Brush arbor campgrounds (and later meeting cabins or houses) became a central meeting area for visitors and especially circuit riders. A brush arbor could be a natural grove of trees or a shelter built by driving upright poles into the ground and then weaving longer poles across the top to support leafy branches that would form a primitive, roofed shelter. At the front of the arbor would be a pulpit or platform made for the occasion.
Camp grounds surrounding the brush arbor were developed to accommodate attendees, offering sufficient space for wagons and tents, cooking fires, a grazing area for animals, and would be located near a creek or river that could also be used for baptisms. Meeting houses provided shelter in inclement weather, but brush arbors were frequently used in the summer months when it was more comfortable to meet outside! Arbors and meeting houses also served as a community center for celebrations, weddings and political meetings.
Often times brush arbor meetings lasted all day and into the night. Meetings were not always held on Sunday. It was impossible for riders to observe a six or seven-day cycle between stops on the circuit. The day might begin with Bible school in the morning for children and singing in the afternoons. Sometimes a choir would include singers from different denominations. There weren’t hymnbooks to hand out; people learned the hymns from one another. Sometimes the only instrument might be a tuning fork to begin a song. Several popular hymns were “Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown,” “Amazing Grace,” “Bringing In The Sheaves,” and “Shall We Gather At The River.” The talented and the not-so-talented would often offer special music in solos, duets and quartets.
Until the Jonesville Academy chapel was built in the early 1800s, area religious gatherings were held in private homes or at the brush arbor and meetinghouse on Michael Bacon's land on Peach Creek between contemporary Arlington and Jonesville.
Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury's first recorded visit to Allen's Settlement was the weekend of Feb. 4-6, 1785.
Asbury probably conducted his sermons at Michael Bacon's meetinghouse. In the cooler weather, it is likely that the campground was filled with tents and cooking fires. The theme may have also warmed up attendees, as well. According to historian Charles Mathis, Asbury, a Methodist minister, engaged a Baptist minister in "dueling sermons" on the rights of infants to be baptized. On Tuesday, after leaving Allen's, and at the request of converts who believed "plunging" was the path to salvation, Asbury "plunged" several in a creek at a meeting hosted by Morgan Bryan. Asbury's diary indicates that the day (and we assume the water) was cold and uncomfortable....
On a subsequent visit to Allen's, Asbury noted that "fifty souls" had been saved since his last visit.
As early as the late 1770s, churches were being established in brush arbors and meeting houses throughout the Valley. Older churches such as the Jonesville First Methodist, Island Ford Baptist, Swaim and Swan Creek and Mineral Spring Baptist Churches began in camp meetings. Jonesville's Baptist Church and the Pentecostal Holiness Church (which later purchased the Baptist Church building on West Main Street in Jonesville) each evolved from gatherings in private homes. Some, such as the Arlington Baptist Church thrived first as a tent revival in the 1930's.
Historians continue to remind us that early churches were often catalysts for political movements, whether, for example, to take a position against slavery, or, in the case of historic Sandy Creek Baptist Church in Randolph County (where early Jonesville resident Brantley York's father Eli was a member), to agree to join Quakers in promoting the Regulator's Revolt in North Carolina.
After Governor Tryon decimated the Regulators, membership in the Sandy Creek Church dropped from over 600 to 14. Fleeing members, however, left to form similar churches in other parts of the state or in other states – continuing to sow the seeds of rebellion that led to the American Revolution.
North Carolina's Regulator Revolt (1766-1771)
For all the credit (justified, of course) given to the Boston Tea Party, let's clarify a few differences with the N.C. Regulator's Revolt: 1. The Regulator's Revolt occurred six years before the Boston Tea Party; 2. The Boston Tea Party was conducted under the cloak of darkness with participants dressed as Indians; the Regulator's Revolt occurred in broad daylight, first with personal appeals, petitions and culminating in an armed confrontation in which Governor Tryon's forces soundly defeated the Regulators; 3. Sixty Boston men participated in the Boston Tea Party; over 6,000 back-country colonists were involved in the North Carolina Regulator's movement; 4. U.S. History students study the significance of the Boston Tea Party; few students know the significance of the North Carolina Regulator's Revolt; 5. North Carolinians were resisting actual oppression, heavy taxation and local extortion; New Englanders were "acting out" their objection to British taxation; 6. the Regulator Revolt occurred without media coverage; the Boston Tea Party was reported in national and international newspapers.
The Regulator's Revolt was a powerful movement of backcountry farmers against excessive taxes, dishonest sheriffs, and illegal fees. Farmers resented the tax system, which was especially burdensome to the poor. The combination of corrupt merchants and lawyers who increased fees and fines further harassed struggling farmers. When farmers could not pay taxes, for example, tax collectors would claim farm tools or animals as payment. The epitome of abuse may have been when a tax collector auctioned a farmer's wife's homespun dress as partial payment of her husband's taxes.
How do historians assess the Regulator's Revolt? For clarity, the Regulators were not revolting against Great Britain or for independence, but against unfair local taxes, local officials' graft and oppressive policies.
Historians offer differing opinions on the quality of leadership within this grassroots movement, about those who wrote petitions and made appeals for the oppressed, and about related acts of violence. The Regulators first tried appeals and negotiations; it was supposedly the lack of response to the petitions and appeals that prompted Regulators to storm courtrooms, to assault court officials and to raze the homes of lawyers and tax collectors.
When Gov. William Tryon responded with force, Regulators won two preliminary skirmishes with his militia, but lost a critical battle at Alamance when their leader, Herman Husbands, a Quaker, deserted them during the fight. Lacking leadership, organization, adequate arms and ammunition, the Regulators were no match for Tryon's troops.
Although the number of Regulators killed in battle remains unconfirmed (possibly nine to twelve), at least six men were later hanged for treason. Hundreds of captured farmers, however, took oaths of loyalty to the Crown while others simply relocated to other regions and other states. Governor Tryon, in an effort to quell further uprisings, pledged to monitor local officials more closely. To control the size of local militias and to deter future revolts, Tryon divided larger "backcountry" counties into smaller governing units. (See the realignment of Surry, Burke, Rowan, Chatham, Orange, Guilford, Wake, Johnston, Cumberland Counties.)
Historians concur that the Regulator's Revolt failed only on the last battlefield. The spirit of revolt was never defeated and would live to see another rebellion. Observers witnessed the intensifying levels of resentment to taxation and to British control, the critical need for leadership on and off the battlefield, and the willingness of colonists to fight for independence.
Local Involvement
Because Regulators were not officially mustered into the militia, all names of approximately 6000 participants in the Revolt were never recorded. We are told, however, that two men with connections to Allen's Settlement participated actively.
Samuel Allen, identified as the father of David Allen, signed at least one petition and was on Regulator rolls. Samuel Jones, identified as the father of Hardy Jones, Jonesville's namesake, was issued a pardon for his involvement and was listed on Regulator rolls.
To illustrate again the character of colonists in Allen's Settlement, readers are apprized that, in a few years, David Allen and his sons will join Hardy Jones in the fight for American independence.
Next: Early Leaders and the Role of Allen's Settlement in the American Revolution
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