The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-13

| Norfolk. Va, Dec. officiating about
the placid waters of Currituck sound,
near the mouth of the Chowan River,
are four bargeiilze house boats. There
are $50 men, women. and few child
ren on these boats. and they are all
looking toward Christmas, not with
the merry anticipation. OF the rest of
the world, but with dread
The people on these boats call them
selves Sanctifcationists, and they ex-
pect a second flood to deluge the earth
or Christ's birthday. The four boats
they call arks, and the leader of the
strange band styles himself Noah. He
is religious fanatic of peculiar
type. and claims to have had vision
in which he was warned o. the COM
ing Of the flood. He. appears to be
deeply in earnest and a firm believer
in the truth of his peculiar prognosti-
cations. His real name is Joseph
Lynch. He is about So years old, is
TALL thin and gaunt, with long
struggling beard, and is common
type of the poor white, on the eastern
shore Of Virginia and North Carolina.
Before he became the modern Noah
he wars a poor farmer, like others of
his class. OF education he has prac-
tically none, but he is shrewder than
the others, and, moreover, he pos
sesseS a rude eloquence which seems
to have given him great power over
his ignorant neighbors. In some way
he has gathered a peculiar medley of
Biblical information and this he has
cunningly distorted to serve his ends.
A trifie 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 the
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 life in the ark, and wives de-
serted husbands and families. In a
short time it became necessary to Sc
cure a second ark, and later on third
and then a fourth.
REGULATORS STEP IN.
There is no knowing how large a fleet
Noah Lynch would have gathered
about him had not the sensible people
of the surrounding country risen in
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
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 a
woman her life would have been
spared. The attack of the regulators
was made in the nighttime while big
revival was going on and as thew
were shooting from some distance they
did not know until next morning that
il was woman they had killed.
This attack had the effect of check
ing the alarming growth of the Sancti-
hcationists. Noah Lynch ceased much
of his activity in making new converts
and many of those who had Joined the
band thought better of it and returned
TO their homes. The arks, which had
been anchored close to the bank
of the Chowan river. for the convent |
ence Of communicating with those on |
shore and to afford an easy method !
for intending converts to participate in |
the REVEALS, were moved out into the |
broader waters of Currituck Sound |
Here the Sanctificationists were COM !
paratively safe from future descents by |
the regulators. The attack just de- |
scribed 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 out |
to the barges in rowboats, and new
converts are being added to the band
every few nights, as the ignorance of !
some of the country people is not proof
gainst the terrific word pictures.
drawn by the eloquence of Noah