Wm. M. Lee, Editor.
VOL. 3 NO. 35
BllJE_EIDGE BAPTIST.
DEVOTED TO EELIGION, EDUCATION AND TEJIPEKANCE.
NORTH WILKESBOEO, N. C.. JUNE 11, 1903.
D, W. Lee, Associate Editor ond Monog'er.
WEEKLY, 50c. A YEAR.
HIHBEfoiTfniraW (nHE ®
BAPTIST CHURCH;
Preaching every second and fourths
Sunday, morning and evening.
Sunday School 10 A. M.
Prayer meeting every Thursday eve.
Rev. W. R. Bradshaw, Pastor.
METHODIST CHURCH:
Preaching every first and tliird Sun
day morning and evening
Sunday School 9:30 A. M.
Prayer meeting every Tuesday evening. V
Rev. J. B. Tabor, Pastor.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH:
Preaching every third and fourth Sun
day, morning and evening.
Sunday School 9:30 A. M.
Prayer meeting every Wednesday eve."
Rev. C. W. Robinson, Pastor.
All are cordially invited to attend^
^^these services.
PKBMIUMS fOR-^
—BAPTIST WORKERS.
Doubtlass no other Religious paper in
Western Carolina, has grown so rapidly as
the Blue Ridge Baptist. Everyljody who
sees and reads its contents has a good word
to say about it. An easy matter to secure
subseribers. Any body can easily obtain a
valuable present.
We make the following offers:
For Two Subscribers^
We will mail you, postage paid,-
Goiiig iu College,-ftio.vs w'itu the en
thusiasm of a high ideal. We wish it could
be ill the Library of every High school,
Seminary and Academy in the land. Price
60c. Or Likes and Opposites,- a han
dy book for the speaker and w'riter Price
50c. Both of the above named books for
only 3 subscribers.
For Three Subscribers-*-
We will mail jmu, postage paid,- lOOO
Mytholog. Characters Briefly Des
cribed, or lOOO Classical Charact
ers Briefly Described, price of each
75c., or How to Study Literature.
(Special for Literary Societies.) Price 75c.
All three of the above named books for only
5 subscribers.
For Four Subscribers-^
We will mail you, postage paid, a copy
of,How to Attract and Hold an Au
dience.- Every man who speaks in public
should have one, especially Clergymen,
Well bound in cloth and retails for $1.00, or
we will mail you either of the following if
preferred at the same rate. Character
Building,- inspiring suggestions. Price
i^l.OO. What Shall I Do? 50 profi
table occupations. Price $1.00. The Vir-
Dies and Their Reasons. Eveiy day
t=fhicg for school and home Price $1
All four of the above named books sent
free for only 10’subscribers.
For Ten Subscribers-*-
We will mail you free,- Interlinear
New Testament (cloth)Price $4.00 or
old Testament if preferred, price the same
as New. Both the above Te,stamentsfoi only
15 subscribers. Every pastor should owii
these Testaments and your churches will
gladly help you get them if you ask it.
If you want all the above pained books,
send us only 30 subscribers.
Now is your chance to get you a nice, val
uable book or even a Library with very little
effort on your part and at the same time be
helping a good cause. Old subscribers taken
the same as new provided all arrears are
settled. All subscribers thu taken must be
for one year at 50c, paid in advance.
Every body’s shoulder to the wheel while
this ofler holds good. Address:
BLUE RIDGE BAPTIST, No. Wilkesboco-
THE LEWIS’ FORK BAPTIST
ASSOCIATION. ART. NO. 4.
Questions and Answers.
1st. Do we understand you to say that
these Mountain Baptists or any considerable
number of them were driven from the lower
counties of the colony prior to the Revolution
because of their views on the subject of reli
gion?
2nd. Do you plainly declare that the
Episcopal Establishment had taken steps k-
compel the Colonists of North Carolina to
support its establishment here by taxation?
3rd. Do we understand you that the
Baptists did not ask fo’- recognition and sup
port by taxation and that on this question
they stood alone?
4th. What further proofs do you offer to
sustain what you have said regai-ding the
persecution of the down country Baptists by
the British Governor Tryon and his govern
ment?
To question one, two and three I answer
yes—this embodies in brief just what I want
you to understand. Do not think that I mean
less than your questions imply.
