CHAPTER 2
A PREACHER IS MADE
1856-1860
Prior to admission at Florence Wesleyan University, Edwin went before the Admission Committee, comprised of the examining faculty of many disciplines, to ensure he was qualified for college level work. Prospective students were required to have an acquaintance with English grammar, arithmetic, geography and Latin or Greek grammar. Upon passing his admission exam and paying his tuition of $25 for 10 months of education, he was assigned housing with a local private family. The year before, the college had abolished dormitories, as they deemed them a distraction, “a groggery with ten-pin allies and billiard tables” which discouraged higher learning and morals. Therefore, all non-resident students were required to live at quarters provided by local families at a cost of $70 for 10 months. This fee included board, washing, fuel, room rent, and servant’s hire, however, it did not include lights (candles or oil lamps), as students were notorious for “burning the midnight oil.”
During his freshman year of college, Edwin began to chew and smoke tobacco, a habit that would last for 33 years. Edwin’s older brother, William, married Susan Emily Hall in Davidson County, Tennessee, on November 11, 1856. When classes finished for the summer, Edwin returned to Shelbyville to work in his father’s store. On January 9, 1858, after Edwin had returned to Alabama for his second year at college, his youngest brother John Mitchell died at age 6 in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
During the time that Edwin attended Florence Wesleyan University, the college had two literary societies: Dialectical and Lafayette. These societies each had their own libraries which became the basis of the school library in later years. As early as 1842, between them they possessed more than 2,000 volumes. Edwin was listed as a member of the Lafayette Society in February of 1859, though he was probably a member prior to his senior year. Literary societies developed among college students as a means to explore and refine their opinions on a variety of educational topics beyond what was taught in the classroom. They would have held meetings, given speeches and debated the other society in a good natured rivalry. In addition, each year the Dialectical and Lafayette Societies picked two or three of its members from the senior class as editors of the school paper, known as ‘The Southern College Magazine’. This paper was published monthly by the students of the college. In February of 1859, Edwin was listed as one of the three Senior Lafayette editors of The Southern College Magazine.
The Southern College Magazine published an article in May of 1856, entitled ‘College Life,’ which allows us a glimpse into Edwin’s school experience. “We’ll do well to remember when a humble Fresh, with what feelings of despair we revered the long journey before us. They were something similar to those of a traveler when entering the confines of a great desert and beholding the wide waste of sands stretching as far as the eye can reach, without a tree or flower to change the monotony… While the end of our college course was the bright oasis with silvery brooks murmuring over beds of pebbles and gems. About two weeks before the end of his first year, the Fresh may always be found in his room cramming all the day and half the night, in order that he may be a successful candidate for a higher class. He generally stands a good examination, often far better than he ever does afterwards, however is he out of the examination room before he is shouting at the top of his voice, “Sophomore,” and immediately hastens to receive the congrats of his numerous friends. After spending two months at home he returns to college and assumes his hard earned dignity. Well does he now deserve his name – he cocks his hat on the side of his head as only Sophs can do, looks down with contempt on the whole tribe of Freshs and Preps. He spews forth bombastic sentences interlarded with Greek and Latin words, and endeavors to forcibly impress his hearers with the profundity of his knowledge, by frequently quoting from Homer and Horace. This year is his year of study, and if he is any kind of student by the end of his term he has learned enough about the classics, and acquired a taste for mathematics.”
During his college experience, Edwin struggled terribly with the decision of devoting his life to the ministry, often consulting with trusted faculty and friends. Edwin’s mind, temperament, disposition and training fitted him for another vocation, however, he felt the call to become a minister early in life and this inclination persisted. Edwin felt his calling was not to be a minister appointed to one location, but to be an itinerant, or ‘traveling,’ minister, also known as a ‘circuit rider.’ The development of itinerant ministers was due to the fact that there was limited number of clergy and a greater number of churches and congregations. The traveling ministers would service a group of churches in a certain area, traveling from one to the other, over the course of weeks or months. They would often stop enroute at each house they encountered to rest, eat and share the gospel. This type of preacher was typically geared for the adventurous, brave and strong. They were sent to parts of the country that were rural, rough and often newly settled. Travel was difficult in these parts of the country, rivers were not bridged and roads were crude and dangerous. They had to endure riding horseback, walking long distances, swimming creeks and sleeping outside, not to mention braving the elements of every type of weather while surviving illness, hunger and wild animals. They slept where lodging was available and stayed on the road traveling from congregation to congregation, house to house. People would come from all around and congregate for days or weeks during the services, which if not held in a church, were held outside at a campground often near a spring of fresh water. The ministers taught morality to the people, in the form of prohibitions against alcohol, gambling, dancing, lying and stealing. Edwin would not have chosen this lifestyle lightly, as the life expectancy of circuit riders was diminished, due to the great hardships and exposure to the elements. When Edwin was young, almost one out of every three circuit riders would die before they reached five years of service.
The circuit riders often wore an overcoat to protect them from weather, which had many pockets to hold food and gifts that were given to them from the people they visited. The horses they rode appeared thin from extreme travel. Their necessities were carried in saddlebags, which consisted of a bible, missionary journal, and writing implements of pencil, paper, feathers and ink. The circuit riders also traveled with rope which was useful in tying up their horse at night and lashing logs together, as a raft, for crossing rivers. Other implements were blankets to keep them warm, pots and utensils for cooking and oil-cloth to protect them from getting wet in rain and sleet. The minister would also carry a pocket watch to ensure he made it to his appointments on time.
