MUSCOGEE COUNTY, GA - ASBURY CHAPEL Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Carol Odom Shaw cashaw43@cs.com Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/monroe.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm I am looking for anyone who knows the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, known as Asbury Chapel. My gg-grandfather Abraham Odom was a trustee in 1850 along with Luke Diamond, James H. Hunter, William Relanon, and J.S. Kilpatrick. They were given $1 for land for a church by Seaborn Jones. The document was in Book E: 486, 18 Sept. 1850 and recorded 6 Oct. 1853. I would appreciate any information. Carol Odom Shaw cashaw43@cs.com ============= >From "Images: A Pictorial History of Columbus, Georgia," by F. Clason Kyle (1986), p. 55: "Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1863. This congregation was originally called 'Old Asbury,' the name given by worshipers shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation. The present church is built on land granted by act of the Georgia Legislature in 1873. It was erected in 1876 under the pastorate of Rev. Wesley J. GAINES at a cost of $20,000. It is of frame construction with exterior walls of solid masonry and handmade bricks. The graceful central tower and flanking turrets were added in 1886 during the ministry of Rev. L. L. THOMAS. The church has been called the finest example of Victorian Gothic Revival in Columbus, and Saint James AME ranks as the second oldest church of the denomination in Georgia. (Photograph from the author's collection.)" An online White Pages listing gives the address of 1002- 6th Avenue in Columbus for St. James AME Ch! u! rch; phone 706-322-8043. According to "Columbus on the Chattahoochee," by Etta Blanchard Worsley (1951), p. 41: In the early 1820's, there was an Indian mission with school called Asbury Mission established by the Methodist Reverend William CAPERS just north of the Ft. Mitchell Military Reservation and west of the bounds of Coweta Town (in Alabama, across the Chattahoochee River from what is now Ft. Benning), named for Bishop Francis ASBURY. I don't gather that this mission had any direct connection to the Asbury Chapel in the query - Asbury seems to have been a popular name for Methodist institutions. Thus far, I've found no reference in my sources specifically to an Asbury Chapel in Columbus, nor to Rev. Mack STEWART. I'll do some more checking. Hope some of this helps, John in TX retrofit@flash.net Stephen Barber Subject: Re: [GAMUSCOGEE] Re: Asbury Chapel-Muscogee Co. 1850's I am researching the emergence of the A. M. E. denomination in the Chattahoochee Valley in late 1865 and in 1866 and trying to find information on some of the African-American preachers, most notably Mack Stewart. I'm interested in Asbury Chapel because I don't know much about it. I thought the only white Methodist church in Columbus in the 1850s was St. Luke. Part of looking at the formation of black congregations is to see the white churches from which that came. ========= From: "Kate" Subject: [GA-AfricaAmer-L] re: AME churches - Chattahoochee valley GA To: GA-AfricaAmer-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <000f01c39a4e$6107e5e0$6601a8c0@katexp> Content-type: text/plain; charset=Windows-1252 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Message: #3 1870 Federal Census: Georgia, Muscogee Cnty, Columbus page 671, Visit 165 Mac, Stewart age 70 Male Black Preacher born N. Carolina Value of Real Estate : 600 Value of Personal Estate: 125 Annie Stewart age 69 born N. Carolina Esop age 12 at school born Georgia I can attach an image of this census page to a private email. Let me know if you want it. Living next door: Esop Smith age 65 born N. Carolina also a preacher with Elizabeth age 58 b. Georgia Kate brdkfam@owt.com ============ In 1796, Blacks who worshipped at the John Street Church in New York City were dissatisfied with their exclusion from exercising church privileges and weary from having to receive Sacraments after the White families. Led by James Varick, they organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The distinguishing characteristic of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was freedom, and it took a pronounced position on slavery. The word "Zion" was added in 1848. http://www.co.jackson.ms.us/GIPages/HistoryPics/BlackHistoryMonth/History%20of%20Asbury%20Chapel%20A.htm The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a unique and glorious history. It is unique in that it is the first major religious denomination in the Western world that had its origin over sociological rather than theological beliefs and differences. The immediate cause of the organization of the A.M.E.Church was the fact that members of the St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia Pa., in 1787 segrated its colored members from its white communicants. The Blacks were sent to the gallery of the Church, to use the venerable Richard Allen's own words. One Sunday as the Africans, as they were called, knelt to pray outside of their segregated area they were actually pulled from their knees and told to go to a place which had been designated for them. This added insult to injury and upon completing their prayer, they went out and formed the Free African Society, and from this Society came two groups: The Episcopalians and the Methodists. The leader of the Methodist group was Richard