable man to the Church. He did all kinds of hard work, and well won his place among the first of the conference. He was the older brother of Dr. Jesse Bor- ing, who entered the conference two years after him. Still the work of increase goes on. The total white member- ship reported at the conference was 14,186 whites, an increase of over two thousand during the year. The conference met in Augusta, January 11, 1827. There were three Bishops present. McKendree, Roberts, and Soule. This was Soule's second visit to Georgia as bishop. He was now about forty-six years old. He was as erect as an Indian, with an eye of most piercing brilliancy; a face of great comeli- ness, expressive of great courage and dignity. He was every inch a commander, and thus every inch a Methodist Bishop. Georgia Methodism. 167 He had now been a preacher for twenty-eight years. For half that time he had travelled in the forests of Maine. He had braved all the perils of the wildest frontier. He had traversed almost trackless forests, had swam angry streams, and in win- ter his clothing sometimes froze to his person as he emerged from the torrent. He had faced highwaymen in the Western wilds, had travelled through the hunting grounds of untamed savages, had been exposed to every peril of travel; had been the target for the arrows of brethren, who were bitterly hostile ; but he had never swerved a hair's breadth from the path of duty, nor quailed before any danger. During this conference he preached a sermon on "The Perfect Law of Liberty," which Dr. Few, no unfit judge, declared to be the greatest sermon he had ever heard ; but which was foolishly denounced as heretical. An attack was made upon it in the Charleton Observer, and Dr. Capers came to its defence. At the general Conference of 1828 the charge was referred to a committee, who found no fault in the sermon. It was nearly forty years after this that this grand old man passed away in holy triumph, crying out with his last breath, "Push on the great work." His life is so inter- woven with the history of Methodism in Georgia, that we shall see him again, and oftentime. Joshua Soule had few peers among even great men. He was a man if not of colossal intel- lect, certainly of colossal spirit ; fearless of every danger, clear- headed, conscientious, he was a commander whom men might well consent to obey; a leader whom all might safely follow. At this conference Thomas Samford was placed on the Athens District. These were his days of strength, and he trav- elled a district extending from the mountains of Habersham to the Flint River in Fayette, and in old Georgia and made his power felt everywhere. Wm. Arnold was now placed in charge of the Milledgeville District, and Samuel K. Hodges sent to the Milledgeville sta- tion. John Howard was again at Washington, and Lewis My- ers, worn down by hard labor, retired to his farm in Effingham County, to work for, pray for, and think for the church of his love. The work in Florida still goes on, and the missionary reaches the remote settler in the far East and in the far West. The Chattahoochee Circuit had on it this year a young man who was to make his name known all over the Southern work. This was Jesse Boring. Jesse was the brother of Isaac Boring, and was two years his junior. He had been a Christian from his early boyhood, and 168 History of was but eighteen years old when he was received into the con- ference and sent to this remote circuit. His parents were then living in Gwinnett County. He must ride from the mountains through the Indian country for several hundred miles to reach his first circuit, which extended to the Gulf. He found the people of the rudest type of frontiersmen, the houses far apart, the forest almost unbroken, and a ride of over 300 miles each month, extending into three States, before him. His home had been the home of refinement and piety. He was a shrinking and gentle-spirited lad; and now, at only eighteen, he was thrown among strangers, and exposed to all the perils of the wilderness. His presiding elder, used to hardships and to dan- gers himself, had but little sympathy for one so woman-like and gentle, and told him he had better go back to his mother; but the great heart of Elisha Callaway, his colleague, yearned over him as over a son, and he tenderly encouraged and comforted him, and thus Jesse Boring passed his first year. What his after career has been, this history can only tell, as we meet with him on our way ; and yet it would not be an unprofitable story for a young preacher to hear, of how, amid such difficulties as these, Jesse Boring won his way to the front rank among pulpit ora- tors in America, and secured a cultivation of mind not often secured by the inmates of college halls. This was a year of wonderful revival power in Georgia and Florida. Not only were the Methodists greatly blessed, but their faithful colaborers, the Baptists, reaped a grand harvest. One cannot withhold his tribute of praise to the noble, self- sacrificing men of God who labored in this Church. Jacob King, Zechariah Gordon, Head Garland, Milner, in western Georgia, John E. Dawson, Jesse Mercer, now in his old age, Screven Brantley, Kilpatrick, in the East, were strong men and good men. As yet there was no division in the Church, and Mosely and others, who were on the anti-missionary side in after-time, were at this time efficient revivalists. The revival influence was not confined to one section of the State. There was a great meeting in Milledgeville. William Arnold was Pre- siding Elder of the Milledgeville District. James O. Andrew, who had come on a visit from South Carolina, where he was stationed, John Howard and Lovick Pierce and Stephen Olin, all united to work for Milledgeville. A large bush arbor was erected, and the services were like those of a camp-meeting. The preaching was with power, and the results were glorious. In this four days' meeting over one hundred were converted. A GROUP OF METHODIST BISHOPS. REV. W. A. I M I] iGE REV. <:. G. X. MAC] >< >NNEL,L, South Georgia Conference. Georgia Methodism. 171 During this year some of the same corps of revivalists went to Washington. The population of that promising town was noted for wealth, hospitality, refinement, and, alas, for skepti- cism and wickedness. John Howard was preacher in charge of Washington, and Pierce and Olin came to his help. ■ Olin preached with matchless power, and under one of his sermons on evidences all skepticism took flight. A wonderful work fol- lowed, and over ioo were added to the Church. From this time forward Washington has been a most desirable appoint- ment. For forty years, under the old circuit plan, no impress had been made on the town, and when Thomas Darley came in 1824, there was no church building, and only fourteen members. After this a church was built ; but although the ablest ministers supplied the pulpit, there had not been much success ; but this year it came. In Greensboro, Howard and Pierce had their homes, and there Adiel Sherwood and others of the Baptist Church resided also. They determined to storm the battlements, and began a meeting. Augustus B. Longstreet was Judge of the Circuit Court. He was highly educated, had been religiously trained by a Presbyterian mother, and was, while moral and upright in conduct, in religion a skeptic. He had married a Methodist, he lived in a Methodist family, and when his first keen sorrow came in the death of his little boy, he found no comfort in his cheerless creed of doubt. His brother-in-law told him of Christ. He began to study Jesus ; he believed ; though as yet he did not trust. He came to the meeting. Adiel Sherwood preached, and John Howard followed him in an exhortation. Penitents were invited forward, and Judge Longstreet came with them. God converted him. He soon began to preach, and we shall see him again. The Appalachee Circuit was ablaze. Athens had a pre- cious revival. At Bear Creek, in Newton, nearly 300, accord- ing to the Methodist Magazine, were converted. Thomas Sam- ford wrote to the magazine : "The Lord is doing great things in Georgia. Religion pure and undefiled may now be seen not only in the church, but on the farms, behind the counter, at the bar, and the bench. Some of our courts are now opened with prayer by the Judge himself." Wm. Capers writes: "I am just from Georgia. The work there has been transcendent every way." Allen Turner says : "About 400 have been added to the Warren Circuit." In Madison, Morgan County, there had up to this time been no church building, but during the revival of this year, so many 172 History of were received into the communion that a church was built. The village of Greensboro was founded in 1786, and as Greene was in the circuit of Humphries and Major, the Methodist preach- ers probably preached in the town almost as soon as it was set- tled ; but, when Bishop Asbury visited it in 1799, there was as yet no Methodist church, and he preached in the Presbyterian. Some time after there was a little log-church built on the out- skirts of the town, but after Dr. Pierce settled there, in 1815, at his instance a better house was built, on a better lot, and he incautiously assumed the whole pecuniary responsibility, from which he was not relieved till after this great revival in 1827. This was the first year an appointment was made to Macon, of which we have given account in another chapter. While the work was so fruitful in blessings in the older coun- ties, all over the new country the revival fire blazed. Baptists and Methodists alike participated in the blessings. In Florida, too, there was the same precious results. On the Tallahassee and Peace River Mission the membership was more than dou- bled. Camp-meetings were held in every circuit in Georgia, and a blessing attended them all. Perhaps no year in the history of the Church in Georgia has been one of richer interest than that of 1827. The conference for 1828 met in Camden, S. C. Bishop Soule presided. There was an increase of nearly 4,000 white mem- bers. The Church had doubled its membership since 1823. At this session there was an election for delegates to the gen- eral conference, which was to meet in May. The delegates elected were James O. Andrew, Capers, Kennedy, Pierce, Bass, Dunwoody, Hodges, Geo. Hill, Arnold, Hammill, McPherson, Adams, and Elijah Sinclair. Lewis Myers was unable to take the long journey to Pitts- burg, and was not elected. The proceedings of this general con- ference were unimportant. The greater part of the session was taken up in hearing appeals, and in meeting some of the ques- tions which had sprung up during the excitement of the last four years. Wm. Capers and Joshua Soule were selected as fra- ternal messengers to the Wesleyan Conference in England. There was to be still further enlargement in the work in Georgia. The territory west of the Flint River was now open to settlers. It was even superior in fertility to that which adjoined it on the east, and was soon thickly peopled. At once the mis- sionary was sent. Coweta and Carroll were made a circuit, and a supply from the local ranks selected. John Hunter was sent Georgia Methodism. 173 to the Troup Mission, and James Stockdale to Columbus. Up- son was made a separate circuit, and James Dunwoody was sent to it. Although Jacob King and Zachariah Gordon, of the Baptist Church, had received several hundred in this county into the Baptist Church, there were still 491 Methodists in Up- son. In the new country of southwest Georgia a mission was formed, called the Lee Mission, and Morgan Turrentine was sent to it. This was the introduction of the church into the counties of Sumter, Lee, Randolph and Stewart. John Howard, after having been nominally local for several years, re-entered the regular work, and was returned to Washington. James Dannelly, who for several years had travelled in South Carolina, was sent to the Little River Circuit. Uncle Jimmy Dannelly, as he was generally called, was a remarkable man. He was born in Columbia County in 1786. He grew up to manhood with but little mental and still less moral training; he became very dissipated, and while leading this wayward life, lost a leg. When he was thirty years old he was converted, and soon after licensed to preach. After travelling from 1818 in the South Carolina part of the conference, he came to Georgia. After the division of the conference he remained in South Carolina, and was superannuated in 1835. In 1835 he died. He was noted for his sometimes moving eloquence, and for his more frequent sharpness of rebuke. He was a terror to evil-doers. Sarcasm was his favorite weapon, and he did not always spare his friends. He seemed to feel it a duty to be severe. Some of the authentic stories told of him are amusing illustrations of this proclivity, but like all things of the kind lose much of their flavor in putting them on paper. Once old Father Perryman, an old Baptist preacher, said to him: "Brother Dannelly, you have heard me preach?" "No!" In vain the old gentleman tried to bring to his remembrance the times when they had been together; still Uncle Jimmy de- nied that he had ever heard him preach ; at last he sharply said, "No, Brother Perryman, I never heard you preach, but I have heard you try many a time." Another good Baptist twitted him with having baptized some of his sheep. "They were not my sheep." "Did they not belong to such a church?" "Yes, but they were not my sheep." X74 History of "Well, what were they?" "Why, they were my hogs." "How do you make that out?" "From the Bible." "How?" "Why, the Bible says the devil entered in the swine, and they took to the water right away." One day, he was at camp-meeting with Bishop Pierce when he was a presiding elder. Of course he was asked to preach. "George," said he, "shall I rake 'em?" "Do as you please, Uncle Jimmy." "But, George, shall I rake 'em?" "Well, if I have my preference, I'd rather you would not do so." He went to the stand, and preached a moving, pathetic ser- mon on the discouragements of the Christian. All were melted and comforted ; when he returned to the tent, however, he was sad. "George," said he, "I did wrong. I ought to have raked em. John Wimbish entered into the regular work this year, and with AT. Bedell, afterward prominent in the Florida work, he was on the Monroe Circuit. He had been many years a local preacher, and in those days, when hyper Calvinism of the ex- tremist type was often preached, he felt himself called upon to defend what he believed was the truth, and was very able on the Arminian view of the doctrines of grace. On the Warren Circuit with Allen Turner was a young man, the nephew of Wm. Arnold, W. P. Arnold. For forty years he was an active, popular and useful "preacher. Genial, social, full of humor, simple in his manners, without ambition or jealousy, few men have been more lovable or more loved. He was at one time a man of property, but as his plantation cares interfered with his ministry, he sold his land and lost the debt. He however cheerfully labored on, sometimes even walking his circuit. In 1870 he was appointed to the Alilledgeville station, but before his removal to it he was stricken with apoplexy, and died with a single groan. George Pournell began his work this year. He was a man of very deep piety, and did most efficient work on the hardest mis- sions in the conference, until 1835, when he located. Continuing the course which had been so successful in Greene, Wilkes, and Clarke, two other small towns were united in a station, and Lovick Pierce was sent to Eatonton and Madi- Georgia Methodism. 175 son. The two villages were at that time both very flourishing, and were seats of refinement and wealth. Madison was laid out in 1807, and from its settlement had been an appointment in the Appalachee Circuit, which had been served by the ablest men in the conference. The County of Morgan was very popu- lous, the lands were generally good, and those on the rivers and creeks were very good. The first church in Madison was built about 1825. Eatonton, the county site of Putnam, was laid out at the same time, and had now been settled for twenty years. It was an appointment in the Alcovi Circuit, which next to the Appalachee had been one of the most important of the Middle Georgia Circuits. The old Putnam camp-ground had been the scene of many great revivals, and Methodism was strong in every way in the county. Dr. Pierce, who now had charge of the two villages, lived in Greensboro, but occupied the pulpit each Sabbath, spending a large part of the time in the work assigned him. Josiah Flournoy was the leading member of the Church in Eatonton. He had descended from the Huguenots, who had settled on the James River, in Virginia. His mother was a Bap- tist, and his father one in feeling. Josiah and Robert, his brother, had been converted among the Methodists, and united with them, and when he removed to Putnam he took charge of the little class. There was no church previous to 1819, and public worship was held in the academy of the town. For years Josiah Flour- noy stood almost alone. His associates and friends were all of them irreligious, and many of the leading men gamblers and in- fidels. The Rev. Mr. Pendleton, a member of the Christian Church, had moved to the community, and was clerk of the court. He was a Virginia gentleman of liberal views, and deter- mined to have a church built. It was to be a fine church and a union church. The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Christians were to have one Sunday each. He succeeded in his effort, and the handsomest church in Middle Georgia was erected. Not long after this Wm. Capers visited the county in the interests of the Asbury Mission. He attracted then, as he always did, great crowds, and at the Putnam camp-meeting he achieved the grandest pulpit triumph of his life. It was in an exhortation delivered after a sermon, in which the fearful woes of a lost soul were depicted. One man was so affected by the preacher's eloquence as to temporarily lose his mind, and many 176 History of prominent men were brought to deep conviction and joyous con- version. Among them were those who became eminent in church and state. Dr. Henry Branham was one of them. He was an accomplished physician and a man of very fine native mind, but he was very ungodly. Among his ruling passions was that of gaming, too common then among respectable people. As soon as he was converted, he sought out the men from whom he had won money, and returned it to them. He was from this time forth a leader in all good things. His son Walter and two grand- sons served in the conference. Eatonton had now a strong mem- bership, and was united with Madison, twenty-five miles away, and Dr. Pierce was sent to it. Josiah Flournoy, of whom mention was made above, was a striking character, a man of great energy and enterprise, and one of inflexible integrity. He had great respect for hard work, and said whenever he found a man at the mourner's bench whose hand was hard from labor, he felt that the man would be con- verted; but if his hand was soft and delicate, he was not so sure. He was the originator of the prohibitory liquor movement in Georgia, and when it required far more courage than it deos now to attack the evil, he made a bold, if unsuccessful attack upon it. He gave a large endowment for a manual labor school in Talbot County, and was one of the generous friends of Emory College, contributing at one time six hundred dollars for its re- lief. His family follows in his footsteps, and his descendants are among the truest members of the Church in the State now. Dr. E. M. Pendleton, the son of the Rev. Coleman Pendleton, of whom we have spoken, has furnished for this history the fol- lowing interesting sketch of this excellent man : "Josiah Flournoy, a layman, was a man remarkable for his prayers, public exhortations, and labor at the altar. He was quite wealthy, owning a large number of negroes, and several plantations. He carried on all his secular concerns with great system, energy, and stringency, but was at the same time prompt in all his religious duties and obligations. He was always present when not providentially hindered in the old class-house at Eaton- ton, with the whites first, and then with the colored on Sunday afternoon, praying and exhorting them with much effect. At camp-meeting he was a great power, not only managing accom- modations for the preachers and visitants, but in the altar, and sometimes in the pulpit. "Although not a preacher, he was often allowed an hour to expound the word and bring some important matter before the people. Georgta Methodism. 177 "I remember him well at the great camp-meeting in Monroe County in 1832, when hundreds were awakened and converted. He most generally took the outskirts of the congregation among the men lookers-on, and would exhort them until the effect be- came apparent, and then he would pray for them. In this way he would soon gather a batch of mourners, praying, singing, and applying the promises for hours together. In fact, the whole day and a good part of the night were thus employed by him and others in this way. "The last time I ever saw Josiah Flournoy was in his great temperance enterprise in 1839. He endeavored to convince the people of Georgia of the necessity of passing stringent laws against the sale of spirituous liquor. For this purpose he com- bined all the temperance element of the State, going from town to town, from church to church, holding meetings, and getting subscribers to his petition. He enlisted Judge Sayre of Sparta, and other prominent men. "He went to nearly every county in the State on this mission, and was treated very badly in several places by the sons of Be- lial. At Clinton they shaved the tail of his horse, at other places he received personal indignities, and his life was threatened. Although his effort was a failure, yet no doubt it accomplished much good, which will be revealed in the day of eternity." Dr. Pendleton also says that the man who lost his mind from the effect of Bishop Capers' sermon, after three months insanity recovered it, and lived a good man afterwards. Bishop Capers did not hear of his recovery for some years, and when he did it was much to his gratification. At the camp-meeting of this year in Putnam, James O. Andrew, John Howard and Joseph Travis were present, and there was much good done. During this year there was a precious revival in Athens. Many of the students were converted. There was a great work in Walton and Gwinnett. Tere. Norman was in charge of the Houston Mission, which embraced all the country south of Macon, to the Early Mission. He bore the name of one of the first travelling preachers, and was probably a kinsman of his. He was a man of very deep piety and very fine gifts. He was, however, one of the ugliest of men, and once Thomas Darley, his colleague, gave out an ap- pointment for him by saying: "If you will be here two weeks from today, you will see one of the ugliest men and hear one of the best preachers in the connection." John H. Robinson, who was on the large Ocmulgee Circuit 178 History of this year, was from Bibb County. He was a good man and a faithful preacher for over forty years, and died in the work, although for a few years before his death he had been super- annuated. Although there was some decrease in the older sections, such was the prosperity in the new country that there was considera- ble increase in the aggregate membership. The conference met in Milledgeville, January 12, 1826, Bishop Soule presiding. At this conference, Stephen Olin was ordained a deacon. He was a Vermonter, and was now in the twenty-ninth year of his age. After his graduation at college, he had come to the South to teach a school and to recruit his health. If he was not at this time an infidel, he was a skeptic. The academy to which he was called was the Tabernacle Academy, in Abbeville District, S. C, which had been established by some Methodists. The Master was required to open the school with prayer, and though Olin was not a believer, yet he consented to meet the demand. He became very restless under this state of things, and was deeply convicted of sin. He began to examine the evidence of the Di- vine origin of Christianity. His intellect was soon convinced, and his heart was soon at rest, and not long after he began to preach, at one bound, he reached the foremost place among Southern Methodist preachers. He gave himself with ardor to the work, and united with the conference. He was sent to Charleston with James O. Andrew for his presiding elder, and John Howard as his senior preacher. Here he attracted great attention, but his health failed him. His after life was almost a continual battle with feebleness. He was unable to continue his pastorate, and was elected professor of belles-lettres at Athens. He thus became a citizen of Georgia. He married one of the loveliest of women. Miss Mary Ann Bostwick, one whose family position was the highest, and one whose beauty was the pride of her State; she was withal a simple-hearted Christian. He now settled himself in Athens. Here he did wonderful preaching, and was, as far as strength permitted, fully devoted to his work. When Randolph Macon College was founded, he was elected its president, but failing health drove him from his place there and exiled him to Europe. He returned to his be- loved South no more. His gentle wife died in Naples, Italy, and when he returned to America, he sought the more bracing climate of the North, and was elected president of the Wesleyan University of Middletown, Conn. The abolition excitement in New England was now intense. Georgia Methodism. 179 Olin had been a slaveholder, and was now in the possession of a considerable estate derived from the sale of his slaves. He be- lieved his New England brethren were sadly mistaken and sadly unwise in their course, but he could not stay the tide. He was elected to the General Conference of 1844. He saw, before the conference met, that the issue must come, but still hoped for peace; and, to add to his embarrassment and to his sorrow, the victim chosen was James O. Andrew, his dearest earthly friend. The question was at length before the conference. Should he vote against his friend by voting for the Finley resolutions? Olin thought in no other way could the Church in New England be saved. Bishop Andrew told the writer that the evening be- fore the vote was taken, Olin took him aside and said to him : "James, you know I love you, and you know I do not blame you for the course you have taken, and yet I shall vote for the resolution tomorrow. It is the only way to save the Church in the North ; the South will go off, but it will do so en masse and united. If we do not pass this resolution, the North will go off in fragments, and there will be only strife and bitterness." The next day he did so vote. He lost many friends in the South ; many who had greatly admired him bitterly denounced him, but he did not lose his place in the great heart of Bishop Andrew, for that grand old man spoke of him as lovingly at the last as though Olin had stood by him bravely through the conflict. Olin earnestly advocated the plan of separation, and lost many friends on the other side by his advocacy of it. He never ceased to love the South, nor did the South cease to love him. Here he had won his first souls for Christ. Here he had gained what he cared for least, his first pulpit and platform fame. Here he married his first beautiful wife, and here much of his heart always was. Stephen Olin never had a superior in the American pulpit, and it is doubtful whether in any sphere of public life there was a greater mind than his. He was so identified with the Georgia work, that we shall see him often as we pursue this history. Charles Hardy, a very gifted young man, was in Savannah this year. He was the son of pious parents in Lincoln County; was converted when a boy, and began to travel ere his majority. He evinced fine qualities as a preacher from the beginning, and did most valuable work, filling the best appointments until his health failed him. He then retired for a short time, and located and settled in Culloden. He was a man of very liberal views, 130 History of and, for that time, of large wealth. He gave $1,000 to Emory College, and was for one year its agent. He was one of the fathers of the Manual Labor School, and a leading friend of the High School at Culloden, which was tendered to the conference before there was a Methodist school in the State. His ardent temperament led him into large land speculations, and in the crash of 1839-40 he lost his estate. He removed to Alabama, and was appointed as a supply to the Tuscaloosa station. He would have entered the traveling ministry again if his life had been spared, but that year he died. He was a highly gifted man, and would probably have reached the highest place if he had never deviated from his life-work. LaGrange first appears as an appointment this year, under the charge of John Hunter. LaGrange was the county-site of Troup County, and was laid out in 1827. The county is on the western border of the State, and at that time was one of the most fertile and healthy in it. The circuit included a part of the at present county of Harris, all Meriwether, and a part of Heard, in addition to all of Troup. The church in LaGrange was organized in January of the year 1828, and Caleb W. Key, then a young married man, who had moved to this new village from McDonough, was one of the twelve members who made the church, and was the first class-leader. Troup, Harris, and Meriwether presented great inducements to settlers, and they were soon settled by a most admirable body of people, a very large part of whom were from Greene County. After the establishment of the society in LaGrange, a log- church, the first of any name in the town, was built. This gave way in a few years to a larger framed building. Until the great revival of 1838, this plain shell was the only place of worship among the Methodists. At that time the Church was very wealthy, but it contented itself with making the old building com- fortable. After the building of the LaGrange Female College, rmd the large increase in the population of the town, a very handsome and commodious brick church was completed, which gave way later to a very handsome and convenient building. Thomas Stanley, Thomas Samford, Walter T. Colquitt and Alex- ander Speer were among the preachers who had their homes in La- Grange ; and George Heard, who had been a Methodist in Greene, removed to it in 1838. He was an earnest, devoted Methodist, a man of very great business capacity, conducting very large planting interests. He lived to see the Church greatly blessed bv a remarkable revival, and after seeing all his children Georgia Methodism. 181 converted, in a ripe old age he passed away. He was a man of striking peculiarities, and became a Christian in a somewhat remarkable way. A pushing business man, one day he was cal- culating what his crop would bring, what he would buy with it, when he suddenly stopped. "Why, George Heard! you can cal- culate about this world; what about your soul?" He began to pray, and God converted him. The Rev. P. A. Heard, of the North Georgia Conference, was his son. James Stockdale at this conference was appointed to the Co- lumbus Mission. He was to explore and organize the Church in the new country west of the Flint, which was just opened to settlers. His mission embraced Muscogee, Talbot, and a part of Harris. He left his home in South Carolina, and reached the eastern part of his circuit early in 1828. Wbile crossing the Flint at a ferry in Talbot County, he inquired if there were any Methodists near by, and was referred to Josiah Matthews, who was living in 1877. He was gladly received, and the few scattered inhabitants were called together, and a society was formed, and soon after a log-church built. This was probably the first church west of the Flint. It was known as Corinth. The log-church soon gave way to a better one, and now there is a handsome country church, with a large society in its place; and Josiah Matthews, with a large family of descendants, still holds his place among its members.* This year Coweta and Carroll appear as a new mission left to be supplied. As Dabney P. Jones was living in Coweta, and as he had been at an early day a traveling preacher, it is prob- able he was the supply. It is certain he preached the first ser- mon preached in the town of Newnan, in the little log-house which served for the first court-room. The circuit was very large, including not only all of Coweta, but all of Carroll Coun- ties, extending from near Atlanta to the Alabama line, and em- bracing a country a part of which was rich and productive and well-peopled, and a part of it wild and thinly settled. In the year 1828 it appears regularly supplied from the con- ference. The Florida work still went on in the midst of difficulties. A body of settlers had settled on Pease River, in the west of Flor- ida, and a camp-meeting was held there. Although there were not more than 150 people present, there were twenty-one con- *MSS. from Eev. W. H. Tegner. 182 History of versions. In the far west of Florida, at Holmes Valley Mission, there was also a successful work. At this conference Nathaniel Rhodes was sent to Habersham County, which bordered on the Cherokee Nation, and whose beautiful valleys were even now settled by the adventurous pio- neer. During the year he crossed over into the Nation, and joined hands with preachers from the Tennessee Conference, who were holding a camp-meeting among the Indians. There were fifteen or twenty Indians converted. Benjamin Pope was junior on the Apalachee Circuit with Anderson Ray. He was connected with that family of Popes who have been identified with Methodism in Georgia since its introduction into the State. He was liberally educated, and was a man of ample wealth. He gave himself to the traveling ministry in his twenty-fourth year, and continued to travel until his early death, in 1835. Few men have more richly merited or more generally received af- fection. He was pure, eloquent, accomplished, welcome to the most important stations, and useful in all. His health soon gave way, and while yet young he died. Bond English, a South Carolinian, took Dr. Capers' place on the Milledgeville Station. Robert Flournoy, the brother of Josiah Flournoy, of whom we have spoken and shall speak again, was made presiding elder on the Savannah District. Flournoy had been converted at the Sparta camp-meeting, and had entered the conference. He traveled some years, and did efficient work, then located and settled in Houston County, where he lived a local preacher until his death. Two new missions were enterprised: the Fayette Mission, upon which John Hunter was sent, took the lower part of the territory included in the Yellow River Mis- sion, and the Houston Mission included a part of the Monroe Circuit, and all the country south of it to the Early Mission. McCarrell Purifoy was sent to it. Lewis Myers took the Effing- ham Circuit as supernumerary. The great Ohoopee Circuit gave up enough of its territory to form the Liberty Circuit, and Wilkes County for the first time became a separate circuit. Thus the contraction of circuit lines, and the increase of ministerial force went on. The great revival continued, and 2,000 were added to the Church. In the new pur- chase the revival seems to have been continued. Monroe, Gwin- nett, Walton, Yellow River, doubled their membership this year. There was especially great prosperity in the Monroe Circuit, which then included Pike and Upson Camp-meetings, which had Georgia Methodism. 183 been introduced into Georgia as early as 1802, and had become an institution. In all the counties there was one, and in some of them there were two or more camp-grounds. In the new pur- chase the camp-ground was immediately selected. In 1825 the first camp-meeting was held in Monroe County, near old Mt. Zion, and in Upson near Thomas Maybrey's. Originally, just where the preacher and his leading members thought there ought to be a camp-meeting, the spot was selected. The work was all temporary, but afterwards there was a shingle-roofed tabernacle, good seats, plank tents, and royal hospitality; but in the new country the old plan was the first adopted— a bush arbor, logs for seats, and a plain stand. The presiding elder was in charge, and brought preachers from the country round about to aid him! A wonderful work generally was done. People came by thousands, for this new country was for no length of time, after it was opened to settlement, thinly settled. Its contiguity to the older counties, its security against the hos- tility of savages, its fine soil and genial climate, and the gratuitous distribution of the land, brought scores of thousands into it. In four years after Monroe County was settled, 1,700 votes were cast at Forsyth, the only precinct in the county. There were at the Monroe Camp-ground over 100 tents, and hundreds came in wagons and bivouacked. Ten thousand persons were supposed to have been present at one camp-meeting there, and it was no uncommon thing for over 100 to be converted during the four days. The great battle-fields of Methodism in the new purchase were the camp-grounds, and many were the victories won on them. The work in Florida continued to prosper, and Tallahassee was made a station, and Josiah Freeman was sent to it, the first stationed preacher in Florida. Adam Wyrick and D. McDonald came to the Leon Circuit, which then included Leon, Jefferson, Gadsden, and Madison. In the southwest of Florida on Pease River, there was still prosperity, and 314 white and colored mem- bers were reported. The hardships endured in this part of the work was very great. The preachers were often removed from circuits in the up-country of Georgia, and sent to this remote section. There were neither railroads nor public conveyances of any kind, and the whole journey had to be made on horseback. Isaac Boring, now a deacon, was ordered from the Keewee Circuit in South' Carolina, to Pensacola in Florida, while Adam Wyrick went from the Monroe Circuit, Ga., to Leon County in Florida, which 184 History of reached to the shores of the Gulf. The work of revival still went on, and 20,204 white members were reported as the total to the conference. The next conference was held in Charleston, January 28, 1829, Bishop McKendree presiding. Thomas Samford still continued in his place as presiding elder of the Athens District, Wm. Ar- nold still on the Milledgeville. Josiah Evans came back from Florida and was placed on the Savannah, and Henry Bass came to Georgia, and was put upon the Augusta. A new district was made in the western part of the State, and Andrew Hammill was placed upon it. This, the Columbus Dis- trict, included all that section between the Flint and Chatta- hoochee north of Columbus. Hammill, while on the district, had charge of Columbus Church. James O. Andrew now returned to Georgia, and was stationed at Athens and Greensboro. John Howard with Benj. Pope were on the Apalachee, and Macon, now made a station, had Dr. Few as its pastor. Dr. Pierce was sent to Eatonton and Clinton. Clinton, the county-site of Jones, was an appointment in the old Cedar Creek Circuit. It was a place of considerable im- portance, being in the midst of a fine cotton-producing country. In it there was much wealth and style, and alas ! infidelity and dissipation. The first Sunday after Dr. Pierce came, he was preaching an earnest and impressive sermon, when a fashionably dressed lady, the wife of one of the most distinguished and wealthy lawyers of the community, became overcome by her feelings and swooned away. She recovered consciousness, and was soon a converted woman. She long lived an exemplary Christian life. Years before, when she resided in another part of the State, she had heard Dr. Pierce, a young presiding elder, preach, and had been overcome and stricken down then. She had seen him no more until this time, and the flood of old memo- ries brought back old convictions, with a happier result. Madison was connected this year with Monticello. Monticello was the county-site of Jasper, and had been settled since 1807. It was, while not a large, yet a flourishing county town, but did not long retain its position as a half-station. With this year commences the work which was to be pushed forward with so much energy and success, the mission work among the colored people, and James Dannelly, the first mis- sionary, had charge of the Broad River Mission. From the beginning the colored people had been the special care of the Methodist preachers. In every church there was a place for Georgia Methodism. 185 them. They were received into the societies and invited to the Communion table. Men of their own color were licensed to preach to them, and there was at this time over 6,ooo membe s n the conference; but they could not all be reached by a min stry which preached largely in the week, and it was evident that if they were reached at all it must be by special work. neohew of Win aPer r entered ^ W ° rk this y ear " He was the nephew of William Capers, and was a young man of decided of the Monticello Station, in the year 1867* James Hunter, who was appointed to the Alcovi Circuit was one of two brothers who did good work for the Church He had travelled nine years in the South Carolina Conferee then mar ned and located in Jasper County, and after fifteen iear? orT tion he re-entered the work and in it he rvJl u Y and was in the new country^ Georg ^SffiS bsSSTS? reIation commenced He -"w a^T ^ IO ' ^ ^ been'ne^rLtf X a John Hunter was his brother, and his faithful colaborer A ftp, me^dS^r si(,ed men ' but zeate — «* «~d increase as in the vear. n! r t , There was not s "ch -^•one bod y , and a n-S^&^^St^arS; *Minutes. tlbid. 186 History of Savannah River, which was adopted as the line, and thencefor- ward there were the South Carolina and the Georgia Conferences. The Georgia took Georgia and Florida ; the South Carolina, South Carolina and North Carolina. This presents a proper time and place for a review of the Georgia work since the union in 1794. Forty-five years before this conference, a local preacher had entered the wilderness to preach, for the first time, the doctrines known as Methodist, and to do a little. Forty- four years before this, two most devoted men had volunteered as missionaries, and had come to Georgia to do much. At that time Georgia was comparatively a wilderness. The nominal boundary of the white settlements was the Oconee River. All beyond this to the Mis- sissippi, known then as Georgia, was an unbroken forest, save the few fields tilled by untamed savages. Four years after the missionaries came, the date of the first reported census, there were 82,548 inhabitants, and when Humphries and Major began their work there were, as we have said, not 500 professed Chris- tians in the State. In a previous chapter we have given, as well as we were able, a full account of the then condition of things. Against obstacles almost insurmountable, hardships, persecutions, slanders, the preachers had gone on. For five years they had met with wonderful success, then came a period of decline, and for five years the decline had been constant and rapid. Then, under Stith Mead and his successors, there had been a glorious harvest time ; and then for nearly thirteen dreary years decline again, and now for seven years such wonderful prosperity as the sanguine had not hoped to see. Now a laborer like Major fell at his post; now one like Ivy, Ellis, and Connor, worn down with heavy toils, left the field only to die ; now, as with Blanton, Randle, Hull, and Andrew, necessity drove to location, but at last there was a strong conference, composed almost entirely of the sons of the Church. Then the Methodists were humble, obscure, and poor; now the judge on his bench, the Congressman, and the Assemblyman were not ashamed to be known as Methodists. Then of the few preachers a small number only were men of even moderate educa- tion ; now the Georgia Conference presented such an array as Pierce, Andrew, Howard, Olin, Samford, Few, and Pope, and others, who could have filled any pulpit in America. The State, too, had extended her boundaries, until the Chattahoochee was on her western side, and her population had increased to a half million. Then a few log houses constituted the largest city away from the coast ; now there were a score of elegant towns with fine schools, good churches, and beautiful homes, in the interior. EISHOP JOSEPH S. KEY. Georgia Methodism. 189 Then infidelity ruled in polite circles; now there was but little known or heard of it. The new lands of the western counties were not being slowly peopled by hardy pioneers, but were rapidly settled by families of cultivation and refinement. Portions of the State there were still which presented the aspect of the whole country forty years before. The district of Josiah Evans was as large as that of Richard Ivy, and the preachers of the Tallahassee District had to face greater dangers and endure as great priva- tions as their fathers in the first years. Only one part of Georgia was unoccupied by the whites, but the Methodist preachers were then among the Indians. Nothing had daunted these heralds of good tidings ; the mountains, the swamps, the wiregrass, the ever- glades, had all alike been visited by them. The wigwam of the Cherokee, the Creek, and the Seminole had heard the song of the daring itinerants. We have spoken of the labors of the Baptist Church, and a history of Methodism as a great Christian agency ought to recog- nize gladly the labors of these good men in the same work. Their first association was formed in 1784, and side by side with the Methodists, not always, it is true, on the best of terms with them, had they worked on. The Virginians who came to Georgia were, many of them, Baptists, and when Silas Mercer, Daniel Mar- shall, and their sons labored, great success followed them. It could not be expected that Christians agreeing so well to- gether should be long at war, or disagreeing in so many things should never some into collision, but generally there was social brotherhood if there was public battle. The Presbyterians came with the first into the State, and had churches in some important points, but alas ! for the progress of this excellent body, an iron rule required that every minister should have a classical and theological education, and the times offered neither opportunity to secure the training, nor support for the learned man. So the schoolroom appropriated what the har- vest field demanded. As to the Proestant Episcopal Church, the first Church in the colony, save in the two cities of Savannah, Augusta, and perhaps Macon, there was neither church buildings nor communicants. The Catholics were not allowed religious liberty in Georgia till after the revolution, and there were now only a very few Cath- olic churches in the State. The Methodist Protestant Church had been organized, and some of the ablest of the local preachers had gone into the move- ment, and many good laymen, but the disaffection had been by no means considerable. 190 History of Although the financial interest was the least prosperous one, yet the preachers were receiving a better support, and were not absolutely compelled to leave the work as soon as they had fami- lies around them, but the obligations to support the ministry, and to serve God with money, were not as yet recognized. The church buildings were all of them inferior. In the country they were generally of logs, perhaps a few were framed ; in the towns, barn-like and uncomfortable. There was not a brick church in Georgia. There were only a few parsonages— one in Savan- nah, Augusta, and Milledgeville, and perhaps one in Macon. The circuits were still very large, and great toil was demanded to fill the appointments. This, then, is a view of the Church and State as we are able to give it. There was in Georgia and Florida, at the last confer- ence held in Columbia in which they were represented, 20,585 white members. At this conference Bishop Soule presided. The appointments were made both for the South Carolina and Georgia Conferences, and they were thenceforward separate bodies. For over forty years their interests had been identical, but with the growth of the conference, and the increase in the number of preachers, they had become practically separate. The preachers in the Georgia terri- tory rarely crossed the line, and vice versa. The general confer- ence of 1828 had given permission to the South Carolina Confer- ence to divide at such time and in such way as it saw fit, and at this conference the work was done. Never two conferences were made from one with less difficulty, and with less of feeling, save the feeling of regret, which all yoke fellows feel at separating, to meet no more as a community. The Georgia work had in it five districts and the South Caro- lina five. There were 40,335 white members ; 20,585 in Georgia, the rest in South Carolina. Save a portion of the Cherokee coun- try, the Georgia Conference covered with its five districts all of Georgia, and all the settled parts of Florida. The territory was large, much of it new, and all of it promising. Seventy-five preachers received appointments. There were four stations, Au- gusta, Savannah, Macon, and Columbus; six half stations; five missions ; the rest of the work was laid out in large circuits. The districts remained unchanged from last year, save that Andrew Hammill was released from the charge of Columbus, and that his district was much enlarged by new territory, extending from Carrollton on the north to Randolph on the south, and from the Flint to the Chattahoochee. Georgia Methodism. 191 The whole work was well supplied with efficient preachers. We may well doubt whether at any time the average of pulpit excellence was greater than in the conference at this period. Of all the preachers who received appointments at that conference, only four were on the roll in 1877: Lovick Pierce, James Dun- woody, John W. Talley, Jesse Boring. Of these, one only was effective — Lovick Pierce. There were superannuated James Dunwoody, and John W. Talley, Jesse Boring. Of all the rest, not one remained in the conference, and but few were living. Most of them, full of years and honors, had gone to the rest of the laborers beyond. John W. Talley, at this conference, was sent from Columbia to the Pensacola Mission, the most remote of the western ap- pointments. A ride from Columbia across the entire State of Georgia and Florida to the gulf was before him, and all the com- fort he received was to be told that it was well to bear the yoke in his youth. Jesse Boring on the Chattahoochee Mission, Talley on the Pensacola, Isaac Boring at Tallahassee, shows the training to which the young preachers were subjected. It was Spartan enough, but it made them heroes in a day when heroism was demanded for the work. There was a large part of the country now quite populous and wealthy which lay on the Flint, east of Columbus, in which is now Talbot, Taylor, and Macon Counties. Two missionaries were sent to this section, which was called the Flint River Mission. One of these was the Hon. H. W. Hilliard, who began his career as a Methodist preacher and who was afterward a member of Congress and a minister to European courts. Some success at- tended the labors of the preachers, and 339 were formed into classes. It is probable that the first Methodist preaching in Tal- botton was done this year by the missionary on the Flint River Mission. The Florida work continued very prosperous. Tallahassee and Magnolia were made a station with 103 members. Although as yet there were no Indian disturbances, the privations of the preachers were very great. John F. Weathersby, who travelled the eastern part of the State in 1829, says the fare in most of the homes at which he stopped was hominy and Youhon tea — neither bread nor meat. A pole cabin, with dirt floor, was his resting- place, and a ride of twenty-five miles through an untracked wild, needful to reach a congregation of half a dozen hearers, his daily work. John W. Talley, we have seen, was sent to the Pensacola Mis- J92 History of sion this year. Pensacola had been the most important town in Florida during the time the Spaniards held possession of the coun- try. There were very large trading houses, Scotch and English, which did large business with the Indians of the Creek Nation in Alabama. Charles Hardy had been sent to Pensacola as early as 1827. He had made arrangements to build a church, but the yel- low fever, of which he had an attack, had driven him away. The next year Isaac Boring was sent from the Keewee Circuit in South Carolina to this station. In 1831 John W. Talley, from Columbia, was sent to it. The young city had given great promise of growth, and had drawn a large population soon after Florida was purchased, but it was not long before the growth of Mobile, and the frequent visits of the yellow fever, caused as rapid a de- cline as there had been quick growth. We are permitted to get an insight into the difficulties the missionaries met with in reach- ing this remote point, since we have the personal recollections of the Rev. John W. Talley. He had been for two years in the mountain country of North Carolina, and at the division of the conference and the formation of the Georgia he was appointed to Pensacola. The Bishop sent for all the young missionaries, and encouraged them as best he could, and young Talley made ready for his long journey, as Hardy and Boring had done before him. He left Columbia on horseback, spent a few days in Green County, and rode through the State to Columbus. Here he pur- chased a sulky, but his horse taking fright at a thunder-storm, ran away, broke his sulky to pieces, and he narrowly escaped death, though he was only badly bruised. He then refitted, and turned his face to the South. He was now in the Indian nation. He reached the next day a white settlement in Henry County, Alabama. Making his way through the flat pine-woods of East- ern and Southern Alabama, he pressed on. Houses were few, and accommodations were poor indeed. At a little log-cabin, the home of a hunter, he was sheltered for the night, and fed upon musty corn-bread, the meal beaten in a mortar, and the tough lungs of a deer fried in rancid bacon grease, and corn-coffee sweetened with syrup. On such fare, hungry as he was, the mis- sionary could not break his long fast, and it was fifteen miles to the next house. He, however, found, as he says, an oasis in the desert, in a widow's neat cottage and well-supplied table. Thence he pushed through the rain to the house of the first Methodist he had seen since he left Columbus. After reaching the Florida sea- coast, and crossing the Escambia Bay, he found himself still ten Georgia Methodism. 193 miles from Pensacola, and with no choice but to walk. He began bravely enough, but soon his limbs gave out. He, however, reached the city the next day. The colored barber was a Meth- odist, and he found him first, and then sought out his host. His host was an Englishman, who had had a most adventurous and varied experience in life. When he came in, and the family greeted him, they asked him whether he had breakfast. When he told them no, the reluctantly-told story came from the good wife that there was nothing to eat in the house, and no money to buy anything with. The young preacher handed the good man a five-dollar note, and soon their wants were met. In this little church there were some families of position and of refinement. In the Sunday-school, then a bright young girl, was Miss Octavia Walton, afterwards Mrs. Le Vert, whose mother was a member of the church there. We have been thus minute in giving this reminiscence because we are anxious to bring out the difficulties under which the early preachers labored, that from this history we may imbibe some- thing of that heroic spirit which enabled them in God's strength to gain such conquests. There was surely nothing of that puer- ility, that effeminacy, so distasteful to the apostle of work, in such a life as these first preachers led. Is such a spirit needless now? The Methodist missionary was the only preacher in these wilds. We have not thought the pages of a history should be encum- bered with many reflections. We have designed to tell the story, and let it teach its own lessons ; but we may be pardoned if we express a feeling of grateful satisfaction as we think of a confer- ence finding men willing to do the work demanded for these most remote and destitute people, these very poor, and preaching the Gospel unto them. The splendid success of the efforts of the Methodist preachers has been less a success won than a reward given. They sowed ; we have reaped ; but in the world beyond, the sower who received no earthly reward may well rejoice with the reaper who hath gathered fruit unto life eternal, that "both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." We have now reached the time when the first Georgia Confer- ence begins its session, and will consider its history in a second book. METHODISM IN GEORGIA Book Second The Sons of the Pioneers CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT PREFATORY NOTE. It has been my effort in the preceding pages to give an annal- istic account of Methodism in Georgia and Florida, and to write with some minuteness the story of events ; but now I find myself compelled to confine this history to narrower limits, or to make it much larger than I think wise. So in the part of the book I now propose to write, my purpose is to condense as far as is con- sistent with a clear account of men and measures, and change my method of treatment. I regret to excise from the pages of my book much that was of value, but it is rendered necessary by my aim to bring the book into proper limits. METHODISM IN GEORGIA The Georgia Conference 1 830- 1 832. CHAPTER I. The General Conference as is seen in the preceding chapter, gave to the South Carolina Conference the privileges of dividing, at such time and in such way as it might see proper. The division took place in Columbia, South Carolina, January 30, 1830. In January, 1831, the first Georgia Conference met in Macon. There was no derangement resulting from the division, and the Georgia Conference moved forward without confusion. The Bishop who was to preside was not present, and the venerable Lewis Myers was elected president. Eleven young men were admitted on trial. George Wells Foster Pierce was one of this class. He will be at once recognized as the celebrated and greatly beloved Bishop George Foster Pierce of after time. He was just from college, where he had won the highest honors. He was handsome, gifted, and attractive. He had entered the office of Colonel Thomas Foster, his uncle, to study law, but he found nothing in the life of a lawyer congenial to his tastes. He was a member of the church, and a very unobjectionable one, except that he did not wear the Methodist uniform, but was sometimes clad in fashionable apparel ; and as seen elsewhere, the fact brought him into collision with the stern John Collinsworth, who objected to his being admitted on trial, as he had objected to his being licensed to preach. The conference, however, was glad to welcome the young man to its ranks, and he began on the Monticello Circuit a life which was never anything but a blessing to the church. To give a few paragraphs to the life of one who was prominent and so well known as Bishop Pierce would seem a useless work. It would take a volume to tell the story of his wonderful life. He was born in Georgia ; educated in Georgia ; lived in Georgia ; and died in the adjoining county to that in which he was born. His majestic person, his lofty intellect, his unflinching courage, made him from the first a leader among men. The Georgia Conference was the only one with which he was ever connected, except for Georgia Methodism. 197 one year, when he was in Charleston. He was a junior preacher on a circuit; a stationed preacher; a presiding elder; a college president ; a college agent ; and a Bishop. He never spared him- self. He was intensely religious, but his religious life took the direction of constant work for the good of men. No man was ever more universally admired, or so tenderly loved, or so im- plicitly trusted. He was a peerless orator who swayed the multi- tude at his will. He was a man of wondrous wisdom, who was never moved from his convictions by clamor or prejudice. Some thought him too radical ; many that he was too conservative— but results have shown that he was neither. He opposed innovations, but accepted needful changes, and was never so tenacious of his opinions as to be offensively obstinate. His life was a benediction to his native State, and the Conference which received him had little idea of the great blessing it was conferring. Another young college man, who was to do a wonderful work, entered the Conference at this time. This was Archelaus Ii! Mitchell, who died at the age of ninety-five, being at the time perhaps the oldest travelling preacher in the world. He was the son of a sturdy Scotch-Irishman, who lived near Athens. Neither his father or mother were professed Christians, but were inclined toward the Presbyterian Church. In the revival of 1827, in which his college mate, George Pierce, was converted, he too came into the fold, and joined the Methodist Church in Athens. Young Mitchell was a man of excellent family, of fine character, and of unusually good education. He was sent as a junior preacher to a very large circuit, where great success attended his work. From that day his course was steadily onward. As a preacher on a cir- cuit or a station, as college agent, college professor, college presi- dent, or as a Presiding Elder, he was always the same valuable and trustworthy man. He removed to Alabama after a few years in Georgia, and was long the patriarch of the Alabama Confer- ence. He died in Alabama in 1904, having been connected with a Methodist Conference over seventy-two years. Of the eleven, John C. Simmons, a sturdy young man of great energy and of strong character, and a man of more than ordinary mental endowments, entered the Conference and continued in the work for thirty-six years. He was a strong preacher and a valua- ble Presiding Elder, and did excellent work for the Church He travelled all kinds of circuits and districts, and bore all the hard- ships of his work manfully. Of the eleven, only three, Pierce Mitchell and Simmons, did many years of effective service The Conference of 1832 met in Augusta, Bishop Hedding pre- 198 History of siding. It was the only visit this sterling New Englander ever made into Georgia. Eleven young men came into the connection. Of these only four died in the work: Leonard C. Peek, Peyton P. Smith, Samuel Anthony and Caleb W. Key. Leonard Peek was a man of good ability, of very genuine piety, and was very useful in hard fields. He located and settled in Thomas County, Georgia, and in his old age was readmitted into the South Geor- gia Conference, in connection with which he died. Peyton P. Smith was one of four sons of a local preacher, John Major Smith, of DeKalb County. He was a man of unusual parts. He had had but few early advantages, but he secured for him- self a very good English education, and was a good theologian, and an effective preacher; and when the Florida Conference was set off from Georgia, he became a member of it, and was long a prominent member of that body. Caleb W. Key, who was also admitted, was destined to a life of great usefulness. Mr. Asbury often speaks in his journal of a Martin Key, a large slaveholder in Virginia, whose wife was a Methodist. He was doubtless a lineal descendant of the Sir Mar- tin Keys, who married the sister of Lady Lane Grey. Joseph Key, father of Caleb, came to Georgia to make his way in a new coun- try as a mechanic, for although Martin had many slaves, he had many children, and Joseph, his grandson, had to make his way as a millwright, and his great grandson was a brick-mason. He was a man of brains and character, and becoming a Christian resolved to give himself to the work of the ministry. It gave but poor promise of a comfortable support, while his trade as a builder was a very profitable one ; but he entered on the work, and died in the conference. He was a remarkably useful man. Pleasing in his manners, sound in his judgment, fervent in his piety, and withal a man of ability, he did lasting good. His son is Bishop Joseph S. Key. Samuel Anthony, one of these four who died in connection with the Smith Georgia Conference, was in all respects a remark- able man with a remarkable history. He was descended from the distinguished families of the Anthonys and Lamars, but his par- ents were very poor, and having lived on the frontier were illit- erate. He grew to manhood in the backwoods ; married while a youth and had very few advantages. He was employed as an overseer near Columbus, when he was converted. He soon felt a call to preach, and with but little education began his life work. He was wonderfully successful from the first, and being very diligent, rapidly improved in culture. He was a man of extraor- Georgia Methodism. 199 dinary endowments and extraordinary energy, and of wonderful common sense. He never seemed young. Uncle Sam Anthony, as he was called all over Georgia, was recognized by all men as the embodiment of Christian integrity. It might truly be said of him that his eye was single and his body full of light. He was a man who could say in the strongest English what he felt ought to be said, and say it with an almost supernatural unction. He had the unbounded regard and respect of the people, and was greatly re- vered. He was sternly opposed to innovation on the old Method- ism he had received. He clung to old things with the tenacity of an English Tory. He was the last of the preachers to give up the straight-breasted coat and white cravat, and was strict in his ob- servance of all things, great and small, taught in the discipline. He made no compromises and no concessions, but stood firmly by what he thought was the right. His piety was almost mystical in its fervor, and his long life was without a stain. Fearless as a lion, he was withal so tender that those whom he rebuked most plainly regarded him not only with respect, but with affection. He did much hard work, and did it faithfully. Myles Green, who was readmitted into the travelling connec- tion the year before, had been an itinerant as early as 1800, in Virginia, but soon retired from the work. He removed to Geor- gia and settled in Hancock, where he was Clerk of the Court. After Baldwin County was settled, in 1803, he removed to Mil- ledgeville. He was a local preacher, and a great helper in the church as a local preacher for over thirty years. He wished to die in the Conference, and re-entered it ; and having reached his eighty-fifth year, in great triumph he passed away. At this ses- sion, the delegates were elected to the General Conference which was to meet in May. There were twelve delegates from Georgia : James O. Andrew, Samuel K. Hodges, William Arnold, Andrew Hammill, John Howard, Ignatius A. Few, Benjamin Pope, Elijah Sinclair, W. J. Parks, Allen Turner, Lovick Pierce, and Thomas Samford. They left Georgia together, and rode to Philadelphia on horseback. The session was not an important one, and few questions came before it which were of deep interest. It was evident before the beginning of the session that the episcopacy must be strengthened, and two new Bishops were decided on. James O. Andrew and John Emory were elected on the first bal- lot. Andrew was the first Georgian who had ever been elevated to that position, as his father had been the first Georgian who became a travelling preacher. He was eminently fitted for the office, but was most reluctant to accept it. He was willing to 200 History of endure all the privations which it entailed, but shrank from the greatness of its demands. It was stated in the great debate of 1844 that he was elected to the office not only because of his fitness for it, but because he held no slaves. That, but for this, some other Southerner would have been chosen. This is possibly true, but he said he was not approached on the subject — made no pledges and would have made none. He was now about forty-two years old. From the time he had gone forth a timid boy to the Saltketcher Circuit, his progress had been a steady one. He had richly cultivated his mind, his wonderful native powers had been greatly strength- ened, and he had now reached the zenith of his fame as a preacher. To the most cultured, to the plain and unlettered, to the poor negro, he was alike fitted, and by each of them greatly valued. It has been said by his old and partial friends that he never preached as well after he became a Bishop as before. This was no doubt true as a general statement. Before he became a Bishop he had nothing to do but to preach ; but now he had to plan, to appoint, and to direct. No man ever felt the weight of these de- mands to a greater degree. He never spared himself, he never spared his brethren when he felt that Christ demanded the sacri- fice. Like Abraham, he would have borne his only son to the mount, if God had called for him. Yet while he sent men hither and thither with such apparent calmness, while he made his ap- pointments and adhered to his decision inflexibly, he never made an appointment which he knew would afflict, without enduring as much pain in giving it as the one felt who received it. The man that felt the Bishop, who so calmly read him out to a hard field, was pitiless, little knew that his nights had been sleepless and his eyes tearful ere his decision had been made. The writer of this history, who loved him as a father, was one night with him in Augusta ; and he was cheerfully telling of some of his early trials, but he said, "these were nothing to the trials of a Bishop. It has not been travel and absence from home, but when I have had to afflict good men and good churches, it has caused me a deeper pain than I have ever known from other cause. You say I ought to be used to that ; ah, my boy, I will never get used to it." From his election to the episcopacy to the day of his death, his life was one of most incessant anxiety and toil. He was possessed of a most remarkable delicacy of feeling. The man who seemed to be as hard as iron was as soft and gentle as a woman. The man who in his unflinching courage would not resign his office, because he felt a great principle was involved, Georgia Methodism. 