Wm. M. Lee, Editor.
'^OL. 3 NO. 41
blue EME BAPTIST,
DEVOTED TO RELIGION, EDUCATION AND TEMPERANCE.
NORTH WILKESBOEO, N. C.. JULY 23, 1903.
D. W. Lee, Associate Editor and Monagfcr.
WEEKLY, 50c. A YEAR.
BAPTIST CHURCH:
^ Preaching every second and fourti)
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 third Sun-
May morning and evening
Sunday School 9.-.30 A. M.
Prayer meeting every Tuesday evening.^
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^
^wthese services.
PREMIUMS rOR^
—BAPTIST WORKERS.’
^ Doubtless no other Religious paper
Western Carolina, has grown so rapidi/as
the Blue Ridge Baptist. Everybody/w’ho
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-e-
We will mail yon, postage paid,-
to «lollegfo,- Clows with the en
thusiasm of a high ideal. We wish it could
be in the Library of every High school,
Semi:iary and Academy in the land. Price
50c. Or Like.s and Opposites,- a han
dy book for the speaker and writer Price
oOc. Both of the above named books for
only 3 subscribers.
For Three Subscribers-*-
We will mail you, postage paid,- lOOO
Mytholog. Characters Briefly l>es-
cribed, or lOOO Classical Charact
ers Briefly Described, price of each
75c., or H‘»w to Study Literature.
(Special for Literary Societies.) Price 75c.
All three of the above named books for oHly
5 subscribers
For Four Subscrlbers-*-
Hh will um.il you, postage paid, a copy
of,H >w to Aitr ictand Holdaii 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 tlie following if
preferred at the same rate. Character
Building’,- insjiii'ing suggestions. Price
$1.00. What Shall I Do? 50 proB-
table otcupations. Pi’im SI.00. The Vir-
tue.s and Their iieaMins. Kveiy dav
ethics for school and home Price $1
All four of the above named books sent
free for only 10 subscribers.
For Ten Subscribers-*-
We will n.ail you free.- Interlinear
New Testament (cloth)Price $4.00 or
old 'I'estament if preferred, price the same
as New. Both the above Testamentsfoi only
15 subscribers. Every pastor should own
these Testaments and your churches will
gladly help you get them if you ask it.
If you want all the above named books,
send us only 30 subscribers.
Now 18 your chance to get yon a nice, val
uable book or even a Lib:ary 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 offer holds good. Address:
BLUE RIDGE BAPTIST, No. Wilkesboro-
THE LEWIS’ TORK BAPTIST
ASSOCIATION. *•
We will now move forward to the year
1799, the era of the organization of the
Mountain District Association.It is easy to un
derstand the word District as here inserted.
It is an index to the influence of the Vir
ginia side of our Baptist Origin. This word
Was applied first to the several subdivisions
of the Orange Association in 1783, and after
ward to the New River churches in 1793 and
now in 1799 to the Mountain parts of the
two states comprising the monntiins and
troughs formed by the Head waters of four
great streams—the Yadkin, the Watauga,
the Holston and the New rivers. Tire-^es-
commendable, and his testimonials are all
acceptable.
In North Carolina “these churches are
scattered, ’ says Benedict, “in the nooks and
vallies of the stupendous pile of the Allegha
ny Mountains. As very partial accounts
have been received the following brief sketch
es must suffice for its history. It was form
ed in 1799 by a division of the Yadkin Asso
ciation when the ten following churches
were dismissed, viz. Rye Val’ey, Three Forks,
of New River, North Fork, of New River.
Fish river, South Fork o^ Roaring river.
Bea\ei Creek, Head of Yadkin, Synclares
Bottom, Catawba and Cedar Island.”
Thri eof these churches were in Virginia
and some of them, or some of those that
/enceofEWe, David Tinsley who had par^, have united with the Association since it
I tic.pated in the districting of the Virginia, was formed are in Tennessee, but most of
! Thk is not the , them are in North Carolina, and are in the
Elder^David Tinsley sketched by Semple | Counties of Ashe, Burke, Wilkes and Surry.
I mid afterward by Dr. J. B. Taylor in his This was a vast area, and to traverse it was
Virginia Baptists Ministers, but probably of | a task hereiileaii.
I , ug.ma X^apiisis iviinisrers, but probably of | a task herciileau. Tbisco.iiitry at that time
I t^he same stock. It has been said that while j was the stronghold of the , Catamount and
i he was a good man he could not preach a linniimeiable game and Mountain Trout, all
great deal. We introdiire bis’ name here in [of which have yielded to our present civili-
01 der to explain the cot.tinned use of the Ization-Except the highways and they are
‘'fountain Association,to the last Iafe''ffpotr'
which its name has been mentioned and
of separate Baptist origin. This bodv covered
a large area of country aliont as inaccessible
to the adventures of man as America can
afford, and at that time the general strong
hold of the little black bear.
Virginia fiirnishtd three of these
chiirchos as follows: The North Fork of
New Rivei, organized by W. Porter and D,..
