The Jackson Standard, Jackson, OH 14 Mar 1867 p2
RANDOM THOUGHTS No. 11.
Did I ever tell my readers about the origin of the irreparable conflict between the Democrats and negros in Jackson County? If not, I will tell you now, and “it may take two or three numbers.”
In the year 1819, the Ohio Baptist Association was formed. It consisted of churches in Lawrence, Gallia, Jackson, and Scioto counties. One of these churches was composed of members living in both Jackson and Gallia counties, and part of the members was white, and part were negroes. For these reasons, this church was called the “Union Church.” The colored members of this church lived on a creek called “Dirty Face.” This settlement was in Gallia County, some two or three miles up the creek from where Gallia Furnace is now located.
I use the word “church” as it was used then, meaning the members in their organized capacity, not their house of worship, as it is now used. The house of worship was then known as the “meeting house.”
The meeting house of the Union church was located upon the high point west of Faulkner’s old mill, where the Gallia Furnace Road crosses the Black Fork of Symmes Creek. It was built of hewed logs and had a gallery above. It was perhaps thirty feet square and had rough benches for seats and a rude pulpit called a “stand.”
This meeting house was built perhaps in the year 1820. It was in the woods, and just west of the house was a graveyard where there were a few graves. They were not enclosed but had only rude pens built around them; most of the poles were cut in the surrounding woods, and the top of the pen was covered with like poles. Some of these pens had rotted down when I can first remember, about the year 1820 or 1830. The old meetinghouse, and the neglected graveyard, had a most desolate appearance.
When we boys were at a meeting and wanted water, we went down a very steep hill, southeast of the meeting house, where there was a spring of pure cold water, gushing out of the steep hillside. The people coming to meet, came up the hill on the north side, where it was not so steep, and they hitched their horses in the woods near the meeting house.
Among the colored members of this church, there was a preacher, named James B. Stewart. He was a pious old man and possessed considerable native eloquence. He was called upon frequently to preach at funerals, among the white people, both members of the church and others.
In the same neighborhood where Stewart lived, was a blacksmith named Seth Shaffer, generally called Shaver. He was a man who frequently drank to excess and was a great fighter. He was never whipped. I have seen him so badly beaten that he scarcely looked human, and yet he never was known to have cried “enough.” But he was an honest man, and I have heard my father say that he never resided near a better neighbor than Seth Shaffer.
In the same neighborhood resided a man named Woods – Mathew Woods, I think. He was generally known as “Double-Headed Woods,” on account of his head, being very long from the ears back. His wife’s name was Nancy, and she had a very dark complexion. In fact, some said that there was the blood of Ham in her veins.
Seth Shaffer was fond of a joke, and one day when somewhat in liquor, he told a person whom he met that he had caught Stewart and Nancy Woods having improper intimacy. This report soon spread and came to the ears of Phillip Lambert, a member of the church, and a white man, he at once preferred charges in the church against Stewart. Stewart denied the charge, and the matter was agitated in the church during the period of some three or four years between 1828 and 1832. The members of the church became divided into two parties – one agreeing with Lambert and the other with Stewart.
But I must refer to the balance of the narrative until next week. D. M. (“Davis” Mackley”)
Jackson Standard, 21 March 1867, page 2
Random Thoughts No. 12
By The Editor
Shaffer, not being a member of the church, could not be a witness either for or against Stewart. But he went before a Justice of the Peace and made an affidavit that what he had said about Stewart was said by way of a joke and that he knew no harm of him. Stewart was at length brought to trial, and as there was no evidence against him, he was acquitted. But this by no means satisfied the other party.
During the excitement, Stewart had been provoked into saying that his own wife was a whiter woman than Mrs. Woods, although he was proud to say that his wife was of the African race. This was true in point of the fact, as Stewart’s wife was a very white woman, although her features clearly indicated that she was a Negro.