201 suffered the agony of a martyr in retaining it. The man who made appointments which inflicted the greatest pain on his best friends, and made them apparently without reluctance, and sternly held to them, groaned and wept in his chamber ere he decided upon them. He was a man of grandest unselfishness. Poor Asbury, sick and lonely, if he did not murmur under his trials, and he did not, at least let others know how deep were his wounds; but Andrew sternly suffered deeper pain, and no man knew how keenly he felt it. He was a man of the noblest mag- nanimity. He never spared himself. He never did intentional in- justice to friend or foe. He was never cowardly in the presence of wealth and power; he was never harsh toward the lowly or the erring. For thirty-four years as a Bishop he worked on; from the frozen lakes to the Gulf, from the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, he travelled and preached, and presided over confer- ences, and bore the care of the churches, with all the suffering it brought with it. Then in 1866, ere a man had breathed the thought, he became convinced that he was no longer fitted to fill his place efficiently, and so affectionately, but firmly, he insisted that he should be retired. His brethren sorrowfully granted his request, and thenceforward he labored as best he could. His limbs gave way, and he could not stand ; he sat in his chair in the churches, and talked to the children. He had gone to New Or- leans on church work; he was on his way home when he was taken with his last illness. He was in Mobile in the early part of 1870, at the house of his daughter, Octavia, wife of the Rev. J. W. Rush, and in a few days he grandly and joyfully passed to the land of the living. From 1812 to 1870, for fifty-eight long years, he had turned no hair's breadth aside from his line of duty, and there was no spot upon his fair shield. Dented it was, and battered, but no dart of foe had ever found it anywhere save on his brave arm, in the forefront of the battle. All Methodism owes a debt to James O. Andrew, all Southern Methodism an especial one; but to Georgia Methodists he was dearer than to any others. His son, who bore his name, his son-in-law, the Rev. John W. Rush, his grandsons, the Rev. W. C. and I. M. Lovett, and C. A. Rush ; his foster-son, the Rev. Alex. M. Wynn, have all followed him in the work of the ministry, each of them faithful workers ; while his sons-in-law, Thomas M. Meriwether and the Rev. Robert W. Lovett, did work scarcely less effective as active laymen. Robert Emory was elected Bishop at the same General Conference. Though younger than Andrew he was not to be long in his 202 History of office, and though his education had been much more advanced, he had not nigh so great experience in those trials of the itiner- ancy, which a man needs to know to fit him to be a Bishop. He was a highly gifted man, and one of very broad culture. His tastes rather fitted him for the editorial chair, or the pro- fessor's lecture room, than for the work of the episcopacy, which requires abilities which neither scholarship or gifts of eloquence can supply. He was a man of very delicate health, and the labors of his office demanded much power of endurance. He was, how- ever, very popular, for he had been very useful, and although he had led the reformers of the Church when they seceded, he wrote most vigorously against them. He was killed by being thrown from his carriage, as he was on his way to Baltimore from his farm, not many miles distant from the city, after he had been a Bishop only a few years. The conference adjourned, and Bishop Andrew left Philadelphia in company with McKendree, his venerable predecessor and still colleague in office. He went to McKendree and asked for counsel. "He was sitting," said Bishop Andrew, "on the deck of the steamer, leaning on his staff. Looking at me calmly, he said : 'I have but little to say, my dear James. I think little need be said, only this : Shrink from no responsibility. Remember that he who shrinks from a respon- sibility which properly belongs to him, incurs the most fearful of responsibilities!'" The election of Bishop Andrew rendered it necessary that the charge of the Augusta Station should fall upon the shoulders of his young assistant, and so by the middle of his second year, George F. Pierce had all the burden of the largest city station in Georgia upon his shoulders. There are some men who always meet, and go beyond the demands upon them by the occasion, and the young preacher was one of these. The Bishop-elect decided to settle his family at Augusta, and although the people there gave him unsolicited assistance in securing a home, he became, he says, for the first time in his life, involved in debt, and his faithful Amelia came to his aid by teaching a school. The allowance made for his support by the Georgia Conference, to whom the question by law was referred, was $600 all told.* The good work of a Bishop was certainly not a remunerative one. The Georgia Conference had now lost him as a member of tbe body; but for many years he made his home in her territory, and for all his years he regarded Georgia as his mother. It was *Leaves from an Itinerant 's Diary, 508. Georgia Methodism. 203 meet then that he should be brought back to Georgia for burial, and that he should sleep his last sleep in Oxford, the happy home of his mature years. We return to the minutes. James Bellah, who has borne the brunt of many a hard cam- paign, received at this conference his last appointment. He was sent to the Yellow River Circuit. This included a large part of Newton, all of Henry, Butts, Jasper, and one appointment in Monroe. There were twenty-eight appointments, and the preacher, by riding every day, could fill them in one month. James Bellah had now worn himself down in the work, and after a short time on the circuit his health failed, and Morgan Bellah, his brother, succeeded him. This good man thus began a work which, in the midst of all difficulties, he continued to prosecute for forty years. He received for his year's labor $160. How could any man of family have lived on such a salary? Out of it he was compelled to furnish a house for himself, a horse, pay his travelling ex- penses, and indeed provide for all his wants. Of course, this would have been simply impossible ; and as it was but a fair sam- ple of the salaries of most of the preachers, there can be no won- der that they had farms of their own, and that their good wives supported the family while they were absent for near a month at a time on their labor of love. If one was not able to provide for his family a home, and had no other resources than his own labor, he was forced to a location, and so there were a large number of gifted men in the local ranks who would have continued in the pastorate if they could have been even insufficiently supported. The rich lands of Western Georgia had been filled up by Geor- gians from the eastern counties. Methodism was strong in that section, and LaGrange, the leading village, invited the confer- ence to hold its sessions there. It was the extreme western edge of the territory, but the invitation was accepted ; and on horseback and in sulkeys the preachers in the bleak days of early January made their way to the place of meeting. Bishop Andrew was to preside for the first time over the conference of which he had been a member from his boyhood. There was trying work before the body, for one of its most highly honored members, Fred Norseworthy, had been charged with a flagrant dereliction, which charge he had vehemently denied. He was ably defended by Doctor Few, who believed firmly in his innocence ; and while arraigned for one sin, was convicted of another and suspended. Against this decision there was no appeal, but Doctor Few made 204 History of a vigorous protest. Poor Norseworthy afterward confessed his sin, and was restored to the Church and died in peace. At this conference nine preachers were admitted on trial. Of these one was destined to become a man of celebrity and great usefulness. This was Doctor James Ezekiel Evans, whose father had been a useful travelling preacher in the early part of the century and had settled in Lincoln County, Georgia, where he had married into a prominent family and where he was a very useful local preacher. James Evans, as he is written in the Minutes, was a fine-looking young fellow, gifted in speech and song, a most graceful declaimer, and a man of very fervid piety. He soon won a high place as one of the most useful and attractive preachers in the conference. He was remarkably handsome and very neat and careful in his dress, and had most charming manners. He was a man of such fervent piety and such earnestness, that all con- fided in him. He was a born leader, and from his first admission into the conference was looked to as a safe counsellor. He was a great revivalist, and wherever he went souls were converted and there were many additions to the Church. He was possessed of a considerable estate through his wife, so that he was able to dispense a liberal hospitality and to lead in contributions to good causes. He had broad and advanced views, and the colleges and schools found in him a generous friend. He was a very fervent Christian, and professed in the later days of his life the Perfect Love he had long preached. He was greatly beloved, and no man in his conference was more useful. He loved the pastorate, and when elected Book Agent, he soon resigned and returned to his chosen field. He was the first agent of the Negro College, and laid the foundation upon which W. C. Dunlap built so well. He was on the leading districts and most prominent stations ; was always a delegate to the General Conference, and a leader in his own. He had very decided views, and was very able in contro- versy, ready to meet any foe of Methodism anywhere and any time. He was a courteous but fearless debater, and his newspaper and pulpit discussions on controverted subjects were always able. He died on his knees while on his district — having never been forced to superannuation. The other members of this class were Robert A. Steele, a saintly young physician who did much hard and useful work ; and through whose influence that remarkable man, William M. Crum- ley, was converted, and Morgan Bellah, a plain, good man, who labored long and faithfully, and on hard fields. GEN. CLEMENT A. EVANS. REV. A. .1. JARREKL, I '.I'. Georgia Methodism. 207 John R. Hearne, who died while on a new mission in Burke County. Joseph T. Talley, Jr., Wesley Starr, Benjamin Watson, Archi- bald Smith, and Thomas P. Lawrence ; but none of them contin- ued long in the conference. Much of the work was still on the frontier. The Creeks had but recently left the southern counties, and the Cherokees were in the north; but the Conference reached after these lost sheep in the wilderness. A new circuit was made. Americus, the present beautiful county site of Sumter, was then a new town, and there was preaching in it at a private house a part of the time, and a part of the time in a log building, which served as a court-house. This was the second year of the exist- ence of the mission, but there were two hundred members re- ported in these counties. Dunwoody says that his success was but small in the work.* The great value of the lands in that sec- tion were as yet unrecognized, and the large population and im- mense wealth that afterward belonged to it were not as yet. There were two other missions in this section, the Etowah and the Randolph. A new mission was also established in the upper part of the State, designed to provide the gold regions with the Gospel. It was left to be filled by a supply, and was called the Chestatee Mission. Immense excitement had arisen in Georgia, resulting from the discovery of gold on some of the rivers, in the mountain country. This discovery had been made in 1829 in Habersham County, and afterwards on the Chestatee River, a mile or more from Dah- lonega. Immediately numbers flocked to these mines. There was the wild gambler, the wealthy speculator, the shrewd land-trader, and, now and then, some sober settler who sought a home in one of the charming valleys among the mountains, as well as the gold hunter who had come to mine. The missionary was sent with these adventurers. He reported at the next conference 130 mem- bers. During this year, West Florida and that part of the Chat- tahoochee Circuit which was in Alabama was attached to the Ala- bama Conference, and ten members of the Georgia Conference were transferred to Alabama. At the conference, of 1834, there was reported a decrease in the Georgia work, though there really was an increase. This is accounted for by the transfer just spoken of. Morgan Bellah, who had travelled the Yellow River Circuit the *Dunwoody 's Life. 208 History of year before, was now sent upon the Grove. This circuit embraced all Franklin, Jackson, Madison, Hall, one-half of Gwinnett, and one appointment in Walton. There was paid him this year by all these counties $250. It was in vain that the General Conference required the circuits to pay quarterage of a hundred dollars to the preacher and the same to his wife, and an amount sufficient for each child with family expenses. There was no means of en- forcing these payments, and a large circuit was comforted by the fact that the preacher, if he did not return, had no claim on them, and the conference would still supply their pulpit. There was as yet no financial system, no faithful preaching on the duty of men to use their money for Christ. Indeed, it is a sad truth that a large part of the preaching of the times was calculated to strengthen rather than to overthrow covetousness. The constant theme of many preachers was the extravagance of the people, and the duty of close economy and constant industry was enforced, but, alas, nothing was said about liberal giving ; but a better day was coming. Slowly, yet surely. The size of the circuits, the fact that the preacher came only once a month, and that there was so many members, led many to withhold even the small amount needed, since it was so small it could not be missed. Then the preacher did not live among his people. Had he done so, they would have willingly supplied his table, for they had abundance of provisions, but they must pay all they paid in money, and money was what they had the least of. The mission- ary and conference collections from these sections were on a par with their contributions for the support of the ministry. Although these remarks with reference to finances are made here, they belong rather to this period than to this year, and to this class of circuits rather than to the Grove alone. It was, indeed, almost a universal thing. John Howard, Lovick Pierce, William J. Parks, John W. Glenn, James Bellah, Morgan Bellah, and many others, could not have continued in the work but for their own private resources. The salaries of Morgan Bellah for several successive years were as follows : Decatur Circuit, including DeKalb, Ful- ton, Gwinnett, and Campbell, twenty-two appointments, $180. Newnan Circuit, with Coweta, half of Fayette, Campbell and Heard Counties, twenty-two appointments, between $150 and $200. The preacher accidentally overheard the stewards on a circuit discussing the question of salary. One of them remarked, and the other assented to it, that they ought to give him at least as much Georgia Methodism. 209 as an ordinary field-hand was worth, say $15 per month. This they did, and paid him for a year's work about $180. Fayette and Campbell paid $136 for the support of a man, his wife and seven children. The Monroe (Walton Circuit) paid him for an entire year's work $86. The Forsyth Circuit alone gave him a support and paid him $500. We have given these figures as a simple evidence of the devo- tion of the preachers and of the trials they were forced to un- dergo. With the Baptist denomination it was even worse, for their preachers received literally nothing in the way of salary in many of these same sections, but then their preachers were not required to be from home twenty-eight days in the month, and travel over wide areas of country, not being able to be with their families more than one-tenth of the time. The gracious and wonderful revival, which for almost two years had blessed the State, seems to have now to some extent declined. There was but little increase in any of the circuits and really but little decrease. Indeed, from 1823 to the present time, the Church has known no retrogression. For a short time there may have been a halt in its onward progress, but it was only for a little while ; with increased power it had then moved forward. There was an increase even this year of nearly 300 white mem- bers. Much of the work now was in securing the permanent re- sults of the great revival of the ten years gone by. The conference for 1834 met in Washington. Bishop Emory presided, and Bishop Andrew came with him. It was the first and only time that this gifted and excellent man presided at a Georgia conference. He was a man of broad cultivation, a writer of unusual elegance and power. He had led the progressives, and contributed largely to their victory in 1820, when the question of whether presiding elders should be elected, was settled affirma- tively. When, however, the malcontents left the Church to found the Methodist Protestant, Emory was the strongest defender of Episcopal Methodism, and in his defense of the fathers and his History of the disciples, he did work for the Church of lasting value. He had been elevated to this high office of Bishop at the same time at which Bishop Andrew was elected, and of his early and sudden death we have already told. At this conference the great question discussed concerned the educational interests of the Church. Olin, now the President of Randolph Macon, was present in 210 History of the interest of that institution, and soliciting an agent and an en- dowment. Few, who was a foeman worthy of his steel, was in favor of a Georgia institution ; and they crossed swords. It was finally, however, decided to give Randolph Macon an agent, and in consideration of seven free scholarships, to endow a professor- ship with $10,000. Elijah Sinclair was made the agent. The full endowment was never secured. We have noted the offer of the Culloden School to the conference, and the conference action on the subject. It came up again at this session in a proposition to establish a manual labor school at Culloden. The school was de- cided upon but not the place, and John Howard was appointed agent. Of the after history of this school our readers are re- ferred to the succeeding chapter on "Education in the Georgia Conference." The conference of 1833 was held in LaGrange, January 2nd. LaGrange was a sprightly country town, not ten years old. It was on the western border of the conference. To reach it, the preachers had to travel on horseback, gigs and sulkeys — and yet a goodly number were present the first day. Bishop Andrew was present and presided. John Howard was again secretary. LaGrange had projected no college of her own. There was considerable strife between the new college of La Grange, Alabama, and the Randolph-Macon ; and the agents of each advocated the claims of their schools. The matter was re- ferred to a committee of which Stephen Olin was chairman. The conference finally resolved to accept the proposition of the trustees of Randolph Macon. Doctor Few, who was anxious for a Georgia college, was opposed to the resolution, and succeeded in preventing the appointment of an agent ; but by a vote of the conference, John Early, the agent of the Virginia Conference for Randolph Macon College, had full permission to collect what funds he could in Georgia. The trustees of the school at Culloden, which was then a flour- ishing village in Monroe County, had proffered their institute to the conference on certain conditions. It was not accepted at this conference, and the settlement of the matter was deferred to the next conference, when, as is seen elsewhere, the Manual Labor School, out of which came Emory College, was endorsed. Sixteen were admitted on trial, among them Windsor Graham, who was a plain, good man, and who did good and hard work, and was long a superannuated preacher ; Eli Bennett, who, after travelling for a number of years, was superannuated and died in connection with the conference ; John B. Barton, who went to Georgia Methodism. 211 Africa a missionary and died there soon after his arrival; John W. Remshart, who located and died in Savannah. John W. Yarb rough, another of this class, was a mountain boy, the son of an old Quaker who had been converted in one of the Hall County camp meetings. He was a young man of extraordinary parts. Full of humor, noted for strong common sense, a man of fiery temper, of great energy, and of unquestioned courage, stu- dious and thoughtful, a fervid revivalist, he was put on very hard and responsible posts and bravely did the work assigned him. He was on important circuits and large districts, and always did effective work. He was in a large degree the father of Meth- odism in Atlanta, as he was in charge of that city when it was in the DeKalb Circuit in 1848. He spent his last days at his own home in Oxford. His daughter married Bishop Haygood, and his oldest son is the Rev. Doctor Yarbrough, of the North Georgia Conference. Rev. W. W. Robison was admitted at this conference. He was for fourteen years effective, then for many years local. He re- entered the conference and worked efficiently till he died. His death was eminently peaceful. David Bird, Henry Tyler, Francis V. McKee, Robert H. Bon- ner, Russell J. Richardson, Ivy F. Stegall, were also admitted on trial, but did not remain many years in active connection with the conference. James Payne, as he is written in the list of those ad- mitted on trial, (but James B. Payne as he subsequently appears) was one of the worthiest men of his day. He was born in North Carolina, and had a moderately good education for those times. He, alas ! fell into the habit of occasional drunkenness, but his wife was a woman of great piety. He had drifted down to Wash- ington County, Georgia, where he was overseer on a plantation. One night the circuit preacher had a prayer meeting in the little village, and he attended it with his wife. He was very much under the influence of drink. When the preacher opened the door of the church, he staggered forward and gave him his hand. The next day when he had become sober again, his wife said to him: "James, do you know what you did last night?" He said: "No, what did I do?" "You joined in society." "Did I? Well, God helping me, I'll stick up to it." He was soon converted. He was licensed to preach and ad- mitted into conference. He was one of the most saintly and use- ful members, and after years of activity was superannuated. He passed away at a very advanced age. He was the father of the 212 History of noble Young Joshua Payne, who died a martyr to yellow fever in Savannah, in 1854. Edmund W. Reynolds began work this year and on hard cir- cuits did his work well. He at last received a superannuated rela- tion, and settled near Fairburn, where he continued to work as far as his strength allowed. He died very suddenly and was found, after several days' search, by the wayside, lifeless. He was a decided character, a man of large frame and strong will, and had been a very hard worker in his active ministry. His son, John W. Reynolds, was a most gifted young preacher, and died during the year in which his father also died. Georgia now presented great diversity in her work. In the older parts of the State there was elegance, refinement, and high culture; while in parts of Florida, Northern and Western Geor- gia, the hardest work of Humphries, Major, Hull, and Norton was being more than equalled. The missions to the slaves were worked most vigorously, and with good results. There was now nearly 8,000 colored members in the State. The conference for 1835 met in Savannah, January 7th. Bishop Andrew presided. Eighteen were admitted on trial. Two young Northerners who came to this conference were admitted on trial ; they were George H. Round and George W. Lane. The first took his place as classical teacher of the Manual Labor School ; the other, in delicate health, was appointed to St. Augustine, Fla. George W. Lane was the son of George Lane, who was for so many years a member of the Philadelphia Con- ference, and book agent for the Church. He was highly gifted by nature, had been a hard student, and was one of the purest- hearted of Christian men. He was a remarkably fine preacher, and would have reached the highest eminence in the pulpit, but that the great need for educated Christian men to educate the children of Christians called him from the field he loved so well into the lecture-room of the professor. He was selected first as a teacher in the Manual Labor School, and then as a professor in Emory College. He was an enthusiastic and accomplished teacher, but he never allowed his fondness for study or teaching to interfere with his religious labors. He loved to preach, and preached much. Not long after he came to Georgia, he married a lovely woman, in every way worthy of him. and spent a few happy and useful years in Oxford, as professor of the languages. He was, with his devoted colleagues, enlisted in the arduous and trying work of building up a new college, and had seen it almost Georgia Methodism. 213 established, as he hoped, for the future, when, in 1847, he was taken violently ill, and in the vigor of his young manhood passed away to his reward. George W. Lane was one of the loveliest and most gifted men who ever did work in the Georgia Confer- ence, and his memory is a precious legacy to his brethren. Alexander Speer entered the conference and was stationed in Savannah. He was a man of very fine parts, had been a leading politician in South Carolina, and at one time was Secretary of State in that commonwealth. He was for some years a local preacher, and then entered the conference. After some very use- ful service, he retired again to the local ranks, and was a useful local preacher till his death. He was a man of very fine cultiva- tion and of great native eloquence. In size he was very portly, but in spite of his corpulency, he was active and useful as a pas- tor.' He left two sons : Rev. Dr. Eustace W. Speer, for a long time a useful pastor in the conference, and then professor in the State University ; and Judge Alexander M. Speer, of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Russell W. Johnson, one of two brothers who entered the con- ference this year, after some years of hard and useful work, lo- cated and settled in Jefferson County, where, as a local preacher and steward, he advanced the local interests of the Church. Dr. Lovick Pierce was placed on the Savannah District. _ In this district Sandersville first appears as a circuit. The Washing- ton County Circuit had been one of the first in the State. Asbury had visited Buffalo Creek and Harris Meeting-house, New Cha- pel, and Fenn's Bridge, all of which are in that county. It was now a large circuit, including all of Laurens as well as all of Washington County, and had 405 members in it. The church in the town of Sandersville was an ungainly building, without paint, blinds, or ceiling, and located on the outskirts of the town. The leading men of Washington were wealthy disciples of Epicurus, some of them men of very fine intelligence, and openly and defi- antly infidel. The fact that the circuit was a poor one, and the minister always poorly provided for, led for many years to the starvation policy, and preachers of most ordinary gifts were sent to work hopelessly; but in 1857 the Rev. W. J. Cotter, by an ear- nest effort, built a handsome church in Sandersville, and the con- ference had labored to supply the work well ; so that now San- dersville is quite a pleasant station in the South Georgia Confer- ence. The preacher on that circuit in 1835 began his work on the borders of Hancock, and found his most remote appointment 214 History of some sixty or seventy miles below, in the pine woods of Mont- gomery. Six located at the conference, two of whom, John S. Ford and Raleigh Greene, afterward returned to the itinerancy. Josiah Evans, who had done as much hard work as any man of his age in the ministry, located to return no more. During this session, for the first time, we have an answer to the fourteenth question, "What amounts are necessary for the superannuated preachers, and the widows and orphans of preach- ers, and to make up the deficiencies of those who have not re- ceived their regular allowance on the circuits ?" The answer was $4,137.81. In answer to the question, what has been collected, we catch our first glimpse of the financial operations of those days. For nearly fifty years the Church had been at work, and this is the first published evidence that she believed in the practical be- nevolence which was manifested in money-giving, save the re- port of the missionary collections of William Capers, when he was establishing the mission to the Creeks. That our Church, which has been so grandly heroic in her devotion to what she believed to be right, had been sadly in the rear in her benevolent contribu- tions, is a painful truth, one with which we are twitted in the pub- lished sermons of the amiable and gifted Bishop Elliott; but how it could be otherwise under the instruction, or rather want of in- struction of the fathers, it is difficult to conceive. All our preachers were missionaries. The people, when the ministers first began their work, were all alike poor ; the demands of the home work, and the general poverty of the Methodists, and the evangelization of the Indians, forbade any extra American work, but while this may be said in mitigation, it is very evident that the ministry had no true idea of the money power in the Church. Revolt from error often goes too far, and revolt from the teachings of Rome, in which money had such high place and promised so much, led the Methodists and Baptists to discard almost entirely the mammon of unrighteousness, and it became the enemy, rather than the friend, of the Church. This list of collections is the only true picture of the liberality of the times we have been able to secure. The largest amount reported is from the Alcovi Circuit, which sent up $144, Augusta sent $27, Savan- nah $131, Athens and Madison $9.41, the Yellow River $2.00. There were but two applications for aid from the active workers, and the rest was divided among the superannuated preachers and the widows and orphans. The amount contributed for missions was $1,208. Georgia Methodism. 215 Andrew Hammill was removed from the Columbus district and sent to the Savannah. The Augusta District ceases, and the terri- tory hitherto included in it is divided between the Athens, Mil- ledgeville and Savannah. Wm. Arnold still remained on the Athens District, and William J. Parks was sent to the Milledge- ville District. He was living in Franklin County ; he could not move, and the nearest point on his district was 120 miles from him, the most remote perhaps 350. He shrank from the appoint- ment, but went to it, and did his work well. A new district was laid out, called the Cherokee, and Isaac Boring was appointed to it. It swept entirely across the northern part of the State, beginning at Clarksville, and ending at Vans Valley, all the way from the Savannah to the Coosa Rivers, and from Henry County to the Blue Ridge. There were two new missions on the district, the Vans Valley, which included all that section in the western part of the State north of Carroll County, and reaching up to Chattooga. J. T. Talley was sent to it. The Indians were still there, but a few white settlers, drawn thither by the fertility of the lands, were scattered through the valleys. The Connesauga Mission joined the Vans Valley on the north, and extended eastward. It included the Counties of Murray, Whitefield, Gordon, and parts of Gilmer lying on the Connesauga River. The office of a presiding elder in a new territory like this is especially important, and the gifted and devoted Boring was admirably suited to the work of filling it. As yet the Cherokee Indians occupied a large part of this section; reluctant to leave the homes of their fathers, and to remove to an unknown land, yet realizing the hopelessness of a resistance to the power that demands it, this really admirable race of Indians were taking their last view of the charming valleys and beautiful mountains, which in a few more years they were to see no more forever. To the Chestatee Mission, in the Cherokee country, which was established the year before, John B. Chappell was sent. All the effort of the State to keep white men from settling in the nation, where, according to the glowing reports of the time, the very river sands sparkled with gold, had been in vain, and some villages had already sprung up in this section. Among these was Nucklesville, afterward Auraria, in Lumpkin County. Here the missionary had an appointment; here crime held daily carnival. Gambling, cock-fighting, drunkenness, debauchery of all kinds, did not condescend to seek a cover. One night the preacher, who preached at a private house, announced that the next night there would be religious service at another house. A gambler arose and 216 History of said : "Oyez, Oyez, I give notice that tomorrow night I will open my faro bank,' at a place he named. On the south of the Chestatee Mission, and reaching down till it joined the Decatur Circuit, was the Forsyth Mission, which was left to be supplied. As of old, Methodism strove to cover with her wings the whole land, to provide a ministry for all the people. Now she was able through her mission boards to supply a service to all, and numbers of gifted and devoted men arose at her bidding. They were her children; she had raised now a family of sons who were able to do the work which duty so imperiously demanded. At the next conference this Cherokee District reported a membership of 3,666 members. Florida was now divided into two districts, the Tallahassee and St. Augustine. George A. Chappell was sent on the St. Augustine and John W. Talley on the Tallahassee. The St. Augustine Dis- trict included a considerable part of lower Georgia. The preachers on this hard work were all of them single men. John W. Yar- brough was on the Irwin Mission. He was a young man just from the mountains, and his first appointment, Irwin County, was in Southern Georgia, in the wire-grass country. It is still a very large county, but then was several times as large as now. The lands were very poor, the settlers few. In 1866 the writer of this volume rode seventeen miles in its borders, without seeing a single dwelling, or a living being, save a deer leaping through the pine woods, and this was thirty years after Yarbrough was sent there. There were not many Methodists in the section, but the Church has striven to see to all the needs of these people, and with the opening of new lines of railway, and new industries beside cattle- raising, there is now a new impetus both to the temporal and spir- itual interests in that section. Hawkinsville appears for the first time as a separate charge, with James E. Evans as stationed preacher. It was quite a flourishing town ; as there was navigation for boats to it the year round, it was an important commercial point. The productive plantations of Houston, Pulaski and Dooly, as well as the country south of it, found a shipping point and market here. There was much wealth, and much dissipation and gayety. The church had been an appointment in the Houston Circuit, and had only nine members in it. During the year there was a great re- vival, and at the next conference one hundred and fifty-eight mem- bers were reported. It continued a separate charge for a few years, but with the Georgia Methodism. 217 completion of the Central Railroad and with the growth of Macon, Hawkinsville lost its commercial position and fell back into a cir- cuit again. But when the Macon and Brunswick Railroad was fin- ished it began to revive again, and is now a flourishing city with a good church. Irwinton, which had been before in the Ocmulgee Circuit, was made a separate charge, and Jas. B. Payne was sent to it. He re- ported 577 white members. The Tallahassee District, under the presiding edlership of young Talley, included all the lower part of western Georgia. Capel Raiford was sent to the Lowndes Circuit. This circuit embraced as much territory as a district does now. The larger part of its scattered inhabitants were engaged in stock rais- raising. Their cattle ranges covered large areas of wire grass lands, though now and then, in some fertile hammocks, there were the prosperous cotton planters who sought a market for their prod- ucts by sending cotton to St. Mark's, Fla., and shipping it thence to New York. This circuit, the boundaries of which we are unable exactly to define, included probably all that section of country stretching from the Okefenoke swamp westward to the Thomas county line. Thomas County, Georgia, was in the Monticello (Florida) Circuit, while Decatur County was supplied from the Gadsden (Fla.), Circuit. North of Decatur County was the Fort Gaines circuit. Fort Gaines was now a young city, which was shipping cotton to New York and Europe, and the country around was being settled with rapidity. The presiding elder of the Talla- hassee District traveled on horseback from the Flint River to the Okefenoke swamp, and from the gulf coast for over a hundred miles northward into Georgia. The difficulties of travel were very great, and the privations demanded of the severest kind. There was probably not a bridge in the whole district. The streams, which in summer time were shallow brooks, in the winter would have floated a frigate, and as there were few ferries, the preacher crossed them as he could. His fare in the wire-grass section of this district, which included a large part of it, was musty corn bread and butter, milk, clabber or Youpon tea, with now and then honey, sometimes venison or dried beef. The home in which he reposed his weary limbs we have not been out of sight of in this history, a pole cabin with a clap-board roof and a dirt floor ; but in some of the richer ham- mocks of Thomas and Decatur Counties, even then he found com- fort, and if not delicate refinement, yet warm hospitality. In Flor- ida, however, he came in contact even then with the highest culture and elegance. The stationed preacher in Tallahassee was Arche- 218 History of laus H. Mitchell, and he had perhaps as intelligent and as godless a congregation as any young city in America presented. The St. Augustine District presented even greater difficulties. Beginning at Telfair and Tattnall Counties the presiding elder made his way through the swamps of the Altamaha to Darien, thence down the coast into Florida, finding the terminus of his long journey at St. Augustine, and joining the Tallahassee District on the west. George F. Pierce was transferred to South Carolina and ap- pointed to Charleston, and Wm. Capers took his place at Savan- nah. This was an instance of the exchange of ministers between conferences, which is so often demanded in order to man the works, and yet so often denounced. Special transfers are not new features in Methodism, but where there is correspondence between committees and preachers, and the mutual interests of preacher and the individual congregation are the moving influences, they are an unmixed evil and are new features in the Church. Not so when the appointing power selected by the church for this work com- mands the transfer for general good. The Conference of 1835 met in Savannah in January. James Jones, Francis M. Smith, John E. C. Hains, Joseph Edwards, Thomas Williamson, David Dailey, Thomas L. Thomas, George W. Person, George W. Cotton were admitted on trial, but none of them remained long in the conference. They all went back into the local ranks, and of some of them I have no knowledge. Thomas L. Thomas was long a worthy local preacher, who was one of the earliest citizens of Atlanta. George W. Person was for many years a local preacher in Houston. Henry P. Pitch ford was long a worthy member of the Georgia Conference. Without striking gifts, he was zealous, pious, and in every way a worthy man. James Jones served the Church as a travelling preacher for many years. A plain man, with but limited education, he won his way by patient industry and faithful service; on the hum- blest missions to the negroes or poor white people he toiled much of his time, and left evidences of how well he worked in the har- vest he garnered. Miller H. White, after a rapid advance in the early days of his ministry, was forced by failing health to take a supernumer- ary relation. He studied medicine and practised for many years ; then returned to active work, where he was very efficient. Tt was during this Conference year that the Manual Labor School, of which we speak more fully elsewhere, began its active Georgia Methodism. 219 work, with George H. Round as its classical teacher, and that an agent was appointed to collect funds for it, as well as one to collect for Randolph Macon College. John Howard was agent for the Manual Labor School, and Elijah Sinclair for Randolph Macon. Among those admitted on trial, who traveled only a little time, were Alex McAlpen, Wyatt R. Singleton, William F. Jones, Ab- ner Pennington, James R. Smith, Reuben E. Oslin, John M. Vestal, Osborn R. Franklin, Isaac Faulkenberg, Robert S. Wil- son, Alfred M. Batty, John B. Davis, William Quantock, James E. Godfrey and Charles L. Hays. Hays was a useful preacher, who, after some years of faithful work, was superannuated, and died in the Conference. Noah Smith was for many years a very useful and popular preacher on the circuits, and died a superan- nuated preacher. J. T. Turner was a useful preacher and presid- ing elder of Southwest Georgia. CHAPTER II. 1 836- 1 840. There were two conferences in 1836. The first was held in Macon, January 13th, Bishop Andrew presiding. John Howard for the last time was secretary. Eighteen were admitted on trial. Jno. W. Glenn began his itinerant ministry at this conference. He was then a man of mature years, was a successful mechanic, and a man well-to-do in the world. He had prominent place among his own county people, and had been elected Judge of the Inferior Court. He had decided to enter the legal profession, and had begun to study law when John Howard influenced him to yield to his convictions of duty and become a traveling preacher. He was so able a preacher, and withal possessed such fine ad- ministrative capacity, that he was placed in the presiding elder- ship, and filled the office for many years with very signal ability. He was a man of unusual parts. Without making any claim to great learning, he really possessed that best of learning — a knowledge of men and things. He was recognized as a wise man everywhere. Statesmen respected the value of his opinions, farmers and mechanics were ready to take his advice, while in the Church his decisions were almost always accepted. He did not speak a great deal, but whenever he did his words were few, pointed, and forcible. It was very rare indeed for the conference to go against his will. He was for years a presiding elder and on large districts, and all those higher qualities which are de- manded in one who has to control hundreds of churches and thousands of members were brought into exercise. In the often intricate questions of church law which were brought before him, he evinced remarkable legal ability. The work he was called to do was very difficult and entailed much labor ; but he did his work without a murmur. He did not seem to have much gentle- ness in his nature, and those who saw the stern-looking man in the pulpit, savagely shaking his enormous head as he poured out, in homely Saxon, stirring invectives against some popular evil, little dreamed how gentle and tender he was towards the feeble. He was a man of rare pulpit power; and, although he was always plain and spoke for plain people, he was yet so racy and so strong that he was as popular in the large cities as in the rural districts. Although one of the plainest and most con- servative of men, he was willing to see when the day had passed Georgia Methodism. 221 for anything to which he had clung with affection, and to accom- modate himself readily to change. To the younger preachers he was a father indeed. He continued for many years an active preacher, and when his work gave way remained in cheerful retirement until the end came, when peacefully and triumphantly he passed to his reward. For years Dr. Lovick Pierce had insisted that the meagre sup- port of the preachers, and the want of success in many depart- ments of church work was owing to the great size of the circuits, and that the demands of the country villages required that a preacher should live in them and go around his circuit every two weeks. This proposition alarmed many preachers and people. If a preacher was not supported on the Cedar Creek or Apalachee Circuit, with its thousand members, and including nearly three counties each, how could one county support a preacher. It was a question of simple arithmetic, but for once figures lied egregi- ously. The smaller circuits did much better than the larger ones had done. The Cedar Creek, Apalachee, Alcovi and Ocmulgee Circuits are heard of no more. Many precious memories clustered around these names, and they were not readily given up ; but they were now surrendered, and the location of the circuits was now indi- cated by the names they bore. There were generally from ten to fourteen churches in a circuit, and they were to be supplied with public service every two weeks. The Forsyth Circuit had a new circuit formed from it — the Knoxville. The Apalachee was divided between the Madison, Watkinsville and Greensboro, and this name, so dear to the old Methodists, ceases to be. The county of Jones was separated from the Cedar Creek Cir- cuit, and James B. Payne was sent in charge of it. In this circuit lived John W. Knight. He was an infidel tailor. He was a man of really fine intellect, but was reckless in life as he was sceptical in his religious views. The preacher became attached to him, and used to go to his bench to talk with him. At last he persuaded Knight to go to the church ; he did so, be- came convinced of the truth of Christianity, and said, if not audibly yet sincerely, "I surrender," and was at once converted.* He began to work for his Master, and for thirty years was a most useful traveling preacher. Wm. J. Parks was on the Macon District, and found his work *His own words. 222 History of farther away from home than before. His highest hope was to see his family a few days six times during the year, and such was his industry that he held the plough while he was at home, till he often left blood-stains on it. Samuel Anthony was for the second year on the Perry Circuit. It then included Houston, Pulaski, and Dooly, with parts of Bibb and Crawford. During the summer of 1834 a mighty awakening was felt. This revival influence continued during the year 1835. The total number of accessions, white and colored, was 1,336. This was in addition to the accessions by certificate, which must have been numerous. There was a manifestation of power like to that in the early days of the century, when men in their strength fell senseless under the weight of their emotions. Houston County had now become thickly settled with a fine population, many of whom were South Carolina Methodists. From this date Methodism was established in this whole country, and there are now three prominent stations and four circuits where this circuit was. There were several large camp-meetings on the circuit, and they were, as of yore, seasons of general ingathering. Jno. W. Talley, G. F. Pierce, Wm. Arnold, Wm. J. Parks, G. A. Chappell, Isaac Boring, Jno. L. Jerry, and Geo. W. Carter were a fine corps of presiding elders — some of them young and ardent, some of them old and experienced — all of them gifted and pious. No one who has not carefully studied Methodism in her for- mative state can realize the vast importance during that period of an able presiding eldership. These filled the double office of evangelists and bishops. A metropolitan in the early Church had very rarely such a territory under his survey, and many, very many Right Reverends, who boast loudly of apostolical descent, have not nearly the number of communicants, or preachers under their supervision, as these presiding elders in Southern Method- ism. George F. Pierce, now in the fifth year of his ministry, was placed on the Augusta District. It was a compact district in the^ heart of Middle Georgia, and included a part of the State in which Methodism had been longest established. In 1809, his father, then the youngest man in the office in America, had travelled a part of the same district. The son was now about the age his father was at the time he was invested with the office. He entered upon the work with enthusiasm. His love for the planting people of Georgia, with their plain and unpretending ways, had always been ardent, and where many a young man of REV. EUSTACE W. SPEER. JUDGE L. Q. C. LAMAR. Georgia Methodism. 225 culture and refinement would fret and complain at hardships and want of congenial society, this young preacher found only delight. Travelling his district in a buggy, leaving his fair young wife for weeks at a time ; from one quarterly conference to another, from one camp-meeting to another, he went to work with all his strength and ardor. He was laboring for souls, and God crowned his labors with great success. While young Pierce was firing the hearts of his preachers, and inspiring the people with a higher hope, Isaac Boring, in a more difficult field, was laboring with equal ardor. Boring possessed two qualities that fitted him emi- nently well to the field in which he worked. One was very strong common sense, and the other was invincible pertinacity. He knew no such word as defeat, and he dared all the dangers of his really perilous work with a fearless heart. Jno. L. Jerry, in Flor- ida, was a born hero. The story of his life, if fully told, would read like a romance. He was bravely facing the angry Seminole, and the no less deadly malaria that exhaled from the swamps. Nor was the work of Geo. A. Chappel much less difficult. From Carroll County to Fort Gaines he was forced to travel. The first settlement of the country is always followed by times of sickness amounting almost to pestilence, and he travelled where ague and fever raged almost universally. Despite the fact that the work was so well done, there is reported a decrease of 1,398. This result may be attributed to the greater attention to church records. They were at the first very carelessly kept, but Dr. Few had in- troduced a resolution at the conference before, that the preachers in charge should be required to keep a record book, and when the records were revised, it may be that numbers were left off, but it is evident that the revival spirit was not high. The year 1836 was one of those which are known as flush. Cotton was high. Speculation was wild. Paper promises were abundant. The new cotton lands of Southwest Georgia were then most pro- ductive. Railroads were being projected, and all things seemed to be on the tide to success. To make more cotton, to buy more negroes, to buy more land, to make more cotton, and so on in a vicious circle, seemed to be the ruling aim of the planter. The country was wild in its pursuit after wealth, but God was provid- ing something better than money — a great revival — and to pre- pare the way for it the rod of a terrible chastisement was lifted, but ere it fell the church suffered spiritually. The second conference during the year 1836 was held in Co- lumbus, December 7th. There was no Bishop present at the beginning of the conference, and Wm. J. Parks was selected to 226 History of preside. Bishop Andrew reached the conference on the ioth and took his seat. Whiteford Smith, who had been transferred from the South Carolina Conference the year before, was the secretary of the body. It was an interesting session. Columbus had now been settled a little over ten years. It had grown with great rapid- ity, and was already a thriving city. Dr. Pierce and Samuel K. Hodges had their homes in it, and many old Putnam and Greene County Methodists had removed to it. It had been noted from the beginning for its liberal views and generous contributions, but during this conference it did an act of unprecedented generosity. Dr. Pierce, who lived in Columbus, asked for a list of preachers in active work who were deficient in quarterage. The report was given him; the amount of deficiency was $1,851. In a day or two he presented to the conference the whole amount, which had been raised by the citizens of Columbus. It was a noble deed nobly done. For the first time in the history of the church in Georgia every deficiency in salary had been provided for. There were twelve admitted on trial. William D. Bussey, P. P. Brooks, Gaston Farrar, B. F. Wells, E. W. Story, Edwin White, J. J. Taylor were connected with the conference but a few years, while Alfred T. Mann, Walter R. Branham, Alfred Dowman, John P. Duncan, Josiah Lewis did long and efficient service. W. D. Bussey was a gifted and useful traveling preacher for some years. Then he located and settled in the thinly-peopled wiregrass country; then returned for a short time to the itiner- ancy, but his health failed and he gave up the pastorate and died in the local ranks. Josiah Lewis was admitted at this conference this year. He was a sturdy Welshman by descent, of good education, and of superior mind. He had been brought up in the country and was always a man of plain ways. He was remarkable for his strong common sense and his piquancy and bluntness. Fearless and plain-spoken, he said what he thought ought to be said, without concern as to how it would be received. Once while he was pre- siding elder on the Augusta District, seeing, as he thought, the negroes neglected by their masters, he determined on giving some stern rebukes to the slave-owners. He was fearfully severe in his denunciation of their course in withholding from the negroes their just due of food and clothing. A negro hearer, enraptured by a tirade so in accord with his own views, burst into an ill- timed shout of "Glory." "Shut your mouth," said the aroused preacher, "you'll be stealing your master's chickens tomorrow night if you get a chance." Georgia Methodism. 227 He was preaching to a city audience on Moses' choice. "Yes," he said, "Moses might have drank champagne, driven fast horses, and gone to balls and to the theater and had a great time. But," said he, raising his voice, "Moses was a man, not a hog." He was a faithful worker in all fields until he was stricken by paraly- sis, when he returned to his humble home near Sparta, where in perfect peace he died. John P. Duncan, who joined the Conference, was born in Penn- sylvania ; but his father had met with reverses and finally moved to North Carolina. Here or before he came, young Duncan had been converted. He was very emotional and sang beautifully; and in connection with Dr. John E. Edwards, himself a country boy, he held meetings in the rural homes of Guilford. He came to Georgia as a young mechanic, and soon after decided to join the Conference. He entered it in 1836, and died in it. He was one of the most earnest and energetic of evangelists. He never failed to have an awakening, or, as the old preacher called it somewhat irreverently, "a stir." He was a very courtly gen- tleman, of bland ways, who dressed with great neatness and ab- jured the conventional uniform of the early preachers. His florid style, his gushing emotion, his gentle ways made him very popu- lar. He was a great favorite and co-worker with Bishop Pierce, who had been on his district and who highly valued him. He was withal an excellent man, of a loving, tender nature, and did much permanent good. He lost his sight from cataracts and never fully recovered it ; but despite his blindness, he moved among his old friends and still did faithful work for the Church. He died very suddenly after a life of great activity and usefulness. W. R. Branham, who joined the Conference the same year with Duncan, and who died in connection with it, was the son of Dr. Henry Branham, of Eatonton. He was a graduate of the State University. His father was a man of wealth and of high social position, and married into the family of Josiah Flournoy. He was the prospective heir of a large property, and the itinerancy at that time gave little promise of a life of ease; but he was most decidedly religious and entered on his work with the purest mo- tives. He was a man of wide reading, thoughtful, sincere, and tender, and was greatly beloved. His work was continuous, and he was on Districts, Circuits and Stations, and gladly welcomed everywhere. He lived to be eighty years old, and for some years was superannuated. He was well called the "St. John of his Conference." Alfred T. Mann, who joined the Conference this year, was 228 History ok in all respects a superior man. His father was one of the oldest and worthiest members of the Methodist Church in Augusta, and his mother a woman of great saintliness. He was a bright, intellectual young fellow, who had the best educational advan- tages. He went to Randolph Macon, while Dr. Olin was Presi- dent, and was converted while at college and resolved to enter the ministry. He joined the Conference and was sent on a very large up-country circuit — a city boy of prospective wealth, a college graduate, and one who was entirely unacquainted with the rustic ways of the plain people among whom his lot was cast, and withal bubbling over with mischief, he found it some- what difficult to accommodate himself to his surroundings ; but he did so, and soon evinced the fact that he had sterling and staying qualities. He soon rose to the highest place among his brethren, and held it to the last. He was very gifted and was always heard with pleasure. A true gentleman, a man of wide reading, of genial manners, and of genuine, though not demon- strative piety, he was one of the most valued members of the Conference. He married the gifted daughter of Dr. Pierce, who was for years his efficient helpmate. He had all kinds of work; was on circuits, districts, and stations, and always did his work well. In December, 1837, there were admitted to trial fifteen. This class is remarkable from the fact that onhy one of the members remained in the Conference many years or died in it. The rest all retired to the local ranks, and I am unable to give an account of most of them. Reuben E. Oslin, one of the class, was long a local preacher in Atlanta — a steady-going, faithful man. Claiborn Trussell, long known as "Uncle Claib," was to do long, faithful and hard work and die an honored and beloved superannuated preacher in his humble home in Carroll County. He was not gfted or cultured, and he knew it — but he was a man of good sense, simple utterance and profound piety. He went where he was bidden, and did the best he could. Oftentimes the work was hard and the privations great, but the brave man and his brave wife never shrank. His life was a benediction, and his death a triumph. This year was one of gracious revivals, and there was progress in all directions as Georgia was receiving many immigrants from older States. During the month of May, the Southern Christian Advocate began its career. From this time forth, we have at least glimpses of the every-day working of the Church, and are thus able to Georgia Methodism. 229 present a fuller account than we have hitherto had niater id for Willis D Matthews writes during the year from the Green ■iu r -ruit 1 a there had been evidences of deep religious in- ^WtoSttS at length resulted in a gracious sweep rTrevrval and which began in this interesting and remarkable waV Some httle girls ancl a young lady were visiting the house oil' Methodist The father and mother were away The ch Id nronosed as bed-time came, that they should have the usual de- ?Xs The Bible was brought out, and after reading a chapter Ih knelt in prayer. The young lady became deeply -attend a ud under the praver of the child was converted. Ihe parents re ^ed oon aTterward and found them rejoicing. A mce tmg was appointed in the church near by, and the fire kindled at that 7amify al U blazed all around the circuit. Many were converted AltLu-h in 1834 and 1835 there had been such a wonderful wo^kt Cston yet during this year, under the mmistry of B. Payne and Charles L. Hays over 300 were converted On the Watkinsville Circuit, under the charge of Jno. W. Glenn and Walter RBranham, then in his first year, there was a gracious revival and on the Forsyth Circuit, Samuel Anthony in charge, °^^^r^^n g and there were many^rd- ships to be encountered. Through many portions of Glenn s work there were only Indian trails for roads and the dusky ravages were yet in the new country-but he was well suited for iTworlT brave in heart and strong in body able to command and To control; scorning all effeminacy, and cheering his preach- er bv the force of his example, no man could have done the dif- ficult work better than himself. He had fifteen Poachers and nearly five thousand members under his charge, and nearly one- fourth of the State to travel over. During this year that portion of Georgia which lies north of the Blue Rid-e was divided into circuits, and supplied with 'read ers tm the Holston Conference^ It was called the New- town District and D. B. Cumming was the presiding elder There wis the Chattooga, Spring Place, Newtown, Ellijay, Hiwassie, 7a leytown CooStown and Oothcalooga Missions. They were all supplied with young unordained men, the only elder in the district being E. Still, on the Elijay Mission. At the next Con- ference 66s members were reported in this portion of the work. Many Cherokees still remained in this section, and 752 were re- ported in the Cherokee Mission in Upper Georgia, Upper Ala- bama and East Tennessee. 230 History of For the history of the mission work among the Cherokees in Georgia, the reader is referred to a succeeding chapter. The work among both whites and Indians in the Cherokee country, under charge of D. B. dimming, includes Chattooga, which reports 296 members; Elijay with 126, and Blairsville with 161 ; Valleytown, Coontown and Oothcalooga with 570 Indians. This work called for great heroism, and we have the before-told story of the hardships of the hardest frontier which awaited these devoted men ; but a glorious success attended their efforts. The Spring Place Circuit included the counties of Murray, Gor- don, and Whitfield; the Elijay, the large counties of Gilmer and Fannin, and a part of now Lumpkin; the Blairsville, Union and Rabun, and a part of now Lumpkin contiguous to these counties. Spring Place at this time was the centre of a very thrifty country. Few sections of Georgia have been so soon peopled by a class of enterprising settlers as the rich valleys of Murray and Gordon, and few people have been of ruder manners than many of them. As yet the railroad had not been built, and this valley was the centre of influence, and noted for its wild, reckless wickedness. Here Vann, the Indian chief, had his elegant residence ; here the Moravian Mission had been established, and here was the seat of those parties who waged an internecine war in Upper Geor- gia. The preacher in charge reported 190 white members, and only five colored. The district of John W. Glenn adjoined this Holston District. The total amount collected for the conference in this entire dis- trict was a little over seventy dollars. This is an indication of what the preacher and presiding elder received. There were only two missions in the district, and the preachers were dependent upon quarterage alone. As an illustration of what each one was paid, we find that Josiah Lewis received fifty-five dollars from the conference fund, not having secured $200 all told on his work. Nor was this meagre pay alone given to this district, but it was thus over the whole conference. There were as yet very few parsonages in the State, there were twenty-five who had homes of their own, in a conference of perhaps not more than fifty married men in active work. The difficulty of making ap- pointments was greatly increased by this state of things, and oftentimes appointments which were considered very afflicting resulted only from the fact that the preacher could not move his family. At this conference James E. Evans was transferred to South Carolina, and James Sewell came to Savannah. Of James Sewell, Georgia Methodism. 231 who was a remarkable man, we have given a sketch in another chapter. James B. Payne was sent to LaGrange Circuit. Methodism had been in fertile soil in this new section of the State; and, though the LaGrange Circuit had set apart the Harris and Green- ville Circuit, yet in the county of Troup alone there were 528 members, but during this year there was a most remarkable and memorable revival in LaGrange and the county around it. From his entrance into the ministry, James B. Payne had been won- derfully successful in winning souls. He found much apathy in religion in the town of LaGrange, and, although there were many valuable members of the Church there, there was much open wickedness. He told his brethren, one Sabbath, that his time was so limited that he could not visit them all at their homes, but wished to meet the members at the church the next morning at nine o'clock. When the morning came, a few were there. While they were engaged in Christian conversation a lady, not a member of the Church, became deeply affected. With this the work begun, and night services were appointed. The young men of the community had enterprised a ball, and although the meeting was going on, the ball was not postponed. The church was lighted, and so was the ball-room. The ball went on, so did the meeting. The managers of the ball were conscious of having done wrong, and the next morning the leader of them proposed that they should go to the prayer-meeting. They did so. Several of them became penitent. They were nearly all converted, and the managers of that ball became the leading members of the church in LaGrange. At the camp meeting that year 120 were converted. There was a total accession to the Church on the circuit of over 500 members. There was a race-track near the town, and a great lover of the turf had invested largely in it. In the revival, the leading patrons of the track were converted, and a race and a ball was an impossibility. The racer had a fine horse, and as a retaliation he named him Jimmy Payne, and so the race-track became familiar with the name of him who had been mainly the instrument of making at least one track useless. The Baptists and Presbyterians joined heartily in the meeting, and all the churches were greatly blessed. The next year La- Grange became, in connection with West Point, a station, a place each has separately held to the present time. Whiteford Smith, who had spent one year in Augusta, was sent this year to Athens. The membership there was one hun- 232 History of dred and one, and among them were some most excellent people. During the year there was a gracious revival, of which we have given account elsewhere. The total increase in the State was 3>°9 l - The Conference met in the village of Eatonton, December n, 1838, Bishop Andrew presiding. There was great interest in the two colleges, the Wesleyan in Macon, and Emory. The Relief Society, afterwards the Preachers' Aid Society, was incorporated. Missions were attracting much attention, and the preachers were instructed to preach on the subject. The class received was a remarkable one in some respects. They were : James B. Jackson, Andrew J. Deavour, James J. Winn, Thomas L. Rawls, John Richards, Robert J. Cowart, James Scaife, Thomas C. Coleman, Gadwell J. Pearce, E. B. W. Spivey, William Mills, W. D. Martin, Nathaniel H. Harris, John W. Knight, Anderson Peeler, Thomas W. Cooper, and Augustus B. Longstreet. While many of this class soon dropped out of the traveling connection, there were seven who remained as itinerants until their deaths. Winn, Rawls, Richards, Scaife, Spivey, Mills, Harris, Cooper, traveled only a short time. William D. Martin, who located, was a useful local preacher in Meriwether County. Cowart located, studied law and became a great politician and left the church, and Anderson and Peeler went to Florida. G. J. Pearce, as he is written in the published minutes, was Gad- well Jefferson Pearce. He had sprung from the same family from which Bishop Pierce had sprung, and had many of the traits be- longing to that gifted race, although he never knew or claimed any kinship. He was a wild, reckless youth when he was converted. He entered the ministry and was remarkably successful as an evangelist. He was selected as agent for the American Bible So- ciety, and was one of their most efficient officers, when he was prostrated with a severe and long continued attack of rheumatism. He was agent of the LaGrange Female College and then its presi- dent ; and then as Sunday School agent was a most successful re- vivalist. His last work was in the pastorate. He was a man of marked individuality. Fearless, chivalric, manly, he was greatly prized by those who knew him best. Few men have made a stronger impress on men than he did. His health finally gave away, and he retired to his home in Decatur, where he died. James B. Jackson was admitted on trial at this time. He had been a very poor boy, who worked as a day laborer, and although quite a youth, could not read. He was employed by a good Pres- byterian to pick cotton for him. The children of the family took Georgia Methodism. 