To the fourth question I must answer at
greater length and must depend upon the
readers to consult the public records of
North Ca-'olina found in the custody of ev
ery clerk of the superior court at the court
house and accessible to all. The history writ
ten about 50 years ago by J. H. Wheeler is
also good authority. Wheeler, however, was
not familiar with Baptists.
The assembly of 1764 was emboldened by
its majority of cfiurciinieii to pass Governor
Tryon’s Vestry Act and other oppressive
measures. The resistance of the settlers
against unjust taxation during many years
passed had not matured the wisdom of our
Provincial Governors and now the Vestry
Act increased the rage of our yeomanry to
organized effort at self protection. This or
ganization became known as Regulators. Its
object was self government, religious liberty
and home rule. Winsor in his book entitled
The Western Movement defines this “a body
of associates against horse thieves and tax
gatherers.” It was a body of farmers whose
homes were in every county of the Province.
The collectors of public monies were then in
arrears as much as $70,000.00. The courts
were corrupted. The established church al
lied itself vvith the royal party. Governor
Dobbs had died March 28, 1765. His suc
cessor was well calculated by his bigotry and
zeal to attempt an enforcement of the Vester
Act, This fie tried without offering any re
dress to the oppressed taxpayers. The publi
cation of the Stamp Act that year added by
its weight other and threatened indignities
from the crown.
The regulation began by the issuance of
citizens proclimatious, some ten in number,
the first of which was issued June 5, 1765.
It proceeded from Nutbush in Granville
county and sngests the observation that Nut-
bush was the home of Herman Husbands the
patriot and agitator, and, infact, the central
figure in the regulation. He was the friend
of the Baptist preachers Shiibiil Stearns and
Daniel Marshall. Here near Nutbush had
been organized the Grassy Oieek Baptist
church prior no doubt to the organization
made in November, 1755 at Sandy Creek in
Guilford (now Randolph) county. For ten
years prior to this first “serious address”
Stearns, Marshall, Col. Harris, Jeremiah
W^alker and Others had preached a pure gos
pel to an oppressed people, and this first pro-
te.st had their approval. It is as pure as the
driven snow in its terms but was grievous to
the oppressors at whesegreed it was aimed.
These proclamations were each of them issu
ed from the immediate vicinity of some
Baptist local organization or arm. In fact,
Husband entered large tracts of land on
Sandy creek in November 1755, the same
month in which the Sandy Creek Baptist
church was organized, and continued to enter-
lauds for some time afterward in Randolph
county. Husbands and Stearns stood side by
side until the regulators defeat stilled their
hopes and Elder Stearns went to his reward.
The effort of Governor Tryon was made
with the purpose of effecting the organization
of a Vestry in every comity in the Province.
Tills was contested by the liberty loving
Baptists and their Patriotic friends. Tryon
himself understood this joint effort of Bap
tists and regulators. He said it was aimed at
overturning the church of England.
Woodmason’s account was written in 1765
and we will quote from it the following
passages:—“The Anabaptists of Pennsylvania
resolving themselves into a body and deter
mined to settle their principles in every va
cant quarter began to establish meeting
houses also on the holders and by their ad
dress and assiduity warmed the Presbyteri
ans out of all these strong-holds and drove
them away so that the Baptists are low the
most numerous and formidable body which
the church has to encounter with in the in
terior and back parts of the province.” A-
gain he says, the Baptists have great preva
lence and footing in North Carolina and
have taken such deep root there that it will
require long time and pains to grub up their
layers.
This is the situation to which Governer
Tryon as a churchman addressed himself
from the 28, day of March 1765 to the 30,
of June 1771 when he took shipping to New
Vork. His acts were never disavowed by
King George. He was simply made the sub
ject of a poor Jest.
