MILNOR JONES
DEACON AND MISSIONARY
JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE
BISHOP OF NORTH CAROUNA
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MILNOR JONES
Deacon and Missionary
MILNOR JONES
DEACON AND MISSIONARY
BY
JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE
BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA
RALEIGH
Mutual Publishing Company, Printers
1920
The following pages are reprinted from the columns
of the Carolina Churchman where they
appeared from January to July, 1920
Copies may be obtained from
The Carolina Churchman, Raleigh, N. C.
Price, Fifty Cents Each
FOREWORD.
The following account of the life and work of the
Rev. Milnor Jones was written in 1916. It was be-
gun with the purpose of making it an obituary
notice, to be sent to some one of our Church papers.
Such a life seemed worthy of being known beyond
the bounds of its own narrow sphere. But though
begun with this very limited purpose, the subject
refused to be dismissed with so brief a handling. It
grew under my hand, until it may seem to some to
have outgrown all reasonable proportions. I am
quite conscious that some good and judicious people
will think me partial and over-appreciative in my
estimate of this unusual personality. I shall not
complain if I be so judged. I confess that I cannot
refrain from admiring and loving good and noble
qualities, however mingled with human imperfec-
tions. A more serious apprehension is, that I may
be thought to have colored and exaggerated certain
episodes in the life I endeavor to present. I feel
myself that this may be true, in those parts of the
narrative which are given upon the authority of
others. Where I am myself concerned, the facts are
given, not merely from memory, but from memo-
randa written down at the time, though I am not
altogether sure of my estimate of distances in the
mountains. But Milnor Jones was so striking a char-
acter, and so intense and dramatic in his methods,
that he moved the imagination; and his experiences,
in his own mind, and in the minds of others, seemed
to group themselves into dramatic episodes, in wliicli
a number of different events may have been com-
bined into one. Such incidents, for example, as his
visit to the Seagle family, and his immersion of the
young lawyer in Armstrong's Creek, are given in the
narrative just as I heard them, and are certainly
true in every essential. But each story may in fact
be a concentration of more extended experiences
into one dramatic scene. I do not know how this
may be ; but I do know that, so far as I was able, I
w^rote down what I had learned, and what I myself
had seen and heard, with a simple desire to set forth
a true narrative of a unique character. I do not
apologize for stating frankly his limitations, his
errors, and his faults. When a man is really deserv-
ing of admiration, the truth is his best commenda-
tion. Milnor Jones had nothing hidden in his life ;
and in writing of him I have but followed his own
example of frankness and simple truth. The years
which have passed since I wrote the following pages
have not altered my feelings or my judgment as
therein expressed.
JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE.
January 12, 1920.
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY.
By Joseph Blount Cheshire.
CHAPTER I.
His Begfinning" — Work in South Carolina.
Men of strongly marked personality make differ-
ent impressions upon the different persons with
whom they are brought into contact.
The Rev. Milnor Jones, deacon, who died in Balti-
more the 21st day of February, 1916, seems to the
writer of these lines to have been one of the most
remarkable men, and in many respects the most
effective missionary, he has ever known in close per-
sonal association. Wholly lacking in selfish ambi-
tion, and preferring to remain a deacon in hard
frontier service, and being indeed very deficient in
constructive and organizing abilities, his memory
did not become identified with any developed and
permanent parish or institution. He hewed out
paths in the wilderness in which others followed ; he
gathered material and dug out foundations for
builders who came after him. His memorial was
only in the hearts of those who knew him, and in
churches and missions which even before his death
hardly remembered that they owed their beginings
to him.
I knew him from 1883 until the end of the year
1897, but saw him only once after ]897. I was inti-
mately associated with him in his work from 1894
until the end of 1897. I admired tiim, trusted him,
and loved him ; and he never failed me in any matter
in which I depended on him. He was the soul of
loyalty. I feel that I owe it to his memory to say a
few words of a life which had in it certainly some
elements of greatness, exhibited in a narrow sphere,
and of an apostolic simplicity of faith and devotion
5
6 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
not too common among us. And I feel that I owe
this duty also to the Church, which he served with
a zeal, unselfishness, courage, and unremitting labor
seldom equaled and never surpassed within the field
of my observation and experience.
He was not a perfect man. I have known a few
men and women who, whatever their faults when
judged by the clear eyes of Him to Whom we must
all give account, were yet perfect to my limited
vision; a very few such, yet some few. Milnor
Jones was not one of these. Rather he was a man
of quite glaring imperfections and faults. I am
endeavoring to speak the exact truth, so I must say
this. When he turned from a life of careless irre-
ligioii and began to walk in a better way, he delib-
erately chose to work among the very poorest and
most uncultivated people of our mountain section ;
and he literally took his place close beside them, and
made himself one with them in sympathy and hab-
itual association. He endeavored to enter into their
life and sentiments, to know them inwardly, and to
acquire their modes of thought, feeling, and expres-
sion, so that he might understand them, and that
they might understand him. He did not become all
things to all men, because he was not the great
Apostle whose mission was to all. He remained by
preference in the lowest order of the ministry, and
he made himself all things to the lowly whom he
had chosen for his own. And so he did not escape
that assimilation (in some degree) to those whom he
thus chose for his associates, which might have been
anticipated. To cultivated and refined sensibilities
he at times appeared to be rude, and coarse, and
violent; and indeed he was so. It was the result of
his deliberate effort to enter into the lives and
hearts of those to whom he would fain carry the
Gospel, 'Hhat by all means he might save some."
But he was never flippant, or ribald, or resentful of
any personal slight or injury, or really irreverent.
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 7
There was an intense earnestness, gravity and seri-
ousness in his manner, in the deep tones of his voice,
and in the rather ^ad expression of his dark eye,
which gave to his rudest and homeliest illustrations
and arguments, and to his most violent utterances,
an honest reality and solemnity felt by all those for
whom he spoke. He was not a popular preacher.
Many, no doubt, who came to scoff remained to
pray. He made powerful impressions on his hearers.
But also many went away furious and raging with
resentment. He had his own ideas of how best to
get at the minds and consciences of his hearers.
And, deacon as he was, he did not scruple on occa-
sion to tell his bishop that the sermon he (the
bishop) had just preached "did no more good than
pouring water on a duck's back." And his bishop
is proud to record the incident, although he thinks
it was a pretty fair sermon. He is proud to have
had a good and loyal and honest deacon, who could
thus speak to him without the least thought of
offense on either side. And, being such as he was,
he exercised his ministry for something like a quar-
ter of a century, and went in and out among the
people ; and certainly in the mountains of North
Carolina did a work whose results are now greater
than are seen or realized by those who have taken
his place ; and he did his work in a spirit which
elicits this effort to do honor to his memory.
Milnor Jones was born in Chestertown, Md., No-
vember 10, 1848. He was the son of the Rev. Clem-
ent Frederick Jones, a native, I believe, of Philadel-
phia, who spent many years of his ministry in Ches-
tertown, Maryland, and who, from 1857 until his
death in 1877, was a clergyman of South Carolina,
residing near Glenn Springs. The Rev. Clement
Jones married in Chestertown a daughter of the
8 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
Hon. Ezekiel Chambers, a member of the United
States Senate, and an eminent member among such
contemporaries as Clay, Calhoun, Benton, and Web-
ster, and for many years one of the most distin-
guished members of the General Convention. Mil-
nor Jones was educated in the local schools of his
father's place of residence, and in Washington Col-
lege, Chestertown. He grew up amid cultivated and
refined surroundings, and under the best social and
religious influences. But he had "a wild streak in
his blood," as men say, and grew up bold, reckless,
and, to a great extent, undisciplined. In early man-
hood he went to Texas, where he lived for some
years, practiced law, and married. The illness and
disability of his father recalled him to some serious-
ness of thought, and then an accident, by which he
came near losing his life, produced a total change in
his character. While riding a wild and dangerous
horse, the bit broke, and in consequence he lost con-
trol of the animal, and was thrown with such vio-
lence to the ground that for weeks he lay in a help-
less and critical condition. There came upon him,
during the long hours of this painful experience, a
deep sense of religious duty, together with a very
solemn realization of the sin and folly of his wasted
life, so that he determined, if he should recover, to
devote his life to the service of God in the ministry.
Singleness of purpose and directness of thought
were his special characteristics. No sooner had he
regained his health and strength than he proceeded,
in May, 1873, to the University of the South, at
Sewanee, and began his studies in preparation for
Holy Orders. But he could not wait for ordination
before beginning the work to which he had now de-
voted himself. From the very first he began to seek
out those, anywhere and everywhere, to whom he
might bring the truth and power of the Gospel, and
he became in eflPect a preacher wherever he could
find hearers. The many deep coves indenting the
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
9
slopes of the great Cumberland plateau, upon wliicli
the University of the South is situated, inhabited
by a people who had been for generations far re-
mote from the education and culture of the more
accessible portions of the country, afforded him a
boundless field for the exercise of his missionary
zeal. The clergymen connected with the University,
whose proper duties were manifold and onerous,
found his demands upon them for services rather
troublesome. One stout and florid instructor, who,
having no special pastoral duties in the institution,
was frequently called upon by him, never ceased
while he lived to speak, half in complaint and more
than half in admiration, of how "Milnor Jones made
me almost walk my legs off, up and down the moun-
tain-sides," to baptize the candidates whom his dili-
gence and pertinacity had always in waiting. The
directness of his appeals and his untiring persist-
ence, with the surprising success ensuing, gave rise
to many stories which are yet remembered and re-
peated. His habitual absorption in the one thought
of his religious work, and his direct and homely
appeals in the most vigorous language he could com-
mand, seemed often grotesque and humorous in con-
trast with our common careless and conventional
religion ; and a ludicrous turn is given to many of
the stories told of him, then and later. But there
was ncA^er any doubt of his sincerity and earnest-
ness, nor of the reality and value of the results of
his work.
While at Sewanee, Bishop Quintard appointed
him to work as a lay missionary in the mining camp
at Tracy City, in Which Avork he was associated with
a fellow-student, John Kershaw, now the distin-
guished rector of St. Michael's Church, Charleston.
Dr. Kershaw, referring to that period, says: ''My
personal acquaintance with him began in 1873 or
1874, and soon ripened into warm friendship. ]\Iy
10 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
impression is that he secured the money to erect a
chapel there (at Tracy City)."
He was ordered deacon by Bishop Howe, of South
Carolina, May 14, 1876, and spent some months
working as city missionary in Charleston. Dr. Ker-
shaw writes: "In visiting the City Hospital and
Almshouse, and elsewhere in the slums of the city,
he saw so much misery and distress that, as he told
me, he could not endure it ; he thought it would
drive him mad to stay and witness such suffering."
With the permission of the bishop, he therefore re-
turned to his father's house at Glenn Springs, in
Spartanburg District. For a year or so he did vol-
untary missionary work in that neighborhood, also
giving regular and valuable assistance to the Rev.
Dr. McCullough, the rector, in the church on Sun-'
days. He continued this irregular and unattached
work apparently some two or three years, becoming
rector of the Church of the Advent, Spartanburg,
shortly before the Diocesan Convention of 1879.
Before becoming rector at Spartanburg, he reports
to the Convention: Baptisms — infants 272, adults
38, of whom he states that large numbers of them
"live in places inaccessible to the services of the
Church."
In those days most of our dioceses and parishes,
especially in the South, were rather slow and old-
fashioned in their ideas and methods, and it is no
disparagement of the Diocese of South Carolina to
say that its people were eminently of this spirit —
conservative, as we say. Milnor Jones was emphat-
ically not a conservative. He was a fresh breeze
from Texas, by way of the Tennessee mountains and
Sewanee, and he must have given many a thrill and
shock to the social and ecclesiastical proprieties of
his old diocese, and of Spartanburg and Glenn
Springs, where his father had for so many years
served after so very different a fashion.
From the beginning of his ministry he was much
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 11
interested in behalf of the negroes. South Carolina
Churchmen have ever, in their way, been zealous in
religious work for the negroes; and their way has
been in many respects a most admirable way. The
young deacon had no difficulty in enlisting the best
people of his parish as workers in his negro Sunday-
school, and he had very soon a house full of little
black children, duly distributed into classes, and
assigned to earnest and competent teachers. But he
rather took their breath away when, immediately
upon beginning the school, he insisted on baptizing
the whole body of pupils (whose parents were
mostly Baptists), requiring the teachers to act as
sponsors, and doing this upon the plea that the
children must all be taught the Church Catechism,
and that in order to be able to say the catechism
they must be baptized, because the very first ques-
tion, after learning the child's name, is: ''Who gave
you this name?" and the child must answer: "My
sponsors in baptism."
He was equally interested in the poorer and more
uneducated white people of the country, and was
enthusiastic and practical in his labors among them,
and everywhere and always commanded their confi-
dence and attracted them to the Church. In 1879 he
reports : Baptisms — infants, white, 14 ; colored, 48 ;
confirmations, 14; services, 225. In 1880: Bap-
tisms— infants 83, adults 6 ; confirmations, 17 ; ser-
vices, 200. He reports three mission Sunday-schools,
two for whites and one for negroes (the colored
school mentioned above) in the suburbs of Spartan-
burg, and regular preaching appointments covering
every night in the week in the regions lying around,
and especially towards the mountains.
This unexampled zeal and activity, and especially
his eagerness to baptize all the children upon whom
he eould lay his hands, made a great impression
upon all who knew him. Unfortunately, he had the
faults of his peculiar temperament, and was more
12 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
eager and successful in winning the confidence and
securing the loyal attachment of his converts than
in training and instructing them. As he brought in
his recruits in unusual numbers, and from classes
and communities which had never before been in
contact with the Church, we may be reasonably sure
that they were for the most part without any great
familiarity with the methods of worship in the
Church, and but little qualified for the ordinary
parochial routine of an old and cultivated congrega-
tion. It was a case of putting new wine into old
bottles, and Mr. Jones's peculiar methods and ex-
traordinary activity and success produced a some-
what perplexing and embarrassing situation. He
began to feel hampered by the unavoidable conven-
tionalities of his position. He thought that he was
not sufficiently supported in his work. He said that
the bishop was alarmed at the numbers he was
bringing into the Church, and advised him "to go
slow." There was no better man than Bishop Howe
and few wiser bishops; and doubtless Mr. Jones
needed all the advice and admonition given him.
But he was constitutionally unable to understand
such advice, and did not at all believe in "going
slow." He soon emancipated himself from the
shackles of parochial administration, with its ves-
tries and wardens and leading families and local
traditions and formalisms, and sought a free range
and a free hand, first in the vicinity of Spartanburg,
and then in the adjacent mountains of North Caro-
lina.
