THE AMERICAN FRONTIER
Frontier living
►Many
adverse conditions
►Poverty
►Poor health
►Risk of child birth. Most men married
at least twice
►Harsh work and living conditions.
Danger
►Indians
►Animals
►Accidents
Immorality
►Whiskey
as common as water.
►Gambling
►Fighting
►Lawlessness
Fierce Independence
►Unconquerable
spirit
►Scots-Irish immigration 1700’s
►Used to hardship and poverty
►Most were Presbyterians
►“Lived, worked and played hard. Also
converted hard.”
Philosophy
►Thomas
Paine
►Voltaire
►Common
sense
Religious Conditions in the
Colonies
Massachusetts:
►Puritans
were Congregationalists.
►Dominated and for a time was the
established church in some places.
►Universalism later grew popular.
Revolutionary War 1776-1783
►“The
lowest ebb-tide of vitality in the
history of American Christianity”
►Rise of skepticism, Deism, French
philosophy
Second Great Awakening
►This
began on the frontier.
Beginning of camp meetings.
► “Society
did not shape the frontier; the
frontier shaped society.”
“That coarseness and strength
combined with acuteness and
inquisitiveness;
that practical, inventive turn of
mind, quick to find expedients; that
masterful grasp of material things,
lacking in the artistic but powerful
to effect great ends;
that restless, nervous energy; that
dominant individualism, working for
good and for evil, and withal that
buoyancy and exuberance which
comes with freedom—
these are traits of the frontier, or
traits called out elsewhere because
of the existence of the frontier”
Federick Jackson Turner
These developed to meet needs on
the frontier
1735 - Birth. Place unknownperhaps Ireland, or Virginia.
• Little known of early life. Little formal
education,
• 1775 Converted by Methodist preachers.
“We will be down-right Christians”
• 1779 - Va. Methodist preachers met in
conference at Fluvanna, ordained themselves,
and began administering sacraments.
• 1780 - Northern preachers met in conference at
Baltimore. Led by Francis Asbury.
• Oppose action of Va, preachers. Two groups
agree to submit issue to John Wesley.
1784 - Methodist Episcopal Church
organized at famous "Christmas
Conference."
Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury
elected "superintendents'!. 0'Ke11y
elected, "elder".
• 1785-1792 - O'Kelly served as presiding elder
in Southern Virginia. As many as 28 preachers
under his supervision.
O;Kelly and others became
dissatisfied with episcopal
government of Methodist
Church and with Asbury's
autocratic rule over church.
• 1782 - Struggle between 0'Ke11y
and Francis Asbury reached
climax
At Baltimore Conference, Nov,1, 1972,
O'Kelly was supported by small minority of
preachers, including Rice Haggard.
Dissatisfied group withdrew from
Conference.
1793 - O'Kelly and followers petition
for changes in government of
Methodist church. Refused.
Organized "Republican Methodist
Church" at Manakin Town,
VA.,December 25, 1793.
O’Kelly Chapel, Near Durham, N. C.
Before a meeting in August
1794, a the Republican
Methodists appointed a seven
man committee to work out a
plan of church government.
Rice Haggard arose and said:
"Brethren, this (a Bible) is a
sufficient rule of faith and practice.
By it we are told that the disciples
were called Christians, and I move
that henceforth and forever the
followers of Christ be known as
Christians simply."
Following Haggard, A.M. Hafferty
arose and moved that "they take
the Bible itself as their only creed."
Plan of church government adopted:
elders in every church,
1808 - Christian Church has 20,000
members in southern and western
states.
stamp and energy who journeyed
northward into Pennsylvania,
southward into South Carolina and
Georgia, and westward into
Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.
“ Such men were James O'Kelly,
Rice Haggard, William Guirey, …
http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/text
s/jburnett/opc/OPC.HTM
1809 Christians in Southern states
(O'Kelly group) and those in New
England exchange greetings.
1810 - Controversy over baptism.
O'Kelly refused to accept
immersion.
In 1810, the General Meeting was
held at Pine Stake church in
Orange county, Virginia. It was here
that discussion between
n O'Kelly and Guirey waxed so
warm on the subject of baptism. Mr.
Guirey favored immersion for
baptism, and Mr. O'Kelly held to the
former custom of pouring and
sprinkling.
This led to a division
Some of this group later united with
Stone
• Others fromed the "independent
Christian Baptist Church."
1811 - Elias Smith present at
conference of Christian Churches.
Given right hand of fellowship.
Marked formal union between two
groups.
1826 - Death of O'Kelly.
1854 - Christian church split over
slavery. Reunited 1894. 112,795
members in 1926.
1831 Merged with Congregational
Church.