233 great interest in him, and taught him to read. One of the daugh- ters gave him a New Testament, and that was his first, and then his only book. He spelled his way through it, and its influence and their counsels brought him to Christ. He now applied him- self to study, and improved rapidly. He began to teach, then was licensed to preach and entered the conference. He soon rose to high place. He was on all kinds of work — circuits, stations, and districts — and always did his work well. His mind was very philosophical in cast, and he was a fine meta- physician, and perhaps too fond of speculation. He was trans- ferred to Florida to meet a demand in that conference, after he had been nearly thirty years in active work in Georgia. There was promise of much work before him, when in a railroad acci- dent he was so injured as to soon die, but not before he left his testimony to the precious consolation of the truths he had preached. Augustus B. Longstreet, of whom we have spoken before, was admitted into the travelling connection at this conference. He had filled the highest places in the State to which he had aspired, and there was no position which he might not have reached if he had sought it, but he came in the maturity of his manhood's ripest powers and presented himself as an applicant for admission to the conference, and for his quadrennium of study. Although he was a graduate of Yale, and had been on the judicial bench, yet he went through his regular examination at every conference, not only on the deep subjects of theology, but on English gram- mar and geography. The only adverse report against him was that he tripped in his examination on English grammar. He was this year appointed to Augusta, but the next was called to the presidency of Emory College as the successor of Dr. Few. Of his career here our chapter of the college gives account. After some years in Georgia he was called to the presidency of Cen- tenary College, in Louisiana, and then to that of the University of Mississippi. His family consisted of only a wife and two daugh- ters, the eldest, Fannie, the wife of Dr. Henry Branham ; and the second, Virginia, the wife of the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar. They all removed with him to Mississippi. The burdens of his office be- came too heavy for him, and he resigned it, expecting to spend his old age in peaceful retirement, but he was called from that by an invitation to take the presidency of the South Carolina Col- lege. It was, perhaps, the only call which could have drawn him from his quiet home: but early association with Calhoun, his friendship for McDuffie, his taste for Carolina politics, and the 234 History of general features of the old Carolina society, than which none could have been more delightful, overcame his reluctance and he went to Columbia. The war found him again in Mississippi. When it ended he was in body feeble, yet still mentally strong, and com- forting himself, as he contemplated the wreck of all things about him, with the precious consolations of Christ. At last his dear wife, who had been his life-long strength and joy, passed from him; and he soon followed. John W. Knight was one of this class. He had drifted into the interior of the State, where he was employed at his trade as a tailor. He was a pronounced infidel. He had read Paine's "Age of Reason," and had accepted its statements as true. He would not admit the truth of the Bible nor even swear upon it. He had been a drunkard, but he had now ceased to drink to excess, and behaved himself with great propriety. The village tailor shop was in those days a favorite place for social gatherings, and Knight was a pleasant companion. Among those who visited his shop frequently was the village pastor, James B. Payne, and one of his leading members, a wealthy planter. Colonel Flewellen. Payne did his best to turn the erring tailor into the right path, and so did Flewellen. Knight increased Flewellen's fondness for him by quieting what threatened to be a serious riot. Flewellen was taken very ill and sent word to Knight that he wished to see him. Knight refused to go. Flewellen grew worse, and sent to him, saying: "Tell Jack Knight I died praying that he might meet me in Heaven." They were holding a meeting in Clinton. Knight came into the place where the meeting was held. He sat moodily for a little while ; then rising from his seat he walked rapidly forward to where the preacher was, and stretched out his hand, saying: "Parson, I surrender." He was at once converted ; was soon licensed to preach; entered the conference, and died in it. He was one of the most useful, guileless, gifted men who was ever in connection with it. He was the Christian of Bunyan who had fearful conflicts and glorious victories. He had little worldly wis- dom and was never easy in his circumstances. His health was frail, and at last it failed him, and after a life of noble heroism he passed away. Andrew Jackson Deavours was admitted at this conference and began a life of great usefulness. He had but moderate talent and but little cultivation. Unlike Knight, he was a child of the forest — he never had an appointment in his life that paid him $500. He was a simple-hearted, sincere, devoted man, who was ready to go anywhere and bear any load if he might do something for his Georgia Methodism. 235 Master. He was greatly beloved by his brethren and was highly valued for his simple faith and thorough consecration, and his end was serene and beautiful. On the nth of December, 1839, the Conference met in Augusta. Bishop Morris was again president. Elijah Day, W. T. Magruder, George W. Farrabee, Jesse W. Carroll, Richard Lane, James S. Lane, John M. Milner, Elijah Y. Hunnicutt, Robert A. Johnson, Sidney M. Smith, Nathaniel G. Slaughter, Thomas J. Fears, Dolphin Davies, Charles W. Evans, R. H. Howren, Levi Goodman, L. G. R. Wiggins, Alexander Means, J. J. McCarty, Anthony C. Bruner, William W. Griffin, and W. M. Crumley were admitted. Of these there were only a few who rendered long and efficient service. Richard Lane, de- scendant of an old and distinguished North Carolina family, a man of good education, of good property, and of sound, solid in- tellect, began a career as a travelling preacher, which only ended when he died, a member of the East Texas Conference. Alexander Means was the son of a Scotch-Irishman in North Carolina. He received a good academic education, and after teaching for some time, studied medicine and entered upon its practice in Covington. He was a local preacher, and was remark- able for his unusual power as an orator. He was selected as Superintendent of Manual Labor School; then made a professor in Emory College, and a professor at the same time in the Georgia Medical College in Augusta. He joined the conference in 1839, and died in connection with it. He was an enthusiastic scientist, and especially devoted to the study of electricity. He was far beyond his day in his ideas of what was to be the future of that wonderful power of God. Much that has been accomplished by electricity was predicted by him, when those who heard him thought him a wild dreamer. He was a most earnest and devoted Christian, and a very popular and useful preacher. He did much valuable work for the Church, and was widely and favorably known in all parts of the Church. He reached an advanced age, and died at his home in Oxford, and was buried there. W. M. Crumley, who was admitted at this conference, was a poor and ignorant, but wonderfully gifted and deeply pious young man, from the mountains of Habersham. His mother was a woman of very great energy and force of character, but his father was inert and thriftless. He was a child of deepest nature, and was converted when a boy, under the ministry of the saintly Rob- ert A. Steele. He learned to read and write after a fashion, and uncultivated as he was, determined to enter the conference. He 236 History of had married a lovely mountain girl before he was of age, who be- longed to a Scotch family of more than usual property for that section. He was so uncultured that the conference rejected his application ; but he applied again, and was received, and sent from Habersham County to Florida. It was during the Indian war, and everything was in confusion. But he did not hesitate taking his wife with him, and leaving their baby girl behind them, he made his way in his little wagon from Habersham for four hundred miles to Madison, Florida. He had to travel through the almost trackless forests of pine woods to find as best he could a temporary home in the cabin of some adventurous stock-raiser, or, in the hummock country, to find shelter with some planter, whom neither exile from society nor the dread of Indians could force from his rich cotton fields. To bear all this exposure, and, worse than this, to have a gentle, loving wife to submit to it, was the introduction of this young and timid itinerant to his work. He had left his only child, a little girl, with her grandmother in Habersham, and brought only his young wife with him. The tender parents were very anxious about their child. He had one dollar left when he reached Florida. He found a family almost starving. The hus- band had been killed by the Indians, and the widow and children were without bread. He gave them his last cent. In Madison he went to the postoffice and found a letter from his kins-people concerning tidings from his child — but alas! the post- age. It was twenty-five cents, and he did not have a farthing. Sadly he returned the letter to the postmaster, and went to prayer- meeting. After it was over, the owner of the solitary candle took it up, and found in the candlestick a five-dollar note. As no one claimed it, he gave it to the preacher. The work on which young Crumley was, had to be marked out. The Indians still lurked in the swamps, and often, as he tracked his way through the forests, he would see where the bullet of an Indian had spilled the blood of a foe. Once he found that the family with which he had hoped to spend the night had fled to the block house six miles away, and it was already dark. At the great hazard of being shot by the Indians, or mistaken in the dark by the whites as an Indian and shot by them, he reached the fort and succeeded in making himself known. He passed, however, through the year without any injury, and returned to his mountain home again. He served hard circuits and missions, and became noted for the wonderful fervency of his piety and the remarkable success of his work and his native eloquence. He was steadily in public notice ; was sent to the largest cities ; and Georgia Methodism. 237 while in Savannah was blessed with one of the most famous re- vivals ever known in that city. The yellow fever came the next year, and he bravely stood at his post. His colleague died. He was stricken and came near death, but recovered. He never had an unfruitful year. He was greatly loved and highly honored; and at sixty was stricken with a stroke of apoplexy, and for several years was an invalid. He died in peace. His son, How- ard, is a member of the North Georgia Conference. The land had been well prepared and the seed well sown. The laborers were toiling for a richer harvest, and the next decade will show still greater advancement. The next conference met in Macon, January 20, 1841, Bishop Andrew presiding. Twenty-five were admitted on trial ; among them was Andrew Neese, who died in 1856, after sixteen years of hard and valua- ble work. He was a man of devoted piety, consecrated to his ministry ; acceptable and useful, wherever he went ; plain, pointed and scriptural in his preaching ; gentle and affable in his manners. He was stricken with apoplexy, and had only one interval of consciousness; while it continued he repeated almost the whole of the 21st of Revelation. George Bright, an earnest, gifted young man, was another of the class. He died of yellow fever in Key West, in 1874; had travelled for nearly thirty-four years. George Bright was a striking character. He was possessed of many more than ordi- nary gifts. He was a born controversalist. Other men may combat what they believe to be error, because they are forced into the field; but he delighted in the fray. He was for many years on those charges where he met the most repulsive forms of Calvinism in their practical influence, and when church exclusive- ness was the boldest in its claims, and he had made himself a master of the question at issue, and was ready to defend Ar- minius or attack Calvin at any moment, and he did the work with a zest. He was necessarily a combatant, and fought without malice; but those who did not know him well attributed to bad temper what was really due to conscientious conviction. His health failed him in the regular work, and he entered the school- room. He went from Georgia to Missouri, but here his health failed him again, and after a few years beyond the Mississippi, he re- turned to Georgia, was transferred to the Florida Conference, was sent to Key West. Here he died in peace. George Bright 238 History of was as gnarled and knotty as a live oak, but like a live oak, he had a great, sound heart. Win. J. Sassnett was another admitted on trial. He was the grandson of Philip Turner, one of the first Methodists in Sparta, and the youngest son of his daughter, Rhoda Sassnett. He re- turned from college at Midway, and began to study law with Judge Sayre. He was in the Church, but was not a Christian. A severe attack of sickness that fall brought him to Christ, and he promised God that if He spared his life, he would preach the Gospel. He sent for Dr. Pendleton, his attending physician, and told him what he felt to be his duty. When his family learned his purpose, he met with very fierce opposition from them, and his father firmly refused to assist his gifted boy in his mad course. Hardy C. Culver, one of nature's noblemen, offered him a horse and money to start with. When, however, the father saw his son's determination, he relented, and consented that he should do as he wished. Ten years afterwards the father was con- verted, and died in the faith of the Gospel.* The determined and consecrated young man presented himself as an applicant for admission into the conference, and was admitted. After one appointment in Georgia, he was transferred to Alabama. He was highly gifted, and the prospect of greatest usefulness spread out before him, when he was attacked by acute rheumatism, and after the disease left him his handsome and manly form was bent almost double. He did not, however, complain nor despond, but entered the hall of the college professor. He was professor at Oxford, president of the LaGrange Female College, and then president of the East Alabama University, at Auburn. The war closed this institution, and he returned to his farm in Hancock County, Georgia. Here he remained until 1865, when, in the vigor of his life and the zenith of his fame, he died in the faith. He was delirious a part of the time of his sickness, and as his delirium passed away, he said: "Have I said anything in my delirium a Christian minister ought not to have said?" They told him no. He answered : "Thank God." The American continent has produced few men who had more mind that. Wm. J. Sassnett. He was a broad, bold thinker ; he wrote with great readiness, and wrote much ; he preached with great power and eloquence. His brethren of the Alabama Con- ference say of him: "Though enfeebled in body by disease, he was, nevertheless, a great worker. He never shrank from re- *Dr. Pendleton. Georgia Methodism. 239 sponsibility nor avoided labor. As a preacher his gifts were far above ordinary. Kind in heart, genial in manner, he was the joy of his friends, and the comfort of all about him. Truly a great man in Israel has fallen." Dr. Sassnett was not only a fine preacher, but he was an author of no mean ability. One of those men, however, whose bold opinions and whose elaborate discussions attract only a small circle of thinking men to him. There is no page in his published works but which is filled with striking thoughts. He wrote, it may be, too rapidly, and his thought speculations were not, per- haps, always profitable, but he was by nature a philosopher, and his mind very speculative, and he thought broadly, spoke bravely, on all subjects of public interest. His views on common school education, on slavery, on progress in the church, and on political questions were decided, and his defence of them a very strong one. As far as we can see, he died too early, but God knows best. At this session Edward H. Myers began his life-work. He was born in New York and at this time was twenty-five years old. His mother was a saintly woman and he became in early life a Christian. He was so gifted that it was determined by those who knew him that he should be highly educated, and he was graduated at Randolph Macon College. On returning from college he taught school a few years, and then in the brightness of his young manhood entered the conference. He soon gained high place both as a preacher and as a writer. When the Wes- leyan Female College was reorganized, he was invited to a pro- fessorship in it, and afterwards to its presidency, and went thence to Charleston to edit the Southern Christian Advocate. He re- mained an editor for seventeen years, and was then made presi- dent of the Wesleyan Female College for a second time. He was always fond of the work of preaching and anxious to return to the pastoral field. He resigned his place in Macon and was appointed to Trinity Church in Savannah. He entered upon his labors with great zeal and prosecuted them with ability. When the important commission to settle questions between the two great branches of Methodism in America was selected, he was appointed one of the commissioners. After the happy result of it, he was abiding for a while in the North, when the fearful news readied him that Savannah was visited again by the terrible yellow fever. To return was almost certain death, but he did not hesitate. He hurried home, he threw himself into the midst of the pestilence, he was taken with the fever, in a few hours it was 240 History of announced to him that he must die ; he calmly said he was ready and had been for a long time, and shortly afterward calmly and peacefully died. He died on the 26th of September, 1876. Of the intellect and Christian character of Dr. Myers it is difficult to speak too highly. He was an accurate scholar, a man who thought much and wrote elegantly ; as a preacher he had few equals. He despised all kinds of pretence and always knew well what he claimed to know at all. He was a man of the sternest in- tegrity; strictly truthful in act or word, brave enough for any deed ; he was one of those upon whom all knew when to rely. Conscious of his own sincerity of purpose, despising all duplicity, he never sought to curry favor, but rather scorned it. Those who knew him best, honored him most. Many knew of the might of his intellect, but only his friends knew how gentle and tender was his heart. His escutcheon was without a blot. From early boy- hood to the day he died a martyr to duty, he had gone bravely and unswervingly on. His death, to all Methodism, was a common grief. His son. Dr. Herbert P. Myers, is now of the South Georgia Conference (1912) ; and one of his granddaughters is amissionary to Korea. Seaborn J. Childs, who entered the Conference, was one of those sturdy, faithful, laborious men who have done the Church such service on the hard fields then so common. He was for the large part, indeed all his life, on the frontier, and never had what was called "a good appointment" in his ministerial life of over fifty years ; but he did his work as best he could, and did much for the struggling church. Young F. Tigner sprang from one of the best Methodist fami- lies in Middle Georgia ; had good mind, fair culture, and an ex- cellent character. Walter Knox was a man of remarkable parts. Tall, awkward, unimpassioned — few that heard him for the first time reckoned him at his true worth. He was a man of very broad reading, of very strong common sense, and of the highest integrity. He had the unbounded confidence and love of his brethren, and occupied positions of great responsibility. The Georgia Conference in 1841 entered upon the second de- cade of her history. Although her contributions were by no means liberal, they were much beyond what they had been. She collected through her preachers that year $2,599, f° r superan- nuated preachers, their widows and orphans. The centenary collection bad been very liberal. The colleges and manual labor school had sprung into being, and the subscription to them had BISHOP GEORGE F. PIERCE. REV. W. J. COTTER On Eighty-Fifth Birthday. Georgia Methodism. 243 amounted to over $100,000. The social features of the State had undergone but little change, but that was for the better. A great financial crisis had come, and still its effect was felt all over the State, but yet the Church had prospered. Most of the very large circuits of the periods before had given way, and the circuits were now comparatively small, though still much too large for effective working. A large number of the leading men of the Church in 1830 were no longer present. Andrew was a Bishop; Howard, Pope, Bellah, Chappell, Darley, Winn and Pournell were dead. Warwick, Sneed and Turner were super- annuated. Jesse Boring, after years of usefulness, had broken down, and was forced to take light work; but new, enterpris- ing and gifted men were in their places. Lovick Pierce, Thomas Sam ford, William Arnold and Samuel K. Hodges, of the old line, remained in the field, but Talley, Parks, Glenn, George F. Pierce, Payne, Anthony, Key, Lewis, Mann, were now among the leading working men in the conference — while John W. Yarbrough, G. J. Pearce, P. P. Smith, Jno. C. Simmons and M. H. White, younger men, were doing the hard frontier work that was demanded by the new country which had been occupied. Up to this time, Georgia had never been without a frontier, and the Georgia Conference had held no session with- out appointing some of its members to the wilderness, and the opening of the Creek and Cherokee lands in Georgia, and of the whole of Florida, to settlement, had called for an unusual amount of this work. Forests were being cut down, new villages being built, and the times demanded energy and enterprise. It has been the glory of Methodism that her sons have never shrunk from the hardships of a new country, and that she has always been among the first in the newly opened land. It is this which has given her so strong a hold on the affections of the people. She did not wait for civilization to prepare the way for the Church, but the Church, going first, secured the blessings of refined life to the people. The work was still hard. The circuits had not as yet provided for the comfort of the preachers by providing parsonages. Many of the married had homes, and some of them were necessarily remote from their work, and while the size of the circuit was reduced, the number of new appointments called for as much service from the preachers. Augusta, Savannah, Milledgeville, Athens, Columbus, Macon, Washington, were the only stations. LaGrange and West Point a station together, and the rest of the State was provided with only circuit preaching. While there 244 History of was growth in the country, in the towns the advance was not rapid. The older towns of the State had been much depleted to supply the newer. Greensboro had almost emptied itself into the lap of Columbus and LaGrange, and Eatonton and Clinton into Macon, and so with the older counties. The camp-meetings were still in vigorous existence, though the protracted meetings in many of the country churches rendered them less a necessity. The people were better educated, and so were the preachers. Mercer University, Franklin College, and Emory, were well pat- ronized, and there were high schools over the whole State. The Conference met in Milledgeville, Ga., January 6, 1842, Bishop Waugh presiding. There were eleven admitted on trial. These were John H. Robinson, Andrew J. Reynolds, James B. Tackson, Benjamin W. Clark, Reuben H. Luckey, Leroy G. Les- ley, R. R. Rushing, W. H. Evans, John W. Mills, Sampson J. Turner, William J. Seale. This class of eleven, however, was like many which preceded it. The large number of preachers retired after a short trial of the itinerancy, to local ranks. There were very few parsonages ; few charges gave a support to their pastor, and sheer necessity drove many of those who had families to retire from the itinerancy and make a support for their fami- lies by secular labor. They generally secured farms and settled down. They did not, however, lose their interest in the work, but did most efficient service as local preachers. Among those who were admitted was the afterwards distinguished Dr. Daniel Curry. He had come South to take a professorship in a college, and deciding on the pastorate, he entered the Conference. He was sent to the best appointments, and was in Columbus in 1844, when the troubles between the North and the South began to be so serious. He naturally took the side of his section, and in 1844 returned to the North, where he was soon recognized as a leader and rose to the highest places in the gift of the Church. He was a stern foe of the Southern Church who made no concealment of his strong dislike, and made no concessions or compromises ; but all who knew him recognized him as a man of the most vigor- ous intellect and the sternest integrity. Simon Peter Richardson came up from the pine woods of Tal- bot to begin a ministerial life which extended over half a century. He sprung from a very old and prominent Virginia family, some branches of which were in South Carolina. Here his father mar- ried a Lutheran lady of fine character and of genuine piety. He was by nature highly endowed, and drifted into the Methodist Church, which was the only church on the frontier in which he Georgia Methodism. 245 lived. He began his ministry when he was just of age, and on a hard circuit in Florida. He was very studious, very original, and very pious, and was successful from the very start. He spent most of his early ministry in the Florida Conference, which then embraced all of Southern Georgia. He was greatly admired by the people for the raciness and strong sense which characterized his preaching, as well as for the wonderful power which attended his work. He was untiring in toil and remarkably wise in his measures, and it may be safely said he made an impress on South- ern Georgia and Florida greater than that of any other man of his day. He was a very deep thinker and entertained some views to which his brethren demurred ; but all recognized him as a true man, of remarkable gifts and genuine heroism. The Georgia Conference had now, in 1841, passed her first decade. There had been constant progress. Her preachers were in every part of the State. Every county had a camp meeting. W. H. Evans was admitted on trial this year. He was born in Wilkes County in 1814, was the son of a Methodist preacher, and the younger brother of James E. Evans, who had been for over ten years in the conference. He had been a preacher for nine years before he entered the work. He did effective work for thirty years, and then was called away. He had gathered his friends around him at the commencement at Oxford, when he was suddenly stricken by apoplexy, and painlessly expired. Wra. H. Evans was one of the most useful men the Georgia Confer- ence ever received into its membership, and one of the best-be- loved. He had travelled over a large part of Upper Georgia on hard circuits, and on hard stations and hard districts, and his work was always well done. Souls were converted and the Church was built up wherever he went. He was not a brilliant man, but he was a remarkably sensible one, and withal a man of fine information and of broad and liberal views. He impressed all men with a sense of his deep and earnest piety, and a re- markable success always attended his labors. He had the confi- dence of his brethren as few men had it, and his death was uni- versally regretted. Sampson J. Turner, who afterwards appears under the name Jackson P. Turner, was admitted on trial this year. He was only eighteen years of age. He had a strong mind, almost entirely uncultivated, when he began his work, but which he most diligently improved by hard study. He became a good English scholar, and had a fair knowledge of the elements of Latin and Greek. He was a good thinker and a bold writer. He did not hesitate to attack the views of any man, however great 246 History of his age or elevated his place. He soon rose to high position, and when only thirty-one years old was called from earth. In the Florida District, on which Peyton P. Smith was pre- siding elder, there were three circuits in Georgia: Thomasville, Bainbridge, and Troupville. We have already spoken of the Troupville Circuit, which covered a territory now equal to a dis- trict, embracing in its boundary Clinch, Lowndes, Echols, a part of Berrien, and all of Brooks Counties. Decatur and Thomas Counties were served from Florida, and were respectively in the Monticello and Gadsden Circuits. During this year they were made into separate circuits. A church had been built in Thomas- ville during the year 1840. The county of Thomas was laid out in 1825, and Thomasville was settled in 1826. It was very re- mote from the Atlantic coast, and did its business through the port of St. Mark, in Florida. It had some very fine country tribu- tary to it, but these lands were mostly taken up by large planters, and cultivated by large bodies of slaves. The poorer lands were settled by poor people, mostly stockraisers. Thomasville. though the chief town in all the country, was a small town, and as late as 1 85 1 had a population, according to White,* of only 500. The church was an exceedingly plain building, and after Thomasville had grown to be a place of considerable size, and was a station of some importance, it was still the only Methodist house of worship. It was finally replaced by a neat and attractive church building. The first year it was separated from the Monticello Circuit it was left to be supplied. During this year James Woodie was in charge of it. The Conference of 1842-3 met in Savannah on January 18th. Bishop Andrew was to preside, but he did not reach the Confer- ence in time to open the session, and William J. Parks was chosen to preside. Silas Griffin, of Oglethorpe County, had donated $4,096 to the Conference, which was added to the vested funds of the Aid Society, and William J. Parks was made special agent of the Conference to see after its unsettled business in several parts of the State. Thomas Grant had left a legacy, not only of money, but of lands. These lands were known as "wild lands" and de- manded attention. John McVean had made a bequest to the Conference. William McGee had made a bequest, and Silas Grif- fin had made the Church his residuary legatee. There were now two benevolent societies chartered to care for these funds. The fund of Special Relief and the Preachers' Aid Society. * White's Statistics. Georgia Methodism. 247 E. T. L. Blake, J. Penny, I. U. Miner, W. E. Adams, G. Mc- Donald, Jacob R. Danforth, J. Harris, N. B. Fleming, G. A. Mal- let, Silas H. Cooper, J. B. Wardlaw, R. A. Griffin, and J. T. Smith were received on trial. E. T. L. Blake became a very prominent minister in Florida and spent his life there. So did J. Penny. J. B. Wardlaw was for a long time a member of the Conference, much of it as a supernumerary. Jos. T. Smith was a plain, uncultured man, who died in connection with the Conference. J. R. Danforth was a gifted, pious man, who retired from the Conference after a few years and became a teacher and a faithful local preacher. None of the remaining members of this class remained any length of time in the Conference. The Conference met in Columbus, January 27, 1844. The preachers admitted on trial were : David Blalock, John M. Mil- ner, William A. Florence, Alexander Graham, W. H. Crawford, E. Lucas, Vardy H. Shelton, Francis A. Johnson, William Foster, David L. White, Charles Jewett, Daniel Kelsey, Robert W. Big- ham, Richard Menefee. Of these, Milner, Crawford, Lucas, Shel- ton, Johnson, Menefee soon were lost from the Conference. Alexander Graham, after some years in Florida, went to Cali- fornia, and returning East joined the M. E. Church and died in connection with it. David Blalock was a useful circuit preacher until his superan- nuation and his death. William A. Florence was a man of real parts. He was a forci- ble and earnest preacher — a man of striking peculiarities, but a man in whom his brethren had the utmost confidence. He was very portly, but despite the difficulty of locomotion, continued in his work for many years. Daniel Kelsey was a Northern man, fastidiously neat in his apparel, correct in manners and speech. Careful in attention to all the details of his work, he was long a valued member of the Conference. Charles R. Jewett was a graduate of Emory College. He was the son of a devotedly pious man; was genuinely converted; entered the traveling connection, and whether a preacher in charge of circuits, or on stations, or on districts, he always did successful work. Robert W. Bigham came, a beardless boy, into the Conference, and died in connection with the Conference over fifty years after- ward. He went to California a missionary; spent several years among the miners ; returned to Georgia, and remained in con- nection with the North and South Georgia Conferences as an 248 History of effective preacher on stations or districts, until he had passed beyond his seventieth year. He was a man of most amiable tem- per, greatly beloved by his brethren in the ministry and the people he served. He wrote a number of books which were quite popu- lar, especially his little story, "Vinnie Leal's Trip to the Golden Shore." He wrote much for the Advocates, and his writings were always well received. After fifty years' service he was superan- nuated, and quietly passed away soon afterward. The General Conference was to meet in New York in May, and George F. Pierce, William J. Parks, Lovick Pierce, Jno. W. Glenn, James E. Evans and A. B. Longstreet were elected dele- gates. The abolition and anti-slavery excitement had been of in- creasing intensity. The Methodist Episcopal Church had early expressed its disapproval of slavery, and had as clearly expressed its opposition to abolitionism. In consequence of this position, taken so decidedly by the General Conference, Orange Scott and the extreme abolition wing in New England, after the Gen- eral Conference of 1836, had seceded and formed the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The anti-slavery and abolition feeling, how- ever, had grown rapidly in the West and in New England. Pe- culiar circumstances were now to bring the matter before the General Conference in a very trying shape. The Baltimore Con- ference sent up an appeal case which would necessarily open the question, and Bishop Andrew was the innocent cause of increased excitement and agitation. His gentle Amelia died, and his sec- ond wife, an exceedingly lovely Christian woman, who had been a Mrs. Greenwood, of Greensboro, was a slaveholder. Bishop Andrew became by virtue of his marriage the nominal owner of her property. Years before this a friend of his had bequeathed to his care a negro girl who, after her majority, was to take her choice between remaining as his slave, or going a free woman to Liberia ; she preferred to remain in Georgia, and she became nominally his property. Bishop Andrew did not believe that slaveholding in the South was sinful ; but, nevertheless, he had not acquired this property by purchase or regular inheritance. He was now denounced as a slaveholder, and the extremists of the Church were in great distress at having a slaveholding Bishop. Before the conference met trouble was expected, but the hope which the events of years before had justified, still filled the hearts of the Southern members. The agitation soon commenced, and the debate was opened on the third day of the session on a memorial Georgia Methodism. 249 from the Providence Conference. Dr. Capers began the discus- sion by moving that the motion to refer should lie on the table. The memorial seems to have been very offensive to the South in its utterances, but yet it was referred to a committee. On the sixth day, Dr. W. A. Smith, of Virginia, opened the question again by an earnest and somewhat violent speech, a part of which was levelled against the conservatives of whom he spoke in no gentle terms. He wanted the Conference to say plainly what it meant. If slaveholding was a sin in the eyes of the Church, he wanted the Conference to say so, or to let the question alone. The champions of each side were now fairly arrayed, but the grand question was to be discussed in the appeal of Francis A. Harding, of the Baltimore Conference. By marriage, this brother had become possessed of a family of negroes, which he was un- able to emancipate. He was suspended by a vote of his Confer- ence, and he now appealed. Dr. W. A. Smith appeared for him, the Rev. John A. Collins against him. They were both able in debate, and the feeling of each side was most intense. Harding's case was the more important from these facts : First, that the slaves were his wife's, not his own; second, he could not emanci- pate them in Maryland; third, that he offered if they wished it to send them to Africa. Yet while all this was not denied he had been suspended. The debate of the subject was very full and very able. Dr. Smith was a grand man on the forum, and his opponent had the reputation of being the most eloquent man in his conference. There was, however, no comparison between them in reasoning power. Smith was a giant beside his opponent. Though the speeches of Dr. Smith were of the most conclusive character, and though few who read the account of the trial now will agree that Harding was suspended in accordance with dis- ciplinary rights ; yet so intense was the feeling that, by a strict party vote, the appeal was not sustained. The true reason for this was behind. Another case involving the same questions was to come before the Conference. This case had been prejudged. The victim was doomed before his trial, but the whole South through him was the object of attack. Never was there a deeper feeling of anxiety in the General Conference. The Southern members had already a clear indication of the sentiment of the conference. Olin, Durbin, Bangs, and others from the North, who were reluctant to see the Church torn apart, saw plainly what must result when the great question of the conference came up. Bishop Capers moved the appointment of a committee of pacification. The speeches on this motion were very affecting. 250 History of Dr. Olin's especially. Each party deprecated division. The North did not want division, it wanted slavery condemned. The South did not want division, it wanted only the old position held. Other questions came up, and were settled, and on the 20th of May John A. Collins, of the Baltimore Conference, who had been the stern prosecutor of Francis Harding, introduced the following resolution which brought at last the main question before the conference. "Whereas it is currently reported and generally understood that one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church has be- come connected with slavery, and whereas it is due to the Gen- eral Conference to have a proper understanding of the matter; therefore — Resolved, that the Committee on the Episcopacy be instructed to ascertain the facts of the case, and report the result of their investigations to this body tomorrow morning." The subject was now before them. To many and to most of the conference the whole question was already seen to be settled; no man of the South, however sanguine, could for a moment suppose that the rights of Bishop Andrew, or of the South, or the laws of the Church, could with- stand the current which was sweeping upon them. The church had a slave-holding Bishop. The General Conference was deter- mined that no slave-holder should occupy the Episcopal chair; and before a word was spoken the case was settled. Our pur- pose is to present the part that Georgia took in this discussion, and not to give a full history of the debate, which may be found in Redford's History, and in the General Conference journals published by the Northern Publishing House. On the 22d of May, Alfred Griffith, an old member of the Baltimore Conference, introduced a resolution requesting Bishop Andrew to resign. This he supported by an earnest speech. He was followed by P. P. Sanford; neither claimed that Bishop An- drew had violated any law of the Church, but the Northern mem- ber held that, by his own act, he had rendered himself unaccept- able to a part of the Church and therefore he should retire. Dr. Winans followed in an exceedingly able and impressive speech, vindicating Bishop Andrew, showing that the North and West had determined when Bishop Andrew was elected, in 1832, to elect a slave-holder as Bishop, and attacking the doctrine of expediency, as it was then presented. Dr. Lovick Pierce followed a Mr. Bowen, who made a short reply to Dr. Winans. Georgia Methodism. 251 Dr. P. spoke of his long service in the General Conference, of his unwillingness to make speeches generally, and said that he would remain silent now, but for fear lest the Conference should think he was less decided than his younger and more ardent brethren. This was not the case. The Conference had no right to make the request they proposed to make of Bishop Andrew. For him to yield to this request was to yield a principle vital to the unity of the Church. The doctrine of expediency had been appealed to; the doctor said upon it: "Do that which is m- exoedient for us, because it is expedient for you? never, while the' heavens are above the earth, let that be recorded on the jour- nals of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Do you ask how the matter is to be met? It is to be met by the conservation of principle and regard to the compromise laws of the Book of Discipline. Show your people that Bishop Andrew has violated any one of the established rules, and regulations of this church, and that he refused to conform himself to those established laws, and usages, and you put yourselves in the right, and us in the wrong." Dr. Pierce then told them that he was the oldest active minister in his conference, and that no subject had ever done so much harm to the Church as this meddling with slavery, with which as a church we had nothing to do; and eloquently and earnestly warned the conference against the fearful results which would follow to the Church if they adopted this proposal. The debate took a wide range and was very exciting, Dr. Bangs distinctly stating, that Dr. Capers had been offered the nomina- tion by the Baltimore delegation if he would emancipate his slaves, and Dr. Capers denying positively the fact. Explanations followed from John Davis, the author of the statement, and Dr. Capers that cleared the point up. Mr. Finley now introduced the famous substitute, which read thus : Whereas the discipline of our church forbids the doing any- thing calculated to destroy our itinerant general superintendency, and whereas Bishop Andrew has become connected with slavery by marriage, and otherwise; and this act having drawn after it circumstances which in the estimation of the General Conference will greatly embarrass the exercise of his office as an itinerant general superintendent if not in some places entirely prevent it, therefore — Resolved: That in the sense of this General Conference that 052 History of he desist from the exercise of his office, so long as this impedi- ment remains. J. B. Finley. Jno. Trimble. After a short speech from the author of the substitute, the first advocate of the substitute arose. This was Stephen Olin. His Southern friends knew what he intended to do. He had told Bishop Andrew the course he should take, and his reasons for it, and told Dr. Pierce, weeping as he did, the absolute neces- sity for the salvation of the Northern Church that they should take this course. He knew what would be the consequence of the mildest course the temper of the conference would allow it to take. He knew Bishop Andrew was a doomed Bishop, before a delegate had gone to New York. That, law or no law, he was to be sacrificed, but should he take part in the slaughter? Against this the noble soul of Stephen Olin revolted from its deepest depths; but was it not necessary to save the northern wing of the Church from disintegration? He thought so. He said that his health was so feeble, he felt he must speak early, or not at all, he spoke of the tender relationships which hemmed him in. He preferred the substitute to the original. He did not believe the discipline of the Church forbade a slave- holding Bishop. He did not believe usage forbade it. He did not wish to in- sinuate that Bishop Andrew was not a most desirable man for the episcopacy. He looked upon this question as not a legal, but a great practical one. He had hoped the session would be a harmonious one, and it was not till he reached the Conference that he became aware of the real and sad state of the case. The calamity had come without warning, we must do the best we could. He was not willing to trench upon any rights of his Southern brethren. He was once a slave-holder. He did not believe in abolition. He did not wish to be so considered. He believed that James O. Andrew was pre-eminently fitted to be a Bishop. He said "I know him well; he was the friend of my youth, and although by his experience and his position fitted to be a father, yet he made me his brother, and no man has more fully shared my sympathies, nor more intimately known my heart for these twenty years than he has. His house has been my home. On his bed have I lain in sickness, and he with his sainted wife, now in Heaven, have been my comforter and nurse. No question under heaven could have presented itself so painfully Georgia Methodism. 253 oppressive to my feelings as the one now before us. If I had a hundred votes, and Bishop Andrew were not pressed by the difficulties which now rest upon him, he is the man to whom 1 would give them all." He paid a high tribute to the devotion of Bishop Andrew to the negro race. He spoke of the difficulties in the way of passing the resolution, and yet inflicting no censure, and expressing his opinion that a Bishop was the officer of the General Conference who might be removed without censure. He knew the difficulties in the South, but if the worst came to the worst, and they went off, they would go in a compact body ; not so in the North; there would be distraction and divisions, ruinous to souls, and fatal to the permanent interests of the Church. He would deplore the separation of his Southern brethren from the Church, but if they should go, he should yet regard them with the feelings of a warm, kind Christian heart. He deprecated abolition and the agitation of the subject, but protested against allying the anti-slavery conferences with the abolitionists, and declared that it was no fault of theirs that they were thus pressed. This speech excited much surprise in the South, and among Dr. Olin's Southern friends there were mingled feelings of amaze- ment, grief, and indignation. From many there was only bitter scorn for the man whom they believed had so temporized, but from those who knew him best there was only a deep sympathy at the difficulties surrounding him. Georgia has never been able to give Olin up. He was not like some others, mere sojourners for a night in the State, brought here by accident, and remaining for convenience, but one of her, an inmate of her homes, the husband of one of her fairest daughters, one who had won in Georgia his first fame, and in her borders done his noblest work. We need not follow the debate. It was able and courteous^ in the main, but a Mr. Cass, of New England, made a speech which was an insult to all decency, and to him young Dr. George F. Pierce replied. He was young, ardent, fearless. He had seen the temper of the body; he had just heard slave-holders denounced as villains and men-stealers. He began by boldly stating that he did not expect to change the convictions of any man before him, nor did he feel much solicitude about the question. The question of unity was already settled. He said there was slowly developing, but surely, a plan to deprive Southern ministers of all their rights in the Church. The action of the Conference in the Harding case had brought the Church into antagonism to the laws of the land, the Church 254 History of discipline and the Bible. He did not believe any harm would re- sult to the Church, outside of New England, by sustaining Bishop Andrew. He said : "They are making all the difficulty, and may be described, in the language of Paul, as intermeddlers with other men's matters. I will allow, as it has been affirmed again and again, that there may be secession; societies may be broken up, conferences split, and immense damage of this sort be done within the New England Conferences; but what then? I speak soberly, advisedly, when I say that I prefer that all New England should secede, or be set off, and have her share of church property, than that this substitute should pass. I say, let New England go, with all my heart ; she has been for twenty years a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet us ; let her go, and joy go with her, for peace will stay behind." He said if the South wanted only serenity, she would pray for and de- mand disunion. The passage of the resolution would not dimin- ish, but increase, divisions. He predicted that prominent men would abandon the Church, that in less than ten years there would not be one shred of the distinctive peculiarities of Method- ism left in the conferences that depart from us. The presiding eldership would be given up, the itinerancy would come to an end, and Congregationalism would be the order of the day. The people would choose their own pastors, and preachers would stand idle in the market-places, because no man had hired them. These predictions were bold. They have been often-time refer- red to as rash and not verified, but any man who can see the dif- ference between a name and a thing will see that the ardent young Georgian saw with a prophet's eye. In alluding to Bishop An- drew, he said : "What mean these eulogies — are brethren in earnest? Is this conference heaping garlands on the victim they destine for slaughter? Will you blight with a breath the bliss of this worthy man? Will you offer him up to appease that foul spirit of the pit, which has sent up its pestilental breath to blast and destroy the Church? You select the venerable Bishop, one of the ablest and best of the whole college, to immolate him on the altar of this juggernaut of perdition. Think you that we will sit here, and see this go on without lifting a voice, or making a protest against it? God forbid; God forbid, I say, and speak it from the bottom of my heart." He finished his speech by saying: "I do hope, brethren will pause before they drive us to the fearful catastrophe, now earnestly to be deprecated, but in- evitable if they proceed." Georgia Methodism. 255 This speech had a thrilling effect, and made a profound im- pression. But what availed eloquence or argument? Dr. Longstreet then addressed the conference with that calm- ness and clearness which always marked his addresses. He first alluded to the fact that the Christian religion always lost power when she departed from her appropriate sphere, but that as churches had grown strong, the temptation to do this had been yielded to. Methodism was the pure gospel religion. All rules which did not refer to the fitness of man for Heaven, ought to be stricken out ; in the course Methodism had taken in legislating about slavery, she has gone beyond the Bible. Yet the South submitted, and endeavored to shield the Church from censure ; now the conference proposed to go further. He placed the course of the conference most clearly, and the absurd light in which it stood, by stating it thus : "Whereas Bishop Andrew is a man of most unimpeachable moral character, ardently beloved by every member of this con- ference and in the discharge of his official duties, active, zealous and self-sacrificing, and in his labors of love for the slave espe- cially peculiarly efficient and successful, and whereas, we admit that there is no sin in the simple fact of holding slaves, and noth- ing in slavery inconsistent with the ministerial character, and that nothing ought to be done by the conference to throw distrust upon the presiding elder, or any other preacher of the gospel, merely on the ground of his being a slave-holder, nevertheless, inasmuch, as the Bishop has married a lady owning slaves, which slaves he has settled upon her, which circumstances render him obnoxious to several Northern conferences, therefore, to preserve peace and upon grounds of policy, -..«.,. -i "Resolved, that he be suspended from his official duties, until he emancipate his slaves." With that withering sarcasm that he was so perfect a master of Judge Longstreet exposed the absurd inconsistency of the course they designed to take, and begged the conference to pause. He went into a labored argument, say the reports, to show the legal status of Bishop Andrew, as a slave-holder, that he was involuntarily and irremediably involved as one. Mr. Jesse T. Peck, now Bishop Peck, then arose to take young Dr. Pierce in hand, and administer to him a fatherly rebuke. This he might safely venture to do according to the rule, since no man could speak twice, until all had spoken. As it is not the purpose of this history to do more than give an account of the part the Georgia delegation took in these debates, we refer our 256 History of readers to other sources for a verbatim report of this labored speech. As Air. Peck was about the same age as Dr. G. F. Pierce, and as he was not quite thirty-five, the fatherly tone of the speaker was as amusing as it was offensive, and there was no place for reply. But the Chair allowed Dr. Pierce to explain. The Journal says : "Mr. Pierce rose to explain. "Mr. Peck has made much ado about his remarks concerning New England. He said, perhaps some apology might be due. He intended to say for New England to secede, or to be set off with a pro rata division of the property, would be a light evil compared with the immolation of Bishop Andrew on the altar of a pseudo expediency. He intended no disrespect to New Eng- land. He paid touching tributes to Bishop Soule and Dr. Olin, and then turning to Mr. Peck said : " 'And, sir, I recognize you as a man with a soul in your body, warm, generous, glowing. I admire your spirit, your genius. The beauty of the bud gives promise of a luscious blossom, the early beams foretell a glorious noon. And now, sir, though my speech shocked your nerves so badly, I trust my explanation will not ruffle a hair on the crown of your head.' " Mr. Peck was very portly and very bald. As the speaker turned to him, he put his fan up to his face, covering it from sight, and leaving exposed only the bare crown of his head. The good nature of the fling brought down the house, and any bad temper which had been felt was at once driven away. It is not our purpose, and we have not space to give even an outline of the various points presented as this discussion con- tinued. Any one who reads the debates carefully can not fail to see that slavery as a system had nothing to do with the mat- ter at all, save as it was the occasion for the difficulty. The great question really was: "Has the General Conference the right, without trial, to deprive a Bishop of his office, if in its opinion, without moral delinquency or mental deficiency, he has become unacceptable to any part of the connection?" The discussion was continued by Dr. Green, who brought out forcibly the main point relied upon by the South, that the Bishop was not an officer of the General Conference to be removed at its will; that the General Conference was restricted in its action by the Constitution of the Church ; that Bishop Andrew had vio- lated no law of the Church, and that the General Conference could not legally deprive him of his office. The great speech on the other side was made on Monday, by Dr. Hamline. For the Georgia Methodism. 257 first lime an argument was presented. It was as strong as it could be made on the position that the General Conference was supreme, and could remove any officer of the Church if, in its opinion, he had from any cause become unacceptable to any por- tion of the Church. Dr. W. A. Smith, who was almost without a peer, in debate, followed Dr. Hamline, and in an able speech answered his argument, and vindicated the legal rights of Bishop Andrew. The Bishop, in response to a question whether he had expressed a willingness to resign, said (see page 147, Gen. Con. Jour.) that when he arrived in Baltimore he heard a rumor of the intention of the conference to insist that he must resign or be deposed. If he had violated any law of the discipline, he was willing to resign. If he could secure the peace of the Church by resigning, he would gladly do so. He had no fondness for the episcopacy, and if his resignation would secure the peace of the Church, he would gladly present it, and return to labor among the slaves, and try to save those upon whom their pre- tended friends were inflicting only suffering and ruin. John A. Collins then introduced a preamble and resolution intended as a compromise, which of course came to naught. Bishop Andrew then rose, and said, with deep emotion, "that he had been on trial for a week, and he thought it was time for the discussion to close." He then gave an account of the manner in which he came to be a Bishop. He had been approached by S. K. Hodges with a request that he should be put in nomination for the office. He objected, was urged by his friends, and, for the sake of se- curing peace, consented to be a candidate. No one asked him what were his principles on slave-holding; no man, save Wm. Winans, spoke to him on the subject. He was elected. He be- came possessed of a slave in the way mentioned before. He lost his wife. He desired to marry again. The lady owned slaves. With his eyes open he married her. He could not free them. They themselves would not go ; many of them would neces- sarily suffer if they did. What could he do? He had no con- fession to make. He intended to make none. He had all his lifetime labored for the slaves. He did not think he was unac- ceptable out of New England. He could find plenty of ground where he could labor acceptably and usefully. Yet the confer- ence might take its course. He protested against the one pro- posed as a violation of his disciplinary rights. (Gen. Con. Jour., p. 148.) The other speeches which followed were unimportant, each going over almost the same ground. The venerable Saml. Dunwoody made a speech remarkable for its logic and for its 258 History of Biblical learning on the general question of slavery as a moral evil. The speech of Bishop Soule was clear in its presentation of the legal aspect of the question as well as forcible and elo- quent. Dr. Capers followed with a speech clear, conclusive, and eloquent. It was evident that the Church had reached a crisis in her his- tory such as she had never known; and that if the vote was then taken a division was inevitable. The Bishop knew it, the South- ern delegates knew it, such men as Dr. Olin knew it ; but the ma- jority of the conference did not, and would not know it. The leading men of the north believed that the south would submit without a murmur to the degradation of her much-loved Bishop, and the overthrow of all the safeguards the laws of the Church gave them. They scoffed at the idea of division. The extreme men of the North openly threatened secession, schism and disin- tegration, if the Bishop was not deposed, for this resolution did, in fact, deprive him of his episcopal powers. The Bishops came to the rescue and presented a peace measure, begging the post- ponement of action for four years. Once before this movement had saved the Church, it might do so again. The conference was in no humor to pause, and after Bishop Hedding and Bishop Waugh withdrew their indorsement of the plan of peace they had jointly, with Bishops Soule and Morris, presented, the whole plan failed. The vote must come, and it was taken by Yeas and Nays on Saturday, June ist. One New York man alone voted with the South — Charles W. Carpenter. We have spoken of a young New Yorker in Savannah, in 1819, who stood by the Church there in its day of trial ; now single-handed and alone, he stood by his Southern brethren. Dr. Sehon, of Ohio ; G. Smith, of Michigan ; Sinclair, of Rock River; Stamper, Berryman and Van Cleve, of Illinois; Sheer, Gere, Sargent, Tippett and Hildt of Baltimore; Thompson, White and Cooper, of Philadelphia; Neal and Sover- eign, of New Jersey, and the whole Southern delegation, voted together against the substitute. The Yeas were all from the North and West, save Clark, from Texas. The vote was in to 69. The work was done. The General Conference had declared that it was supreme; that a Bishop elected for life could be de- posed at any time, when in the opinion of a conference, he was unacceptable. Tt mattered not why. The cause might be one entirely insufficient to produce the effect; but, if he was distaste- ful, he might be removed, if there were votes enough to do it. Connection with Masonry, with an unpopular political party — anything might be called improper conduct, and without trial he could be deposed. REV. M. .1. Ci >FER, D.D., Editor Wesleyan Christian Advocate. Georgia Methodism. 261 The majority were entirely ignorant of the extent of the dam- age this vote had done. There was perhaps only one among them that saw it. That was Stephen Olin, the only one who voted for that substitute because he saw in that vote the only way to con- solidate both North and South and prevent schism. He knew the South must go ; he believed this vote would bind her together with bands of iron, and he was right in this view. The enormity of the outrage, the bold announcement made in the deed that never Southern man again should be a Bishop, the disregard of all writ- ten law, the fearful progress of the radicalism which owned a higher law than the written, awakened a storm of indignation, which made a great unit of all the South. Bishop Andrew, crushed and almost broken-hearted, left the conference that night for his home in Georgia. The ordinary work of the General Conference continued until the 5th of June, when Judge Longstreet introduced the declaration of the Southern members (see p. 200, General Conference Jour- nals, vol. ii.), and the following day Dr. Bascom introduced the celebrated protest which is to be found in the history of the or- ganization of the M. E. Church South, and the journals. (Gen- eral Conference M. E. Church, vol. ii., p. 204.) It was an ex- ceedingly able document, presenting a clear view of the whole issue between the Northern and Southern delegates. It was spread upon the minutes. The famous committee of nine, to whom the declaration of the Southern delegates was referred, reported what is known as the plan of separation, which provides for the establishment of another General Conference, in case it became evident that such a result was necessary. The modes by which churches were to adhere to either body was indicated, and provision was made for the division of the Church property. This report of the committee was unanimous, and its adoption was moved by Dr. Charles Elliot. He was followed by Dr. Hamline in a beautiful and impressive speech, and by Dr. James Porter. After a considerable discussion, full of Christian feeling, the re- port was adopted by a large majority. The prospect was now bright that if division should come there would be only fraternity in all the borders of American Method- ism. So it might have been ; but when the delegates returned to their homes, and when what the Southern delegates had told them would come to pass was about to be, measures were at once taken to prevent the consummation of the plan of separation, and years of alienation and strife were the result. The student of this period of history recognizes the old issue of 262 History of 1820, when McKendree resisted the General Conference, as again made. He sees that the General Conference, intentionally or otherwise, took the ground of the advocates of an elective presid- ing eldership, that the General Conference is the supreme judi- cature, as well as legislature, and that its will is to be recognized as the finale. The Southern Churches held different ground. The Bishops were co-ordinate with the conference. They existed, by the expressed will of the Church, before there was a delegated General Conference, and when a General Conference of dele- gates was called its powers were limited by a constitution. The conference which met in Eatonton, January 18, 1845, was the last session of the Georgia Conference of the M. E. Church until after the war, when that General Conference established a conference in Georgia. There had been but little disturbance in Georgia and no serious division of sentiment. All agreed that the time for division had come, and the conference went about its work as one man. There were twenty-one received on trial. They were : John S. Dunn, Albert G. Banks, John B. C. Quillian, John C. Ley, Osborne L. Smith, Robert M. Carter, James M. N. Lowe, Wil- liam A. Smyth, Reuben H. Grifhn, John H. Caldwell, George H. Hancock, John M. Marshall, Nathaniel N. Allen, James Quillian, Freeman T. Reynolds, George W. Pratt, H. H. McQueen, Jacob B. Hogue, Gideon Y. Thomason. George C. Clarke, William J. Cotter. Of these, Pratt, Lowe, Griffin, Ley and George Clarke were transferred to Florida. Banks, Carter, Smyth, Hogue, Thomason, McQueen did but little work in the conference, but there were several who remained in it until they died. J. B. C. Quillian was a mountain boy, of fine character and really bright mind. He was frail in body, and after a few years broke down in health. He was very poetic and fond of the bril- liant images and melodious words ; and when he could no longer preach, he published some books of essays and sermons, and was one of the first authors of the conference. He was a man of un- questioned piety and was greatly beloved by the people among whom lie lived and did much good work for the Church while superannuated. Doctor Osborne L. Smith, as plain Osborne L. Smith, began his life work this year. He was a graduate of Emory College and a man of fine culture. He was exceedinglv popular as a preacher, and was in ?reat demand as a teacher, and was both professor and president of the Wesleyan Female College; professor and presi- dent of Emory ; and while in the presidency there, he suddenly Georgia Methodism. 263 passed away. He was the only itinerant Methodist preacher who has been a member of the Legislature. He was while supernum- erary in Lower Georgia elected both to the House and Senate. John H. Caldwell was a man of very fine gifts and quite a pop- ular preacher. He was a warm Southern man, and Southern Methodist ; but when the war ended as it did, he changed his views; withdrew from the Southern Church, and joined the M. E. Church. He was unpleasantly entangled in the meshes of poli- tics, and finally removed from Georgia to Delaware, where he died a superannuated member of the M. E. Church. He was a man of some literary' attainments and wrote and published the first fiction from a Georgia Methodist preacher. George H. Hancock was a graduate of the State University, a very bright preacher, and a professor in the Wesleyan Female College. He died quite young. John M. Marshall was for many years a most active, useful and faithful member of the conference, who died in very old age, a superannuated member of the South Georgia Conference. James Ouillian was an aged man when he began his work as a travelling preacher. He was a faithful man to the end. Freeman T. Reynolds was a strong, earnest, gifted man, who after years of activity in the Georgia, South Georgia and North Georgia Conferences, became greatly afflicted, and after several years of prolonged suffering, passed away. George C. Clarke was a man of fine person, genuine piety, strong mind and good culture. As a preacher on circuits and sta- tions, and as a Presiding Elder, he did excellent work until he was past three-score and ten. William J. Cotter was a mountain boy whose family lived among the Indians in Murray County. He was converted while that county was in the Holston Conference. He had a better edu- cation than many of his associates, and taught school. He entered the conference and has been for seventy-four years a most valua- ble member of it. He was professor in the LaGrange Female College. He is still living (1912), a Master of Arts by compli- ment of Emory College, a wise counsellor and a devout and sin- cere Christian gentleman. The work of the Church had gone steadily, if not rapidly, for- ward. The frontier features had passed away, except in the mountains and in the pine woods, and the purely evangelistic was being succeeded by an educational era. There was not the slightest jar in the machinery of the confer- ence resulting: from a change of General Conferences. The con- 264 History of vention assembled in Louisville, Kentucky, in May, 1845. Dele- gates from Georgia were : Lovick Pierce, James E. Evans, John W. Glenn, Samuel Anthony, Augustus B. Longstreet, Isaac Bor- ing, James B. Payne. There was no division of sentiment, and in January of 1846, the first Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was held in Athens. It had now been about sixty years since Humphries and Major had crossed the Savannah River to begin work in the new State of Georgia. There were now seven very large districts in the Georgia Conference, and one entire Georgia District in the Florida Conference, and a part of two others, for a very large part of the thinly settled part of the State was in that conference. There were in the Georgia Conference proper 49,000 members, white and col- ored. There had been raised for missions the year of the sepa- ration $5,805.00, and by the conference $1,151.37 for superannu- ated preachers and those deficient in their allowance. The largest amount paid to a superannuated preacher was $162.00, to R. J. Winn, and the smallest to a preacher was to Winsor Graham, who received $6.05. The districts were the Savannah, Augusta, Athens, Macon, Co- lumbus, and LaGrange. The stations were Savannah, Augusta, Washington, Sparta, Athens, Macon, Milledgeville, Columbus, LaGrange. There was being ushered in a new era in State affairs. The railroads, which had been dragging their slow length along, had now reached their uniting point at Marthasville, where At- lanta now is, and one could leave Dalton and travel by rail to Savannah. The great depression in financial matters, which had been so serious for eight years, was now about over, and an era of prosperity had set in. There were but two brick churches in the State, one in Culloden and one in Augusta. There was not an organ then nor for twenty years afterward. The preachers generally dressed in their old style uniform. A cut-a-way coat known irreverently as a "shad-belly," and a white cravat were their distinctive marks. Not a man wore a beard. The broad- brimmed Quaker hat was still in favor. Class meetings were still greatly extolled, and few preachers failed to say much, and say it often, about the ruffles and furbelows and feathers of fashiona- ble Indies. Revivals were expected annually, especially at camp- meeting. The protracted meetings in towns and villages were of annual recurrence. Most of the church buildings were unpainted shells, without stoves or a touch of paint. The preachers on the circuits expected to preach every day in the month, except Georgia Methodism. 