Upon this and other charges, Stewart was again arraigned before the church. So great had the excitement become, that no committee could be had in Union Church who had not formed or expressed an opinion, and a committee was summoned from Bloom Church in Scioto County.
It was a pleasant day in the fall of the year 1832. More than thirty-four years ago – more than a third of a century – more than the average of human life, the occurrences of that day are as vividly before my mind as if they had taken place only last week.
The committee met at the old meeting house and a large congregation were in attendance. How grandly the tones of old “Twenty Fourth,” or “Primrose,” sung to the words, “Salvation Oh the Joyful Sound,” rang through these old woods. The prayers, the sermon, and then the committee went up into the woods, near the old graveyard, and after much deliberation came to the house, and made their report.
They decided that Stewart had committed no serious breach of church discipline, but that his remarks about Mrs. Woods were improper, and that he must make a confession. Stewart’s hand were tremulous, and I often noticed a violent trebling of his hands whe he was lighting his pipe. On this occasion his hands appeared to shake more then ordinarily, as he took his white handkerchief from his pocket and held it to his face.
He put his foot upon the step of the pulpit or “stand,” and with his elbow on his knee and his forehead resting upon his hand, said that he was ready to confess all that the committee required of him, and he humbly asked the forgiveness of those whom he might have offended. It was then and there that he decided that he had done all that was required of him and that here the matter must end. But it did not end here, and in my next, I will give the conclusion of the matter.
Stewart, Lambert, and perhaps all who took part in that church controversy have long since gone to be judged by that tribunal where there is no respect of persons, and from whose decision there is no appeal, and of that great congregation who met at old Union meeting house, on that balmy October day in 1832, I do not know that anyone except myself is now living.
D.M.
But I must refer to the balance of the narrative until next week. D. M. (“Davis” Mackley”)
Jackson Standard, 28 March 1867, page 2
Random Thoughts No. 13
By The Editor
The “white man’s party” in the old Union Church never could consent to be beaten by a “n***r,” and the feud in the church extended and intensified. It had been the rule in this church from its foundation to hold a meeting for church businesses on the Saturday before the first Sunday of every month.
There would be a sermon, then church matters would be attended to. On the Sabbath, there would be public preaching. I generally attended these meetings, and I remember that the Stewart and Lambert trouble was before the church almost or quite every month.
I do not remember having attended any more meetings at the old meeting house after the great trial in the year 1832. The monthly meetings were half either at Oak Hill or at the residence of Elder Levi McDaniel, half a mile below Portland.
All through the years 1833 and 1834, this trouble continued to agitate the church. I remember at one of these meetings, an old sister was saying some very hard things about Stewart and the negro race generally when another sister told her that she ought not to talk so, as the negros were God’s creatures. “And so is a toad,” remarked sister number two.
I am not certain as to the date, but I think it was about the year 1835 that I was at one of these church meetings, as they were called, on Saturday, at the residence of Levi McDaniel, and the quarrel was going on as usual, and tire out, and hopeless of any reconciliation, Elder McDaniel moved that the constitution of the church be dissolved and that the members give each other letters of dismissal. The motion was seconded, the question put and carried without debate, and the meeting at once adjourned. It was thought that this was the end of Union Church, it having existed some fifteen years.
When the members of the Stewart party had time to reflect, they concluded that the church had no power to dissolve its constitution, and they treated this action as void, and they carried on their regular monthly meetings as usual, under the name Union Church. The Lambert party at once organized a new church on the white man’s platform and called it “Bethel Church.”
The two churches, Union and Bethel, both languished for years, and, as the old law indictments expressed it, “languishing lived; and afterwards, then and there, to wit &c., died.” I do not know whether either of those churches exists now or has existed for years. They may be in existence, but if so, they have been without any vital power of influence for good, for many long years.
D.M.
[Mackey was later referred to as “the abominable thing as a fistula in the anus of journalism.” By the Marietta Times]
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