Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1850-11-18

II and, when next we venture to the count + v
viii take good care 10 get beyonda conrea
i tent distance. "a e:'.N tEag 5sEi aai
| IT, Sta -.
! Paul Denton;
4 OR, TIE TEXAS CAMP MEETING.
! BY CHARLES sUMMERFIELD.
i During the last meeting in September
1885, the irst successful camp.meeting
was held in Eastern Texas f employ the
4 epithet successful, = because several pre-.
vious failures had apparently rendered ei.
forts of like kind perfectly hopeless
Indeed, the meridian, at tha. period, was
most uncongenial to-,religions and moral
enterprise. The country bordering on the
Sabine had been occupied rather than set.
tied by class Of adventures almost US
wild as the savages whom they had scarce
ly expelled, and the beasts Of prey, which
still disputed their domains ofprimeval for.
es.s. Professional gamblers, refugees from
every land, forgers of false coin, thieves,
robbers and murderers, interspersed among
a race Of uneducaled hunters and herds.
men, made up the strange social miscelfa.
ny; without courts, or prisons, or church,
es, or schools, or even the shadow. of civil
authority, or subordlnation--a sort of un-
principled pandemoninn,, where fierce pas.
sion sat enlhroned, waving its bloody scsp.
tre, the bloody bowie-knite! Let no one
accuse me of.exaggeration, for the sake of
dramatic effect; am speaking now of
Shelby county--the home of the Lynchers
the terrible locale, where ten years later,
forty persons were poisoned to death at a
marriage supper. ~
It will be obvious that, in such COM
munity, very few would be disposed to pat.
ronize camp-meetings; and accordingly a
dozen diharent trials at various times, had
never collected hundred hearers on any
single OCCASION But even these were no,
allowed to worshipiL peace; uniformly the
first day or night, band OF armed desper.
ADDE'S, headed by the notorious Watt Foe
man, chief judge and execu,oner of the
Shelby Lynchers, broke into the altar and
scattered the mourners, or ascended the
pulpit and treated the preachers to a gra-
tuilous robe Of tar and feathers. Hence
all prudent evangelists soon learned to
shun the left bank ofthe Sabine, as il j,
had been infested by cohort of demons;
tand two whole years elapsed without any
attempt to erect the cross in so perilous a
field. '~ -t
AT length, however, an advertisement,
appeared, promising another effort in be-.
half Of the gospel. The notice was unigus
and a perfect backwoeds curiosity, both as
to its tenor and mode Of publication. Let
me give it uerbatim ct ineratim: ~@'-'- al
'a@l "BARBEcuE cAMP.MEETINo. Sc Te
"There will be q Camp-M eeting, to
commence the last Monday Of this, month,
at the Double Spring Grove, near Peter
Brinson's in the county Of Shelby.
s.The exercises will open with spfen.
did barbecue. Preparations ore being
made to suit all tastes: there will be good
barbecue, better liquors, and the best of
gospel. ,-r.sr -...s..-...~, t., s.;,..
"Sep,. l, 1885, Missionary NJ. E: CO..
The singular document was nailed to the
door Of every public house and grocery;
it was attached to the largest trees at the
intersections Of all cross roads and prnci-
pal trails; and even the wandering hunters
themselves found it in remote deIls Of tho
mountains, miles away from the smoke Of
human habitation.
At first many regarded the matter as a
hoax, played of'by some wicked wag, in
ridicule of popular credulity. Blu, this
hypothesis was nega.ived by the statements
Of Peter Brinson, proprietor Of the double
Spring Grove who informed all inquir-
ers that he had been employed and paid
by stranger, calling himself Methodist
missionary, TO provide an ample barbecue
at the period and place advertised sa'"
| But the liquor-the better hquor--nre
you to furnish the liquor, too?' was the in.
variable question of each visitor.
| The missionary said he would attend TO
that HIMSELF said Bripson s. So. ,e .sl.sa
'He must be precious original, was the
general rejoinder-a proposition which
most Of them afterwards had nm opportuni-
,y to verify experimentally. e.s7 aa
/ need hardly add that an intense excite.
ment, resulted. The rumor took wings
and flew on the wind, turned to storm
storm Of exaggeration--every echo in.
creased in its sound, till nothing else could
be heard but the Barbecue Camp Meeting.'
1t became the focus Of fthought-the staple
ofdreamss And thus the unknown preach.
or had insured one thing in advance
congregation embracing the entire popula.
ton of the coun:ry-which was likely the
sole purpose Of his stratagem. -q.z
| was travelling in that part Of Texas
at the time, and my imagination being in.
famed by the common curiosity, took
some trouble and attended. 3, But although
my eyes Witnessed the extraordinary scene,
may well despair. Of the undertaking 10
paint it: the pen Of Homer, or the pencil
Of Hogarth were alone adequate to the
sublimity and burlesque of such a compli.
Gated task. may only sketch the angu
lar outlines. .s, e.-v z.s, =. .....-..-.f..... T..
A space had been cleared away imme-
diate!y around the magni6cen. Double
Spring which boiled up with sufficient
force to turn mill-wheel, in the very cen.
ter Of the evergreen grove. Here q pul
pit had been raised, and before it Z was the