265 Monday, as aforetime, for though some circuits were smaller, the appointments were more frequent. The allowance of the preacher was $150.00 a year for a man ; the same for his wife, and a small amount for each child under fourteen. The Presiding Elders had great districts. John C. Simmons went from Darien to Louisville, and from Telfair to Savannah. George F. Pierce, from Augusta to Sparta and to Washington. Russell Renneau, from Marietta to Dade, and across the mountains to the North Carolina and South Carolina line. These districts were all to be travelled on horseback or in a sulky, for buggies were very rare in those days. The preachers in the Florida Conference who travelled in Georgia had to endure the same privations borne by the pioneer preachers in Middle Georgia fifty years before. The two colleges, Emory and Wesleyan, were struggling for- ward under great burdens, but doing good work. The Southern Christian Advocate in Charleston was the organ of the confer- ence, and was ably edited and well sustained. There was an hon- est effort made to provide all with the Gospel, and the colored mis- sions were numerous and well equipped. The salaries of the preachers were very small, and there was little system in collecting them. Many of the people interpreted the term "quarterage" as 25 cents per quarter, to be a full payment for all demands. There was no foreign mission in the Church except among the Indians, and the missionary collection was ap- plied to supporting missionaries to the negroes. Such is a bird's- eyeview of the first Georgia Conference of the M. E. Church, South. There were two conferences in 1846, one in Athens and one which met in Macon in December. There were admitted on trial : Joseph D. Adams, William W. Allen, James Anthony, Francis W. Baggerly, Jones E. Cook, James H. Ewing, Samuel L. Hamilton, Thomas F. Pierce, Joshua S. Sappington, William A. Simmons, Eustace Speer, Davidson Williamson. There were twelve admitted, and from them sprung an unusual number of distinguished workers. Tames Anthony, as he is written, was James D. Anthony, who died while a superannuated preacher of the South Georgia Con- ference. He sprang from the famous Anthony family of which Samuel Anthony, his cousin, was a member. He was a man of large frame and large heart. He had been brought up on the frontier, but had some better educational advantages than most of his compeers. He taught school a short time, but decided to join the conference, and came to it while a youth. He was a man 266 History of of wonderful imagination and of great fluency, and his words were well chosen. He knew the way to the hearts of the people and was wonderfully popular and successful from the beginning of his work. With the exception of a few years of retirement because of family affliction, he continued a travelling preacher to the end. He was remarkably successful as a Presiding Elder in the wiregrass section, and was known as the "Bishop of the Wire Grass." He wrote a charming volume of reminiscences which throws much light on the history of the Church, and of the State as they were in his youth. Thomas F. Pierce was the youngest son of Doctor Lovick Pierce, and a brother of Bishop George F. Pierce. He was gradu- ated at Oxford ; was teaching school at Culverton, and was con- verted at the Hancock camp meeting. He at once began to preach, and for nearly sixty years was an effective preacher. He was a man of great energy and zeal, and was very popular as a preacher. He was highly honored by his conference and was for many years one of its most faithful workers. William A. Simmons joined the conference this year, and died in connection with the North Georgia Conference at an advanced age. He was a saintly man, devoted to his work. He spent some years in California among the mines, then ieturned to Georgia and worked forcefully to the end. Eustace Speer was the distinguished Doctor Eustace W. Speer. He was a young man of fine education, of great loveliness of char- acter, and almost unrivalled as a preacher. He was the Melville of Methodism, but exceedingly modest and retiring, and any pub- lic exercise was a trial to him. He retired finally from the con- ference, and was a professor in the State University. After re- signing his chair there he quietly spent his last days in his beauti- ful home in Athens. There was great religious excitement during this period, found largely among professors of religion, and perhaps the first decided issue joined between the members of the Georgia Conference on any Methodist doctrine was now made on the subject of Christian Perfection. From the days of Asbury and Coke there had never been any question of the truth of the doctrine that after one's conversion there was demanded a work of grace to destroy the least and last remains of the sinful tendency; that this work was to be looked for and prayed for. and that it would certainly come during the earthly life, if not before yet certainly in the hour and article of death. This work was called "Entire Sanctification," or "Christian Perfection." Now and then an old brother noted for Georgia Methodism. 267 his adherence to the old standards, and one who was a man of great piety, preached on it, and a few very timidly professed to enjoy the blessing; but near this time Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, of New York, wrote a little book on the "Way of Holiness," put- ting the matter in a new light. There was, she declared, a shorter way than the one long supposed to be the only one. She told with careful minuteness her experience in finding the great bles- sing. Doctor Upham wrote two books, on the "Interior Life" and the "Life of Faith." The Congregationalists of the North, as well as the Methodists, accepted Mrs. Palmer's views as cor- rect. Doctor Mahan, of Oberlin, O., and the great evangelist, Finney, preached earnestly her views. They were not those taught by Mr. Wesley, but they did not antagonize them, only went be- yond them. There was no long, painful process of seeking for faith, or for the death of sin. We were simply to consecrate all, and believe that the offering was accepted, and that we were cleansed from all sin, and to profess publicly that we had entered in. There were many who accepted her views and professed to be entirely sanctified by this shorter way; but some doubted, and there was a somewhat warm discussion on the subject. But the agitation led to deeper consecration and a larger faith. Many a minister and member was all the better for having had the heart and mind turned to this matter of a higher life. The work was constantly advancing, and the laborers were in- creasing. In Savannah, Athens, Macon, Augusta and Columbus, there were no colored members connected with the white charges ; but they had separate churches of the same faith. At this conference there was a class of twenty-one admitted on trial, among them being James B. Smith, John F. Flanders, Adolphus J. Orr, Joseph H. Echols, William B. Map, Stephen Shell, Wiley G. Parks, Henry Cranford, John M. Bonnell, Wil- liam Moreland, Samuel J. Bellah, Thomas H. Whitby, Wyatt A. Brooks, M. H. Hebbard and Patrick A. Wright. Of these only a few remained for any considerable time in connection with the conference. Henry Cranford, a simple-hearted, uncultivated, but devotedly pious man, when he was required to study English grammar made an honest effort to do it, but said he could not get happy over it, and ^ave it up, and was excused. He died in connection with the conference after having done faithful and earnest work on many circuits and missions. James Bradford Smith was a man of piety and promise, but died early. 268 History cf James H. Echols was a man of lovely character, of fine intel- lect, and of collegiate training. He did not remain long in the itinerancy. \Y. B. Mapp, Stephen Shell and William Moreland all retired early. Samuel J. Bellah, after several years of hard work, was super- annuated, but did useful work in the circuits near him. He was a very meek, gentle, devoted man. Thomas H. Whitby went to Alabama. Wyatt R. Brooks was a useful, faithful man, who did good work in hard places for years. M. H. Hebbard was a man of great faithfulness, but of mod- erate gifts. Patrick Arminius Wright was one of the youngest of the class. lie had better early training than was general in those days, and was a man of generous mind. He travelled some hard circuits, married a lady of wealth, and became a planter. He kept up his studies, returned to the conference, and became one of the leading preachers stationed in the best churches. While stationed in Ma- con, after a most gracious revival his health gave way, and he retired to his home in Columbus, where he died. Wiley G. Parks was a gifted, warm-hearted, mercurial young lawyer, when he came to Georgia. He became wretchedly dissi- pated, was converted, became an itinerant preacher and a Pre- siding Elder, and was one of the most useful men of his time. His health was not good, and because of this, his warm social dis- position and other causes, he fell under the censure of his breth- ren for excess of wine. He was expelled from the conference, but at once came back into the church, and died in it with the full confidence and tender love of all who knew him. Charles Fullwood, as he is written, was a young man only about eighteen years old when he became a travelling preacher. He did very excellent work for over sixty years in Georgia and Florida, and died in the conference room in Florida in 1905. John M. Bonnell was a Pennsylvanian, a man of very fine mind and of very advanced culture. He was a born teacher, and was called from the pulpit which he greatly loved to the school room. He was president of the Wesleyan Female College, when it needed his wise management, during and just after the war. He was not a strong man, and very suddenly he passed away with heart fail- ure while in the bloom of his youth. The camp meetings in Middle Georgia were very numerous. In every county there was one, and in many of the counties more Georgia Methodism. 269 than one. While the camp meetings in the western part of the State, in the mountains, and in the pine woods of Southern Geor- gia, presented in many respects the features which belonged to tiiern in their early history, a great change had passed over them in all Middle Georgia. The arbor, or even the rude shed covered with boards, had given way, and the hundreds of small tents and the multitude of visitors who came in ox carts and covered wagons with cooked provisions to find a few days in worship, were seen no longer. The tabernacle was now generally a large shed cov- ered with shingles, in the midst of a square. On each of the four sides was a row of comfortable, well-covered and roomy tents, as they were called. The planter brought from his plantation a full retinue of servants and an abundant supply of provisions. It was a time of reunion — children, grandchildren and kinspeople came from all directions. The table groaned with abundant and tooth- some viands. Preachers from circuits and stations near by came to greet their old flocks. While there was often a deep religious concern, it could not be disguised that many who were not reli- gious had come to camp meeting for the social enjoyment which the time and place afforded. The meeting was under the control of the Presiding Elder. He was expected, unless a Bishop was present, to preach every day at n o'clock. There was the same routine of services which had been observed from the first: Preaching at 8, n, 3 and at night. Sometimes there was great excitement, but often the meetings were quiet enough to have satisfied Southey himself. The camp meeting, with all its dis- counts, was a great blessing. There was little chance where so many were gathered for grossly criminal conduct, and the rigid policing kept things in order. Friends met, kinspeople were re- united, new acquaintances were formed, and then the most elo- quent and instructive sermons were heard by all the people, many of whom at no other time heard a Methodist preacher. The old time when scores, even hundreds, were converted, was not now; but Bishop Pierce used to say that these meetings in the field would have been been a blessing even if no one had been con- verted during their progress. The protracted meeting was now more common ; but owing to the large size of the circuits, was not often held in the country churches ; but in nearly all the villages and towns a "big meeting," as it was called, was held once a year. About 1837, one of those periodic waves of religious excitement began to roll over the country, and shortly after there was a reli- gious movement not so great as that of 1827, but still one of marked character. Every Methodist preacher in those days was 270 History of a revivalist. The revivalist, as he was called, was at a premium; and there were in the conference a number of most successful men in this kind of work. James E. Evans and his brother William, John W. Knight, Duncan, Anthony, Payne, Crumley, Pearce, Bishop Pierce, Key, Arnold, Cowart and Sidney Smith were re- vivalists of a very high order, and success almost always attended their labors. Then as now there were different gifts, and the men who were noted for success in protracted meetings, and who at camp meetings were in great demand. In Oxford Emory College was located, and James B. Payne was on the circuit. George W. Lane and Doctor A. Means were at the college, and there was a sweeping revival from which came out some of the most brilliant men of the Church. In Athens, under G. J. Pearce, there was a meeting of remarkable power. In Covington there was a great meeting, and in all parts of the coun- try there was a gracious influence ; and the one great aim among all the ministers was to bring about a revival. Ten years before this date the Cherokee Indians had been re- moved to the far West, and into the country vacated by them a flood of people was flowing. The lands of Northwest Georgia were very fertile, the country was very attractive, and from all sections immigrants were pouring in. In the southwestern part of the State, the rich planters from Middle Georgia were settling plantations, and white men of mod- erate means but of good character were being employed as man- agers. It had become apparent to thoughtful men that the colored peo- ple, who up to that time had worshipped in the same charges and houses as the whites, would be better served if they were sepa- rated. So they were encouraged and assisted in building churches of their own in all the cities, and at the expense of the Mission Boards were supplied with preachers. The preacher to the colored people on the city station was often a young man of promise taken from a circuit and sent on a station where a year in one place would give him a chance for study. In Savannah there was An- drew Chapel, and in other cities a preacher was sent on a colored mission. It was a highly honorable position, and was quite a relief to the young circuit riders. In those counties in which negroes were very numerous, there were separate charges known as mis- sions among them, and the missionary contributions of the church were largely spent in this work. The districts had only ten appointments as a rule, and some had not so many ; but the circuits, while they were much reduced Georgia Methodism. 271 in size, and while the plan of Doctor Lovick Pierce, which was to have eight appointments in every charge and two preachers, was being adopted in some of the counties, yet the anxiety to have a strong circuit and the unwillingness to give up the old way, pre- vented the needful reduction of the number of appointments. In the up country and in the newly settled parts of the West, from twenty to twenty-eight appointments, scattered over two or three large counties, was the rule ; and even in the older counties the circuits were very large. The Waynesboro Circuit covered the whole of Burke and Richmond Counties, the Washington all the large county of Wilkes, and the Sparta all of Hancock. The San- dersville Circuit stretched from Milledgeville to the upper part of Laurens. The churches in the country were generally very un- comely and discreditable. The old log church had given way per- haps twenty years before this time, to a rough, unattractive, un- painted, barnlike building, without window glass or stove. People rode in elegant carriages, with servants in attendance, from homes where every comfort was found to a week-day appointment in an unceiled, unpainted barn which they called a church, and after a cold and lifeless service they had the circuit preacher to go to their homes, where he had every luxury that wealth could pro- vide. Men with one hundred slaves, whose income from cotton alone amounted to five thousand dollars per year, gave ten dollars per annum for the support of the ministry and thought they had done well. There were perhaps as many hardships to be endured in some parts of the Georgia territory at this time as in any past period of its history. There was but little more territory to be taken into the work. All of Georgia was now mapped out in circuits and mis- sions, and henceforth the growth was to be from within. Two re- mote points in North Carolina, Murphy and Hiawassee, were mis- sions to which the preachers went from the Georgia Conference. This mountain work was much harder then than now ; but while the pay was scant and the work was hard, the field was wide and the demand for work was urgent, and the harvest was great. This mountain country to which the Georgia Conference had devoted so much attention and upon which it spent so much money, is a large section in the north and northeastern part of the State. There are in it a few very fertile valleys and many narrow strips of arable land along the mountain streams, but the larger part of the country is sterile and unproductive. The land was very cheap, and in many places the settler never concerned himself about titles. The land had been distributed some years before this by 272 History of lottery, but many persons who had drawn the one hundred and sixty acres of land in Gilmer or Union, deterred by mountain ranges, turned back to Middle Georgia and gave the grant no more attention. The better portion of the land was taken by those who came largely from the mountains of North Carolina or Tennessee, or from upper South Carolina, where there had been a settlement for over a hundred years. The valleys were occupied by bona fide purchasers, and the hills and mountains largely by squatters. The preachers from the Holston country had preached in this country before the Indians had been removed to the West, and now the effort was made to supply the white settlers with the Gos- pel. The Dahlonega Circuit, the Clayton, Murphy, Ellijay, and Blairsville missions were intended to cover this country, and John W. Glenn was the Presiding Elder. One has but to look at the map of the State to see what is necessarily involved in the effort to reach the various points of the country. Here the camp meet- ings were a necessity, and perhaps nowhere were they in greater favor. They were just such gatherings as people of such humble circumstances were likely to have. They came in ox carts, on foot and on horseback. They made booths, they built small tents of one room of boards split by their own hands. They had been for all the years cut off from the outer world, and were utterly ignorant of its ways and unconcerned about them. The excite- ment and confusion found in the first meetings in Kentucky, in the Welch mountains, in the early days of Methodism in York- shire and Lancashire in the days of Mr. Berridge and Mr. Wes- ley, were seen here, and by these people regarded as evidences of Divine favor. There came from this section, however, some of the worthiest of our preachers and the most substantial of our business men ; and through this country were scattered a few families of culture and refinement. We have elsewhere seen how the discovery of gold had drawn to this upper country large numbers of settlers. The mines were largely in Lumpkin and Habersham Counties. The rudest people flocked to the mines, and with them came some of real culture and piety. Dahlonega, where there was a mint, and near which num- erous mines were opened, was a mountain town in which were found many excellent families ; and in the country round were not a few sections in which there were the best class of citizens. In the beautiful valley of Nacoochee, the home of the Williams and of the Richardsons ; the Tennessee valley, where Doctor H. V. M. Miller, the distinguished Senator, was born ; in Clayton, where Chief Justice Bleckley was born, and in lower Habersham, Georgia Methodism. 273 where Josiah Askew, the grandfather of Bishop Haygood, had his home, there were some families who were intelligent and well-to- do ; but the mass of the people were poor and rude. Cn the Decatur Circuit, at the terminus of the then new line of railway, a little village called Marthasville had now grown into the proportions of a small town called Atlanta; and in it Anderson Ray and Eustace Speer had an appointment. The village grew very rapidly, but it grew in wickedness as rapidly as in size. In the summer of 1847, Doctor George G. Smith, the son of Isaac Smith, of whom we have spoken, removed to the little city known then as Atlanta, to practice medicine, and seeing the religious des- titution of the then churchless village, he determined on a four days' meeting, and secured a warehouse, the first ever built in the city, and in it a meeting of several days was held. Bishop An- drew, Professor G. W. Lane and Doctor Means conducted it. Samuel Walker, a sturdy, good man, lived a few miles from the village, and Edwin Payne on its western border. That summer a church was enterpriser! and begun, and this was the beginning of Methodism in Atlanta. During the year 1847 there was a very gracious revival in the Sparta Circuit. Bishop Pierce says: "In 1847 the Reverend C. W. Key was on the Sparta Circuit. It was a year of general pros- perity in the conference. The revival fire came down and settled upon every appointment. Brother Key had no ministerial help, except when I got home from the districts to rest a day or two. The whole circuit was on fire. The preacher divided his time out as best he could, but with all his zeal he could be in but one place at a time. Now then what? Close up and send the people away, drive the dove from the windows? No! No! Each church took charge of itself. The brethren went to work, and lay labor was blessed along with clerical. No neighborhood suffered for lack of service." The conference of 1847 met in Madison, Ga., in December, and admitted on trial Edward L. Stephens, George W. Craven, James L. Gibson, J. Blakely Smith, Thomas C. Stanley, James W. Hin- ton, Robert A. Connor, John W. Twitty, Smith C. Ouillian and Lewis J. Davies. Edward L. Stephens was an English miner from Cornwall, who had been a member of the class which William Carvasso led. He did not remain long a travelling preacher. Craven and Gibson soon retired from the conference. Thomas C. Stanley became an Episcopal clergyman. J. Blakeley Smith, who died in connection with the South Georgia Conference in 1870, entered the confer- 274 History of ence at that time. He was a man of commanding person, genu- ine piety and great energy. For twenty-three years he was a most efficient worker. He was a fine pastor and impressive preacher, and made a most valuable Presiding Elder. He was a notable agent, and did excellent work in the field as agent for the Tract Society and for the Wesleyan Female College. Smith C. Quillian was a man of earnest piety and devotion to his work, and of re- spectable talents. He died in the early years of his ministry. Robert A. Connor was long a superannuated member of the con- ference, whose health failed him in his early ministry, an earnest, good man, long a colportuer of the American Bible Society. John W. Twitty died while in the work. James W. Hinton was the last survivor of this class. He was of an old Maryland family, from which James Hinton, one of the earliest Methodist preachers, had gone out into the itinerancy. He was an orphan boy, brought up by an irreligious grandfather. He was converted in his boyhood and began to preach while he was a youth of not twenty years. He entered the travelling con- nection before he was twenty years of age. He continued in it for more than fifty years. He was a man of much more than ordinary mind, was exceedingly studious, and became a man of fine cultivation. He was early a leader among his brethren. Noted for his simplicity of character, his energy and his devotion to the church, he was recognized not only as a leading man in his conference, but a leading man in the Church South. He remained in the travelling connection as long as his strength allowed, then spent his last years as a superannuated preacher. Lewis J. Davies, the son of Judge Davies, of Milledgeveille, was one of a very gifted family who did much for Methodism. He was a man of most remarkable strength and originality of mind, of great power in the pulpit, a fine writer, and a pure- hearted Christian gentleman. He was modest, retiring, moody, in feeble health much of the time, but a man of great devotion to the work he had in hand. He was very greatly esteemed by preachers and people. The Georgia territory in the bounds of the Florida Conference was supplied by seven preachers. Simon Peter Richardson was now a Presiding Elder, and his district extended from Brunswick, in Georgia, to St. Augustine, in Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean to Albany. The country was not being settled rapidly, and there were of necessity enormous circuits when the support of the preachers was very insufficient and the work very difficult. The St. Marys District embraced a portion of country which had been Georgia Methodism. 275 the first settled part of the State. Along the coast were sea islands which were occupied by very wealthy planters, who owned large numbers of slaves and large areas of land. They were nominally Episcopalians, but their negroes and overseers or managers, who were oftentimes men of considerable means, and of intelligence, were dependent for religious care upon the Methodist and Baptist preachers. The negroes were almost entirely dependent for re- ligious instruction upon the Methodist preacher. The wealthy planter was often not unwilling to encourage the preacher in his work, and often contributed a considerable sum to his support, and hospitably entertained him in his elegant home. The new city of Griffin, which was now springing into vigorous life, had also built a brick church, and young James W. Hinton, in the second year of his ministry, was sent to it. In Marietta, Charles R. Jewett projected and had built a large brick church. The family of Asaph Waterman, of Augusta, of whom we have so frequently spoken, was now living in the village. The good widow who was a sister of Stephen Olin's first wife, was a devout and liberal Methodist ; and as they were possessed of considerable wealth they gave liberally, and so a handsome church for those times was erected. Jesse Boring, to whom we have alluded as joining the confer- ence in 1824, after some years of efficient work in Georgia, had located on account of feeble health, studied medicine and settled in Alabama ; but while deeply in love with his noble profession, he was never able to give up his attachment to the more congenial work of preaching; so he returned to the conference, and after serving a few appointments in that State came back to Georgia. Afterwards he was selected as Missionary Superintendent for California, and after some years there, returned to Georgia again ; thence he went to Texas, and thence back to his old home, where, having passed his four score years, he entered into rest. Doctor Boring was a most remarkable man. Without early advantages, with no help from the schools, he became not only a cultivated man. but one who in refinement of culture and exnuisite taste, was not surpassed by those who have had careful discipline from the best of teachers. He was wonderfully and thrillingly eloquent. He was never dull or lifeless, never boisterous, never extravagant ; but he was intensely in earnest and threw all the ardour of his soul into his utterances. A high-toned, scholarly gentleman, he numbered among his friends the choice people of the land. He strangely enough never declined in preaching power, but at eighty, blind and lame, his voice was clear and his thought 276 History of as connected as in the days of his early youth. His last great work was to set in motion the system of Orphan Homes conducted by the conferences. He was the originator of the scheme and the first agent of the North Georgia Home. He died not far from where he was born, when he was over eighty. The conference of 1849 met January 10. There were admitted on trial : fames M. Ainslie, Alexander Averitt, Thomes A. Bell, John M. Bright, Josiah H. Clark, Michael A. Clontz, W. R. Foote, Albert Gray, Theophilus Harwell, James F. Johnson, Jos. S. Key, William E. Lacey, Harvey McHan, Daniel J. Myrick, Newdaygate B. Ousley, John C. Simmons, Alford B. Smith, Charles W. Thomas, William H. Thomas and Alexander M. Wynn. This was a very large class, and in it were several men who were to do the church great service, a number who dropped out early, and some who died before they had been able to do much work. Joseph Stanton Key joined the conference this year. He was a son of the Reverend Caleb W. Key, of whom we have spoken elsewhere. He was a young man of very fine, strong mind, beauti- ful manners and deep piety. He was sent to Athens to assist Doc- tor Boring. Early in the year Doctor Boring was sent to Cali- fornia, and young Key was left in charge. He became very popu- lar as a preacher and pastor, and rose to be early one of the lead- ers in his conference. He had been always a sincere man, of un- questioned piety, who had received as true the teachings of entire sanctification he found among the Methodists ; but only after the death of his gifted son. Reverend Benjamin Key, did he look into the view of this experience presented by Doctor J. A. Wood and Doctor Inskip. He accepted their teaching, sought the experience, and very modestly professed to have entered into it. He was never an extremist, never a zealot, but was positive in his profes- sions. He was elected a Bishop in Richmond, and has proven himself by his zeal and labor a worthy successor of the Apostles. IK- ^-till lives (1Q12) in honored old age, active in his work. Michael A. Clontz, of German origin, a man of strong mind and strong will, but of little education, after some years of efficient work among the Methodists, united with the Baptists. W. R. Foote, a New England man of fine talents and of genu- ine culture, but unpretentious and retiring, came to the conference this year, and was placed with James Tones on the Wavnesboro Circuit. During the year he married the daughter of his co 1 league. He was early elected a professor in the Madison Female College, and was an exact and competent teacher. He served a number of Georgia Methodism. 279 appointments, and served them well, then settled his family near Atlanta, where he died. He was a most admirable man, of fine mind and pure heart. Reverend W. R. Foote, of the North Geor- gia Conference, is his son. Albert Gray graduated at Emory College, and at once entered into the work of the ministry, in which he died when in the vigor of his mature manhood. He was one of the most spotless of men. He brought with him into the conference a handsome estate, which with his time and talents he gave to the church. One of his sons is a member of the North Georgia Conference, and another a missionary in Mexico. He was a plain, unassuming, unambitious man, who, without brilliant gifts, had what was better, strong sense and pure principles. Alexander MacFarlane Wynn, the only son of Thomas Lemuel Wynn, a travelling preacher and a grandson of Alexander Mac- Farlane, a local preacher in Charleston, was left an orphan at an early age, and was adopted and brought up by Bishop Andrew, who had married his aunt. He was educated in Oxford, and soon after his graduation entered the conference and was sent on the Decatur Circuit. He volunteered to go with Doctor Boring to California, and went with him in 1849. He had married a most excellent young woman, Miss Maria Howard, of Columbus, who went with him to the then new territory. He did most efficient work there, and being selected as a delegate to the General Con- ference in 1854, he came back to Georgia. On his return trip he was taken violently ill and forced to return to Georgia from Ha- vana. He was never able to go to California again, and remained in Georgia. He was very frail, but very energetic and successful. He became one of the most useful and popular pastors in the con- ference. He was appointed to leading charges, and always re- mained his full time. He was more than once returned a second, once a third time, to the same charges. He was married to a daughter of General Howard, of Columbus, who was his most efficient colaborer for nearly fifty years. He worked on till he fell in the pulpit, and then retired to the ranks of the supernum- eraries, and died at a good old age. No man has been more useful and none more beloved than he was during his entire life. He was greatly valued by his brethren, and was placed in many positions of trust and responsibility, and filled them all with remarkable efficiency. Theophilus S. Harwell who rounded up nearly fifty years in the ministry, was of good old Methodist lineage. He was con- verted in LaGrange and joined the conference in early manhood. 280 History of Without any very high order of talents, or any great breadth of culture, but a careful, painstaking, upright man, he went on his way until the infirmities of age drove him to a cheerful retire- ment. He died suddenly of heart disease in 1895. Daniel J. Myrick was of excellent family, but deprived by the early death of his father of advantages, he came into the confer- ence an uneducated boy of eighteen years, but gifted and studious, he made himself a scholar. He was all his life a student and a controvertist. Where any Methodist doctrine was assailed, he was always ready to rush to its defense. He has been remarkably able in the Baptismal controversy. His character was spotless, and for long years no man has had more entirely the confidence of his brethren. John C. Simmons, Jr., son of John Simmons, belongs to Cali- fornia, where he spent long and useful years, and to whose interest he dedicated his young life. He came from Emory, a pure, good youth, and joining the conference was sent to the Elberton Cir- cuit in the northeast, and the next year to a circuit in the extreme southwest. He volunteered at the close of the year to go to Cali- fornia, and left Georgia for that territory. He made California his lifelong home. He made an impress there such as few men have made. He only came East occasionally, and after nearly sixty years of service in his adopted State, in 1906, he passed to his reward. Charles W. Thomas was an Englishman and had a somewhat romantic history. His father was a naval officer and of the Church of England. His mother was a Wesleyan. He was placed by his father in a naval school, but ran away and as a common sailor came to Savannah, Georgia. Here penniless, unknown and friendless, he sought for converting grace and became a genuine Christian and joined the Methodist Church. He had learned to paint in England as an accomplishment, and he now used his knowledge of the art to secure a livelihood. As a journeyman painter, he drifted to Cobb County, and there he was licensed to preach and joined the conference. He was an intelligent, fastidi- ous gentleman, who knew little of American ways and of the rural people among whom he was thrown, so he never became a popular preacher. After a few years he went into naval service of the United States as chaplain. After his term of service was out, he went into the Episcopal Church and was ordained a priest. He was an evangelical in his views to the last. With his life after he severed his connection with the Methodists this history has nothing to do. He was always a friend to the Methodists, and Georgia Methodism. 281 enjoyed to the last attendance upon their great religious festivals at camp meetings and was always regarded by them with kindness. W. H. Thomas, of an excellent Georgia family, came to us when a mature man, from the mountains of upper Georgia. He was called "Singing Billy," because of the wonderful variety and sweetness of his songs. He was placed always on the frontier, and while claiming little for himself, he worked faithfully for the Church. He believed with all his heart the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification, and was a good example of the beauty of a life of entire consecration. He lived to be the oldest man in his conference; but his clear, sweet voice was with him to the last, and in the conference love feasts he was always called on to sing one of the old melodies of Methodism. He had a little home in the new city of Waycross, in which he had settled when it was a hamlet in the woods, and from it he peacefully passed away. CHAPTER II. 1850-1855. There was no conference in December of 1849, and the next yearly conference began in January of 1850. I have, in absence of any well defined lines of division chosen periods of five years as likely at that time to bring out any decided changes in the work, and begin this chapter with the first conference held north of the Chattahoochee River, and the first ever held in Marietta. This conference met in January, 1850, and there were admitted on trial : James M. Dickey, William H. C. Cone, William N. Fambrough, William Pope Harrison, Richard J. Harwell, Thomas H. Jordan, Jesse R. Littlejohn, Whitman C. McGuffey, William T. Norman, Harwell H. Parks, John E. Sentell, Thomas H. Stewart, and John Strickland. Of these, only three dropped out of the conference roll. James M. Dickey was a poor, uncultivated boy in the mountains of Georgia. He was full of life and humor and good sense. He was genuinely converted and felt called to preach, and uneducated as he was, entered the conference. He was natively an orator, and being very quick and bright, he soon became a popular, useful preacher. He was very genial and very useful, and rose to high place in his conference. Atlanta was now able to stand alone, and Silas H. Cooper was sent to the new city as a stationed preacher. He was a man of very moderate abilities and was indiscreet in some conduct. He left the station before the year was out, and James L. Pierce, who had been transferred from Alabama to Georgia, was placed in charge. He was one of the sons of Doctor Lovick Pierce, and had graduated at Randolph Macon in Virginia. He was a man of re- markably fine mind, and of broad cultivation, but was very calm and unimpassioned in delivery. Spending a large part of his life in the professor's chair, for which he was eminently suited, he only gave himself to the pastorate in the last years of his life, and then preached with great fervor and power. He was a gentleman of delicate feelings, a scholar of broad attainments, and withal a simple-hearted, earnest Christian. He died in Texas, whither he had gone to visit his sons. Doctor Thomas R. Pierce, then editor of the Texas Advocate, and Reverend James F. Pierce, of the North Texas Conference. William Pope Harrison, a young printer, who joined the con- Georgia Methodism. 283 ference in Marietta at this time, was in many respects one of the most remarkable men Georgia has ever produced. He was son of a poor printer and had few advantages for securing an advanced education, but he had great ambition to be a scholar and rapidly- improved the few opportunities he had to become a scholar. He entered the conference and soon evinced the fact that he was a young man of fine parts ; but during his first year in the ministry he married and discontinued his connection with the conference. He went to Alabama and joined the Alabama Conference. He gave himself to hard study and secured a good knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, Hebrew, and a number of Oriental lan- guages and became one of the most learned of preachers. He soon rose to the first place among preachers, and wrote a number of books, some of them showing a very great amount of research. He was editor of The Quarterly Review, and was at one time chaplain to Congress. He was stationed in Washington City, At- lanta, Columbus, and travelled large districts. He secured a mag- nificent library of rare books, and lived among them. He was a man of great sweetness of temper and grace of manner, and gained the love of all people among whom he was thrown. He died at a comparatively early age, in Columbus. Georgia. Few men could have contrasted more strongly with the printer boy who came with him into the conference and became the fa- mous author and scholar, than Richard J. Harwell, twin brother of Theophilus, and known in aftertime as "Uncle Dick." He came of excellent family and was pious from his childhood. He had very moderate culture, and never was a reading man. He had no tact or diplomacy ; guileless as a child ; perfect in his faith as an apostle ; fearless of men ; and devoted to duty — he was but little fitted to make his way among men. He was a man of perfect purity of aim, and while he was in the world, he was not of it. He preached like no other man — in matter and manner he was purely original. He did not describe things — he painted them, and the vividness of his pictures was as brilliant as it was unique. He never knew why the world he loved so well and labored so hard and so unselfishly to bless, never seemed to value him ; but he never grew sour nor complained of the fact — and perhaps, in his innocense, did not recognize it. After the death of his lovely wife and noble boy, he went from place to place in his buggy to preach and pray and sing. He heard his twin brother, Theophilus, was ill, and hastened to his bedside. The brother left him, and soon the lonely old man heard gladly his call to the skies and went thither. 284 History of Thomas H. Jordan, the son of a wealthy and pious father, an elegant gentleman, of good mind and gentle heart, came now into the conference to spend a few years. He was a brilliant young man, and married into an excellent family in Savannah; was a while chaplain in the Army, and taken suddenly ill he passed away. William T. Norman, who joined the conference, was a steady- going, unpretentious, consistent man of no special brilliance, but so faithful and devoted to his work that he was always highly valued. Having a home of his own in Elbert and having some means, he was able to do much hard work for small pay. He con- tinued in his work longer than any of his class. Harwell H. Parks, the son of William J. Parks so noted in Georgia Methodism, began his life work this year and ended it forty-five years afterward in Atlanta. He was long a leader in the Georgia Conference, noted for his strong common sense and straightforwardness, and his success in winning souls. He pre- pared for the pulpit with great care, writing every sermon in extenso, and carrying full notes into the pulpit, but was a most effective preacher. He had no use for speculations or abstrac- tions, but was eminently practical. He was on the best stations and largest districts, and no work ever suffered at his hands. His influence on the conference floor, as had been that of his father, was very great. It was rare for his brethren to go against his will. John E. Sentell was a very quiet, unpretending, but patient and earnest worker, who did as much hard work and received as little earthly reward for it as any man in the conference. He did good work and did it cheerfully. John Strickland was a steady, young, brusque, earnest, good man of moderate gifts, but of great zeal, who did good work in very hard fields. There were two conferences in 1851, one in January and one in December. In January, at the conference in Savannah, Robert F. Jones, Franklin L. Brantley, William Potts, John H. Harris, John H. Mashburn, John H. Grogan, Lewis B. Payne, James W. Trawick, Jacob R. Owen, Edmund P. Birch, and J. W. Perry, were ad- mitted on trial. Of these, the larger number remained in the conference as long as they lived. Lewis B. Payne was a mountain boy from Walker County. He entered the conference when a young man, and continued his con- nection with it until his death, over fifty years afterward. He was, as long as his health permitted, very active and useful. He Georgia Methodism. 285 was selected as agent for the Orphans' Home when it was in sore extremity, and succeeded not only in extricating it from its em- barrassment, but in securing for it a considerable endowment. He was a fine business man, a pathetic and popular preacher, and did much good work for the Church as a Presiding Elder in needy fields, before he became connected with the Orphans' Home. James W. Trawick spent a few years in the ministry and then located. He was a man of fine sense and a popular preacher. Jacob R. Owen was for the large part of his conference life prevented from active work by physical disability. He was for years a merchant and a liberal supporter and faithful friend of the Church. He gave his last years to conference work. Edmund P. Birch was a man of unusually bright mind, who was a popular preacher in Georgia for some years and transferred to Alabama, in which conference he died. John H. Grogan was born in the mountains and converted in a country church in Lumpkin County. He entered the conference, travelled for some years, and was very useful and highly esteemed. During the war he was in Elbert County on the circuit. After the war was over, he thought it best to locate, but he never lost his interest in the Church. He was a fine business man, and made money which he used liberally for the support of the Church. He was generally a lay member of the annual conference, and some- times of the General. He was a man of fine sense, pleasing man- ners, and of unquestioned purity. Robert F. Jones was the son of Reverend James Jones, a worthy man ; a graduate of Emory College and a faithful worker in every field to which he was assigned. John H. Mashburn was a sturdy man of genuine force of char- acter, who did very hard work on very hard fields. John H. Harris was a man of considerable cultivation for the times in which he was reared ; an excellent preacher, and a worthy man in all respects. Benjamin W. Perry died early. He was a young man of deep piety and good promise. This is perhaps the place to take a survey of the larger circuits of Georgia, as they were at this time. It was a period of transi-' tion from the old to the new. One circuit, however, of Middle Georgia will represent all. The Burke Circuit was one of the first formed in Georgia. It extended from above Augusta to the center of what is now Bulloch County. Hull, Randle, Mathew Harris, John Andrew had all served it. Bishop Asbury often passed 286 History of through it and spoke at Waynesboro, Coxes, Old Church. Churches were scattered well over the county, but they were very mean, uncomfortable houses. There was much wealth in the mem- bership and much elegance in private life. The parsonage was a plain, unpainted building in the village of Brothersville. The salary was shamefully small. There was as much given to the preacher often as he received as allowance. The Old Church where the camp ground was, was wretchedly decayed. In Waynesboro, there was an old hull of a church out of the inhabited part of the village, and in the little hamlet only a few persons — Edward Gar- lick among them — who were Methodists ; but this year a great change passed over the work. The circuit was divided ; a new church was built at Old Church ; a handsome one near old Coxes called Coker Chapel ; a large and comfortable one in the remote southeast called Bethany; a beautiful country church at Fair Haven in the southwest of the county ; and through the agency of Honorable J. J. Jones, a neat church at Waynesboro. A parson- age was built at Alexander ; two preachers and a missionary were sent to the Burke Circuit, and everything began to move forward. This picture of one of the Middle Georgia Circuits is to a large degree true to all of them. The circuits in the hill country and the mountains were still very large. The preacher in charge preached nearly every day in the week. The rides were long, the support meager, and the fare hard. In the cities there was a spirit of improvement. Augusta fin- ished a new church. Wesley Chapel in Savannah was supplement- ed by a new church, Trinity. St. Luke's in Columbus completed a handsome church, and the new Mulberry Street church in Macon, large, commodious and elegant, had been opened for worship. There were but few stations. Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Co- lumbus, LaGrange, Milledgeville, Washington, Marietta, Rome were all. The rest of the conference was divided into missions and circuits. During this period the first General Conference of the M. E. Church, South, had been held in Petersburg in May, 1846. It had little more to do than to adjust the church machinery to the new state of things. Bishop Soule had adhered to the South, and Bishop Andrew and he were the only Bishops. These two were now reinforced by Doctor Robert Paine and Doctor William Ca- pers, the one from Mississippi, the other from South Carolina. There had been no interruption in the church's progress during the five years since the Church South was organized. Georgia Methodism. 287 The Church was advancing on all lines, but in nothing was there a more decided improvement than in Sunday school work. The oldest Sunday school in Georgia which has had a continuous existence was the Piney Grove Sunday school in Lincoln County, which was established in 1818, and had one superintendent, Wil- liam Hardy, for over fifty years. The first established in Georgia had been established by John Andrew in Wilkes County in 1792, for the negroes. The first village school was established by Sam- uel M. Meek in Milledgeville in 181 1. The Sunday school was not looked upon as a possibility in the country churches, and only in rare instances was one established. Bishop Andrew, always a great friend of Sunday schools, had as early as 1831, introduced into the Georgia Conference resolutions calling attention to their importance and advising the appointment of an agent to secure their establishment. Now in nearly all the villages and cities there were Sunday schools. The free school was not then in existence in Georgia, and there were many children who could not read, and the first object of the Sunday school was to secure to these the elements of an education. So the primer and the spelling book had an important place in nearly all the schools. Bishop Capers had prepared an elementary catechism which was largely used, but the main reliance was upon the Sunday School Union of Phila- delphia, which furnished the Scripture Question Books and the Union Question Books. It was sometime after this before a child's paper was started in Charleston, and the little people were dependent upon the circulating libraries, published by Lane & Tippett, or by the Sunday School Union. These cheap libraries, costing from $10 to $20 for a hundred volumes, were of immense value to the young people. There was a growing interest in this matter, and the question as to how much had been expended for Sunday schools became of some interest. The claims of the Superannuated Preachers and the widows and orphans on the Book Concern of the M. E. Church was of course cut off by the change in affairs, but the call upon all the people to supply deficiency and to provide for the four Bishops evinced their willingness and their ability, for the fund amounted to more when there was no other reliance than they had done before with the Book Concern to help. There was as yet no dis- crimination between the claimants and while the amount dis- tributed was not large, yet it was larger than it had been under the other system. There was as yet no foreign mission. The work at home among 288 History of the poor white people, the Indians and the negroes, called for all the men and money that could be secured, and the most earnest efforts were made to meet all the demands of these needy ones at our own doors. The collections for missions grew very rapidly and became for those days very respectable. True, most of this was spent where it was collected, and there was some complaint that the contribution of the planter went to pay the missionary to his own slaves. There was no longer the attempt to teach the negroes with the care that Dr. Capers had advised, but they were well cared for and preached to by the missionary who visited several large plantations on each Sunday or who called them together for service in some central church. Where there was no missionary, the circuit preacher gave the colored people the church of the whites, at three o'clock on Sunday, and in all the larger churches there was a gallery for their use. In the large cities this gallery was oftentime filled with intelligent, well dressed slaves and free negroes. The Southern Christian Advocate was now in charge of the classic Wightman, and was the constant visitor to many homes in Georgia, as well as in South and North Carolina, Alabama and Florida. The colleges, of which we have spoken elsewhere, were in prosperous condition, and especially was there much interest aroused in the question of female education. In Madison, in Cuthbert, in LaGrange. female colleges with a full faculty were established, as well as in Macon, where the oldest of the colleges was located. Emory was the only male college and was now doing admirable work. Southwestern Georgia was increasing very rapidly in popula- tion, and the great Columbus District which covered so large a part of it was now divided, and the Lumpkin District, in charge of Walter Knox, was cut off from it. Walter Knox, the Presiding Elder, had now been a traveling preacher for ten years. He was at this time an unmarried man of near forty years. He had been converted as a child and was remarkable for the purity of his life. He was a man of unattractive presence — tall, ungainly, slow in movement ; but he was a man of rare good sense and of extensive attainments. He wrote with great clearness and force, and his preaching was always to edification. He was a most faithful and competent Presiding Elder and was highly esteemed as a stationed preacher in the charges which he served. The new district of which he was placed in charge was a small one in the number of its charges, but a very large one as far as Georgia Methodism. 289 territory was concerned. It embraced all that part of the Colum- bus District which was south of Lumpkin and extended to the line of the Florida Conference. The Conference met in Griffin, December 24, 1851, and re- mained in session seven days. The class admitted was not a large one. There were only eleven, several of whom were dis- continued at the next Conference. W. F. Conley, a man of moderate gifts but of great piety and zeal, after serving the church in many very hard fields as an active itinerant, died a superannuated preacher. He was of the old type. Simple, artless, and pleasant in manner, he was admirably adapted to the work among the humblest of our rural people, to which he was assigned. He gathered a great many into the church and did much to establish Methodism in the then isolated wiregrass country, where he had a home of his own. One of his sons succeeded him in his work in the South Georgia Con- ference. Lemuel T. Allen was a man of small gifts and limited attain- ments, but of deep piety and devotion to the work. He was never strong and was attacked with a virulent cancer, and died com- paratively young. There was still advance in all parts of the work. During this year it had been remarkable. There was an increase of nearly 4,000 members, and the missionary collection rose to nearly $18,- 000, while the collection for the American Bible Society, which included what was given by members of other churches through the agent, amounted to over $5,000. In every direction the work advanced, but especially in the northern part of the State and in the wiregrass country and the Southwest. The districts were manned with strong men, and the charges were well furnished with acceptable preachers. Joshua G. Payne was the son of James B. Payne. He was a graduate of Emory College — a young man of the deepest piety. He had fine gifts and was destined to great usefulness ; but being in Savannah in 1854, during the yellow fever epidemic, and stay- ing at his post, he died from the fever while a young man. Wesley P. Pledger, who also was admitted, was a young man of fine talents who became a most popular preacher and filled some of the best appointments to the satisfaction of the people, but who was abnormally nervous, and who was forced more than once to retire from active work, and died sadly and suddenly, in Atlanta. 290 History of James G. Worley, a man of great simplicity of heart, of peculi- arities strongly marked, but of great devotion to his work, en- tered the Conference at this session, and died over thirty years afterward, a member of the North Georgia Conference. W. S. Baker, who was in the class of 1852, was long a vener- able superannuated member of the South Georgia Conference. He was a man of excellent mind, of good attainments and of unsullied life, who in every place to which he was appointed did faithful work. He served the church well from his entrance into the work in 1850 to his death, which took place over thirty years afterward. He was not a brilliant man, but was a sensi- ble, earnest, faithful worker who did good work wherever he was sent. Dennis O. Driscoll was an Irishman. His Catholic parents dedicated him to the priesthood; but for some reason their aims were defeated and Dennis became a bootmaker and came to America. He was like many of his countrymen, overfond of a glass, and became a wretched drunkard. In a Methodist meeting he was awakened and converted and joined the Methodist Church. He became a preacher and joined the Conference. He was a man of earnest piety, simple, unassuming, a patient toiler in hard fields. Alas ! now and then his old enemy would over- come him, and once he was suspended, but he rose again and died in the work in great peace. Robert B. Lester, a talented young lawyer, was genuinely con- verted and left his office and entered the ministry, and in it died. He was gifted, gentle, consecrated. A true Christian, loving all and beloved by all, he spent his life in noble, unselfish work for the good of his fellows, and few men have been more uniformly useful in ministerial work. He aimed at results and sought for them with untiring zeal. He was for years a popular stationed preacher and a Presiding Elder, and was successful, laborious, and self-sacrificing. During the year 1847, Dr. Jesse Boring had been selected as a missionary to California; and with young Wynn had gone to the field ; and now William A. Simmons, John C. Simmons and Robert W. Bigham were transferred to that mission. Philemon C. Harris came from the hills of Franklin into the Conference at this session. He was a sprightly, active, and really gifted young man, and became quite a successful worker. He was a faithful worker who traveled long and did faithfully much hard work. Georgia Methodism. 291 In December, 1852, the Conference met at Athens. Among those who came into the ministry was Miles W. Arnold, son of William Arnold, the noted preacher. He was a soul winner, and while not brilliant was a most useful and effective man. While not perhaps successful as a pastor, he was eminently so as an evangelist. He died in the work. John W. Brady was a plain, good man, robust in body, and earnest in spirit. He joined the Confederate Army and was elected a captain ; and while leading his company in battle, was killed. He was a pure, good man to the end. Isaac N. Craven was a man of mature years when, after hav- ing served as a local preacher for many years, he joined the Con- ference. He did good work for some years, and died while still efficient in the regular pastorate. Daniel G. Cox was an elder in the South Carolina Conference, where he located. Afterwards removing to Georgia, he applied for admission into the Conference, and for over thirty years did faithful, untiring, and successful work. He was a man of very great common sense, of lovely spirit, and of great zeal. He was much beloved, and had wonderful success in the charges which he served. John B. McGee, who was received into the Conference this year, a timid young man, has continued in it for over sixty years, and at this writing (1912) is still a pastor. He was the son of a pious and intelligent lay preacher, Dr. McGhee, of Houston County. He was a graduate of the State University and had gifts of no low order. He was a timid, shrinking boy when he began, but developed into an aggressive, somewhat combative man. He is a man of strong convictions, thoroughly conservative, and ready to hold his own against all comers. He is intensely a tem- perance man and in the front in all prohibition contests. He is a pure man, with a clean record, and is highly esteemed in his Conference. W. D. Shea was the son of an Irishman and brought up a Catholic. He had handsome person, genial manners, a warm heart, and a ready tongue. He had a short stay at Emory Col- lege ; joined the Conference and gave promise of rapid advance- ment as a preacher. He married and moved West; settled in Louisiana; but after the war returned to Georgia where he died in 1906, a superannuated preacher. The Conference for 1853, met in Macon on December 21st. 292 History op A. M. Rowland, Jackson Rush, Wesley F. Smith, David Strip- ling, Oliver P. Anthony, W. M. D. Bond, Thomas Boring, Wil- liam Brewer, Joseph Chambers, Robert N. Cotter, F. N. Flan- ders, Tyre N. Harben, David T. Holmes, M. F. Malsby, Noah Palmer, W. H. Potter, J. H. Reese, and W. G. Allen entered the Conference. \Y. G. Allen, one of this class, was a descendant of the dis- tinguished family of Aliens in Elbert County. He was a young man, but married when he joined the Con- ference. He died suddenly while he was on the Forsyth Circuit, in 1867. He was a well poised, pious, faithful man, who did well the work assigned him. He died in the prime of his life. One of his sons is a member of the North Georgia Conference. Thomas Boring, the brother of Jesse Boring, only traveled a few years. W. M. Brewer, a faithful man, went to the M. E. Church, and died in it. Joseph Chambers did much hard, faith- ful work, and died in advanced years. David T. Holmes went to Arkansas. Albert M. Rowland was a faithful man, who died early. Weyman H. Potter was the son of a local preacher who resided in Oxford, and was a graduate of Emory College. Young Potter took high place in college, and was noted for his fondness for philosophical study. After he was graduated he taught for a time and was preparing for the practice of law, when he heard the call to the ministry. He joined the Conference at this ses- sion. He took a good place from the start, and was soon recog- nized as one of the leading men in the Conference. He was trusted in every place of honor. As preacher in charge and as Presiding Elder, he was very useful. He was connected during the war with the Soldiers' Relief Association, and when it was over went for a little while into secular business, but never gave up his ministry. Then he gave himself to his chosen work. He was not a sparkling or brilliant man. His mind moved slowly; but when he was roused he was truly powerful. He was a warm friend of young preachers, and had many ardent friends among them. He was a great hearted, high toned, tender, magnanimous man, who was a leader among his fellows. He was the editor of The Wesleyan Advocate for two terms, and was then elected as Missionary Secretary. While in this position he was sud- denly called away. Wesley F. Smith, who joined the Conference this year, did not remain in the traveling connection but three years. He then Georgia Methodism. 293 located, and was a most active and useful local preacher for over ten years. He then returned to the Conference and died in it, in 1894. He was wonderfully useful. With a fine person; a sweet rich voice ; a charming manner, and an impulsive delivery, he never failed to interest and impress. William M. D. Bond, who after forty years of very active ministry, retired to the superannuated ranks in 1894, was as cheerful and energetic and as useful as any man of his time. He sang beautifully; exhorted with fervor, and preached with great earnestness ; and so filled every charge he had to the satisfaction of the church. Marshall F. Malsby, a rugged, strong-willed, strong-minded man, joined the Conference this year. He did much hard work until his health gave away, and then retired to the ranks of the superannuates. Noah Palmer joined the Conference at the same time ; traveled a few years in the mountains and on the seaboard, and then lo- cated ; practiced medicine a few years, and then returned to the Conference, in which he died. Robert N. Cotter died in his youth. He was a man of gentle spirit ; modest and retiring. He called himself a "traveling class- leader." James H. Reese died early, leaving a good name. Jackson Rush also died early. The Conference of 1854 was the first ever held in Atlanta. Bishop Capers was present, and it was one of the last, if not the last, Conference over which he presided. A very large class was admitted. They were : James T. Ainsworth, James M. Arm- strong, Franklin M. Boynton, John W. Burke, Thomas T. Chris- tian, James O. Clark, Charles P. Cooper, William Davies, Alvin J. Dean, Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Francis X. Forster, Peter Groover, Milford Hanby, John P. Howell, Robert F. Jones, George G. N. McDonnel, Edward T. McGhee, John Newell, John Patillo, Wes- ley P. Pledger, William J. Scott, W. W. Tidwell, William S. Turner. This was a very large class, and was one of the most remarkable the Georgia Conference ever received. Of it a large proportion remained in the work as long as they lived. One of them was a Bishop ; a number were doctors of divinity, and no class ever gave to the Church an abler body of preachers. Two of its members continued in the active work for fifty years. E. T. McGhee and George G. N. McDonnell, James T. Ains- worth, William S. Baker, and several others, were living in con- 294 History of nection with the Conference as superannuates fifty years after their admission. The improvement in temporal affairs in the State was marked, and the church kept pace, and so there was constant demand for new fields. The class of 1854 was in many respects the most remarkable class ever introduced into the Georgia Conference, not only on account of the number admitted, but because of the prominent position which so many of this class took in the church. C. P. Cooper and William Davies went to Florida. John Patillo to Texas. James M. Armstrong, a feeble man, of excel- lent mind and modest piety, was able to do work only for a few years, when he was forced to retire. William S. Turner was for some years a popular preacher in Georgia; then he was in Alabama, where he located, and return- ing to the Conference, he died in Florida. J. O. Clark, as he is written, was one of the most learned, gifted, and best equipped men of the Georgia Conference. He sprang from the Sumner family of New England, and from the Clark family of the same section. He was brought up by a good Methodist mother, in Savannah, graduated at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island ; studied law, and was practicing in Savannah, when he was converted in the great revival while William Crumley was in charge. He laid aside his law books and entered the Conference. He never did anything without throwing his whole heart into it, and from the day he began his ministry until its end in 1894, his labors knew no cessation. He traveled extensively in the interests of the Wesley Monumental Church ; was well known in England and all over the United States. He prepared a monumental work to Wesley of rare ex- cellence; wrote a series of lectures on Elijah the Prophet, and a satire on modern usages as seen, under the title of "Esther," and had a book on the Spiritual Body in manuscript when he died. He was a Presiding Elder of great ability, and was one of the most useful men of his time. John W. Burke, who died a superannuated member of the South Georgia, was the son of an Irishman. His father was a devout Catholic who was converted in a Methodist meeting and joined the Methodist Church. John was converted when a boy and in the office of Mr. Chase in Athens learned the printer's trade. He established a newspaper in the up-country; but re- ceiving a call to preach, he left his office and began his ministry. He was soon selected as the manager of a Georgia Book Deposi- BISHOP ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD. ^M HP *»fP^5- .-.. 'War ^"><* 4 «>.>;::<■ <:v'"<<:<\. .. ASM,., f, Georgia Methodism. 297 tory for the Conference, and in this way became connected with the book trade. He established and conducted successfully the book and publishing house of John W. Burke & Co. The finan- cial storm which came upon the country in 1873, he weathered suc- cessfuly, but twenty years afterward he was driven to the wall. He was a fine business man, but never in all its engrossing af- fairs forgot that he was a Christian and a Christian minister. Generous, warm-hearted, hospitable, when he had a large income he used it freely to do good to others. Adversity came in his old age ; his health gave way ; but his good nature and Christian faith never forsook him. He was never more honored than in his last days of feebleness and adversity. James T. Ainsworth was a man of solid parts. He was sensi- ble, prudent, pious, and up to the last faithful to every trust. His son is the Rev. Dr. Ainsworth, of the South Georgia Conference. Thomas T. Christian left his editor's chair for the pulpit at the same time his friend, J. W. Burke, did. He was sent to a very poor circuit in the mountains. He soon rose to be a leader among his brethren. He was after long service in the pastorate, chosen as Assistant Editor of the Wesleyan, and in that position he died. He was a man of remarkable parts who was very useful. Two of his sons are members of the South Georgia Conference. Alvin J. Dean was a man of weak body, but a strong man in- tellectually. He was very faithful up to the time he was called away. Francis X. Forster was a teacher and was in the college at Cuthbert when he joined the Conference, and afterward in Ma- con. He went hence to Missouri, where he died as professor in Central College. He was a man of fine parts and had a classic and well trained mind. Mil ford Hamby, a plain boy from the mountains, began his life work this year. He was without education and with little confidence in himself and not strong in health; so did not con- tinue on the effective list for many years. He was superannuated a considerable time, but worked as he could. His son is the Rev. W. T. Hamby, of the North Georgia Conference, who has been one of our most efficient young preachers. George G. N. McDonnell was a grandson of a Scotch High- lander and the son of a Methodist preacher. He was tried in almost every position in which his brethren could place him and failed in none. Gifted, cultivated, well poised, devoted to duty, he did his work with the most painstaking care and self-sacrific- 298 History of ing zeal. The sainted R. W. McDonnell, the missionary to Mexico, was his oldest son, and Judge McDonnell, of Savannah, his second. Oscar Penn Fitzgerald, now admitted on trial, came from Vir- ginia to Macon to take his place at a compositor's case in a job printing office. He was taken severely sick and had a long attack of typhoid. He had once been a Methodist, as his mother had been before him. He was converted again and joined the Mul- berry Street Church. Here there was an excellent circle of young men who took great interest in the young stranger. While here he decided to give up his printer's case for the pulpit, and joined the Conference. He was sent to Savannah, and at the instance of Bishop Andrew was sent to California, to the new mission. From this time, he was connected with the Pacific Conference until he was called to the East to edit The Nashville Advocate. He was elected, in 1890, a Bishop. Bishop Fitzgerald, as all know, was a very gifted and most lovable man. He wrote many charming books, and although superannuated, kept his busy pen at work. He has presided over both of the Conferences of his adopted State, and is in great favor with his Georgia brethren. The first General Conference which ever met in Georgia, met in Columbus in May of 1854. It was quite an important session. The question of where the Book Concern should be located was to be settled, and three new Bishops were to be elected. The first ques- tion was answered by naming Nashville, and the second by the choosing of George F. Pierce, H. H. Kavanaugh, and John Early as Bishops. Bishop Pierce was at the time of his election forty- three years old. He was President of Emory College and was in his most vigorous manhood. Bishop Kavanaugh, the unique and eloquent Kentuckian, whose fame as a preacher was in all the land, was near his age. While Bishop Early was even then an old and venerable man, his distinguished services for over forty years and his remarkable vigor and his unquestioned integ- rity entitled him to distinguished consideration, and he was chosen to the highest office in the gift of the Church. The Georgia Con- ference, and indeed all of Georgia, were greatly pleased at the honor conferred on George F. Pierce, who had won for himself such a high place at so early a day. The Southwestern Railway, which was making its way to Eufaula, was opening up a rich country, and little villages were becoming thriving towns. Among the most promising towns in this section was Americus. There had been circuit preaching Georgia Methodism. 