1957 - Merged with Evangelical and
Reformed church to form "United
Church of Christ. --B. J. Humble
Work of O’Kelly
Rock Springs Church of Christ, Clay County, TN, est. c.
1805
Rocky Springs Church of Christ, Jackson County, AL. Est. c. 1910
Old Philadelphia Church of Christ, Warren, TN, Est. c. 1805-07
Dunning & Dasher,
Perhaps The First
N.T. Christians In Georgia
Sheldon C. Dunning
Died April 2, 1858
In The 79th Year Of His Age
Mark The Perfect Man
And Behold The Upright
For The End Of That Man Is Peace
Dasher Is
Buried At
Sunset Hill
Cemetery,
Valdosta, GA
-Psalm 37:37
S.C. Dunning Is Buried
At Laurel Grove
Cemetery, Savannah,
Georgia
CHRISTIAN HERMAN DASHER
1736 Group left Salzburg, Austria and arrived
in Savannah, Georgia. They were Lutherans
who had been expelled from country by
Catholics. Settled in Effingham County, north
of Savannah.
1780 Christian Herman Dasher
born. No record of his wife’s name
but did have 14 children.
1812-1817 Dasher sheriff of
Effingham county.
1817 Elected a county assembly
man.
1819 Dasher had been christened as
a child but became convinced that
immersion was baptism.
Left the Lutherans and he and others
began meeting in homes. Confused by
existence of so many churches, he
turned to the Scriptures as a guide.
He decided he could not be a Baptist
since he had no experience to related.
Questioned their views on baptism
though still studying.
No preacher would immerse on a
simple confession of Christ to become
only a Christian.
From a Mrs. Threadcraft he learned of
S. C. Dunning in Savannah who had
left Baptist church because he did not
believe it taught and practiced as Word
of God required.
Upon meeting Dasher and Dunning
learned they shared similar ideas
about baptism, believing it was for
the remission of sins..
Dunning immersed Dasher and Dasher
immersed Dunning. The two, with a
black woman became the New
Testament church in Savannah.
Immediately after returning home,
Dasher baptized his wife, sister and
her husband. Church met every
Lord’s day to take of Lord’s
Supper. Occasionally visited by Mr.
Dunning. .
1825 Dasher and a group of more
than 30 members of the church
moved to what is now Lowndes
County, Georgia.
Started church near Valdosta.
Dasher Church of Christ still exists.
1858 Died.
SHELDON C. DUNNING
1780 Born in Welton Township,
Fairfield County, Conn.
1800,. He became a Baptist
minister, but soon seceded from the
Baptist church. Perhaps influenced
by views of Elias Smith or Abner
Jones.
???? Married a Miss Richards and
had four children. She died and he
later married a Mrs. Osborne.
1818 Dunning was a charter
member of the Savannah Steamship
Co.. ,
1819 Stockholders chose him as
one of five directors for the firm.
Those businessmen were
responsible the first steamship to
sail the Atlantic. Dunning later
went into insurance business.
His study of the New Testament led
him to immersion for remission of
sins. Baptized by Dasher.
Every Sunday Dunning met with any
and all who came to his home for
worship.
When James J. Trott, Cherokee
missionary and evangelist, was once
Dunning's guest, he preached in the
home, as was customary.
Later, he referred to "some of the
brethren" being "too zealous for the
letter." Such literalism was
responsible, no doubt, for the
failure of the Disciples to grow at
Savannah in those years.
1838 Alexander Campbell visited
Savannah and stayed with the
Dunnings.
1844, Dunning joined Dr. Daniel
Hooks in conducting a protracted
meeting at the Antioch Church in
Clarke County.
This was credited by Nathan W. Smith
with arousing the evangelistic passion
of the struggling congregation:
"The church had been so edified and
strengthened in numbers . . . that a
missionary spirit pervaded it,
and so wonderful was this influence
that they started me out as their
evangelist to preach at different
points."
1846 Joined Nathan L. Smith in
gospel meetings in Georgia and
Alabama. Thereafter, until
Dunning's death, every summer and
into the autumn, the two preached
together at many places.
1858 Dunning died of apoplexy at
Savannah. Buried in Laurel Grove
Cemetery.
When his estate was settled, it was
found that a corner lot in Savannah,
owned by Dunning, was kept
vacant for years.
It seemed that he intended to use it for
a church building. However, there was
no provision for disposition to the
church, so the property went to his
heirs.
“Dunning was one of the founders
of the Savannah City Hospital, but
his life centered in his strict
religious interests.
The casual observer was apt to regard
him as stern. Well educated, he was a
zealous student of the Bible.
He searched the Scriptures at his
office, as well as at home, and
conversed in biblical language.
Nathan W. Smith called him "the most
constant reader of the scriptures of any
man I ever saw."”