Keith in 1796; Meadow Creek, organized by
A. Mitchel in 1797; and Cedar Island, or
Fox Creek, organized in 178:1 by T. Evans
and of which Elder Andrew Baker was pas
tor in 1808. The North Fork of New River
had two pastors at this time. Elder Baker
and the Fox church, s“ well known to some
of the readers of this serial, was then men
tioned as having been torn by dissensions in
its early history, but the removal of Elder
Andrew Baker among them in 1803, under
God, healed all their backslidings God
turned their mourning into joy by turning
many to righteousness. For several years Mr.
Baker had the gratification to see his Master’s
work prosper in his hands. Of the Meadow
Creek it was said “God has sliowered down
his grace upon this church. They have been
a happy and increasing people,”
The two churches, Rye Valley and Sin-
olares Bottom, are also reported by Benedict
to have been constituent members of the
Mountain Association (see Ed. 1813) but
Semple gives only the three already named.
(See Ed. 1810.) We accept semple as the
best authority in the Virginia churches.
Still the Rye Valleyaiid Sinclares Bottom,
under the pastoral care of Elder Baker and
Benedii t, rinivbe entirely co’-reet. If so the
Mountain A.ssociatioii was composed of at
least six churches outside the limits of North
Carolina, fc^emple uses these woi’ds on this
question “Three only are in Virginia of
which we have a few things to say.”
The writer has no means of knowing what
church or churches in Tennessee could be
meant unless it was the church under the
pastoral care of Elder Joshua Kilby or Tid-
ance Lane.Of the former, we possess no
history at this time. Of the latter, we only
know be also was a separate Baptist convert
ed under the ministry of Elder Shubal
Stearns, more than forty years prior to this
time and who with his church removed to the
Watauga country about the year 1772. He
was the. successor of Elder Stearns as pastor
of the church at Sandy Creek, but his pasto
rate was of brief duration owing to his re
moval. He was a good man, of ready wit,
and conservation as an adviser. His whole
course during the Regulators troubles is
(Dot yet remarkable for any easy going.
To the south and south westward ,'ay the
territory covered by the Broad River, organ
ized ill the year 1800, and soon after by the
French Broad, organized in 1807, with its
old time pastors Thomas Snelson, Thomas
Justice. Sion Blythe, Benjamin King, Steph
en Morgan and Humpurey Posey. ’J’he
Broad River lay mainly in South Carolina
but some of its pastors and evangelists were
well known in the hounds, of Monetein
District—Elders Parraeiiteo slorgan, A.
Carlton, J. Richards, Joroyal Barnett and
the ever active and powerful old field
preacher, Drury Dobbins. To the east was
the Yadkin of which it is said, later in the
Nineieenth Century (1813) by one who
knew, she still extends from the Virginia to
the South Carolina lines with Jier fortv
churches undeveloped—“a giant asleep”
and to the west extending from the Iron
Mountains to the Cumberland Q.ip, lay the
Holster Tennessee Association, whose terri
tory was equal to all Connetio it and whose
prowess was equal to all Switzerland when
led by William Tell. All those parts be
tween, were known among Baptists as the
Mountain District Association—a land of
heroes without a general, who with shot
guns and bullet moulds had whipped all
England. She was not the Table Rock, th
Cordiff Giant, the Cathedral of St. Paul’s
nor St. Peter’s in Rome, and she did not
care a penny to be a Prince or a Pope. She
had no business with the correspondence of
Elder David Benedict or any other man
when postage stamps were selling at 25
cents a piece with nothing plenty at hand
for writing material but soapstone pencils,
pine knot lights and common chijls. This
article is not a kaleidoscope, but it is much
desired that our Mountain Baptists could
look into the hole of the pit from which thev
were digged, and that outsiders miorht un
derstand why so little record has been left of
their works.
Our last article did not reach all the
brethren whose names belong to the Monu-
taiii District in that early period. We have
been compelled to pass by Elder Cleveland
Coffee, John Stone, William Hammond and
William Petty. A sketch of Elder Cleveland
Coffee would be an important acquisition,
but the writer does not jX)S8>;s8 any facts with
reference to him except his relation to the
families of olevelands in other parts of
Wilkes coiiiity. His conversion, call to the
ministry, ordination and pastoral labors are
unknov,n to the writer. His membership w^
with the Head of Yadkin and his pastor
after 1790 was Elder George McNeil for .some
years at least.
The great revivals of religion that liegan
m Kentucky about thC year 1 i'99 and which
reached the Kehukee Association by the year
1803, spread over the intervening territory
and all the Southern States enjoyed its ben
edictions A great impetus was the result,
and from it a large number of converts was
received by the churches, churches multi
plied and new Assoeiatious formed. The con
verts, many of them, entered the ministry
without further preparation than thev had
received ill the old field schools. The con
sciences of the jieople were tender and their
minds had not been exhausted by the attrac
tions of fast society for the reason that the
people were all pioneers with very few
(ooiitiniied -m second page.)
MM
*
J
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blue
RIDC31E
One of rhe le:idiiig ( o-ediicational Schools
in North e'ai’oloia. Literary,.Music, Bus
iness, Elocution and Bible Departments.
179 Students from 8 t'oiinties. Last year’s
attendance20 per cent better than previous
year. Good Literary Societies. Moral influ
ences good, Board in jnivate families $6 to
$9. Tuition $1 to $3. Fall Term opens Aug
ust 18,1903. For catalogue, address,
S. J. HONEYCUTT, Principal,
North Wilkesboro, N. C.
INSTI-
ITTTE.