In his report to the Convention of 1880 he says
that he has "Resigned the charge of the Church of
the Advent some weeks since, and [is] devoting
much time to missionary work, with encouraging-
results. The following are the regular appoint-
ments, in addition to Sunday services: Vicinity of
Hog Back Mountain, Monday nights; suburbs of
Spartanburg (at Mrs. Simons 's), Tuesday nights;
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 13
at County Almshouse, Wednesday afternoons; at
Valley Falls and vicinity, Wednesday nights; at
Bomar College, Thursday nights; at Lone Oak, Fri-
day nights." He says he is having parochial schools
for children, and that he distributes many Prayer
Books and tracts.
At this time, his father having died in 1877, he
was possessed of a considerable estate, and made
investments in mountain lands in Polk and Ruther-
ford Counties, North Carolina. He was an astonish-
ingly poor business man, and it may be said here^
once for all, that he very soon managed to lose the
whole of his property, except some invested funds,
of which he received only the interest. Once and
again at subsequent periods of his life the death of
relatives brought him some considerable sums of
money, but he soon spent what he had. His business
interests, however, after he resigned the parish at
Spartanburg, brought him into North Carolina, and
wherever he came he preached. Becoming interested
in the people of this primitive section, and finding
the free and irresponsible work of an itinerant mis-
sionary more suited to his temperament and to his
capacities than more regular work, he soon estab-
lished his headquarters at Tryon, in Polk County,
and gave up his work in South Carolina, though his
family remained for a year or two longer in their
Spartanburg home. In 1881 he made his last report
to the Convention of South Carolina. He says: "My
work for the last twelve months has been greatly
blessed. I have preached at the five places (appa-
rently referring to the places mentioned in his re-
port of 1880) generally weekly, besides other occa-
sional appointments. In addition, I have a regular
weekly appointment at Tryoi^ City,* and one at
Columbus, N. C. Sunday-schools in operation at
four points. I have received no pay for my services,
not having applied for any. I have preached more
than three hundred times, and am now preaching on
14 MTLNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
an average of once a day throughout the year.'*
This was the last year of his connection with the
Diocese of South Carolina. The above quotation
shows that in the spring of 1881 he had made a defi-
nite connection with North Carolina, and seems to
imply that he had his two Sunday appointments,
one in Tryon and the other in Columbus, the county-
seat of Polk County. By 1882 he had relinquished
all his appointments in South Carolina, and in Au-
gust, 1882, he was transferred to the Diocese of
North Carolina.
CHAPTER II.
North Carolina: Polk, Rutherford, and Henderson
Counties.
While his family remained in Spartanburg, Mr.
Jones made his usual abode in Tryon with Dr. and
Mrs. Cureton, the only Church family then residing
in Polk County, as I am informed.
Tryon is in direct communication with Spartan-
burg, only 27 miles distant on the railroad, so that
he could spend part of each week with his family.
It seems to have been with the beginning of his
work in North Carolina that Mr. Jones fully de-
veloped his peculiar and characteristic methods. He
was not at all a pastor ; he had little or no power of
administration or of organization. He never aspired
to PriestsJ Orders, or felt any vocation that way.
He used to say that the Lord had sent him to preach
the Gospel and to baptize. He had no desire for a
parish or for a fixed field or work, or even, so far as
I could judge, for a settled and permanent place of
abode. He liked to be going. His field could not be;
too large, nor his appointments too many.
wished to be a pioneer, and to move on to wider-
fields when the work which he had begun had beert
organized and put upon a regular course of adminis-
tration. And he liked to choose his own points of
attack. He had his own methods, and he chose un-
likely places. One of his first appointments in the
country near Tryon was at a country liquor shop
and distillery, the most depraved locality in all the
section around. There he attacked intemperance
and lawlessness and other prevalent forms of immor-
ality. And he kept it up until he had driven the
liquor shop out of business. He had an eye and a
heart for the picturesque and the romantic. On the
first Fourth of July, after he began work in North
16
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
Carolina, he made an appointment for service on the
cop of Tryon Mountain, and preached there to a
great gathering of the mountain people.
The county jail was one of his regular places of
visitation, and he made more than one valued friend
among its occasional inmates. The prevalent popu-
lar opinion as to the corruption and venality of the
local officials in the administration of the revenue
laws, and the general feeling among the uneducated
mountaineers, that a man had a natural right to do
as he would with his own, made many a man in that
section an offender against the Federal statutes, who
was by no means a hardened or even a conscious
criminal. Mr. Jones was uncompromising in his
testimony against intemperance and against lawless-
ness of all kinds; but he could appreciate the diffi-
culties, and could understand the ignorance, of the
mountain people, and he had a heart to pity all
kinds of suffering, especially the sorrows of the poor
and ignorant. His kindness and sympathy shown to
the prisoners in Polk County jail, in Columbus,
opened many a cabin door to him, and many a
friendly heart. He soon made himself known and
his influence felt throughout the county and in the
adjoining counties of Henderson on one side and
Rutherford on the other. He was constantly in the
saddle, traversing the country and visiting the people
in their homes in the valleys and on the mountain-
sides.
At this period his preaching was chiefly directed
against drunkenness, lawlessness, and the common
forms of open vice prevalent among uneducated,
scattered and uncultivated people, where the young
and ignorant are without the protection of strong
public opinion and the safeguards of cultivated
social order. But his devotion to children, and his
desire to gather them all into Sunday-schools, and,
above all, his efforts to bring them all to holy bap-
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 17
tism, soon brought him into conflict and controversy
with the Baptists, and he gradually developed a
skill and a power as a controversial preacher, which
greatly extended his reputation, but was eventually
a great hindrance to his usefulness. Dr. Kershaw
says of him in this connection: "He had a mind of
extraordinary quickness of perception, a fine mem-
ory, a vocabulary of wide range, and wonderful
energy, dauntless courage, and a personality of great
strength and influence. His legal training made him
a special pleader of much power. He knew his Bible
from cover to cover, and while his heart was kind-
ness itself, he loved controversy." Perhaps his most
admirable quality as a controversialist was an im-
perturbable temper and a perfect freedom from sen-
sitiveness or resentment for anything done or said
against himself; with an admirable turn of humor,
which never failed to seize and utilize, to the full,
any opening by which his opponent might be placed
in an absurd or ludicrous position, and driven from
the field by ridicule or sarcasm. Therefore, to me,
he never seemed a very fair controversialist. He
was wonderfully effective, and his own feeling was
that he was maintaining the truth, and if any con-
tumacious opposer of the truth obstructed his path,
he would get rid of him and put him out of his way,
by the readiest method he could find, so that his
work might not be hindered. Whether the argu-
ment was sound and to the point, or whether it was
only such as would demolish his adversary, did not
seem to him very material, so he got rid of the ad-
versary. He did not argue to get at the truth. He
already had the truth, and his argument with an
opponent was simply to shut the opponent's mouth
and dispose of him, that he might go on with his
work. Not but what his positions were usually well
taken, his arguments sound, and his reasoning accu-
rate— only he did not seem to look upon controversy
18 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
as a means of discovering or displaying the truth
but as a means of getting rid of a nuisance in the
form of an opposer of the truth. He was absolutely
loyal and devoted to the Church, with a love and
devotion beyond what he felt for anything else on
earth; and his utter dedication and consecration to
his work was such as is seldom seen. He had no
other thought or desire or purpose but of doing the
work to which he was called; and any reflection
upon the Church seemed to him an outrage against
his Master and the Head of the Church, which it was
his duty to repel and denounce. I never observed
in him any resentment or feeling of anger for any
injurious charge or allegation concerning himself,
though at times he experienced undeserved con-
tumely and reproach. He felt the sting of such
treatment, but seemed absolutely without the least
feeling of resentment, or the most distant approach
to any inclination to anger. But let any man speak
reproachfully of the Church or of its ways, and the
lightning was hardly more instantaneous and over-
whelming than his indignant retort. I knew him
- intimatety, and I never knew a man more free from
I ill will towards all men or towards any man. And
yet the violence of his language, in repelling any
attack or reproach directed against the Church, its
teaching, or its institutions, was beyond anything of
the kind I have ever known in other men; and I
more than once reproved him and endeavored to
mitigate his strong feeling.
But I am anticipating. At the time of his ministry
ill Polk and the adjacent counties, I think he had not
developed into so ardent a controversialist, but was
mostly engaged in fighting the wickedness, ignor-
ance, and indifference which he found all about him,
with an occasional diversion on the subject of im-
mersion and infant baptism.
It was in 1883 that he first attended a Diocesan
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 19
Convention in North Carolina. That convention met
in St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, of which I was then
rector, and it was there I first met him. The Sunday
after adjournment, the bishop held an ordination in
the church and asked that the offerings should be
given towards the church building which Mr. Jones
had begun at Tryon. The offering amounted to one
hundred dollars, and Bishop Lyman asked me to
carry it to Mr. Jones, instead of sending it ; and said
he hoped I would spend a day or two with him and
acquaint myself with his work.
I shall never forget the day spent in riding in his
company along the valleys and up and down the
steep bridle-paths of Polk County, visiting his peo-
ple and talking with them and with him. He was
everywhere received with the most unstudied but
unmistakable manifestations of friendly confidence
and affection. Whether it was a company of men
working the county road, or a mother and her little
ones in a lonely log cabin on the mountain-side, or a
father with his family of stalwart sons just in from
the field to eat their midday meal — all equally wel-
comed him, and put aside for the moment their press-
ing employments for a word and a smile. And his
word, first or last, had always a lesson or an exhor-
tation or an earnest inquiry in the line of his great*
work; and it was always received and answered in
a way to show that they were accustomed to it from
him, and were not wholly unresponsive ; or it may
be that his word was a solemn and weighty reproof
or warning or rebuke ; and then he was always plain
and emphatic, and not to be misunderstood. Tn fact,
in one such case his reproof included such "damna-
tory clauses" that after leaving the house I ven-
tured a gentle remonstrance, and was assured in
reply that he understood what he was about, and
that I did not. And then he proceeded to unfold
the situation with such illustrations of my ignorance
20 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
and of his better knowledge, that I ventured upon
no further remonstrances.
On this ride I saw for the first time the beautiful
yellow azalea of our mountains, coming suddenly
upon a specimen some ten or twelve feet high, in the
full glow of its blazing yellow splendor, and for an
instant thinking that I saw Moses' burning bush
renew^ed.
All during the day, as we rode along, I noticed
that every little while he would take from his pocket
a dilapidated little book, open it at random, seem-
ingly, read a few lines, and return it to his pocket.
After a while, I ventured to ask him what it was he
was reading. He handed it to me, saying that he
valued it above every other possession, as it had
been for many years carried and used by his father.
I do not remember the title of the book, but Dr.
DuBose, of Sewanee, remembers that when a student
) in the theological department Milnor Jones had a
book of this kind, which he carried and used con-
stantly, called ''The Blood That Cleanses." My
recollection is that it was a collection of Scripture
texts, arranged topically, under appropriate head-
( ings, as Faith, Repentance, Love, Hope, and the like.
It was very much worn, the corners all rounded off,
so that it was almost of an oval form, and the bind-
ing at the back entirely gone. It was an hour or
two after dark before we returned to Dr. Cureton's
house in Tryon, where we were to spend the night.
V Yet, after it had for some time been too dark to dis-
tinguish a letter, I observed him take the little book
from his pocket at intervals, as he had done all dur-
ing the day, open it, and seem to read for a moment,
and then put it up. This often came to my mind in
after days. Though eminently intelligent and strong-
minded, there was always something about him
which I did not understand; and in his latter years
he somehow lost all power of useful or continuous
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND' MISSIONARY
21
mental exertion. Some thought this the result of
the accident in his early manhood, which has been
mentioned, and that injury may have had some per-
manent effect, becoming' more marked as his age ad-
vanced. But it is to be remembered that there were
several cases of mental weakness and disorder in his
immediate family connection. Doubtless these things
must be taken into consideration when we remem-
ber his extravagance of language and other unusual
manifestations in his character and work. He could
not be colorless or commonplace in word or in con-
duct.
It is difficult to estimate the extent of his work or
the number of his appointments. His reports, printed
in the Convention Journals, are meager and without
details. In 1883, in his first report in the Diocese of
North Carolina, he names nine places where he had
''regular appointments," and the list omits any men-
tion of Columbus, though he says that he had leased
the court-house there and was carrying on a day-
school in it, with two teachers. He reports : Bap-
tisms— ^infant 112, adult 41, of whom several were
over seventy years of age, and one more than a hun-
dred. There had been 16 confirmations, 4 Sunday-
schools, with 12 teachers and 100 children ; a log
church had been built at the ''Cross Roads." His
regular preaching stations were: Tryon, Mills'
Spring, The Cross Roads, Huggins' School-House,
Riverside, Green River Cove, The Ridge, Weston's
Sawmill, and Brudgman's School-House. He had
preached occasionally at other places "tedious to
enumerate," including "The Block-House Distil-
lery" and the "summit of Tryon Mountain." These
names seem to indicate that he had already begun
to overflow into Rutherford and Henderson. In
1884 he reports : Baptisms — infant 148, adult 52 ;
confirmations 33. This year several names of places
drop out and new ones appear. He seems to have
22
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
abandoned Tryon, haying finished the church and
made things ready for more regular ministrations,
and we now find Re vis's School-House, Lyda's, Bat
Cave, Aikens, etc., with one church and one chapel.
In 1885 he adds "Whitesides, Seagles, etc., etc.,"
with baptists — infant 39, adult 18 ; confirmations 67 ;
"entered the Church from the sects, 42." He men-
tioned that there is now a clergyman at Tryon.
His incessant labors, habitual hardships and dis-
comforts, not to be understood except by one ac-
quainted with the life in our mountains at that time,
together with his own utter recklessness of all con-
siderations of personal ease, comfort or welfare, had
begun to tell very seriously upon his health, and it
may be said that from this time he was never a
really sound man again.*
In 1886 he says that his "health is not yet re-
stored." He reports: Baptisms — infant 21, adult
10; confirmations 27; "a log church for the colored
people has been built near Tryon."
In 1887 he reports: "My health has been such
that I have performed any duties with difficulty."
Baptisms — infant 10, adult 5 ; confirmations 15.
In 1888 others have succeeded him in most of his
former missions, and he adds new names — Blue
House Church, Gilreath's, Thompson School-House.
