Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsRev. Conner's "Holy Grail" Split Him From Primitive Baptists
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
As Reverend Elder Wilson Conner ran his strong, hard, tanned fingers around the rim of his coffee cup, he probably imagined what That Other Cup looked like, the one used at the Lord's Supper. That cup was called The Holy Grail and it had come to be at least a symbol for knights of old, and men of present, of seeking that which is lost. As far as he knew, the Holy Grail was still lost. At least, at last accounts, that was the case. Not that he was interested in finding cups. But he was interested in finding lost people - those who needed The Lord. Thus was Wilson Conner's Quest for The Holy Grail. As he set his cup down, still warm, he also probably thought how good was the coffee made by the womenfolk around Jacksonville, Georgia.
Not only was he interested in finding his lost fellowman; he was also interested in finding himself in a harmony and peace with God and his fellowman. "He had looked many places to find his peace with God and his fellow man. That peace had eluded him much of his life."
But Elder Wilson Conner had seen much in his life. He had crossed swords with Isham (Isom) Peacock and the disagreeing and split-prone Baptists, with the politicians around Tattnall and Montgomery Counties, with the Spaniards at Fernandina, with President Madison and Secretary of State Monroe, with Georgia governors and legislators and others along the trail. Now, it looked like he was full circle again because before him loomed a problem within the church. And much of it had to do with his Holy Grail.
Really, it was nothing new. It had been there - festering ever worse as the years slid by. He had been in the old (Baptist) Piedmont Association but it had not been large enough to hold the disparate and feuding characters of Wilson Conner and Isham (Isom) Peacock. Peacock and his followers were conservative; the Connerites were more liberal, leaning toward those "causes espoused by Jesse Mercer and his colleagues." Jesse Mercer proved to be a stalwart giant in promoting more and better education for Baptists. We have Mercer University today in Macon to serve as proof of that pudding. And we still have people fussing about how things are going.
And education was a giant part of the fuss back then. It seems that the old line Baptists did not want to have much to do with "education." One minister remarked that it just wouldn't do if lay people and fellow ministers became educated beyond them (the old line ministers). They held that the inspiration of God would see them through and "studying" was not really necessary "atall."
"The farmer-preachers of the turn of the century were being overwhelmed by those of a more sophisticated mindset. A ministry "called of God" was being threatened, so they thought, by those merely educated to the ministry. Part and parcel of the educated ministry were the liberal causes of the day -- temperance societies, tract societies, and the missionary enterprises. Generating particular virulent opposition were the proposed institutions of higher learning."
Now, Wilson Conner did not hold that line. In fact, he was doing all he could to get daughter Louisa enrolled at the Old Clinton Female Seminary so she would be able to better apply herself physically, mentally, and spiritually. It looks like she succeeded because for a while she wrote articles for the Christian Index. She probably also, in that church publication, advertised the churches her missionary father would be riding to on his horse. She also married John Willcox III, after the death of his first wife, Mary Daniel. This is how Wilson Conner became related to the Willcoxes. Besides good coffee, the Willcoxes also had the best drinking water in the country because they had Spring Lake and water doesn't get any better than that. Or colder.
But education was not the only dividing point between the "old school" Baptists of Isom Peacock and the "new school" Baptists of Wilson Conner. Another hot item was "missions." The old Baptists wanted no part of missions! Much of that theology came from the old Calvinistic view that you were either "saved" or "lost" and missionary work would be useless, if not sinful.
We find this enlightening passage in "Pioneer Days Along The Ocmulgee": "During the 1830's, Georgia Baptists experienced a crisis which was strongly felt among the churches along the Ocmulgee. For some years, a controversy had been mounting within the membership over certain innovations coming increasingly into practice among Baptists. Although other factors were involved, generally referred to as "institutions of the day," the issue was largely centered around the subject of missions. In a spirit of missionary zeal, many Baptist leaders had endorsed and propagated a strong movement for the establishment of missions among foreign countries to convert the natives to the Christian faith. Among the missions established in 1823, was Withington, a mission for Indians located within the Creek Nation, which the Ocmulgee inhabitants still viewed as foreign soil. These missionary efforts, however, were opposed by a substantial number of adherents of the Baptist Church.
Now dissension raged within the Baptist Churches and Associations, bringing discord and division within the ranks. In 1836, (the death year of General John Coffee and his colleague David (Davy) Crockett), the old Ebenezer Association, on the east side of the Ocmulgee, was rent by the withdrawal of the conservative, or anti-mission elements from the Association. The schism now reflected itself within the Houston Association, and dissension was mounting to serious proportions.
Seeking to maintain tranquillity, Reverend James Gouldwire Davis, a captain of militia in the Indian wars, preached from this text: "And Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we are brethren."
At the end of the conciliatory sermon, realizing that they could no longer continue in unity with such intensely differing convictions, the churches -- divided themselves into two bodies: one to continue in the traditional house of their fathers (Primitive Baptists): the other to venture into new pathways (Missionary Baptists)."
With all this transpiring, one could not really read the stoic face of The Reverend Elder Wilson Conner because many times he seemed to be a man without emotion. But, like the Methodists, Wesley and Asbury, the Spirit had moved upon Wilson Conner, and as he sipped another cup of hot coffee he felt the warmth go into his stomach. And, as if he had simultaneously sipped the substance of The Holy Grail, he felt the warmth of The Spirit go to the depths of his soul.
As he left the meeting house that day on his horse, Wilson Conner left one world behind him. But there was a fresh one up ahead. Churches had to be built. Souls had to be saved. The missions of the Missionary Baptists would need a missionary. Another cup of coffee could wait. But The Quest For The Holy Grail had to begin now. There would be a lot of traveling. He hoped his horse was up to it.
Credits:
Albert Sidney Johnson for "Longpondium";
Peg Conner Corliss for notes on Wilson Conner;
Fussell Chalker for Pioneer Days Along The Ocmulgee;
Gene Barber for The Way It Was.
