Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsRev. Wilson Conner Sees Hot And Cold Of Church And State
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
As Rev. Wilson Conner left the old courthouse at Jacksonville he was thinking that the local folks had not "been in the Spirit" as well as they might have been. But times were changing. It was about time to get out of some of these old courthouses - at least trying to have church there - because, as the forefathers had said, church and state just didn't seem to mix at times. It was hard to get in the Spirit when you could look out the rough-hewn courthouse windows and see the hanging gallows in full view. Men who did not walk the "straight and narrow" had concern about their earthly fate also. Hanging, to Wilson Conner, seemed to be a terribly uncomfortable way to exit life's stage.
And besides, why, here we were, Wilson thought, trying to have church in a place not long ago the witness of Gibson Clark trying to shoot Benjamin Mitchell Griffin. He had missed but the latter had been felled permanently by an Indian bullet at the Battle of Breakfast Branch. The courthouse just was not the place to have church services.
Wilson Conner had not been encouraged by the response of the faithful at the old Jacksonville courthouse and often, when he visited the homes or plantations, he got hardly better responses:
"Rode 26 mile and preachd Satirday and sonday at Capt Ashleys to a serious congregation. No special excitement however was visible among them."
If his horse was not named Old Faithful, he should have been. It must have been awfully disappointing to the loyal steed to see the drooped face of his master when the old preacher did not even get one candidate for baptism. But sometimes Wilson Conner was not ready to baptize those coming down the aisles:
"30th rode 15 mile to a meetinghouse in the lower part of Pulaski which was crowded with attention. In the close of the sirvice, with deeply affected hearors, the greatest number of which came forward for prayr. I afterward learnt from one of my brethren that there was four or five pirsons in the congregation today that came with a view to offer for Baptism and that some of them had brought a change of clothing with them for that pirpose. But as I was Ignorant of this until to late, these poor creatures had to return as they came. I am sorry for them. After preaching today, rode 5 mile and staid with Esqr. Livisting (Livingston?)."
Evidently Bro. Conner had not come attired to perform the baptisms or they just didn't tell him in time to catch up with the candidates before they left for home. And many times, one only had a limited amount of "Sunday" clothing. Maybe only one suit. And Brother Conner might have wanted plenty of clothing on if he waded into water as cold as Spring Lake at the Willcox place. Pulaski probably had some of those cold springs too. Whatever the reason, let us hope that the aspirants kept their eye on Salvation and were baptized later. That would not be something one would want to put off. As Wilson Conner passed by the hanging gallows at Jacksonville he felt even worse about not being able to baptize those people up near Hartford (Hawkinsville).
But if the water was cold, the politics in general and that of the church were getting hotter and hotter. Just as Wilson Conner took his eyes off the hanging gallows he saw men gathering around the courthouse. Who was going to the state House and Senate from Jacksonville this go-around? General John Coffee had been a Senator for Telfair from 1819 to 1827 but The General now had his eye on bigger fish to fry - a seat in the U.S. Congress. Wilson Conner had married him and his bride Ann Penelope way back in 1808. Ah, many things had happened to both men since then!
Thomas Watts served as early as 1808 and had a last term in 1813. Even old B.M. Griffin had represented Telfair in 1810, 1812, and 1816, before the Indians killed him. Griffin's adversary, Gibson Clark, had held the post in 1814. William Harris was a Senator in 1815. Shortly thereafter, Gibson and his brother, Governor John Clark, left Jacksonville for good. And before Wilson Conner left this world for a better place in 1844, he saw others go to Milledgeville to represent the county in the Senate: James Williams, 1818 (before he was killed by the Indians); Jeremiah Wells, 1828-31 (he left a lot of Wellses around); James A. Rogers, 1832-33; Lewis A.L. Lampkin, 1834 (maybe the one Lampkin Branch and Lampkin Lake are named for); Joshua Frier, 1839-40 (Mr. Frier would be an ancestor of the Tom Friers who ran the Douglas Enterprise for so long). James Boyd served in 1841.
The Telfair Representatives during the life of Rev. Wilson Conner were as follow: William Lott, 1808-09; Noah Parramore, 1812 (when Wilson Conner was running the Spanish out of Fernandina) and 1822 (when Wilson Conner was in the Okefenokee Swamp studying its "nature"); Abraham F. Powell, 1813 and 1814; A.L. Hatton , 1815; John Fletcher, 1816-17; Nathaniel Ashley, 1823; John W. Lee, 1824; Mark Willcox, 1825-26, 1832-34 ; William Hatton 1829-30 (Wilson Conner was also at Milledgeville in 1829 - at the annual meeting of the Georgia Baptists); William Hatton again in 1835-36 (General Coffee died in 1836); Henderson Frier, 1831 (another ancestor of our Douglas Friers); [note: one source said it was Joshua Frier]; Locklin McKinnon, 1839; James H. McCall, 1841 (who caused great great great great grandfather Lt. Joseph Williams some inconvenience by having his Revolutionary military pension taken away for a while until others helped him get it back). Mark Willcox, 1842-1843, served again just before the death of Wilson Conner.
But politics were not only hot in the secular world. They were hot in the church as well. It seemed to be the Missionaries versus the Primitives (or vice-versa):
"July 1830 - 6th rode 19 mile to Wm. Conners in Tattnall County. Today I was to have preachd at a Brother Knights, but my apointment had not reachd the place (this seemed to be a recurring tactic to discourage Missionary Wilson Conner). A dreadful state of things exhist here. Old Mr. Peacock, an old Baptist preacher, and others is poisoning the minds of the people against Missionary, Temperence, and all the benevolent societies of the day. Sonday was the communion season of the beards creek church, where this old apostle lives. A Mr. Jaradaux (probably William Pinckney Girardeau) and lady accompanied sister Gaulding to this Meeting. Jaradaux is a prisbitirian, a thorough going temperence man. Peacock preachd from his old text, from which a worthy sister observed she had heard him preach fifty time: If the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. He took accasion to mention the various existing societies such as the Missionary, sabboth school, tract, Bible and temperence societies. He considered them all a (illegible) and well calculated to destory the independence and happiness of church and state (get the church out of those courthouses!). When he had gotten thro, Mr. Jaradaux calld the attention of the people to a few remarks he wishd to make in favour of the temperence cause. He was ordered out of the house by an officer of the church, and sister Gaulding, a very pious intelligent Lady who was an eye witness, observed to me that she had no doubt if Mr. Jarideaux had not gone out of the house, he would have been immediately put out by force. The Brethren within proceeded to the administration of the holy supper."
And Wilson Conner continues and tells us a little bit about himself:
"7th today I am 62 years old. Rode 17 mile to Mr. Graces.
8th my apointment having faild thro mistake (not announcing him again!), rode 16 mile and got home to my family and found all well. This tour 352 mile."
It was July of 1830 and Wilson Conner wanted a cool drink of water from his well at the old place at Dead River. As the cool water ran down his throat he grimaced that it was a heap cooler than the fire that was burning inside the church.
He had some temperance tracts to deliver to some churches next week. But, he sighed, they might not "announce his coming" and he "might have trouble getting in the door if they did." It was going to be a long hot summer for the Reverend Wilson Conner.
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;
John G. Crowley for Primitive Baptists Of The Wiregrass South: 1815 To The Present;
Addie Garrison Briggs for They Don't Make People Like They Used To;
Floris Perkins Mann for The History of Telfair County;
Telfair County History (1807-1987).