Baptisms — infant 39, adult 9 ; confirmations 22.
In 1889: Baptisms — infant 14, adult 10. "Log
church erected at Arlege's, and church begun at
Turner's."
In 1890 there is a new name — St. Paul's — proba-
bly a church of that name at one of the points for-
merly occupied. Baptisms — infant 24, adult 4; con-
* During this period a serious affection of the bladder, caused by cold
and exposure, and the impossibility' of securing medical attention when
most needed, coupled with the unskillfulness of an inexperienced jsracti-
tioner, who endeavored to treat him, produced physical results from
which he never after recovered, and which occasioned at times gres ;
inconvenience and intense suffering.
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 23
firmations 14. Public services — on Sundays 125,
other days 75.
His name disappears from the Diocesan Journals
after 1890. Bishop Lyman, in his address to the
Convention of 1892, says he had given him letters
dimissory to Oregon.
Meager as these reports are, they indicate a life
of extraordinary activity, devotion, and efl'oiency.
It is safe to say that no clergyman of the Church has
ever made such an impression upon the people of
those counties, or ever brought such numbers of
them into the Church. It is now nearly thirty years
since he left that field, and his memory is still cher-
ished among many of the old men and women who
knew him. As Mr. Charles Pearson, of Tryon, one
of the most intelligent and highly esteemed citizens
of Polk County, said to me in 1894: "Mr. Jones
changed the lives of a great many persons in Polk
County."
In 1898, walking in the neighborhood of Flat
Rock, in Henderson County, with the Rev. Robert
M. W.^ Black, and speaking of the work of Milnor
Jones in that section, we saw a country woman
washing at a spring. I said to Mr. Black: "You
may think I overestimate the impression made by
Mr. Jones on the plain people of the country. I will
mention his name to that woman, and let her reply,
approve or discredit my account. ' ' Approaching the
woman, we entered into conversation with her.
Presently, I said to her: "Did you ever hear of an
Episcopal minister in this country by the name of
Milnor Jones?" She looked up from her work with
a bright expression of interest, and replied: "Oh,
yes, sir ; I knew him well. He baptized all my broth-
ers. Can you tell me where he is?"
I do not remember whether it was from Mr. Jones
himself or from the Rev. William B. Barrow, that T
received the following account of his first acquaint-
24
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
ance with the Seagle family in Henderson County,
who became loyal Churchmen and his faitliful and
helpful friends. Mr. Philip C. Seag'le, a brave Con-
federate soldier, who had lost a leg in the war, had
removed to Henderson County from the country
about the Catawba. He was of German descent and
, had been brought up a Lutheran, with a good Lu-
theran's reverence for the sacraments, and dislike
of revival methods and emotional extravagance. In
Henderson County he had found no Lutherans, and
with his family had held aloof from the neighboring
Baptists and Methodists. On this account, his neigh-
bors considered the Seagles as little better than un-
believers, and Mr. Jones was told that they were a
family of infidels, or "in-fiddles," as his rustic in-
formant pronounced the word. He proceeded at once
to encounter this stronghold of irreligion, and was
much surprised to find in Mr. Seagle a man of strong
character and of earnest religious convictions. He
was warmly welcomed by all the family, and found
a ready response to his appeals, and a soil prepared
for his sowing. Mr. Seagle was glad of an oppor-
_ tunity of Christian fellowship and worship upon
I terms which appealed to his mind and conscience,
and gave their due place and importance to the sac-
raments. The whole family came into the Church,
and there sprang up an affectionate relationship be-
tween them which ended only with his death. There
were six sons and two daughters in the Seagle fam-
ily. Upon leaving them to go on to other parts of
his field, Mr. Jones said to Mr. Seagle: "Here you
have six fine boys. I cannot help feeling that you
owe one of them to the Lord for the work of the
ministry. I am going away now, but I will come
back and visit you again by such a date. Now, jon
and the boys think this matter over, and talk it over
among yourselves, and ask God's guidance, so that
when I return you may tell me which of these hoys
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 25
God wants for His work in the ministry." In due
course of time he came again, and asked the father
and the boys if they had remembered what he had
said to them, and if they were prepared to give him
an answer. Mr. Seagle replied that he and the boys
had talked it over and had looked for God's guid-
ance, and had come to a decision. "Here is Na-
than," he said. "He is the oldest. He has had more
schooling than the others. He has a first-grade cer-
tificate as a teacher in the public schools. And
Nathan says that he is willing to give himself to the
ministry if he is thought to be worthy." So Mr.
Jones sent Nathan over to Asheville, to study under
the Rev. Dr. Buel until he was prepared to enter the
General Theological Seminary. The Rev. Nathan A.
Seagle is now the rector of an important parish in
New York City. Later, a younger brother, John,
also entered the ministry. And with Nathan Seagle
Mr. Jones sent another Henderson County boy to
Dr. Buel — George Y. Gilreath, who also went to the
General Seminary, and was ordained to the ministry.
The late Dr. John D. McCullough, of Walhalla,
S. C, Milnor Jones's old rector at Glenn Springs,
spending the summer at Saluda, near Tryon, and
hearing of his work in the country among the poor-
est and most ignorant of the people, had a desire to
observe his method of interesting them. He went,
therefore, to a country school-house, where he heard
Mr. Jones was to preach, and before the congrega-
tion began to assemble, took a seat in the most ob-
scure corner. Soon after dusk, the house had pretty
well filled up with people from the neighborhood,
and Mr. Jones came in. He wore a long sack coat.
From one pocket he took a candle, which he lighted
and fixed upon the end of a projecting log in the
wall; from another pocket he took out his Bible and
began his simple service of reading and prayer be-
fore he preached. No man set a higher value upon
•26
MILNOR JONES, DF^ACON AND MISSIONARY
the Prayer Book than Milnor Jones, and in all my
experience I have known no man who had more
widely distributed Prayer Books among the people
than he had. Indeed, I believe I have known no
man who had distributed one-half so many as he
had. But there was a reality about his purpose of
getting at the hearts and consciences of his hearers
which saved him from the folly of making the Prayer
Book a hindrance where he knew it could not be a
help.
It must have appeared, from what has so far been
said, that, though a man of extraordinary effective-
ness within his sphere, his sphere was distinctly a
very limited one. In a few years he would for the
time exhaust his physical strength by his unremit-
ting labors, and in a somewhat similar way he would
exhaust his spiritual and intellectual resources. "He
came to the end of his rope," to use a common
phrase. And he was not unconscious of this him-
self. He had baptized nearly six hundred persons,
old and young, during his ministry in this section,
and had presented nearly two hundred for confirma-
tion. He had built several churches, and had laid
wider foundations than his successors have yet been
able to build upon; but he was much broken in
health and had become afflicted with a painful and
distressing physical infirmity. He went from North
Carolina to Oregon in 1891, and I saw and heard
nothing more of him for several years.
CHAPTER III.
In North Carolina Again: Watauga, Mitchell, and
Ashe Counties.
Ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey, Wales (West Front) .
When upon the death of Bishop Lyman, Decem-
ber 13, 1893, I became Bishop of the Diocese, one of
my first thoughts was to endeavor to restore the old
Mission of Valle Crucis; to regain the site hallowed
28 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
by so many pious and noble associations ; and to
revive along the Wataugu River the old interest in
the work and worship of the Church. It seemed to
me that Milnor Jones was the man who could do
this. He was then in distant Oregon — I knew not
exactly where. By January, 1894, I had learned his
post-office address, and I at once wrote and asked if
he would not come back to this diocese. I was much
gratified by his reply. He wrote: "When I read in
the papers that you had been elected Bishop, my
heart turned back to North Carolina." Unfortu-
nately, however, he had, only the day before the
receipt of my letter, accepted an offer made by
Bishop Gailor, and had promised to go to Harriman,
Tennessee. In August, 1894, having obtained Bishop
Gailor 's generous consent, I wrote to him at Harri-
man, saying that Bishop Gailor had no objection to
his coming to me, if he desired to do so. His reply
was, in substance, and so far as I can remember, in
these words: "Where do you want me to go? What
do you w4sh me to do? And what salary will you
give ? ^iot that the amount of the salary makes any
difference ; I only wish to know just what I have to
go on." I replied as explicitly: "I want you to go
to Valle Crucis, on the Watauga River. I want you
to revive the old Valle Crucis Mission, as your spe-
cial work; and I give you for your field of opera-
tions Watauga, Mitchell, and Ashe Counties, to do
what you can in them. I will give you six hundred
dollars a year, payable monthly." Within a couple
of weeks he was on the Watauga, had fitted himself
out with a horse, saddle, bridle, and saddle-bags, and
had begun his campaign, leaving his wife and chil-
dren to follow at their convenience. A little later
he established them at Elk Park, on the northern
border of Mitchell County, practically midway be-
tween the two extremes of his work. Beaver Creek
and N^ew River, in Ashe County, on the north, and
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
29
Bakersville, the county town of Mitchell County, on
the south. His own headquarters he established at
Valle Crucis, on the Watauga River, having a room
for his few possessions at the house of Sheriff David
Beard, but spending- his time where his work called
him.
Valle Crucis proper, the site of the old mission so
named by Bishop Ives, is about a mile distant from
the Watauga River, on Dutch Creek. The beautiful
valley of this stream is at nearly the same point
entered by two smaller valleys, at right angles to
the course of Dutch Creek, Crab Orchard Creek
coming in from the north, and Clark's Creek from
the south, thus forming the cross valley of beautiful
green meadows and cornfields, which doubtless sug-
gested to Bishop Ives the name, Valle Crucis. The
old Welsh Abbey of Valle Crucis, from which he
took the name, has, however, no such topographical
situation, so far as I could see when I visited it a
few years ago. When Milnor Jones undertook to
revive the old Valle Crucis Mission, only one or two
of the old buildings remained, and they were owned
and occupied for residence and farming purposes.
30
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
Old building of Bishop Ives's time.
Only one communicant of the church, so far as I
remember, remained in that part of the county,
James Thomas, who lived some four or five miles
down the river, near St. John's Church. Over at
Boone, the county town of Watauga, there was a
small church, but the family of Dr. William B.
Council were the only representatives of the church
in the place. On the southeastern border of the
county, Blowing Rock had recently become quite a
village of summer visitors, and those who ministered
to the necessities and convenience of the summer
visitors. A church had been built there, and a small
congregation had been formed, but that meant little
or nothing for any church work or influence among
the people of the country. Regular services were
not maintained in an}^ one of these three churches,
and there had not been a resident minister of the
Church in Watauga County since the death of the
Rev. William West Skiles in 1862. Blowing Rock
MILNOR JONES; DEACON AND MISSIONARY
31
and Boone may be left out of the account in consid-
ering Milnor Jones and his work. He had a few
services at each place, but really devoted no time or
attention to them. He had his ow^n ideas of what he
wanted to do, and with a man of his peculiar charac-
ter it is best to let him "have his head."
He had now a field of work which exactly suited
his peculiar qualities. From one end to the other of
the three counties, in a northeasterly and south-
westerly course, the distance is something like
seventy or eighty miles, with only the ordinary
mountain roads connecting his distant stations. He
had not a single church or chapel for his services,
St. John's Church on the Watauga, and St. Luke's
at Boone, being both outside the scheme of work he
had laid out for himself, although he had periodical
services in both for the people of the neighborliood.
His special work was to revive Valle Crucis as a cen-
ter of church work and influence. He felt that he .
should concentrate on that point, and neither St.
John's nor St. Luke's seemed to afford any favor-
able prospect of growth. He, therefore, preached
from house to house, and appointed Sunday and
week-day meetings at all places of public gathering,
school-houses, mills, country stores, and at "free
churches." He made friends of all who would re-
ceive him in a friendly spirit, and he and his big bay
horse, John, soon became familiar acquaintances
throughout the three counties. He had a wonderful
talent for friendship, and for knowing everybody.
He never seemed at all disposed to gossip. His com-
mon talk seldom strayed far or long from religious
subjects, and as a rule, unless he had some definite
purpose requiring a different course, he was most
discreet and tactful in social intercourse. But among
uneducated people, and in thinly settled sections,
personal happenings and experiences, and family
histories, form a large part of the day 's talk. He
32
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
liad a wonderful faculty for remembering what he
heard, and for knowing" everything about every-
body; and he seemed to be able to lay the hand of
his influence upon whole sections of the community,
upon this and that family connection, and to attach
them to him, and to the Church, with a loyalty which
is most unusual. He could somehow stimulate and
impress the popular imagination, and represent the
Church to the popular mind in a way which, while
often deeply offending those whom he did not con-
vince, at the same time drew with ardent attach-
ment the minds and hearts of many. I have never
known any man who had sucli success as he had in
making loyal and ardent Churchmen of uneducated
persons wholly unfamiliar with our teaching or
methods of worship. This was wonderfully illus-
trated by his first year's work in AVatauga and
Hotchell Counties.
In April, 1895, he wrote that he desired to have a
visitation from me to his Valle Crucis work, and also
to Bakersville, as early in the summer as would be
convenient for me, as he had a number of candidates
for Confirmation in both missions. To the Conven-
tion of May, 1895, he reported: Baptisms — infant 19,
adult 4. He reports two Confirmations, but they had
been performed before he had entered the field. He
reports services at "Valle Crucis, Boone, Blowing
Rock, Dutch Creek, Clark's Creek, Grandfather
Mountain, Banner's Elk, Elk Park, Yellow Moun-
tain, Bakersville, Phillip's School-House, Dresden,
Willow Grove, Sutherland, and other places."
June 18th, I proceeded to Blowing Rock, where
Mr. Jones met me. I think I can not better describe
his work than by giving an account of my first visi-
tation to his scattered missions. His own horse, with
another which he had hired, were hitched to a strong
buggy, and in it we made the trip from Blowing
Rock. His baggage, including his surplice, was all
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
33
contained in a pair of saddle-bags. A suit-case and
small handbag- held all that I could take. We had
service in the church at Blowing Rock, Wednesday,
June 19th. The next day we drove over to Boone,
and had service Thursday night in St. Luke's
Church. These were merely preliminary skirmishes.
The real campaign was yet to begin.
Friday morning, June 21st, we drove from Dr.
Councill's, in Boone, to "Bill Holler's Mill," on Lau-
rel Fork of Watauga River, three or four miles
above Valle Crucis. This had been one of Mr.
