While in the association and among the churches west of the Brazos the admirers of Alexander Campbell were giving us trouble, the brethren east of the Trinity were suffering sorely in consequence of the anti-missionary element.[i]
Morrell would continue by writing concerning
the Sabine
Baptist Association, “The anti-missionary and free-will elements, went off
into small and separate organizations.” Further, he notes in the minutes of the
Free Will Missionary Baptist Association of October 1850, “that it met with the
Ayish Bayou church, in San Augustine County, Elder G. W. Slaughter as
moderator.” Morrell makes no further mention of G. W. Slaughter. Nevertheless,
Slaughter abandoned the “free-will elements” and became a leading minister and
missionary in the Baptist State Convention of Texas.[ii]
Morrell seems unaware that “the admirers of Alexander Campbell were giving us trouble” in East Texas as well. However, that is exactly what was happening in Sabine and San Augustine counties. The leading men appear to be Peter Eldridge and G. W. Slaughter, though joined for a time with B. E. Lucas and B. F. Burroughs. At least Slaughter and Lucas were Methodists who had been converted to Baptist views on baptism. All four were members of the Jackson Masonic Lodge near Milam near Sabine County. Jesse Witt, a recent missionary arrival to San Augustine, sensed a problem.
In the spring of 1848 Benjamin F. Burroughs asked that Southern Baptist missionary Jesse Witt assist in ordaining Slaughter and two other men, J. B. Packer and R. Meador [or Meadow]. Witt initially consented and spent the night at Slaughter’s house along with Packer and Meador and examined them. The next morning he declared that he could take no part in the ordination, “saying to them almost with tears in his eyes, that they were as rotten in doctrine as rotten could be.” He did not mean to hurt their feelings and loved them dearly as Christians, but “went back to church and preached for them with great warmth and feeling.” Much to the surprise of the church and the whole county, Witt talked with them freely about their “Open public advocacy of apostasy and open communion,” and “told them he was conscientious in the matter, and could not participate in their ordination.” Since all the church members were unfamiliar with church rules they were critical of Witt because they knew no better at the time.[iii]
Strangely, Witt nevertheless spoke of the
exclusion of the open communionists from the Sabine Association in a derogatory
manner. He noted this gave the “antis” a majority to control the association.
I attended the meeting of the Sabine Association last week. This body was composed of churches, some of which were missionary in sentiment, others anti-missionary, and some open communionists. The latter were excluded. This gave the anties a majority, who, forthwith declared non-fellowship with all missionaries, Masons, Sons of Temperance, &c., &c.[iv]
Witt was generally critical of East Texas
churches, at least the ones with which he was familiar. He wrote, “I have not
found one church, thus far, in a wholesome condition.” He found “errors in doctrine
and disorder in practice.”[v]
Doubtless, some of Witt’s criticisms of East Texas reflected his own
prejudices. However, it will become abundantly clear that most Baptists found
general disorder in the churches associated with the Eldridge-and-Slaughter
faction. Eldridge and Slaughter almost united with the Campbell movement – even
to the point of agreeing on “baptism for remission of sins.” At least this was
the understanding of Restorationist William DeFee.
San Augustine County, Texas, July 22, 1847.
I have just returned from Shelby county, Texas—that notable place for wickedness, for “regulating,” and poisoning. Brother M. R. Withers, and myself preached on last Sunday, and we organized a church at Richard Hooper’s house. He has been a Baptist, his wife a Presbyterian; they both joined the church! The church is called Zion. It is the first Christian church ever organized in that county. We organized with 8 members—four males and four females. Several others have been immersed for the remission of sins—two on the same day. The following is the Constitution of the church, viz. –
“We, the Christians of the Church called Zion, have met together this day, the 18th of July, 1847, and give each other our hearts and hands, and all agree to take the Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and practice.”
We had a meeting twelve days ago, in Sabine county, with brothers Peter Eldridge and G. W. Slaughter, Baptist preachers, on union and creeds, and agreed to unite on “one Lord, one faith, one baptism for remission of sins.”
We want you to do all in your power to send a preacher well recommended, to set things in order. Much good might be done now in these parts.
WILLIAM DEFEE.[vi]
B. F. Burroughs was carried away with the
dissimulation. He later attributed his deliverance to J. R. Graves and The
Baptist.
In a long and interesting private letter, Bro. B. F. Burroughs, of Leon county, Texas says he must ever thank God that The Baptist fell into his hands thirty-odd years ago, since by it he has steered clear of Campbellism, which had well nigh wrecked him.[vii]
Years earlier, in an obituary sent to The
Tennessee Baptist in 1853, Burroughs explained that the Bethel Baptist
Church in Sabine County, Texas in April 1850 “became in gross disorder, being
lead away into the doctrines commonly known as ‘Campbellism,’ apostacy and free
communion, by their pastor, Rev. Peter Eldridge, who left Barbour county, Ala.,
in disorder, but that fact was not known to the church then.”[viii]
In May 1853, those who withdrew from Bethel Church went into the organization
of the New Hope Baptist Church. What became of Bethel is unknown.
