Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1855-06-21
PAUL DENTON,
The Texan Missionary.
By CHARLES SUBMERGED.

IN Durins the last week OF Oeptef
90 Der, 1886, the first successful Cam
ne Meeting was held in Eastern Texa
n / employ the term successful" b
OS cause several previous failures ha
ty apparently rendered all efforts Of
like kind perfectly hopeless. Il
: deed, the meridian at that perio'
y was most uncongenial toreligious an
% moral enterprise. The country bo
/ idering on the Sabine, had been occl
f. pied rather than settled, by a clss
$ Of adyenturers almost as wild as th
IS savages whom they bad scarcely ez
. pelied, and the beast Of prey whic
g still disputed their domain of prime
val forest. Prolessed gamblers, refu
gees from the Jail, absconded debtors
outlaws from every land, forgers o
false coin, thieves, robbers, murder
ers, interspersed among uneducatet
hunters and herdsmen, made up the
strange miscellany, without courts, OIL
churches, or schools, or even the
shadow Of civil authority or subordi
nation-a sort Of municipal pande.
monium, where fierce passions sat
euthroned, waving its bloody .sceptre,
the naked bowie-knife. Let no one
accuse me Of exaggeration, for the
sake Of effect; l am speaking now Of
Shelby county-that homo of the
lLynchers-the terrible location,
where ten years later, forty persons
were poisoned to death at marriage
supper! aaos s
1t will be obvious that In such a
community very few would be dis.
posed to patronize camp-mestings,
audaccordingly dozen different tri-
ais, at various times, had never col.
lected a hundred hearers on any sin
gle occasion. But even these we're
not allowed to worship in peace: uni.
formly, the first day of night, band
Of armed tesperadoes, headed by tho
notorious Watt Foeman, chief judge
and execu.ioner ofthe Shelby Lynch
ers, broke into the altar and scattered
the mouruers, or ascended the pm-
pit ard treated the preachers to a
gratuitous. robe of tar and feathers. 4
Hence, all prudent evangelists soon
learned to shun the left bank Of the
Sabine, as if it had been infested by
a cohort Of demons; and two whole
years elapsed without any new at
tempt to erect the cross in SO peril.
Gus a field. /
At length, however. an advertise
ment appeared, promising another ef- |
fort in behalf Of the gospel. The
notice was unique, perfect back I
wood's curiosity, both as to it's tenor
and mode of publication. Let me
give it verbatim ct literalim:
Barbecue Camp Meeting. Ar
"There will be a mp-Meeting,
to commence the last Monday Of this
month, at the Dubois Spring Grove,
near Peter Brinson's, in tho county
Of Shelby. y.e+-
"The exercises will open with a
splendid barbecue. Preparations are
being made to suit all tastes; there
wilEbe a good barbecue, better liquor,
and the best of Gospel. +re, iHgst.
- ~ PAUL DENT0N,.n
asrr =. Missionary, NJ. E. c.
Sept. l, 1885,"
This singular document was nailedt
to the door Of every public house
and grocery: it was attached to the
largest trees at the Intersection Of all
cross roads and principal trails. even
the wandering hunters themselves,
found it IN remote dells of the noun
tains, miles away from the smoke of
human habitation. II
AT first many regarded the matter
IS a hoax played eff by some wicked ]
yag, in ridicule of popular creduhty.
But this hypothesis was pegahTed by |,
he statements of Peter Brlnson, pro- |.
,rietor of the Dubois Spring Grove, 4
who informed all inquirers, that he
lad been employed and paid by a {
stranger, calling himself a Methodist p
Missionary, to provide an ample bar t
,ecue, at the period and place adyer- Is
ised. .ro seJ =, q s
e.But the liquor-the better liquor}
-are. you to furnish the liquor tooF J
vas the inyariable question. of each t
fisitor.
'The missionary said that he would II