34
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
Jones's regular stations, and here we found a large
congregation awaiting us. Many of the people could
not read well enough to take part in a Prayer Book
service, and we had few books. We had a short ser-
vice, with hymns, reading the Bible, the Creed, and
prayers; then a sermon and Confirmation. The
miller and his wife, several of their children, and a
number of their neighbors, fourteen in all, including
four married couples, kneeling on the ground — the
service, of course, had to be out-of-doors — received
the Laying on of Hands. After the service, the hos-
pitable miller asked us all to dine with him, and a
large number accepted his generous invitation. He
was a poor man, with only his grist-mill and a little
mountain farm, but he gave us bread and potatoes,
and butter and milk, and then rhubarb pie sweet-
ened with honey, and the wiiole seasoned with his
fine, generous welcome.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon we went down Lau-
rel Fork to the Watauga, crossed the river, and
climbed the mountain- side to the cabin of Harrison
Mitchell, whose wife was unwell, and his mother
eighty-three years of age, so that neither of them
could get out. There I had a short service, preached
them a short sermon, and confirmed the man and his
wife, a grown son, and the aged grandmother, many
of their neighbors forming the congregation.
Mr. Jones, more merciful to his Bishop than a^^e
some of his brethren, had left Saturday without an
appointment, and kindly said that I might go fishing
for small-mouth black bass in the Watauga — and I
suppose I did so. He had himself no taste for idling.
MILXOR JOXES, DEACOX AXD MISSIOXARY
35
June 23rd, the Second
Sunday after Trinity, Ave had
service in St. John's Church,
on the Watauga River, four
miles below Valle Crucis. I
confirmed an old woman,
preached, and administered
the Holy Communion. At
half -past four o'clock, in a
ruinous old house on Dutch
Creek, near Yalle Crucis, I
preached and confirmed three
persons. Our vestry room
was a circular space in a
dense growth of beautiful
rhododendron, upon which
lingered a fcAV of their splen-
did purple blossoms.
Monday, June 24th, St.
John Baptist's Day, under
the trees near the house of
.jacK xxiiioii,
Andrew Jackson Townsend, the Bishop's fisherman friend.
on Clark's Creek, one or two
miles aboA^e Yalle Crucis, Mr. Jones baptized three
children and a half-groAvn boy. I preached and con-
firmed seven persons, and made an extended ad-
dress on Baptism and Confirmation.
June 25th, Ave droA^e on fifteen miles to Elk Park,
and had serA^ce and preached at night in the Pres-
byterian Church.
June 26th, Ave drove from Elk Park to Bakers-
A^lle, some thirty miles by the road Ave had to travel,
and Avere entertained by Mr. Thomas A. LoA^e, one
of the tAvo Churchmen AAdiom Mr. Jones had found
in BakersAalle. At Mr. LoA^e's Avere seA^eral large
boxes AAdiich had been hauled oA^er the mountains
from Marion on the railroad. They had come from
NeAv York and Avere directed to the Rca'. Milnor
36 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
Jones, at Mr. Love's, in Bakersville. Upon asking
about them, Mr. Jones informed me that they were
Bibles, Hymnals, and Prayer Books, mostly the last,
which he had sent down for distribution among the
people. ''Why!" I exclaimed, "here are two or
three times as many Prayer Books as you can give
away." "No," said he; "I could give away many
more, to people who will be glad to have them."
Thursday we spent with Mr. Love, and in seeing
such people as came in to see us. Thursday night,
in the court-house, Mr. Jones said Evening Prayer,
and, with help of our numerous Prayer Books, we
had a fairly good service.
I preached on Conversion (St. Mathew 13:14,15)
^ and confirmed the wife of our host, and two other
persons. There were a number of other candidates,
but we preferred to have them come the next night.
And, never having witnessed the service before, they
also preferred not to come forward at its first ad-
ministration. Thursday, many persons came to Mr.
Love's house to see us, mostly people from the
country, and I was surprised to find how eager they
were to receive the copies of the Prayer Book we
i gave them. Fi-iday night we had Evening Prayer
again in the court-house. I preached — without a
text — on "The Church," and confirmed nine per-
sons, some of whom were among the most promi-
nent men in the town and vicinity. Saturday, we
visited the county jail and talked with the prisoners.
Many country people came to see us. In the even-
ing Mr. Jones preached in the country, a mile or so
from town.
June 30th, the Third Sunday after Trinity, in the
court-house, Mr. Jones said the Litany. I preached
and administered the Holy Communion. By this
time our services had attracted such attention that
many people came in from the country, and the
court-house was j)acked, all the seats filled, and the
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 37
open spaces crowded with men standing, as is some-
times seen during the trial of a sensational capital
case in court. At night it was the same. After
preaching, I confirmed one person.
As I had an appointment for Tuesday, July 2nd,
at a distant point, Mr. Jones and I left Bakersville
early Monday morning. As we drove through the
principal street we heard some one calling. Look-
ing back, we saw the mayor of the town coming out
into the street and signaling us to stop. He was a
lawyer of prominence, one of the leading Republican
politicians of that district, and father-in-law of one
of the United States Senators from North Carolina.
When he came up he said he had come out to beg
that we would come back to Bakersville as soon as
possible, because he was anxious to be confirmed.
He said that he had attended the services the day
before, and had been so much impressed that he had
determined to become a member of the Church, and
had been strongly moved to come forward the night
before and ask me to confirm him then and there,
but he did not know whether I would feel that I
could do so, and he had therefore concluded to wait
and to ask me to return at an early day.
I fear that Mr. Jones and I felt a little complais-
ant and self-satisfied as we drove out of Bakersville
early on that first day of July. We had that morn-
ing baptized an adult, and had her and her husband
as candidates, making three against my next visit.
Our road lay just west of the summit of the Blue
Ridge, first in Mitchell County and along the North
Toe River, then into Yancey County, and across the
beautiful South Toe and through the little town of
Burnsville, and so into Buncombe. The road, though
steep and rocky in places, was dry and on the whole
good. Our horses, having stood in their stalls since
the preceding Wednesday, were fresh and mettle-
some. The day was fair, the sun bright, but not
126588
38
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
burninof. Among* those high mountains the air was
delightful even at midday in July. We greatly en-
joyed our ride, and felt that we were indeed doing
well. It was the old case of —
"Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows";
and we all unmindful that behind us at Bakersville
something like "the whirlwind" was preparing for
us, while a more tangible peril lay across our path
in front.
We passed that night at a farm-house in Yancey
County, and the next morning resumed our journey.
Heavy clouds, which during the morning were gath-
ering along the tops of the mountain, began to over-
spread the sky, and about noon we had quite a
heavy fall of rain. Though it poured in torrents for
a while, yet, after the manner of summer storms in
the mountains, it was soon over, and the sun was
again shining brightly, and the masses of broken
clouds were rolling away and melting in the clear
air. The landscape seemed only fresher and more
beautiful for its bath. But as we drew near the
little village of Democrat, in Buncombe County, we
saw, by the condition of the roads, and by the quan-
tity of water filling all depressions and pouring
along all roadside drains, that there must have been
a much heavier rainfall than we had experienced a
few miles back ; and as we passed through the vil-
lage and so on to the crossing of the Big. Ivy, a
mountain stream flowing into the French Broad
River not very far above the town of Marshall,
which was our destination, that there I might take
the train for the Hot Springs, we met several vehi-
cles which had evidently just forded the stream, and
which showed the mark of their crossing high upon
their sides and wheels. So, as they had crossed, we
felt no hesitation in attempting the ford ourselves.
The stream was much out of its banks and running
with a fierce and turbid current. But we drove in,
MILXOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
39
without a pause, having a good, strong' buggy and a
pair of horses quite above the average height and
weight. Indeed, Mr. Jones's horse, familiarly known
all over his circuit as "Old John," stood at least
three or four hands above the ordinary animal of
the country. And it was well we had so heavy, high,
and staunch a team. When we struck the mid-bed
of the stream, the water suddenly rose from the foot
of the buggy up to the seats, and before we realized
it we were sitting several inches deep in water, and
the tremendous force of the swollen torrent, strik-
ing against the side of the buggy and catching upon
the curtains of the top, which we had not lowered,
threatened every moment to overturn the veliicle, in
which case we should probably have been caught
under the open top, and if so caught, would almosi
inevitably have been drowned. I at once called to
Mr. Jones to turn around and drive back out of the
stream. But he knew better. I used to say that he
was afraid of nothing but high water. He had once
or twice been in imminent danger of drowning, and
he made no secret of this fear. But in this only
instance of such danger which I ever witnessed he
was admirably self-possessed. When I called out to
him to turn back, "No," he said; "if I attempt to
turn around in the tremendous torrent, the buggy
will certainly be overset by the force of the water
and the horses probably thrown down. We must go
down the stream." With that he deliberately put
the heads of the horses down-stream and began to
drive down mid-stream, with the water coming over
our knees and almost to our waists, as we sat. But
this at once took the terrible strain off our team, and
the water bore the buggy downward, but with no
danger of overturning it. The . weight and height
of the horses enabled them to keep their footing,
and the moment we were thus steadied and relieved
of the imminent danger of being overset, Mr. Jones
40 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
turned their Jieads slightly towards the shore, not
greatly altering our course and still keeping the
force of the current behind us pressing us forward;
and so in a very few moments, and within less than
a hundred yards distance, w^e came gradually into
shallower water, and drove out safe upon the fur-
ther side. From the point where we emerged we
could see some distance down the stream, and we
observed that the banks were much wider and the
channel therefore shallower. We also saw by the
tracks of wheels and horses on both sides that it
was at this point that those persons had crossed
whom we had met just before we drove into the
ford.
When the buggy made its first plunge into deep
water and we found the water rising up towards the
seat, Mr. Jones had called to me to look out for his
saddle-bags, which were in the hinder part of the
buggy. I turned at once and reached for them, but
just as I reached, the current, sweeping into the
back of the buggy, whirled them away before I
could lay hands on them, and the last we ever saw
of them they were going, bobbing and dancing,
down the middle of the stream. Fortunately for me,
my suit-case was firmly wedged under the seat of
the buggy, and my smaller bag was in front, be-
tween our feet, so that they were not carried away.
though their contents were thoroughly soaked with
water. But we were thankful to have escaped so
well ; and Milnor J ones always claimed for his horse,
John, the whole credit of our safet.y. It was John's
bulk and height, he always asserted, which kept the
other horse steady. For my part, I felt sure that by
the goodness of God we owed our escape to his own
coolness, courage, and sound judgment. It took a
cool head and a brave heart to turn the heads of his
team down the middle of that fierce torrent. It was
in medio tutissimus, in a new sense.
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 41
About an hour after this adventure, he drove me
into the little town of Marshall, where I took the
train for my next appointment, and he, minus his
saddle-bags containing his scanty supplies and also
containing his one surplice, turned back upon his
long and solitary drive to join his family for a day
or so at their home in Elk Park, and then to resume
his work along the Watauga and in our new enter-
prise at Bakersville.
CHAPTER IV.
Bakersville.
In the meanwhile trouble was brewing in Bakers-
ville. Bakersville and Mitchell County had at that
period the reputation of being among the most
lawless and violent sections of the Southern moun-
tains. Though there were many homicides in the
county, it was all but impossible to bring a mur-
derer, or other greatly criminal person, to justice.
I was told by a very intelligent citizen of the place
that for a number of years the only execution for
crime which had taken place in the county had been
a lynching". I do not know whether that was liter-
ally true, but it very fairly expressed the state of
the case.
Among the ignorant people of the mountains, as
elsewhere, religious controversies are carried on with
great violence and abusiveness of language. In
Bakersville at this time there were three religious
denominations with organizations and church build-
ings. These were the Baptists, the Southern Metho-
'! dists, and the Northern Methodists; so that their
religious differences were aggravated by a strong
; infusion of political prejudice and passion. Just be-
fore our visit a bitter discussion between two of
these local churches had been in progress. "We saw
in the local paper some of the contributions to this
controversy. But the services which we had held in
the court-house seemed to be acceptable by both
sides as a warning that they must close up their
ranks and combine their forces against a common
enemy.
In his preaching Mr. Jones always asserted the
Apostolic character of the Church, and the necessity
of an Apostolic ministry and a valid Commission to
the proper Constitution of the Church, and the certi-
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 43
fication of the Sacraments. And he did not confine
himself to abstractions, but spoke very forcibly, and
probably with a power and a felicity of illustration
which bettered the mountain preachers' best rhet-
oric, on the defects in the teaching', institutions, and
ministerial authority, of the Baptist and Methodist
organizations. He had so distinctly and uncompro-
misingly set forth the superior claims and advan-
tages of the Church, and the importance to his hear-
ers of coming out of their existing denominations,
and into the true fold, that he was not only prohibited
from using any of the local church buildings, but
had even been refused permission to preach in the
local school-house. We therefore had our services
in the court-house. At these services I had done all
the preaching myself; and while I set forth very
plainly and strongly the teaching of the Church
affirmatively and positively, I avoided, for the most
part, any statement as to the deficiencies of other
Christian organizations. I have always felt that, if
we can get men to accept positive truth and duty,
the negative side will be amply attended to. But
Sunday night, at our last service, Mr. Jones made
an address in his peculiar vein, and pretty strongly
set out his opinion of the Baptist and the Methodist
churches, though with no more offensiveness of lan-
guage essentially than is common in their own con-
troversial preaching in that section of the country.
They had not really troubled themselves about Mr.
Jones and his preaching before this time. They re-
sented his attacks on their systems and their doc-
trines, but they did not think him of much impor-
tance. But our meetings in the court-house, the
Confirmation of several of the prominent men of the
town, with the attitude of others, moved their fears.
The day we left Bakersville — the first Monday in
July — was the day for the monthly meeting of the
County Commissioners. Prominent Methodists and
44
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
Baptists went before the board and procured the
passage of an order that the court-house should not
be used for religious services. The local newspaper,
in chronicling the fact, stated that the reason they
gave for this action was that "the Episcopalians had
been preaching uncomfortable doctrine." Subse-
quently, a communication, signed by a number of
the most prominent citizens — ^Baptists and Metho-
dists— denied this, and said that the order was made
merely on account of the condition of the court-
house, which was unsafe for large audiences.
Having thus secured themselves against Mr.
Jones's preaching, as they supposed, they proceeded
to hold a joint meeting of Baptists and Methodists,
both Northern and Southern, in which the Northern
Methodist resident preacher was the speaker, he
being the ablest and best educated of the local min-
isters. The sermon was an elaborate and vigorous
attack on the Church, all along the line of its his-
tory, doctrines, and worship ; and it stirred up much
enthusiasm on its own side, and was considered an
effective reply to what had been advanced by the
Bishop and his Deacon. In fact, the dominant fac-
tions felt that they had effectually silenced their
1 opponents, having shut them out of all places where
they could preach, and also having, in their judg-
ment, fully refuted their arguments.