The trial at arms between Governor Tryon
and the regulators occuired on the 16, of
May 1771 in the highway on the south side
of the Alamance river in Alamance county,
then Orange. The Governor’s loss after two
hours engagement was 71; the regulators
lost about 30, killed and wounded. It was
the first blood in America that was let in op
position to our freedom, It was not accident
al, but was premeditated on the part of the
royal forces who Were ready for conflict and
came near losing it. Here they camped. Some
of them dipped their fingers in the blood of
the wounded regulators and marked the walls
of the hut in which they were placed as kings
prisoners. The old logs stood within memo
ry of the present generation to show this
barbarity. On the 21, of May Tryon moved
to the farm of Herman Husbands within two
miles of Sandy Creek Baptist church and
pastured down the standing grain, collected
taxes, intimidated women, administered
oaths, levied cattle and drove consternation
in the inhabitants to Wednesday the 29, when
they moved to Deep river about 12 miles a-
way. Here had also been a Baptist congrega
tion. An advance force had gone ahead to de-^
stroy and intimidate. On the 30, they en
camped on the Uwharrie, another Baptist
community, but here also the orders of the
Governor had been obeyed in adJance by his
advancing forces. On the 30, they came to
the Platt swamp and Vannoy fish dams
where more Baptists resided where the an
cestors of more than one of the delegates and
pieachers of the Lewis Fork Association ac
cording to her records, then lived. On June
1, he encamps in the Jersey settlement and
here his conquests ended and his triumphs
began. This was the Baptist strong hold of
the Yadkin country, captains' Merrill and
Wessen whom Tryon hanged lived near.
June 1, fell upon Saturday and this warm
supporter of Episcopacy issued part of his
orders for the day following as follows:
“Divine Service to be. performed to-morrow
merning at nine o’clock. The horses, bridles
and saddles that were taken in battle and
now in camp to be brought to the head of
artillery at 12 o’c’oek to-morrow. The horses
to be branded with a Brand T. The commis
sary to brand all the cattle brought in from
the settlements according to requisitions
made on them. When Sunday came the wor
shipful Governor issued an -tdditional fora
“court martial to be held at 5 o’clock for the
tryal of the prisoners of the army.” I hope
the type will show the intelligent spelling of
the Governor as it might otherwise be deem
ed the “iiitcdligent” spelling of his ignorant
copyist, h rom the 3, of June began his march
of triumph by Moravian town to Hillsboro.
On the morning of the battle this worthy
propagator of the Thirty nine Articles with
his own hand in a moment of rage and prior
to hostilities shot and killed Robert Thomp
son the bearer of a peaceful message from the
the Baptists and regulators. On the 17, he
hung the poor moinmiainac James F'ew a
nejjhevv of Husbands v hose mind had lost its
balance by reason of the seduction of his in
tended bride by Fanning one of Tryon’s offi
cers.
Now, my brother, all this had been done
in the name of the Episcopal church of
which the king was the avowed head in
North Carolina; and the above are a few of
the many facts that answer question four.
Morgan Edwards was a Baptist minister
who lived in New England. He came to the
Sandy creek field in 1771 and turned apolo
gist for the Baptists. He declared that he
could learn of but seven of their number a-
mong the regulators, but his statement re
garding the number of 1500 families beyond
the mountains sufficiently refutes his asser
tion. It is said that Edwards was the only
tory certainly known in the Bapti.st ministry
during the Revolutionary wiir. The others
were all patriots.
W.H.E.
Greensboro, N. C.
ADVICE TO NEWLY MARRIED
FOLKS.
I don’t know how many of the newly mar
ried folks read the Bine Ridge Bajitis',, but
among so many who have recently married
there must be some that do, and I thought
it would be a good idea for some one to
drop an article in this little paper for the
newly married people to contemplate upon;
and, perhaps, it would not do those who
have been married for years any harm to
read it. There may be many causes for which'
people mai-ry. Some may marry to get to be
at a, wedding, others because some body else
has married, not regarding the solemn oath
by which they are joined together, while
some marry through pure motives and con
jugal affections, and this should be the onlv
cause for which any person should unite in
wedlock. If this was always the case I think
there would be more peace and harmony rea
lized in many families than doubtless there is.
I just want to drop a word of advice and en
couragement to the newly married husbands
and wives. Be kind to each other, always try
to speak kindly and gently to each other,
for “a soft answer turneth away wrath.”
Be congenial to each other, prefering onean-
other in love. Let your conversation be of a
Godly sort. Try to live blameless before all
men. Young wives, reverence your husbands.
“Husbands, see that yon love your wives and
be not bitter against them,” Remember that
the pleasures and enjoyments of life a’-e
what you make them. So if you have cares
in life that trouble you, cast them all ou
Jesus who will help you bear them and help
you live good, examplary lives and so make
you shine as a light to all around you. May
God help you all to hold up a little light to
the world that all the storms of persecution
cannot blow out.
L. C. Blackburn,
.T..