George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
XIII. 
 
 WHITE HAVEN CHURCH 
 — AND— 
 
 THE REV. ROBERT JOHNSTON MILLER. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE, JR. 
 I. 
 
 WHITE HAVEN. 
 
 White Haven Church stood on the east side of the old 
 plank road from Charlotte to Lincolnton, about sixteen 
 miles from Charlotte, and one mile south of the present 
 village of Lowesville. Lowesville is in Lincoln county, 
 but the site of the old church is now within the county of 
 Gaston. An old grave-yard, surrounded by a dry stone 
 wall, identifies the locality, and back of the grave-yard a 
 few scattered trunks, dead and fast decaying, of what were 
 once noble chestnuts, mark the spot where the humble log 
 church stood beneath their shade. A Presbyterian church, 
 called Castauia, stands on the other side of the road, a hun- 
 dred or two yards nearer to Lowesville. A few of the 
 older inhabitants of the country, on both sides of the 
 Catawba, remember when the old church was standing, 
 and a few old men still recall the fact that they w r ere 
 baptized by Parson Miller; but, even its immediate neigh- 
 borhood, many of the people are ignorant of the sacred 
 associations of the spot. 
 
 On the ioth of August, 1885, by the kindness of a friend, 
 Mr. Frank Blythe, I was taken to this interesting spot. 
 
37° 
 
 My companion had been baptized in infancy by Parson 
 Miller, and as a boy had been sent by his mother, who had 
 been brought up in that church, to take part with other 
 neighbors in the annual cleaning up of the grave-yard. 
 But for his personal knowledge of the locality, I should 
 have been unable to identify the site of the church, as 
 none of the neighbors could give me any certain informa- 
 tion in regard to it. Some who knew that a church had 
 once stood there, were not sure of its having been the orig- 
 inal White Haven, since another church of that name had 
 once stood about two miles north of Lowesville. 
 
 The grave-yard is still used, as some new-made graves 
 and fresh grave-stones bore witness. None of the stones 
 were of an early date. I was told that the oldest graves 
 were just north of the present enclosure, outside the stone 
 wall. The earliest date discovered was 1804; and the next 
 oldest 1827. None were of any special interest. The 
 earliest was the most curious, and the following inscrip- 
 tion on it may possibly have been an effusion of Parson 
 Miller's muse: 
 
 HERE LIES THE BODY OF 
 
 BURCH A T T K I M B E L h E , 
 
 WHO WAS BORN MARCH 2oth, 1782, 
 AND DIED 
 OCTOBER 17th, A. D. , 1804. 
 
 Early, not sudden, was her fate. 
 
 Soon, not surprising, Death his visit paid. 
 
 Her thought went forth to meet him on his way; 
 
 Nor gaiety forgot it was to die. 
 
 I >oes youth, does beauty read the line ? 
 
 Does sympathetic fear their breast alarm ? 
 
 Speak, dead Burchatt ! breathe a strain divine; 
 
 Even from the grave thou shalt have power to charm. 
 
 Bid them give each day the merit and renown 
 
 Of dying well, though doomed but once to die, 
 
37 1 
 
 The young lady whose mortal remains lie buried beneath 
 this stone, was much admired and beloved, and her death 
 caused wide-spread grief. Persons now living can i\ c al! 
 the feeling of general sorrow at her death, which lingered 
 long in the community, and which confirmed the testimo- 
 ny of this epitaph to her personal charms and the graces 
 of her character. 
 
 We were especially interested in two other stones — sim- 
 ple, undressed pieces of rough granite — at the head of two 
 graves side by side, with only the inscription kl C. N., 
 June, 183 1," and U M. N. n These my friend was able to 
 identify by the initials, the date, and the later head-stones 
 near by, as marking the graves of his grand-father and 
 grand-mother, Clement Nantz, and Martha his wife. 
 
 The following account of this old church is derived 
 from various sources, printed documents, MSS. and oral 
 tradition. 
 
 The Rev. Robert Johnston Miller, a Scotchman by birth, 
 and a Methodist preacher on the Tar River Circuit in 
 1785 — having withdrawn from the Conference, because he 
 found that the Methodists were departing from the Church, 
 settled on the west bank of the Catawba River in 1786. At 
 the request of the people of "White Haven and the lower 
 and upper Smyrna" he began to act as lay-reader, keeping 
 up the public services on Sunday and catechising the 
 children. His congregations were chiefly settled along 
 the west bank of the Catawba River in the count)' of Lin- 
 coln, though much of that region is now included within 
 the later county of Gaston. "They were chiefly emigrants 
 from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia," lk a mixed 
 people, Germans, English, Irish, and some Scotch, origi- 
 nally, but at that time very destitute of any regular re- 
 ligious instructions." "The most of them and their fore- 
 fathers were, and had been, members of the Episcopal 
 Church." 
 
 A congregation was organized, a vestry elected, and 
 
 P42091 
 
372 
 
 application was made to the General Assembly for an Act 
 of Incorporation. Prayer Books could not be obtained. 
 They had a few of the English books, and Mr. Miller pro- 
 cured two copies of the first edition of the American Book 
 published in Philadelphia. He also had printed at Salis- 
 bury the Church Catechism, to which he added some ex- 
 planations of Church principles and usages. 
 
 The most numerous religious denomination with which 
 he was brought in contact seems to have been the Luth- 
 erans, and their system of worship and doctrine made them 
 more congenial to him as a Churchman than the Presby- 
 terians, his only other neighbors. They were very greatly 
 in need of ministers, and they urged Mr. Miller to accept 
 ordination at their hands, and to co-operate with them. 
 His own congregations recommended the same course, and 
 the Lutherans alleged that the Rev. Mr. Pilmour of Phil- 
 adelphia, a very eminent divine in the Episcopal Church, 
 had taken this course during the Revolutionary war. Mr. 
 Miller yielded, though he confesses that he was never 
 quite able to satisfy himself that he had acted agreeably to 
 his principles in so doing. But it was distinctly under- 
 stood on all hands that Mr. Miller remained an Episcopa- 
 lian, and this understanding was endorsed upon the Letter 
 of Orders given him by the Lutheran ministers. This 
 matter, however, will be more properly considered in con- 
 nection with Mr. Miller's personal history; we are now 
 more particularly concerned with the affairs of White 
 Haven Parish. 
 
 It was soon after Mr. Miller took charge of White 
 Haven, and before his Lutheran ordination, that the few 
 remaining clergy in the East began the effort to organize 
 a Diocese in the State of North Carolina. Though officiat- 
 ing oniy as Lay-reader, he seems to have been elected a 
 clerical member of the Standing Committee by the Con- 
 vention of November 21st, 1793; and immediately after 
 his ordination he attended the meeting of May 28th, 1794, 
 
373 
 
 and voted as one of the Clergy in the election of the Rev. 
 Charles Pettigrew as Bishop. His name will be found 
 among the names of the Clergy in the signatures appended 
 to the Certificate of that election. 
 