All this time Milnor Jones, thirty or forty miles
across the mountains, was in ignorance of the course
of events in Bakersville. Having an appointment
there for Sunday, July 21st, he took the long and
fatiguing horseback ride from Valle Crucis, by way
of Elk Park, to Bakersville, not much short of fifty
miles, although he had been quite sick for a week or
so, and was still far from well. He reached Bakers-
ville Friday night. Here he learned of the action of
the county commissioners in closing. the court-house
against him, and also of the tremendous rally of the
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 45
Baptists and both sects of Methodists in a solidarity
of opposition, and of the great sermon preached
against the Church. Indeed, such a heat of opposi-
tion had been aroused among the great majority of
the inhabitants of the little town, even among the
really irreligious and careless, who naturally sided
with the majority, that our small beginning of a
flock found themselves much cast down and discour-
aged. They assured Mr. Jones that it was useless to
attempt to preach, under the circumstances, and that
they had better "lie low" until the excitement of
public feeling had subsided. And then, after all,
they said, he could not preach, because it was impos-
sible to find any place, now that they were shut out
of the court-house. Milnor Jones had not been able
to "go slow" in South Carolina, and he did not
know how to "lie low" in Bakersville. He was
indignant at the suggestion that he could not preach,
because he had been shut out of the churches, school-
houses, and court-house. He felt that his acceptance
of the situation, in such a way as that, would in this
community be universally regarded as a virtual sur-
render and confession of failure. To his friends,
who stated that he could not preach, because he had
no place for service, he replied indignantly that he
would show them whether he could preach or not.
Thereupon, on Saturday morning, taking counsel of
no one, he went to the local printing office and had
struck off at once a hundred or two hand-bills, with
a notice that the Rev. Milnor Jones would preach
next day, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, in front of
the court-house in Bakersville, and inviting all per-
sons to attend at that time and place. These hand-
billsi he^ himself distributed in the town, and also to
many persons from the country, who on Saturdays
resort in large numbers to the county-seat.
We may be sure that he did not lack a congrega-
tion when the appointed hour had come. Friends
46
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
and enemies were alike attracted by the novelty of
the situation, and by their interest in, or dislike of,
the preacher. All knew that whatever he might say,
there was no danger of liis being uninteresting or
tedious. And he proceeded to preach a sermon
which was long remembered in Bakersville, with
admiration and pride by his friends, but with senti-
ments of bitter resentment by his unfriends. It
should be remembered that, whatever his early asso-
ciations and training, he had deliberately made him-
self one with the plain people of the mountains, and
had faithfully endeavored to enter into their ways
and modes of thought and expression. The result
was, that, with his natural force of intellect, and
with his early advantages of training and education,
he easily and perhaps unconsciously improved upon
his model. He did not endeavor to be like the more
or less cultivated preacher of the mountain town,
where some of the refinements and amenities of so-
cial intercourse were known and cultivated. He was
the preacher from the mountains, and he spoke
especially for the poorer and plainer people. He
had assimilatecj himself to the type, and he made no
- attempt to readjust himself to the higher average
i taste or sentiment of a town congregation.
He took for the subject of his sermon before the
court-house in Bakersville, by the side of the Main
Street of the town, the vision of the "Opening of
the Seals," in the sixth chapter of the Book of the
Revelation. He gave the interpretation of the
vision which he had read, in the notes in Bishop
Wordsworth's Greek Testament, on this chapter.
The Rider on the White Horse was Christ, going
forth conquering and to conquer. He on the Red
Horse, to whom was given the great sword, repre-
sented the effort of the Evil One to destroy Christ's
Church by the bloody sword of the heathen perse-
cutors, from Nero to Diocletian. The Rider on the
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 47
Black Horse, having the pair of balances in his
hand, represented the cunning devices of the Evil
One, after the failure of the persecutors, in raising
up heresies within the Church, and specially the
Arian heresy; striving to measure and weigh and
determine divine truth by the balances and measures
of human reason. The Rider on the Pale Horse,
with whom was Death, and Hell following after,
called for more detailed treatment. He said the
Avord "pale" did not quite express the meaning of
the word used by St. John. It did not mean ' ' pale ' '
in our usual understanding of the Avord. It meant,
rather, a bright and fair-seeming mingling of colors,
attractive to the eye, but variable and evanescent;
perhaps we might say a pied or party-colored horse,
or a "calico horse," in our country phrase. This he
interpreted as representing the efforts of the Evil
One in these later ages to destroy God's Church by
sects and schisms, divisions and opposing denomina-
tions, which many times are pleasing and attractive
to the worldly mind, and make a fair and deceitful
show of being good, and for the advantage of Chris-
tianity; but with them is Death to the real life and
power of the Church, and Hell follows after.
Up to this point the sermon was a lucid and strik-
ing exposition of the Scripture passage, illustrated
and applied with a simple force and eloquence, all.
the more effective, with its freight of real knowledge
and thought, for the homely and rugged manner of
the sepaker. But he had now come to the pregnant
passage of his exposition, and the objective point of
his discourse. In his own mind he had gotten his
Methodist and Baptist friends where he wanted
them; he had identified the movement in Christen-
dom which had produced them, as part of the effort
of the Evil One to destroy the true nature and power
of the Church ; and we need not doubt that he made
the most of it. If he had stopped even here, his best
48 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
results would have been attained in the minds of his
own adherents, and perhaps his opponents mig'ht
have felt that he had not exceeded the limits of con-
troversy which may be permitted even before their
town congregation. Unfortunately, he could not
stop here. Up to this time he had not, I believe, been
personally assailed with anything more than the
ordinary weapons of sectarian controversy. He had
no personal grievance, nor had I found evidence of
any personal resentment in him towards any one in
this place, or, indeed, in any place. He was aston-
ishingly free from resentment, even when injuri-
ously assailed. But the Methodists and Baptists had
united to prevent the services of the Church in the
town, and had been countenanced by those who were
not even Methodists or Baptists, but men indifferent
to Christian truth and duty. And there they were,
sitting before him, with possibly a smile of satisfied
triumph on their faces, because they had thus driven
the Church into the street. He remembered, too,
their joint meeting, their pooling" of denominational
interests, and the combination of all resources
.against the Church ; and he had heard of the sermon
in which the Church had, as he considered, been will-
fully misrepresented and abused.
Bakersville had been by no means a model com-
munity, and those most forward in opposing the
Church were in some cases hardly entitled to set
themselves up as regulators of Christian truth and
practice. I have spoken of Milnor Jones's wonder-
ful faculty of knowing everything about everybody
in the communities in which he preached. In an ex-
tended peroration, to his sermon in front of the
court-house, he drew one after another delineations
of personal character, without names, but amazingly
true to the lives of some of his audience, and terribly
true to the conscience of each man aimed at ; and he
held them up to just scorn, as men not humbly and
MILNOR JONES. DEACON AND MISSIONARY 49
with self-condemnation seeking pardon for the past,
and help to be better in the future, but setting them-
selves up, in a vain, contident pretence of goodness,
to oppose the Church of God. The whole assembly
sat, half-dumb, with amazement at the audacity of
this attack, or half-mad with anger at the pain of
the blows, which was all the more excruciating be-
cause they could not be parried or returned. I was
told by one present that some of the persons alluded
to literally trembled and paled before the speaker ;
and in such a community, noted as it was for fierce
and turbulent elements in the population, there was
a prevalent feeling that the preacher stood in great
danger of personal violence.
The outline of the expositary part of the sermon I
learned both from Mr. Jones himself and also from
several of his most intelligent auditors. As to what
followed the exposition, I had the substance of it
from the preacher himself, and also a very extended
account of its effect upon the audience from perhaps
the ablest and most prominent man in the town, the
then mayor. In speaking of it, he expressed the
highest admiration for its ability and eloquence, but
said it was in the last degree a perilous position into
which the speaker had put himself, and that he had
at the time the liveliest apprehension that he would
be treated with personal violence. "I have seen
this town in terrible moments of popular excitement
and anger, but I thought I had never seen it nearer
to an outbreak than after that sermon. I have heard
great speeches," he continued, ''from some of the
greatest orators in the country. I have heard Conk-
lin, of New York, and James G. Blaine and others,
but I never heard a more powerful and eloquent
speech than that of Mr. Jones in front of the court-
house."
The excitement had by no means subsided the
next morning, and Mr. Jones's friends were most
50 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
uncomfortable on his account. He would by no
means keep himself in the background, but, like
St. Paul at Athens, his spirit was stirred w^ithin him,
and he was in all public places, discussing and dis-
puting with all that met with him, and giving them
plainly to understand that, in his judgment, all their
opposition to the Church proceeded from ignorance
and prejudice. The local school teacher was much
outraged at such a suggestion. He gave a beautiful
illustration of the argumentum ad hominem re-
versed, and felt that he had abundantly answered
Mr. Jones, and refuted his statement, by his naive
question, ''Am I ignorant?"
The next day Mr. Jones had to leave Bakersville
and return to his duties in Watauga County.
I had promised to return to Bakersville at my ear-
liest opportunity. I therefore arranged my visita-
tions so as to be back in that section a little before
the middle of August. The thirteenth of that month
I reached Marion from the west, and found Mr.
Jones awaiting me. Late in the afternoon as it was,
we drove six miles on the road to Bakersville, and
spent the night with a farmer by the roadside. I
had heard some rumors of the exciting scenes which
had occurred at Bakersville since my first visit, and
Mr. Jones now gave me an account of the situation.
His sermon in the street had made the action of the
County Commissioners widely known. A number of
the leading citizens of the place, smarting under the
remembrance of that sermon, addressed a long com-
munication to the News and Observer, Raleigh, ac-
cusing Mr. Jones of the greatest indecency and vio-
lence in his whole manner of speaking and preach-
ing, and at great length holding him up to reproba-
tion and contempt. He had, they said, asserted that
the "Baptist and Methodist churches were only de-
bating societies and social clubs"; "that their faith
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 51
was not sufficiently efficacious to save a soul; and if
one of them should be saved at all it would be by
virtue of what little Episcopal doctrine he had in his
church," etc., etc., with examples of the most offen-
sive and abusive language, which they asserted that
he had used; and saying that he had "preached ser-
mons in fits of anger and rages of passion," and so
on. This communication had appended to it the
names of a dozen or more persons, some of them
prominent citizens of Bakersville. Immediately be-
low this, in the paper, was a card, signed by Mr.
Thomas A. Love, a member of our Bakersville con-
gregation, and a prominent lawyer of that section,
saying of the above mentioned communication that
"the article is both false and malicious." So greatly
in controversies will men differ. Before seeing the
article, Mr. Jones had heard of it, and of its allega-
tions that he had said that a Baptist or a Methodist
could not be saved, except by believing "Episcopal
doctrine." He thereupon sent a communication to
the same paper, denying the allegation, but adding:
' ' I did not say that. But I did say that if a Methodist
or Baptist, or a member of any other modern denom-
ination, is saved, it will not be by virtue of any of
the peculiar doctrines of their own, for which they
came out of the Church, but by reason of the origi-
nal faith which the Church had before they left it,
and which it as still. This I said, and this I am pre-
pared to maintain on any stump in the United States
or Canada!" This was the substance of Mr. Jones's
card. I have mislaid the newspaper clipping con-
taining his exact words.
Late in the afternoon of Wednesday, August 14th,
we reached Bakersville, and I went at once to see
my friend, the mayor, who had been so anxious that
I should return, that he might be confirmed. He
gave me a vivid account of the events and of the
sermon of which I have been speaking. He was a
52 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
good man, I believe, and a man of some ability,
prominent as a lawyer, and a leading Republican
politician of his district, and had been their candi-
date for the Superior Court bench, if I mistake not.
But he was a very timid man, and I found him in a
state of much alarm, thinking himself in great dan-
ger, on account of his declared purpose of being
confirmed. He assured me that his convictions and
his purpose had undergone no change ; that he would
meet me in Asheville to be confirmed, or he would
come down to Raleigh ; but he said he could not be
confirmed in the public street in Bakersville : he did
not know what might happen to him before morn-
ing if he should do this. I urged on him his duty, as
a Christian and as a man, to act in accordance with
his conscience and his reason, and that he should put
under his feet the base fears which made him quail
before the face of men, so much his inferiors in intel-
ligence and character. I assured him that if he
would show them how little he feared or regarded
them, they would not venture to menace or to harm
him. "Oh, Bishop," he said, "you do not know
them. Why, I have had a man sleeping in my barn
for the last three weeks, for fear it would be set on
fire." I do not myself believe that there was any
such danger as he apprehended, or that his neigh-
bors or any one intended any such injury to him.
He was notoriously a timid man, but I think his state
of mind does illustrate to some extent the situation
at the time. I may add that, a jenr or two after-
wards, this man did appear in Raleigh, where I hap-
pened to be at a Sunday night service, but with no
purpose of holding a confirmation, and came up and
asked me to confirm him, and I did so during the
service.
Notice had been given that I would preach and
administer confirmation by the Main Street in front
of the court-house at half -past ten o'clock Thursday
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 53
morning, August 15th. Mr. Jones had lost his sur-
plice when his saddle-bags had been carried down
Big Ivy Creek, July 2d, and had not as yet been able
to procure another; so, as we were in the law office
of our friend, Mr. Love, preparing for the service,
I said to Mr. Jones: ''As you have no surplice, I
think I will not wear my vestments; and being in
the public street, perhaps it will be more seemly."
''Yes," said Mr. Jones, "I think that will perhaps
be best." Thereupon, Mr. Love, who does not like
anything which looks like flinching, said, but with
becoming modesty: "Bishop, you and Mr. Jones are
much better judges of what is proper on this occa-
sion than I am. At the same time, I cannot help say-
ing that, if a thing is worth doing at all, it is worth
doing right." "And that is entirely true," I re-
sponded; "I will put on everything I have, and I
wish I had more to put on for this service." So I
went down in rochet, stole and chimere, and read a
chapter from the Bible, said the Creed, the Lord's
Prayer and Collects, sang a hymn, preached half an
hour or more, and confirmed a man (brother of my
friend, the mayor), kneeling on the ground by the
side of the street. Many people were gathered
around, many others in the doors and windows of
the court-house, and of the houses along the street,
looking on. When I began to preach I doubted
whether my voice could reach them all. After I had
been speaking five minutes, I felt as if I could make
them hear me a mile away. I never spoke with more
ease, freedom, and enjoyment, or with a greater
sense of the high privilege of being a servant and
ambassador of my Lord.
