The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-12-23
FEAR A GREAT FL
A RELIGIOUS SECT IN VIRGINIA
WITH THEIR ARKS. \

just Like Old Nosh's-D
Continue Sixty Days-Food
| Away.
NORFOLK, Va, Dec. 16.-Flo!
about the placid waters of Curri
sound, near the mouth of the Chol
river, are bargelike house boats. ThA
are $50 men, women and a few chi
dren on these boats, and they are al
looking towards Christmas, not within
the merry anticipation Of the rest of
the world, tut with dread.
The people on these boats call the
selves Sancti6catienists, and they 3
pect a second flood to deluge the ear
on Christ's birthday. The four boats
they call arks, and the leader Of the
strange band styles himself Noah. 9e
is a religious fanatic of a peculiar type,
and claims to have had a vision in
which he was warned of the coming Of
the flood. He appears to be deeply in
earnest and a firm believer in the truth
of his peculiar representations. His
real name is Joseph Lynch. Heisabout
IS years old, is tall, thin aud gaunt,
and is a common type of the poor.
white on the Eastern shore of Virgin
ia and North Carolina.
Before he became the modern Noah
he was poor farmer, like others OF
his class. OF education he has practi-
cally none, but he is .shrewder than
the others, and, moreover, he possesses
rude eloquence which seems to have
given him great power over his igno-
rant neighbors. In some way he has
gathered a peculiar medley of Biblical
information and this he has cunning
ly distorted to serve his ends.
A trifle less than year ago he sold
his farm and purchased an old barge,
which he remodeled on the lines of the
pictures of the original ark. He made
it habitable, and then set about che
work OF making converts. Just what
means he adopted is not known, but
he was surprisingly successful, con-
sidering the absurdity of his claims.
Men left their wives and children to
begin lie in the ark, and wives de-
serted husbands and families. In a
short time it became necessary to se-
cure second ark, and lateron third
aud then fourth.
There is no knowing how large .
feet Noah Lynch would havegethered
about him had not the sensible peOpfB
of the surrounding country risen In 8
their might and with shotguns, rifles
and pistols descended upon the four
barges. The rattle of bullets against
the sides of the arks showed that the
reformers meant business. One OF the
women On Noah Lynch's boat had the
hardihood to poke her head out OF one
of the windows to argue with the reg
ulators, but the next instant she fell
back dead, with four bullet holes in
her head. The men in that country
shoot surprisingly straight, but had
they known that their target was q
woman her life would have been
spared. The attack of the regulators
was made in the night time, while
big revival was going on, and as they
were shooting from some distance
they did not know until next morn
ing that it was a woman they had
killed.
This attack had the effect Of check
ing the alarming growth of the Sane.
tifcationists. Noah Lynch ceased
much of his activity in making new
converts and many of those who had
Joined the band thought better oft
and returned to their homes. The
arks, which had been anchored close
to the bank of Chowan River, for the
convenience of communicating with
those on shore and to afford an easy
method for intending converts to par.
ticipate in the revivals, were moved
out into the broader waters OF Curri-
tuck Sound. Here the Sancti6cation-
lists were comparatively safe from fu.
ture descents by tho regulators. The
attack Just described took place last
July and since then Noah Lynch and
his band kept very quiet until within
the past two or three weeks, when
they renewed their activity.
Visitors to the revivals are taken
cut to the barges in rowboats, and new
converts are being added to the band
every few nights. as the ignorance OF
the country people is not proof against
the terrific word pictures, drawn BY
the crude eloquence of Noah Lynch,
of the flood which is to devastate the
earth on the 25th of the month. Many
of the converts seem to honestly be-
lieve that-Lynch is the modern Noah,
and profess faith in the certainty OF
the prophesied flood.
Others of the converts, and the bulk
of them, are mere shams. Life in the
ark is very easy and much more at
tractive to indolent mirds and bodies
than the drudgery of farm work.
Each new convert contributes all Of
his or her worldly wealth to the COM
mon fund, the surrounding waters
abound with fish, and vegetables can
be had from the farming folk in the
vicinity for next to nothing. The
women on the boats perform the bulk
of the work, and this consists almost
wholly of preparing the meals, which
are models of simplicity.
The regulators Of last summer would
never have been called into life had it
not been for the fact that Noah Lynch
and his cohorts were making particular
efforts to induce young country girls
to become converts, and in several
oocoo bod s1,cceeded One of the last !