Allen. Richard Allen desired to implement his conception of freedom of worship and desired to be rid of the humiliation of segregation,especially in church. Richard Allen learned that other groups were suffering under the same conditions. After study and consultation, five churches came together in a General Convention which met in Philadelphia, Pa., April 9-11, 1816, and formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The name African Methodist came naturally, as Negroes at that time were called Africans and they followed the teaching of the Methodist Church as founded by John Wesley. The young Church accepted the Methodist doctrine and Discipline almost in its entirety. Saundra Brown =============== adandew" Subject: Re: [GA-AfricaAmer-L] Asbury Chapel To: GA-AfricaAmer-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <410-22003106252595591@earthlink.net> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT X-Message: #8 This message brings to fore an important point to remember. The term Methodist Episcopal applies to doctrine and governance. Methodist in doctrine and governed by Bishops. There are actually three "African" derivatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church started by the Wesleys. The African Methodist Episcopal Church started by Richard Allen and the group out of Baltimore and Maryland; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church started by Peter Varick and colleagues in NY just a few years later as below: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Methodist denomination. It was founded in 1796 by black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City and was organized as a national body in 1821. The church operates in the United States, Africa, South America, and the West Indies and maintains Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C. The U.S. membership of the church in 1998 was about 1.2 million, making it one of the largest African Methodist bodies. 1 See D. H. Bradley, A History of the A.M.E. Zion Church (2 vol., 1956­70). After the end of the Civil War the Methodist Episcopal Church decided to give the Africans their own churches and set them up with property and African pastors in their "own" Colored Methodist Episcopal Church now called the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. These are all so close in doctrine and liturgy that in 70's and 80's they were talking about merging into one denomination. To save yourself some time, you will want to make sure you have the right denomination. Good sources of information would be individuals whose family have been long-time members and who are still in the church, and Presiding Elders, all of which you could access by contacting a church in the area and asking. A challenge might be the migration of the 20's when communities moved North. But there was always a Bishop (or multiple Bishops from multiple denominations) who were responsible for the churches in that area. Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:14:04 -0800 From: "adandew" Subject: RE: [GA-AfricaAmer-L] AME St. Luke - Chattahoochee To: GA-AfricaAmer-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <410-220031002620144759@earthlink.net> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT X-Message: #2 This issue came up recently. Essentially the Black Methodist Churches (AME, AME Zion and CME) all developed in response to racism in the Methodist Episcopal church (now United Methodist after being reunited in the 60's from a split over the issue of slavery.) The AME Church had its founding in Philadelphia with Richard Allen and others. The AME Zion church had its inception in New York with Peter Varick and others. The Colored (now Christian) Methodist Church arose out of the Methodist Church of the South after the Civil War when the whites decided to give the freed slaves their own churches. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=77522588 this link gives a bit of an historical overview of the differences between AME and AMEZ. http://www.umc.org/abouttheumc/history/ gives information into the history of the white Methodists African Methodist Episcopal, 1787 - Philadelphia Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and a group of black worshipers withdrew from Saint George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia after meeting with discriminatory treatment. Relying upon the newly organized Free African Society, Jones and Allen led blacks to found respectively Saint Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1816 representatives from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Attleboro (Pennsylvania), and Salem (New Jersey) met at the Bethel church to establish the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination with Richard Allen as the first bishop. 1796 New York City in a group of blacks worshiping at John Street Methodist Episcopal ======================= African Methodist Episcopal Zion, AME Zion church had its inception in New York with Peter Varick and others =========================== Colored Methodist Episcopal -- (South after the Civil War) But the part you can see on-line doesn't allow you to view the entire thing...13 pages. Article Title: Black Ecumenicism: Efforts to Establish a United Methodist Episcopal Church, 1918-1932. Contributors: Dennis C. Dickerson - author. Journal Title: Church history. Volume: 52. Issue: 4. Publication Year: 1983. Page Number: 479.