In Mr. Love's house, after the service, I baptized
a young woman and confirmed her and another can-
didate.
In the afternoon I had to return towards Marion
on my way to other fields of duty.
CHAPTER V.
Valle Crucis Mission.
Before returning to his work on the Watauga,
Mr. Jones had to drive me to Marion, that I might
take the train for my next appointment. The dis-
tance is not much under forty miles, as I remember;
so we drove only part of the way that afternoon,
and spent the night in a house by the roadside. The
next day we crossed the Blue Ridge by Holyfield
Oap, called also Abernathy's Gap, the pass used by
the Watauga men in 1780 when they marched to
meet and destroy Ferguson and his Tories at King's
Mountain. Marion was the most accessible station
on the railroad from Baker sville, and Mr. Jones had
^5ometimes to use this route, though Marion was .not
in his field.
In recalling my experiences in administering the
Diocese, few things seem to me to have been more
delightful than my long drives through the moun-
tain!^ for days together, and sometimes for ten days
or two weeks, with Milnor Jones. I believe we
always had the same outfit of buggy and horses,
which had served us so well in crossing Big Ivy.
Mr. Jones was one of the best and most careful
drivers — for his team — whom I have ever known.
He had no special regard for his own comfort; he
cared very little for the comfort of his companion,
and not a great deal for the vehicle. But of the wel-
fare and comfort of his horses he was never for a
moment forgetful.
In fixing upon a stopping-place for the night,
solicitude for his team was his ruling motive. He
had a great dislike for tavern-keepers and ostlers.
He looked out for some plain and substantial farm
house, where was a good barn and big haystacks.
Any accommodation or food, however plain or
coarse, was quite good enough for him, so he might
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
55
be sure of a good feed of oats or corn and unlimited
hay for his horses at night, and a light feed for
them the next morning. He always attended to
their feeding, watering, and grooming himself. With
coat off, and brush and curry-comb in hand, after the
longest and hardest day's drive, he would give half
an hour, or an hour if need were, with honest pride
and enjoyment, to cleaning and rubbing down back,
sides, and legs of his good horse John and of John's
partner in labor, before leading them to their stalls
and their supper. At crack of day he would be up,
giving them their light feed of corn and hay ; and
he alwa3^s looked carefully to the adjustment of the
harness, and trusted nothing of all this to other
hands or eyes. Bright and early we would have our
breakfast, and be off upon our day's drive of thirty
or forty miles, over mountain roads presenting in
parts abundant illustrations of everything which a
road ought not to be. We seldom experienced bad
weather. June and July are delightful months in
the high mountain counties of North Carolina ; and
nowhere in this part of the world are more extensive
and charming prospects. A long day's drive gave
great variety of beautiful scenery, and much leisure
for its enjoyment. He always drove very slowly the
first part of the day, and carefully noted the condi-
tion and spirits of his horses. Three or four miles
an hour was as much as he cared to get out of them
before the noon rest and bait. But when they had
enjoyed an hour's rest at midday, with a moderate
bait of oats or corn, and after we had had our fried
bacon, corn-bread and buttermilk at some -farm
house, the pace would mend a bit, and, with an
hour's warming to their work, he would begin to
give them their heads and put them to their best gait ;
and from that time until night we would go at their
very best speed, wherever the road permitted. "You
can't hurt them now. They enjoy this as much as
56
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
we do," he would say. And at the day's end our
horses would be fresh and in fine spirits.
When traveling' alone he always went horseback.
On one such journey from Marion to Bakersville he
had as his companion on the road a prominent
young lawyer of Marion, whom he had known as a
boy in Eutherfordton. He had made an appoint-
ment with him to take the trip together, that he
might have an opportunity for a serious conference
with him on religious duty and the claims of the
Church. After some ordinary conversation, with
kindly inquiries after old acquaintances, he began
to draw out his young friend upon the subject of
his religious duty and his spiritual state. The young
man, having been brought up a Baptist, had not been
baptized in infancy, and had made no religious pro-
fession. He had talked with Mr. Jones before, and
he now became so much impressed by Mr. Jones's
conversation, and was so much moved by his instruc-
tive and enlightening setting forth of Christian
truth and duty, that it was very soon another case
of Philip the Deacon and the Treasurer of Queen
Candace. As they journeyed they came to water,
the beautiful stream and the clear waters of Arm-
strong's Creek. "What doth hinder me to be bap-
tized?" "If thou believe with all thine heart, thou
mayest" — is in effect the simple record of both
cases. They went down to the waters of the creek,
and there the Deacon baptized his convert — and by
immersion. That young man has since become
prominent in the public affairs of the State, one of
its distinguished lawyers and politicians, and re-
mains a zealous Churchman.*
*M0DE OF Baptism. — Milnor Jones frequently baijtized his converts
by immersion, as the Church allows this, and as the Baptist influence
xmder which they had grown up made them desire it. But he did not
himself believe that it was the apostolic mode or the scriptural mode,
and he published some controversial tracts on the subject. He told me
that when his candidates insisted on being immersed he took them into
the water, and at the words, "In the Name of the Father," he poured
water upon the head; at the words, "And of the Son," he sprinkled
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
57
Another eminent lawyer, who had been brought
up a Presbyterian, but who was not at all a religious
man, spoke to me once of having* met the Rev. Mil-
nor Jones on the train, where they occupied a seat
together, and had had some conversation. He had
been much impressed with the man, but, he said,
"He talked too much about religion." He had not
liked such "uncomfortable doctrine" as he proba-
bly heard ; but it was quite apparent that it was that
very thing which had so deeply impressed him. He
did not like it, yet his conscience told him that tlie
minister was doing his duty, and he respected and
admired him for it.
As interesting as had been our experiences at
Bakersville, I had to remind Mr. Jones that his chief
work must be the revival of the old Mission at Valle
Crucis. I wished him to subordinate other work to
that, and to keep that ever before his mind as his
chief aim and purpose. And, indeed, he had the
same sentiment himself, and greatly desired to ac-
complish that design. The idea of such a work
appealed to him, and he felt a good deal of enthu-
siasm for the cause. Unfortunately, however, he
was constitutionally unable to pursue one detinite
course, but by his strong sympathies, easily appealed
to, and readily diverted to the claims of the imme-
diate opportunity in other directions, he Avas pre-
vented from concentrating his energies persistently
and continuously to carry througli to tlie end one
great work. I recognized tliis wlieu I gave liim the
three counties. 1 knew he must have a wide range
and variety of pasture to keep up his spirits and to
supply abundant stimulus to his zeal. But 1 be-
lieved it would be possible to get him to make such
a beginning in tluit long deserted field as might
water upon them; and at the words, "And of the Holy Ghost," he im-
mersed the whole body once. As the candidate ^ot what he wanted, the
immersion, he did not object to Mr. Jones's use of the prccediiij;- ])our-
ing and sprintling.
58
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
enable others to enter in and build upon his founda-
tions.
By the autumn and winter of 1895 I thought that
a sufficient beginning had been made, and interest
created, among the people along the Watauga River,
in the vicinity of Valle Crucis, to warrant me in
attempting to prepare to give some permanence to
the work. It was now necessary to determine just
what should be the scope and design of the work,
and how much it would be proper to attempt at first.
A short passage from my address to the Convention
of the Missionary District of Asheville assembled at
Morganton, September 23, 1896, will sufficently set
forth the purpose then entertained :
"Our most extensive missionary enterprise is the
Valle Crucis Mission, embracing in its scope the
counties of Watauga, Mitchell, and Ashe. This is
practically the same ground covered by the old mis-
sionaries of Valle Crucis in Bishop Ives's time. The
work was revived just two years ago, when in Sep-
tember, 1894, I sent the Rev. Milnor Jones to Valle
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
59
Site of Easter Chapel, an old Valle Crucis Mission House of the
Rev. Henry H. Prout.
Crucis, directing him to make his headquarters at
the old Mission, but to include within the scope of
his endeavors the three counties above mentioned.
^'I should perhaps state in this place that, though
I located my mission at the same place, and call it
by the old name, it has never been my purpose to
renew the scheme of work proposed by Bishop Ives.
He had in mind a boarding school for boys, drawing
patronage from all parts of the State, a diocesan
training school for the clergy, and perhaps other
objects of general interest and value to the whole
Diocese. My scheme is confined to such things as
have a direct bearing upon the work of evangelizing
the people of these counties. I should like to make
Valle Crucis an associate mission, from which
60
MILNOR JONES, DP]ACON AND MISSIONARY
pieaehers and teachers should go out and keep up
the work of evangelizing, instructing, and educating
wherever an opening might be found or made."
This being the purpose in mind, we began to look
about for means to erect a house for a center and
home of the work. The property of the old "Valle
Crucis Abbey," as Bishop Ives loved to call it, had
been acquired, after the work was given up, by Mr.
Henry Taylor, and at his death had passed to his
children. At this time it was mostly owned by Mr.
Charles D. Taylor, who was a Methodist, but who
kindly promised that we might count on having
part of the old tract for our building, when we
should be in a position to proceed with the con-
struction.
It is not my purpose to go into the details of this
work, except so far as it is related to the services of
the Rev. Milnor Jones. I had made some attempts
to raise funds, and had a small sum on hand. Mr.
Jones was eager to make an appeal for so much as
might enable us to put up a building at Valle Crucis,
and to establish mission schools there, and also at
Bakersville, the southern limit of his work, and at
Beaver Creek, his northernmost station in Ashe
County. I therefore gave him permission to make the
attempt, and furnished him with commendatory let-
ters and with money for his expenses. Early in
November, 1895, he began his campaign for funds.
For several months he labored at that most ungrate-
fvil of tasks with the zeal and pertinacity which
characterized all his endeavors. In his way he made
almost as much ofi a sensation, when he came into
contact with clergymen and laymen in our large
cities, as among our country people in the moun-
tains. Many curious stories were for some years
floating about in Nev/ York at the Church Missions
House, and in other places, about his oddities and
his persistence and ingenuity in presenting the
claims of Valle Crucis.
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 61
He was not unsuccessful. He raised a good sum
of money, and during the year 1896 we were able to
establish mission schools at Yalle Crucis and at Bea-
ver Creek, of which latter enterprise more shall be
told after a while.
In the meantime he pressed on the work at Valle
Crucis. Up and down the Watauga River, up Clark's
Creek, along Laurel Fork by Bill Holler's mill, down
by St. John's Church, Milnor Jones and his horse
John were passing and repassing, and the country-
side began to have its stories of his rude wit and
rough pleasantries in his controversies with his
many opponents. His first antagonists were the
Baptists and a mountain sect called " Adventists."
The more intelligent people about Valle Crucis were
chiefly Methodists, and they rather enjoyed these
stories. He was very attentive to the welfare of his
good horse, and always fed him himself and at-
tended carefully to his grooming. One good Meth-
odist lady being asked where Mr. Jones was, replied
that the last she had heard of him "He Avas currying
down John, and the Baptists." Unfortunately, he
did not confine himself to one or two sets of oppo-
nents, but soon had them all equally irritated and
antagonistic. But his friends were all the more
loyal and zealous in their support of him ; and both
friends and enemies found many elements of kind-
ness and good-fellowship in him. With the poorest
people he was always gentle and friendly, and many
of this class still cherish a warm affection for his
memory. The only photograph of him "which I have
been able to obtain I had copied from one which
some years after his departure he had sent to one of
the oldest, poorest, and most illiterate of his Valle
Crucis flock. It was with such that he loved best to
stop and exchange the kindly offices of friendship.
With the very poor he often stopped for the night in
traveling about, and shared their coarse food and
slept upon their hard beds. He said he could not
62
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
expect the very poor to believe that he really cared
for them if they found that he always preferred to
stay with others. And they felt the reality of the
good Avill expressed in this habitual acceptance of
their hospitality, and were proud of it. One of the
things they loved to tell of him — and, I have no
doubt, still love to tell — was how he would stop and
eat their poor food and sleep hard and cold in their
poor houses.
Jackson Townsend and his wife.
And among these poorer people he found some
traces of the old Valle Crucis Mission and its work.
Old Mrs. Townsend, of Clark's Creek, declared that
she "had always been Episcopal." She said she had
been baptized by Bishop Ives, and that she had had
all her children baptized in the Church. After Mr.,
Skiles's death, when there was no clergyman of the
Church in the county, she said she would keep the
baby waiting until some clergyman would come
around. And her daughter, Timothy Townsend 's
wife, shared her loyal attachments. "Timothy war
Lutheran," she said, "but I pulled and I pulled, and
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 63
now he is Episcopal." She was truly a fruitful vine
upon the walls of Timothy's humble mountain cabin,
and when she had her sixteenth baby baptized she
was indeed happy, and in telling- of it she said, "I
was so glad for the baby."
But the work of the old Valle Crucis Mission had
left more important and more widespread results
than the faint memories of a few old and obscure
mountaineers. The whole population of that section
of Watauga County retained an impression of that
noble effort. A very intelligent observer and mis-
sionary, the Rev. Samuel F. Adam, who followed
Mr. Jones in the immediate care of this work, and
who spent a year or two in traveling about, mostly
on foot, all through our missionary field in the three
counties under consideration, was much impressed
with the superior intelligence and general social de-
velopment of the native population along the Wa-
tauga River, as compared with other parts of that
country and the adjoining counties of Ashe and
Mitchell. And the result of his observation and
careful investigation and inquiiy satisfied him that
this superiority was directly and distinctly trace-
able to the work of old Valle Crucis School and mis-
sionaries. Most of the men who were well advanced
in middle age, or a little beyond, had come under
those influences ; many of them had been pupils in
the school. My own limited observation produced
the same impression upon my mind. One of the
most intelligent and influential men in that neigh-
borhood said to me that all the education he had
ever recived had been in the old Valle Crucis School,
and its influences was still to be observed in the
general intellectual and social life of the community.