 Although Mr. Pettigrew was never consecrated, he ex- 
 erted himself to revive the interests of the Church 
 throughout the State, and carried on an extensive cor- 
 respondence to this end. Among other letters preserved 
 by him is one from Mr. Miller, the most material parts ot 
 which are as follows : 
 
 White Haven, 6th of May, 1795. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir : 
 
 ********* 
 
 I have reason to hope that your pious wishes and charitable supposi- 
 tions will be verified in the Rev. Mr. Dent, although I have not had an 
 opportunity of a personal acquaintance with him as yet; but those who 
 have, assure me that he is generally esteemed as a man of piety and 
 learning, which to us, in our present situation, is, I hope, no small 
 acquisition.* 
 
 The situation of the Lutheran Clergy in this quarter, in my opinion, 
 demands immediate attention. They have, since my last to you, lost 
 their senior member, the Rev. Mr. A. Nussman, a truly worthy, learned, 
 and Godly man, although bred a Franciscan. Some of them have ex- 
 pressed a desire of sending forward a number of their body to our Con- 
 vention, in order to form some bonds of coalescing, and I have reason to 
 believe that, should such a circumstance take place, and the end accom- 
 plished with propriety, it would be beneficial to both parties; but of this 
 you would be a much better judge, were you to vi.sit this quarter in your 
 official character; and you will permit me to hope that the period is not 
 far distant. 
 
 ********* 
 
 As for myself and flock, I have abundant reason to be thankful to God 
 for health of body and peace of mind, although my progress in the 
 knowledge, love, and service of Him is far too torpid; but with some of 
 my charge, at least, I hope it is otherwise, and may God of His mercy 
 grant that it may soon be generally so. 
 
 The returns from the Register of Baptisms, from Easter ninety-four 
 to Easter ninety -five, is eighty-five infants and nine adults; and the deaths 
 are three venerable and Godly old men, from eighty-seven to ninety-five 
 years of age, one woman * * * and her infant, * * * and a man 
 about foity -six. * * * * 
 
 We suffer much for a sufficient supply of Prayer Books here, and it is 
 
 *For Rev. Hatch Dent: See Note at the end of this Article. 
 
 P42093 
 
374 
 
 a great bar to uniformity in our public assemblies in the outward mode of 
 worship; and I sincerely wish that some effectual means could be devised 
 to remedy this evil. 
 
 I am, my dear and Reverend Sir, 
 
 Your Son and affectionate Friend in the Gospel, 
 
 R. J. MirxER. 
 The Rev. Mr. Pettigrew, Biskop-elect of North Carolina. 
 
 After this letter we have no further knowledge of White 
 Haven for many years. Mr. Miller had extended his 
 labors over a large territory, and in 1806 he removed to 
 Burke county, where he had a plantation about two miles 
 from the present town of Lenoir, now in Caldwell county. 
 He continued to visit his old congregation at intervals, 
 but of the particulars of its history we know nothing. 
 
 His age and increasing infirmities together with the dis- 
 tance, soon forced him to give up the charge of White 
 Haven, which was about seventy-five miles from Mary's 
 Grove, his residence in Burke county. He therefore 
 recommended to his people a young Lutheran licentiate, 
 David Henckel. Though organized as an Episcopal 
 church, twenty years without Episcopal ministrations, and 
 under the pastorate of a minister in Lutheran orders, had 
 left very little knowledge of the Church or her principles 
 among the members of White Haven. They therefore ac- 
 cepted the services of David Henckel, and he continued to 
 minister to them for several years. From time to time 
 Mr. Miller would visit his old flock and conduct the pub- 
 lic services of the Church for them. Upon one of these 
 visits some misunderstanding arose between the two about 
 the use of the church, both having made appointments for 
 the same day. This resulted in the building of another 
 church by Henckel and his adherents a mile or two north 
 of where Lowesville now stands, which was also called 
 White Haven Church. 
 
 David Henckel made a great figure in the history of 
 Southern Lutheranism. He became the leader of a Con- 
 servative, or more properly a re-actionary, party among 
 
375 
 
 the Lutherans, who at this time had drifted very far from 
 their standard of doctrine and worship. He was an asser- 
 ter and maintainer of the conservative and sacramental 
 system held by the old Lutherans and set forth in the 
 Augsburg Confession; and he set himself manfully to 
 oppose the tendency of his brethren towards the baldness 
 and emptiness of Zwinglianism. This gave great offense 
 to all persons outside the Lutheran Communion, and cre- 
 ated the greatest division of opinion and the fiercest con- 
 tention also among themselves. David Henckel was 
 looked upon by Methodists and other Protestant dissenters, 
 as no better than a* Romanist, and the most extravagant 
 accounts were given of his teaching in regard to confession 
 and the power of absolution. The controversy among the 
 Lutherans themselves led to a schism which is not entirely 
 healed even now. A large number of Lutherans, mostly 
 in Tennessee, but also many congregations in North Car- 
 olina, organized the Tennessee Synod, under the influence 
 of this new zeal for their old doctrines, and were known 
 as ( 'Henckelites. " So bitter was the controversy between 
 the two factions that there was some times danger of 
 bloodshed when the parties met. Upon one occasion, at 
 least, the congregation of St. John's Church, Cabarrus 
 county, went to the Sunday service armed with their rifles, 
 and prepared to use them in resisting an expected attempt 
 of the "Henckelites" to get possession of the building. 
 This however is a digression: White Haven Church had 
 no connection with these matters. 
 
 The story of the old parish is almost ended. It never 
 enjoyed the benefits of regular ministerial serv ices, and it 
 is only strange that it survived as long as it did. Any 
 vigorous or aggressive life was, under the circumstances, 
 impossible. The stubborn loyalty of Parson Miller's 
 Scotch blood, supported chiefly by the sympathy and 
 
 * Genl. Rufus Barringer is my authority for this. He remembers the 
 fact himself. 
 
3/6 
 
 co-operation of the Abernathys — of the same Scotch Epis- 
 copal stock — made this gallant fight for their mother 
 Church.* They had brought with them into the new 
 country the love of their old Church, and they did all 
 that they could to perpetuate it, but their children not 
 unnaturally fell away to other religious bodies. Some 
 families ot intelligence and culture, and also some of the 
 plainer but substantial inhabitants of the neighborhood, 
 adhered in feeling to the Church long after they had 
 ceased to enjoy its ministrations. The names of Forney, 
 Abernathey, Shipp, Nantz, Hager, Robinson, Burton, 
 Fite, are still associated with the memory of the old 
 parish, and indicate both its original Scotch and English 
 elements, and also its curious connection with the Ger- 
 man Lutherans. 
 
