 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
THE METHODISTS
The Rev. D. G. C. Butts, who spent over one-half century
in the Methodist itineracy and whose first service as a Methodist
minister was in Caroline county, writes in his autobiography as
follows:
"The fathers who laid the foundations of Methodism in
Caroline, laid them broad and deep and strong. Notwithstanding
the Baptists had been in the county for years before the pioneers
of Methodism arrived and had their congregations comfortably
housed in commodious brick buildings at central points, yet these
early circuit riders succeeded in reaching some of the finest
material in all that region, and brought into the Methodist fold
as fine a band of converts, socially, intellectually and spiritually
as could be found anywhere in the commonwealth of Virginia.
Swann, Hancock, DeJarnette, Waller, Wright, Smith, Carneal,
Stern, Doggett, Jarrell, Burruss, Catlett, Chandler and Broaddus
and a host of others, were names which stood for a high grade of
intellectuality, incorruptible morality and social prestige, which
county for spiritual power and devotion. "The Church of the
Regenerate Heart," as Dr. Gilbert C. Kelly aptly calls our
Methodism, had none who more consistently and beautifully
illustrated the worth of experimental religion than the men and
women from the families above named."
The Rev. Samuel Wesley Day, a grandson of the late Rev.
Luther Wright, of Caroline, contributes the following information
relative to the planting of Methodism in the county:
"In the latter part of the eighteenth century the Methodists
were holding a camp meeting at Fork church (Episcopal) in
Hanover county. A number of people from Caroline attended,
among the number being William Wright, who became so much
interested in the way the Methodists conducted the meetings that
he invited them to visit Caroline county and to hold meetings
in his house.
"The invitation was accepted and the Rev. Charles Hopkins
was sent over to hold the meetings. When these meetings closed
William Wright offered his house for a regular meeting place for
the Methodists, thus turning his own home into a Methodist
chapel or meeting house as it was then called.
"This arrangement continued for a number of years and then
William Wright gave an acre of ground and built upon it, at his
own expense, a small chapel or meeting house. That was the
first Methodist meeting house in Caroline county. Thus the
Methodists of Caroline can look back at "Wright's Chapel"
and exclaim: "She is the mother of us all!"
"What is more remarkable is that William Wright, through
all these years was not a member of the church, but united with
the church on his deathbed and received the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. Caroline Circuit in 1870 was composed of seven
appointments as follows: Rehoboth, Wright's Chapel, Bowling
Green, Hopewell, St. Paul's, Vernon and Shiloh. The people
had preaching twice monthly."
Rev. John G. Rowe served the Caroline circuit as pastor three
terms of several years each. It is related that when he came
back to the circuit for the third time he preached his opening
sermon from the first verse of the thirteenth chapter of Second
Corinthians: "This is the third time I am coming to you, etc."
Rev. E. H. Rowe, well-known educator and son of Rev. John
G. Rowe, records it as "a dim recollection" that he heard his
ever organized in Methodism was in St. Paul's church on Caroline
Circuit. This church has a long established custom of setting
apart every fifth Sunday for special services under the auspices
of this Woman's Foreign Missionary Society.
At a session of the Virginia Sunday School Association held
in Bowling Green in 1921 the author heard the Rev. Andrew
Broaddus, D. D., remark that "The Methodist church in Bowling
Green has more wealth than any other church in Caroline;"
to which Rev. E. H. Rowe replied, "I hope that it may be as
truly said that our church is equally rich in faith and good works."
And it may be stated as a matter of impartial history that Mr.
Rowe's hope has not only been realized in the Bowling Green
church, of which he is member, but in the world at large, for
Methodism has had a salutary effect wherever it has gone.
David Lloyd George, when Prime Minister of Great Britain,
said: "I personally cannot boast of being a Methodist (the
Prime Minister was originally a member of the Disciple church
and afterward a Baptist), but I have this qualification
to speak to Methodists: I come from the country (Wales)
that owes more to Methodism than to any other movement
in its history * * * Like the Reformation the indirect
influence of the Wesleyan movement was even greater, if possible,
than its direct influence * * * It revived every religious
community in the Anglo Saxon world * * * It put new blood
into the veins of the older communions * * * Therefore one
can imagine that its influence has been not only on the British
Empire and America, but on the destiny of the whole world."