That those enlightening and elevating influences
might be renewed, increased, and extended, was my
earnest desire and hope. With this view, a mission
school was started at Valle Crucis in 1896, and as
soon as I could see any reasonable prospect of rais-
64
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
ing- money for a building, I set about establishing a
permanent home. Mr. Charles D. Taylor conveyed
to me for this purpose, or rather to the proper trus-
tees, a tract of three acres, part of the old Mission
property, and, with the money raised by Mr. Jones,
the building was erected during the years 1896 and
1897. Where Crab Orchard Creek comes down from
its mountain glen, it opens into a beautiful cove of
one or two acres, just before it descends to the
broader valley forming the northern arm of the
cross which gave the name Valle Crucis. This cove
opens to the south, with a fairly level surface, Crab
Orchard Creek running close under the slope of the
mountain-side forming its eastern boundary. Near
the steep bank on the western side of the cove, under
a clump of rhododendron and kalmia, a cold spring
of pure water bursts from the hillside. In this shel-
tered spot, backed by the forest-clad mountain, and
closed in on two sides by projecting spurs, was
placed the Mission House. It is a modest, unpreten-
tious structure, with a hall running through the
middle, and two rooms on each side of the hall, and
a like arrangement in the second story. It was built
of wood, and cost, to the best of my memory, twelve
hundred dollars. It very fairly expressed the plain
and practical character of the scheme of work then
entertained. It was intended as a home for a teacher
and the missionary, and perhaps a few pupils who
might assist in^ the domestic duties of the household
while enjoying the benefit of the school. In advance
of this building, and near the public road passing
along the front of the cove, the building, to include
both chapel and school-room, was to stand, but this
was not erected until after Mr. Jones had left the
work.
The completion of the Mission House practically
coincides with the termination of Mr. Jones's con-
nection with Valle Crucis. He continued in the same
field, but he was no longer specially concerned with
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 65
this part of the work. About this time we secured
the services of the Rev. Samuel F. Adam, and the
special charge of Valle Crucis was committed to him.
Mr. Jones continued his general round of services,
and gave special attention to an interesting work
which he had built up in Ashe County, some five or
six miles from the town of Jefferson, and aboat
thirty miles distant from Valle Crucis.
All this time his family remained, where he had
established them on his first coming to Valle Crucis,
Mission House built in 1896-7.
in the little mountain town of Elk Park, on the nar-
row-gauge railroad running from Johnson City,
Tennessee, to the Cranberry Iron Mine, in Mitchell
County. Fortunately Mr. Jones had an income from
funds held in trust for him, and this income assured
his family of a support independent of the modest
salary paid him as missionary. He was a very un-
selfish man, and spent little money on himself, ex-
cept the necessary expenses of traveling and of
caring for his good horse John. But he was open-
handed as the day, and poverty is ever present in
66
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
the remote mountains. Probably little of Mr. Jones's
small salary found its way into the domestic treas-
ury, and Mrs. Jones's scanty supplies were not safe
from Mr. Jones's indiscriminate charity. It is said
that in looking over her monthly account at the vil-
lage store Mrs. Jones was once surprised to find an
item of fifty pairs of yarn socks. Upon inquiry, it
appeared that Mr. Jones made a practice of leaving
home with his saddle-bags stuffed full of yarn socks,
such as used to be knit by the country people, and
bartered at the store for merchandise. Whenever
he found a poor person needing socks — and there
were many such — he would have a pair ready. And
when he had no money to pay for them he would
have them charged to the family account !
Andy Luske, the Bear Hunter.
CHAPTER VI.
Beaver Creek.
Watauga County, in the heart of the Blue Ridge,
is wholly mountainous, with the Grandfather, one
of the noblest domes of that lofty section, lying upon
its southern border; with the narrow valleys of the
Watauga River and its affluents running through its
middle from south to northwest, and the valley of
the South Fork of New River beginning along its
eastern side.
Ashe County lies north and northeast of Watauga,
and somewhat west of the ridge of the great moun-
tain chain. It has here and there beautiful moun-
tains rising above the surrounding country, but is
much less broken and precipitous in its general
formation, and presents to the eye great billowy
hills, heaving up their broad sides and spreading
out their spacious summits to the sky, with cattle
standing knee-deep in the rich grass of their hillside
pastures, white patches of buckwheat in the new
clearings, and the valleys dark-green with rustling
corn. The North Fork of New River rises some-
where near its western border, running with a gen-
eral northeasterly course towards the Virginia line ;
and the South Fork, coming in from Watauga
County, runs northerly along its eastern side. It is
a beautiful county and one of the finest grazing sec-
tions anywhere to be found. Jefferson, the county-
seat, near the center of the county, has its broad
main street set with double rows of cherry trees on
each side, which in this fine, cool mountain climate,
show an extraordinary growth and productiveness
seldom seen so far south. Five miles from Jefferson,
on the road towards Boone, the county-seat of
Watauga, the road crosses Beaver Creek. A large
academy building on the summit of a high hill used
to form a conspicuous landmark, and on the other
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
side of the creek was a large country store, a mill,
and two handsome residences, with other buildings
. in sight in the near distance. The two principal
houses are the homes of Rufus and William Hamil-
ton, and their brother Hege Hamilton's house is one
of those seen not far off. Passing along from
Wilkesboro on my way towards the residence of the
late Dr. Joseph 0. Wilcox, some ten or twelve miles
to the west, I crossed Beaver Creek, June 21, 1894,
and was so much struck with the fine location, the
extensive prospect, the high, rolling hills, the well
conditioned cattle, and the general appearance of
thrift and prosperity, implying intelligence and in-
dustry beyond what is common in the mountain
country, that I made some inquiries about Beaver
Creek, which confirmed my first favorable impres-
sion. I learned, moreover, from Mrs. Wilcox, that
Mrs. Rufus Hamilton was a Churchwoman and an
old pupil of St. Mary's School, Raleigh.
When I sent Mr. Jones to Valle Crucis I asked
him to visit Beaver Creek, and to see if anything
could be done there. The year 1895 had been de-
voted chiefly to Valle Crucis and Bakersville ; and
the last months of 1895, and the first month or two
of 1896, to his effort to raise money for his work.
Biut he had kept up periodical services at several
points in x\she County; and at Beaver Creek had
succeeded in arousing much interest, being cordially
, . supported by Mrs. Rufus Hamilton and her good
husband, and having made friends Avith the miller
and his family and a circle of other country people.
After his return to his mission field about the first
of March, 1896, he gave special attention to Beaver
Creek. In that neighborhood Mr. Rufus Hamilton
and Mr. Hege Hamilton, both men of intelligence,
wealth, and prominence, had signified their purpose
of coming into the Church with their households.
Over beyond the South Fork of New River, towards
Reddies River Gap, lived a prominent family by the
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 69
name of Bowie. Mr. Jones had held services in their
neighborhood, where now has been built a church
called Trinity Church, Glendale Springs. Over on
the North Fork of New Eiver was also the family of
Dr. Wilcox, already mentioned, but too distant to
co-operate in the work at Beaver Creek.
The Church, as we understand it, had been utterly
unknown in and around Beaver Creek. There was
a large Baptist congregation a few miles off, known
as "Buffalo Church," and there were also a con-
siderable number of M^ethodists, among whom were
many prominent and intelligent people. But the
"Episcopal Church" was utterly unknown to the
vast majority of the people until the advent of Mil-
nor Jones. He had set forth very plainly from the
first his conception of the history, character, and
claims of the Church, and its essential superiority to
all modern organizations. He had very widely dis-
tributed copies of the Prayer Book, and he had not
only drawn large congregations, but it began to be
seen that he was bringing into the Church some of
the best and most respected people of the section,
among the poor, as well as among the more wealthy.
And, after his fashion, he had not failed to give very
free expression to his unfavorable opinion of the
Baptists and Methodists, and his repudiation of their
claims to be adequate representatives of the true
Church of Christ, either in their teaching or organi-
zation.
"When he resumed his regular services and visits
early in 1896, he resolved upon a bold move. He
was alM^ays inclined to the sensational and spectacu-
lar. As in his early days in Polk County, he had
rented the very court-house and opened a mission
school in it, so now he rented the large academy
building, standing on the summit of a hill overlook-
ing Beaver Creek, and begged me to send him two
teachers that he might open a school for all the chil-
dren of the neighborhood. I sent him a young man,
70
DEACON JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
John C. Seagie, a Postulant, one of a Henderson
County family who had come into the Church under
Mr. Jones's ministry about 1885. At the same time
I sent also a young lady teacher, Miss Lou Smith, of
Scotland Neck. As it had been customary to hold
religious services in this building, which we had
now leased for two years, I was careful to have it
given out that all denominations of Christian people
were free to use the academy for public worship on
any Sunday except that on which Mr. Jones had his
monthly appointment, and on such Sunday as I
might appoint for a visitation.
All this, especially as interpreted b}^ Mr. Jones's
preaching, was sufficiently disagreeable and irritat-
ing to the Methodists and Baptists of the neighbor-
hood. And Mr. Jones's enthusiastic friends among-
the more uneducated people began to assert that
"Brother Jones and his Pr'ar Books would soon
break up Buffalo." In the midst of this growing'
irritation came the announcement that on the third
Sunday in June the Bishop would visit Beaver Creek
"for the purpose of organizing and establishing the
Church" at that point. What that meant exactly
was but imperfectly understood, even by Mr. Jones's
I own candidates for confirmation ; but they gathered
from him that it would be something great indeed.
He did not fail to magnify the office and work of the
Bishop, and June 21st was looked forward to with
great and joyful expectation by those interested in
his work, wdtli very lively interest by the people of
the neighborhood generally, and with an apprehen-
sion of some mysterious and unknown evil by the
enthusiastic members of "Buffalo" and other local
congregations. They got an impression from Mr.
Jones's representations of an Episcopal visitation
that it boded disaster to all "opposers."
June 16, 1896, I went up from Greensboro to
Wilkesboro, where I was met, according to agree-
ment, by Mr. Jones, that I might visit his Ashe and
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 71
'Watauga County Missions. He had the same stout
buggy and team which had served us so well the
year before in our Valle Crusis and Bakersville jour-
neys. We drove that afternoon only part of the
way, spending the night at the house of Mr. Owens,
near Miller's Creek, Wilkes County. At a school-
house near by we had a service, and I preached. The
-next day we drove up through Reddies River Gap,
across the Blue Ridge, into Ashe County, to the
house of Dr. Joseph 0. Wilcox, on the North Fork
of New River. Thursday, June 18th, we had a ser-
vice at Willow Grove School-House, near Creston, in
the forenoon, and at night in Piney Grove Church,
near Dr. Wilcox's. Friday we drove into Jefferson,
and in the afternoon went on to the house of Mr.
Rufus A. Hamilton, at Beaver Creek, where I had an
,appointment that night, as well as for Sunday after-
noon.
Quite a large congregation assembled in the acad-
emy for our 8 o'clock service, and I was conscious of
a subdued excitement pervading the assembly, which
I attributed to the general expectation of the novel
and important service of confirmation on Sunday
morning, a number of the candidates being present
at this preliminary service. Confirmation had never
been administered in this community before, and
there was a natural interest felt in it. At this Fri-
day night service I baptized a girl, one of the can-
didates, and preached, as I had done at my first
service in Bakersville, on the nature and necessity
of Conversion.
After the service I noticed that all our friends and
special adherents gathered around me as I came out
of the academy, and accompanied me all the way to
Mr. Rufus Hamilton's house. They were talking
very earnestly, though I could not quite make out the
subject of their conversation. I heard one of them
say to another, "I don't think there will be any
trouble. Cal. Graybeal was there tonight and heard
72
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
the Bishop preach, and he said he thinks the Bishop
is all right," or something to that general effect. I
had no idea who Cal. Graybeal might be, or why he
should be pleased or displeased. Indeed, but for
what followed I should not have remembered this
conversation overheard Friday night.
Saturday we spent making some visits in the
neighborhood, especially to such persons as were to
be confirmed the next day. Every one seemed much
interested, and there seemed a general spirit of eager
anticipation, coupled with an undercurrent of un-
certainty and excitement, which I thought not un-
natural. Mr. Jones was eager and confident, and
busy in various preparations for our service.
June 21st, the Third Sunday after Trinity, was a
fair and beautiful day. Soon after breakfast, look-
ing from my window in Mr. Rufus Hamilton's house,
across the narrow valley of Beaver Creek, lying be-
low, and then up to where the academy crowned the
summit of the opposite hill, three or four hundred
yards distant, I observed a number of horses tied to
the fence and their owners standing about the acad-
emy door. From time to time others would ride up,
tie their horses to the fence, and join the group. I
thought with myself that our service was attracting
even greater attention than I had anticipated. By
9 o'clock there seemed to be at least twenty or thirty
men assembled, and their number continually in-
creased by the arrival of others.
We had an appointment at 11 o'clock the next day
some twelve miles off, near Elk Cross Roads, on the
border of Watauga County. Mr. Jones's horse John
had been a little sick the evening before, with what
Mr. Jones feared might be, as he termed it, "water-
farcy," from drinking too freely of cold spring
water while overheated. Feeling some anxiety on
this account, I went out to the barn about 9 o'clock
to see how the horse was doing. In the barnyard I
found Mr. Rufus Hamilton in close conference with
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 73
his brother William. I thought they looked toward
me from time to time, and seemed to be in some
trouble or uncertainty about me. I therefore joined
them and asked what might be the trouble. They
hesitated and seemed quite reluctant to speak, inti-
mating that they were unwilling to let me know the
situation. Upon being pressed for an explanation,
they said that they were very deeply mortified, as
well as indignant, that I should be so treated on my
first visit to their neighborhood ; that the crowd at
the academy had sent representatives to them to say
that I would not be allowed to preach there in ac-
cordance with my appointment. They declared that
they were amazed and indignant, and at a loss how
to proceed. Mr. William Hamilton, who was a
Methodist, said he would be very glad to have me
preach at his house, and that perhaps it would be
best that I should do this. They seemed to think it
useless to attempt to keep my appointment. I
thanked Mr. William Hamilton for his offer, and
told him there was nothing that they could do, and
that I must take the matter into my own hands.
I felt at once that it would not do for me to yield
to such an insolent message and allow these men to
frighten me into abandoning my appointment. They
would at once declare that they had had no real pur-
pose of interfering with me, and that I had been
scared off. At the same time I felt that it would not
be becoming to engage in a foolish brawl on Sunday
morning. I determined, therefore, to proceed quiet-
ly with my purpose, as if nothing had happened, and
not to desist until stopped by actual force. This
would prevent any imputation of cowardice on my
part, and would put them in the position of rioters
and lawbreakers, while I believed I could so manage
it as to avoid any unseemly violence and wrangling.
I therefore returned to my room, went carefully
over the situation in my own mind, and determined
74 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
on the course of action which I thought proper to
pursue.
A little after 10 o'clock I called Mr. John Seagle,
my missionary teacher in charge of our school, and
asked him to prepare to accompany me, and to take
a large basket, with the vessels and the elements for
the Holy Communion, and our supply of Prayer
Books. I would not allow Mr. Jones or Mr. Hamil-
ton, or any of our friends, to go along, but charged
them to remain where they were, and to stop all
others who might come up, unless I should send for
them. I felt that Mr. Seagle would do only what I
should tell him to do. I feared I could not restrain
our other friends from resenting any injurious
words or actions offered me, and I was determined
to avoid any discreditable contention.
The steps where the Bishop's "knees felt weak.'
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 75
Followed by Mr. Seagle with the hasket, I started
to the academy. It stood out in full view from Mr.
Hamilton's residence, and by this time the crowd of
men had greatly increased, numbering certainly a
good many more than fifty. As I descended the
steps, looking across the narrow valley to the clus-
tering crowd, I felt a distinct weakness in my knees,
as if they would give way under me, and with an
inward suffusion of shame I said to myself, "I won-
der if T am a coward and afraid to face those men."
But then it came into my mind that it was of no
great consequence how my knees felt, so long as my
will made them carry me forward, and I knew I had
not the least inclination to pause or go back. This
thought comforted me, and I went on across the
foot-bridge, over Beaver Creek, and up the long
slope of the hill towards the academy. As I began
to mount the hill the feeling of weakness departed
from my knees, and all inward perturbation of spirit
passed off. I felt only a kind of wonder that the
men I was approaching should be so foolish and
ignorant. I was conscious of no sentiment of anger
or ill will, but only of a kind of wonder that they
should know no better.
As I drew nearer, they made no sound, but simply
gathered in a compact mass before and around the
little elevation in front of the entrance to the build-
ing, so that I could not approach it. I walked up
and addressed them as if they had assembled to join
in my service, ''Good morning, gentlemen." I said:
"I have an appointment to preach in this building
at 11 o'clock, so I must go in and prepare for the
service." When I bade them good-morning, I heard
a sort of inarticulate murmur of response ; but when
I had ceased speaking there was silence. Then some
one said, ''We have concluded not to have any
preaching here today." "Yes," I said, "but I am
going to preach here." "No," was the response;
"there is going to be no preaching here today."
76 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
"What do you mean?" I said. "Do you claim to
own this building-, that you refuse to allow me to use
it?" A voice from the back of the crowd called out,
"Do you own it?" "No," I replied, "I do not own
it, but 1 have the right to use it. I have the author-
ity from those who do own it." "Well, we are not
going- to allow anybody to have any service here to-
day," the first speaker said, and this sentiment was
confirmed in various ways by a number of the
crowd. "Gentlemen," I said, "what do you mean
by this outrageous and unlawful behavior, gathering
here and forcibly preventing me from entering and
using a building which I have a right to use?" A
man who seemed all along, with one or two others,
to dominate and lead the crowd, replied: "We have
nothing against you, but we don't like Mr. Jones.
He has abused our denomination and he has abused
us, and we understand that you preach the same
doctrine. Don't you preach the same doctrine that
he does?" "I do not propose to be examined by
you as to what I preach," I replied. "I preach the
truth, and it is the worse for you if you do not re-
ceive it. I am going to preach here today, unless
J you stop me by force. Do you mean to say that you
' will forcibly prevent me ?" I had made up my mind
that if they should say they intended to use force I
would proceed no further. A crowd of men so
gathered together and declaring that they would use
force to keep me out of the building would in law
be guilty of a riot and an assault, and it was only
; my purpose to go so far as to put them clearly in
the wrong, and to show that I had not failed to keep
my appointment from any weakness or timidity.
When I asked them if they intended to .stop me by
force, they made no reply whatever. I thought then,
and I think now, that their leaders had taken legal
advice and had been told how to avoid, if possible,
any overt lawless act. When they thus stood silent,
refusing to declare their intention, I said: "Now,
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY 77
grentlemen, I am going into this house and keep my
appointment, unless you stop me by force." Turn-
ing to Mr. Seagle, I asked him to give me the key of
the academy. He handed it to me. "Please let me
pass through to the door," I said, and endeavored
to press my way between them. Thereupon the men
nearest me, as I tried to make my way into the
crowd, put out their hands and pushed me back.
When they had thus forced me back, I desisted at
once. "Now, gentlemen, you have gone to the ex-
tent of committing an assault upon me and stopping
me by force. I cannot contend with a hundred men.
But I call upon all persons present to witness that I
protest against this action as an outrage against the
constitution and laws of the State of North Caro-
lina. I am glad to believe that your action does not
represent the feeling of the best and most intelligent
people of this community. As you will not allow me
to preach here, I shall go down and preach at Mr.
William Hamilton's. He is not a member of the
Church of which I am a minister, but lie is a Chris-
tian man and does not sympathize with such pro-
ceedings as these. I invite you all to come down to
the service at Mr. Hamilton's. If you will come
down and join in our worship, and listen to the
preaching, perhaps it may help you to feel better
than you do now." I thereupon left them, and Mr.
Seagle and I went down the hill and proceeded to
the house of Mr. William Hamilton. Here quite a
number of people had assembled, and much excite-
ment prevailed. A one-armed man (i. e., with one
arm paralyzed), named John Hardin, on horseback,
was moving about among the people, brandishing his
one arm, calling on all those present to resent the
outrage committed at the academy, and declaring
that if no one would accompany him he would go up
and "clean up" the lot, single-handed. I assured
them that I was unwilling to have any disturbance
made on my account, and asked them all to join me
7.8 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
in the service which I was about to hold. It was
impossible, under the circumstances, to have any
service save of the simplest character. I therefore
had only the confirmation office and a sermon. Kneel-
ing on the grass, under the shade of the maple trees
in front of Mr. William Hamilton's house, the nine-
teen candidates received the Laying On of Hands.
I made a short address to them, and then, after a
cliaper in the Bible, a hymn, the Creed, and a few
collects, I preached from Acts viii :12.
One reason I had for not taking any people of the
place with me when I went up to the academy was
that I preferred not to know who the men in the
mob were. I was told, however, that the leaders
were two sons of the Baptist preacher at '^Buffalo
Church," named Duncan, and a 'prominent Metho-
dist by the name of Calvin Graybeal ; but as this was
only hearsay to me, I could not have been called on
to name them in any criminal proceedings. I took
it for granted that they would be proceeded against
by the proper authorities for their riot and assault,
and I had made up my mind in that case to attend
the trial and to ask that sentence should be sus-
pended. But they were not presented by the grand
jury, and the Solicitor in that district, who was a
prominent Baptist, sent no bill against them, so far
as I heard. The best people of the community pub-
lished in the papers a denunciation of their action ;
and a counter-plea appeared, saying that they had
been led to it by anger, because they had been re-
fused the use of the academy for their accustomed
religious services, which was wholly false ; and there
the matter ended.
Monday morning, our horse being quite recov-
ered, Mr. Jones and I drove to the neighborhood of
Elk Cross Roads, on the South Fork of New River,
where we had an appointment at 11 o'clock. We
found a number of people awaiting, who, however,
expressed much surprise at seeing us drive up.
MILNOR JONES. DEACON AND MISSIONARY 79
^'Why! You have come, sure enough!" "Yes," I
said. "Didn't you expect me? Do I not usually
come when I say I will?" "Yes," they replied,
"but the mail-carrier came along a little while ago
and told us that you would not be here today. He
said that Cal Graybeal had beat up the Bishop so
bad that he could not travel!" But we had our ser-
vice, and I baptized an infant, and preached. At a
private house in the neighborhood later in the day
I had a service and confirmed a young man. The
next day we were in St. Luke's Church, Boone,
where I preached and administered the Holy Com-
munion.
From Wednesday, June 24th, to Sunday, the 28th,
I was with Mr. Jones at Valle Crucis. Saturday, at
the residence of Timothy Townsend, on Clark's
Creek, Timothy lying in a critical condition from
having a tree fall on him, I administered the Holy
Communion to the injured man and seven members
of his family. Sunday, in St. John's Church, I con-
firmed seven persons and administered the Holy
Communion.
I next met Mr. Jones at Bakersville, where we had
a service, in the court-house, the fifth Sunday after
Trinity, July 5th, and at night in the country near-
by we had another service. The following day w&
had a conference with our people of Bakersville, and
took steps towards buying a lot and building a
church.
Before getting back to Valle Crucis, Mr. Jones had
another perilous adventure in crossing a swollen
stream ; but this story is already too long.
On leaving Beaver Creek, I had promised to re-
turn some time in July. But the excessive rains
during the second week in July made mountain
travel so difficult and dangerous that I had to give
up that plan.
The seventh Sunday after Trinity, September
27th, I was again at Beaver Creek. The academy
80
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
being- not a very convenient place for the office of
the Holy Communion, I had a morning service at the
residence of Mr. R^fus Hamilton, confirmed three
persons presented by Mr. Jones, and administered
the Holy Communion to thirty-three persons. In the
afternoon we had service and preached in the acad-
emy. The same day, I authorized the formation of
a mission congregation under the canons, called
''The Church of St. Simon the Zealot," and myself
entered upon the parish register of this mission the
names of all the communicants of the Church in
Ashe County.
I was never able to make another visitation during
Mr. Jones's ministry.
Chapel and school-house at Valle Crucis, built after Mr. Jones had left.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Ravelled Ends.
I have come to the end of my story of my Deacon
and Missionary, Milnor Jones, so far as my personal
experience goes. And, indeed, I have really come
to the end of his effective work. He continued in
the District of Asheville until near the end of the
year 1897, and his name remained on the Asheville
clergy list until his death. But he did little or no
regular service after 1897, so far as I know, though
I believe he officiated irregularly and for brief
periods in different places in California and Wash-
ington. I learned, only after his death, that for
several years he had lived in Henderson County and
Hendersonville, in great need and discomfort. I
had heard a year or two before his death that some
one had seen him at Mr. Seagle's, in Henderson
County, and that he had sent me an affectionate
message ; but I understood that he had merely been
visiting the Seagles, and I had no idea that he had
been there for any length of time, but thought he
was on the Pacific coast.
As has before been said, he was at all times of a
peculiar and unaccountable character, and seemed,
after periods of great energy and activity, to come
to a state of physical exhaustion, with a correspond-
ing intellectual and spiritual loss of tone, so to
speak. Such a condition seemed to be coming on
him towards the end of 1897. He suffered very dis-
tressing attacks of the physical malady mentioned
in connection with his ministry in Polk County.
During one of such attacks in Ashe County in 1897,
when he was at a country house far distant from
medical advice or remedies, being in apparent dan-
ger of his life, as well as suft'ering intensely, he had
to use large doses of whiskey — the only means at
hand by which he could find relief — not merely from
82 MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
pain, but from his very critical condition. Of course,
in the midst of many malicious hearts and tongues,
it was reported all over the countryside that he was
drunk, as, indeed, he was, for some hours, under the
influence of the dose he had taken. But I made
careful inquiry into the facts and the circumstances,
and I am thoroughly convinced that the case was
exactly as I have stated, and that the taking of the
whiskey was solely as a necessary medicine, and not
at all the indulgence of a vicious appetite. I knew
him for years, and have been with him for weeks at
a time, day and night. At no time during those
years do I believe that he was otherwise than en-
tirely sober and temperate in drink and diet. But
in 1897 he was in a state of depression. His work
had become more or less a burden instead of a joy-
ous exercise. He had a feeling that he would be
better out on the Pacific coast. At the end of that
year he removed to California.
The only sight I had of him after 1897 was in
October, 1901, during the General Convention in
San Francisco. I had a letter from him, saying that
he was living in San Rafael, not far distant from
San Francisco, and begging me to come out and see
him. Bishop Horner had a similar invitation, and
we promised to go out and spend a Saturday after-
noon with him. I think it was October 12th. He
met us at the railway station in San Rafael and took
us to his house.
I do not remember the names of all his children,
but they were most of them very singular or un-
usual names. His eldest boy and girl, Clement
(after his father), and Mary, fared very well; but
then I remember Boniface and Xavier, Saint Augus-
tine, and Blandina. As we drove from the station
with him I asked after his children, and learned that
he had an infant born since I had seen him. "What
have you named the baby?" I asked. "I have named
her after David's mother, the wife of Jesse," he re-
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
83
plied. ''Bishop Horner," I said, "what name had
David's mother?" "Indeed, I do not know," said
Bishop Horner. "Her name was Nitzenith," said
Mr. Jones. "I once read some account of her, and
of an incident in her married life ; and I admired
her so much, and her wisdom and goodness in deal-
ing with her husband and her servant, that I named
my little girl after her, Nitzenith. Women had a
hard time in those old days. ' Little Nitzenith must
be nearly a grown young woman by this; she was a
little girl of one or two years at that time.
He told me that, shortly after leaving me, when
he was living somewhere near the coast in northern
California, there was in his neighborhood the rem-
nant of a tribe of Digg(3r Indians. Desiring to do
something to help them, he undertook to have a
school for their children, and carried on this work
among them for some time — I think he said for
nearly a year. At the end of the year he was mak-
ing his plans to remove to some other place. By
way of bringing his work among them to a happy
conclusion, he sent a small sum of money to some
friend in Sacramento and bought Christmas gifts for
the children. At Christmas he had a parting enter-
tainment for his Indian pupils and friends, and
wound up his celebration and his work among them
by baptizing the whole tribe, fifty or sixty in all,
from "Long-haired Bob," the chief, to the youngest
baby in the tribe, named J ones, after himself !
* I have made many inquiries of scholars and divines as to the name
of David's mother, but without success. Milnor Jones was the only man
I ever met who knew her name. Finally, I mentioned to my old col-
lege friend, the late Dr. Samuel Hart, the account Milnor Jones had
given of his naming his child after Jesse's wife. He said he thought he
remembered a note in one of Baring-Gould's books bearing on the sub-
ject. On going to his book-case, however, it appeared that the volume
he sought was lacking, and he remembered nothing as to the name. A
few weeks after my return home, I received a postal card from him in
these words :
Kal. Mart.
Baring-Gould's book has reappeared. He tells the story in Latin, and
savs that David's mother was named Nitzenith, on the authoritv of the
Midrash. S. H.
84
MILNOR JONES, DEACON AND MISSIONARY
On ieaving- him that evening, to return to San
Francisco, he presented me with an Indian basket,
which he said had been made and given to him by
"Long-haired Bob."
This is my story of Milnor Jones, Deacon and Mis-
sionary.
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