 The revival of the Church in North Carolina under 
 Bishop Ravenscroft and Bishop Ives, came too late for 
 White Haven. After the organization of the Diocese, the 
 Church was too weak and too ill- furnished with ministers 
 to look properly after this distant and scattered flock. 
 The parish of White Haven was indeed admitted to the 
 Convention of the Diocese under the nominal rectorship 
 of Parson Miller in 1822: in 1828 Dr. Wm. Johnson (who 
 however was not a member of the Church,) was appointed 
 by the Convention to solicit among the parishioners funds 
 in aid of the Diocesan Missionary Society; and in 1824 
 Robert H. Burton and Daniel M. Forney were appointed 
 Lay-readers. Bishop Ravenscroft made two visitations to 
 the Church in 1824, and confirmed sixteen persons, proba- 
 bly the old communicants who had' never before had an 
 opportunity of receiving the Laying on of Hands. But 
 
 * Mrs. Nancy Johnson (nee Forney) was brought up in this congrega- 
 tion, and she remembered very distinctly that the Abernatheys were 
 Parson Miller's chief supporters; and she connected the final and utter 
 failure of the Church at White Haven with the removal of the principal 
 part of the Abernathey family to Missouri. 
 
377 
 
 Bishop Ravenscroft saw clearly, as he intimates in his 
 address to the Convention of 1826, that there was little 
 hope of the continuance of the congregation. Some of the 
 original Church people had been for so long practically 
 identified with the Lutherans, that they had unconsciously 
 become estranged from the Church, of which they had 
 never had an opportunity of knowing much, and in whose 
 practical system of doctrine and worship they had not been 
 trained. Add to this the fact that this was the period of 
 the great exodus from North Carolina to the West and the 
 South-West, many members of this congregation about 
 this time and shortly afterwards having joined the great 
 tide of emigration, and the decay and extinction of the old 
 parish is readily accounted for. 
 
 Mr. Miller continued for some years to make occasional 
 mention of Wnite Haven in his annual reports; but in 
 1833 when Bishop Ives made his first visitation to this 
 part of the Diocese, he could find but three or four persons 
 who still adhered to the Church, though he says he made 
 "diligent inquiry. 
 
 The Rev. Edward M. Forbes began his work in Lin- 
 coln county in 1841; but in his report he makes no men- 
 tion of any parish or congregation as then existing in the 
 county. About 1842 he seems to have begun services at 
 White Haven; and his successor in the Mission field, the 
 Rev. A. F. Ol instead, reports a visitation of the Bishop, 
 made July 26th and 27th, 1843, anc ^ seven confirmations: 
 also fourteen communicants. The Bishop in his address 
 to the Convention speaks of this Church as "St. Mary's 
 Chapel, White Haven." but the name is not known to 
 have been used in any other instance. July 19th, 1844, 
 the Bishop made another visitation to White Haven, and 
 Juh' 15th, 1845, a third and last. In 1846, Mr. Olmstead 
 left Lincoln county, and with him the history of White 
 Haven Church closes. The Rev. Joseph C. Huske had 
 charge of St. Luke's Church, Lincolnton, and Grace 
 
378 
 
 Church, Morgan ton, from 1847 to 1851, and April 25th, 
 1849, ne ne ld a service at White Haven, baptized an infant, 
 and preached from the text: "Notwithstanding, be ye sure 
 of this, that the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." 
 
 The ancient services of the Church were heard no more 
 in White Haven Church. It fell rapidly to decay after 
 this. Persons whose memory goes back for thirty years or 
 more, remember the site only as it is at present — a culti- 
 vated field. But doubtless there is a spiritual conserva- 
 tion of force, as well as a material, and the work done for 
 God in those old walls has gone to add to the power of 
 His truth and kingdom in some other place. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE REV. ROBERT JOHNSTON MILLER. 
 
 There is no more interesting character in the annals of 
 the Church in North Carolina than the man whose name 
 is written above. In the course of a long life he had 
 strange ecclesiastical experiences. He himself tells us that 
 in the perplexities of his situation he did not always suc- 
 ceed in making a correct application of his principles to 
 the facts before him; he sometimes felt that he had made 
 very serious mistakes. Yet no one can study his history 
 without feeling that even in his mistakes of judgment he 
 displayed noble qualities of heart. The following sketch 
 of his life is meager, and yet perhaps sufficient to set forth 
 the man as he was, and to preserve the incidents of his 
 life so far as they have a general interest or an important 
 connection with the history of the Church in North Caro- 
 lina. The principle sources of information are his letter 
 to Dr. Hawks, dated "Mary's Grove, Burke county, N. 
 C, April 15th, 1830," (which appeared first in the Church 
 Revieiv, and was reprinted in the Church Messenger of 
 October 15th, 1879), and Dr. Bernheim's "History of the 
 German Settlements and Lutheran Churches in Carolina." 
 
379 
 
 Dr. Bernheim's information was derived from Parson Mil- 
 ler's son, the late Elisha P. Miller, of Caldwell county, 
 whom Dr. Bernheim visited during the year 1862. We 
 owe to this diligent Lutheran histoiian most of our know- 
 ledge of the particulars of Mr. Miller's life. 
 
 Robert Johnston Miller, the third son of George and 
 Margaret Miller, was born in Baldovia, Angusshire / Scot- 
 land, July nth, 1758. His parents are said to have in- 
 tended him for the ministry, and with this view to have sent 
 him to a classical school at Dundee. He was bred up in 
 "the Catholic remainder" of the ancient Church of Scot- 
 land, under the pastoral care of the venerable Bishop 
 Raile* so long as he remained in his native country; but 
 when he was fifteen years old his elder brother, then a 
 prosperous merchant in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in- 
 vited him to make his home with him, and he therefore 
 came to America in 1774. During the Revolutionary war 
 he was in the American Arm}', and took part in the bat- 
 tles of Long Island, Brandy wine and White . Plains, in 
 the first of which he received a flesh wound in the face. 
 He was with the army during the memorable winter at 
 Valley Forge. He came South towards the close of the 
 war, probably when Washington made his famous move 
 upon Cornwallis, which resulted in the Surrender at York- 
 town; and was in Virginia when he was mustered out of 
 the service. He seems not to have returned to New Eng- 
 land, but to have remained in Virginia, in what business 
 or occupation is not known. 
 
 At this period of his life he became identified with the 
 Methodists, who were gaining great influence through 
 Virginia and some parts of North Carolina, and who did 
 much during that critical period to arrest the tide of popu- 
 
 * "Bishop Raile:" the name is so given in the very distinct and consis- 
 tent family tradition preserved by Dr. Bernheim. It is probable how- 
 ever, that the eame was Rait, "James Rait," Bishop of Brechin from 
 1742 to 1777- 
 
3 8o 
 
 lar irreligion and dissoluteness, especially among the lower 
 orders of the people. The Methodists up to this time had 
 earnestly repudiated the charge that they intended any 
 separation from the Church. Both in England and in 
 America Clergymen of the Church were their acknowledged 
 leaders; and even though they admitted the public preach- 
 ing of unordained men, they made a distinction between 
 these "preachers" and "regular" ministers — these latter 
 being such as had received Episcopal Ordination. The 
 Prayer Book was still looked upon as the standard of pub- 
 lic worship on the Lord's Day, though want of books and 
 the ignorance of the people might make its general use 
 temporarily impracticable. When in 1784 Wesley printed 
 an edition of the Prayer Book for the use of the American 
 Methodist Societies, and sent it over to this country, he 
 gave explicit directions that it should be used for Lord's 
 Day services by all of their preachers, though upon week 
 days they were permitted to have extemporized prayers. 
 
 Of this Methodist Society Mr. Miller became a member 
 in Virginia shortly after the close of the war. Having 
 left Scotland at so early an age, and having been thereby 
 deprived of proper instruction in church principles, it is 
 probable that he had not very clear and intelligent views 
 upon the subject, though his convictions appear to have 
 been firm at all times. He was very strongly drawn 
 towards the Methodists by the stress which they laid upon 
 the importance of personal religious experience, and by 
 the enthusiasm and christian zeal which characterized the 
 movement. He soon became a local preacher among 
 them. In 1785 he accompanied Dr. Coke from Virginia 
 when he came into North Carolina to hold the first Con- 
 ference ever held in this State. It met at Green Hill's, in 
 Franklin county, April 19th, 1785. Mr. Miller in his let- 
 ter to Dr. Hawks says that this was in the Autumn of the 
 year 1784. Mr. Miller wrote from memory after the 
 lapse of nearly fifty years, and he has made a mistake in 
 
3»i 
 
 the time. Coke came to America in November, 1784, and 
 did not reach North Carolina nntil some months later. He 
 travelled for several weeks in company with Coke. Their 
 conversation was chiefly concerning Coke's plan for organ- 
 izing the Methodist Society into u a church." For the 
 first time the Methodist preachers had begun to claim 
 ministerial functions. Coke at the General Conference 
 just held in Baltimore had "ordained" Asbury to be joint 
 Superintendent with him, and together they had proceeded 
 to ordain a number of their preachers. Mr. Miller says 
 that he found himself unable to give his assent to this 
 scheme, since it had early been impressed upon his mind 
 that to constitute a true and authoritative branch of the 
 Church, there must be an Apostolic Commission duly 
 transmitted through the Episcopal order. Though Mr. 
 Miller acted as a Methodist preacher for several years, we 
 may be sure that he never as such professed to administer 
 the Sacraments. Very few even of their most extreme 
 men had up to this time ventured upon this step; and an 
 attempt made by some of those in Virginia to administer 
 the Sacraments and to ordain ministers, had produced 
 great dissentions among them. In the early part of this 
 same year in which Asbury was ordained by Coke, the 
 Rev. Devereux Jarratt tells us that at the Conference held 
 at Ellis's, in Virginia, he was present, and Mr. Asbury him- 
 self was in attendance, "still striving to render an attach- 
 ment to the Church yet more firm and permanent. For 
 this end he had brought Mr. Wesley's Twelve Reasons 
 against a separation from the Church," the first of which 
 reasons was "because it would be a contradiction to the 
 solemn and repeated declarations, which we have made in 
 all manner of ways. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Miller must have joined the Conference at the 
 meeting at Green Hill's; and he says he preached upon 
 the Tar River Circuit, which is also in Franklin county, 
 during the year 1785; but at the end of his year he with- 
 
382 
 
 drew from the Conference. His intercourse with Coke, 
 and the rapid progress of events at this period opened his 
 eyes to the full significance of the new position taken by 
 the Methodists; and he found himself unwilling to co- 
 operate with them in open and avowed separation from the 
 Church. He testifies to the brotherly affection which had 
 marked his intercourse with the members of the Confer- 
 ence, and he says that on their part they declared publicly 
 that they had nothing against him, but that he had volun- 
 tarily withdrawn on account of his "disapprobation of their 
 conduct and rules. ' ' 
 
 His health having begun to fail him in the low country, 
 Mr. Miller in 1786 settled in Lincoln county upon the 
 west bank of the Catawba river, and at the request of the 
 inhabitants, who were very destitute of religious instruc- 
 tion, he began to act as lay-reader and catechist, as has 
 already been narrated in the account of White Haven. 
 His ministrations proved very acceptable to the people, 
 and he was soon greatly respected and loved by all the 
 people of the community, and became the religious 
 instructor and trusted pastor de facto, so to say, of many of 
 the inhabitants who had been attached to the Church in 
 the countries from which they had emigrated. 
 
 Mr. Miller now found himself in a very distressing situ- 
 ation. There were no ministers of the Church within 
 hundreds of miles of him. He could not baptize nor ad- 
 minister any holy ordinance. His people had to resort to 
 the Luthern or the Presbyterian ministers to have their 
 children baptized, or to let them grow up unbaptized. He 
 does not seem to have felt any disposition to seek a closer 
 union with the Presbyterians, though his relations with 
 them were most cordial. His feelings as a Scotch Episco- 
 palian probably made him averse to such a connection, 
 and he knew that their doctrines, as well as their whole 
 method of worship, and their religious traditions, were too 
 much opposed to his own, to allow such an association to 
 
3*3 
 
 be a comfortable one. On the contrary, there was much 
 in the old Lutheran teaching in regard to the Sacraments, 
 as well as upon other points, which approximated to his 
 position as a Churchman; and there was no inherited 
 autagonism between his own people and their Lutheran 
 neighbors. It is quite possible that he was aware that 
 many of the Lutheran Churches in Europe had retained 
 the Episcopal form of government, and that the Scandina- 
 vian Lutherans are generally believed to have preserved 
 the ancient Apostolic Episcopate. Their liturgical wor- 
 ship, with its familiar Creed, Versicles, Litany, Collects, 
 Epistles and Gospels, and their observance of the holy 
 seasons of the christian year, — all these must have had no 
 little influence in inclining him to a closer union with his 
 Lutheran neighbors who formed a large, and a most esti- 
 mable portion of the population of Lincoln, Rowan, and 
 Mecklenburg counties. 
 
 The Lutherans at this time were in a sad state of desti- 
 tution themselves on account of the lack of proper minis- 
 ters. They had only about half a dozen ordained ministers 
 in all this part of the country where the German Lutheran 
 inhabitants were numbered by tens of thousands. They 
 earnestly pressed upon Mr. Miller the advantages to be 
 derived from a friendly union with them in the work of 
 the Gospel. They did not desire that he should become a 
 Lutheran, but urged that he might still remain an Episco- 
 palian, and lead his people in their old ways, and they 
 promised him their hearty co-operation in advancing the 
 cause of the Episcopal Church among the English popula- 
 tion, in return for his co-operation with them in their work 
 among their own German settlers. 
 
 Mr. Miller's congregations seem to have been equally 
 anxious to have their minister clothed with the additional 
 respect and popular authority which would come from his 
 ordination by the Lutheran ministers, who were men of 
 some considerable force of character, as well as of literary 
 
3^4 
 
 acquirements. And it no doubt occurred to his mind that 
 if he should yield to this double pressure, his people would 
 at least be in no worse case than they were in already. 
 And when we consider the little prospect at that time of 
 ever seeing the Church in the integrity of its organiza- 
 tion and ministrations in this remote corner of the world, 
 we can hardly wonder at his course. In the letter to Dr. 
 Hawks before referred to, he gives this account of the 
 matter : 
 
 "Their congregations (the Lutherans) were at that time 
 in a very declining state, and overrun by imposters assu- 
 ming the ministerial office without any regular authority 
 whatsoever. To remedy these evils, they pressed me with 
 the plea of necessity, to accept ordination from their 
 hands, and mentioned that the Rev. Dr. Pilmour, of Phil- 
 adelphia, had done so in the time of the Revolutionary 
 war. There is now and was then a considerable number 
 of Presbyterian clergy in this section, and the most of them 
 with whom I had any intimacy recommended the same 
 course, and the congregation earnestly requested me to 
 accept of it, and (said) that they would be perfectly satis- 
 fied with my ministrations. In short, as I thought then, 
 and do think now, contrary to my own better sentiments, 
 I consented to receive the ordination from them, not as a 
 Lutheran minister, but as an Episcopalian. ' ' 
 
 Thus, feeling that he might be making a mistake, he 
 yielded to the importunity of his friends; and in St. John's 
 Church, Cabarrus county, May 20th, 1794, at the first 
 Lutheran Synodical meeting ever held in North Carolina, 
 Robert Johnston Miller, an avowed Episcopalian, was or- 
 dained by the Lutheran Ministerium, the first ordination 
 by Lutherans in this State. 
 
 In taking this extraordinary step, Mr. Miller was care- 
 ful to guard against any misunderstanding of his position. 
 A letter of orders was drawn up and signed by all the min- 
 isters who took part in this ordination, and was carefully 
 
3§5 
 
 preserved by Mr. Miller, and by his children after him, 
 until it was destroyed in the burning of Mr. Elisha P. 
 Miller's house near Lenoir about the close of the war. 
 Fortunately Dr. Bernheim took a copy of it at the time of 
 his visit before referred to, and gives it in his history of 
 the Lutherans in Carolina. It is as follows : 
 
 To all whom it may concern, greeting: 
 
 "Whereas, A great number of Christian people in Lincoln County 
 "have formed themselves into a vSociety by the name of White Haven 
 "Church, and also having formed a vestry; We, the subscribers, having 
 "been urged by the pressing call from the said Church to ordain a minis- 
 "ter for the good of their children, and for the enjoyment of ye Gospel 
 "ordidances among them, from us the ministers of the Lutheran Church 
 "in North Carolina" (here much of the Certificate is torn away and lost) 
 "according to ye infallible word of God, administer ye sacraments, and 
 "to have ye care" [sic: qu — cure?) "of souls: he always being obliged to 
 "obey ye rules, ordinances and customs of ye Christian Society called ye 
 "Protestant Episcopal Church in America. Given under our hands and 
 "seals, North Carolina, Cabarrus County, May 20th, 1794. Signed by 
 "Adolphus Nussmann, Sr., Johan Gottfriedt Arendt, Arnold Roschen, 
 "Christopher Bernhardt, and Charles Storch." 
 
 Dr. Bernhiem says that "on the reverse side of this 
 certificate the Lutheran ministers gave their reasons why 
 they had ordained a man who was attached to the Episco- 
 pal Church as a minister of that denomination," but with 
 a reserve which is characteristic of his dealing' with deli- 
 cate questions, he is careful not to give the least intima- 
 tion of what those reasons were. 
 
 A most interesting episode in Mr. Miller's history 
 occurred immediately after his ordination by the Lutherans. 
 His attachment to the Church, and his zeal and activity 
 in keeping up its influence and its services, were widely 
 known, and it seems to have been taken for granted that 
 he was a minister. At the Convention held in Tarbo- 
 rough, November 21st, 1793, he was elected a member of 
 the Standing Committee, and was notified to attend the 
 meeting of the Convention called to assemble at the same 
 place May 28th, 1794, for the purpose of perfecting the 
 
386 
 
 diocesan organization and electing a Bishop. He must 
 have orone immediately from his ordination to the Tarbo- 
 rough Convention, for he appeared and took his seat the 
 first day of the Session, May 28th, and at that time it 
 could hardly have taken less than a week to make the 
 journey from Cabarrus county to Tarborough. 
 
 In this Convention Mr. Milller took his place as one of 
 the Clergy, reading the morning service on the second 
 day. He voted with the Clergy for a Bishop, and was 
 chosen a Clerical member of the Standing Committee. 
 His name is signed as one of the Clergy to the testimonial 
 of Mr. Pettigrew's election which was transmitted to the 
 General Convention, as may be seen by a reference to 
 Bishop White's memoirs of the Church, as well as to the 
 proceedings of the Convention. He says in a letter to the 
 Rev. Dr. Empie, written in 181 4 : "I was also acknowl- 
 edged and received as such" [i. e. as a minister) by the 
 Convention of the Episcopal Clergy of this State, while it 
 had any being." There is nothing in the proceedings or 
 the records of those Conventions to indicate that he had 
 not been duly and regularly ordained. But in a list of the 
 "Names and Places of the Clergy," among the papers of 
 Mr. Pettigrew, the Bishop-elect, though his name and his 
 parish of White Haven, head the list, there is a note added 
 at the bottom : "P. S.— The Rev. Robert Johnston Mil- 
 ler, White Haven Parish, Lincoln county, a Lutheran 
 minister." In one of Mr. Pettigrew's letters to Bishop 
 White, he says of him : "At our Convention there was a 
 gentleman who had been ordained in the Lutheran Church, 
 and wished his ordination could be recognized in our 
 Church, and, indeed, signified that if it should be consid- 
 ered invalid, he would submit to a re-ordination. He 
 appears to be a decent man. He has since our Convention 
 wrote me that he thinks the Society would wish (of which 
 there are a number of respectable clergy) a coalition with 
 our Church." 
 
38 7 
 
 It appears, everywhere that the subject is referred to, 
 that Mr. Miller was always extremely doubtful of the pro- 
 priety of his ordination, and uniformly excused his action 
 upon the ground of an apparent necessity. He quotes the 
 case of Dr. Pilmour, of Philadelphia, in his letter to Dr. 
 Hawks, and also in his letter to Dr. Empie. Dr. Joseph 
 Pilmour was one of the most eminent of Wesley's lay- 
 preachers, and after the Revolution he took orders, being 
 ordained Deacon by Bishop Seabury, November 27th, 1785. 
 I can find no mention of his having received Lutheran 
 ordination — and if he had done so, it would not be a case 
 in point, as he never professed to be a minister of the Epis- 
 copal Church by virtue of such ordination. 
 
 From this Convention Mr. Miller returned to his parish 
 of White Haven, and entered upon his work with renewed 
 ardor. He had been accompanied to the Convention at 
 Tarborough by Mr. Joseph Perkins, probably his brother- 
 in-law, who sat in the Convention as a lay-delegate from 
 Lincoln county, and signed Mr. Pettigrew's testimonial 
 along with the other laymen present. Mr. Miller enter- 
 tained great hopes for the prosperity of the Church from 
 Mr. Pettigrew's labors when he should have been conse- 
 crated as Bishop of North Carolina. He exerted himsell 
 to incline the few Lutheran ministers to a plan for the 
 union of the two bodies into one, and hoped that the in- 
 fluence of Mr. Pettigrew's gentleness and christian humility 
 might enable him to bring about this result to the mutual 
 advantage of all parties. These hopes are indicated in his 
 letter to Mr. Pettigrew of May 6th, 1795, already given. 
 But unfortunate circumstances prevented Mr. Pettigrew's 
 consecration to the holy office, upon which so much seemed 
 to depend, and Mr. Miller was left powerless to do any- 
 thing for the effectual upbuilding of the Church. It was 
 many long years before he again saw the face of one of 
 her ministers. 
 
 It may be well at this point to mention briefly one or 
 
3«8 
 
 two important events in Mr. Miller's domestic life. He 
 was married March 12th, 1787, to Mary Perkins, daughter 
 of John Perkins, Esq., of Lincoln county, by whom he 
 became the father of ten children, seven sons and three 
 daughters. His father-in-law gave him a plantation in 
 Burke county, in that part of it now the county of Cald- 
 well, near the site of the present town of Lenoir. This 
 plantation was called "Mary's Grove," probably after the 
 name of his wife. To this place he removed soon after his 
 marriage, but finding the people of that new country rough 
 and disagreeable neighbors, he soon returned to Lincoln 
 cornty, living at one time at Poplar Springs, near Island 
 Ford on the Catawba river, and another while at Willow 
 Hill, near White Haven Church. In 1806 he returned to 
 his place, Mary's Grove, in Burke county, which continued 
 to be his residence for the rest of his life. 
 
 As the prospect of the revival seemed more and more 
 distant and hopeless, Mr. Miller became the more earnestly 
 engaged in co-operating with his Lutheran brethren, and 
 being entirely alone as a Churchman, the work fell more 
 and more completely into Lutheran lines. He was so 
 faithful and zealous a man that he could not remain 
 inactive, and he soon became one of the most influential 
 of the members of their body. He was Secretary of their 
 Synod, and a most laborious and untiring missionary, not 
 only in this State, but in Virginia, Tennessee and South 
 Carolina. Perhaps no man of that period did more for the 
 practical extension and upbuilding of the denomination 
 than he. As a member of the most important committees 
 he appears also as exerting no small influence upon the 
 inner spirit of the ecclesiastical administration. He tells 
 us that he drew up the Constitution adopted by the Synod 
 in 1803 upon the lines of the Constitution which had been 
 adopted by the General Convention, and that it was 
 intended to form a basis of union between the Lutherans 
 and Episcopalians, as long as the latter should remain in 
 
389 
 
 their then unorganized condition. In a letter to the Rev. 
 Dr. Empie, of Wilmington, dated Mary's Grove, February 
 17th, 1814, already quoted, he says : u In the year 1803, 
 through the exertions of myself and four other Lutheran 
 Clergymen, a Convention was formed in Salisbury, called 
 at first the Convention of the Lutheran and Episcopal 
 Churches in this State; but since for some years past it has 
 been called simply the Synod of the Lutheran Church in 
 N. C." He says further, in his letter to Dr. Hawks, that 
 when he first entered their ministry he reserved to himself 
 and his people perfect liberty u to return and unite in full, 
 and without any impediment, with the bosom of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, whenever it should please 
 God to revive her in this State, 1 ' and that "by the spirit, 
 terms and obligation of our union, the}' (the Lutherans) 
 were bound to forward this object to the utmost of their 
 ability." Mr. Miller says that this union was effected, 
 and the Constitution drawn up at Salisbury. Dr. Bern- 
 heim mentions the meeting at Salisbury, May 2d, 1803, 
 but says that the Constitution was not adopted until the 
 second session of the Synod, held at Lincolnton, October 
 17th, of the same year. He does not give any account 
 whatever of the several articles of the Constitution, and in- 
 deed it looks as if the whole question were treated with 
 studied reserve. In a MS. note upon the margin of the 
 pamphlet published upon this subject, which I sent him a 
 few years ago, with a request for his remarks and criticisms 
 — he says : "There is nothing in that Constitution, which 
 is in the German language, that leans towards the Episcopal 
 form of government. " As Mr. Miller had not said that 
 there was anything in that Constitution which leaned 
 towards the Episcopal form of government, Dr. Bernheinrs 
 note is very little to the purpose. It would be interesting to 
 know whether that Constitution contains an}' trace of the 
 curious alliance at that time existing between Mr. Miller, 
 with his White Haven and other congregations, and the 
 
39° 
 
 Lutherans. Mr. Miller was certainly a leading spirit in 
 the Synod at this time. Dr. Bernheim mentions that he 
 was Secretary of the Synod in 1803 and 1804, and such 
 extracts from their proceeding as he gives exhibit him as 
 one of their most trusted and useful members. 
 
 Lutheranism in North Carolina, as in other parts of the 
 world, has confined its work chiefly, if not entirely, to 
 those Germanic and Scandinavian peoples who at the 
 period of the Reformation came under the influence of the 
 great movement begun by Luther. It has not usually 
 sought to extend itself beyond its race lines. So in the 
 Carolinas its work was chiefly confined to the German set- 
 tlers of our middle and western sections. But all through 
 the country west of Greensboro', and in the neighboring 
 parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, are very 
 many of these German settlers and their descendants. 
 Among these Mr. Miller's Lutheran brethren exercised 
 their ministry, and his association with them probably 
 brought them nearer to the English speaking inhabitants 
 in interest and sympathy. Being so few in number, these 
 Lutheran ministers could reach the people of their faith 
 and language only by extensive journeys, and Mr. Miller 
 took part with them in this itinerant preaching. He made 
 great circuits through the territory covering those parts of 
 the four States in which the Lutheran population were 
 seated, and was indefatigable in preaching to the people, 
 instructing the children, and organizing congregations. 
 
 His especial charge during this period continued to be 
 the congregations in which the English and Scotch Epis- 
 copalians predominated, though with a considerable mix- 
 ture of Lutherans. Besides White Haven, he had two 
 other congregations in Lincoln county. Smyrna and St. 
 Peter's, one across the Catawba river in Iredell county 
 called St. Michael's, composed partly of Lutherans and 
 partly of Episcopalians from Maryland, and one, I think, 
 near his home in Burke county, called Trinity. He also 
 
39i 
 
 seems to have ministered in Salisbury; and in the country 
 he was concerned in organizing the present parish of Christ 
 Church, Rowan. 
 
 The first of those extensive missionary journeys which 
 have been spoken of, was made in the year 1811. October 
 22d, 1810, the Lutheran Synod had appointed him "travel- 
 ling missionary for the Synod, with power to organize new 
 congregations, and to take up collections for this object." 
 He set out from home June 18th following, travelled 
 through Wilkes, Surry, and Stokes counties, and then 
 entered Virginia. Up to this point he found only one 
 house of worship, a small Methodist Chapel, and heard of 
 no settled minister among the people, who came in large 
 numbers to attend his preaching. He found only three 
 families whose parents had been Lutherans. In Virginia 
 he found some Lutheran ministers and congregations. One 
 minister who attended six congregations, had not been or- 
 dained; "yet he ministered all the sacraments. I warned 
 him and his flock against such conduct." He spent the 
 month of July and the greater part of August in travelling 
 and preaching in south-west Virginia; thence going by 
 way of Abingdon into Sullivan county, Tennessee, where 
 he found a number of Lutheran congregations under the 
 Rev. Mr. Smith. From Tennessee he returned home, 
 having been absent three months. 
 
 The 4th of November following, he set out upon the 
 second part of his journey, going by way of Rutherfordton 
 into South Carolina. r He traversed the greater part of the 
 upper settlement of this State quite across to the Savan- 
 nah river, found a number of Lutheran congregations and 
 ministers, but a low state of religion among the great mass 
 of the people. He seems to have returned home some 
 time about the middle of December. u On my whole 
 tour," he says : "I have baptized this year two adults and 
 sixty children, preached sixty-seven times, travelled three 
 
392 
 
 thousand miles and received $70.44 for my support, with- 
 out asking for a cent in any way." 
 
 Mr. Miller made another missionary tour of the same 
 kind in 18 13, the Journal of which he begins in these 
 words : "Saturday, May 1st, 1813. Left home in the name 
 of the Triune God, on a second missionary tour." He 
 took very much the same course as in June, 1811, preach- 
 ing all along the way. He stopped at Salem and was 
 much pleased with the religious services of the Moravians, 
 and the excellence of the female school. He preached in 
 the Moravian Church, and being-joined here by his brother 
 Lutheran the Rev. Mr. Scherer, they went on together 
 upon their mission to Virginia. Mr. Miller's Journal 
 gives an interesting account of this expedition, but it is 
 too long to insert here. He preached often in English, 
 and Mr. Scherer in German, to the mixed congregations 
 which gathered to hear them. He gives a bad account of 
 the religious condition of the country generally. At 
 Franklin he speaks of u a Mr. Todd, an Episcopal minis- 
 ter, who teaches a school, and preaches in this place, but 
 has formed no congregation." June 4th, Mr. Scherer 
 parted from him to take another part of the circuit, and he 
 continued on alone. He mentions visiting New Market, 
 Woodstock (where was an Episcopal Church all in ruins), 
 Strasburg, Middletown, Newton, Winchester; and then 
 turned homeward by a somewhat different route, taking in 
 Front Royal, Madison Court House, and Orange Court 
 House. The following entry is interesting, under date of 
 Wednesday, July 30th : "Rode ten miles to a Mr. Gor- 
 don's, a noted stand at the cross-roads. Here I saw a Mr. 
 W T addel1, a sensible and pious man, and son to a venerable 
 old man that is now dead, who was useful in his day, the 
 Rev. Mr. Waddell, a Presbyterian minister." Also the 
 following : "I could not but observe the general neglect, 
 or rather total disregard, of all religious institutions, in pass- 
 ing through this quarter: I mean the counties of Orange, 
 
393 
 
 Albemarle, and Nelson. In the first resides the present 
 President of the United States, and in the second the late 
 President. Near to the former is a large brick church in 
 a state of ruin. * * * * In my view an enemy to 
 the religion of Jesus Christ is the worst enemy of his coun- 
 try, whatever his profession may be; and the higher he is 
 in station the more fatal his influence." Speaking of New 
 Glasgow, he says : "There is also, as I understood, a 
 Rev. Mr. Crawford, an Episcopalian, near; but preaches 
 very little." Thence he went on to Lynchburg, and then 
 he pushed on for North Carolina, crossing the Yadkin at 
 the Shallow Ford, before sunrise Sunday, July nth, and 
 going to the house of his brother-in-law, Thomas Snoddy, 
 Esq., in Iredell county. He adds : "This day I finished 
 my 55th year in this world. 
 
 Again another fleeting' year 
 
 ( )f my short life is past; 
 I cannot long continue here, 
 
 And this may be my last. 
 
 Much of my dubious life is gone, 
 
 Nor will return again; 
 And swift my passing moments run. 
 
 The few that yet remain. 
 
 O ! guide me down the steep of age, 
 
 And keep my passions cool ; 
 Teach me to scan the sacred page, 
 
 And practice every rule. 
 
 My flying years time urges on, 
 
 What's human must decay ; 
 My friends, my young companions gone, 
 
 Can I expect to stay ? " 
 
 Monday, July 12th : "Rode home, about 36 miles, where, 
 through the Divine mercy, I found my family in health 
 and peace — Glory be to God for this, and all His un- 
 merited goodness to me, a poor sinful creature. On this 
 tour I have rode one thousand and eighty-two miles; spent 
 two months and twelve days; paid, in expenses, twenty- 
 
394 
 
 three dollars and sixty-nine cents, and received from the 
 people amongst whom I labored, seventy dollars; have 
 preached forty-eight sermons; helped to administer the sac- 
 rament of the holy supper, and baptized twenty-seven 
 children." (He had also organized quite a number of new 
 congregations in Virginia.) "I have to observe as to the 
 twelve comities on this side of the Bine Ridge, in Vir- 
 ginia, through which I passed, that is, Culpepper, Madi- 
 son, Orange, Albemarle, Nelson, Amherst, Campbell, Bed- 
 ford, Franklin, Henry, Patrick, and Pittsylvania, that 
 their religions situation is by no means either promising 
 or favorable." He goes on to specify that the people are 
 not only irreligious and immoral, but that no means are 
 taken for bringing up the children in religious nurture. 
 Most of the few preachers among them were Baptists or 
 Methodists, and they did not pay much attention to the 
 instruction of the young. 
 