299 there for years, but now it was decided to have a station, and Jesse R. Littlejohn was sent. There were but 149 Methodists in the community; but the plucky young town decided to invite the Conference of 1855 to hold its session in its midst, and the invitation was accepted. It has been a station ever since 1854 and has been ranked as one of the best. There had been during these five years but little to differentiate them from those which came after them or those which had im- mediately gone before them. Railroads were now connecting all parts of the conferences. The colleges were in good working order. The colored missions were very prosperous. Augusta, Savannah, and Macon had handsome brick churches, large con- gregations, and there was a constant increase in the salaries paid for the support of the preachers. The Conference of 1855 met at LaGrange, December, 1855, Bishop Early presiding. There was a class of twenty admitted. There were: David W. Calhoun, Benjamin F. Perry, Haber- sham J. Adams, William A. Edwards, William A. Morton, W. B. Bailey, Absalom H. Ogletree, William C. Rowland, David E. Starr, John W. McGhee, Josiah Bullock, William F. Cook, Peter M. Ryburn, Elijah N. Boland, Joseph S. Key, Thomas H. Stew- art, John W. Turner, Benjamin F. Breedlove, J. V. M. Morris, John W. McCrary. This class, as the one preceding it, had a Bishop among its members, and had several who became very prominent in the work of the Conference. There were still com- ing forward for admission men of very limited education, but few who were really illiterate, and an increasing number every year of college graduates. During this decade, the work of the Florida Conference in the part of Georgia it occupied made but little progress. That Con- ference was quite feeble, the territory was very large, the section of Georgia in its care was very extensive and very poor, and the field was hard and unpromising. In the southwestern part of the State there was some wealth and a thicker peopling, and there was some promise. Bainbridge and Thomasville were prom- ising stations. There was received into the Conference during this period in Florida some valuable men who did good work in after time in Georgia. There was an excellent community on the Manatee in the almost unsettled West Coast of Florida, and from it in 1855 came Francis A. and James Orson Branch, who were sons of Dr. Branch. Their home had been on the edge of the Everglades, below Tampa. These young men were of more 300 History of than usual gifts and better education than was common among applicants for admission, and as soon as they entered the Con- ference they were at once placed in prominent places. Both of these spent their last years in the South Georgia Conference. Francis A. Branch, the elder, after years of faithful service in Georgia and Florida, after he had passed seventy, died in the work. Dr. J. O. Branch died later while at work on a large district. They knew no intermission in their labors from the date of entrance to the end. Both of them were men of greatest purity of life and of excellent preaching gifts. Frederick R. C. Ellis, who was admitted into full connection in 1855, died in 1895, a member of the South Georgia Confer- ence. He was a man of very deep piety and of very lovely char- acter, and faithfully discharged all the onerous and soul-trying work required at his hands. Robert L. Wiggins, now a member of the South Georgia, en- tered the Conference in 1858, and has been an efficient and valu- able member of either the Florida or South Georgia Conference until the present time. No part of the State of Georgia required a greater amount of self-sacrifice than was required of these members of the Florida Conference who traveled over the wild stretches of pine forests and swamps in the counties on its borders. The people were un- cultivated and hostile to Methodism, and while the climate was mild in winter, it was fearfully trying in summer. What is now one of the best sections of Georgia was then regarded as worth- less. There was again a decrease reported in the number of white members. The emigration to the West was very brisk, and then perhaps there had been a better system of keeping the records. Before this time there had been no distinction made between the probationers and those in full connection. The re- vival meeting was now held in almost every charge, and fervid pastors opened the door of the church very frequently, and as the party applying was merely to be received on trial, there was not much care taken in receiving him ; but when the next pastor looked over the roll of probationers, he dropped many of them from the list, and so the church membership seemed to have de- creased, when really it had increased. The collection for mis- sions had reached nearly ,$19,000. The Conference had decided on a Book Depository, and J. Blakely Smith was appointed as agent to collect the funds for it, and he had collected nearly $5,000. The collection for superannuates was growing and near $7,000 had been collected during the year 1855. The circuits Georgia Methodism. 301 were now reduced in size, but nearly all of them included a whole county. Only fourteen were admitted into full connection. Two died very early. William H. Morton, a good young man, not twenty years old, died during his first year, and W. A. Edwards in his second year. They were men of promise and piety. Benjamin F. Perry, a young Alabamian who shared the first honor at Emory Colege, joined the Conference, but went at once to Texas. Josiah Bullock, an Irishman, went to Florida, as did J. W. McCrary. Absalom H. Ogletree only traveled three years and located. W. C. Rowland, a man of pure character and mode- rate gifts, went to the M. E. Church after a few years of service. David E. Starr traveled a short time and located. Elijah Boland was a faithful man who entered the army and died in a hospital in Richmond. Thomas H. Stewart, a young physician and a man of fine character, traveled a few years and located. David W. Calhoun was a fervid, earnest preacher, who after a somewhat chequered life, after he was a grey-haired man, en- tered the Conference. He traveled sixteen years and then lo- cated. He was zealous, useful and successful. John W. McGhee did useful and successful work for over fifteen years. He then located, but shortly afterward died. He was warm hearted, pious, liberal, and did much faithful work in trying times. John W. Turner was the oldest son of Allen Turner. He graduated at Oxford and joined the traveling connection. He was a most excellent man who did courageously his duty as he saw it. He was happily married to a fair young wife, when by a fearful accident he was in a moment deprived of her. They were riding in a buggy. The horse became refractory and began to kick. The young wife was thrown forward, and by a blow from the hoof was killed instantly. He did faithful work for years afterward and died in great peace. Benjamin F. Breedlove was a man of very aimable temper, good manners, and good education. He soon became quite a popular preacher, and was on station work for near thirty years. He loved all men, and was greatly beloved in turn. He died in peace. James V. M. Morris had few advantages in early life, but was possessed of a mind of uncommon vigor and was devoted to his work. He is a very sound theologian and a most interesting preacher. He was an unmarried man till he was fifty, and he 302 History of said on many occasions he preached on the way to manage chil- dren. He quaintly remarked that after he was a father, he was less confident as a teacher. A man of sterling worth, untiring energy, few men have done better work for the church. Habersham J. Adams was a member of a most prominent fam- ily. His grandmother was the sainted Mrs. Flournoy, who was before her marriage a Miss Cobb, and his mother a worthy daughter of such a mother. Young Adams in manhood was a handsome, active, prosperous business man, when his lovely wife suddenly died. He was not religious, and the sense of loss was fearful. It led him to seek religion and consecrate himself to the ministry. He closed up his business and joined the Confer- ence, and for many years until his death, was one of the most useful and highly esteemed of Methodist preachers. W. F. Cook was the son of Rev. Francis Cook. He was con- verted when a child; graduated before he was eighteen at Emory College, and entered the Conference before he was of age. For fifty years he was an untiring, successful worker. As a presi- dent of a State Institution, a professor in the Wesleyan, as a pastor, or as Presiding Elder, he was noted for his earnestness and good judgment. He was a man of fine culture, great common sense, and noted for the purity of his religious life. He was often a delegate to the General Conference, where he was recognized by its leading men as a most valuable member. Peter M. Ryburn was born of Scotch parents on both sides in Charleston, S. C. He was a man of good mind, studious habits, of excellent culture, and of a tender heart. He was teacher of a classical school when he was admitted. He was never super- annuated, never inefficient, though he worked to advanced age. He was greatly beloved, very useful, and one of the most blame- less of men. He died very suddenly after having lived a most beautiful life. CHAPTER IV. 1856 to i860. The Conference for 1856 was held at Americus, December 3-12, 1856. It was in session for nine days. Twenty were admitted on trial. They were Dr. Robert W. Lovett, Edward F. Gates, Jacob C. Neese, Cicero A. Mitchell, Goodman Hughes, William A. Parker, James D. Junkin, Wiley T. Hamilton, W. T. Mc- Michael, Alex M. Thigpen, George H. Patillo, John W. Reynolds, Smith Davenport, Robert W. Dixon, Francis X. Forster, William Park, Samuel A. Clarke, Absalom C. Davis, W. H. Moss, and J. L. Terry. It was a very large class, of which a considerable number did but little work in Georgia as itinerant preachers. Robert W. Dixon, a young man of excellent family, of good mind, of good culture, and of genuine piety, began his ministry at this Conference. He bade fair to be among the leading men of his Conference, when he was afflicted by a very painful and malignant affection of his jaw bone. He gradually sunk under it, and died in great peace at an early age. W. H. Moss, another of this class, after a few years in Georgia, went to Louisiana, and thence into Texas, where he is a useful traveling preacher to this day. James L. Terry, A. C. Davis, and William Park were never admitted into full connection. W. A. Parks, a great-grandson of Henry Parks, mentioned in an early chapter of this history as one of the first Methodists, and a nephew of William J. Parks, so famous in the history of Methodism in Georgia, came into the Conference this year. He was a highly honored preacher. He early evinced his superior ability, and while a young man was appointed agent of the American Bible Society. This position he held for years, then resigned and went into the regular work, where he did good serv- ice as a preacher in charge and a Presiding Elder. Wiley T. Hamilton, who for over forty years was a useful preacher, began his work this year. He came of good Methodist stock ; was well educated in the fundamental branches ; was a man of strong mind, and of purest character. No man was more fully trusted or highly honored by those who knew him than he was. A warm-hearted, thoroughly conscientious man, he faith- fully endeavored to follow the footsteps of his Master. W. T. McMichael was the son of a Baptist preacher of the 304 History of most pronounced views. The son became a decided Methodist, and no man more zealously contended for the doctrines of Meth- odism, until feeble health forced him to retire. No sincerer man was ever a member of the Georgia Conference, nor no man of gentler, sweeter spirit. Alex M. Thigpen, a young lawyer from Clinton and a local preacher, was of this class. He was a man of unusually good mind, of good scholarship, and a most judicious and faithful worker. He was a chaplain in the army, and no one was ever more useful in that position or more loved and honored. He had the care of an invalid wife resting on him for years and try- ing all his powers, until he gave way under the load of sympa- thetic care and died suddenly, after having lived most usefully. George H. Patillo came into the work before he was twenty- one, and rose rapidly in the Conference. He was handsome, bright, studious, attractive, and had the prospect of great use- fulness before him. During the war he was elected first as pro- fessor; then as president of the LeVert Female College of Tal- botton, and held the position for a little while after the war was over. He then re-entered the active work and was sent to Au- gusta. He was made Presiding Elder on the Griffin District, and after his term was out was sent to Elberton, when suddenly his health gave way entirely and after a few years of invalidism he went to heaven. He was a man of fine parts — energetic, en- terprising, almost daring, he made broad plans for the Church and carried them out successfully. Perhaps no man in the Con- ference ever did more in the way of church building. He was perhaps too sanguine, too hopeful, and too enterprising and over- exerted himself and died very early. The Rev. Charles Evans Patillo, of the Missouri Conference, is his son. John W. Reynolds was the son of Edmond W. Reynolds, a young man of very decided parts and promise, studious, diligent and aspiring. He had only begun his ministry and had been mar- ried but a few years, when he was suddenly called away. Robert W. Lovett belonged to an old Virginia family of the Church of England, people who had removed to Georgia very soon after the Revolution. They lived on the Savannah River, near a ferry, and when Bishop Asbury came to Georgia he was their guest. They early became Methodists, and Robert, the grandson of one of the first comers, was early a Methodist and one of the first students of Emory College. After his graduation he was married to a daughter of Bishop Andrew and was licensed to preach. He studied medicine and graduated at a medical col- Georgia Methodism. 305 lege. He was a faithful local preacher for some years, and then was admitted to the Conference. After traveling a few years, he located. He died in 1912. Ed T. Gates, who was admitted, went to Florida, where he made his home, and was a worthy member of that Conference. The thriving village of Thomaston was made a station at this Conference. There were but a hundred members of the society, but they were full of energy and liberality, and this year Cedar- town, a beautiful little village in the western part of North Geor- gia, where there were only sixty-seven Methodists, was made a station and a neat church was built. Elijah Bird, an old Metho- dist preacher, who had once been an itinerant, had fixed his home five miles from the village, and Captain Wimberly a few miles in another direction. They were almost the only Methodists in this beautiful valley except the wife of William Peek, Esq., the wealthiest man in it. The valley was occupied almost entirely by Baptists. There was an unhappy division in this church, and is was decided to invite the Methodist preacher to hold regular service. Mr. Peek gave a house for the preacher and $200 for his support, and Peter M. Ryburn was stationed at the new charge. Cedartown is now one of our best charges. The sad fact must be admitted that the church was not pros- perous, though the country was. The church did not share in the lavish expenditure of money to which we have referred, and as yet in many sections the church buildings were in sad contrast with homes. The people lived in elegant homes, but the church buildings were such as they had been when the homes were log cabins. The spirit of church building was abroad in the land, and some attention began to be paid to church building. This prosperous condition of things was brought to a sudden end by a great financial crash, the greatest known since 1837. The collections for connectional benevolence were still growing and $21,000 was paid for missions. Much the larger part of this collection was expended at home in providing a missionary for the slaves of the men who gave the money, and in many in- stances the amount paid to the missionary to the negroes in many older counties was far greater than the contribution of the cir- cuit to the general cause. The plan of Dr. Pierce for an eight- weeks' circuit with two preachers had not been successful. The camp-meeting in the Middle Circuit had been given up in many cases. There was, however, growth in the liberal giving of the church. 306 History of The Conference for 1857 met in Washington on December 9, 1857, Bishop Paine presiding. This was the first Conference which ever met in Washington. At Grants, a few miles from Washington, and at Coke's Chapel, three miles away near the home of Hope Hull, the first Conferences in Georgia had been held sixty years before this one of 1857. Washington was now a station. It was inhabited by wealthy planters, and its homes were elegant and commodious. It was not a large town, but it fully met the demands made on it. General Toombs, then in the Senate and the leading figure in Georgia at that time, had married a Methodist, and entertained the Bishop. Bishop Paine presided. He was then in the vigor of his magnificent manhood, and presided with great ability. Dr. Jefferson Hamilton, the classic Alabamian ; Dr. Sehon, the Missionary Secretary, and Dr. Cross were each of them present. The Conference had some trying matters to attend to, and remained in session for ten days. The year had opened very inauspiciously. For over ten years the church in the Conference lines had grown very steadily, but for the several years preceding this, there had been a decrease every year. The country in a financial way had been apparently very prosperous. The financial depression which had continued from 1837 to 1844, had been succeeded by years of remarkable prosperity. The banks were numerous and were considered very sound. The price of property was high ; the planters made money rapidly, and the merchants did good business, when all at once there burst a storm of disaster. The banks suspended ; money could not be had, and merchants failed on all sides. Factories ceased to move their wheels ; laborers were unemployed, and de- pression was everywhere. The collections were made just at the worst of the time, and receipts fell from $21,000 to $18,000 for missions. There were some special church troubles. The Rev. Mr. Graves, a Vermont Baptist living in Nashville, had attacked the Methodist Church and had published a series of scurrilous articles against the Methodists which he published in a book called The Great Iron Wheel. The Baptists and Metho- dists had been co-laborers and had generally, while not workers together, not been in direct antagonism ; but this severe attack on the Methodists led to retaliation, and the two great revival churches fought each other fiercely and revivals ceased for a time. Other causes united to turn the church from its main work, Georgia Methodism. 307 and there was again a decrease in membership, not quite so great as for several years before, but still serious enough to rouse great concern. There were matters of discipline which prolonged the session, and the Conference remained in session till the ninth day. There was a large class admitted. Lewis L. Ledbetter was re- ceived at this Conference. He was a descendant of a family fa- mous in Methodist history for the number of preachers it has furnished. He was a prosperous dentist, in the city of Atlanta, and was a man with a large family, when he entered the Con- ference. He had married a daughter of Elijah Bird, one of the early preachers. He gave himself with energy to the work upon which he had entered, and was a useful man from the start. He had before him the prospects of long continued usefulness, when suddenly he was cut short in his work. Strong, vigorous, ener- getic in 1867 when he entered the tenth year of his itinerancy, he died. Whitfield Anthony, the father of J. D. Anthony and a relative of Samuel Anthony, as his name indicates was of old Methodist stock. He was an old man when he began to travel, and only traveled a few years and in 1863 returned to the local ranks again. Leander Strange, John P. Bailey, Augustus T. Williamson, were all young men whose Conference life was not long. They each retired to the ranks of the local preachers. James R. Free- man withdrew from the Conference. John T. Norris, a first honor graduate of Emory College, be- gan his ministerial life in this Conference, and continued it with faithful earnestness until after the war. His health gave way, and he then entered into secular life. He did much work for the church while retired from the itinerancy. There were few men more gifted and cultivated, and it was a great loss to the church that he was compelled to retire. Newdaygate B. Ousley, the son of Newdaygate Ousley of whom we have written, gave himself to the itinerancy this year; but removing afterward to Lower Georgia, he transferred to the Florida Conference. After 1866, when the Georgia territory was taken from the Florida Conference, he was in the South Georgia Conference, in which he did good work as a preacher and Presiding Elder. He finally located and died suddenly in 1893. He was a man of very aimable temper, very sincere and genial, and was much esteemed. George W. Yarbrough, the son of John W. Yarbrough, was 308 History of graduated at Emory College, and at once entered into the traveling connection and is still a worker in the North Georgia Conference. Dr. Yarbrough is a man of very superior mental endowments, and is a very fine writer and has had the best stations and dis- tricts in his Conference. He is a high toned, cultivated, upright and able man. With a wonderful amount of original humor, which bubbles out on all occasions ; with an optimism which is tropical in its luxuriance ; with a fondness for epigrammatic speech, and withal with a good natured heartiness of manner, he is a delightful preacher and companion. He is still vigorous and bids fair to live many years. Edward J. Rentz, a steady young, intelligent, pious man, and a good preacher, did years of active work and passed away. George G. Smith, the compiler of this history, came to this Conference in his twenty-first year, and in some relation has con- tinued his connection with the itinerant ministry to this time. David R. McWilliams still lives (1912), a superannuated preacher of the South Georgia Conference — a man of very fine character and strong intellect. The depressing report of the Conference of 1857 was to be followed by the cheering and phenomenal one of 1858. One of those remarkable revivals which have periodically blessed the churches had swept over the entire land. Beginning at Philadel- phia, the tidal wave had gone in every direction. It was a re- markable work, distinguished especially by the part which so many prominent laymen took in it. It was especially sweeping in the cities, and among business men. The villages and the country charges were also greatly blessed. The report of the Secretary at the Conference was that in probationers and mem- bers, black and white, there was an increase of near 6,000 mem- bers. The collections too had taken on new life, and the mission- ary collection had reached over $23,000, an increase of nearly $5,000. The collection for superannuates had reached $9,123 over $2,000 more than had been collected the previous year. The Conference for 1858 met in Columbus, December 15th, and remained in session until the 23d, Bishop Pierce presiding. Although he had been a Bishop for four years, this was the first time he had presided over his old Conference. He was now in his most vigorous manhood, and the fearful shock to his health a few years afterward which he received in California, so reduced him that those who knew him only after that could hardly realize how he appeared before it. He presided with great ability and to the delight of all, and his sermon on Sunday was Georgia Methodism. 309 one of his most masterly efforts. He had resolved to make some decided changes in administration, and there was a great up- heaval. He put a great estimate on the Presiding Eldership, and determined to man the districts with young men; and so Payne, Simmons, Anthony, Glenn, Knox, gave place to Clarke, Jewett, Hinton, Lewis B. Payne, and Davies. The change to circuits and stations of these old Presiding Elders, and the many changes in appointments, made quite a sensation; but all had confidence that the readjustment had been wisely made. The class was quite a large one, one of the largest in the his- tory of the Conference : Thomas J. Staley, Thomas B. Lanier, John J. Morgan, James L. Neese, Levi P. Neese, Britton Sanders, Theodore A. Pharr, Young J. Allen, Thomas S. Tyson, James L. Lupo, Thomas T. Arnold, Olin S. Means, Charles Moore, Moses A. Leak, W. C. D. Perry, Lucius C. Fambro, Cailesman Pope, James Y. Bryce, John J. Boring, John Patillo, John Mur- phy, Columbus W. Howard, E. A. H. McGhee, Ham G. Horton, Lake R. McNamar, John F. Berry, John W. Simmons. The effects of the great religious revival were manifest in the in- crease of candidates for the itinerant work. This class was re- markable for the number of college graduates, and furnished the first foreign missionary since the days of John B. Barton, who died in Africa. Young J. Allen, afterward so famous, was received on trial this year. Lake R. McNamar, whose name appears, was a Marylander, who only spent a short time in Georgia and returned to his na- tive State. Britton Sanders, who was admitted at this Conference, and who after near fifty years of hard service was superannuated, was from Madison County, Georgia, in the hill country of upper Georgia. His parents were sturdy farmers, and with good com- mon school training he came from the farm to the pulpit. He served a few years in the army and was a faithful and brave soldier. He has done much hard work and is greatly beloved as a useful, laborious pastor. Olin S. Means was a son of Dr. Alexander Means, a pure young man who traveled but a few years. John J. Morgan came into the Conference at this time and died in the work thirty years after it. He was a teacher of a country school, and then a man of middle life, though unmarried. He never married. He was a very sincere man who had very de- 310 History of cided peculiarities. He was never a successful pastor, but was never a discouraged one. He went on his way to the end, doing the best he could, and faithful to the work assigned him. James L. Lupo was a plain, unpretending, sensible man, of no striking qualities. He did his work faithfully and bore a spotless reputation until his death thirty years afterward. John F. Berry, a young man of good mind and moderate edu- cation, whose piety and whose devotion to his work was unques- tionable, was struck by lightning at his parsonage window after he had traveled a few years. W. C. D. Perry, a modest, retiring, faithful man, in the third year of his itinerancy was attacked with smallpox and died. He was a good man of good parts and promised to be quite useful. Dr. Young J. Allen, the veteran missionary to China, entered the Conference this year. He was left an orphan in his infancy, without brother or sister, and was the heir of considerable wealth. He was brought up by a kinsman, and when about sixteen years old, while at school near Starrsville, in Newton County, he was soundly converted. He went to Emory and Henry College for a year, and then came to Oxford to Emory College, where he graduated. He was when he graduated quite young, but was a mature man beyond his years. Faithful to all his duties, resolved to be a missionary, he turned all his studies in that direction. He graduated; married; sold his plantation and slaves, and of- fered himself to the board of missions. He was accepted and ordered to China. He went at once to Shanghai and began his work. The War Between the States came and he was entirely cut off - from home. His colleagues, all save one, were forced to return home. He was offered a place in other missions, but he held on his way, a representative of the M. E. Church South. He was forced to take a place as teacher and translator for the Chinese Government. As a teacher of English and a translator, he was placed in a very responsible place. He held this place until things at home were in better condition after the war, and held the mission together. After matters allowed it, he resigned from the Government service, and was for years exclusively in the service of the Church. He was perhaps the leading mis- sionary of all nations in the Chinese Empire. He was a man of immense industry, untiring and thoroughly consecrated to his work, a philosopher, a statesman, as well as a preacher, and did a work for China not surpassed by any man of his time. He died at seventy-two years old while at work in his chosen field. Georgia Methodism. 311 Charles A. Moore entered the Conference at this session. A good man of sterling character, he has done much good work on hard fields. Edward A. H. McGhee, known as Howard McGhee, is a brother of J. B. McGhee. He is of old Methodist stock, and has been an acceptable and useful preacher for fifty years. After he traveled for over thirty years, he was thrown from his buggy and leg broken. He recovered, and although somewhat disabled, has gone vigorously on his work. He is a man of excellent mind, good education, air^ preaches acceptably. James Y. Bryce was transferred at this Conference to Arkansas. Hamilton G. Horton left his printer's case in Milledgeville to join the Conference, and was transferred at once to West Texas. He was sent to the extreme frontier on the Uvalde Mission. Here he faced the hostile Comanchee and endured all the hard- ships of the new settled land. He did his work heroically, and when the war began he entered the army as Chaplain. He never returned Eastward, but still abides in Texas, an honored superan- nuate of the West Texas Conference. John W. Simmons graduated at Emory College; joined the Conference, and volunteered for California, and accompanied Bishop Pierce on his overland trip. He was with him during the whole journey of which Bishop Pierce gave so graphic an account in his letters to The Advocate. He remained in California until the war began, when finding that his way to usefulness was hedged up by his pronounced Southern sympathies, he resolved to break through the lines and return to his section. He made his way into Mexico, and after many perils he finally reached Texas, where he joined the Confederate Army. After the war he went into the regular work, and in it he did much hard and faithful work, and never relaxed his zeal and energy. Thomas B. Lanier, a man of gifts and piety, and an excellent and popular preacher and pastor, now began his work and served the church usefully for some time, filling acceptably a number of circuits. His health failing, he studied medicine and took a supernumerary relation, from which he afterward was superan- nuated. He resided for some years in the growing city of Millen, where he exerted an excellent influence for the church. Robert F. Williamson, who came into the Conference, was the son of a wealthy planter in Pike County, a man of fine spirit, good mind, and true piety; has been, and at this time (1912) continues to be a very useful and acceptable preacher, at present at work in the South Georgia Conference. 312 History of Atticus G. Haygood, afterward Sunday School Secretary, Pres- ident of Emory College, Editor of The Wesleyan Christian Ad- vocate, Agent of the Slater Fund, and twice elected Bishop, — a youth of twenty, entered the Conference at this time. He was the grandson on his mother's side, of Josiah Askew, one of the early Methodist preachers and a nephew of his gifted son, Josiah Askew, Jr. His father was Green B. Haygood, Esq., a prominent lawyer of Atlanta. Bishop Haygood was most care- fully educated in the junior branches by his mother. He studied the classics at a High School in Atlanta, and went thence to the Sophomore Class in Emory College where he was graduated the summer before he entered the Conference. He married as soon as he completed his course, the daughter of Rev. John W. Yar- brough, and entered the work a married man. From the day he entered, he made constant progress. As Secretary of the Conference, as Presiding Elder, as pastor on city charges, he early evinced his very remarkable capacity and his entire devotion to the work of the church. He was elected the first Sunday School Secretary, and was recalled to Georgia to take the presi- dency of Emory College, which was then in sore need. He did a wonderful work for this institution ; and while president of the college, was also editor of The Wesleyan Christian Advocate. He was elected Bishop at the General Conference of 1882 by a handsome majority, but felt compelled at that time to decline the office. He was afterwards chosen as agent of the Slater Fund, a great benevolence directed to the negroes. He filled this place with signal ability. He resigned this position in 1890, and was again elected Bishop. He then yielded to the will of his brethren and for five years was most efficient in his work. He was an untiring worker, and naturally of strong frame he did not think he could break down; but after a severe attack of the grippe, other fatal symptoms appeared, and he died when he was but sixty years old, and while his mind was in greatest vigor. He was not only a great preacher and a great journalist, but a writer of unusual ability. He took a high place among American authors, and no Southern writer has been so widely read away from home or so highly commended. In the pulpit and on the platform he was a man of great power. His chasteness of lan- guage, his epigrammatic sentences, his remarkable insight, and his absolute fearlessness, connected with an undercurrent of deep emotionalism and oftentimes a current of irresistible humor, made him one of the most popular of public speakers. He took much interest in public affairs and exerted a mighty Bishop W. A. Candler. Rev. C. K. Jenkins, D.D. President Wesleyan Female College, Georgia Methodism. 315 influence in the State in favor of temperance, education and re- ligion. Noble, unselfish, generous, he drew all to him by his magnanimity. No man of his time exerted so wide an influence for good to his people among those who were out of their limits. He was highly honored and greatly beloved, and his early death seemed to human eye to be a calamity of no common order. The Conference of 1859 met for the first time in the young city of Rome, Bishop Kavanaugh presiding. It continued in ses- sion for seven days. As is often the case after great revivals, there came a time of reaction and the large increase of proba- tioners during the phenomenal revival of 1857 was followed by a decrease of over 2,000. The usage of the church in those days was to take in all who applied on probation, and often the next pastor finding them unprepared to assume the vows, simply dropped them. There were, however, saved out of the probationers of the year before 1442, who were received into full connection, and there were still over 6,000 left on trial. The collections were still grow- ing, and there was $24,631 collected for missions. It had been decided to have a Book Depository at Macon, and John W. Burke had been appointed the agent. To raise a working capital he had canvassed the State and reported over $3,000 raised for it. It began a career of great usefulness and promised to be quite successful, when the war came on and brought disaster with it. Robert A. Seale, Gibson C. Andrews, Ebenezer G. Murrah, Charles M. Smith, Joseph J. Singleton, John P. Guest, Robert H. Jones, James D. Anthony, James T. Lowe, John A. Reynolds, Marshall, G. Jenkins, R. F. Jones, Robert H. Rogers, Thomas J. Embry, David D. Henry, Sanford Leake, James A. Baugh. Of these seventeen, John P. Guest, M. G. Jenkins, David D. Henry, James A. Baugh, and R. Frazer Jones were not received into full connection, discontinuing their Conference connection. Gibson C. Andrews died a superannuated preacher — a meek, modest, retiring, pure man. Ebenezer G. Murrah, after years of activity and zealous work, on account of impaired health became a superannuate, and is still living (1912). Sanford Leake is also living, a superannuate. 316 History of Robert A. Seale, who began his life work at this Conference, was destined to spend a long life in the service of the church. Never a strong man, he was for some years a supernumerary; then he was active and did good work for years, and then super- annuated, in which relation he died in 19 12. James T. Lowe sprang from an excellent family in Chattooga County. He entered the Conference before he was of age. The war came on and he entered the army and bore his part bravely until the close. He is still a useful superannuated worker in the Conference whose ministry has known no intermission. He is a man of remarkably strong mind, fresh, original, full of unction, and by his brethren unusually trusted and beloved, whose min- istry has been a blessing to any people among whom his lot has been cast. The decades which are under survey in this chapter form the end of an epoch and with the beginning of a new year, a new era. They had been years remarkable in many ways. Some of their features we have considered as we have looked into the events of each year, but there were some which did not specially belong to the distinct period we were considering. Nor perhaps did all the matters now glanced at have their beginning during these five years. There had been decided changes in the State ; the up-country had developed very rapidly, and so had South- western Georgia. Railroads were being steadily constructed. From Atlanta to West Point ; from Savannah to Thomasville ; from Macon to Columbus ; and with the coming of the railways there had come the flourishing towns along the way. Although there had been a panic and the banks had suspended specie pay- ment, the suspension had been legalized, and their issues were still readily used at home, while gold was to be secured in suffi- cient amount for all foreign trade. During the ten years which are under survey, the State of Georgia had advanced rapidly on all material lines. The rail- roads had been extended to Columbus and Montgomery on the West. Cotton factories were erected in all parts of the State. The population of the newly settled sections had grown rapidly. The growth of the church had been very rapid in both Northwest and Southwest Georgia. The Southwestern Railroad had reached Albany, and the country along the W. & A. R. R., from Atlanta to Chattanooga, was filling up very rapidly with substantial peo- ple. There were now in Southwest Georgia. Lumpkin, Americus, and Cuthbert, stations, and in Northwest Georgia, Marietta and Rome. There were great changes in Middle Georgia which had Georgia Methodism. 317 been imperceptibly making their way for a number of years and changing the character of the work. The smaller farms had been largely absorbed by the great plantations. The planter lived in the country town or in the city, and left the plantation in charge of the overseer; and where there had been at one time thickly settled neighborhoods, there were now only a few plantations. The little villages in which the planters resided clamored for regular services on the Sabbath, and became segregated from the circuit ; so Washington, Sparta, Madison, Oxford, Coving- ton, LaGrange, West Point, Griffin, Talbotton, Lumpkin, Cuth- bert and Americus were stations. This disposition was very sternly resisted at first, and it was feared the effect would be disastrous. But the country churches were soon found to be benefited by the change. There had been decided changes in the new country, but it was in the growth of strong and popu- lous circuits. While the middle part of the State was losing its white people, and many sections of it becoming a great negro quarter, the upper country was being rapidly populated and some of the circuits were enormously large. The Cassville, the Summerville, the LaFayette, the Marietta covered territory enough to provide for a district. Most of these circuits had two preachers, a senior and a junior, and in most of them large numbers of appointments were filled on week day, and the weekly services were largely attended. The camp meetings were still in high favor, but the protracted meeting was becoming more common. The number of educated men was largely increased, and while much the largest number of the preachers were without classical training, there were quite a number of college graduates in the conference. A very decided change had imperceptibly crept into the conference. The rigorous enforcement of discipline was no longer attempted. Women wore rings, ruffles and ribbons, with- out rebuke, and men neglected family prayer and did not go to class meeting, with no other penalty than a general rebuke from the pulpit. The old straight-breasted coat was still worn by many of the preachers ; but the young men did not follow the ex- ample of their older brothers, and sometimes one was found dar- ing enough to let a part of his beard grow. As yet, however, no one would have dared to have worn a mustache. There was a constant disposition to advance along lines of lib- erality. The old churches were gradually giving way, and more comely structures were taking their places. Among the advanced measures of these days, the establishment in all the cities of city 318 History of missions was one. Savannah, Columbus, Macon and Augusta had each a gifted young man set apart for this work. The General Conference had, at Nashville, in May, 1858, set on foot some new plans for the distribution of literature, and the Georgia Conference had now a flourishing depository under the direction of John W. Burke. As will be seen in the chapter on the colleges, there has been large advance on that line. There was a constant disposition to make small stations of the country towns. West Point and Jonesboro, Dalton and Covington in 1857; Eatonton in 1858; Forsyth in 1859; Dahlonega in i860. The circuits had divided and most of them in Middle Georgia reduced to eight appointments, with two preachers upon them. Weekday preaching was not yet abandoned even in Middle Geor- gia on the Burke Circuit in 1857, a midweek service was held monthly in all the churches, and on the Monroe Circuit by preaching twice on Sunday all the churches had Sunday preach- ing and a service in the middle of the week. The tendency, how- ever, was simply to a Saturday and Sunday service alone. There were some of the churches which could not get Sunday preaching, and in the large circuits of the up country there were many neighborhoods in which there was only weekday preaching. The church buildings in the rural districts were very uncomely and uncomfortable. In the towns and villages, however, there was a steady improvement in this direction. In Griffin, LaGrange, Covington, Madison, Eatonton, Talbotton, Sandersville, very creditable churches had been built. Up to this time there had been no organs or rented pews in the church, but a number of wealthy people in Columbus erected a second church in which there was placed an organ, and for a time the pews were rented. Very considerable changes had passed over Methodism in Georgia during the five years we have surveyed. The country was improving rapidly in the direction of education. There were now Franklin College in Athens, Emory in Oxford, Oglethorpe near Milledgeville, Mercer in Penfield — all male colleges which were well patronized. In all the villages and towns there were academics under the control of a classical teacher, and in many country neighborhoods there were schools of high grade. While there were no public schools as they are known now, there was a liberal system of State aid to poor scholars, and in Augusta, Sa- vannah and Macon there were free schools for those who were unable to pay their way at the academies. There were few sec- tions of Middle Georgia in which there were not good schools of primary grade. This, however, could not be said of the wire- Georgia Methodism. 319 grass country and of the mountains. Here, as a general thing, the schools were of very ordinary kind. The applicants for admission into the conference were not re- quired to pass any examination on the elementary branches or any other. Licensed and recommended, they were admitted by a vote of the conference, and the question was as to the piety and preaching power of the applicants. CHAPTER V. Days of Darkness. i 860- i 866. The Conference of i860 met in Augusta, November 27th, and continued in session until the 7th of December, Bishop Pierce presiding. Mr. Lincoln had been elected President of the United States. It was evident that a party which had determined on the abolition of slavery was the victorious one. For years the Southern peo- ple had been convinced that the overthrow of negro slavery was the overthrow of their civilization. That they were mistaken in this opinion has been proven to be true, but it was nevertheless entertained. The issue of the election had not even been dreamed, much less expected; and at the time the conference met the coun- try was in a state of panic. The year had been a wonderfully successful one in church circles. There was an increase of 5,000 white and colored members and probationers. The missionary collection rose to nearly $29,000. For the conference depository $5,133 had been collected and subscribed. Although the political campaign had been a heated one, the interests of the church had advanced in all sections. It was never more harmonious and prosperous than during the last days of the old regime. Before it met again the face of the country was changed. There were admitted on trial Norman D. Morehouse, Henry. D. Murphy, Jesse Richardson, Walton T. Holland, John R. Par- ker, George L. W. Anthony, Hezekiah H. Porter, John M. Lowry, James L. Fowler, Josiah Harkey, W. W. Oslin, W. A. Rogers, Wesley Lane, James R. Stewart, William W. Stewart, Leonidas R. Redding, J. Sloman Ashmore, and R. N. Andrews. Of these, however, Jesse Richardson, Walton T. Holland, J. C. Ashmore, and Robert N. Andrews only traveled a short time. Henry D. Murphy traveled for eight years, and then located. G. L. W. Anthony located after a short service. L. R. Redding transferred to Mississippi. Josiah Harkey died while on trial. W. A. Rogers was always a teacher, but did good service as ac- ceptable preacher for over twenty-five years, and then located. J. R. Parker remained in the conference as long as he lived. He was a man of unusual ability, good mind, and was well edu- cated. He was highly esteemed, both as a pastor and a preacher, and his Christian character was without stain when he died. Georgia Methodism. 321 Norman D. Morehouse was a modest, thoughtful, gifted man, who did faithful work, and died in the work. He was a very excellent preacher, far above the ordinary, and an exceedingly lovable man. , , , Tohn M. Lowry was the son of a local preacher and a nephew of Tohn W. Yarbrough. He was a young fellow of very good education and very studious habits, and gentle courteous man- ners; sensitive and retiring, and was most highly esteemed by those who knew him best. He was not a strong man and fear- ing a breakdown in health he studied medicine, and for awhile practised his profession, but returned to the ministry and in it he died after over thirty years of laborious service. W W Oslin was a grandson of the celebrated Nicholas Wa- ters 'one of the first Methodist preachers in the South and in America. He was a man of great faithfulness, a good preacher, and a fine singer. He died in the work. Wesley Lane never intermitted his ministerial work tor over fifty years He is a gentle, prudent, thoughtful, patient man, who has done much hard work and done it well. He is still 1V \V g W Stewart is still a member of the South Georgia Con- ference. He has long been most highly esteemed as an unassum- ing faithful, sensible and useful preacher. These were the workers who went forth to find everything in wild commotion, and there was little hope for anything like suc- cessful work in the fields to which they were assigned. The Conference of i860 closed in a time of almost insane ex- citement The alarm of the Southern people was hardly greater than their astonishment, and sturdy Unionists found themselves side by side with Secessionists, to whom they had been for a life- time opposed. Little was thought or spoken of but secession. It was an absolute necessity, men thought, to salvation from utter ruin It was not passion or resentment, but a firmly entertained conviction that this was the only remedy. Not many expected war as the result of secession. They thought if the South was willing to give up all the benefits of the Union, the North would be glad to be rid of a people for whom it had so little regard because of their connection with slavery. But war did come, and for four years the South was a camp. There was a gathering of the clans. Camp grounds were made parade grounds, and the tents were used as quarters. Preachers were elected officers of companies and regiments, or they left their charges to go as chap- lains of regiments. There was nothing talked of or thought 322 History of about except war; and it is no wonder that there was a decrease in probationers. There was, however, a slight increase in mem- bers. The falling off in the collections, as was to be expected, was very great. The missionary collection fell from near thirty thousand to seventeen thousand, and the collection for superan- nuated preachers fell correspondingly. There was, however, no considerable derangement in church work. No enemy had invaded Georgia or threatened her coasts. The strife was in the West and in Virginia, and as yet the pres- sure of want was not felt. There was little religious interest. A revival was almost impossible under the existing circumstances of the wild days. Reverend William M. Crumley went to Virginia as chaplain in the hospitals. Alexander M. Thigpen, T. H. Jordan, John A. Reynolds, George G. Smith, John H. Mashburn, W. H. Sim- mons, W. H. C. Cone, John W. Talley and James B. Jackson were chaplains in the army, while Britton Sanders, David Starr, R. H. Jones, W. W. Stewart, Leonidas Redding and Wiley G. Parks, were in the army as privates or officers. There was now almost an entire cessation of the class meetings since the class leaders had gone to the front ; but the routine work was still done. The Conference of 1861 met in Atlanta in December. There were admitted on trial: Benjamin W. Williams, Isaac S. T. Hop- kins, William A. J. Fulton, John W. Neese, Anderson J. Jarrell, John R. Gaines, John K. Leake, Franklin A. Robertson, William B. Merritt, I. Tabor Payne. Of these Benjamin W. Williams, John W. Neese, Franklin A. Robertson, W. B. Merritt and I. Tabor Payne only travelled a short time. John K. Leake was one of the most gifted young men of his class. He had graduated with high honors at Emory College, travelled only a short time, and was elected to the presidency of the Andrew Female College, at Cuthbert. He had just entered upon his duties when he was taken with a virulent smallpox, and died in the vigor of his young manhood. The class received was a small one, and of the eleven who came in, there were several whose conference life was very short. Small as was the class, it had in it the most unscrupulous and ingenious villain ever seen among Georgia preachers. He was an Englishman, whose real or assumed name was W. A. L Fulton. In Savannah, at Wesley Chapel, the Reverend H. J. Adams, pastor, noticed Sunday after Sunday a quiet, well- dressed, well-behaved Englishman. He found he was a tailor by Georgia Methodism. 323 trade, and was employed by the Reverend Emanuel Heidt, a Methodist local preacher. He was apparently pious, and cer- tainly quite intelligent. He claimed to be a lay preacher from among the Independents from Hull, England. He decided to join the Methodists, and desired to preach. He was licensed, and preached most ably. He married a good lady and was sent to Augusta, and again to Washington. He won the confidence of all, and with quite a sum of money entrusted to him to deliver in Augusta, he fled the country ; and it was then discovered that the slick hypocrite was not only a thief, but that he had been married many times and deserted his wives; that he had posed as a preacher in other States, and before his exposure had fled to other sections. He was last heard from as a murderer who was lynched in a Western territory. Isaac S. T. Hopkins, a quite gifted young man who had just graduated from Emory College, entered the conference this year. He sprang from excellent parentage, but his father died early, and he was brought up by a very saintly mother, a devoted mem- ber of St. James Church, in Augusta. Young Hopkins had the best educational advantages, and was converted while a student in Emory. He joined the conference, and soon evinced the fact that he was possessed of unusual ability. When the war was over and Emory College was in her greatest stress, he was called to her help. He bravely stood by her and saw her over the breakers. He was called to the Chancellorship of the Southern University, in Alabama, and then returned to take a chair in his alma mater. He was called to succeed Bishop Haygood as presi- dent, and was then elected as president of the Georgia School of Technology in Atlanta. He resigned from this position to re- enter the pastorate. Anderson Joseph Jarrell was from Jones County, the son of a worthy and wealthy planter, who was a Primitive Baptist. Young Jarrell was converted under the ministry of Miles W. Arnold. He was prepared for college by that famous teacher, Early Cleveland, and entered Emory College, where he finished his four years. He entered the conference that winter, and for oyer thirty years, without a day's intermission, and without de- viating a hair's breadth from his line of work, he continued in the pastorate. He began as junior preacher on a large circuit, with the afterward Bishop Haygood as his senior, travelled one year a mountain circuit, and then entered the army as chaplain, and was with Lee when he surrendered at Appomattox. He then returned to his conference and was sent on another up-countrv 324 History of circuit, then was stationed, and continued as a station preacher while he lived. He was a man of very strong common sense, had a brilliant and poetic imagination, was a man of exquisite taste, and had remarkable dramatic power in preaching. He was al- most universally beloved as a pastor and preacher. He was an earnest advocate for the experience of holiness of heart as it was presented by the Inskip school, and was for some years president of the Georgia Holiness Association. He set his face like a flint against all extravagances, all side issues, and all intolerance. No more remarkable man has ever been produced in the history of the Georgia Conference than was the saintly Jarrell, and none more beloved or useful. After being a member of the most im- portant charges in the North and South Georgia Conferences, he was transferred to St. Louis, Mo., where he remained two years. He then returned to the North Georgia Conference, and while stationed at his old home at Cartersville was suddenly attacked by a fatal illness, and in the full vigor of his life passed away. His son, Rev. Charles C. Jarrell, is now a member of the same conference. J. R. Gaines only travelled a little while, when he died at work. The Conference of 1862 met in Macon, November 26, and remained in session till December 4. The war was raging with fearful violence. More and more troops were sent to the front, and at home all were engaged in trying to provide for them. The stores were largely closed for want of goods, the factories were unable to supply the demand for their products, the price of everything was advancing with fearful rapidity, and all gold and silver had disappeared. Battles were fought and victories won, and now and then a bitter defeat and reverse depressed the people. Nashville had fallen. The armies of the North were getting nearer to our borders, but still the work of the Church went on. The people were never more religious, and faith in God was never at a higher point. The Southern people felt that their cause was just, and prayed with fervor and confidence for success. As yet there was no invasion of Georgia, and no disturbance of the regular working of church machinery. Emory College had closed its doors, but the female colleges were still in operation. The collections were apparently larger, but were really less, for the money collected was not worth one-half of what it had been in i860. There were still accessions to the church, and while the number was small, it was Georgia Methodism. 325 not decreased. The probationers and members added amounted to nearly five hundred. There were admitted on trial : William A. Dodge, Walton F. Holland, William C. Dunlap, J. O. A. Sparks, John F. Ellison and Benjamin J. Baldwin. The class of 1862 was the smallest which had ever been ad- mitted into the conference from the organization up to that time. There were only six, and of these only two who did anything like long-continued work in Georgia. Walton F. Holland, J. O. A. Sparks, John F. Ellison and Benjamin J. Baldwin, none of them remained long in the work in Georgia. William Asbury Dodge, a burly boy of eighteen, came to the conference and was sent to Blairsville. He had sprung from a i branch of the great family of the Dodges in New England, had been brought up a Methodist, had spent a little while at school in Oxford. He was good-natured, warm-hearted, zealous and untiring. He was soon found to be a very valuable man, and was put on a district in the mountains. While on this district he be- came deeply interested in the subject of sanctification, and espe- cially of his need for a deeper work of grace. He accepted fully the views of Doctors Inskip and McDonald, and after having experienced the blessing then denominated "Christian Perfec- tion," he became an enthusiastic advocate of their teachings. He never went to wild extremes, and rejected in toto some of the views of those who held with him on this main subject. He has however, never wavered in his belief that there is a second bles- sing received after conversion, which roots out all sin, and that he had that blessing. He was much loved and highly honored by all, even those who differed with him in his strongly held views. Mr. Dodge was a man of real power and one who was highly useful. William C. Dunlap was a young man of Presbyterian lineage, but was converted in his youth and joined the Methodists. He entered the conference in December, 1862, and died thirty-four years afterward, having done as much hard and useful work as any man of his time. He was a decided man. He held his views confidently, and was ready to hold them against all comers. As he understood it, he was a thorough Methodist, and especially was the doctrine of Christian Perfection a precious one to him. He believed he had the blessing. He believed all ought to have it, and pressed his views with all earnestness. His life was de- voted to what he thought was his duty. He was selected by Bishop Haygood as Commissioner of Education, and worked 326 History of zealously for Paine Institute, and it was through his influence that Reverend Moses W. Payne, of Missouri, gave twenty-five thousand dollars to endow the school. He was a true man, highly valued by those who knew his worth. The Army of the West was now in upper Georgia, and with it was Robert A. Holland, a young Kentuckian who became a mem- ber by transfer of the Georgia Conference. His youthful ap- pearance, his refined manners, his genial humor, brilliant mind and correct culture, gave him at once access to the hearts and the pulpits of the people. He was petted and feted and the most wonderful things predicted of the brilliant youth. He was re- ceived by transfer, and it was earnestly desired and expected that he should be stationed in one of the leading cities at least as a junior, but Bishop Pierce was presiding with Bishop Andrew, and had the making of the appointments. Brilliant as the young Kentuckian was, he was not as brilliant as the Bishop had been when he was of his age, and was entitled to no higher considera- tion; and so, much to the chagrin of his friends, the young prodigy was sent as junior preacher on an excellent circuit. He remained in Georgia till the war closed, married an excellent and wealthy Georgia girl, and went back to Kentucky, and after a few years entered the Protestant Episcopal Church. The conference for 1863 met in Columbus, and Bishop Early for the last time presided. The war had gone with terrific fury. Gettysburg had been fought, and the up country of Georgia was a great camp. The conscript law had been passed, and all the able bodied between fourteen and sixty were hurried to the field. There was nothing heard of or talked of but news from the front. The Southern people believed they were fighting for ex- istence, and that defeat was ruin, and defeat only urged them to greater sacrifices. The preachers were in the camp when they were not in the pulpit. The saintly Crumley and his noble wife, the no less saintly Simmons and his Northern-born wife, the gifted Potter, — were seeing after the wounded in Richmond. There were more than a score of chaplains in the army and many soldiers in the line from among the preachers. The camp rang with old Methodist songs, and revival fires burned with the camp fires of the soldiers. The preachers at home were pressed be- yond measure to get means of subsistence. The people were hard at work to make bread. The cotton field was given up for the grain field. Sweet potatoes, ground nuts and Indian meal were a substitute for coffee, holly leaves for tea and sorghum for sugar. The old spinning wheel was geared up for work, and the Georgia Methodism. 327 old loom was made to do service again. The people were never more religious, and the churches were filled with pale-faced wor- shippers. There was little of revival fire at home. The times were too trying for the song of joy or the shout of exultation. The pulpit had little to say of the war. The old story of the Gos- pels was what the burdened people wanted to hear, and only that. The wounded soldiers were in all our villages and towns. Refugees from the West and East crowded into the country. While this was generally the state of things, there was heartless gaiety and shameless rapacity side by side with it. Confederate money was abundant. It bought nothing, but there was nothing to be bought. There was no show, nor pomp, nor luxury, but there was at home little real want — perhaps never less. The whole land was turned into a great granary, and so there was a sufficient supply of all that was needed for imperative wants. The church work went on steadily, and the missionary collection reached sixty-eight thousand dollars, and the conference claims were paid with a premium of one hundred per cent. The class of 1863 was a small one. The war was at its height, and everything was deranged. William C. Malloy, John R. Deer- ing, E. K. Aiken, W. T. Caldwell, James O. A. Cook, James A. Baugh were admitted. William C. Malloy, who was chaplain in the army, remained in Georgia a short time after the war closed, and then went to the Baltimore Conference. John R. Deering, a Kentuckian, son of a leading preacher in the Kentucky Conference, had been a soldier, and being wounded was discharged. He joined the Con- ference and did good work till the war was over, when with his Georgia wife he went back to Kentucky, where he has been a useful man to this date (1912). Willis T. Caldwell, quite a young man, of good mind and solid piety, joined the conference this session. He married a daughter of Josiah Lewis, and has done very excellent work for now over fifty years. A quiet, modest, retiring, but thorougbly reliable man, he has been of real service to the church. Eldridge K. Aiken, a bright, active, very young man, small in body and full of zeal, is still an efficient worker in the confer- ence, who has filled some of our important circuits. J. O. A. Cook, son of Reverend Francis Cook, and a brother of Doctor W. F. Cook, of the conference, a graduate of Emory and at that time a chaplain in the army, was admitted on trial and sent to the army. He is still a member (1912) of the South Georgia Conference. He is a man of pure heart, good judgment 328 History of and pleasant ways. Courageous, yet quiet, faithful in the dis- charge of every duty, he has always had the lofty respect of his conference, has had the best appointments and filled them well. Two of his sons are members of the same conference as their father. The Conference for 1864 did not meet until January of 1865. It met then in Athens, Bishop Pierce presiding. The year had been a year of fearful events. General Sherman had made his march across the State, carrying devastation and ruin with him. Atlanta had been burned, the whole line of country along the railways desolated. Battles by the score had been fought on Georgia soil, and it was evident to all thoughtful men that the end of the conflict was near. The preachers had bravely stood in their places, and had done their work faithfully, and now many of them went to appointments where they expected to find everything in fearful confusion. Haygood and Thigpen were to take the two churches in Atlanta, and out of the fragments to construct new congregations. Wynn was holding his place in Savannah, with the Federal soldiers jealously watching every movement, and cut off from his brothers by a cordon of bayonets. There was such confusion there was no report of missionary money collected, and possibly there was none brought to confer- ence. And yet in spite of all these untoward and exciting events, there were several cases of ministerial discipline reported in the minutes. A useful and valuable member of the conference had allowed his angry passions to lead him to smite an adversary, and the conference ordered him reprimanded; and another who was doubtless misunderstood and perhaps too hardly dealt with, was convicted of falsehood and slander. He bore the same pun- ishment with great meekness, and his whole after life vindicated him in the view of his brethren of any intention to deceive or to injure. Methodism in Georgia never presented a gloomier aspect than at this conference, and it was not to be wondered at that men's hearts failed them for fear; but rallying from it and hope- ful still, and above all trusting in God, the preachers cheerfully took their appointments and went to their work. There were only three admitted on trial : Ambrose N. Holli- field, G. T. Embry and Peter A. Heard. I lollifield soon retired from the work. George T. Embry, a faithful man, died in it, and Peter A. Heard, one of the truest and best of men, served the church efficiently for over thirty years, and died while pastor at College Park. He was a grad- uate of Emory, a lovely, gifted Christian gentleman. Georgia Methodism. 329 In April the end came. The last soldier laid down his arms, and the fearful war between men of the same blood and the same religion, as far as the battlefield was concerned, was at an end. The soldiers who were left returned to their desolate homes, the preachers from the army came back to their conference to find work as best they could until conference assembled. The ne- groes, freed from their bonds, were glorying in a new freedom, the people stood in silence, unable to conjecture what might come, and all kinds of predictions were made as to what might be looked for. There was much left; some cotton, some tobacco, some money, and an abundance of provisions in certain parts of the country. The negroes were helped by the Freedmens' Bu- reau, and the whites by friends in Maryland and California, and it was soon evident that the North had no desire to wreak any vengeance on the conquered, and there was but little danger of halter or prison. One brave heart among a thousand others, found voice in speech, when Bishop Pierce said to his Georgia friends to stand firm and trust in God, and when the other Bish- ops joined with him in a circular letter to the same effect, confi- dence began to be restored. The A. M. E. Church, the A. M. E. Zion Church and the M. E. Church, each swept down on the negro congregations and captured them. Most of them went to the A. M. E., but a very respectable number to the M. E. Church. John H. Caldwell, to whom we have alluded, went into the M. E. Church, and sundry others followed his example. They were good men, and aimed to do the right thing; but it was soon evi- dent that the church was not ready to go with them. The revival fires now began to blaze, and the State was swept by a glorious revival flame. The chaplains who had no charge, went into evangelistic work, and God blessed the people with his smile. The Southern people had supposed ruin would come if defeat came; and for years after the surrender they looked anx- iously to the future ; but the ruin did not come. The result among the negroes was far better than they feared. The M. E. Church, the Presbyterian, the Congregational, the Baptist, all established schools for negroes. The A. M. E. began at once to educate its new membership in the art of independence and self- support. While much that was feared did come, much that was looked for as sure did not. The colored people were missed from the city congregations ; but for some time from our country charges these things went on as aforetime. The Freedmen's Bureau was conducted by a conscientious Christian man, Gen- eral O. O. Howard, and all that he could do to make freedom a 330 History of blessing to the freedmen was done. As far as the whites were concerned, save in the mountain sections, where some of the preachers were disaffected and drew some of the people with them, there was no disintegration or absorption, but only reli- gious prosperity and concord. The church had great reason for gratitude, and found that God had been better to it than it feared. The four terrible years had not been without a blessing, and as soon as the first feeling of dismay at the changed condition of things had passed, it began to adjust itself to it, and there was no confusion. The work went on as it had done in days gone by. The conference met at Macon in November of 1865, Bishop Pierce presiding. In the spring of 1865 the war had ended, and now new recruits came to the ministry. Of the eleven, however, who applied for membership in the conference, Franklin L. Allen, Cyrus H. Ellis only remained a little while in active work. E. S. Tyner was transferred to Florida. Charles J. Oliver, an Englishman of decided views and strong mind, travelled a few years, and then located. James M. Stokes, an excellent man who had been a chaplain in the army, transferred to Florida, and died there of consumption. Robert J. Corley, a most gifted and ac- complished young man, who made rapid progress in the church, rising in a few years to its first stations, and filling them with marked ability, died while still young of consumption. Francis G. Hughes, a son of Judge Thomas Hughes, a local preacher of Union, long regarded as a most judicious, fruitful and earnest man, filled acceptably many of the best positions in his conference and died in the work. General Clement A. Evans was perhaps the only Major Gen- eral who has ever been a member of a Methodist conference. He was a young lawyer in Stewart County. He entered the Confed- erate army, and was promoted for gallantry and ability to the position of Major General. He was severely wounded in one of the battles in Maryland, and never fully recovered. After the war was over he determined to give himself to the work of the ministry, and joined the conference. His genuine ability, his great suavity and unquestioned piety, added to his fame as a soldier, soon put him in the front rank among the preachers. His first year was in the desolated but magnificent county of Bartow. Here a great revival followed his earnest work. He was soon in the front rank among the preachers and was sent to the leading stations. After twenty-five years of active service he retired fr< m the pastorate, and was elected as prison commissioner by Rev. W. N. Aixswortii, D.D. President W'ksi.kyax Female College. "*> .v"""^ W. C. Bass, D.D. President Wesleyan Female College Georgia Methodism. 333 the State, a position filled with ability until his death on July 2, 1911. W. P. Rivers, who joined the conference this year, had been for several years a local preacher. He was a graduate of Yale, a man of fine taste, gentle, amiable and deeply religious. He wrote much very melodious verse, and after years of active work retired to the ranks of the superannuated, and in 1905 passed quietly away. The conference, which met in the City Hall in Macon, was the first to meet after the great change had come. The minutes of the conference at Athens were incomplete, and we cannot tell what was the membership reported then, but such was the dis- organization at that time no figures could have been received with confidence. Taking the figures reported the year before, the membership of the church was five thousand less than it had been in 1863, and over five thousand less than it had been in i860. The missionary collection was now only two thousand five hundred and forty-nine dollars, but the conference collection was nearly four thousand five hundred. The difficulty of securing proper support for the preachers made it necessary for all who had resources of a private nature to fall back on them, and so sundry of the preachers received nominal appointments and went into secular employments. There were charges enough which promised support for all the preachers who could take appoint- ments, and in good heart the conference went to work under the new order of things. The General Conference was to meet in May of 1866, and it was evident that the old Georgia Conference would have to divide. The delegates elected to go to New Orleans were : Sam- uel Anthony, Lovick Pierce, E. H. Myers, Weyman H. Potter, James E. Evans, James W. Hinton and Joseph S. Key. The preachers never evinced a nobler heroism than they did in those first years after the war, and never since the primitive days and the darkest days of the war had closer times and more hard- ships ; but the poorest and hardest circuit was so much better in times of peace than the best had been during the war that the hardships were not regarded. It was apparent before the assembling of the conference that some radical changes were being considered. The Southern Christian Advocate had been brought from Charleston to Au- gusta, and thence to Macon. The press and all its outfit had been burned in the early part of 1865, and it had suspended pub- lication. John W. Burke & Company, having begun business, 334 History of published for a little while a weekly paper, and then made a con- tract for the publication of the Southern Christian Advocate. Doctor Myers was the editor. In the columns of this paper he indicated some of the changes that were demanded by the exist- ing condition of things. Bishop McTyiere (then Doctor Mc- Tyiere) and many others of the younger corps of preachers, were fully in sympathy with these advanced views, and had been planning and arranging for even greater changes. It is not the part of this history to give an account of this memorable confer- ence. When it adjourned the probation system was gone. Class meetings had received their death blow. Lay delegation was pro- vided for. The system of providing for superannuated preach- ers was changed, and the mode of supporting the ministry was modified. The name of the church was changed, as far as the General Conference could do it. Several of the Georgia delega- tion were young, serving their first session in the General Con- ference, and they were to a man with the progressives, but some of the older delegates fought the changes bitterly. The confer- ence had decided on extending the term of pastoral service with- out limit, and Bishop Pierce had declared his determination to resign, when after a second thought the conference rescinded the unwise decision. This course of Bishop Pierce, candor compels me to say, was by no means endorsed by some of the Georgia delegates, who were more willing to lose him than they were to surrender their favorite measure. There had, just after the war, crept in the use of organs into the churches. Against this some of the preachers were very decided, and they were sustained by Bishop Pierce; but there were so many preachers in favor of their use, that they soon found place in most of the city churches. The attempt to rent pews was tried also in Columbus, Savannah, LaGrange and Ma- con, but was so distasteful to the people and so ruinous in conse- quences that it was soon abandoned. There was a general opin- ion that the time had come for great changes, and they were made with startling rapidity. Among the new plans suggested, but not made obligatory by law, was that of having district conferences, and they were begun in Georgia in the summer of this year. The General Conference selected four new Bishops: McTyiere, Wightman, Doggett and Marvin. Three of these, at least, sym- pathized decidedly with the progressives, and a new method of examination of character was quietly decided on, but not begun at this time. The last meeting of the undivided conference was held at Georgia Methodism. 335 Americus in December. Bishop McTyiere, just beginning his episcopal life, came to Georgia and gained a place at this confer- ence, which he never lost. The collisions which this strong- willed man sometimes had in other conferences he never had here. He delighted every one with the grace and ability with which he presided. There was before the conference the question of whether the conference should divide, and if so at what line. The leading young men who were in city charges or on large dis- tricts, were bitterly opposed to division, and the fight against it was very severe ; but it was at last carried, and a satisfactory line agreed on, and the Georgia Conference as it had existed since 183 1 ceased to be. During this year the M. E. Church extended its lines into Georgia, and John Murphy, C. W. Parker, R. H. Waters, Alfred Dorman, John W. Yarbrough and John L. Fowler, cast in their lot with them. With the exception of John W. Yarbrough, those who withdrew were men of very moderate ability and had hum- ble place in the conference. Mr. Yarbrough was a man of ex- cellent character and of bright intellect. He spent several years in the M. E. Church, and then came back to the Church South, and in it died. There were eight admissions into the conference. John \V. Heidt, a young lawyer of Savannah, at the time Solicitor-General of his circuit, a graduate of Emory College, a descendant of the old Salzburgers, went into the conference, and was for forty years a most highly honored member of the North Georgia Conference. Genial in manner, ready in speech, unfail- ing in reason, and almost infinite in patience, few men were loved more than Doctor Heidt. He not only occupied the best stations and districts in his conference, but was president of the La Grange Female College, and the Southwestern University, in Texas. He was for years the secretary of the North Georgia Conference, and died in that office. Benson L. Timmons, a faithful, studious, pious man, after years of service died in the work. R. R. Johnson, who had lost an arm in the war, and who while on his work a year afterward was badly injured by an accident, was highly esteemed as a man of most excellent character, a ready preacher and a faithful man. He died a superannuate. Francis B. Davies, brother of Lewis J. and William Davies, died in Decatur, Ga., in his forty-seventh year. The minutes say of him that he had strong mental powers, good judgment, was beloved as a pastor and successful in his work. 336 History of W. M. C. Conley, son of W. F. Conley, is still an earnest worker in the South Georgia Conference. Josiah Lewis, Jr., son of Josiah Lewis, graduated at Emory College, and entered the conference at this time. He was for a time professor in Emory College, and afterward president of the Southern University, in Greensboro, Ala. He was a pastor for a few years in Alabama, and then returned to Georgia, where he was placed in charge of the church at LaGrange. His health failed, and he passed away. Doctor Lewis was a man of re- markably fine mind, and of most advanced cultivation. He was a forcible preacher and a delightful lecturer. He was very highly esteemed wherever he was known, and his early death was a sad loss to the Church. W. F. Robison began his life work at this time. He was a faithful, earnest worker all his life, and did the' work assigned him to the profit and satisfaction of those for whom it was done. The year 1866 had been a successful one. There was an in- crease in membership of over two thousand among the whites, while there had been a loss of over six thousand among the col- ored people. The conference collection was over five thousand, and the missionary near seven thousand dollars. The General Conference having given permission to the Geor- gia Conference to divide if it so willed, it was evident when the body met in December that a division was demanded by a ma- jority. It was painful to make the severance, but at last it was decided to do so, and the line as suggested by John W. Glenn was adopted and appointments were made ; and here I will end my current story. The history of Methodism in the larger cities demands special attention, as do the subjects of Missions, Education and Benevo- lence. The history I have tried to tell of work and workers for nearly a hundred years, has been of necessity not fully satisfac- tory; but it has given an outline that can be filled out in after time. The mere glances at the workers ought to be sketches of their lives ; but it would take too much space for me to attempt it. In some future day sketches of leading Methodists, clerical and lay, will be demanded, and I hope they will be furnished ; but a much larger and more extensive book than this will be necessary to contain them. Methodism has done a great work in in Georgia, and great obligations rest on the church. CHAPTER VI. Methodism in the Cities. I would have been glad to have given a fuller account of the work on the many circuits of the conference, but my limited space has forbidden it. It is, however, possible to enter some- what minutely into the history of the Church in the few cities of the State, and this I am trying to do in this chapter. Although Savannah antedates Augusta as a city by several years, yet, as Methodism was established in the latter city nrst, it claims priority in Methodist history. Immediately after the first settlement of the colony in 1732, a fort was established on its upper boundary, which was called Augusta, in honor of a young princess, daughter of George 11, for whom the colony was named. It was simply a fort, and a trading post for the Cherokee, Uchee and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, who still owned all the land north and west of it. The trade with the Indians increased, the traders became more numerous, and a village sprang up. After the surrender of the charter of the trustees to the govern- ment and the establishment of the English Church about 1757, a church was built and a parish laid out. This parish was called St Paul's The church was served by missionaries sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first of these was Jonathan Copp. Pie found a congregation of from 80 to 100 members but had only eight communicants. He had neither rectory nor glebe, and the promise of £20 per annum from the vestry was broken ! 1 he Indians were near by, and were not friendly; still he maintained his place for five years. # Solomon Frink succeeded him and remained three years. 515 In 1767 Edward Ellington came. He was an itinerant Episcopalian, who travelled over the thinly settled country to perform his offi- cial duties He did hard work until the Revolutionary war, and then Augusta fell into the hands of the British, and the church was destroyed. The Grand Tury of 1782 presented the fact that there was no church in Augusta, nor in Richmond County.f There was as * Bishop Stevens' Memorial Sermon, t White's Historical Collections. 338 History of far as we can discover, no preaching in this section. Perhaps Bottsford, or the Marshalls, or Silas Mercer — one of whom lived in the County of Burke, and the others on the Kiokee, in what is now Columbia County — may have visited the city. A church was built, however, on the lot of the old St. Paul's church, which seems to have been used by any preacher who casually visited Augusta. Although it was the capital of the State, it was com- paratively a small hamlet. The most of the houses were of logs, and the river was crossed by a ferry.* Population increased rap- idly after the Revolution, and it soon became an important com- mercial point. The western part of South Carolina, the western part of North Carolina, and all the settled parts of upper Geor- gia, as well as the Indian country, did their trading there. At what time the first Methodist preacher visited Augusta, we are unable to say. It is more than probable that Thomas Hum- phries and John Major visited it before Asbury came, which he did for the first time in 1789. On this visit he does not seem to have tarried in the town, but pushed forward to Hayne's. on Uchee Creek. Augusta at this date was a considerable town, with a newspaper and a theatre, but without any religious service or any organized body of Christians. When Asbury came the next year, he rode to near where Brothersville is now located, and stopped with Samuel Clarke. Although he was in Georgia and in Augusta several times, he does not seem to have preached in it until 1796, when he preached in St. Paul's Church. This was the first time a Methodist Bishop ever preached in Augusta. An effort had been made, however, to establish the Church there on his first visit to Georgia, and James Connor, a promising young preacher, had been appointed to it as a station in 1789. His health was feeble, and during the year he died in Virginia. f It is therefore probable that he went to Virginia immediately after conference, and never returned to Georgia, and was never for any length of time in Augusta. Hope Hull, after his loca- tion, was sent to the city; but if he went, he did not accomplish anything. It is probable that now and then one of those plain, sober, peculiar men who travelled the circuits adjoining may have visited the gay capital of the State, and gathered a few hearers in some remote house; but if he did, no success attended his efforts. Thus it was till 1798. The father of Augusta Method- ism was now at hand. Among the Virginians who were drawn to Augusta by its * White 's Statistics. t Minutes. Georgia Methodism. 339 business advantages was Col. Wm. Mead, a wealthy Virginian. Two of his daughters were married and were living there.* His son Stith, a thoughtful boy, came with him, and attended the old Augusta Academy. Stith had been religiously impressed from conversation with his father's negro servants, and had sought to find peace for his disturbed conscience by close attention to what he believed to be his religious duties. He was still unhappy, and went to Virginia. Here he attended a camp-meeting in Bed- ford County, and was converted. He entered at once into the Virginia Conference, and travelled there seven years. He then came to Augusta. He said he found a city of 4,000 inhabitants, in which there was no organized church, and, as far as he could see, not one of the people knew their right hand from their left in religion. He began his labors, and preached one sermon in the church. His sermon so offended his hearers that the church was thereafter closed against him. His relatives, some of whom in after time were devoted Methodists, were so opposed to his fanaticism that they closed their doors against him. He found a private house in which to preachf— the house of Ebenezer Doughty, and in 1798 he organized a society, which consisted of six members. $ The society increased, and a meeting house was a necessity. He secured a lot in the then Commons, on what is now Greene Street, and when Asbury came in 1800, he found that Mead had a foundation and a frame prepared for the erec- tion of a two-story house. Mead gave $500 out of his own prop- erty, and by his influence and energy raised money enough to fit the house for occupancy. § Asbury thought it was commodious and elegant, and the congregation large and attentive. The church building which Stith Mead had erected was located on the same lot on which the present St. John's Church stands. It was then almost out of town, in the upper part of the city. The business part of the town was the lower part of Broad Street, on Bridge Row, and along the river banks. The most elegant residences, if any could be called elegant, were below, where is the present lower market house. The only other church building was the St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and around it at that time was the city cemetery. The Methodist church was 40x60 feet, with two rows of win- dows. || It was of wood, and perfectly plain; there was a gallery for the colored people, and a few years afterwards there was a small belfry. This church, unchanged, served the people until *Bennett. tlbid. Jlbid. §Ibid. 1 1 Asbury 's Journal. 340 History of John Howard came in 1822, and the church was added to, mak- ing it longer. Success now attended Mead's efforts, and he soon had a society of sixty members. This was the first organized body of Christians in Augusta after the Revolution. The Pres- byterian Church was organized about 1808, and the Baptist Church some ten years later. As far as we can discover, there was no regular rector to the Episcopal Church until later still, when the new St. Paul's Church was built. Who composed this first society? Ebenezer Doughty was a member, the mother of John H. Mann was another, and probably her daughters. If Asaph Waterman was not one of the first, he was a member as early as 1804, when Dr. Pierce first came to Augusta.* Mead remained in charge of the church, which was included in the circuit, until 1801, when it was made a station, and John Garvin was the stationed preacher. He was an Englishman by birth, having been born in Windsor, Jauary 30, 1763. He was converted in Ireland, and preached his first sermon in London in 1792, and immediately went to Africa, where he remained four years. He reached America in 1797, and reported himself to As- bury for work. We have seen that he went, in company with Jesse Lee, to lay out a circuit in the extreme southeastern part of Georgia, early in 1799. In 1801 he came to Augusta. In 1803 he married Sarah Few, who survived him many years, and who was noted for her deep piety. He was a man of good na- tive parts, and an excellent English scholar. After his location he taught school in Augusta, and when the Presbyterians had no pastor, he preached regularly for them for one year, in the old St. Paul's Church. He was quite popular in the city of his resi- dence, and married most of those who were coupled together in the city and its vicinity, f He died in 1816 in great peace, leav- ing a most excellent widow and son, Ignatius P. Garvin, who for many years was a leading member of the church of which his father was the first pastor. The next year, 1802, Levi Garrison came. He was a plain man of excellent religious character, but not the equal of those who had gone before him. The church continued, however, to grow slowly, but it was embarrassed by debt, and needed a revival of religion. This year it received aid, both financial and minis- terial, from a very unexpected quarter. Asbury had brought Nicholas Snethen with him the year be- *Dr. Pierce. tDr. Garvin. Georgia Methodism. 341 fore. Snethen was a man of really wonderful eloquence and had attracted much attention. Mead, and Asbury, and Garvin, were far beyond the average of the preachers of that day, but none created so much noise as Lorenzo Dow, who came in 1802. One spring day he came on foot to Augusta. He was dressed in the oddest manner imaginable. His hair and beard were long, and as he carried no baggage and his wardrobe was not extensive, his dress was far from neat. He carried with him a pocket full of tracts, which he distributed as he ran along. He moved ac- cording to his impressions, and, under one of them, came to Augusta. He sought the hospitality of the Methodists, but no one would entertain him, and he finally found a home with a negro in what is now Hamburg. He sought out Levi Garrison, preacher in charge, and told him who he was; but Garrison was naturally afraid of him, and did not ask him to preach. In an- other chapter we have already told more of him and of his ad- ventures in the interior. When he returned to Augusta, Stith Mead, who knew him, and knew he was no common man, in- vited him to preach. He did so. Such original, and yet such moving sermons the people had never heard before, and large congregations flocked to hear him. He proposed they should have preaching at night, but they told him that even the great Snethen could not get the people to night meetings. Dow, how- ever, tried and succeeded.* One night he found the church door locked. The builder had not been paid, and he would give posses- sion of the building no longer. He persuaded him to let him enter, and proposed to the congregation that they should pay the debt, proposing to pay ten dollars himself. He raised a hundred dollars, and the worship went on. The next year John Garvin came to the city again, and Stith Mead was presiding elder. During this year, 1804, the first South Carolina Conference ever held in Georgia was held in the house of Peter Cantalou, on Ellis Street. Bishop Asbury and Dr. Coke were present. The history of this conference we have given in the fourth chapter of this work. At the next conference Stith Mead, having been four years on the Georgia District, decided to return to Virginia. He was placed in charge of the Augusta Station, with Britton Capel as his junior. Capel was now an elder. He had travelled, from the time of his entrance into the travelling ministry, circuits in the State. He was an energetic, earnest, and gifted man. His *Dow's Journal. 342 History of preaching, according to Dr. Pierce, was without system, but sparkled with gems of beautiful thoughts. He reported at the succeeding conference eighty white members and seventeen col- ored. Whether Mead remained the year through we cannot say. He was a presiding elder on the Richmond District, in Virginia, during the next year, and was never afterwards more than an occasional visitor to Georgia. The city of Augusta, and indeed the whole State of Georgia, owes a deep debt of gratitude to this excellent Virginian. He was eminently a revivalist, and the Church was quickened, and sinners were converted wherever he went. His heart was with the church he had planted in Augusta, and he was cheered to see its progress. The next year Hugh Porter came. He was a short, stout man, full of revival fire, and much attached to Augusta in after-life. During the year, by some means, a bell was secured. It was placed in the little belfry of which we have spoken. When Bishop Asbury came he saw it with horror. It was an innovation — -the first bell he had seen in any of our meeting-houses in America. He said it was the first : he hoped it would be the last. It wa> cracked ; he hoped it would break.* Porter seems to have good success, since he reports one hundred members at conference. Bishop Asbury does not seem to have been pleased with some things, he said these youngsters needed looking after — evidently referring to something Hugh Porter had clone. He says he had a high time at the church, but does not explain his meaning. At the conference of 1806, Lovick Pierce, just beginning his third year in the ministry, came from the Apalachee Circuit to Augusta. He had been on a circuit reaching to the frontier, and was immensely popular among his people. He brought with him to a — for that time — large and fashionable city the wardrobe the good people of his circuit had provided. It was of homespun material, in which rabbit fur had a considerable place. f He was the only pastor in the city, and the youngest man who had ever filled the office there. Mead and Garvin had had much better advantages than himself, and Capel more experience. He was very gifted, but was as timid as he was gifted. He was, however, a preacher, young as he was, and had preached many more ser- mons already, and seen the results of his labor much more evi- dent, than many a graduate of a theological school, after seven years in college and the seminary. He soon adapted himself to his new surroundings. In the pleasant household of Asaph Wa- * Journal. tDr. Pierce. Georgia Methodism. 343 terman he found a home, and soon took on all the polish of the really good society of the young city. He at once attracted at- tention, and had large and appreciative congregations. He was the instrument of doing great good, and of course excited oppo- sition from the sons of Belial. As he walked down the streets, the young men of the city would stand at the street corners and groan in imitation of Methodist responses. He had a small pas- torate and abundant time for study, and this for the first time since he had entered upon his ministry. He improved every mo- ment. The membership of the Church increased during his stay. The next year Reddick, his brother, came. We have already spoken of him. He was now in the vigor of his youth, and was a preacher of no ordinary power. The Church was not strong, and preachers were very scarce ; and now that the capital of the State was removed to Louisville, this little town and Augusta were united in one charge, and John Collingsworth and John Rye were sent to them. Among the members of the society at this time was Asaph Waterman. He was from New England, and had no doubt been religiously edu- cated. There was no other Christian body in Augusta except the Methodists, and he was drawn to them. He cast in his lot with them, and was for many years a true pillar of the Church. He had come to the South a mechanic, but he entered into mercantile life, and was successful in amassing a handsome fortune. The Methodists were poor, and his house became the home of the preachers. He lighted the church, led the class, and entertained all the Methodist preachers who passed through the city. He was a quiet, steady-going, generous, plain Christian, Methodist in dress as well as in character. He always wore a coat of blue broadcloth, cut in Methodist style, so that it was pleasantly said of him that Asaph Waterman had not had a new coat in thirty years. His first wife died and left him childless. He then mar- ried Mildred Meals, a young widow who was originally Mildred Bostwick, and a sister of Stephen Olin's wife. No union could have been happier — no two Christian people could have labored together more harmoniously for the Church's welfare. Their home was the abiding place of the preacher in charge, and the resting place of every weary itinerant who passed through the city. Asbury, Whatcoat, McKendree, Hedding, Soule, An- drew, Emory, Capers, were all his guests. He was able to dis- tribute, he was ready to communicate, and given to hospitality. A careful business man, he was blessed with abundance, and he was a very Caius in his devotion to Church interests. 344 History of He was emphatically a Methodist. His household, his private life, his business affairs, and indeed all his movements were methodical. On the same day in May, in every year, by the same route, stopping at the same houses, he went to the same home in Buncombe County, N. C, and on the same day in Octo- ber he returned to Augusta. Without him, or one like him, it would have been almost impossible for Methodism to have re- tained the footing she had gained in Augusta, since the support of a pastor would have been an impossibility. In 1809, John H. Mann, whose mother was among the first Method ; sts in the city, joined the Church ; for over sixty years he was a leading member in it. He was a man of great humor, and preserved his love of fun despite his consistent Methodism even to his old age. A careful, competent business man, he was blessed by a kind Provi- dence with sufficiency, and was always ready to do what he could for his struggling Church. He was an official member of the Church for over sixty years, and an active one for a large part of that time. He was as steady-going as a clock. The services of the Sabbath, the class meetings during the week, and the prayer meetings might always rely upon him. His house was the home of all the preachers who passed through the city after Asaph Waterman died. Capers, Andrew, Dr. Pierce, Stephen Olin, were all sharers of his hospitality, and were his cherished friends. He was the father of Dr. Alfred T. Mann, of the North Georgia Conference, and of the first wife of Rev. Dr. Clark, of the South Georgia Conference. His wife, who travelled beside him for over fifty years, and after passing her three score years and ten sank to sleep, was a meet companion for such a man. She was of those saintly women who made the Church of Augusta such a power for good in after-time. While Methodism in most communities made her conquests among the poor and humble, yet among those who were drawn to her, there were always some from the upper and middle classes of the people. It required much courage in those days for a woman, especially a young and beautiful girl moving in the higher circles of society, to go to the humble meeting-house on the commons, and to abjure the vani- ties of the world by surrendering ribbons and feathers and bows, and when one did this, it was proof of the fact that she was fully determined to give up the world ; and this many did. Nor were these from among the poorer classes alone. The most distinguished and wealthy families in the State were repre- sented in the early Church. Flournoys, Taits, Remberts, Glass- cocks, Cobbs, Fews, Meriwethers, Gilmers, and many others were Georgia Methodism. 345 among the early Methodists, and there were some of these even in fashionable Augusta, but the bulk of the membership were plain people — artisans and laborers. The wealth of the Church was small, and it was with some difficulty that they could support a single man. Of Collingsworth we have already spoken. Abda Christian and Henry D. Green followed Collingsworth, although there was a great revival in the country, and although there had been precious meetings in Augusta, the number of members con- tinued nearly the same as during the stay of Hugh Porter, and of Lovick Pierce. Now there was increase and then again decline, but the number varied little. It was a period of trial to the young Church. Augusta was a godless, fashionable young city. In that inimitable book the Georgia Scenes, in the account of the gander- pulling, we have not a mere fanciful conception of what might have been but an accurate account of what a shrewd fun-loving boy saw himself; and in that sketch we have a view of what boys in Augusta sometimes saw, and an account of the surround- ings of the city. Campbellton, near where Hamburg now is, and Harrisburg were villages near by ; the trade of the city came by wagons from the West and Northwest, and the South and Southwest, and flatboats came with their loads of cotton, and corn, and bacon from up the Savannah. There was much busi- ness done, and there was much fun, frolic, and dissipation. Methodism was as new in its features to the gay people of that city when Stith Mead first preached there and began his revival exercises, as Christianity was new to the people of Corinth ; and while it does not seem to have met with the active persecution which was its part in Charleston, and while no intendant forbade the assembling of the people before sunrise, and no angry mobs dragged the preacher to the pump, as in Charleston, yet the Church did not advance rapidly ; neither among the whites nor the negroes. The colored people of the city, as in Savannah, were most of them Baptists. This is easily explained when it is remembered that the Baptists in Virginia were for many years almost the only evangelical body, and that most of the colored people who came South were Baptists. This was not so in South Carolina, and now Methodism reaped a great harvest among the negroes there, and this persecution in Charleston arose largely from a misconception of the aims of the Methodists in relation to the institution of slavery, and the social position of the ne- groes. In Augusta and Savannah, no such great success at- tended the efforts of the preachers among the colored people as in Charleston. 346 History of In 1 812 John Porter, the brother of Hugh, came. He was a small, slender man, whose sermons were full of pathos, and who was called the weeping prophet. He had good success in his work, and during the year there was a net increase of over twenty members. Save these lifeless figures which the minutes give us, we know nothing of the history of these years, and but little of the workers in the city and of their co-laborers among the lay- men. In 181 3 Lucius 0. C. de Yampert, whose name became after- ward so famous in Alabama for princely benevolence, was sent to the station. It is not my purpose to give a minute account of the Church in the cities, and I must pass somewhat hurriedly over many of the years. Whitman Hill, Solomon Bryan, John B. Glenn and Samuel Dunwoody came and went, and there was little change. But the toiling Church, which had made so little progress, was now on the verge of a great change. Henry Bass, a young New Englander. who has been for some years in the ministry, was on the station and Samuel K. Hodges was the Presiding Elder. One Sunday morning a flame of revival burst, and a number of the leading women of the congregation came forward and joined the Church. These were of the leading families of the com- munity. Among them was a young widow, who afterward was the wife of A. Waterman; and the wife of the famous General Glasscock. Mrs. General Flournoy was also a member. Mrs. Waterman, as she was known in Methodist circles for many years, was one of the most saintly women of her day and so was Mrs. Glasscock. The Church was greatly strengthened as the result of this revival, and when James O. Andrew came he found a church of over one hundred earnest people. He was the first married man to have a charge in the city. A little four-roomed cottage was built, and an effort was made to provide for his maintenance, but the support was so precarious and so small, he decided to locate and go into a profession. It was for the sake of Amelia and her children that this resolution was reluctantly made; but when he mentioned it to her, she would not hear of it. He should preach, and she would work, and so she plied her busy needle to support the family.* He remained that year and returned the next. At that time the labors of a preacher were very heavy. Sun- day at 11 a. m., 3 p. m., and nights, and Wednesday night there 'Bishop Andrew told tins to my father, Dr. G. G. Smith.— G. G. S. Georgia Methodism. 347 was a sermon ; Friday night a prayer-meeting, and then at other times special classes for the preacher to lead. This in connection with pastoral service made his life a busy one. John Howard came after Andrew. He, too, was, as we have seen, a very gifted and attractive preacher, and while he was here it became necessary to enlarge the church, which was done by adding twenty feet to its length. There was a gracious re- vival during this year, and Methodism continued to grow stronger. Then came Lovick Pierce, who had returned to the work. It had been seventeen years since, a timid boy, he came to Au- gusta, as his first station, but these intervening years had been spent in constant labor for improvement. He had secured an advanced medical education, and had spent his term at the Phila- delphia Medical College, but while giving himself to scientific studies, be had made them tributary to his ministry. His family were located in Greensboro, and he did not remove them, but he spent three-fourths of his time on his station. He was succeeded by George Hill. Augusta had now over three hundred members, black and white, and demanded such a pulpit supply as the con- ference could not always furnish. For four years it had been served by James O. Andrew, John Howard, and Lovick Pierce, the leading preachers of the conference. Geo. Hill, while a most devoted and useful man, was not equal in ability to either of them, and the church did not increase, but rather declined under his pastorate. Samuel Dunwoody came again, and there was still decline. William M. Kennedy, whom we have noted as be- ing on the Washington Circuit years before, had now reached the front rank among preachers in his conference, and was sent for two years in charge of the station. These were fruitful years, and at the end of the second, the membership was greater than it had ever been, amounting to nearly 400 members, black and white. Nicholas Talley was the presiding elder. After such a succession of gifted men, the church had become somewhat fastidious, and earnestly solicited the presiding elder to have Dr. Capers appointed to the station. The presiding elder was not unwilling for such a result, and it may be, promised to use his influence to secure it. But who knows the secrets of the Bishop's portfolio? To the dismay of Talley, when the appoint- ments were read out, not Wm. Capers, but Nicholas Talley, was sent to Augusta. It would have been painful enough for the presiding elder for any other man but Wm. Capers to have been sent, but when that man was the very one who was expected to secure his appointment, it was doubly painful. The people were 348 History of bitterly disappointed, and perhaps resentful, and the preacher thought at first that he must ask to be released, but he did better. He went to the station, and to hard work ; he prayed and preach- ed, and the result was a great revival, and Augusta reported nearly ioo new members that year. Elijah Sinclair came in 1829, and there was a decrease of sixty members. Henry Bass came to his old charge in 1830, and spent his last year of service in Georgia, in the community in which he had such success years ago; but there was still further decline, and Augusta, which had reported nearly three hundred members, reported only 225 at the end of the year 1830. In 183 1, James O. Andrew was sent a second time to his old charge, and William Arnold was the Pre- siding Elder. At no period in his life was Bishop Andrew ever more powerful in the pulpit, and more useful in the pastorate. During the year there was a net increase of over 100, white and colored. Of these a large number were colored. It was a notable fact that that great man who was immolated on the altar of a professed devotion to the colored race, had all his life been so remarkable for his disinterested love for that people, and his untiring labor for their benefit. The work of the pastorate in Augusta was very heavy, and as he was selected for the dele- gate to the general conference, an assistant was decided upon, and George F. Pierce was selected for that place. When the preacher in charge returned from Philadelphia a Bishop, the assistant was made pastor. The office fell upon young shoulders, for he was but little past his majority, but he bravely met the demands made upon him. During the year there was a precious revival, and a net increase of over 100 members. Elijah Sinclair returned to Augusta a second time in 1833. There was no increase reported during that year. The next year Jesse Boring was sent to the station. He had done much hard work and had been very successful in the western part of the State. He was now about thirty years of age, and had dili- gently improved, from his first entrance into the work, his won- derful native powers. He spent only one year on the station, and George F. Pierce came again, when he was placed on the District. The next year Whiteford Smith, a young Carolinian, not yet an elder, was sent to take his place. He was then a preacher of great acceptability, and his labors were blessed dur- ing the year with a revival, and a net increase of over forty was reported to the conference. Although Augusta had been so blessed in her preachers since 1833, there had been decline in numbers as they are reported in the minutes: the report of this FIRS! METHODIST CHURCH, ATLANTA, GA. Georgia Methodism. 351 year showing 245 in 1836, against over 300 of the year 1833. These fluctuations are accounted for by the mode of keeping the old records where probationers were reported as being in the society. Often the whole list of probationers was cleared by dropping those who were not ready for membership, after they had been borne with sufficient time, and we may conjecture that this was the case in Augusta. Whiteford Smith was returned the second time in 1837. Isaac Boring, who had been serving one of the hardest districts in Georgia, was now sent to this city with young Walter R. Branham in his second year as assistant. It was the first considerable city Isaac Boring had served, and he and his colleague entered upon the work with much distrust of themselves. They, however, gave themselves to hard pastoral work, to faithful preaching, and their labors were richly rewarded. It is not possible, in the space I have, to give a full history of the city churches, and I must confine myself to the more important events. In 1837, while Caleb W. Key was pastor, the fearful scourge of yellow fever visited the city and Judge Longstreet, who was an assistant pastor, gives a full account of those days of the pestilence. In 1840, the great James Sewell was pastor, and in 1843, George F. Pierce, then in the vigor of his young manhood, was sent to the charge. The old church built by Stith Mead, en- larged by John Howard, had now served its day and was to give way to a new church, which it was decided to build on the lot of the older one. When the handsome brick church, with its wide galleries on three sides, was completed, there was accom- modation for a large congregation, and Sunday after Sunday the church was crowded. There was no other Methodist church in the city, and the labors of the pastor were immense. It was evident that a new church was needed, but there was strong op- position to division. At last, however, it was decided that a new church, far down on Green St., should be built ; and while James E. Evans and young James O. A. Clark were in charge the church was built. It was a very neat brick church and the only one in that section of the city. It was called St. James' as the older church was called St. John's. It was well filled from the very first and soon became a leading church. It had able pastors and gave them a good support, and prospered, temporally and spiritually, from its opening. Years after it was built it was en- larged and improved. In 1856 a Mission Sunday-school was established near the fac- 352 History of tory, and out of it grew a City Mission, and finally the erection of a good church and parsonage near the Augusta Factory, which was known as Asbury. When the new mills were opened in what was old Harrisburg, a mission which developed into a self- supporting church, was established near them, and was known as St. Luke's. After Paine Institute was opened for students, a church at Woodlawn was demanded and established; and on upper Broad St., in a destitute section (as far as churches were concerned) the Broadway church was built, a parsonage was secured, and it was made a station. The City of Augusta has long been one of the most important of the charges in Georgia, and Methodism has done much hard and profitable work in its borders. The Methodist was the first organized church in the City. The Catholics, Presbyterians and Episcopalians had a lot donated to them by the City, but Stith Mead, out of his own pocket, paid the hundred pounds needful to purchase the present lot on which St. John's stands. Augusta Methodism has had her centennial, and a detailed his- tory of the hundred years would take much space. The oldest men of Georgia Methodism have at various times filled her pul- pits, and the church has taken no backward step since the date of the foundation in the home of Ebenezer Doughty. SAVANNAH. The early years of Methodism in Savannah were years of great trial. Jesse Lee was really the founder of Methodism in the city, and he gathered only four members — two black and two white. Samuel Dunwoody was appointed, and he gathered three more. Millard, McVean and Urban Cooper followed, but had no suc- cess. Lewis Myers says : "Urban Cooper expended his last three-pence-half-penny, had to retire, from actual want of the necessaries of life; and James Russell, bare-foot and bare-legged, entered into the fields to procure provender for our troops in the war with England. I know this to be true." Amid such difficulties as this the seed of Methodism was sown in Savannah. Yet it was decided to build a church, and by a man who generally did what he attempted. This was Lewis Myers. James Russell came to his help ; but he who had always multitudes in the interior had no place here for the display of his wonderful powers. He was preaching to a houseless flock, and could make little impres- sion in a community accustomed to the almost matchless elo- quence of Dr. Kollock, who was the great preacher of Savannah. Georgia Methodism. 353 He labored hard to finish the church, and did so, and as we have seen entered into trade to relieve himself from the debts he had unwisely contracted, in trying to finish it. The twenty- five members he gathered together now had a house to worship in, and regular services, and the number continued slowly but steadily to grow. There was a constant influx of up-country people and Methodists from the rural districts, and the church grew. The Presiding Elder, Samuel K. Hodges, realized the importance of the station, and determined to secure for Savannah, if he could do so, the most attractive preacher in the South Caro- lina Conference, and at conference he called for William Capers. W. M. Kennedy, the Presiding Elder, resisted the appoint- ment. It would be an affliction to a valuable and most deserving man, and then he needed him in Charleston. The Bishop refused to send Capers unless he was willing to go. When he was con- sulted he refused to choose, and as silence gave consent, in Janu- ary, 1819, William Capers was read out to Savannah, and to Savannah he went. He soon did there what he did everywhere —filled his house with delighted hearers. We have already men- tioned the kindness of the Presbyterians to the struggling Metho- dists, and Dr. Kollock soon gave special evidence of his kind feeling by calling on the young preacher. This was the beginning of a personal affection which followed the gifted Kollock beyond the grave. The church was poor, but now the congregations were large and the faithful young men who composed the official body of the church, and there was now quite an efficient band of them, rallied around a preacher with whose talents and piety they were justly delighted, and things began to wear a more sunny aspect. The church was in debt probably for the parsonage, but a tour of the pastor among his old friends in South Carolina soon re- lieved it of that burden. The next year Capers was returned; during this year Dr. Henry M. Kollock died, and Dr. Capers was called upon to preach his funeral sermon. By the time he had completed his pastorate, the Savannah people had discovered that in the unsightly, barn-like wooden building on the commons there was oftentimes such preaching as the pulpits of elegant cathedrals ask for in vain, and when John Howard came the next year, with his handsome person, elegant manners and fervid earnestness, he held the congregation Capers had gathered. He came in good time to reap what Capers had sown, and a year of wonderful prosperity marked his stay there. During that year there were over one hundred additions to the church, and they were of the first young men of the middle walks in life. Per- haps there was not a man of fortune among them ; but young 354 History of merchants, and clerks, and mechanics, who were to make for- tunes, were converted and joined the church. Among these was one who was to be a most valuable member of the church, until he ended a useful life in great peace. This was Benjamin Snider. He was a young man of Effingham County, who was now in small business in the city. His business grew and continued to grow, until he was a man of considerable wealth. His liberality was equal to his ability. He married a young lady from the North, and she was for many years one of the most efficient of those faithful women who labored in the Gospel in Savannah. When Bishop Pierce, in the third year of his ministry, was in Savannah, he married her sister. There were many others who in after-time did much for the church — who joined the church when Howard was the pastor. After years of almost hopeless toil, then years of doubt and gloom, the church was now established. There was a large and comfortable building, a neat parsonage, and growing congrega- tions. The conference was able to meet the demands of the pul- pit with gifted preachers, and the next year James O. Andrew came to Savannah. Savannah was indeed blessed in her preach- ers. Capers, Howard, and now Andrew, came one after the other. The Church continued to advance in every element of strength. Among those whom the preachers mention with af- fection from the membership, there was Lydia Anciaux, the mother-in-law of Senator Berrien. She was a lady of large means and generous heart. Benjamin Snider, Thomas Purse, John Remshart, Francis Stone and George Carpenter. Not far from Savannah was the settlement of those Lutherans, to whose in- structions, near a hundred years before, Mr. Wesley had been so indebted. They were now to receive a return in blessings from the followers of Mr. Wesley ; for there was a gracious re- vival at Goshen, and a number of most valuable persons were added to the Church. While the membership of the city was not large, the labor was heavy ; and George White, a young man, was sent with Bishop Andrew. Young White did not remain in the Methodist church for any length of time, but united with the Episcopalians. He gave great attention, in after life, to the study of the history and resources of Georgia, and published the statistics of Geor- gia, and the historical collections, to which we have so often referred in these pages. He rose to eminence in the Church of his choice, and died Rector of a church in Memphis, Tenn. Bishop Andrew remained for two years, and in 1824 Thomas Georgia Methodism. 355 L. Wynn was sent. He was useful and popular here as every- where, but the Church did not increase in membership during his stay. He was followed by George Hill, of whose useful labors we have had much to say. He was not so gifted a man as his predecessors, but was zealous and devotedly pious. Yet the church continued to decline, and reported only 126 white mem- bers at the conference of 1826. Charles Hardy followed him on the station, and there was still further decline. Then young George Pierce came ; he began his ministry with great ardor. He had been wonderfully successful in Augusta, in awakening sinners, and hoped for the same success in Savannah. He preached with great earnestness, and things indicated that his ministry would be successful. On one Sabbath, when he hoped the reaping time would come, he preached a very earnest sermon to an apparently affected congregation. Full of hope, he invited penitents, and there was not a response. Greatly disappointed, and almost broken-hearted, he went to his room to fast and pray until the night time. He then preached again, as he thought an inferior sermon, but when he asked penitents for- ward, the altar was filled and a gracious revival continued through the year. Savannah had only one church among the Methodists, which was a wooden building in the lower part of the city. During his stay the first conference collection reported from Savannah was taken. It amounted to $130 — larger than from any charge in the State. William Capers came in 1834, and Edward Myers was sent to assist James E. Evans. Without taking more space than I have, I cannot give the history of Savannah Methodism in full. The church commanded the best talent that the conference af- forded, but it was very evident that without some very decided changes there could be no considerable progress in the city ; so while James E. Evans was preacher in charge, he projected a new and handsome church in the upper part of the city. Among the members of his church were some well-to-do factors from the up country who contributed liberally to build the church. The con- gregation had grown in wealth, and was able now to build a creditable house of worship. James E. Evans was not only a church builder but a noted revivalist, and had Edward H. Myers to assist him on the Savannah station. A blessing followed their efforts and 440 white members were reported at the next con- ference. Evans was returned the next year, and James B. Jackson was sent with him to the charge. Daniel Curry, the young Northerner 356 History of of whom we have spoken, came the next year; but, as elsewhere when he was in charge, the church decreased in membership dur- ing the year and reported only 287 at the next conference. This was too much the case, in all the charges, in the days when per- sons were received on probation. Often large numbers united with the church during the pastorate of one ; but not meeting all its demands, they were dropped from the roll by the preacher who came after him. Josiah Lewis succeeded Daniel Curry on the station, but the ebbing tide still continues, and at the end of two years there is a loss to the station of nearly 100 white members. Caleb W. Key was sent the next year, and returns the next ; and the second year there was improvement in the church roll, and 401 are reported. In 1848, Alfred T. Mann and Charles A. Full- wood were in charge ; and there was increase, and 450 were re- ported on the roll. The church built by James Russell and Lewis Myers, which had been enlarged in 1821 under Howard, and to some extent improved, was still too small, and was quite un- comely. The demands of the city were imperious for a new church, but how many hallowed associations clung to the old church and the old spot upon which it stood ! That it was almost out of town ; that the building was sadly out of keeping with the wealth and influence of the congregation, was true; but, yet, the surrender of the old and first church could not be made without a struggle; and at last a new and second church in addition to the first was decided on, and Trinity Church was planned while Dr. Evans was in charge, and completed under the pastorate of Dr. Mann, who followed him. It was a handsome building, large, comfortable, and though plain, yet elegant. Since this time, the course of the church has been steadily onward. After the build- ing of Trinity Church, Wesley remained a separate charge. In 1850, W. R. Branham was at Trinity, and Robert A. Connor at Wesley. In 1851 Dr. Lovick Pierce and his son, Thomas F. Pierce, had charge of the two churches ; and in 1853 W. M. Crumley was sent to Trinity. During this year there was a most memorable revival of religion in the city ; one of the most sweeping any city in Georgia has known. Many of the leading laymen in Georgia, and some most efficient ministers, began their religious life during that season of refreshing. The next year Mr. Crum- ley was returned, and with him, as assistant, the saintly young Payne. Joshua G. Payne was the oldest son of James B. Payne, and had early become a professed Christian ; and as soon as he left college had entered into the travelling ministry. This was his Georgia Methodism. 357 second appointment, and his last. During the summer of this year, Savannah was visited by the most fearful epidemic in her history. The yellow fever raged with a virulence never known there before. All the citizens who could get away, fled to the up country; but the preachers stood nobly at their posts. The two Methodist preachers were ceaseless in their labors. Young Payne early fell a victim to the dreadful malady. He had toiled bravely, calmly and quietly. In 1855 and 1856, Joseph S. Key was at Trinity, Thomas H. Jordan at Wesley, and James M. Dickey at Andrew Chapel. Beyond this period it is not now necessary to go. The Savannah Church has continued to advance in usefulness and power to the present time. The old church, in the changes of population, became so re- mote from its members, that it was decided to sell it and purchase another lot in the newer part of the city. A church built by the Lutherans, and sold by them, was purchased. This served the con- gregation for a few years, but an elegant church, known as the Wesley Monumental Church, now stands as a permanent monu- ment to him in that city in which his life as a Methodist began. All branches of Methodism contributed to the erection of the building. Much attention from the beginning had been given to the col- ored people of Savannah by the Methodists, and a considerable measure of success had followed their labors. After the white and colored people had remained together in the same church, it was thought proper to form them into a separate charge and sup- ply them with a separate minister. This was done, and Andrew Chapel, a neat building, was erected for them, and for some years they were regularly furnished by the Missionary Society with a preacher. There were many very valuable and intelligent men among them who seemed much attached to the church which had cared for them. MACON. Macon Methodism began when Howard, Hodges and Lovick Pierce held a meeting in a warehouse where is now located Christ Church (Episcopal). The meeting went on for four days at least, and was productive of much good, for during the year a church was built on a beautiful lot on Mulberry Street. The next year Ignatius A. Few, in the second year of his travelling min- istry, was sent in charge of the station. Dr. Few gave dignity to 358 History of every place he filled, and he soon gathered about him a large and appreciative congregation. Many substantial Methodists from the older parts of the State had already moved to the city, and he found lay members ready to help him in organizing the church for work. Among these were Wm. Fort, Everard Hamilton, and Thomas Hardeman. During this year a Sunday-school was or- ganized. The members in the church were 120. Dr. Few was returned the second year. The first Georgia Conference was held in Macon in 1831. John Howard had now moved to the city and was placed on the Milledgeville District, and Benj. Pope was the stationed preacher. Although the district claimed much of How- ard's time, yet he gave as much as he could to the city, which was his home, and during the year there was a precious revival, and 100 additional members were added to the church. Among them were many of the solid men of Macon. Pope, who had done a good year's work, was returned, and John Howard was retained on the district. The next year Archelaus H. Mitchell was in charge of the station, and in 1834 John Howard was made agent of the Manual Labor School, and Wm, J. Parks was placed on the district, and Dr. Few and Thomas P. Lawrence were sent on the station. John W. Talley came in 1835, and there was a gracious revival. After this meeting Elijah Sinclair proposed the building of a female college, and during this year the college was projected. These were flush times in Macon. Cotton came pouring into it from all the new country to be shipped down the river. Banks were established, and a new rail- road from Savannah was being pushed towards Macon, while Macon herself was striving with the interior counties to build one to the west. At last the college was opened and George F. Pierce was appointed as the president. John P. Duncan was nominally in charge of the station, but Bishop Pierce occupied the pulpit. During the year there was a gracious revival. It is impossible to follow up this history in its detail, and many most valuable men have served the church in the pulpit and in the pew who cannot be mentioned. The village of Vineville was a suburb of Macon. There were a number of wealthy people who wanted services nearer home and Vineville was made a station. In the southern part of the city, in the neighborhood of the factories, a mission was established, which was developed into the First Street Meth- odist Church. As the city grew, a church on the outskirts, in what was known as South Macon, was demanded, and was finally built. The plain wooden church has given place to the Second Street Methodist Church. Georgia Methodism. 359 A church in the neighborhood of Mercer University, known as Centenary, was erected, and a station preacher was provided. A Sunday school established in 1859, in East Macon, resulted in the establishment of a church and a separate station. Services are held at the college on Sunday night, and including the college cha- pel, there are now in Macon eight separate places of worship for the white Methodists (1912). All the colored church went from us during the war, except a faithful few, who form the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in the city. The African Methodists, who have a large number of the old members, have a handsome building. In no part of the State have the labors of the Methodist preacher been more fruitful, and nowhere has the liberal co-operation of the laymen been more cheerful. The Church in Macon has been well served by the ablest men in the Church, and it has always had additional advantage in the services of the preachers at the college. They have always been able men, and ready to work, and have held regular services in their own chapel during the week and on every Sunday night. It has not been a usual thing for a year to pass without a gracious revival among the college girls. The Macon Church has always been noted for its good women. It would not be, perhaps, proper here to speak of the living, and among the faithful dead we are not to choose. The laymen of the Church have been among the most conserva- tive and liberal in any church. There has never been a schism or rebellion in the history of the Church. They have received the appointee of the conference without complaint, and supported him cheerfully, whether they preferred him or not. COLUMBUS. The city of Columbus was laid out in 1827. It is located at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee River. The lands, for a considerable distance around it, in Georgia and Alabama, are very fertile, and it early became a place of commercial importance. James Stockdale, who was on the Columbus Mission, founded the church in the then village in 1828. The next year Andrew Hammill, who was presiding elder on the district, had the church in charge, and that year a plain wooden church was built. Cassell Harrison, who followed him, found a society already numbering fifty-four members. He added fifty to it, and Jesse Boring fol- lowed him. It was young Boring's first year of stationed life. 360 History of During this year there was a great revival. The town now num- bered about i, 600 inhabitants, and there were three churches in it. The religious interest was so great that the congregations were too large for the church, and in the beautiful grove around it a stand was built, upon which the young preacher preached until conference. The old wooden church was torn down, and a small brick church was erected. This was the first brick church among the Methodists in Georgia, and when the young preacher went to conference he was not only able to report this fact, but an addi- tion to the Church of over eighty members. Dr. Few now came to the church, and seems to have had a pros- perous year, for he reported 162 white members. The new sta- tion had tripled its membership in three years. The town was growing rapidly, and many came to it who had been in the church before, but there was a decided religious in- terest in it, and the church was growing most rapidly. Jesse Boring was sent on the station in January, 1833, and there was still increase reported at the succeeding conference. The report of the collections indicate that the Church was liberal and able, since Columbus sent up for the conference fund $166.06, much the largest sum reported from any station. Benj. Pope was the successor of Jesse Boring, and 281 members were reported, an increase of eigbty-one during the year. Although Columbus re- ceived a large accession of members from new citizens moving in who were already members of the Church, there is evidence in these minute figures of great religious vitality. Thos. Sam- ford came at the next conference. Dr. Pierce had now removed his home to the west of the State, and fixed it in Columbus, and was appointed on the station in 1836, and his labors were greatly blessed, for at the end of the second year 416 members were re- ported. The work was now so considerable that when A. Speer was sent in charge, an assistant was required, who was to be sup- plied by the Presiding Elder. S. K. Hodges, the Presiding Elder, resided in Columbus, and so did Lovick Pierce, who was now agent of the Wesleyan Female College in Macon. During this year there was a most remarkable revival, and over 200 were added to the church. Speer, Samuel K. Hodges and Dr. Pierce were all workers in the meeting, and there was such influence felt as Columbus had never known. 1839 was a year of revivals. Macon had been wonderfully blessed, all through the circuits the revival fire had burned, and now Columbus was the recipient of showers of richest refreshing. The revival came when revivals frequently come, after commercial disasters have swept from Georgia Methodism. 361 business men the earnings of a lifetime. 