The then Prime Minister of Great Britain further said, in this
London address, that "John Wesley was unquestionably the
greatest religious leader the Anglo-Saxon race ever produced.
His spirit, working through the movement he inaugurated, gripped
the soul of England, deepened her spiritual instincts and trained
and uplifted them with the result that when a great appeal is
made to England there is always a generous response."
Woodrow Wilson, in his admirable monograph on John Wesley,
makes an appraisal of Wesley's influence on the Anglo-Saxon race
very similar to that given by Lloyd George. Thus from the
strong and the great, as well as from an unnumbered host of the
meek and lowly, come overwhelming testimonies of the potent
and salutary influence of John Wesley and the child of his flaming
spirit, the Methodist Episcopal communion.
The Richmond Christian Advocate of April 12, 1894 contains
an article written by Mrs. Rachael Wright Jerrell, then eighty-four
years of age, which is in part as follows:
"My grandfather Wright, who was an Episcopalian, heard
that the Methodists were preaching in Hanover county, Va.,
and resolved that he would go and hear them. He heard
them and was so much pleased that he invited them to Caroline
to preach at his house. They accepted his invitation and came
over. So the first Methodist sermon preached in Caroline was
preached in his house in 1774. That house still stands, about a
quarter of a mile from Wright's Chapel and about nine miles
west of Bowling Green. My father, William Wright, was nine
years of age at that time and the house was used as a regular
preaching place until 1835. My grandfather died and my father
fell heir to the old house. Before father died he said a chapel
must be built; so he donated the land and started the subscription
with ten dollars. The chapel was built and named Wright's
Chapel after him. This Chapel was replaced by the present
building a few years ago. Quarterly meetings were held at my
father's and also protracted meetings. At the latter there were
great revivals and many conversions. At one of these meetings
there were two conversions; one young lady named Rachael
Harris laughed incessantly and seemed unable to restrain
herself ("then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue
with singing," Psalm 126:2); the other was Josiah Carneal, now
eighty-three years old and preaching in Kentucky. * * *
At another protracted meeting held in my father's house as late
as 1825, by Peyton and Wilkerson, who then traveled the circuit,
there was a great revival and among the large number of conversions
were five of my father's children: Annie (Mrs. Haley),
Jane (Mrs. Anderson), Rebecca (Mrs. Parr), Wesley (Dr. Wright),
and myself, Rachael Jerrell. All these except me have "passed
over the river." "They died in the faith." On one occasion a
regular service was continued from 11:00 A. M. until 4:00 P. M.
There was a great outpouring of the Spirit and a great many
souls were converted. In those days the preachers preached
every day. Rest day came sometimes once in three weeks.
"I can remember when Jacob Hill preached at my father's.
I remember also that John Wesley White preached his first
sermon there. His text was, "Prepare to Meet Thy God."
But he did not get through. He lost his subject and went
first sermon there and William Rowzie preached his first sermon
there. Peyton and Wilkerson traveled the circuit in
1825 and 1826 and preached at father's. Skidmore was Presiding
Elder and had a collection of hymns called "Skidmore's
Collection." I acted as agent for him and sold his hymn books
and a number of other books on Baptism. In 1828 there was a
camp meeting on this circuit not more than three miles from
where I now live. My father had a tent there and I with a sister,
and quite a number of other friends, started in the night for the
camp and reached there just at daybreak. Sykes and Wood
traveled the circuit that year. One spring afforded abundance
of water for man and beast. It was there I saw and heard the
famous colored preacher, David Payne. I also heard him sing
"The Old Ship of Zion." I was then seventeen years of age
and took great delight in this meeting.
"Nearby the old Wright home is the Wright burying ground
and in it sleep the remains of three preachers of the name—my
brother Luther, my brother Durrett, who died in his thirty-fifth
year, and who was said to have been an eloquent preacher. The
third one died much younger and was my father's great grandson,
James Wright, son of James D. Wright, of this county. He was
a Baptist preacher, but preached his first sermon in St. Paul's
church in Caroline."
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |