Liberty County, Georgia - Organization, 1903

Organization

_ Soon after the arrival of the families in 1754, a log house was erected for religious worship, services being held at pri- _vate houses for four preceding Sabbaths.1 The first sermon in said house was preached June 7th and the first communion held September 8th. On the 20th of August of this year, they held a meeting at that place for the purpose of forming a covenant and subscribing to the same, and also considering the propriety of putting up a more substantial and com- » modious house of worship.

In order to understand what follows, it is necessary to bear in mind that this church was of the Congregational or 'Independent form. According to the genius of this organization the government consists of two co-ordinate branches, viz.: the church and the society; the former consisting of the male communing members, the latter of all males who pledge themselves to aid in the support of the minister and ordinances of religion, and attend the annual meetings. To the former was given the spiritual government and management of the church; to the latter was entrusted the management of all its temporal affairs. The Session consisting of all the male members of the church, received and dismissed at its annual meetings arranged for the call and support of the minister, the construction and preservation of the meeting house, and managed all the temporalities of the church. In the call of the minister, however, the church members were entitled to two votes. At each annual meeting the pastor and clerk were elected, and also a board or executive committee termed ''select men,'"'? to whom the execution of important matters were usually entrusted. | have no means of determining. We have the names of all the subscribers from first to last, but as the dates of the seyeral signatures are not given, it is simply impossible to tell how many, or who were original signers. The society has, during the entire period of the church's existence, and even since, down to the present time, had its annual and occasional or called meetings. The account of these meetings is full and complete, contained in two manuscript volumes, one of which I have had recently published.

Articles Of Incorporation

1865, when the society ceased to hold its meetings, leaving the account of its reorganization in 1887 and those who have since subscribed, for a future page. -

Articles And Rules Of Incorporation Agreed Upon By A Society Settled Upon Midway And Newport In Georgia

We, the subscribers, settled on Midway and Newport in Georgia; being sensible of the advantages of good order and social agreement, among any people, both for their Civil and Reli sious Benefit; and especially its necessity amoung us as a Christain Society, being mostly a dissenting or congregational church, that doth not ordinarily come under all the privileges of the establishment; and being willing to lay a foundation by the Blessing of God of peace and harmony among ourselves, and inoffensiveness to all our neighbors, and considering the necessity of forming ourselves into a corporation, by some certain and explicit rules and covenants, in order to obtain these good ends proposed; do accordingly come under the following articles of agreement, jointly among and with each other: ,

I. We promise that we will each of us cheerfully contribute a reasonable part, according to our ability and circumstances, for the support of a stand- - ing Ministry of the Gospel and its ordinances amoung us, viz: By assisting in the building or necessary repairs of a m2etinz house or place of public worship ; and raising a suitable salary for such Minister or Ministers as shall at any time be chosen and settled among us, or any other expenses that may be needfull for the due support and comfortable enjoyment of Gospel Ordinances.

II In order to dothis, and for the better management of our public affairs we agree to meet annually at our usual Place of Meeting for Public,Worship on the second Wednesday of every March (or if prevented by Rain or otherwise, upon some other day in the same month to be occasionally appointed by such person or persons as shall be deputed thereto) toconsult about the necessary business of the Society.

III. We agree that in these, or other occasional meetings (said occasional Meetings being publicly advertised, or notified in our congregations two - preceding Sabbaths before the day appointed) every common matter of a Secular Nature shall be determed by a majority of Voices or Votes of such convened persons of the Society, who according to their circumstances and capacities, both have been, and continue to be, supporters of, and attenders on a Gospel Ministry among us, and who are agreeable to these our articles of agreement, members of our Society. But in things more immediately respecting religion, such as judging of the soundness, Orthodoxy and due qualifications of ministers, and consequently in the approbation and choice of such as shall, or may be settled among us, the members of our church in full communion, being also supporters and attenders as above said, shall have a double vote.

IV. We agree to choose annually, three or more Select Men, immediately to manage our Public Business, according to the instructions, powers, restric tions that shall be given them by the Society.

of our determinations and accounts of things secular, in our annual or occasional meetings; and also a Church Book or Record of the Acts and proceedings of the Church of things of a Religious Nature ; and furthermore, a re cord of births, baptisms, marriages that shall be within our Society, and any other memorable events that may be usefull to be transmitted to posterity, in Distinct Books provided by the Society; and that a reasonable consideration be annually allowed to said clerk for his trouble.

