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Francis left his home in England on Sep 11, 1771 starting from Pill near Bristol
England. During the voyage he started keeping a journal.On Oct 27 he landed in
Philadelphia. |
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In 1780 or 1781, possibly during a trip through the mountain town of Todd NC,
Francis Asbury met the freedman
Henry "Black Harry" Hosier (1750?-1806),
a meeting the minister believed "providentially arranged". Hosier served as his
driver and guide and, though illiterate, memorized long passages of the Bible
as Asbury read them aloud during their travels. Hosier eventually became a
famous preacher in his own right, the first African American to preach directly
to a white congregation in the United States [wikipedia]. |
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Todd NC is located near the New River between West Jefferson and Boone NC. The
area around the earliest white settlement of the town was part of Burke Co.,
created in 1777, and then Watauga Co., created in 1849. It is about 33 miles
northeast of Grandfather Mountain and the intersection of Route 221 and
Holloway Mountain Road. |
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About 1795, George Holloway was converted
to Methodism by Rev. Jesse Lee (1758-1816) who travelled with Bishop Asbury
from about 1797-1800 "through the whole length of the country" [Moore].
George was licensed as a lay preacher about 1801. He founded a Methodist group
that produced a manuscript titled Class Papers for Holloway's Society,
1810-1821, which had been saved by ancestors. |
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On Aug 10, 1795 "Absolom Hooper" deeded to
"Bishop Asbury" one half acre "adj. Charles Parker line" with Joseph Hooper
[son] and Samuel Hollis witnesses. The deed was recorded Oct 13, 1795. There is
no mention in his journal that the Bishop ever travelled to this area of
Middle Tennessee that used to be part of the Cumberland Settlement of Washington
Co. NC [Davidson Co. [Tennessee] Deeds, Book C, page 431]. |
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Washington Co., previously Washington District, was formed by North Carolina in
1777 and extended west to the Mississippi River, mostly containing land inhabited
by five different tribes of Native Americans, but mostly Cherokee. In 1779, the
Cumberland Settlement was created by the granting of land by the NC government.
In 1783 this settlement was mostly contained in the newly formed Davidson Co. and
surrounded by Indian Lands, and Virginia and Kentucky to the North.
Map
of the Cumberland Settlement in 1780 showing the location of Forts, known as
Stations, Whites Creek, and the Stump Distillery near Absalom's land. |
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The land that Absalom Hooper claimed in the
Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC, was on the same land that
John Holloway attempted to claim with a
James Scott in 1779 on Long ("Glady") Creek (shown on
Map)
appears to be the same as Whites Creek which ran through the lands claimed by
Frederick Stump, William White,
Joshua Howard and Absalom Hooper, before
flowing into the Cumberland River. See
Topographical Map
showing early land claims in the Whites Creek area [Drake, p. 23 and map E7].
James Scott did receive a land grant but John Holloway never did. |
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In the 1790's, Bishop Asbury made annual stops at the Burke Co. NC home of
William White (1730-1818), uncle of
George Holloway (1766-1851).
In his journal entry for Oct 22, 1799, Bishop Asbury wrote: "We had a serious
ride of thirty miles to William White's, Esquire, upon Johns River, Burke County
... Our quarterly meeting was held at William White's, Esquire, and grand patriarch
of this settlement, whose family of children, grandchildren etc are numerous and
extensively established here" [Clarke, et al., p. ]. |
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Bishop Asbury apparently travelled down Holloway Mountain Road, as
he wrote in his journal in Oct 1799 describing a "laborious ride" to the home of
William White, "the most influential Methodist
in the Blue Ridge Mountains" [Clarke, Journal entry Oct 22, 1799]. |
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Map of
Burke Co. NC from 1777 to 1799 showing where the White and Holloway families settled. |
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Portrait
and Biography of Asbury's driver,
"Black Harry" Hosier. Likely never ordained
nor presiding over his own church, Hosier's sermons were praised by preachers
and political figures alike, one saying a sermon of his was the best he had heard,
another rating his sermon "better than a bishop" [Wigger, pp. 176-7]. |
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Bishop Asbury was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Baltimore MD. |
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Sources: Clarke, Elmer T., Manning Potts, T., Payton, Jacob S., Eds., The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, Vols. 1-3, Nashville TN, Abington Press, and London, Epworth Press, 1958. Davidson Co. [Tennessee] Deed Book C, page 431. Drake, Doug, Jack Masters and Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, The First Atlas, 1779-1804, Warioto Press, 2009, pp. 23, map E7. Holloway, George, record keeper, "Holloway Society Papers," 1810,&c,; publ. in Wm Wiseman & the Davenports, Pioneers Of Old Burke County, North Carolina Volume II, by M.L. Vineyard & E.M. Wiseman, Genealogy Publ. Service, Franklin NC, 1997, pp.113-128. Moore, M.H, Pioneers of Methodism in North Carolina and Virginia, Nashville, 1884. Smith, Jessie C., Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events, 3rd ed., pp. 1820–1821. "Methodists: 1781". Canton, MI, Visible Ink Press, 2013. Wigger, John H., "'Black Harry' Hosier" in Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895, ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, pp. 176-7. |
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