The “official” and predominant record cites the
Sabine Baptist Association as “anti-missionary.” If by anti-missionary
Primitive Baptist is meant, that is incorrect. If by anti-missionary the
opposition to the Southern Baptist Convention and auxiliary societies of the
day is understood, that is correct. The following of Eldridge and Slaughter at
the time were “missionary,” as well as favoring membership in fraternal
societies. In 1848, the Sabine Association ended their relationship with these
preachers and churches. At the session meeting at the Hamilton Baptist Church
in Shelby County in October 1848, the Hopewell and Hamilton churches brought an
inquiry to the Association whether open communion would be tolerated. The
Association answered:
Whereas, the Bethel Church, Sabine county, the Bayou and Milam churches, have adopted the practice of open communion, which we consider contrary to the word of God, and in direct opposition of the sentiments and practice of Baptists, and the Constitution of this Association—
Resolved, That in conformity with the 5th Article of the Constitution of this Association, we withdraw from these churches, as heterodox in doctrine and practice.
This was followed by consideration of
non-fellowship with Missionary Baptists, Free Masons, and Sons of Temperance –
for all of which they declared non-fellowship.[ix]
The continuing agitations proved too much for the
health of the Sabine Association, which, on recommendation of the Mt. Zion
Church of Nacogdoches County, voted to dissolve at its 1849 session. Another
Sabine Association – in Louisiana – but with ties back to the area of Eldridge
and Slaughter, were fraught with concern over the baptisms performed by
Eldridge and his “Campbellite” disciples. In their meeting in Sabine Parish in
October 1854, the Big Sandy Creek Church queried:
Would it be legal for one of your churches to receive a member into fellowship, who having been baptized by Peter Eldridge, (now of Texas) or his followers, without re-baptism? Your committee, in regard to the above query, would respectfully state, that it would not be order, for we do not consider such to be really baptized, one essential element of baptism being wanting, viz: a legal administrator. And we have reliable evidence, both from Georgia and Alabama, that he left those States in bad disorder; besides oral testimony, of his acknowledging it in this country, and he never having been restored.[x]
Despite these concerns, it is likely that the
concerns became lost in the years – and that “Eldridge followers” who had been
admirers of Alexander Campbell strewed their baptisms across Texas. According
to Ellison, “Frontier historians James Cox and Zane Mason state that Slaughter
organized more churches and ordained many deacons and more preachers than any
other person in Texas.”[xi]
No longer should we think that “Z. N. Morrell and
the Baptists in the West” were the only ones who had “the admirers of Alexander
Campbell giving us trouble.”[xii] We
anti-missionaries who some thought they were “suffering sorely in consequence
of” can point the finger at the Campbellites too! We might even stick out our
tongues at the “missionaries” as well. J
[i] Flowers
and Fruits from the Wilderness, page 189.
[ii] G.
W.’s son, C.
C. Slaughter, became a chief financier of Convention matters.
[iii] “The East Texas Baptist
World of George Webb Slaughter, 1844-1852,” by Ron Ellison, citing
information from Texas Baptist & Herald, March 19, 1896, p. 9.
[iv] The Southern Baptist Missionary Journal,
Vol. III, No. 8, January 1849, p. 187.
[v] The Southern Baptist Missionary Journal,
Vol. III, No. 1, June 1848, p. 18. In an unique twist, Witt first wrote, “Open
communion had been introduced into some churches and greatly disturbed their
peace. I think the practice is measurably abandoned.”
[vi] The Millennial Harbinger,
Series III, Vol. IV, Alexander Campbell & W. K. Pendleton, Bethany, VA:
Printed by A. Campbell, 1847, p. 534.
[vii] The Baptist,
Saturday, September 4, 1880, p. 6/198.
[viii]
The Tennessee Baptist,
Saturday, October 29, 1853, p. 4.
[ix] Minutes
of the Sabine Baptist Association, held at the Hambleton Church, Shelby
county, on Friday and Saturday before the third Lord’s day in October, 1848, p.
5.
[x] A History of
the Baptists of Louisiana, Paxton, p. 396; See also The Tennessee Baptist,
Saturday, December 2, 1854, p. 4. The report to The Tennessee Baptist states,
“the following is a true copy of the report as handed into the Association from
the committee on documents” and bears some minor differences from the text
printed by Paxton. It also mentions that the report of the committee was “unanimously adopted.”
[xi] “The East Texas Baptist
World of George Webb Slaughter, 1844-1852,” p. 37. Though admitting he did
not have full access to the facts, W. E. Paxton stated concerned the Sabine
(Louisiana) Association report: “Our best authorities agree that the fact of
his being an impostor and an excluded person, would not necessarily invalidate
his acts if authorized by an orderly church.”
[xii] It
seems in East Texas that those in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement had a
church organized before any Baptists, other than the Pilgrim Church brought
from Illinois to Texas. The state historical marker at Antioch Church near San
Augustine says that the Antioch Church of Christ began in 1836. “William P.
DeFee, a medical doctor, arrived in Texas in 1833 and began preaching in
homes. In 1836 he began this congregation. They met in a dirt-floored, log
building on Rhoddy Anthony’s property. The name Antioch was chosen because the
disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Anthony was selected elder
and served for 50 years. About 1870 a new sanctuary was built on this land
belonging to Stephen Passmore. The building served as a schoolhouse and
community meeting place. This structure was completed in 1938.”
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