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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 20 he landed in
Philadelphia. In his journal, he celebrated being in America for 28 years on
Oct 20, 1799 [Asbury, Journal entry Oct 20, 1799, p. 356]. |
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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 Wednesday, Apr 15, 1795, Bishop Asbury wrote: "I preached
to many people at White's, on John's River"
leaving after Sunday, crossing "the Ridge" after taking a "course up
John's River" along "Major J. White's path" [John White, son of
William White and builder of White's Mill],
reaching the top of the ridge on Wednesday Apr 22 in six miles, remarking that
the route was "abundantly better than the old one" [Asbury, Journal
entries Apr 15-22, 1795, p. 221]. In his journal entry for Monday, Apr 11, 1796, Bishop Asbury wrote: "I rode a mountainous path six miles to father W[hite]'s, where we dined... Of late, feeble as I am, I cannot help thinking of Cumberland, in Tennessee; and trying to go there: if I must go to Kentucky, I think it is time to go to Cumberland also." On Thursday, "We took our departure from Johns-River, up the branches of the Catabaw [Catawba River]" [Asbury, Journal entries Apr 11 & 14, 1796, p. 248]. In his journal entry for Monday, Mar 20, 1797, Bishop Asbury wrote: "I had but 20 miles to ride to Esquire White's, at the Mulberry Grove" where he "administered the sacrament and baptised children" the next day, then preaching at [Martin] Davenport's on Thursday [Asbury, Journal entries Mar 20-23, 1797, pp. 284-5]. |
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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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In his journal entry for Tuesday, Oct 22, 1799, Bishop Asbury wrote: "We had a
serious, laborious ride of thirty miles to
William White's, Esquire, upon
Johns River, Burke county. In this route we had to cross the Yadkin ten times"
from being at William Trible's the day before [Asbury, Journal entry Oct 22, 1799,
p. 357]. |
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In Oct 1799 Bishop Asbury, Rev. Jesse Lee, and driver
""Black Harry" apparently travelled for
the first time down Holloway Mountain Road to get to White's, after crossing
the Yadkin River multiple times. The day before, Monday, Rev. Asbury had
travelled "eight miles to William Trible's" which he described as a "barren place",
coming from "George Gordon's, near Wilkes court-house" [Asbury, Journal entry
Oct 19-21, 1799, pp. 356-7]. About 1770 George Gordon (1743-1800) moved to Wilkes
Co. with his brother Charles (who died in 1799) ["Gordon Family of Wilkes County",
fmoron.com, website]. At that time the Wilkes Courthouse was a log building
probably near the Robert Cleveland Log House which was built in 1780 on Main St.
and later moved. Today a trip following the Yadkin River from Wilkesboro to
Collettesville (White's) would be 38 miles going west on Route NC-268 [Google
Maps]. But Asbury stopped at William Trible's after 8 miles then rode the 30
more miles to White's. If Trible's "barren place" was north of the Yadkin River,
away from the town of Lenoir, and northeast of the Globe, his only option probably
would have been at least in part on the lower portion of Holloway Mountain Road. |
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William Tribble (1743?-1828) claimed four tracts of land in Wilkes Co. but only
one was "issued" before Oct 1799, with no acreage recorded. They were all "entered"
by then and were near or on the Yadkin River. Bishop Asbury likely visited him
at either his 100 acres "On Nicholds's [sic] Creek" or his 100 acres "on a
branch of Cub Creek" [nclandgrants.com, website, files #1985, #1813]. |
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Bishop Asbury wrote in his journal for Wednesday Oct 23, and Thursday Oct 24,
that "Our quarterly meeting was held at
William White's, Esquire, and grand patriarch
of this settlement, whose family of children, grandchildren, &c. are numerous
and extensively established here. Jesse Lee sermonized each day" [Asbury, Journal
entries Oct 23 & 24, 1799, p. 357]. |
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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: Asbury, Rev. Francis, The journal of the Rev. Francis Asbury, volume 2, ... from August 7, 1771 to December 7, 1815, in "American Methodism", divinityarchive.com, website, pp. 221, 248, 284-5, 356-7. 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. North Carolina Land Grants, NC Burke Co. Files #1813, website. 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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