As a timid student, during his senior year, Edwin approached Dr. Rivers, the President of the college, and asked to apply for a license to preach. President Rivers informed him that he would deliver his recommendation at the next Quarterly Conference, which was to be held on February 12th of 1859. Unfortunately, before the meeting, the Presiding Elder, Rev. W. Doss, became ill and the meeting was postponed for one month. When the following Conference was in session, Edwin was examined, retired, returned when called and he was declared a licensed preacher. Edwin was licensed to preach on March 12, 1859, at the beginning of his second semester of his senior year. Out of the 100 students at the college, Edwin was one of only six in the ministry; and of that six, he was one of two that was already licensed to preach. Even after his licensing ceremony, he felt that his heart was not in the work. Peace finally came later that night, after his college roommate had fallen asleep, when Edwin knelt and prayed as he had never prayed before, pleading with God to always go with him on his journey as a traveling minister. Edwin became mentally and spiritually secure, and there, for one hour or more, was the most precious communion with God that he had ever experienced.
Edwin became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. A background on this denomination is essential to fully understand much of Edwin’s life and writings. After the American Revolution, the colonists desired a new and separate church from the Church of England and thus established the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1844, the church split over the issue of slavery and southern churches took on the name Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In order to effectively manage their new organization, the church partitioned America into large geographical Conferences (i.e. the Tennessee Conference, Indian Mission Conference. etc…). These Conferences were further divided into smaller Districts, and then divided into Circuits (many churches over a wide area). Circuits were divided into Charges (2-3 churches in a smaller area), which were further divided into Stations (one church and its members). Rev. Shapard was licensed to preach through the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Tennessee Conference was organized in 1812, out of the Western Conference, by Bishops Asbury and McKendree at Fountain Head Church in Sumner County, Tennessee. By the time that Rev. Shapard was licensed, this Conference encompassed the lands of Tennessee and northern Alabama.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South was governed through a variety of meetings known as ‘Conferences’. The General Conference, which made the rules and regulations for the church, and elected new bishops, met only once every four years, in April or May, and consisted of a select few clergy and laymen, elected to attend from each Annual Conference. The Annual Conference met each year and was comprised of all the clergy and laymen from all of the districts of a particular Conference. It was presided over by a Bishop, or elected President from the Elders, and reviewed the status of the clergy, statistics of the church, finances, etc. Preachers were assigned to their new appointments by the bishop each year at the Annual Conference. The District Conference was held annually and was comprised of all of the clergy and laymen from a district. It was presided over by a Bishop, or elected President from the Elders, and reviewed the spiritual state of the district, ministerial supply and training, finances, etc. The Quarterly Conference met four times annually, at a placed designated by the Presiding Elder who resided over the Conference. All the Preachers and laymen within the Presiding Elder’s district were to attend, in order to review preacher’s statistics, etc.
A new Preacher was ‘admitted on trial’ for two years. It was expected that, during that time, all candidates for the ministry should complete a serious program of theological study. His character, competency, and preaching must prove to be advantageous to the Examining Committee before he could be ‘admitted into full connection’. A Preacher was to preach the Gospel, visit house to house, visit the sick, baptize, perform marriages in the absence of an Elder. He was to keep a directory of all the members of his Charge and to receive and expel members as needed. He was to give an account of his Charge at each Quarterly Meeting to his Presiding Elder.
A Deacon must have at least two years of service in the work as a preacher in ‘full connection’ and must pass an examination upon the course of study prescribed by the Bishops. Deacons could preach the Gospel and perform baptisms and marriages in the absence of an Elder.
An Elder must have at least two years of service as a Deacon and must pass an examination upon the course of study prescribed by the Bishops. Elders could perform baptisms and marriages, preach the Gospel and assist the Presiding Elder.
A Presiding Elder had the duty of traveling through the district in order to preach and oversee the spiritual and temporal affairs of the church. He was to attend the Quarterly Meetings over which he presided, encouraging the ministers in their studies, and to ensure that every part of the Methodist Discipline was enforced in his district. He was also to attend to the needs of the Bishops when they were in his district. At the Annual Conference, the Bishop assembled the Presiding Elders in a ‘secret cabinet’ to make the new appointments. They were sworn to secrecy, as the destiny of the Preachers and their families were in their hands. No Preacher, when he went to Conference, knew where he would go or to what he would be appointed, not even the Elders.
Sometime from May 4th through May 31st in 1859, E. R. Shapard was a guest of Bailey Springs, which was a popular antebellum health resort and mineral springs located 9 miles northeast of Florence, Alabama, in Lauderdale County. In 1846, Mr. Jonathan Bailey acquired 40 acres of land, upon which he discovered a natural spring which emanated from a nearby hill. The water was reported to have cured numerous ailments that afflicted Mr. Bailey. Over time, as others began to use the springs with similar results, its reputation grew. Soon the spring became the focal point of a resort operated by Mr. Bailey, with boarding houses for the healthy and ailing alike. After the death of Mr. Bailey in 1857, the resort changed hands to Mr. A.G. Ellis, who greatly improved the grounds by enclosing the spring with a fence and landscaping the surrounding 10 acres with shrubs and shade trees. He also improved the guest accommodations by constructing a two-story hotel with first class restaurant and ballroom, sheltering the spring with a shed covering and providing band music every evening. The guests further entertained themselves with walks, lawn bowling, billiards, cricket and the card-game ‘whist.’ It was reported that over 3,200 guests, from all over the country, visited the springs during the years of 1859 through 1860, three-fourths of whom were suffering ailments. On May 20, 1859, during the same time period that Edwin was residing at the resort, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the future Confederate General, signed the guest register. Slaves were also frequent guests of the resort, either accompanying their master as his servant or sent alone to cure their ailments. The Civil War brought an end to the grandeur of the area and despite a resurgence of popularity in the 1890s, the resort eventually closed.
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