VI. Finally, that these Articles may be a standing rule and bond of our Constitution, we agree that they be proposed toour children as they grow up to a capacity of being members and supports of our Society, and to such other persons as may from time to time be disposed and admitted incorporate with us; to be also signed by them, and that no person be deemed a member of our Society, so as to have a vote or voice in determining and manageing our Social Affairs, that doth not also join with us in observing this our agreement, and in Testimony thereof, signing these articles when of these names, one John, the son of John, and another the son of Benjamin; and one William, the son of Benjamin, and another the son of Richard, these letters were used to distinguish them. Thus John Baker B, or William Baker B, was the son of Benjamin, whilst William Baker R was the son of Richard Baker.

It is very much to be regretted that we are unable to say as much concerning the organization of the church as of the society. Ofthe former, we have no account whatever. Indeed it seems to have been no new organization at all, but simply a transfer or continuation of the Carolina church, with its officers and members. Hence we find no mention of pastor, deacons, or elders at the first meeting; no mention of election of select men or clerk. At the second annual meeting, in 1755, it was voted that Mr. Benjamin Baker be continued clerk, and Messrs. John Stevens, John Elliott, William' Baker and Parmenas Way, be continued select men.

The first direct intimation in the Midway Records of the existence of a church is the mention of the administration of the sacrament of the supper and the reception of certain members into its communion. We know who was the pastor, the clerk and the select men, but who the original members, we are left largely to conjecture. These, together with the account of the organization, might have been upon the first leaves of the Record, quite a number of which are now lost. This much, however, might be said to the contrary, that in the paged Index to the volume which we now have, nothing is said about those things there. It might be that the organization of the society was considered sufficient, especially as there seems to be a mixing up at times of spiritual and temporal things in the proceedings of the society; they, in many instances, considering questions pertaining solely to the spiritual life oi the church. If we only had the records of the Carolina church, this deficiency could easily be supplied. But we have no account of them even after the most diligent search. As we have a list of all who have ever joined, a list of the members in 1776, and also the baptisms of the children, and the names of parents, by a comparison and computation we can somewhat approximate to the number, and no doubt give a majority of the names with a tolerable degree of certainty, but after all, it will be but conjecture with regard to quite a number. As the removal of the families continued for several years, I seriously doubt whether the church at any time during the first three years of its existence had a membership of over seventy-five.

As the first account of an election for deacon was in 1767, the supposition is that there was but one deacon up to that date, viz.: Mr. William Baker, who appears to have been chosen in Carolina. In the Dorchester, Mass., church, there were elders as well as deacons ; so in the Carolina church at first, for we have an account of the election of William Pratt as elder, in addition to the election of two deacons. This, as already hinted, was the custom at first in many of the

Congregational churches in this country, and still in England, as in the case of Mr. Spurgeon, who had a board of elders as well as deacons, but the custom has fallen into general desuetude, especially in America. The officers of the Midway church, in addition to the pastor, were deacons, elected by the church, and five ''select men'' appointed annually by the society. The former were a kind of quasi rulers, to assist the pastor in the spiritual oversight of the church, and to distribute the elements on sacramental occasions; and the latter merely an ad interim or executive committee to carry out the plans and work of the society.

Location Of The Meeting House

The first was the question of location of a new meeting house. It was then decided that the house should be erected on Midway neck, on the same spot where the log house then used, stood. This decision was reconsidered at asubsequent meeting, January 12, 1756, when it was determined that the ''hill at the cross-patns on the north side of the north branch of Newport swamp be the place of the meeting house,'' being about three-quarters of a mile further to the west; at which time it was also decided that the size should be forty-four by thirty-six feet, with eighteen feet in the story, pitched roof, hipped at one end and a small steeple at the other, and the house placed on the west side of the road. It was also decided that a vestry house, sixteen by twelve feet should also be built, and for convenience, should first be erected. The object of the vestry was not as in olden times, for the keeping of the vestments and sacerdotal robes of the priest, but used as a place of deposit for the communion tables and benches and of the bier, used on funeral occasions. The writer well remembers the vestry house painted red, and standing on the west side of the main road and south of the graveyard; and still further, with what feelings of awe and alarm he would look upon that bier painted black, usually kept on the unceiled Fleiss Sucikedd, It was found necessary to modify the above action of location on account of the workmen framing the building with the steeple on the west side; unwilling that the steeple should be on the opposite side from the road, it was resolved that the location of the house should be changed from the west to the east side, the steeple still in the west with the pulpit in the north, it being more comfortable for the minister in the heat of summer. This house was built in 1756, the land being deeded by Mr. John Stevens and his wite, and the contract for sawing the lumber awarded by the select mento Mr. James Maxwell the year before. There being no water or steam saw mills in those days, the work was done by hand with what was then styled a whipsaw, the log being placed upon a pen and the saw drawn through it by two men, one above and the other below. The reader can easily imagine what an undertaking it was to saw the lumber for such a structure. The fact that the lumber was in a great measure from cypress trees relieves it somewhat of its difficulty, but after all, 'quite an undertaking; but these sturdy Christians did not hesitate to-do any thing demanded by the claims of religion. The frame was raised September 8. 1756,°two years after the contract for sawing. By the beginning of the next year the house, though not finished, was sufficiently advanced for holding services, the first sermon being preached in it January 2, 1757.

