The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1922-01-06
HISTORIC CANE
RIDGE CHURCH
Famous Old Meeting House STEPPED
In Tradition Must Be Preserved
For Future.
INTERESTING HISTORY

In connection with the movement
now on foot by interested parties tt
raise a fund for the restoration an6
improvement of the old Cane Ridge
church and adjoining grounds. the
following interesting article by A
H. Robbins, Of Mt. Sterling. pub
lished in a Lexington daily, will be
timely: ...
On June %, 1920, the one hun.
dred and sixteenth birthday Of the
Christian Church in America, the
writer, in company with several
others, visited the late Capt. James
r. Rogers at his home on Cane
Ridge. The genial Captain gave us
lfhe glad hand and after showing us
the many priceless relics and heir
looms over which he has kept such
constant guard and watch, he went
with us over to "Old Cane Ridge
Meeting House" And here, seated
upon a moss-grown tomb, amid the
vine-tangled trees and within the
shadow of the Stone monument, the
mystic cords of memory" seemed to
reach his very soul and he discours-
ed long and eloquently concerning
the historic old church.
AS he turned to leave the sacred
precincts of the old meeting house,
he stopped at the spot where Barton
w. Stone had his stand during the
great camp meeting in August, 1901.
! After holding on to the fence for
some time his eyes filled with tears
and his voice trembled as he said:
Il very much fear l shall see this
/ place no more forever" And per-
haps it was his last visit to Cane
Ridge Meeting House." for before
the year was gone, he, like his great
commander, Stonewalr Jackson, had
crossed over the river to rest under
the shade"
In 1910 Captain Rogers published
history of 1.-THE Cane Ridge Meet
ing House." and from this book, to-
gether, with the Biography of Bar
ton Warren Stone" published by Ell
der John Rogers, of Carlisle, KY, in
1S47, the facts in this article are
taken.
Cane Ridge Meeting House was
built by Robert w. Finley, and his
Presbyterian followers from North
Carolina in 1891. In 1896 a young
Presbyterian minister by the name
of Barton w. Stone came to Cane
Ridge and was engaged to become
the pastor at this place and at Con-
cord. ION Friday before the third
Lords Day in August, 1901" the
great Cane Ridge camp meeting be-
gan. This was the greatest and
most remarkable religious assembly
ever gathered together on the Amer
lean continent. 1t Is estimated that
over 10000 persons encamped here
for over week. Presbyterians,
Methodists and Baptists-all were
engaged in the great excitement. 1t
was here that those strange manifes-
tations of religious frenzy, known as
the jerks, the barking exercise, the
dancing exercise and the singing ex-
ercise, reached their full flower and
fruit.
The Log Cabin Seminary, founded
by Finley, was erected the same
year 179D the meeting house was
built.
Finley opened a school here
where were taught the languages
and the higher branches Of an Eng
lish education, and was the first of
its class in the State
Many students came from a dis
lance, and, brief as was its exist
ence, only about five years, yet there
was educated here a number of men
of the learned professions who after
wards attained prominence and dis
tinction in their several professions.
1.-The seminary is entitled to the
distinction of having two of her
graduates, Robt. Trimble and Benja-
min Mills, honoring seats on the
bench of the court of highest resort,
the Kentucky Court of Appeals; and
Judge Trimble was further honored
by becoming associated with Judges
John Marshall and Storey, of the Su-
preme Court of the United States.
THE building was DESTROYED by
lightning, but fragments of it's foun-
dation are yet to be seen. It's occu-
pancy as school was only in the
days of its architect, and its living
monument few PAGES off is the
spring-Finley's Spring."
The Log Cabin Seminary is gone.
also old Concord, but the old meet
ing house still stands as il to give
an unappreciative generation yet a
chance to redeem itself by preserving
this relic OF pioneer days
The mansion at Federal Hill,
was built in 1895, and it is the hope
OF every Kentuckian that the song
which was written there will be
sung till time shall be no more and
the morning breaks eternal, bright
and fair"
Is 1t not strange that the songs
that were sung at Cane Ridge sew