History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

of preachers had increased thirty-fold, the Church members upward of one hundred and sixty-fold!
Nor is this all. The Mississippi Conference has contributed largely to the Memphis, Arkansas,
Florida, and the Texan conferences, and somewhat to the California Conference. It has likewise sent
forth missionaries to heathen lands; contributed nobly to the dissemination of the Scriptures, and has
endowed schools and public journals, seminaries and colleges. In this great work William Winans
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has been, under Providence, mainly instrumental." William Winans became the most
representative character of Southwestern Methodism. His last appearance in the North was at the
memorable General Conference of 1844 in New York, where the secession of the Southern Church,
on account of slavery, was initiated. He took a chief part in that controversy, for he had himself
become a slave-holder, under the plea of domestic necessity. He was then, next to Peter Cartwright,
the most unique man in the assembly; tall, thin, weather-worn, and looking the very image of a
frontier settler who had worn himself lean by the labors of the field and the hunts of the woods. He
wore no stock or neckerchief; his shirt collar lay slouchingly about his neck, and his whole attire had
the appearance of habitual neglect. And yet this rough backwoodsman was a doctor of divinity, and
a voracious reader of light and polished literature, carrying around his district saddlebags crammed
with the works of the most popular writers. In discourse he was most intensely earnest, the tight
features of his face became flushed and writhed with his emotions, his eye gleamed, and his voice
(strong but harsh) thrilled with a stentorian energy and overwhelming effect. In contrast with these
traits (unrelieved as they were by a single exterior attraction) was a mind of astonishing power,
comprehensive, all grasping, reaching down to the foundations and around the whole circuit of its
positions; not touching subjects, but seizing them as with the claws of an eagle. He threw himself
on his opponent as an anaconda on its prey, circling and crushing it. It was a rare curiosity to critical
observers to witness this rude, forbidding-looking man exhibiting in debate such a contrast of
intellectual and physical traits. His style was excellent, showing an acquaintance with the standard
models, and his scientific allusions proved him well read if not studied in general knowledge. With
the secession of the South and the consequent civil war, much of the great work he had done in
Mississippi and Louisiana was undone; but after the restoration of peace its germs were still found
vital in the soil, and promise again to cover those extended regions with evangelical harvests.
Of most of the co-laborers of these chief itinerants of the southwest hardly any records remain.
What intimations, however, we occasionally find respecting them show that they were generally
remarkable men. "The earliest recollections I have of Methodism," writes a distinguished citizen of
Mississippi, "begins with an old brick meeting-house in the village of Washington, six miles east
of Natchez. It was built mainly by the efforts of Randall Gibson, who had removed to the Mississippi
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Territory, then in the hands of the Spaniards, about the close of the revolutionary war. He settled
in the neighborhood of Natchez, subsequently moved to Jefferson and Claiborne counties, but during
the last years of his life resided in Warren, where he died, at an advanced age, leaving a numerous
family, all, I believe, in connection with the Church. His connections and descendants, consisting
of the Gibsons, Fosters, Newmans, Lums, Gillespies, Smiths, Collins, Harrisons, etc., are scattered
all over Mississippi and Louisiana, and have for half a century been the props of Methodism in these
two states. He was an apostolic-looking man, realizing my idea of St. John the Baptist, and was
remarkable for his singular mildness, his persuasive powers, good sense, and perseverance. In that
old meeting-house I heard, when a child, the celebrated Lorenzo Dow, who preached then,
punctually to the minute, in pursuance of an appointment he had made some five or six years
previous. On that previous visit he had contributed one hundred dollars to the building of the