Elective Franchise

The other question considered at that first meeting was that of the elective franchise - who should be entitled to a vote? According to the articles of agreement, church members were entitled to a double vote in choice of a minister, but some of the subscribers had not yet commenced settlement and become real residents. So it was voted that the privilege should be in proportion to the apparent probability of their coming to live among them, each case being decided upon its own merits. According to this rule, it was decided that Messrs. Joseph Bacon was entitled to a whole vote, Jonathan Bacon a half, Richard Wooderaft and Isaac Bradwell and Mrs. Rebecca Quarterman, a quarter each. At the same time it was also decided that all minors should be entitled to only one-half vote.

For the first six years after the establishment of the colo-. ny, the method of raising the salary of Mr. Osgood was by subscrition, in which ''several persons were rated.'"' At the annual meeting in March, 1761, it was decided that the minister's salary should be raised by assessment of the pews. From that time till the end it became the settled policy of the church to raise the salary by renting of the pews.

The plan adopted was not to put up the pews and rent to the highest bidder, for this might not realize asufficient sum. But to insure the amount, a tax was put upon the several seats, from three pounds up to thirty pounds, according to position and desirability. Animportant question growing out of this was to decide upon what principle was the choice to be made? At first the right of choice was determined by the amount paid on pastor's salary. Thus he who had paid most would have first choice, and so on, but afterwards it was decided that the thing to determine the right of choice would be the amount of money paid to the building and repairing of the edifice. Hence the necessity of keeping what was known as a "'Book of Rights," in which were kept the several amounts paid by different individuals and families.

As this matter of rights was likely to become a thing of barter and sale, and the whole plan open to a variety of abuses, it was soon found necessary to guard against these abuses as well as interpret the scheme by the addition of special rules, such as the following, which were adopted at different times:

"That no person on his right shall be allowed more room than required by his family, a child under six years of age being entitled to only one-half seat.

Selecting Seats

"That no person shall be allowed to choose seats on the right of any person not a frequenter of public worship in this place; nor shall any person having a right choose seats in order to dispose of them to other persons."'

The following rule, carrying out the old idea of heredity, was adopted for a while at first: '"'That theeldest sonshould enjoy the right of the deceased father, unless he shall order otherwise in his will, provided he shall accommodate the widow during her widowhood, she paying annually her part of the cost."'

On account of dissatisfaction this rule was afterwards amended, so that a man could dispose of his right by will. In case of no will, the right to be equally divided among the heirs. If they could not agree and any one of them reported it to the church, then the church would proceed to settle the ease, all parties being required to submit to its arbitration.

There was still another rule, that if any person should be in arrears on the day of choosing seats, he thereby forfeited his right of choice.

Just here it may be added that it was the custom on the day of renting pews for each man to give his note for the amount, in regular legal form, and in several instances, later on, the order was passed authorizing the select men to proceed and collect those of delinquents, by law.

Some of the above regulations may seem to us a little harsh, but we must remember that this people were as one family, in a state of isolation from therest of the world, with no strangers in their midst to be driven off by their seeming exclusiveness. It was a matter of importance that the seats be controlled by the church. Without the above or similar restrictions outsiders might come in and control the pews to the great detriment of the church. In after years the rights so accumulated as to become under par, and persons finding it cheaper to buy than contribute to the building fund, would resort to this method of increasing their right. The church therefore found it necessary to scale the rights, which was done in 1849, at which time a reduction of seventy-five per cent was made. Two years thereafter the whole scheme of rights was abolished and the seats sold to the highest bidder.

With these restrictions, the plan of renting the pews con- - tinued in force through the whole history of the church, and was found to work well with these two decided advantages: First, the pastor's salary was more easily and certainly raised, subscribers feeling the obligation, having given their individual notes; and secondly, better order, as families worshipped together, the children being under ie individu-_ al eye of the parents.