1839 was a year of bankruptcies and of revivals; and while Columbus, in common with every business community, had suffered financially, she was blessed spiritually. The revival interest was tremendous. The city had not perhaps more than 4,000 inhabitants, and it was stirred to its depths. During the revival, Jesse Boring, who had married in Colum- bus, returned to it on a visit and one night preached. He had not concluded his sermon before so tremendous was the gust of feeling that the whole congregation rose to its feet, and the altar was thronged with weeping penitents. The scene was one such as is not often seen, and the impression it made has never been effaced from the memories of the few who now live who were present that night. The report at the conference was a total membership of 970, of whom 570 were white. Dr. Pierce and G. J. Pearce were sent to the charge next year. As, alas! was too common, there was after such an ingathering a decrease in numbers, and only 378 white members are reported for 1840. James B. Payne, whose labors had been crowned with such success elsewhere, was sent to the station with Mathew Raiford, whose early years had been spent in the Asbury Mission, near Columbus, when Indians were still in the woods. It was a successful year, and 440 members are reported at the next conference. James B. Payne was returned the next year, but what was gained while he was there seems to have been lost during the year 1844. In 1844, Daniel Curry was the preacher in charge. The whole church was now in a ferment, resulting from the course of the General Conference. Mr. Curry was a bold and decided man, and his utterances were very offen- sive to the people, so that by the middle of the year Mr. Curry preferred to leave the South forever. He returned to the North, and his after history is so well known that it is not needful now to refer to it. Caleb W. Key, who was in Talbotton, was required by the Bishop to take his place, and entered upon his work under many discouragements, and remained till the close of the year. James E. Evans was appointed to succeed him. He found the congrega- tion sadly hampered for want of a new church. They owned a large and most beautiful lot, and on it there was built a church for the colored people, a room for a free school, and the old brick church. The question of building had been agitated, and now, by the persuasion of the preacher, all the old buildings were removed from the lot, and a very handsome church was erected upon a 362 History of most beautiful spot in the centre of it. During the year there was a gracious revival, and an accession of nearly 200 members. The next year Evans returned, and with him Miller H. White, whose health had to some extent given way, and who was placed in charge of the colored members ; at the close of the second year of Evans on the station, 531 whites were reported in the minutes. Dr. Boring was now sent in charge of the work, and the new church, which had been begun the year before, was completed, and was dedicated to the worship of God by its projector, Rev. James E. Evans. The collection on that day amounted to over 83,000, entirely relieving the church from all incumbrance. Dr. Boring was placed on the district, and Bishop Pierce was sent in charge of the station. He was chosen that summer the president of Emory College, and the next year Samuel Anthony took his place in Columbus. Great success followed his labors, and Co- lumbus again reached the point it had held after the great revival of 1839, and 570 white members were again reported. Samuel Anthony was now placed on the district, and Dr. Lovick Pierce, with Joseph S. Key as his assistant, on the station. Though there was decline, yet the Church never lost again the high place it had reached. Still there were only 475 members reported at the next conference. At this, the conference of 1851, Samuel Anthony was continued on the district, and William M. Crumley was now sent in charge of the station. He began his work under many discouragements. A timid man, who had had few early advan- tages and who had but little confidence in himself, he followed some of the first preachers in the conference. He began his la- bors for a revival, and, after six weeks of effort and of daily public prayer, he had no evidence of success. But then the work began, and a gracious revival swept the city ; and at the next con- ference there were 706 members in the Columbus Church. Among the converts were some who became travelling preachers in the conference, and many who have been leading laymen in it. Be- yond this period we may not pursue the history in detail. A second church became a necessity, although St. Luke's was so large a building, and St. Paul's Church was built in 1858. Over the river was the village of Girard, in Alabama, and a church was built there ; then one was built at the factory, then one on Broad Street. The colored people with the aid of the whites built them- selves a large church, and their history is identical with that of the other congregations of the kind in the cities. They left the church which had labored for them in the days of slavery, and united with the African Methodists. Georgia Methodism. 363 The conference has frequently been held in Columbus and has always been kindly cared for. In one of the previous chapters of this history we have already told of the novel generosity of the city in 1836, when they contributed $1,631 one day to the relief of the preachers deficient in their salaries. In 1854 the General Conference held its session in Columbus, and for one month the city and the preachers were mutually delighted with each other. In no place in Georgia is Methodism relatively stronger than in Columbus. The membership of the Church is large, and has always been noted for its liberality of view and for its genuine piety. From the beginning, the Church has been blessed with a most valuable body of lay members. In 1858, Columbus was visited by the most wonderful revival in her history. Alexander M. Wynn was the pastor, and James M. Austin was his junior. The meetings were conducted fre- quently by laymen, and the whole church seemed to be aroused to activity. For weeks and months the work went on, and hun- dreds were added to the different churches. There are now (1912) in Columbus: St. Luke's, St. Paul's, Broad Street, Girard, Phoenix City and Rose Hill churches for white people, and a number of churches for the colored people. ATHENS. Athens, up to 1825, had no church. The society was at Hull's meeting house so that Hope Hull was the only Methodist preacher who had a regular appointment in Athens. There was no at- tempt to organize a society in it, and those who were Methodists held their membership at Hull's meeting-house. After the death of the old veteran in 1817, the appointment at the meeting-house was given up. The people of Athens were supplied with preach- ing by the professors in the college, and the one place of worship was the college chapel. In 1825 the few Methodists of the village resolved to have a church and had erected a plain wooden struc- ture. This was the first house of worship of any name built in Athens. Athens was now a sprightly village noted for the cul- ture and refinement of its people. It was remote from the sea- board, and the back country upon which it relied for its trade was thinly settled and not fertile. The Indian frontier was only fif- teen miles away, and so it did not grow rapidly but still was mod- erately prosperous. The Rev. Thomas Stanley, of whom we have spoken, who was 364 History of a preacher of ability, was rector of the Female Academy, and when the church was finished was placed in charge of it. The two sons of Hope Hull, Asbury and Henry, had their homes in the village, the one a physician, the other a lawyer. Gen. David Meriwether, one of the first Methodists in Georgia, with his fam- ily, resided there. These were the strong friends and support- ers of the struggling church. The conference at its next session united Athens with Greensboro, so as to provide for the citizens of the town service by a pastor two Sabbaths in the month, and sent Lovick Pierce in charge, the other two Sabbaths being sup- plied by the local preachers. The results of this increased at- tention to the religious interests of the people was seen in a gra- cious revival. The citizens, and the students of the college, alike participated in the blessings of it. Thomas Sam ford was now Presiding Elder, and he was a man of mighty eloquence and of untiring zeal. Thomas Stanley was an old preacher of great ability. And now came Stephen Olin, who had been elected pro- fessor in the college, and who identified himself at once with the church. Olin has had few peers, and we think no superior, in the American pulpit, and though his health was frail and he could not preach often, yet when he did preach it was with wonderful power. The remembrance of his sermons is still a rare treasure to the few who remain who heard him. Having passed himself through a fearful conflict with skepticism, and having come forth a victor, he was especially able and earnest in combatting it. He preached one afternoon on the Evidence of Prophecy, and held his audience entranced for two hours and a half. At another tirne he summed up, with great fairness and mighty power, all the objections of the infidel, and then after he had made the timid tremble, answered his own objections with overwhelming elo- quence. Lovick Pierce was then in his prime, and was the de- light of every congregation, and Thomas Samford was a great man. Under the joint ministrations of Samford, Stanley, Pierce and Olin, a gracious revival began which swept on with great power. The revival began in the college among the students, and resulted from a prayer-meeting instituted by one of them, a young P>aptist preacher. About the time when the religious interest was beginning to manifest itself, the Rev. Joseph C. Stiles, of the Presbyterian Church, then in the vigor of his youth, and the zenith of his fame, came to Athens. He was remarkable as an evangelist, and he did much to increase the religious feeling. A meeting now began in the Methodist Church, and a mighty tide of revival influence swept over the worshippers. Many were Georgia Methodism. 365 converted. Among the students converted at this meeting was George Foster Pierce, the oldest son of Dr. Lovick Pierce. He was a boy of sixteen years old. He had been an earnest penitent for some weeks. One night his mother was present, having come to Athens with her husband. George was among the penitents again; his father went to him and simply said: "My boy, you must trust your Saviour." He looked calmly up, and said: 'And I do, pa." With a joyous heart the Doctor took him by the hand and led him to his mother. That overjoyed, saintly woman rejoiced aloud, and the multitude joined in her joy. The good work went on with power. Dr. Pierce remained two years, and then James O. Andrew was sent to the same charge. It was all the more pleasant to him since it gave him an opportunity to see his venerable father, who was still living. With the Hulls and Meriwethers the Bishop was also connected by family ties, and the sons of Hope Hull, his spiritual father, were now promi- nent and useful members of the society. Madison, the next year, was joined with Athens, and Andrew was again sent to the ap- pointment. Alas that these days should be so barren of incident — have little to tell, save what is told by the minute figures ! The Church grew, but was evidently not strong, since 187 was the total membership in the two villages. The next year William J. Parks was sent upon the Athens Dis- trict, and Lovick Pierce was sent to Athens and Madison. Uncle Billy Parks was a great favorite at Athens during all his life. His home was only thirty miles from the village, and many of its people had known him from boyhood. No two men could have contrasted more strikingly than the presiding elder and the preacher in charge. William J. Parks was plainness incarnated. His dress was plain, his manners plain, his speech was plain. Polish he neither valued nor sought. A block of granite cannot take the polish of a slab of marble, and Parks was granite all over. Lovick Pierce, on the other hand, was a man of finest pol- ish. He was almost fastidious in dress, scrupulously polite, and elegant in manner — and a man of wide and careful reading. Yet the pithy sentences, the homely illustrations, the genuine force of the young elder made him a favorite like to the gifted pastor. They could not come into competition, for they were moving on different lines, not crossing each other, but converging at the focal point of doing good to all men. The hardy back-woodsman, whose life had been one of toil, though near twenty years the junior of his frail colleague, who had preceded him so long in the work, passed to his reward before him. During the year there 366 History of was increase ; but because we cannot separate the villages, we are unable to tell where that increase was. The next year Dr. Pierce returned, and the next came Benjamin Pope. He was on his na- tive heath, but this prophet had honor among his own friends and kindred. We have already spoken so freely and fully of him that we need not here reproduce what we have said. It is probable that Pope lived in Athens. If so, he was the first resident pastor there. The next year Lovick Pierce came again. There was much about Athens attractive to him, and he was attractive to every place. Athens had been in his circuit the second year of his ministry. It had been in his district when he was a young presiding elder. He had been in charge of it the first year it was set off as a station in connection with another village, and now he is the first preacher who has charge of it alone. He reported at the next conference 107 white and 70 colored members. At this conference we have the first report from the collections, and Athens and Madison send up $9.41, which was the first public collection reported from the two towns. Four years after, Athens alone sent up $119 to the same collection. William Arnold was presiding elder the year following, with W. R. K. Mosely as preacher in charge, and the one succeeding. William Arnold was still presiding elder, and Jeremiah Norman succeeded as pastor. Norman we have spoken of. His beauty had not increased, though his intellect had improved, by the time he came to Athens. We have already alluded to him as a most excellent preacher ; his looks, however, did not indicate it. A crowd once came out in Eatonton to hear John Howard preach. Jere. Norman had unexpectedly reached the village, and made himself known to the preacher, who never having heard him in the pulpit, was rather shy of inviting him to preach, but courtesy required it. and he did so with some hesitancy. The preacher used the same text Howard had intended to use, and his sermon was so far beyond what Howard thought he could have preached that he never failed to speak of his agreeable astonishment. He was returned the second year, not so common a thing then as now. W. J. Parks returned to the Athens District after two years of hard work in Southern Georgia. The next year, Whiteford Smith, a young South Carolinian in the fifth year of his ministry, was sent to Athens. He came from Augusta, where he had spent two useful and successful years. He was very popular as a preacher, and the spiritual interests of the church began to revive. Among the most prominent citizens of Athens was Judge Augus- tine S. Clayton. He had been a member of Congress, a Judge of C. E. Dowman, D.D. President Emory College. Georgia Methodism. 369 the Superior Court, and a most decided skeptic. His wife was an earnest Christian, a member of the Methodist Church. While the revival which had begun was going on, he was struck with paraly- sis. He was visited once by the young pastor. Through the kindness of Dr. Smith, now professor of Wofford College, we are able to give in his own words an account of this interview : "When first approached on the subject, he said he was entirely satisfied with his condition, that he had always tried to be an honest man and do all kindness to his fellow men — as he recovered, however, his mind underwent a change. He felt himself to be a sinner, unworthy of any blessing, and threw himself without reserve on the merits of Christ. As soon as he was able to go out of the house to church, he expressed a desire to join the church in the most public manner, that he might, if possible, counteract any evil which his former opinions had wrought. On the Sunday when he made this public profession, the church was crowded to the very doors. I think Dr. Means preached for me. At the close of the sermon an invitation was given to those who wished to unite with the church. The Judge arose and came forward, and was soon followed by one of his daughters, and many others. Among those who presented themselves was Alban Chase, be- tween whom and the Judge there had long existed a strong po- litical hostility. As soon as Judge Clayton saw him approach the pulpit from the other side of the house, he beckoned to him to come to him, and extending his hand, he grasped him warmly. The effect was overpowering. The whole congregation was bathed in tears. The Spirit of God seemed to rest upon the assembly, and a new impulse was given to the gracious work. The subse- quent lives of these two excellent men gave satisfactory proof of the genuineness of the work wrought in their hearts." The revival went on, and over sixty members were added to the Church. At the conference he was returned a second time. The next year James E. Evans, who had been in Charleston, returned to Georgia, and White ford Smith returned to Charleston. James E. Evans was always successful in winning souls, and his labors were blessed with a great revival in Athens, and during the year of his pastorate the minutes report an increase of over one hundred persons. In 1841, Daniel Curry, and in 1842, W. R. Branham and Daniel Curry were sent to Athens, which was united with Lexington. Al- fred T. Mann came in 1843, an ^ W. J. Parks came in 1844-45. The church moved smoothly on during this period ; there was no great revival, but Athens was on the eve of the most wonderful 370 History of revival she had ever known, one of which we wish we could do more than tell the bare story which the figures give us. G. J. Pearce was in charge. He was a stirring evangelist, and great success had attended him elsewhere. He was this year to be a great blessing to the people of Athens. Dr. Hull, who has kept a careful record of the Church in Athens for nearly forty years, reports that 163 white members and 97 colored joined the Church during this year, and this when Athens was a small country town. The revival influence was felt by all in the city, and all who came to it. The church was now a strong one, and the colored charge itself demanded a pastor; so the next year John M. Bonnell was sent with G. J. Pearce. John M. Bonnell was a Pennsylvanian by birth. He came to Georgia, when a skeptical boy, to teach school, was thrown among the Methodists in Greenville, Meriwether County, was converted and entered upon his ministerial work. His almost matchless capacity as an educator, and his wide and accurate scholarship called him from the pastorate into the school room, and he was either a professor or president the larger part of his life. Had his health permitted, he would have chosen the pastoral office, but it did not, and he accepted the call of Provi- dence as an instructor. Dr. Jesse Boring followed him, but left the station as a mis- sionary to California. In 1849-50, Dr. Eustace W. Speer took charge of the congregation. The old church did not meet the demands of the young city. It had been built when Athens was a village in the woods ; now it was a thriving commercial and manufacturing town, and a handsome and commodious brick church was now erected. During 1857, the daily prayer meeting became an institution in many of our cities, and Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb, who fell at the battle of Fredericksburg, and who added to great abilities as a lawyer and a statesman the beauty of pure Christian character, united with others of like devotion to Christ, and a union prayer- meeting began, which resulted in a gracious and long-continued revival, which swept through the year, and in 1858 there were many accessions to the church. A second church, in proximity to the manufacturing establish- ment, on the river, was thought to be a necessity, and it was built. Athens has always been a pleasant home for the preacher, and its appreciation of those who have served it is shown in the num- ber of times the same preachers have occupied its pastorate. Dr. Lovick Pierce was stationed there three times ; Alfred T. Mann. Georgia Methodism. 371 two ; Joseph S. Key, three ; H. H. Parks has spent six years in the charge. No church in Georgia has had a body of laymen more worthy than the church at Athens. It has always been among the first in benevolent enterprise, and its religious character has always been high. Of these laymen we can do but little more than make mention. Of David Meriwether we have spoken, and of Hope Hull. Asbury Hull, the son of Hope Hull, was one of the early members of the church. He was a lawyer of great ability. He was a statesman of the purest character. Honored by all of every party, his death was justly regarded as a calamity. Dr. Henry Hull, the last remaining son of Hope Hull, was for over fifty years one of the official members of the church at Ath- ens. Athens has always been noted for its saintly women. Mrs. Flournoy, the sister of Col. John Addison Cobb, and the aunt of Gen. Howell and Gen. Thomas Cobb, was a woman of whose saintliness we have spoken. She lived in such holy communion with God that, in the midst of the most fearful trials, her shouts of praise revealed the joys within. ATLANTA. Between the railroads going from the east to the west, and from the north to the south, was fixed a point in the forest of DeKalb County known as Terminus ; but when the connection was made, the little settlement was called Marthasville. It was then in the bounds of the Decatur Circuit, on which Anderson Ray was preacher in charge and Eustace W. Speer a junior preacher. The first preaching was in the freight house of the Western and At- lantic Railroad. In the early part of 1847, Mr. Mitchell, a liberal Irishman who owned the land on which much of the city was lo- cated, gave to the several churches church lots. The lot he gave to the Methodists was exchanged for a lot on Peachtree Street, Atlanta. It had become a regular preaching place for the circuit preachers and their preaching was done in a little school house built on the church lot. This year a Union Sunday school was formed, superintended by a good Presbyterian, whose name was Houston. During that summer, a subscription for $700 was raised, with great difficulty, to build a church. During that sum- mer Bishop Andrew, George W. Lane, Dr. Means and the circuit preachers held a five days' meeting in a warehouse in the city. By the time the shell of the building was finished and the house was floored, the funds were exhausted, and the church was without 372 History of pews or seats of any kind. A number of puncheons were secured from the mills and seats were provided. The rude platform with the prescription table of Dr. George G. Smith formed the pulpit. John W. Yarbrough and James W. Hinton were now in charge of the work. Although the First Baptist Church, which was aided by the Home Mission Society, was the first church completed in Atlanta, in the First Methodist Church there was the earliest religious service of any regular house of worship in the city. There were several local preachers in Atlanta, who supplied the lack of service on the part of the circuit preachers, and ever and anon a travelling preacher, passing through, filled the pulpit, or laymen gathered the members together and read one of Morris' or Wesley's sermons. The church rapidly grew, and by the be- ginning of the year 1849, the house was supplied with pews, and was filled every Sunday with an attentive congregation. Lewis Lawshe, of whom we have spoken in the history of the Church in Macon, had now removed to Atlanta. He was a local preacher of great piety and a man of great affability. He was the moving cause in the establishment of the first Methodist Sunday school in the city. This was done in the year 1848. He was the first superintendent. During the year 1849 under the ministry of the Rev. John W. Yarbrough and Alexander M. Wynn, there was a great revival in the city, and at the end of that year there were several hundred in the church. The next year Atlanta was made a station, and Silas H. Cooper was appointed to it. He was not suited to the work, and remained only a part of the year, and Dr. James L. Pierce succeeded him. He was very much esteemed, and while he was in charge Bishop Pierce, then president of Emory College, assisted him in a pro- tracted meeting, and preached with wonderful power. At the next conference Charles W. Thomas, a young Englishman, who after- wards joined the Episcopal Church, was in charge. The next year W. H. Evans was appointed to the station. The member- ship was not large, nor was there a wealthy man in it. There was no parsonage, and when the preacher came he was forced to oc- cupy two rooms in the house of another person. He, however, was not the man to be conquered by difficulties, and he soon had a parsonage built. He sought out and gathered in the unaffiliated members, and labored earnestly and successfully for a revival of religion. He established a Sunday school, and afterwards built a chapel in the southwest of the city, and at the end of two years reported to the conference 460 white and 100 colored members. Georgia Methodism. 373 The debt of gratitude due to W. H. Evans by the Methodists of Atlanta is indeed a great one, and the wisdom of the Church in sending a man of ability and experience to this work is evident. During this year Greene B. Haygood, who had been for years a leading layman of the church in Watkinsville, removed to Atlanta, and seeing the necessity for a church in the central part of the city, secured an eligible lot and had a neat brick church erected. Trinity Church was the first brick church built in Atlanta, and at the conference of 1863 John P. Duncan and James M. Austin were sent in charge. There were, in 1866, three churches in At- lanta, but they were under one pastoral charge, and so continued for several years. Trinity then became a separate charge, and Evans Chapel was a mission station. The congregation of the First Church was sadly hampered by the character of the building, and a few years after it was built, it was not large enough for its needs. The church, however, was well supplied, as was Trinity, a separate charge. It was pros- perous and had grown until 1861, when there were two pastors in charge of the two churches. Wesley Chapel, as it was known, had a comfortable parsonage, and gave the preacher a sufficient support, as did Trinity on the other side of the railroad. There was little prosperity in any of the churches during the excitement of the war, and Atlanta was the focus of excitement. The Meth- odist preachers were driven out of the city, but the churches were not burned, and as soon as the war ended, the exiled returned to their homes and gathered up the scattered flock. Evans Chapel Mission became a third charge, and under the care of William C. Dunlap, Payne's Chapel was organized and in the east end of the city, under the care of the Rev. Geo. H. Patillo, St. Paul's Church was organized. Wesley Chapel was torn down, and a handsome brick church, known as the First Methodist, was erected. The First Trinity was sold, and a new Trinity was built on Whitehall Street. Evans Chapel gave way to Walker Street Church. Park Street took the place of West End. Inman Park, Edgewood, Kirkwood and Grace were churches in the eastern part of the city. St. Mark's was built on upper Peachtree; St. John's on the corner of Pryor, and sundry chapels and small churches were scattered through the city. It is impossible to give the proper recognition to the laymen who have done so much for Atlanta Methodism, nor to enter as fully into the details as we would like to do, but the space allotted to this history forbids it. The main history of Atlanta Methodism was made after the time that this history has its terminus, and what has been said of events 374 History of after 1866 is merely supplemental. In the history of the North Georgia Conference will be found much valuable material which I have been compelled to ignore. It has been over forty years since the church began to rally from the effects of a fearful war, and the city rose from its ashes, and the story of the work done for the church is full of interest. REV. S. R. BELK, D D. Successful Pastor, Evangelist and Lecturer. REV. T. R. KENDALL. M. D. Successful Pastor North Ga. Conference And Sister, Mrs. Loula Kendall Rogers Author, Teacher and Worker for Christ. CHAPTER VII. Education — Missions — Benevolences. As early as the conference of 1789, the second in Georgia, as we have seen, it was decided to establish a school under the con- trol of that body. It was to be called the Wesley and Whitfield School. The plan was to secure a lot of 500 acres of land, and to erect suitable buildings upon it. Hope Hull was, in all proba- bility, the leading spirit in the matter, and he was seconded in his efforts by the wealthy and public-spirited Virginians who had settled in Wilkes. John Crutchfield, Thomas Grant and David Meriwether were the early friends of the new school. Bishop As- bury, as we have already noted, rode with Hope Hull, who was on the Burke Circuit, during the next year, to the forks of the Ogechee, in what was then the lower part of Wilkes' County ; to select a tract of land for the school. John Crutchfield was at work to secure subscriptions. They were to be made in cattle, rice, tobacco or land. Success does not seem to have attended the efforts made, but Hope Hull, after his location, received a deed to some land from David Meriwether, for the school, and the Rehoboth Academy was established in Wilkes County. Lewis Myers, who attended it, says the building was of brick, and the school was under the rectorship of a Mr. Brown, a Presbyterian minister, who was afterward a prominent worker in the great revival in Kentucky in 1800. Mr. Hull was not a classical scholar, and while he had charge of the school he employed competent teachers for the more advanced studies. Some of the most dis- tinguished men in Georgia here received their educational train- ing. This academy was located about three miles from Washing- ton. This was one of the first classical schools in upper Georgia. We can get no further view of it after the one given by Lewis Myers. This sturdy young German came on foot from South Car- olina to attend its sessions as early as 1796. When Lorenzo Dow visited Hope Hull in 1802, he found him farming and teaching at this place. There were no further efforts to establish a church school for nearly thirty years. In Salem, Clarke County, one was estab- lished by some Methodists, and in 1820, application was made to the South Carolina Conference, to take the school under its pat- ronage. This request, says Dunwoody, met with considerable op- position from some of the preachers, who feared it was the enter- 376 History of ing wedge to a requirement for ministerial education, and from a fear that the church would become involved in financial difficul- ties by the endorsement of it. These fears being removed, the school was adopted by the conference as a church institution. The Bethel School, in Abbeville, of which Stephen Olin was rec- tor, was already prosperous, and the Salem School was designed to meet a like want in the Georgia territory. It did not seem to have made much progress, or to have secured extensive patronage. William J. Parks went to it to study grammar, and while he was there he was licensed to preach. Immediately after the division of the South Carolina Conference, and the formation of the Georgia, the question of church education was agitated all over the Church. The General Conference of 1828 had urged the church to take steps in that direction. The Randolph Macon had been established, and the LaGrange College was opened in Flor- ence, Alabama. Each of them desired to secure the patronage of the Georgia Conference, and each had an agent at the conference in LaGrange, Georgia, in 1833. Dr. Olin was now president of Randolph Macon, and this perhaps influenced the conference to give it its patronage, and to try to raise ten thousand dollars to endow a chair. Dr. Few and Allen Turner were each of them sternly opposed to any measure that would prevent Georgia from establishing a college of her own. There was quite an interest in industrial education, known as Manual Labor Schools, and Georgia decided to have one, and John Howard was selected as agent for it. The school was finally established near the village of Covington, and Dr. Alexander Means was selected as its superintendent. He gave up his med- ical practice and went North to study the system of industrial schools in operation there. He entered on his work with great enthusiasm and hopefulness. Industry was counted as a great virtue in those days and there was a public desire to connect a knowledge of agricultural pur- suits with a course of literary and scientific instruction in the education of the young of our sex. The superintendent had ap- plications for admission from six surrounding States, and also from Florida, then a territory, and such were the urgent appeals to admit students from abroad that the conference felt itself con- strained to pass a resolution, interdicting the admission of pupils from other States until the claims of their own people were first met. Indeed, the popular estimation of the system was such that the superintendent reports that, during the period mentioned, and Georgia Methodism. 377 up to the time of the establishment of Emory College, he was con- strained, for want of sufficiently ample accommodation, and in conformity with the "conference" resolution, to reject probably 500 applicants from abroad. It still continued for about two years afterward in active operation under the superintendence of Rev. George H. Round. The college board then bought out the concern, assumed its debts, and the system was abandoned. It is true that among so large a number of students, promiscuously assembled and received from all classes of society, and during the prevalence of our "peculiar institution," there were many pupils who were reluctant to conform to the rules and duties of the farming department. Such annoyances were to be expected in working out this complex regime, so novel and untried in the South. But this was not regarded as the primary and funda- mental cause for abandoning the system. It was debt constantly accumulating, inexorable debt. To keep the complicated ma- chinery in motion required the inevitable incurrence of expenses which the utmost possible clear income from the farm proved insufficient to meet, and the Manual Labor feature was discarded as a failure. To supply so large a body of inexperienced workers, for only three hours in the afternoon of each day, it became necessary to stock the farm with two or three times as many horses or mules, plows and gears, hoes, and axes, etc., etc., as any thrifty farmer would require, who could employ his hands in cultivation during the whole day, Saturday included, but which, by long standing usage in other schools — the students claimed. From this triple supply of farming implements there was necessarily a greater loss by breakage, waste, blacksmiths' bills, etc., to which may be superadded the large annual amount paid to the students for every hour's work, and the interest on the money invested with- out corresponding returns from the farm. It proved to be, there- fore, an onerous, unprofitable, and losing enterprise, and prudence required its abandonment. And the same fruitful sources of finan- cial disaster have caused the failure of almost every other similar establishment in the North and West. Perhaps, however, an in- stitution supplied with a large "sinking fund" or a liberal endow- ment might be warranted in reinaugurating the system, and thus securing the benefits which the combination of labor with study promises to bestow. But a school, however high its grade, and however useful as an adjunct, was not a college, and Dr. Few and some of his progres- sive friends felt the need of a higher institution, and they resolved 378 History of there should be one. The times were prosperous. The Baptist Manual Labor School was to be transformed into a Baptist col- lege. Virginia was too remote, the LaGrange College out of reach, and there was no other college west of the Savannah. A college was decided on, and Samuel J. Bryan and Thomas C. Benning were appointed agents to collect funds to erect build- ings for Emory College. The Legislature was in session, and in January, 1837, the college was incorporated. It was decided to establish it in Newton County, not far from the Manual Labor School. There was a tract of land almost entirely in the woods, of fourteen hundred acres, which was pur- chased for fourteen thousand dollars, and here, one bright spring day, the foundation stone of the college was laid. Dr. Means, Lovick Pierce, Dr. Few, Samuel J. Bryan and many others were present. Dr. Means thus describes the scene: "The spot selected for the erection of the first building was on virgin soil, in the midst of a widespread and luxuriant forest of native oaks — one and a half miles from the town of Covington, and within the' corporate limits of Oxford, which received its classical appellation at the suggestion and urgent solicitation of Dr. I. A. Few, in honor of the seat of the old English University of the same name. All was silence around. No sound disturbed the air. The very song birds in their native grove hushed their warbling in the vicinity, as if loth to disturb the hallowed exer- cises of the hour. It was a lovely day. The sun shone in splen- dor from above, and the earth beneath was robed in its garniture of green. Both heaven and earth seemed to shine propitiously upon the interesting ceremonies about to transpire, as the prelude and pledge of the future completion and success of a great edu- cational establishment, under the auspices of Southern Method- ism. Quite a number of preachers and laymen were present to do honor to the occasion, and among them several of the theological magnates of the Church. Many have since been called to their reward, while a few still survive. Uniting in the solemn services of that day were Dr. Lovick Pierce, Rev. Samuel J. Bryan, Rev. Cbarles H. Sanders, and Dr. A. Means, and many other worthy brethren and friends whose names at this late day cannot be re- called ; who, standing under the open sky, and protected only by the overshadowing foliage of the grove, sang with uncovered brow an appropriate hymn to the Most High, and then knelt in devout prayer, in which their prospective institution, Emory Col- lege, was humbly dedicated to God — to the interests of her Church, and to the great work of Christian civilization, for all Georgia Methodism. 379 time to come. Who shall say that the pious services of that day did not meet the Divine recognition, and the prayers then offered have not already been significantly answered in its past history, when it is remembered that, within its first thirty-eight years it gave to the Church and the world about 580 young men, hon- ored with her diploma, and, as nearly as can be now estimated, 125 of whom have officiated at her altars as ministers of the Gos- pel, in this and in foreign lands?" In August, 1839, the college was opened for the reception of students- Ignatius A. Few was its first president, and Alexander Means and George W. Lane professors. The agents had met with wonderful success on paper. Dr. Few reported that $100,000 had been secured; alas! it was not secured, though, much of it promised. The college had just in- curred its heaviest liabilities when came the fearful crash of 1837, followed by five years of financial depression, and through this she had to struggle. Dr. Few resigned the presidency. Neither his health nor his inclinations suited the lecture room, and Judge A. B. Longstreet was chosen to take his place. His history we have already glanced at. He was admirably suited for the posi- tion to which he was now called. A stern sense of duty led him to relinquish the most lucrative practice of the law and enter the college halls ; even from them he was called to his last fee of $10,000. He was a fine scholar, of exquisite taste and highest accomplishment, had an American fame, was gentle, amiable and courageous. He was possessed of striking common sense and fine business sagacity. He found the college deeply in debt — a portion of its assets consisting in worthless notes, and the build- ings insufficient. Assisted by an able faculty, he drew to it a large patronage from all sections, and with great skill managed to extricate it from its embarrassments. In 1849 ne resigned, and Dr. George F. Pierce took his place. He was not only to be president, but agent, and he labored untiringly for its benefit until 1854, when he was placed, by the vote of the General Conference, in the episcopal chair. Dr. Means was then elected to the vacant chair, but other duties required his attention, and after a few years as president he resigned, and Dr. Thomas was his succes- sor. The college was now very prosperous. Although there were two Methodist colleges in Southern Alabama, one each in Louis- iana and Texas, which drew from its western patronage, and al- though Wofford College, in South Carolina, had begun its career, yet the patronage of Emory was large, and a bright future seemed before it, when the war came. The students of the college went 380 History of to the battlefield ; the college buildings were taken for hospitals, and when the war was over and the country fearfully impover- ished, the college found itself with its buildings gone to decay, and its endowment lost in the crash of the banks. Dr. Thomas re- mained a few years as president, and then left Georgia to take the presidency of the Pacific College. Dr. Luther M. Smith was now elected president. He had an eminently successful career as a president, and the college has since gone forward. Dr. Osborn L. Smith followed him, and on his resignation, Dr. Haygood was elected to the vacant chair. The first buildings were very plain. A steward's hall, four dor- mitories, and a plain wooden chapel were all. The experiment of boarding the students in the hall was not satisfactory and was abandoned, and the hall was thenceforth used only for recitation rooms. There was no large chapel, and the village church was by no means sufficient for commencement occasions. New facili- ties were demanded for teaching, and the old hall was demolished, and while Bishop Pierce was president, and largely through his exertions, a very handsome building was erected. It was de- signed to furnish all the rooms needful for each professor, for the laboratory, library, and a most commodious chapel. The building was with some little exception most admirably suited for the pur- pose for which it was designed ; but, alas ! it was badly construct- ed, and began to show early evidences of weakness. It was aban- doned just after the war and torn to the ground. The dormitory system was now given up, and through the earnest efforts of Bishop Pierce, where the buildings stood new ones were erected for teaching rooms. A new chapel and an elegant building for the library and laboratory were finished, and now the college was in shape to do effective work. There are, in addition to the build- ings of the college proper, two very neat Society halls. The col- lege early began to take steps towards endowment. Its plan was to take endowment notes and collect the interest. This plan al- ways fails, and it failed with this institution. It however, col- lected and invested what funds it could secure, and at the be- ginning of the war had in bank stocks, railway stocks, and per- sonal securities, a considerable endowment. When the war ended, the banks were all insolvent, and the stock was worthless, and its State and Confederate bonds were alike valueless. The sacri- fices demanded of the faculty were great, and rendered more so because of the long free list among the students. All ministers' sons, all candidates for the ministry unable to pay tuition, were taught without charge, and all poor young men who were unable Georgia Methodism. 381 to pay tuition on entering were granted indulgence, yet the col- lege held on its way. While Dr. Haygood was president, Mr. George I. Seney, of New York, a leading Methodist, and a large promoter of Georgia industries, became interested in the two Methodist colleges, Em- ory and Wesleyan, and made large donations for improvements and endowment. Dr. Haygood, after years of disinterested service, resigned, and his old class-mate, Dr. Isaac S. Hopkins, long a professor in the institution, was elected to fill his place. When the college was in fearful straits, and no professor could hope to be supported, Dr. Hopkins had stood by it, and he was raised from his chair to the presidency — but the Georgia Techno- logical School, in Atlanta, a great State institution, called for him, and by the advice of friends he accepted the presidency of that school, and young Dr. Candler was chosen to take his place. He, too, was an alumnus of the college, and set bravely to work to secure a handsome endowment, which he succeeded in doing. Dr. Dowman, another Emory man, succeeded him. At the present time, Dr. James E. Dickey is in the presidency. Through Dr. Dickey's efforts the college has been more largely extended, and there is now (1912) a theological department connected with it. A young circuit preacher, Artemas Lester, on an up country mission, became deeply concerned for the youths of the moun- tain country, and encouraged by some good layman, in a quiet and secluded valley of the mountains located a college for moun- tain people. The Presiding Elder, Rev. A. C. Thomas, gave it his very hearty support, and what had seemed to be a visionary scheme began to attract public attention. That noted philanthropist, Young L. G. Harris, became interested and contributed largely to its establishment, and at his death bequeathed to it a handsome sum. The trustees gave the college his name, and the North Georgia Conference has, in the Young Harris College, one of its most prosperous institutions. A layman in Atlanta, Mr. A. M. Reinhardt, desiring to do something for the section of the State in which he was born, gave a generous gift to establish a college, and the trustees named it in his honor. While these college en- terprises belong to the years since 1866, I have anticipated them by including a brief sketch in this chapter. FEMALE COLLEGES. In 1836 there were but few high schools for girls and young women in Georgia, and no college in the world offered to young women a degree. 382 History of A female school in the new city of Macon was needed, and a meeting was called to establish one. Elijah Sinclair proposed that Macon should establish a college for young women, where degrees should be conferred. The idea was at once adopted and large plans made for the Georgia Female College. A beautiful lot was purchased and a handsome edifice erected. The control was offered to the Georgia Conference. A president was to be selected, and all eyes were turned to George F. Pierce, then pre- siding elder of the Augusta District. No work could have been so pleasant to him as that in which he was engaged, and he had little relish for the school room, but he yielded to the solicitations of his friends, and being in full sympathy with the object aimed at, he began his work. An able faculty was elected, large salaries were promised, and soon a considerable patronage was secured. The first financial exhibit showed about $80,000 in assets, and $50,000 indebtedness; but this was on paper. The crash had come, the Macon banks were insolvent. Many of the best friends of the college had failed, and when cool business men examined the financial condition, they found the assets worthless, and the debts $40,000. The buildings were not quite finished, and were mortgaged. The friends of the college were bankrupts, and the greatest commercial depression was over all the land ; impatient creditors sued for their claims. The college was put up for sale. Bishop Pierce borrowed the money in his own name, and bought it in. The plan of paying the faculty stated salaries had to be abandoned, and Dr. Ellison took the institution on its merits. No money could be raised, interest was growing, and it seemed that the Georgia Female College must be abandoned. Bishop Pierce, whose active agency had kept it alive, eturned to the regular work, and Samuel Anthony took his place. The oldest mortgage was foreclosed. He persuaded ten men in Macon to buy in the buildings. They did so, paying $10,000 for them. He then secured from James Everett, of Houston County, an offer to the trustees to take up the mortgage, and transfer the property to the Georgia Conference, advancing $8,000 for the purpose, on condition that he and his legal successors should have the privi- lege of sending pupils to the college, who should be boarded and educated in all branches free of charge. This was about ten per cent, interest on the money advanced, but it was the best the col- lege could do. To conduct it on the projected plan was not possible, so the in- stitution was leased to Dr. Ellison, and afterwards to Drs. Myers Georgia Methodism. 383 Bonnell, Osborn L. Smith and Bass. They took all risks, met all obligations and kept the college at its high grade. Mr. Seney decided to give the college a handsome amount, which was invested in improvements and in endowment. It has been a high-grade school and especially a religious one. Its influ- ence has extended all over the Southern States, and it occupies today a place higher than it ever held. Female education, after this, was very popular in Georgia, and a number of female colleges were established. One in Madison had a career of prosperity until it was burned; one in Cassville met with the same fate. The Andrew Female College, in Cuthbert, had a more fortunate history, and still exists, and is a prosperous and valuable school, belonging to the South Georgia Conference. In 1855, the LaGrange Female College, one of the oldest in the State, and at that time in most prosperous condition, was pur- chased by the Georgia Conference for $40,000, the city of La Grange paying $20,000 of the amount. It began well, and for several years occupied a very high place as a church school. Then the chapel building was burned. An effort was made to rebuild, and the building was near completion when the war came on and the work stopped. It was about to be sold when, through the exertions of Rev. W. J. Scott and the trustees, it was saved from the block. The Rev. James R. Mason, a noted educator, took it in charge, and rallied around him an able body of trustees, among them the liberal banker, William S. Witham, and saw the college firmly on its feet. He resigned, and others devoted to the work took his place. The college (1912) is now under the charge of Dr. Rufus W. Smith and is very prosperous. The wire grass country decided on a college of secondary grade, and established one at McRae, in Telfair County, which has been of great service to all the section about it. SUNDAY SCHOOLS. Mr. Wesley urged his helpers to talk specially to the children, and pray for them and gather them into classes when as many as ten could be gathered together. This was the custom of the old preachers. The work in Georgia was generally circuit work up to 1812. Augusta, Savannah and Milledgeville were the only stations, and on the circuits the preacher in charge had but little to do with his people pastorally. The first Sunday-school among the Methodists of which we 384 History of can find trace was established in Milledgeville, by Sam'l M. Meek, in 1811. The second of which we get a view was in Shiloh, Jack- son County, and the father of Jesse Boring was its superinten- dent. He was a remarkable father of some remarkable children. He had grown to manhood without even learning to read, and was a married man with children large enough to go to school, before he had an opportunity for securing even elementary edu- cation. He went regularly with his children to school and learned to read. He improved his mind rapidly, and afterwards repre- sented the county of Gwinnett for several years in the legis- lature. He superintended the first country school of which we can find any mention. In 1820 a school in Savannah was established, and about the same time one was established in Augusta, which was on the union plan. In 183 1, James O. Andrew and Lovick Pierce brought the subject prominently before the Georgia Conference, and a new impetus was given to the work. In all the stations and in the country villages Sunday-schools were established. The catechism and spelling-book and an abridged hymn-book, with Bibles, constituted the outfit for work, and the schools were far from being as attractive as they are now. The size of the cir- cuits, the want of acquaintance with the mode of conducting them, and the failure to recognize the importance of them, caused this work to be much neglected in the country; but steadily there has been an improvement. The leading men and women of the Church in the state are connected with them, and thousands of the children are converted annually. In all the circuits and stations they exist and afford a place for lay-workers to put forth all their powers for good. MISSIONS. The Methodist Episcopal Church has always been a Missionary Church, but an organized society for the purpose of establishing and sustaining missions was not founded until the year 1819. From April, 1819, to April, 1820, the total amount of disposable funds reported was $2,658,161/0. During the four years, from 1819 to 1823, the whole amount collected was $14,716, much less than one conference often in one year now contributes. Of this the South Carolina Conference contributed in one year $1,374. In 1821, the South Carolina Conference Missionary Society was organized, and held its first anniversary in Augusta in 1822. The officers were Lewis Myers, President ; W. M. Kennedy and DR. J. F.. DTCKKY. SOUTH GEORGIA ORPHANAGE, MACON, GA. Georgia Methodism. 387 James Norton, Vice-Presidents ; William Capers, Corresponding Secretary ; John Howard, Secretary, and Whitman C. Hill, Treasurer. The total receipts for the year were $443.73^4. One mission in Ohio, among the Wyandots, was established by the parent society, and the second mission established in the world by this afterwards great society was among the Creek Indians at Fort Mitchell, seven or eight miles from Columbus, in the then new State of Alabama. To Wm. Capers was delegated the office of establishing it. On the 19th of August, 182 1, Capers left Augusta for the station. This tour was undertaken to ascertain whether the Indians would receive the missionaries. Bishop Wightman says : "At Clinton he was joined by Col. R. A. Blount, a personal friend, and an invaluable ally in this enterprise. Gov. Clark waited on him in Milledgeville and tendered him the official recommendation under the seal of the executive department. On the 29th, Col. Blount and he set out on horse-back, each with a blanket, great-coat, saddle bags and wallet. They entered the Creek nation on the first of September. On the next day, Sunday, he preached the first missionary sermon ever heard between the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers. This was at the house of a Mr. Spain. In a day or two they reached Coweta, the principal part of this Indian town lying on the east side of the Chattahoochee, in Georgia." There he witnessed a ball play, of which Wightman gives a graphic account in his life of Capers. He had an inter- view the next day with Mcintosh, who was afterwards murdered by his own people. The matter was taken by the chiefs under advisement, and was to be submitted to a general council. It was held in November, consent being secured. The Rev. Chris- tian G. Hill, then from the Black Swamp Circuit, in South Caro- lina, was left in charge of the mission, and Capers returned to the Conference. At this session, the Rev. Isaac Smith, then pre- siding elder of the Athens District, was selected as superintendent of the mission. He was thus placed in charge of the second mission established in the world by a Church which has since almost girdled the globe with its missions. He, with his wife and his son James, went to the wilderness, and he began a school. In it were twelve Indian children. Bishop McKendree remarked, "that the appointment of Mr. Smith was preceded by much pray- er, and surely nothing short of a single desire to promote the glory of God could have prompted him, in the decline of life, to embark in such a hazardous enterprise. The manner in which he conducted himself amid the difficulties that surrounded him 388 History of evinced the wisdom of the choice in selecting Mr. Smith for this station." Through the prudent management and persevering industry of Mr. Smith, and his pious consort, the school prospered. On Sep- tember 2T), Mr. Capers again visited the Mission. As soon as he was seen, the hills resounded with "Mr. Capers is come," and pre- sently, he says, "I was surrounded with a crowd of eager, affec- tionate, and rejoicing children. They sing sweetly, and behave, on religious occasions, with great decorum. One of our boys in three months has learned to read in the Testament." Andrew Hammill had gone out to prepare the way for the old missionary and his wife, and on the fourth day of May, 1822, they arrived. Difficulties sprang up between Col. John Crowell,* the Indian agent, Big Warrior, one of their chiefs, and the superintendent, Mr. Capers, calling for the interposition of Mr. Calhoun. Crow- ell was directed to give all countenance to the Mission. The missionaries were permitted to teach the children, but not to preach to the adults. The faithful old laborer, and his assistant, McDaniel, went on patiently doing what they could. "Last Tuesday night at our fam- ily devotions," he says, in a letter dated October 23, 1823, "Brother McDaniel appeared unusually drawn out in prayer. After he had done, several of the children appeared very serious, and they went into our bed-room to bid my wife good-night, as many were accustomed to do. One of them, I suppose about fifteen years old, was much affected. My wife began speaking to her; in a few minutes she had them all around the door on their knees, a number of them in deep distress. One young lad, I suppose about sixteen, who can not speak any English, stood by the door, se- rious for some time; he then got upon his knees in great distress, weeping, and I believe praying as well as he could. Several of the children prostrated themselves on the floor. I counted seven kneeling around my wife as close as they could get, besides a number that were at a little distance from her in the room. Dur- ing the exercise, one girl came to me and told me she felt very happy, that she loved God, and that she felt the love of God in her heart. She is, I suppose, in her thirteenth year. After about two hours, the most of the girls went to their own room. We soon heard them at prayer. Upon opening the door, I saw a sight truly affecting; they were all down on their knees, pleading History of Miss., p. 118. Georgia Methodism. 389 with God for mercy. The power of the Lord was felt by all present. We have reason to believe that three of the children are converted. Two of the lesser ones, one a daughter of Gen- eral Mcintosh, in her tenth year, the other about the same age, agreed to meet every evening to pray together. They were soon joined by others, and that evening I believe the greater part of them had been praying in the woods. Whenever it shall please the Lord to remove the opposition that lies against our preaching I can not doubt that the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." This remarkable revival went on until near all in the school were converted. The noble old missionary says : 'T am ready to cry out — Let me live and die with these poor outcasts." Alas, however, for the mission ! The difficulties between Georgia and the General Government, the sale of the lands by Mcintosh, and the dissatisfaction resulting in the death of Mcintosh, the diffi- culty between Crowell and Mr. Capers, and Crowell and the Governor, all united to prevent its success, and it was abandoned in 1830, to be renewed under far more promising auspices in the Creek Nation in the far West. The Cherokee Nation of Indians occupied the lower part of Last Tennessee, western North Carolina, Upper Georgia, and western and northern Alabama. They were a fine tribe, and gladly received the missionaries who were sent to them. The Moravians had a mission among them in Murray County where is now the village of Spring Place. The American Board begun its work in 1817, and before Methodism entered had several sta- tions in Upper Georgia. Job Guest, a native, invented an al- phabet, and the testaments, and many hymns were translated for them. Some of their most promising youths were well educated. They had beautiful farms, and some of them really elegant homes. In 1822, at the request of Richard Riley, a native of the nation, the preacher from the Point Rock Circuit, in Alabama, Rev. Richard Neely came among them, and Rev. William McMa- hon held a quarterly meeting at the fort. Before the next con- ference, such were the hopeful results of the meeting, that a missionary was appointed. The principal part of his circuit was in Alabama, but he came across the line into Georgia. Great suc- cess attended his labors, and they had a camp-meeting in the nation. In 1824, three missionaries were appointed to the work, and before 1827 over 400 were in the church. To assist the travel- ing preachers, there was now a native, Turtle Fields. He was then a young man of twenty-seven, was soon received in the 390 History of Tennessee Conference and afterwards transferred, when his people removed West, to the Indian Mission Conference. He worked well, and died peacefully in 1846, in the forty-seventh year of his age. The mission work was now very prosperous, and at the conference of 1828 over 800 members were reported. In 183 1 the Cherokee Nation was in a state of great excitement. The laws of the State were extended over the nation ; the mis- sionaries of the American Board refused to take the oath of allegiance to the State which was required, and were arrested and tried, and two of them condemned to imprisonment. This is not the place to give an account of this sad affair, and it is sufficient to say that the missionaries were not inhumanly treated, and were soon released. The Methodist preachers were not inter- fered with, and the work went on steadily. In 1829, the late Dr. John B. McFerrin was on the Wills Valley and Oostanaula Circuit; North Fields on the Coosawattee in Murray County; Greenbury Garrett on the Chattooga; and Thomas J. Elliot on the Conesauga. The work continued to prosper under the charge of the Tennessee Conference, but the Indians were continually moving to their new homes in Arkansas; and in 1835 the Holston Conference took charge of the remnant left. There was still 521 Indians in the various charges in 1836. At this con- ference the Newtown District, under the charge of D. B. Cum- ming, was formed, and the few remaining stations fell under its care. Although the commotion among the Indians was great, the work prospered, and 752 Indians were reported as members at the next conference. But the time of their departure was fixed, and soldiers marched through the nation, and gathered them up, and marched them away to a distant and to them un- known land. The religious life of the faithful Cherokees never shone more brilliantly. They had fasted and prayed, that God would avert this doom from them ; but when it came they bowed their heads submissively. They left the graves of their fathers, their own humble homes, their beautiful mountains and valleys, and made their way sadly to the new land ; only God and God's faithful servants went with them. When they reached the far West, they found the missionary, and the mission school already there, and there still the work goes on. We have already given in the current history a full account of the domestic mission work ; but the work among the slaves, while it might be justily placed in this category, deserves a special notice. The negroes of Georgia were of two very different classes. Georgia Methodism. 391 The negroes of the interior were nearly all of them from Mary- land, Virginia, North and South Carolina. They were American born, and many of them had descended from Americo-African parents. Their ancestry had been imported into this country a century or more before. They had received some early training, and if they had not become Christians, they had at least ceased to be heathens. They were cared for by the Methodist preachers from the beginning of their work, and many of them were faith- ful Christians. The large plantations of after time had not yet become common, and as in every country church there was a place for them, and in every town church there were galleries for their special use, the negroes received as regular church services as the whites. But there was another, and a very large, class of negroes under the charge of the Georgia Conference. These were those who had been more lately introduced into Georgia from Africa. The trustees of the colony forbade the introduc- tion of slaves or rum; but after the surrender of the charter to the crown, these laws were repealed, and even before the Revo- lution, large numbers of slaves were imported chiefly to cultivate the rice plantations, which were being then opened and success- fully conducted. The Sea Islands, in which the Sea Island cotton alone was made, were now settled, and the culture of this variety of cotton extensively entered into. This industry demanded much labor, and Africans were imported in large numbers. As they lived on large plantations, remote from negroes of American birth, and subject to no direct civilizing or Christianizing influ- ences, they preserved in many respects their Pagan features, al- most unchanged. After the invention of the cotton-gin, a great impetus was given to cotton-producing, and as the slave trade was to be forbidden by law after 1808, a great impetus was given to it before that epoch, and as land and slaves were both cheap, and cotton high, many new negroes were settled in gangs upon the higher lands of the interior. It will be seen from this survey that the African negroes introduced into these Sea Island sections, were likely to preserve forever their African features of charac- ter. The owners of these plantations were living in the cities, or if on the plantation at all, only there for a few months in win- ter time ; and their slaves had little intercourse with them. The culture of rice and the culture of Sea Island cotton was comparatively light labor ; though, at seasons, it demanded a very lengthened and constant work, and as it suited these poor heath- ens, they increased rapidly. Living in their own colonies, they were not discontented. They were preserved, by the slave gov- 392 History of ernment under which they were, from the gross vices to which, in their African life, they had been subject, such as murder and rapine; but in the vices of theft, lasciviousness, lying, they were steeped. Such was the condition, not of the whole negro-race in the South, but of the very considerable part of it. It was the condition of these semi-barbarians, and more than semi-heathen, that moved the great heart of William Capers, and led him to work for the founding of mission stations among them. He found among the largest planters efficient coadjutors, one espe- cially, Col. Morris, a son of Gouverneur Morris, of New York, and an Episcopalian, entered into it with all his earnestness and zeal.* This work was now to be commenced in Georgia. The first work among the negroes was, however, done in 1831, among the more intelligent negroes of the up-country, on the large plantations on the rivers. In 1833, Willis D. Matthews and Samuel J. Bryan were sent to the rice plantations ; preachers were detailed to work, among the negroes especially, through all the charges, where there were many of them. It was the purpose of the church to give religious instruction to these people, and to catechise them with care. This was at- tempted on the larger plantations, and to some extent carried out; but, gradually, it became the usage of the missionaries to the blacks mainly to preach to the large congregations of colored people who came out to hear the word. It is our office more to relate facts than to read homilies ; but we can but feel that a work of much greater permanence would have been done in the domestic field, both among whites and slaves, if our preachers had not preached less, but had taught more. The missionaries met with many trials. While there was much sympathy lavished, and justly so, upon the man who went across the seas on a foreign mission ; while he was abundantly provided for, the missionary to the blacks received a scanty support, and but little consideration. In many of the fields of labor it was exile from refined society, life among the degraded and ignorant, * In 1859, while returning from New York to Georgia, I had the privilege of passing several days on a steamer with this excellent man. He mentioned the intense opposition of his neighbors to this work, but as he had the missionary on his plantations, they soon saw its beneficent effect and with- drew it, and spoke with much delight of the wonderful change which came over them when they came under the fascinating influence of Wm. Capers. Georgia Methodism. 393 toil put forth without much apparent result, the inhaling of ma- laria, and often meeting early death ; but, despite all this, the work went on, and successfully. The negro on the rice planta- tions did not become, in a generation, as intelligent, consistent, and Christian as the Anglo-Saxon who had been surrounded by elevating influences for centuries. His moral tone was not high, his views were crude, his errors many ; but he ceased to be a heathen, and often-time sincerely loved and sincerely strove to serve his great Father in Heaven, and his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have already spoken of the great work among the more intelligent colored people of the up-country, and espe- cially of the towns and cities. In i860, there was 27,000 colored people in the Church in Georgia. When the war ended, and with its end came a change so radi- cal as that of emancipation from slavery, it was not unnatural that a race so easily influenced should be persuaded that they ought to change their Church relations, especially when military power was brought to bear to effect it. So the Methodist Epis- copal Church South lost, perhaps, one-half of her colored mem- bers. They joined the African Methodist, the Zion Methodist, and the Methodist Episcopal Church; many did, but not all. Many of the more intelligent still clung to their old church rela- tions, and often at great risk to themselves. Among them were Sandy Kendall, Lucius Holsey, David Deas, David Bentley, John Zorn, ministers, and many private members. A conference was organized for them. The property of the Church occupied by them was transferred to them, and they are prosperous. As strife has now nearly ceased, we trust the day is not distant when all the colored people will form a compact body of pious Methodists. BENEVOLENCE. The early days of Methodism were days of poverty and trial. The early Methodists in Georgia were most of them poor, and save the quarterly collections which were carried to conference, there was no appeal to them for any kind of pecuniary con- tributions. There was, as yet, no provision made for worn-out preachers, or for their widows or orphans. The first society or- ganized for this purpose in the South Carolina Conference was, as we have seen, organized in Sparta, in the December of 1806. It was called the Society for Special Relief; the funds collected 394 History of were distributed among needy traveling and local preachers and their families ; and the first contribution made by it, was to Isaac Smith, when his house was burned in Camden. Its resources were not considerable. It received now and then a bequest, and Thomas Grant left it, on his death, quite a quantity of wild land in the then western counties of the State, and at least three thou- sand dollars in money. Josiah Flournoy made it an annual con- tribution of a hundred dollars, and Lewis Myers left it quite a legacy. This society still exists, and at every conference dis- tributes several hundred dollars to the needy. It was after the Georgia Conference was organized that an effort was made to provide for the support of superannuated preachers, their widows and orphans, by a general collection. This conference collection aimed not only to do this, but to supply the deficiency in the allow- ance of the preachers. The funds used for this purpose are ap- propriated by the Finance Board to all claimants, annually; but, for some years past, effective preachers have had no claim upon it, and it is distributed among the worn-out preachers and their families alone. In 1838, Silas Griffin left nearly $4,000, the interest of which was to be added to this collection; and in 1836, a society was incorporated to hold this and other funds for the same purpose. It, too, was called the Relief Society ; but the similarity of names between it and the Society of Special Relief, led to a change of name, and it is now known as the Preachers' Aid Society. A sum of nearly $3,000 was paid to the Georgia Conference for her interest in the Book-room in Charleston, which was added to this bequest of Griffin. The charter forbade more than 6 per cent, to be paid out annually, and the remainder was to be added to the principal. In the course of thirty years, the original property of the conference in the fund was doubled; but losses from bankruptcy, and especially from collecting its funds in Confederate money, reduced its assets to about one-half. This society still exists and receives much less attention than its merit deserves. Another society has been recently organized among the preach- ers and laymen, to provide homes for the widows and orphans of preachers. It has no vested funds, and collects a mortuary fee, on the death of each member, from the remaining ones ; preachers only beneficiaries. The clerical members pay two dol- lars the lay members one. It has already done much good. Through the exertions of Dr. Jesse Boring, a home, both in North and South Georgia, was established for orphans. The North Georgia Methodism. 395 Georgia home is near Decatur, the South Georgia near Macon. The prospects for each are bright, and each will become a place of refuge for the orphans of all the Methodists in the States, in time to come. The missionary collections we have already noted under their proper head. We have now fulfilled our design in tracing the history of Methodism in Georgia, from its beginning, in 1786, to the division of the Georgia Conference, in 1866. If Georgia civilization is a failure; if there is gross corruption in her public men; if there are grievous heresies over the land; if life and liberty and property are imperiled; if education and the finer features of life are neglected, Methodism is largely respon- sible for it. The Baptists and Methodists have moved side by side in the onward march of the white settlers into the wilds of Georgia. They have alike aimed to preach a pure Gospel, and a like success has attended them; and the influence they have exerted upon Georgia civilization has been immense. This in- fluence is seen in the colleges, the churches, the orthodox evangeli- cal Christianity, and the law and order of the Georgia people. When they began their work, there was rampant infidelity in high places, and almost total religious darkness in the low ; but they were peculiarly fitted for the work of evangelizing, and they have gone on together. As fair historians of religious events, while we tell the story of our own church; while we tell of Ivy, Humphries, Major, Lee, Hull, Pierce, Olin, Few, we can not pass over Silas Mercer, the Marshalls, Bottsford, Hol- comb, Screven, Jesse Mercer, King, Milner and Dawson. These were true men of God, who preached repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and had no fellowship with unrighteousness. The annals of the Baptist church in Georgia are rich in stories of self-denying Christian effort. The Presbyterian church is, perhaps, from its economy, better suited to the thickly peopled country than one which has its population to gather; but Cummings, Doak, Wilson, Waddell, and many others, have been earnest workers, side by side, and nearly al- ways in harmony with their Methodist brethren. For nearly one hundred years Georgia Methodism has been an almost un- broken harmony. Save a few small secessions from it, there has been no strife in its borders; and, even in these secessions, the doctrines of Methodism have been preserved, and only some features of her polity have been given up. The same doctrines have been preached which Wesley preach- ed. The same church-government which Asbury directed is con- 396 History of trolling now, save as it has been modified; and the same simple usages in worship which belonged to our fathers belong to us. Some changes have passed over the Church, but they have been often more changes in the names of things than in the things themselves. The class-meeting has given way to the social prayer-meetings ; the old quarterly conference to the district con- ference. The rigid rules on dress are no longer in force. These are some of the changes which have passed over the Church. The district conference has more than supplied the place the largely attended quarterly meeting left vacant. Pastoral care has done much to supply the lack of class-meetings. The Sunday- school has become a potent instrument of good, and religious newspapers come in as an assistant of great value to the pastor. The support of the ministry, and of all the institutions of the Church, is far beyond that accorded in the first and second eras of the Church. Prone as we are to magnify the past, at the expense of the present, we can not study the story of our past years without feeling that the aggregate of good now goes beyond that of any equal period in past years. There is as much heroism in the ministry, as much self sacri- fice in the laity as a mass, as there has been in days gone by. Revivals of religion are more frequent, and religious declensions are less so. The Church for the last fifty years has known no such period as that between 1810 and 1823. The ministry and the people are better educated, and piety is not less sincere, though it may be somewhat less demonstrative. The civilization of Geor- gia is of a higher order ; there are no such gross revelries now as were known then on muster-days ; no such open immorality and infidelity tolerated among public men. No regular prize-fights, with their disgusting attendants. Josiah Flournoy nearly lost his life because he strove to persuade the State to establish a prohibitory liquor law ; but now the whole State is under a pro- hibitory liquor law. While Georgia is not a pure State, no regu- larly elected legislature was ever known to be bribed; and while she has many criminals, the number of white convicts is far be- low that of many of the older American States. A church which numbers nearly two hundred thousand white communicants, and as many colored ; which reaches with its in- fluence at least half the people of a State, so powerful as that of Georgia, has certainly a responsibility resting upon her, immense in its magnitude, and we who have entered into the labor of our Georgia Methodism. 397 fathers, have learned from these pages how these responsibilities should be met. We now somewhat reluctantly lay down our pen. To no one is this work less satisfying than to him who has written it. He only asks the reader, with whom he now parts, to believe that he has labored earnestly to tell the true story of Methodism in Georgia and Florida. SUPPLEMENTAL WORD. General Conference had met in New Orleans the May before the Division of the Georgia Conferences in December, and had made the most sweeping changes in the economy and usages of the church. The M. E. church had sent its emissaries to the South to disintegrate and absorb. Some of the most trusted of the preachers itinerant and local had left the connection, and there was in the point of money an utterly hopeless future before us. The great body of colored people had deserted the church and gone to the A. M. E. and M. E. churches. Our church buildings were many of them dilapidated, boards of stewards were dis- organized, and it required boundless faith in God and devotion to his service to keep the ship steady in the storm. The winds lulled ; the waves ceased to roll, and the staunch ship kept on her way. Of many of these faithful ones who staid on her deck and fought the storm I have already written, for they had passed away when the first edition of the book went to the press. Of those who belonged to the conference of 1866, few are on the conference roll, and only one, Dr. John B. McGhee, stationed in Oglethorpe, is in the active ranks. In this supple- mental chapter, I shall cease to be annalistical and try to sketch the forty-five years gone by in a panoramic way, and look at the church of these years as its various phases appear. Methodism up to 1866 had been intensely conservative. The same Methodism with very slight modifications, which had been found in Asbury's time, and before in England, in Wesley's day, was in Georgia. Indeed, it was far more Wesleyan in govern- ment, than it was in England years after Wesley's death. There had been very great dissatisfaction for years on the part of many of the younger men, with some features of this government. After 1824, when there was the great secession, and the Metho- dist Protestant church had been organized, there had been a secession in New England, out of which came the Wesleyan Methodist church, because slavery was allowed, and the opposi- 398 History of tion to slavery brought about the great division in 1844, when the M. E. Church, South, was organized. Up to the year 1866, however, there had been no division in the M. E. Church, South, and no considerable modification of any of the old Asburyan methods of work. The innovating party existed, but it had small following. This following, however small in numbers, was de- cidedly an able one, led by some of the strongest men of the church. At the head of this movement was doctor, afterwards Bishop McTyiere, Dr. E. H. Myers, Dr. J. E. Edwards, Dr. Leroy M. Lee, Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald, afterwards Bishop; Dr. Wight- man, afterwards Bishop, and many others. It was overwhelmingly in the majority. The opposition party consisted of the old-time conservatives. It was soon evident that the progressives were in control of the Conference, and they made short work of the transformation of the Government. The probation of candidates for six months was changed to an indefinite period, to be longer or shorter according to the will of the preacher in charge. The attendance on class meetings, as a condition of membership, was abolished. The introduction of laymen into the Annual and Gen- eral Conferences was provided for ; the extension of the pastoral terms from two to four years, and a provision for sweeping changes in the Discipline by a general revision which was made at the next General Conference, were all provided for. This wholesale revision made in Memphis brought in the District and Church Conferences, and removed from the discipline many of those sections concerning dress and ministerial conduct upon which Mr. Wesley and the old Asburyans had laid much stress. These changes were much more sweeping in their effect than their most sanguine friends expected, and during the time under review they worked almost a revolution. The laymen began to assert themselves very vigorously, and many of the preachers were in full sympathy with them. They attended the Annual Conferences, took great interest in the boards, sought many inter- views with the Bishops, and sought for, or protested against, the appointment of many pastors. There ceased to be any probation at all in receiving members, and one who applied for membership was received into full connection at the same meeting. The class meetings, largely discontinued during the war, were not resumed. The Presiding Elders ceased to hold love feasts ; the laymen largely influenced through their official boards the ap- pointments of preachers ; the sermons on, and allusions to dress, so frequent in the early days, were no longer heard. Church discipline, as far as it referred to the individual members, was — Georgia Methodism. 399 except in cases of flagrant immorality — almost entirely neglected. During this period the District Conference began its legal exist- ence, and to give it more influence, as well as to provide for the protection of the church, the licensing of local preachers was removed from the Quarterly Conference to it, and the demand was made for an educational qualification in order to secure a license to preach in local spheres, which effectually excluded many of the applicants, especially in the rural sections, who had hitherto filled the ranks of these lay preachers. The introduc- tion of musical instruments into the churches became almost uni- versal during this time, and there was a gradual diminution in the number of camp meetings. The districts, while much dimin- ished in geographical area, became greatly enlarged in the number of charges. The salaries of Presiding Elders and preachers were no longer mere allowances — but were salaries, and were much in advance of what they had been in the days before the war. The large circuits disappeared, and small stations were greatly multiplied. At this time (1912), there are few country towns in which there is not a Methodist preacher who occupies the pulpit every Sunday, and there are few sections of the State where there is not a Methodist church for whites and one for colored people, in reach of any of the people. The circuits had been so reduced in size, that the larger number had only four appointments for the pastor, who generally had a comfortable house provided as a parsonage. The poorer sections were put into mission circuits, and the pastor, often a local preacher, was largely supported from the Missionary Treasury. During this period there was great City growth, and efforts were made to plant churches and support missionaries as the cities advanced. The colored people had, in a large degree, forsaken the M. E. church South, mainly for the A. M. E. church controlled by col- ored people, and the remnant which remained had been set apart, at its own instance, as a separate body, called the Colored Metho- dist Episcopal church. They have always been on the best of terms with their white brethren, and have received from them not only all the church property they held for their colored members, but substantial assistance and other help, when it was asked for. The church has grown steadily with every year. It has been harmonious, and has very earnestly pressed forward in its work. Evangelically, there had been no considerable di- vergence from the Wesleyan and Asburyan methods and teach- ings. As a rule, the doctrines of Wesley's sermons and the usages of the English societies received from tradition, had been the 400 History of doctrines and discipline of the Georgia Methodists up to 1866, when the Conference was divided, and there had been no effort in any way to attack the doctrines or change the usages of the church. The preachers were all required to study Wesley's ser- mons and Watson's Institutes, to use the standard hymn book, and few were bold enough to attempt any change. The revival meeting was expected every year in every society, and in a large number of the circuits there was a camp meeting and in some of them more than one, and a great awakening and a time of re- freshing, was expected at every annual gathering. When a preacher in charge was not a revivalist, as some of the leading preachers were not, he generally sought among his brethren for ministerial aid. The professional evangelist came to Georgia from the North after the division. Dr. Munhall in Augusta, Atlanta and Macon ; Dr. Graves in Atlanta, and a little later Dr. Inskip in Augusta and Savannah, were all Northern evangelists. These were followed by sundry Georgians who became noted for their success in holding revival meetings. The chief among them was Samuel P. Jones, known universally as "Sam" Jones. He had been a Georgia circuit preacher, and then agent for the Orphan's Home. He had remarkable ability and wonderful success, and was in constant demand and high favor in not only Georgia, but throughout the country. Others followed in his wake, some local preachers and some itinerants, who located that they might give themselves to revival work. The church authorities for some time regarded this specific evangelism with disfavor, but the clamor for it was so loud that the General Con- ference in Birmingham, in 1906, made provision for it. The evangelist, however, did his work mainly in towns and cities, while the preachers on circuits and missions relied only on them- selves and their near-by helpers, with the some-time help of the Presiding Elder, and of the camp meeting, which was still popular in many of the circuits. The attention paid to the children led to the admission to the communion of a great many who were very young, and the church very greatly increased its membership from the Sunday schools. There was constant progress, as far as membership was concerned, and constant advance in visible directions. The probation system gave the preacher in charge great liberty in his church roll. He had merely to drop the de- fective applicant, and one purpose of its abolition was to avoid this, and make admission to the church more difficult, and mem- bership more stable ; but the result was that people were taken into the church more hastily, and as there was no expulsion, the Georgia Methodism. 401 Methodist church rolls, as those of other churches, were larger in appearance than they were in fact. The Holiness movement, as it was called, had a great revival during this period. In an earlier part of this history it has been seen that about 1846 there was a considerable move, especially among College professors and prominent preachers in which the views of Mrs. Palmer of New York, which were earnestly advo- cated by Prof. Upham, Dr. Geo. and Dr. Jesse Peck, Dr. Caldwell, Dr. Bangs were very popular and were quietly, but zealously stressd. This was the Wesleyan and the mystical and Catholic doc- trine of Christian Perfection modified. It was called by Mrs. Palm- er, "The Shorter Way." It made what the Catholics aimed to se- cure by fastings and meditations, and attendance on the mass and confessional, and secured by much labor and much suffering possible by simply an entire consecration and reliance on God's word. Many became advocates of this "Shorter Way," but after some years there was but little stress laid on it. About 1867, there was a great revival of interest in it in the North, and the Rev. George Kramer, who had come to Georgia during the war, from Maryland, went back to Maryland, and after a year there re- turned to Georgia, a warm advocate of Mrs. Palmer's views, and a professor of the experience. Through his influence, the Rev. W. A. Dodge, his Presiding Elder, sought for and secured the experience and became its profound propogandist. The Rev. Mr. Inskip, as has been seen, held special meetings, and conducted great revivals in Savannah and Augusta, stressing much this view, and many of the Georgia preachers and laymen became ad- vocates of it. A Holiness Association was formed, and eventu- ally a Holiness paper was published by Brothers Dodge and Patillo, and a camp ground was improved, near Indian Springs, where this doctrine was to be the chief doctrine stressed. Much attention was directed to this higher life, and many beautiful examples of its power were visible. In the meantime the church was invaded by the semi-rationalism known as advanced thought, and some of the most gifted of the preachers, young and old, were found in line with the New England Liberals and German ration- alists, but they were not many, and had little influence outside of a small circle of admirers in some of the cities. The Sunday school interest made great progress during this period. Before the division, while in the cities, towns and vil- lages there were as a rule Sunday schools, in the country churches as a rule there were none. They were sometimes found in the country churches, and the school which has had a continuous 402 History of existence longer than any other in Georgia was in a good section of Lincoln county. It was organized in 1819 and has never been suspended. As a general thing there were no Sunday schools in the country during the winter months. When young Atticus Haygood, afterward Bishop, was on the Rome District, he found the reason of the non-existence of winter schools, in the want of stoves in the churches. He urged more comfort for the scholars and a longer duration for the schools. He became greatly in- terested in Sunday school work, and when he was elected to the General Conference, he advocated and secured the appointment of a Sunday School Secretary for the church, and the adoption of the Uniform System of Lessons, and the General Conference selected him as its first Sunday School Secretary. Much interest was aroused in this matter, and before 191 1 the old rule was re- versed. The Sunday school was almost as universal as the church, and with the great improvement in methods it has become much more efficient. In the cities there has been great advance in Sunday school work. Special arrangements have been made in many of them for convenience of teachers, and the provision for effective work is all that could be desired. In the matter of church architecture, there has been great improvement in the last fifty years. In the cities, the churches which were at first mere barns, have been replaced by elegant edifices, and in the towns and villages they are generally very attractive houses of worship. The educational interests of the church have greatly advanced. When the war was over, Emory College, the only male school, was in a sadly enfeebled condition. The endowment was gone; the buildings were dilapidated ; the faculty scattered, and there was apparently no hope for any speedy change. But there were a few of the professors who had not lost all hope, and the Board of Trustees were not willing to make no effort. Bishop Pierce was intensely concerned, and formed an Endowment Association, the members of which promised a payment of twenty dollars a year for running expenses, and he called to his aid those who were willing to give larger sums for repairing and rebuilding. Professor Luther M. Smith, Professor Stone and Professor Hopkins, of the old faculty, consented to risk getting a living out of the receipts and from their own resources, and the college began work again. It had a trying time for some years, but its graduates stood bravely by it, and with the coming of Dr. Hay- good from Nashville, and the great improvement of conditions in the State, there came a new hope into the hearts of the people. Then, to the surprise of the people, Mr. George I. Seney, a ^nss rev. sam p. jones. REV. J. W. LEE, D.D. Georgia Methodism. 405 banker in the North, volunteered a gift of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a new building and an endowment. Other large gifts for buildings and endowment came, and the college has now secured a respectable endowment and has an admirable collection of buildings, a strong faculty, and a large patronage The Wesleyan Female College was in better condition, and rallied sooner than Emory, and coming in for a share of Mr. Seney s bounty, it was remodeled, and greatly improved, and has a small, but growing endowment. The LaGrange Female College, which was as sadly wrecked by the war, gradually rose from its prostration, and with the crenerous aid of its friends, and the admirable management of its officers, chief among whom has been its now venerable president, R. W.' Smith, has become the leading institution of Western Georgia. ■ £ r* ' • * The Andrew Female College, in the southwest ot Georgia, at Cuthbert, has after a very brave fight secured for itself a hand- some equipment and a large patronage. The need of the mountain people for a college within their reach, led to the establishment of the Young Harris College, in a secluded mountain valley. Originating with a young mission- ary Rev. Artemas Lester, it was fostered by Rev. A. C. Thomas the' Presiding Elder of the District, who succeeded in enlisting the support of the Hon. Young Harris, a wealthy man of Athens, who not only aided it while living, but endowed it when he died ; so it has become firmly established, and has done, and is doing, a most valuable service. The people of McRae, in the wire grass country, and the country about, have established a most valuable secondary college, answering to Young Harris in the mountains, and it has become a power for good in the wire grass section. There was great improvement in the financial management of church affairs after 1866. The church, up to that time, had been sadly neglectful at this point. The salaries of the preachers were in many cases still known as allowances, and they were shamefully small ; but after this time there was a steady advance. The very great losses brought about by the ravages of the war, instead of decreasing the liberality of the church, really advanced it, and with the coming of the laymen into the church councils there was a great forward movement. The salaries, which in the beginning of this history, had been mere pitiful allowances oi less than a hundred dollars, were on most of the charges in- creased to an amount sufficient for the respectable support of a moderate-sized family. Comfortable houses were supplied as 406 History of parsonages, and attentive Stewards and Ladies' Aid Societies were found in nearly all the stations and many of the circuits. The people were trained to give and pay, and the finances in every direction improved. In missionary matters, everything had reached the lowest depression at the end of the war and at the division of the conference ; but there was a great advance, largely under the leadership of Dr. Haygood and Dr. Potter in the North Georgia, and Dr. Key and Dr. Clark in the South Georgia. The Domestic Mission work in the mountains, and in the wire grass, called for large appropriations, which were increased from year to year, until in the most obscure sections there was a Methodist missionary. The City Mission work was found in all the cities, sometimes done by rendering aid to small churches, sometimes by having a special missionary. These city mission churches generally in a few years became self-supporting, but the churches in the weaker circuits did not grow so rapidly, and churches that fifty years before were mission churches, were to some degree such in 191 1. The benevolences of the church were many of them greatly improved during this period. Through the influence of Dr. Boring, the Orphan Home had been adopted by almost all the Conferences, and Georgia had two homes, one in Decatur and one in Macon, both of which have been very successful in doing the work for which they were established. The support of the retired preachers has been much improved in both conferences, and while it is still far below what it ought to be, it is far beyond what it has been in the history of the church. At the end of the war, the Southern Christian Advocate ceased to be published; but Messrs. J. W. Burke & Co. resumed its publication in Macon. The South Carolina Conference became anxious to have the paper transferred to Charleston, from whence it had been removed, and the Georgia Conference consented and established the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, which is still pub- lished. The Quarterly Review of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, having been suspended from the beginning of the war, Dr. J. W. Hinton, of the South Georgia Conference, at his own expense, published it again under the auspices of the General Conference, and continued its publication until the church felt able to take it in charge again. Before the division in 1866, Georgia had furnished James O. Andrew and George F. Pierce as Bishops, and after the division, Atticus G. Haygood and Warren A. Candler were chosen from the North Georgia, and Joseph S. Georgia Methodism. 407 Key from the South Georgia. She had also given Dr. W. P. Harrison as editor of the Review ; Dr. Haygood as Sunday school secretary, and Dr. Edward F. Cook as Secretary of the Board of Missions. Among her most valuable gifts to the church were those whom she furnished to the Mission boards. Of Dr. Allen, the veteran missionary to China, we have already had account. David L. Anderson followed him in the same field, and died in 19 1 2. He was a noble, gifted man who had done valuable work in Georgia before going to China. Robert W. McDonnell had given his life to Mexico. Cuba had drawn largely upon Georgia for her corps of missionaries. There were none of the Southern and Southwestern Conferences which had not been recruited from Georgia and she was among the first to furnish mission- aries to the Pacific Coast. Texas, in her time of need, Arkansas and the Indian Territory were especially indebted to Georgia for preachers who had fixed their homes in this far west. The list of those in both Conferences which is here appended is a large one. Of many of those who joined the Conferences before the division this history has already spoken, of some of these the records published gives a few facts, leaving it to a future historian to give fuller sketches. The history of the years between 1866 and 191 1 is full of in- terest, but it is not within the power of the writer of this volume to do it justice. It is to be hoped that this article is but intro- ductory to a fuller account. Georgia has undergone great changes, and in many respects has made great advancement in these since the war, which ended just before the division of the Conference was made. Great Cities have taken the places of what were at that time only large towns, and the towns have grown into cities. Railroads have penetrated all parts of the State. Factories have been established. Where one bale of cotton or one bushel of corn was made, two bales of cotton and two bushels of corn have been made in the same area. The barrens, as the wire grass country was called, have been turned largely into most beautiful farms, and where at the end of the war there was an unbroken pine forest, there are flourishing young cities. Largely through the influence of the Methodist and Baptist churches, the State has become a Prohibi- tion State, and the cross-roads drinking shop that was once Georgia's bane has disappeared. Where there was once a distil- lery near every spring branch among Georgia's beautiful moun- tain country, when the grain of the valleys was turned into strong drink, through the strong arm of the State and the moral 408 History of influence of the churches, there are now no open distilleries, and there are free schools, attractive little churches and regular preaching. Much has come in the new Georgia which is sadly to be de- plored. The negro, who was never a drunkard and rarely a criminal before the war, has been turned into the wildest savage by fiery liquor, largely furnished him by his own race and by de- graded and despicable foreigners. He has, fired with drink, done acts of fearful atrocity, to meet a punishment unheard of among Anglo Saxons for ages. But these crimes and this punishment have been largely exceptional. The Methodist and Baptist preachers have gone, side by side, more effective and more harmonious working apart than if they had been in one camp, and much has been done. The tide of emigration from our poorer hills and mountains which went west, has been turned to our Southern pine woods, or to our cities. The people of our mountains and pine woods have established schools and colleges, and our negroes have, in many cases, de- veloped into good farmers, prosperous merchants, good teachers and earnest preachers. IMPROVEMENTS. The foregoing pages have given an account of the first church buildings, and of those of the second era. In log houses most uncomely and uncomfortable, the preachers found places to preach after they left the private dwellings, also of logs. Then a barn- like building of the plainest sort, often without window glass or paint, provided for long years a place of worship. The people were at first poor, but as wealth increased, their desire for some- thing better in the way of a church building did not grow. Then there came another era in which the barn-like building itself gave way and a church building, respectable and comfortable, took its place, but this itself was left behind in the onward march and in the last twenty years there has been quite a spirit of im- provement in this direction. We have already seen the condi- tion of things in the city of Augusta. Then in the town of Thomson, near the city, a very handsome brick church has been built within a few years. Culverton, near where Bishop Pierce lived, has a handsome brick church, and Sparta a church in memory of Bishop Pierce, which is very attractive. Milledgeville, which has now had four churches, has just completed a handsome and commodious brick church. Monticello, where Thos. Grant, Georgia Methodism. 409 the leading Methodist layman of Georgia died, has a neat brick church. Oxford has a very handsome church building as a mem- orial to Dr. Young J. Allen, the great missionary. Greensboro, where Bishop Pierce spent his childhood, has an attractive brick church. Washington having outgrown the comely, but too small, church which was the second in its history, built a very handsome edifice recently. Marietta has as its third church a very elegant and convenient building. Cartersville, where Sam Jones lived and where he died, has a very fine memorial church. Rome has now a comfortable brick church as its first church and a very good build- ing as its second church. Cedartown has not only a neat brick church, but one also for its factory operatives. Elberton, where the first Methodist preaching was done in private houses by Allen, Humphries and Major, has a very hand- some brick building. These are but a few of the many attractive churches in the upper part of the state. In lower Georgia, in Waynesboro, in Columbus, in Savannah, in Americus, in Dawson, in Valdosta, in Hawkinsville, in Thomas- ville, Blakely, Bainbridge, Waycross, there are handsome and commodious church buildings. There are comfortable churches in most of the circuits and the board of church extension is con- tinually aiding them in their efforts to improve the physical con- dition of their places of worship. The Orphans' Homes of both conferences are equipped with a sufficiency of buildings to provide facilities for the work they are called upon to do. The colleges are all housed in attractive buildings. The efforts of the liberal people of Atlanta to provide a memor- ial building have been quite successful, and the Advocate and the Library have been well provided for. The desire of the church for a Methodist Hospital has been met by the establishment of one in connection with the Wesley Memorial. There are now two conferences in Georgia, the North and South Georgia, who work in harmony with each other and who have many things jointly. The Wesleyan Christian Advocate is the property of both, having as editors one from the North and one from the South Georgia Conference. They have joint owner- ship in the Wesleyan College for Women and in Emory College, and while these pages are passing through the press a purchase of the LaGrange College has been made by the Wesleyan. Georgia is now well equipped for good work. APPENDIX OFFICIAL REGISTER AND DIRECTORY OF NORTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE— 1912-13 (E. Elder; D. Deacon; S'y Supernumerary; Sd., Superannuated). Enter- Pre* Name Post Office ed Itin- ent Re- erancy lation 1 Adams, J. C Griffin 1906 E 2 Allen, B. P Athens 1888 P.E. 3 Allen, J. B Atlanta 1880 S'y 4 Allen, J. R Newborn 1904 E 5 Akin, E. K Atlanta 1863 S'd 6 Allgood, J. L Waleska 1902 E 7 Amack, W. L Buckhead 1912 E 8 Atkinson, J. C Warrenton 1893 E 9 Askew, J. S Ackert 1880 E 10 Bailey, J. H Cumming 1900 E 11 Bailey, J. W Jefferson 1888 E 12 Balis, J. F Douglasville 1885 S'd 13 Barrett, G. W Acworth 1899 E 14 Barnett, W. M Gainesville 1912 D 15 Bass, C. L Atlanta 1905 E 16 Baum, Firley Norwood 1903 E 17 Belk, S. R Atlanta 1884 E 18 Bell, W. T Hepzibah 1879 E 19 Benson, W. W Tignall 1908 E 20 Bowden, J. M Tompson 1867 S'd 21 Brand, J. O Rome 1899 E 22 Branch, C. H Social Circle 1883 E 23 Branham, Henry F Covington 1891 E 24 Branham, W. R Oxford 1870 E 25 Branham, W. S Zebulon E 26 Branson, T.J Watkinsville 1904 E 27 Brinsfield, W. W Atlanta 1872 S'd 28 Brinsfield, J. W Middleton 1912 D 29 Browder, L. W Sharon E 30 Bryan, J. S Decatur 1871 E 31 Bugg, A. H. S Chipley 1891 E 32 Butler, W. O Culverton 1873 E 33 Caldwell, W. T Clarkston 1863 S'd 34 Campbell, R. L Augusta 1876 E 35 Cantrell, A. C Smyrna 1886 S'd 36 Cantrell, D. B Stone Mountain 1899 E 37 Cantrell, F. D Gainesville 1881 E 38 Cary, C. C Atlanta 1872 S'd 39 Carmichael, W. P Nashville, Tenn 1912 D Georgia Methodism. 411 Enter- Pres- Name Post Office ed Itin- ent Re- erancy lation 40 Chastain, G. L Atlanta 1893 E 41 Christian, H. C College Park 1871 S'd 42 Christian, T. J Elberton 1880 P.E. 43 Clark, W. H Atlanta 1904 E 44 Cleckler, R. C Elberton 1895 E 45 Clements, S. D Woodbury 1867 S'd 46 Collins, L. W Atlanta 1912 D 47 Cooper, W. H Marietta 1894 P.E. 48 Copeland, J. J Athens D 49 Cotter, W. J Newnan 1845 S'd 50 Crawley, W. S Oxford 1892 E 51 Crowe, J. M Princeton 1900 E 52 Crumley, H. L Atlanta 1880 S'd 53 Cunningham, M. D Dahlonega 1912 54 Davis, J. F Watkinsville 1889 E 55 Davis, J. G Turin 1912 D 56 DeBardeleben, W. J Payetteville 1909 D 57 Dempsey, E. F Milledgeville 1899 E 58 Dickey, J. E Oxford 1891 E 59 Dillard, Walter B Rome 1887 P.E. 60 Dimon, S. H Milledgeville 1878 E 61 Dixon, R. M Forsyth 1896 E 62 Dowman, C. E Oxford 1873 E 63 DuBose, H. M Atlanta E 64 Dunbar, William Winder 1880 E 65 Duval, G. W Marietta 1875 E 66 Eakes, G. M Atlanta 1897 E 67 Eakes, J. H .Home 1884 P.E. 68 Eakes, J. T Lawrenceville 1894 E 69 Eakes, R. F Atlanta 1889 E 70 Echols, A. D Augusta 1884 E 71 Edmondson, H. L Newnan 1884 E 72 Edmondson, R. A Carrollton 1894 E 73 Edwards, D. M Visalia, Cal 1888 S'd 74 Elliot, T. M Griffin 1904 E 75 Ellis H. J Atlanta 1867 S'd 76 Elrod, R. F Danielsville 1908 E 77 Embry, H. L Woodbury 1883 E 78 Embry] J.' S Atlanta 1871 S'd 79 Emory, H. C Fairburn 1901 E 80 England, J. E Hampton 1874 E 81 England, R. B. O Monticello 1877 E 82 England, S. R Athens 1884 E 83 England, W. R Flowery Branch 1912 D 84 Ernest, Augustus Grays 1906 E 85 Erwin, J. P Washington 1894 E 86 Eubanks, E. P Rockmart 1912 E 87 Evans, O. L Cave Spring E 88 Farr, J. H Shady Dale 1900 E 89 Farris, W. A College Park 1868 S'd 90 Foote, W. R Dalton 1873 E 412 History of Enter- Pres- Xame Post Office ed Itin- ent Re- erancy lation 91 Fowler, J. M Thomson 1892 E 92 Fox, W. C Alpharetta 1888 E 93 Franklin, J. L Lincolnton 1912 D 94 Fraser, B. F Atlanta 1885 E 95 Gaines, W. S Buchanan 1897 E 96 Gaines, W. W Atlanta 1897 E 97 Gary, G. P Lexington 1896 E 98 Gibson, T. H Decatur 1870 S'd 99 Glenn, W. F Atlanta 1866 S'd 100 Gober, J. W Whiteplains 1894 E 101 Gray, E. A Nashville S'd 102 Greene, B. H Roswell 1888 E 103 Green, L. H Milner 1879 E 104 Gresham, J. B Marietta 1912 D 105 Griner, G. W Augusta 1886 E 106 Hale, E. D LaGrange 1903 E 107 Hall, J. L Eatonton 1904 E 108 Hamby, W. T Augusta 1881 P.E. 109 Hamilton, G. W Fairmount 1908 E 110 Hammond, J. D Augusta 1875 K 111 Harris, S. A LaGrange 1892 E 112 Harris, W. A Manchester 1893 E 113 Hawkins, J. M Decatur 1899 E 114 Hawkes, Z. V ....Duluth 1912 D 115 Henderson, Irby Carnesville 1908 E 116 Hendrix, W. R Atlanta E 117 Hind, A. T Waleska 1912 D 118 Holland, J. B Forsyth 1886 S'd 119 Hopkins, I. S Atlanta 1861 S'd 120 Huckaby, L. P Carrollton 1906 E 121 Hudson, F. S East Point 1882 E 122 Hughes, A. J Acworth 1873 S'd 123 Hughes, C. F Oxford 1905 E 124 Hughlett, A. M Atlanta 1905 E 125 Hunnicutt, W. T Cartersville 1890 E 126 Hutchinson, A. S Lafayette 1901 E 127 Irvine, W. T Cartersville 1885 P.E. 128 Ivey, C. T Barnesville 1907 E 129 Jamison, C. A Atlanta 1880 E 130 Jarrell, C. C Athens 1897 E 131 Jenkins, F. E Canton 1904 E 132 Jenkins, J. S Atlanta 1891 E 133 Johnson, D. P Chatsworth 1887 E 134 Johnson, L. G Gainesville 1908 D 135 Joiner, H. W Gainesville 1881 P.E. 136 Jones, C. O Atlanta 1871 E 137 Jones, E. W Jonesboro 1894 E 138 Jones, J. R Atlanta Heights 1892 E 139 Jordan, J. R Clarksville 1911 E 140 Kellett, P. A Washington 1900 E 141 Kelly, O. L Conyers 1894 E Georgia Methodism. 413 Enter- Pres- Name Post Office ed Itin- ent Re- erancy lation 142 Kendall, Paul Logansville E 143 Kendall, T. R., Sr Gainesville E 144 Kendall, T. R., Jr Hartwell 1890 E 145 Kendall, W. R Jenkinsburg 1890 E 146 King, G. L Woodstock 1907 E 147 King, J. R Griffin 1880 E 148 King, J. W Lavonia 1903 E 149 King, Olin Atlanta 1901 E 150 King, W. P Monroe 1897 E 151 Landrum, L. L Locust Grove 1901 E 152 Landford, V. E Norcross 1906 E 153 La Prade, W. H., Jr Sparta 1898 E 154 Leake, Sanford East Lake, Tenn 1859 S'd 155 Ledbetter, S. B Buford 1884 E 156 Lewis, J. R Sparta 1891 S'd 157 Lewis, Walker LaGrange 1874 E 158 Linn, L. B Mansfield 1912 D 159 Little, J. H Ringgold 1882 E 160 Logan, J. G Covington 1895 E 161 Lovejoy, W. P Atlanta 1871 P.E. 162 Lovern, I. J Belton 1912 163 Lowe, J. T Rome S'd 164 Mackay, E. G Calhoun 1908 E 165 Mackay, W. R Greensboro 1903 E 166 Magath, Julius Oxford 1883 E 167 Maness, Arthur Ellijay 1907 E 168 Marchman, C. P Atlanta 1884 E 169 Marks, E. C 1885 S'd 170 Martyn, R. P College Park 1871 S'd 171 Martin, C. S LaGrange 1909 D 172 Mashburn, F. J Grantville 1891 E 173 Mashburn, J. H Madison 1872 E 174 Mays, H. B Atlanta 1893 E 175 Maxwell, W. A Bowdon 1900 E 176 Maxwell, T. H Lincolnton 1908 E 177 McBrayer, N. E Winder 1877 S'd 178 McElrath, R. J Bishop E 179 McMullan, W. O Trion 1909 D 180 Melton, W. F Oxford E 181 Miller, I. H Atlanta 1888 E 182 Millican, Walter Moreland 1899 E 183 Milton, J. D Villa Rica 1886 E 184 Mize, J. J. M Stilesboro 1912 E 185 Mize, B. F Gracewood 1912 D 186 Morris, J. V. M Greensboro 1865 S'd 187 Norton, C. A Devereux E 188 Nunn, A. F Rome 1893 E 189 Pace, H. D Atlanta 1895 E 190 Patridge, J. A Tallapoosa 1912 D 191 Pattillo, C. L Decatur 1874 S'd 192 Pattillo, M. K Ball Ground 1904 E 414 History of Enter- Pres- Name Post Office ed Itin- ent Re- erancy lation 193 Pattillo, C. E West Point E 194 Pierce, A. M Cedartown 1895 E 195 Pierce, W. L LaGrange 1891 P.E. 196 Ponder, O. M Palmetto 1912 D. 197 Quillian, A. W Atlanta 1876 E 198 Quillian, Frank Commerce 1899 E 199 Quillian, H. M College Park 1877 E 200 Quillian, J. A Senoia 1894 E 201 Quillian, J. Wiley Oxford 1890 P.E. 202 Read, B. P Griffin 1904 E 203 Reynolds, J. A Conyers 1859 S'd 204 Richardson, J. T Atlanta 1871 S'y 205 Rivers, L. W Edgewood 1882 E 206 Robins, J. B Atlanta 1877 E 207 Robins, J. T Hogansville 1896 E 208 Robinson, W. S Toccoa 1898 E 209 Rogers, R. W Zebulon 1873 S'd 210 Rogers, Wallace Thomson 1895 E 211 Roper, Lucien Dallas 1912 D 212 Rorie, J. E Augusta 1873 E 213 Russell, J. E Dalton 1890 E 214 Rutland, T. L Powder Springs 1907 E 215 Sams, M. B Covington 1905 E 2 1 6 Sanders, A. B McDonough 1896 E 217 Sanders, Brittian Stone Mountain 1850 S'd 218 Sansburn, A. E Eatonton 1898 E 219 Sappington, J. S. L Summerville 1885 E 220 Scott, A. E Eatonton 1906 E 221 Seaborn, F. R Stockbridge 1893 E 222 Sears, A. J Winterville 1896 E 223 Sewell, J. A Newnan 1886 E 224 Sewell, J. M Rockmart 1885 S'd 225 Sharp, J. A Young Harris 1894 E 226 Siler, Frank Augusta 1888 E 227 Simmons, O. C East Point 1876 S'd 228 Simmons, W. A Royston 1892 E 229 Singleton, W. L Cumming 1887 S'd 230 Smith, A. M 1908 S'd 231 Smith, F. R Mountville 1885 E 232 Smith, G. G Macon 1857 S'd 233 Smith, H. S Maysville 1905 E 234 Smith, Rembert G Oxford 1902 E 235 Sorrells, G. T Rutledge 1910 E 236 Speck, J. R Atlanta 1884 S'd 237 Speer, J. R Maysfield 1901 E 238 Speer, W. H Austell 1873 E 239 Speer, Zedekiah Cumming 1897 E 240 Spence, C. C Demorest 1884 S'd 241 Sprayberry, A. M Flovilla S'y 242 Sprayberry, J. A Flovilla 1897 E 243 Stanton, E. M Ozona, Fla 1883 E Georgia Methodism. 415 Enter- Pres- Nime Post Office ed Itin- ent Re- erancy lation 244 Stipe, J. W College Park 1868 S'd 245 Stone, G. D Atlanta 1893 E 246 Strickland, J. S Atlanta 1909 D 247 Strozier, H. M Kingston 1886 E 248 Sullivan, A. A Athens 1897 E 249 Swift, C. A Dearing E 250 Swilling, Marvin Pendergrass 1908 E 251 Tarpley, W. E Atlanta 1868 S'd 252 Tatum, R. P Roopville 1912 D 253 Thomasson, E. G Bowman 1904 E 254 Thompson, Nath Tate 1896 E 255 Tilley, A. A Sparta 1890 E 256 Timmons, T. H Thomson 1869 S'd 257 Timmerman, J. A Douglasville . .' 1880 E 258 Tranime!l, B. H North Rome 1887 E 259 Tumlin, J. M Thomaston 1883 E 260 Tumlin, G. W Bethlehem 1905 E 261 Turner, J. D Hartwell 1892 E 262 Twiggs, L. M Harlem 1904 E 263 Underwood, M. L Atlanta 1872 E 264 Venable, G. F Augusta 1900 E 265 Verdel, C. M Augusta 1887 E 266 Walraven, M. M Forsyth 1893 E 267 Walton, Fletcher Griffin 1888 P.E. 268 Ware, E. A Union Point 1898 E 269 Ware, J. Lane LaGrange 1888 E 270 Wasson, S. E Barnesville E 271 Watkins, J. W. G College Park 1873 S'd 272 Weathers, C. V East Atlanta 1881 E 273 Wells, W. A Apalachee 1908 E 274 Whitaker, G. R Grovetown E 275 Whitaker, M. B Hoschton 1909 D 276 White, Neal A Culloden 1903 E 277 Wiggins, S. P Augusta 1897 E 278 Williams, A. W Tallapoosa 1866 S'd 279 Williams, Felton Greenville 1903 E 280 Williams, Marvin Lithonia 1909 D 281 Williams, M. S Jackson 1887 E 282 Winter, J. P Grantville 1877 S'd 283 Winn, W. M Senoia 1869 S'd 284 Wood, E. H College Park 1875 S'd 285 Woodruff, W. A Young Harris 1909 D 286 Yarbrough, G. W Jefferson 1857 S'd 287 Yarbrough, J. F Jefferson 1899 E 16 History of ON TRIAL-FIRST AND SECOND YEAR Ruggs, R. W Clayton First Year. Burgess, W. W Clayton First Year. Chambers, G. A Whites First Year. Culpepper, W. J Porterdale First Year Ellis, John E Cornelia First Year. Fraser, G. S Blue Ridge First Year. Gantt, W. T Monticello First Year. Green way, Wm Atlanta First Year. Hall, C. A Chickamauga First Year. Hinesley, Nelson Resaca First Year. Patterson, D. S Cleveland First Year. Purcell, W. E Dawsonville First Year. Reece, C. A First Year Roark, V. A Greensboro First Year. Thurman, T. E Thomaston First Year. Thompson, J. B Washington First Year. Wright, L. E Rome First Year. Hagan, S. L Homer Second Year. Hays, C. N Calhoun Second Year Hendrix, H. L Nashville, Tenn Second Year. Norton, W. S Devereaux Second Year Pettis, J. O Adairsville Second Year. Stephens, J. W Rabun Gap Second Year. Sullivan, T. M Comer Second Year. Turner, J. R Aragon Second Year. Watkins, W. W West Point Second Year. Bray, V. L Nashville, Tenn Pendley, J. T Cave Spring Sorrell, G. T Rutledge Swift, C. A Dearing Wailes, W. L. C Augusta LOCAL PREACHERS SERVING AS SUPPLIES Allday, C. A., Tunnell Hill. Adams, T. R., Elberton. Austin, J. M., Toccoa. Bird, H. L,., Toccoa. Cliett, R. A., LaFayette. Cooper, W. A., Avalon. Chandler, G. T., New Holland. Caldwell, E. A., Monroe. Cremean, S. D., Franklin. Conway, A. W., Cedartown. Cranshaw, J. W, Lindale. Carden, W. T., Rome. Cook, J. M., Waco. Dillard, J. L. Franklin, M. A., Athens. Greene, H. O., Eton. Hardy, J. H., Emerson. Hughes, J. W., Loudsville. Harrison, R. T., Blairsville. Henderson, C. K., Rome. Jackson, R. P., Dacula. Jay, N. H., Whitesburg. Johnson, R. J., Holly Spring. Ledford, A. C, Belton. Lemaster, Rufus, Douglasville. Knowles, Grover, Rome. Middlebrooks, C. R., Decatur. McDerment, O. P., Milledgeville. Owens, T. J., Draketown. Parsons, N. A., Lyerly. Quillian, A. W., Jr., Primrose. Roberson, J. C, Franklin. Ragsdale, F. A., Grayson. Spartlin, J. W., Roopville. Talkington, J. M., Messena. Thompson, Homer, Norcross. Turner, G. H., Eatonton. Winstead, H. A., Dalton. Georgia Methodism. 417 IN MEMORIAM Members of the North Georgia Conference Who Rest From Their Labors Name Place of Death 1 Lewis L. Ledbetter Washington 2 William G. Allen Forsyth 3 Jackson Rush Whitesville 4 T. J. Embry Troup Co. 5 John W. Glenn Floyd Co. 6 John C. Simmons Thomaston 7 Lemuel Q. Allen Dawson Co. 8 James Quillian White Co. 9 John R. Gaines Cherokee Co. 10 Wesley P. Arnold Clinton 11 William H. Evans Oxford 12 Edmund W. Reynolds . ...Fayette Co. 13 John W. Reynolds Culloden 14 Alfred G. Carpenter dimming 15 John W. Turner Senoia 16 William J. Parks Oxford 17 Joshua M. Parker Atlanta 18 Jesse W. Carroll Rockdale Co. 19 Benjamin J. Johnson Fulton Co. 20 Robert F. Jones Senoia 21 Gadwell F. Pearce Decatur 22 John H. Mashburn Gainesville 23 John H. Harris Atlanta 24 Francis A. Kimbell Atlanta 25 James M. Dickey Augusta 26 William H. Trammell Athens 27 William A. Florence Social Circle 28 Morgan Bellah Barnesville 29 John W. Yarbrough Oxford 30 Wesley P. Pledger Atlanta 31 Caleb W. Key Augusta 32 James B. Payne Thomaston 33 John P. Duncan Union Springs 34 John W. Knight Milledgeville 35 Josiah Lewis Sparta 36 Francis B. Davies Decatur 37 William H. Weaver Clayton 38 Thomas A. Gillespie Heard Co. 39 John B. Hollinshead Kirkwood 40 William R. Foote Decatur 41 Albert W. Roland Starrsville 42 Alexander Means Oxford 43 Daniel Kelsey Atlanta Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Entered Itinerancy 1857 1853 1852 1859 1835 1830 1852 1814 1861 1827 1841 1834 1856 1868 1855 1822 1871 1839 1857 1851 1838 1851 1851 1851 1850 1874 1844 1833 1834 1852 1833 1835 1836 1838 1866 1866 1866 1881 1880 1849 1853 1839 1844 Died 1867 1867 1867 1868 1868 1868 1868 1869 1869 1870 1870 1870 1870 1871 1871 1873 1875 1876 1876 1876 1876 1876 1876 1878 1878 1878 1879 1880 1880 1880 1881 1881 1881 1881 1881 1881 1881 1882 1881 1882 1882 1883 1884 A*e 43 49 45 74 63 43 75 38 56 70 34 44 74 75 42 46 63 73 46 49 53 27 72 81 67 46 75 81 72 83 73 46 40 29 28 63 53 82 69 418 History op Name Place of Death 44 Albert Gray Henry Co., Ga. 45 Alonzo Campbell Atlanta, Ga. 46 Josiah Lewis, Jr Sparta, Ga. 47 John W. Quillian Oxford, Ga. 48 John D. McFarland Walker Co., Ga. 49 Michael D. Turner Stone Mountain, Ga. 50 Isaac G. Parks Decatur, Ga. 51 James E. Evans Thomson, Ga. 52 Lewis J. Davies Gainesville, Ga. 53 William B. Arnold Spring Place, Ga. 54 James Jones Meriwether Co., Ga. 55 Henry Cranford Jackson Co., Ga. 56 William M. Crumley Atlanta, Ga. 57 James G. Worley Fairburn, Ga. 58 F. M. T. Brannan Fairburn, Ga. 59 John D. Gray Hawthorne, Ga. 60 Wilton P. Quillian Rutledge, Ga. 61 George H. Pattillo Clarksville, Ga. 62 Clairborne Trussell Villa Rica, Ga. 63 Daniel D. Cox Gainesville, Ga. 64 Alexander M. Thigpen Carrollton, Ga. 65 Alfred T. Mann Augusta, Ga. 66 Benjamin F. Farris Harlem, Ga. 67 George E. Gardner Cedartown, Ga. 68 George E. Bonner Atlanta, Ga. 69 Jesse Boring Dixie, Ga. 70 Samuel J. Bellah Cobb Co., Ga. 71 James L. Pierce Texarkana, Ga. 72 William J. Wardlaw Jasper Co., Ga. 73 George K. Quillian Lithonia, Ga. 74 Charles C. Fleming Morganton, Ga. 75 William A. Simmons Atlanta, Ga. 76 Andrew J. Deavours Franklin Co., Ga. 77 James L. Lupo Conyers, Ga. 78 W. W. Oslin Harlem, Ga. 79 James H. Baxter Decatur, Ga. 80 E. T. Hendrix Thomaston, Ga. 81 Miller H. White Grantville, Ga. 82 J. B. C. Quillian Douglasville, Ga. 83 Eli Smith Ringgold, Ga. 84 Weyman H. Potter Austell, Ga. 85 J. J. Singleton Rome, Ga. 86 B. F. Payne Marietta, Ga. 87 William P. Smith Atlanta, Ga. 88 John M. Bright Marshallville, Ga. 89 J. J. Morgan Guyton, Ga. 90 O. B. Quillian Washington, Ga. 91 J. R. Mayson Edgewood, Ga. 92 J. M. Owens Fulton Co., Ga. 93 H. S. Bradley Washington, Ga. Entered Itinerancy Died Age 1849 1884 58 1872 1885 43 1866 1885 44 1875 1885 31 1870 1885 40 1876 1885 28 1872 1885 45 1833 1886 76 1847 1886 64 1883 1886 26 1835 1887 79 1846 1887 85 1840 1887 71 1852 1887 65 1874 1887 60 1873 1887 35 1884 1887 25 1856 1888 51 1837 1889 89 1845 1889 70 1856 1889 57 1836 1889 73 1872 1889 56 1870 1889 42 1873 1889 43 1827 1890 83 1845 1890 65 1847 1890 65 1851 1890 72 1888 1890 45 1887 1890 25 1844 1890 67 1838 1891 77 1858 1891 70 1860 1891 60 1868 1891 43 1880 1891 34 1835 1891 78 1845 1891 67 1872 1891 43 1853 1891 63 1859 1891 64 1882 1891 45 1872 1892 48 1851 1882 — 1858 1892 60 1879 1893 35 1870 1893 66 1887 1893 40 1879 1893 54 Georgia Methodism. 419 Name Place of Deal 94 W. D. Anderson Marietta 95 J. H. Daniel Franklin 96 N. H. Palmer Dalton 97 J. R. Parker Greenville 98 W. R. Branham Oxford 99 M. W. Arnold Monroe 100 George T. King Jefferson 101 Richard J. Harwell Jonesboro 102 T. S. L. Harwell Jonesboro 103 Harwell H. Parks Edgewood 104 Wesley F. Smith Winterville 105 J. Rembert Smith Atlanta 106 W. A. C. Baker Heard Co. 107 W. C. Dunlap Covington 108 A. J. Jarrell Cartersville 109 R. A. Connor Lexington 110 Joseph Chambers Decatur 111 Joel T. Daves, Sr Atlanta 112 Leonard Rush Talbot Co. 113 Marshall F. Malsby Social Circle 114 Robert H. Jones Cartersville 115 Thomas J. Edwards Rockmart 116 Edward G. Dunagan Nicholson 117 John T. Norris Cartersville 118 Freeman F. Reynolds Battle Hill 119 Miles H. Dillard Athens 120 John M. Lowry Milledgeville 121 Lee M. Lyle Hampton 122 Habersham J. Adams St. Louis, 123 J. M. Armstrong Norwood 124 Morgan Callaway Oxford 125 William J. Scott Atlanta 126 Simon P. Richardson Macon 127 Goodman Hughes Dahlonega 128 Mark H. Edwards Fairburn 129 Clayton Quillian Atlanta 130 Levi P. Neese Fairburn 131 W. M. D. Bond College Park 132 William B. Stradley Atlanta 133 John P. Burgess Atlanta 134 Robert W. Bigham Demorest 135 Peter A. Heard College Park 136 Peter M. Ryburn Oxford 137 William F. Colley Summerville 138 John W. Baker Madison 139 Wiley T. Hamilton Atlanta 140 Wesley G. Hanson Tunnel Hill 141 Charles S. Owens Milledgeville 142 William Frank Cook Newnan 143 William A. Dodge East Point Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Mo. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Ga. Entered Itinerancy 1875 1878 1853 1860 1836 1852 1883 1850 1849 1850 1853 1845 1893 1862 1861 1847 1853 1857 1831 1853 1859 1873 1894 1857 1845 1875 1860 1877 1855 1854 1860 1854 1840 1856 1878 1891 1858 1852 1875 1890 1844 1865 1855 1877 1868 1865 1869 1877 1855 1862 Died 1894 1894 1894 1894 1894 1894 1894 1895 1895 1895 1895 1895 1895 1896 1896 1896 1897 1897 1897 1897 1897 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1899 1899 1899 1899 1899 1899 1899 1899 1900 1900 1900 1901 1901 1901 1902 1902 1902 1902 1902 1904 Age 55 41 77 56 81 65 48 71 71 70 80 59 29 57 56 71 79 64 86 74 69 65 32 62 84 47 55 55 65 68 73 81 88 51 41 61 76 47 34 77 74 71 42 76 64 64 70 59 420 History of 161 A. 162 F. Name ' Place of Death 144 Jameg L. Perryman Rockmart 145 James N. Myers Winston 146 William P. Rivers Cave Spring 147 Thomas F. Pierce Gainesville 148 Elbert W. Ballinger Milledgeville 140 F. P. Spencer Atlanta 150 John E. Rosser White Plains 151 William F. Quillian Cartersville 152 William F. Robinson Monroe 153 Henry R. Davies Turin 154 William T. Norman Elbert Co 155 David C. Brown .Atlanta 156 William D. Shea Atlanta 157 Henry M. Newton Atlanta 158 H. W. Morris Shady Dale 159 Gibson C. Andrews Lutherville 160 B. E. L. Timmons Atlanta G. Worley Grantville G. Hughes Newnan 163 R. R. Johnson Rockmart 164 J. S. Rawls Subligna 165 T. S. Edwards Milner 166 F. G. Golden Newnan 167 J. R. McCleskey Washington 168 D. J. Myrick College Park 169 J. W. Heidt Atlanta 170 J. S. Moore Oxford 171 E. P. Brown Sharon 172 J. F. Mixon Elberton 173 W. A. Parks Gainesville 174 Ford McRee Augusta 175 J. N. Snow Covington 176 J. A. Thurman Milledgeville 177 J. Q. Watts Atlanta 178 J. T. Curtis Gainesville 179 C. A. Evans Atlanta 180 M. G. Hamby Blairsville 181 F. P. Langford Cedartown 182 B. P. Searcy Milledgeville 183 J. M. White St. George 184 G. W. Farr Clayton A. Rosser Atlanta A. Seals Hawkinsville B. Bonnell Macon G. Murrah Macon L. Troutman Athens 185 J. 186 T. 187 W. 188 E. 189 M. 190 W. 191 M. 192 M. J. Cofer Atlanta 193 R. A. Seale Sarasota, Fla P. Turner Japan H. Eakes Madison Entered th Itinerancy Died Asre , Ga. 1875 1904 60 , Ga. 1868 1904 71 , Ga. 1865 1904 77 , Ga. 1847 1904 79 , Ga. 1884 1904 57 , Ga. 1886 1904 48 , Ga. 1886 1905 53 , Ga. 1867 1905 62 , Ga. 1866 1905 65 , Ga. 1852 1905 54 , Ga. 1850 1906 81 , Ga. 1884 1906 64 , Ga. 1850 1906 77 , Ga. 1878 1906 72 , Ga. 1886 1907 49 , Ga. 1859 1907 72 , Ga. 1866 1907 62 , Ga. 1848 1907 79 , Ga. 1865 1908 75 , Ga. 1866 1908 69 , Ga. 1905 1908 38 •, Ga. 1884 1908 55 , Ga. 1892 1908 44 , Ga. 1877 1908 63 , Ga. 1849 1909 83 ,, Ga. 1866 1909 68 , Ga. 1855 1909 80 , Ga. 1869 1909 77 , Ga. 1856 1910 82 S Ga. 1856 1910 76 , Ga. 1887 1910 50 , Ga. 1889 1910 45 , Ga. 1871 1910 60 l, Ga. 1898 1910 37 >, Ga. 1859 1911 78 , Ga. 1865 1911 78 , Ga. 1854 1911 78 , Ga. 1884 1911 59 , Ga. 1887 1911 46 >, Ga. 1881 1911 70 l, Ga. 1890 1912 54 i, Ga. 1870 1912 — , Ga. 1867 1912 — , Ga. 1882 1912 65 , Ga. 1859 1912 75 , Ga. 1894 1912 51 apan 1893 1912 48 i, Ga. 1868 1912 73 i, Ga. 1876 1912 74 Fla. 1859 1912 79 RUFUS W. SMITH, Pres. Lagrange Female College. Georgia Methodism. 423 OFFICIAL REGISTER AND DIRECTORY SOUTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE, 1912—1913 (E., Elder. D., Deacon S'y., Supernumerary. S'd., Superannuated.) Name Post Office Date ent Re- Entered lation E 1 C. D. Adams Thunderbolt 1874 2 W.^G. Allaben Helena 1903 E E E E E E 3 J. H. Allen Richland 1904 4 W. N. Ainsworth Macon 1891 5 R. M. Allison Reidsville 1890 6 Bascom Anthony Wrightsville 1881 7 J. J. Ansley Marshallville 1878 8 Walter Anthony Bainbridge 1904 E 9 E. W. Anderson Whigham 1908 E 10 J. W. Arnold Talbotton 1884 E 11 W. E. Arnold Eastman 1893 E 12 G. P. Austin Hazlehurst 1902 E 13 R. E. Bailey Shellman 1894 E 14 L. J. Ballard Albany 1894 e 15 H. B. Bardwell Havana, Cuba 1899 E 16 L. L. Barr Scott 1908 E 17 J. M. Bass Macon 1894 e 18 A. H. Bazemore Norwich 1869 S'd 19 M. F. Beals Broxton .'l890 E 20 W. T. Belvin Waycross 1908 E 21 W. P. Blevin Ft. Gaines 1893 E 55y-^- D B ! itch Savannah 1892 E t* C. E. Boland Bingen 1873 S'd 24 R. M. Booth Ludowici 1874 E 11 5 n 5 0Un ? Dixie !907 E 26 H. C. Brewton Adrian 1881 E 27 A. G. Brewton Buena Vista 1901 E %l i W ; Bridges Wrightsville 1902 S'd 29 S. W. Brown Boston 1885 e 30 Leroy A. Brown Guyton ... 1904 e oi ir C ; G> Brooks Wrightsville '.'. 1904 E 32 W. A. Brooks Blackshear 1906 E 33 W. H. Budd Valdosta 1894 e 34 W. J. Callahan Oita, Japan 1894 E 11 JV W ; Cannon Sycamore 1907 E 36 M. W. Carmichael Byron 1901 e 37 Ira K. Chambers Colquitt ..' '1902 E 38 J. P. Chatfield Camilla 1904 E a* J ri 5 ^ anne11 Coolidge 1908 E 1? n & S? GS , ter Columbus 1887 E il £' £ n,^ Hagan i^ E !, S' E - Cleme nts Havana, Cuba 1897 E « T. M. Christian Columbus 1884 E 424 History of Pres- Name Post Office Date ent Re- Entered lation 44 J. G. Christian Macon 1897 E 45 P. H. Crumper St. George 1873 S'd 46 L. W. Colson Quitman 1896 E 47 J. O. A. Cook Lumpkin 1863 E 48 Ed F. Cook Nashville, Tenn 1887 E 49 Osgood F. Cook Waycross 1892 E 50 J. W. Conners Sale City 1887 E 51 Chas. E. Cook Lyons 1903 E 52 Chas. W. Curry Adel 1901 E 53 E. R. Cowart Garfield 1907 E 54 W. C. Culpepper Statenville 1910 D 55 T. W. Darley Sandersville 1886 E 56 T. E. Davenport Cuthbert 1888 E 57 Julian P. Dell Sparks 1904 E 58 C. E. Dell Ochlochnee 1907 E 59 Wm. K. Dennis Statesboro 1889 E 60 R. F. Dennis Poulan 1908 D 61 J. P. Dickenson Parrott 1888 E 62 J. W. Domingos Ocilla 1871 E 63 T. F. Drake Graymont 1900 E 64 Chas. G. Earnest Arlington 1900 E 65 T. W. Ellis Clinton 1886 S'd 66 T. D. Ellis Savannah 1893 E 67 Paul W. Ellis Waycross 1902 E 68 H. C. Ewing Columbus 1906 E 69 R. P. Fain Smithville 1897 E 70 H. C. Fentress Springvale 1868 E 71 M. B. Ferrell Roberta 1883 E 72 Guyton Fisher Macon 1894 E 73 J. C. Flanders Blakely 1887 E 74 P. Flanders Wrightsville 1907 S'd 75 J. M. Foster Vienna 1884 E 76 Jesse F. Ford Mauk 1907 E 77 H. T. Freeman Savannah 1909 D 78 W. C. Francis Darien 1910 D 79 T. C. Gardner Elko 1899 E 80 E. E. Gardner Perry 1899 E 81 J. L. Gerdine Korea, Asia 1900 E 82 W. C. Glenn Plains 1888 E 83 J. M. Glenn Savannah 1891 E 84 H. J. Graves Swainsboro 1904 E 85 E. W. Gray Cusseta 1907 E 86 Reese Griffin Nashville 1906 E 87 J. B. Griner Wrightsville 1881 E 88 J. C. Griner Hinesville 1888 E 89 J. A. Harmon Waynesboro 1890 E 90 J. C. Harrison Pinehurst 1880 E 91 S. A. Hearn Macon 1898 E 92 W. S. Heath Oliver 1901 E 93 L. A. Hill McRae 1897 E 94 C. C. Hines Helena 1868 S'd Georgia Methodism. 425 Pres- Name Post Office Date ent Re- Entered lation 95 W. F. Hixon Rochelle 1884 E 96 P. T. Holloway Hamilton 1907 E 97 O. K. Hopkins Havana, Cuba 1902 E 98 J. H. House Pavo 1898 E 99 W. A. Huckabee Blacksbear 1884 E 100 John N. Hudson Bronwood 1900 E 101 G. W. Hutchinson Norman Park 1909 D 102 Geo. C. Ingram Talbotton 1903 E 103 C. M. Inflnger Milltown 1909 D 104 C. A. Jackson Dawson 1892 E 105 C. R. Jenkins Macon 1900 E 106 J. B. Johnstone Thomasville 1874 E 107 Wm. S. Johnson Sasser 1903 E 108 W. C. Jones Cairo 1887 E 109 H. C. Jones Macon 1891 E 110 J. N. Jones Tennille 1891 E 111 J. S. Jordan Alapaha 1869 E 112 Chas. W. Jordan Gordon 1904 E 113 Silas Johnson McRae 1910 D 114 S. E. Jenkins Baxley 1910 E 115 Aaron Kelley Mystic 1891 E 116 Isaac R. Kelly Baxley 1900 E 117 T. B. Kemp St. Mary's 1887 E 118 S. S. Kemp Byromville 1899 E 119 Robert Kerr Moultrie 1894 E 120 W. H. Ketchum Midland 1906 E 121 Wesley Lane Macon 1860 S*d 122 T. G. Lang Montezuma 1889 E 123 Whitley Langston Dublin 1893 E 124 B. F. Lawhern Sylvania 1900 E 125 C. M. Ledbetter Mt. Vernon 1884 E 126 M. M. Leggett Jakin 1908 E 127 Artemas Lester Cochran 1884 E 128 J. S. Lewis Flovilla 1884 S'd 129 James W. Lilley Brinson 1900 E 130 C. W. Littlejohn Savannah 1892 E 131 J. M. Lovett Louisville 1881 E 132 O. W. Little Ashburn 1910 D 133 W. C. Lovett Atlanta 1874 E 134 J. T. Lowe Surrency 1879 E 135 Francis McCullough Unadilla 1894 E 136 J. P. McFerrin Macon 1865 E 137 J. B. McGehee Oglethorpe 1852 E 138 E. H. McGehee Columbus 1858 E 139 W. D. McGregor McRae 1879 E 140 Idus E. McKellar Oxford 1906 E 141 T. R. McMichael Tennille 1887 E 142 L. B. McMichael Knoxville 1906 E 143 D. R. McWilliams Savannah 1857 S'd 144 J. D. McCord Morven 1909 D 145 J. W. Malone Cuthbert 1885 E 426 History of Pres- Name Post Office Date ent Re- Entered lation 146 C. J. Mallette Irwinton 1906 E 147 W. A. Mallory Reidsville 1893 E 148 G. H. Martin Fitzgerald 1895 S'd 149 Geo. W. Mathews Fitzgerald 1878 E 150 J. H. Mather Atlanta 1889 E 151 B. C. Matteson Dudley 1908 E 152 Chas. M. Meeks Pelham 1903 E 153 D. B. Merritt Folkston 1902 E 154 D. F. Miles Baxley 1886 S'd 155 M. A. Morgan Douglas 1888 E 156 E. F. Morgan Dawson 1889 E 157 C. A. Moore Wrightsville 1858 E 158 H. M. Morrison Hawkinsville 1884 E 159 H. P. Myers Waycross 1868 S'd 160 Paul Muse Waverly Hall 1909 D 161 T. A. Mosely Pearson 1910 D 162 A. J. Moore Blackshear 1910 D 163 T. I. Nease Brooklet 1874 E 164 C. L. Nease Hahira 1908 E 165 R. R. Norman Rocky Ford 1893 E 166 N. H. Olmstead Willacoochee 1885 E 167 J. M. Outler Thomasville 1891 E 168 E. M. Overby Sylvester 1898 E 169 S. C. Olliff Baconton 1909 D 170 R. F. Owen Attapulgus 1907 E 171 E. L. Padrick Lake Park 1883 E 172 N. T. Pafford Jesup 1895 E 173 Geo. R. Partin Stillmore 1907 E 174 J. N. Peacock Swainsboro 1892 E 175 H. L. Pearson Donaldsonville 1894 E 176 Theo E. Pharr Cataula 1904 E 178 B. C. Prickett Pineview 1896 E 179 W. G. Pilcher Shellman 1910 D 180 Wm. F. Quillian Nashville, Tenn 1903 E 181 R. J. Pollard Spread 1890 E 182 F. A. Ratcliffe St. George 1893 E 183 K. Reid McRae 1878 E 184 A. W. Rees Sparks 1906 E 185 G. P. Reviere Bartow 1890 E 186 E. E. Rose Millen 1895 E 187 J. A. Rountree Davisboro 1908 E 188 J. M. Rustin Ellaville 1895 E 189 J. T. Ryder Macon 1886 E 190 Moses Register Green's Cut 1910 D 191 A. H. Robinson Waycross 1907 E 192 E. A. Sanders Leslie 1882 E 193 J. J. Sanders Rebecca 1908 E 194 V. P. Scoville Reynolds 1899 E 195 J. H. Scruggs Valdosta 1871 E 196 J. E. Seals Fort Valley 1900 E 197 B. S. Sentell Columbus 1881 E Georgia Methodism. 427 Pres- Name Post Office Date ent Re- Entered lation 198 A. P. Segars Wadley 1904 E 199 M. A. Shaw Springfield 1908 E 200 Jason Shiran Edison 1888 E 201 W. F. Smith Guyton 1884 E 202 J. A. Smith Macon 1893 E 203 O. S. Smith Pembroke 1906 E 204 R. A. Sowell Doerun 1902 E 205 T. B. Stanford Savannah 1897 E 206 Hamp Stevens Columbus 1899 E 207 W. W. Stewart Quitman 1860 S'd 208 F. L. Stokes Girard 1887 E 209 T. D. Strong Thunderbolt 1882 S'd 210 John E. Summer Towns 1906 E 211 E. B. Sutton Brewton 1906 E 212 J. A. Sconyers Hagan 1909 D 213 J. D. Snyder Americus 1891 E 214 G. W. Thomas vVaresboro 1873 E 215 J. A. Thomas Americus 1893 E 216 G. C. Thompson Atlanta 1871 S'y 217 T. H. Thompson Tifton 1895 E 218 J. B. Thrasher Waycross 1898 E 219 J. W. Tinley Macon 1889 E 220 W. E. Towson Ashburn 1886 E 221 I. P. Tyson Cordele 1894 E 222 W. C. Wade Macon 1884 S'd 223 Allen B. Wall Abbeville 1904 E 224 Lester W. Walker Kesler 1901 E 225 J. P. Wardlaw Cordele 1870 E 226 Loy Warwick Brunswick 1892 E 227 R. M. Wesley Lumber City 1891 E 228 B. F. West Uvalda 1906 E 229 J. W. Weston Buena Vista 1873 E 230 B. E. Withington Macon 1893 E 231 R. L. Whitehead Wrens 1908 E 232 R. L. Wiggins Augusta 1858 S'd 233 A. M. Williams Columbus 1872 E 234 Walter Williams Leary Ga 1908 E 235 R. F. Williamson Ellaville 1859 S'd 236 W. L. Wooten Manchester 1878 S'y 237 W. L. Wright Cairo 1899 E 238 A. F. Ward Meigs 1904 E 239 Geo. H. Walker Homerville 1909 E 240 N. H. Williams Vidalia 1898 E 428 History of LIST OF THE DEAD Off the South Georgia Conference NAME >> V •o s it it 3.2 u b( ■^M s o PLACE OF BURIAL 1 Charles L. Hayes |1835 1870 2 James M. N. Lowe J1845 1870 3 John M. Bonnell |1845 1871 4 John S. Ford |1809 1871 5 Churchwell A. Crowell. . .[1829 1872 6 Charles R. Jewett J1844 1872 7 J. Blakely Smith J1847 1872 8 John H. Robinson |1821 1872 9 William M. Kennedy 11848 1873 10 William W. Griffin J1839 1874 11 William B. McHan J1849J1874 12 Reuben H. Lucky |1842|1875 13 Thomas C. Coleman |1838|1875 14 James Spence J1870J1875 15 Edward H. Myers I1841J1876 16 Alvin J. Deen |1854|1877 17 Osborn L Smith |1845|1878 18 Wyatt Brooks |1846|187S 19 Robert W. Dixon [1856J1879 20 Arminius Wright |1846|1879 Russell County, Ala Clay County, Ga. Macon, Ga. Macon. Ga. Marshallville, Ga. Bibb County, Ga. Mftcon, Ga. Oglethorpe, Ga. Mt. Moriah Camp Ground. Stone Mountain, Ga. Cuthbert, Ga. Thomas County, Ga. Houston County, Ga. Pulaski County, Ga. Savannah, Ga. Perry, Ga. Oxford, Ga. Butler, Ga. Americus, Ga. Columbus, Ga. 21 Lovick Pierce |1805|1879|94Columbus, Ga. 22 Samuel Anthony |1832 23 David Crenshaw |1868 24 Robert J. Corley |1865 25 Walter Knox [1841 26 William Tigner J1877 27 Leonard C. Peek |1869 28 Kenneth H. McLain |1880 29 Young F. Tigner [1841 30 Henry H. Pitchford |1835 31 David Blalock J1844 32 James Harris (1842 33 Dennis O'Driscoll |1851 34 Alexander P. Wright |1868 35 Benjamin W. Key J1873 36 James Dunwoody [1818 37 John M. Potter J1864 38 Edward J. Rentz |1859 39 Jesse R. Littlejohn 1850 1880 1881 1881 1881 1881 1881 1882 1882 1882 1882 1882 1883 1883 1883 1884 1884 1884 1885 Americus, Ga. Newton County, Ga. Marianna, Fla. Darien, Ga. Talbot County, Ga. Thomas County, Ga. Dalton, Ga. Columbus, Ga. Muscogee County, Ga. Ft. Valley, Ga. Orange County, Fla. Smithville, Ga. Savannah, Ga. Macon, Ga. Houston County, Ga. Springvale, Ga. Bartow, Ga. Americus, Ga. Georgia Methodism. 429 NAME >> u •a a 0.5 13 V MS Q < PLACE OF BURIAL 40 Chapel Raiford |1831 41 Burrel S. Key [1871 42 Joseph J. Magath J1883 43 John W. Talley J1828 44 Robert M. Lockwood |1871 45 William F. Conley |1851 46 John E. Sentell |1850 47 L. G. R. Wiggins |1840 48 John L. Williams |1855 49 Shelton R, Weaver |1867 50 Crosby W. Smith |1873 51 Robert B. Bryan [1874 52 J. E. Sheppard 11884 1885 1885 1885 1886 1886 1886 1886 1888 1.SSS5G INNS 1890 1890 Boston, Ga. Waresboro, Ga. Augusta, Ga. Corsicana, Texas. Baltimore, Md. Brewton Church, Ga. McRae, Ga. Cataula, Ga. Hazelhurst, Ga. New Hope, Clay Co., Ga. Macon, Ga. Wrightville, Ga. Taylor's Creek, Ga. 53 N. D. Morehouse |1860|1892|53Thomasville, Ga 54 W. M. Watts |1851 55 J. D. Maulden |1859 56 John M. Marshall |1845 57 R. B. Lester |1852 58 J. O. Langston |1879 59 B. F. Breedlove [1855 60 J. O. A. Clark |1854 61 William C. Bass |1867 62 W. P. Harrison |1850 63 S. W. Stubbs |1875 64 S. S. Sweet |1859 65 H. T. Etheridge |1881 66 J. B. Wardlaw |1842 67 F. R. C. Ellis |1852 68 George C. Clark |1844 69 John W. Burke [1854 1892 1892 1893 1893 1894 1894 1894 1894 1895 1895 1895 1S96 1896 1896 1896 1897 Boston, Ga. Tennille, Ga. Waycross, Ga. Americus, Ga. Fort Gaines, Ga. Ft. Valley, Ga. Macon, Ga. Macon, Ga. Columbus, Ga. Bethpage, Thomas Co., Ga. Macon, Ga. Cordele, Ga. Christiansburg, Va. Valdosta, Ga. Ft. Valley, Ga. Macon, Ga. 70 Jesse J. Giles |1856|1897|70Mt. Moriah, Tattnall Co., Ga. 71 Thomas K. Leonard |1867 72 W. W. Tidwell [1854 73 H. R. Felder |1875 74 Wm. J. Robertson |1880 75 Benj. F. Bales (1888 76 J. L. Rast |1887 77 George P. Pournelle |1890 78 J. D. Anthony |1847 79 T. T. Christian 1854 80 F. W. Flanders |1870 81 H. Stubbs [1887 82 E. M. Wright |1887 83 G. S. Johnston |1861 84 W. J. Stallings |1876 85 Joel Cowart 11892 1897 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1898 1899 1899 1899 1899 1900 1900 1900 1900 77 Arlington, Ga. 80Ellaville, Ga. 63 Perry, Ga. 46 Macon, Ga. 34|jacksonville, Ga. 31 53 74 68 74 51 43 CI 49 33 Milledgeville, Ga. Dawson, Ga. Sandersville, Ga. College Park, Ga. Wrightsville, Ga. Ochlochnee, Ga. Oxford, Ga. Sandersville, Ga. Bainbridge, Ga. Whigham, Ga. 430 History of NAME >, o ■o U K u u U V u \ MS C < PLACE OF BURIAL 86 W. F. Bearden 87 P. S. Twitty 88 W. H. Thomas 89 J. Carr 90 W. J. Flanders 91 F. A. Branch 92 L. B. Payne 93 T. B. Lanier 94 W. T. McMichael . . . 95 J. W. Hinton 96 J. O. Branch 97 J. R. Owen 98 J. M. Austin 99 J. M. Boland 100 W. C. Brewton 101 S. G. Childs 102 S. F. Turner 103 J. T. Ainsworth 104 J. W. Lowrance 105 A. M. Wynn 106 W. S. Baker 107 J. C. Parker 108 J. T. Mims 109 David F. Riley 110 Wm. F. Roberts 111 J. U. Tippins 112 Logan U. Peeples 113 P. C. Harris 114 I. F. Griffith 115 G. T. Roberts 116 S. J. Davis 117 J. W. Simmons 118 Chas. C. Elliott 119 Geo. G. N. MacDonell 120 H. D. Lee 121 E. M. Whiting 122 W. M. C. Conley . . . 123 W. T. Clark 124 C. W. Snow 125 G. W. Childress 1872|1900 1872|1901 1849|1901 1860(1901 187311902 1854 1850 1858 1856 1847 1854 1853 1849 1886 1890 1841 1904 1854 1871 1849 1854 1888 1886 1881 1859 1902 189111907 1851 1886 1887 1900 1858 1906 1854 1908 1876 1886 1883 1882 1891 1902 1902 1902 1902 1903 1904 1904 1904 1905 1905 1905 1905 1905 1906 1906 1906 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 49|Evergreen, Ga 59 Dublin, Ga. 91|Waycross, Ga. 68 Macon, Ga. 50|Cochran, Ga. 69 Marshallville 77 71 64 77 66 76 78 4S 41 1908 1908 1908 1909 1909 1910 1910 1910 1911 1911 1912 1912 1912 50 Ga. Macon, Ga. Bush Creek, Burke Co., Ga. Screven, Ga. Macon, Ga. Dixie, Ga. Cuthbert, Ga. Marshallville, Ga. Butler, Ga. McRae, Ga. McRae, Ga. Shellman, Ga. Macon, Ga. Martin, Tenn. Columbus, Ga. Irwinton, Ga. Sandersville, Ga. Spread, Ga. Perry, Ga. Sycamore, Ga. Bethel Church, Appling Co. Nashville, Ga. Smithville, Ga. Mancos, Colo. Walden, Ga. Brewton, Ga. Brunswick, Ga. Atlanta, Ga. Savannah, Ga. Screven County, Ga. Pierce Chapel, Harris Co. Brewton's, Tattnall Co. Folkston, Ga. Fort Valley, Ga. Americus, Ga. 430 History of >> o 73 D id i- ■-