 It appears from the above journal that Mr. Miller fol- 
 lowed the usual custom of Lutherans and confirmed the 
 children and young persons preparatory to admitting them 
 to the Lord's Supper. He not only practiced this among 
 the Lutherans, but also among his little congregations of 
 Church people. There is an old record in Christ Church, 
 Rowan county, showing that he administered Confirma- 
 tion in that Church a number of times, once to as many as 
 twenty-four persons in a single class. It is probable that, 
 being cut off from the ministrations of the Church, he 
 adopted the whole Lutheran system as he found it prac- 
 ticed by his brother ministers. 
 
 In November, 1813, Mr. Miller received a letter from 
 the Rev. Adam Empie, Rector of St. James' Church, 
 Wilmington, inquiring about the Church in the upper 
 part of the State, and also asking information in regard to 
 Mr. Miller's ecclesiastical status. Mr. Miller's reply is 
 dated "Mary's Grove, Burke county, February 17th, 1814." 
 He gives in brief the account of his ordination already 
 
395 
 
 detailed in the preceding pages, and asserts that he has 
 always considered himself an Episcopalian. He declares 
 that "nothing this side the glory of heaven 1 ' would give 
 him more satisfaction than the revival of Episcopacy in his 
 beloved country. In speaking of his missionary tours he 
 says that he "found many very respectable families still 
 strongly attached to her communion, although they had 
 but little prospect of ever enjoying it, as there was but 
 one or two Episcopal Clergy in all that extent through 
 which I passed, and they appeared to be sleeping upon 
 their oars." "As to the number of Episcopal congrega- 
 tions in this quarter there are but three that have had any 
 regular form." These three were probably White Haven, 
 St. Peter's and Smyrna, in Lincoln county. He speaks 
 of one called "Trinity," of which I remember no other 
 mention. He had a congregation a few miles from the 
 present town of Lenoir on the road to Hickory, but that 
 was St. Andrew's. He says that many Church people 
 were scattered about through the country mingled with 
 the Presbyterians; and he still holds out the idea that if 
 the Church could be revived in North Carolina the whole 
 body of Lutherans would unite with it. This letter shows 
 that during the interval between Mr. Miller's Lutheran 
 ordination and the revival of the Church his principles had 
 not changed. Nothing practical came of this correspon- 
 dence. * 
 
 * A number of letters passed between Parson Miller and Dr. Empie 
 between 1813 and 1825. Those of the latter are still preserved by the 
 descendants of Parson Miller, but only one of Mr. Miller's is known to 
 be in existence— that dated February 17th, 18 14, quoted above. If Dr. 
 Empie's papers have been preserved it is likely that Parson Miller's let- 
 ters to him would prove to be of very great interest, for it appears from 
 Dr. Empie's letters that Parson Miller devoted several of his to an ac- 
 count of the condition of the Church in North Carolina during the days 
 succeeding the Revolution. In his letter to Dr. Hawks he goes over the 
 same ground, but these letters written so much earlier would probably be 
 more interesting and valuable. 
 
39^ 
 
 In 1815 Mr. Miller organized a new congregation in Ire- 
 dell county, called "New Pearth, 11 which after a few years 
 came to be called St. Michael's. The land was donated 
 by Daniel Walcher, and was given to Lutherans and Epis- 
 copalians jointly for use in common. The congregation 
 was composed of descendants of the German families of 
 Rowan and Cabarrus, together with a number of Episco- 
 palians from Maryland, part of the same colony which had 
 come into Row T an as early as 1793 or 4. This congrega- 
 tion has been mentioned before, but it was not organized 
 until 1815. 
 
 The year 181 7 was almost as much of an epoch to the 
 Lutherans of North Carolina, as it was to the Churchmen, 
 though an epoch of a very different character. In the 
 Synod which met in October, 181 7, the latitudinarians 
 carried the day in regard to the licensing of unordained 
 men to administer the sacraments. This, with other 
 things, apparently carried through the influence of Gotlieb 
 Shober, the Moravian, laid the foundation of the schism, 
 in which the reactionary party under the leadership of 
 Henckel, organized the Tennessee Synod, as has been 
 already mentioned. Mr. Miller was the only member 
 present in the Synod who opposed this action to the very 
 end; and he seems to have taken part in only one subse- 
 quent meeting, that of 18 19. The organization of the 
 Diocese of North Carolina in 18 17, and the visitation oi 
 Bishop Moore in 1819, and again in 1820, encouraged him 
 to hope that the long desired revival of Episcopacy in 
 North Carolina had come. In 1821 the Convention of the 
 Diocese met in Raleigh, April 28th. Mr. Miller attended 
 with his letter of Lutheran Orders. It is said that when 
 Bishcp Moore read it, he said to Mr. Miller : "Why, you 
 belong to us." We have seen that Mr. Miller had all 
 along looked upon his Lutheran ordination as an expedient 
 under the necessities of his situation; and that within a 
 week of that ordination he had declared to Mr. Pettigrew 
 
397 
 
 his readiness to be re-ordained. We are therefore not sur- 
 prised to find that he availed himself of this opportunity 
 to receive the ministerial commission by the imposition 
 of Apostolic hands: and that Bishop Moore, in the case of 
 a man so approved by a long course of faithful and fruitful 
 labors, passed by all ordinary preliminaries, and ordered 
 Robert Johnston Miller, Deacon May ist, in the fore-noon, 
 and in the evening of the same day ordained him to the 
 Priesthood. Both services took place in the Methodist 
 Church at Raleigh. 
 
 Of Mr. Miller's history after this we must speak but 
 briefly. Having thus in the end of his life, for he was now 
 about sixty-three years old, received Episcopal ordination 
 he earnestly desired to build up the Church in those 
 regions where he had labored so long as a Lutheran min- 
 ister. He still hoped to bring the Lutherans into some 
 kind of union with the Church: his efforts in this direc- 
 tion will be narrated in a separate section to follow. His 
 labors as a pastor among his people after this time were 
 not so successful as he could have wished; and he did not 
 feel that he enjoyed that sympathy and co-operation from 
 his Lutheran brethren, which by the terms no less than 
 the spirit of his original agreement and union with them, 
 he had a right to expect. For nearly thirty years he had 
 given himself unreservedly to their work no less than to 
 his own. Indeed his labors for them were greater than for 
 his own communion. In all of his congregations he min- 
 istered as a Lutheran to the Lutheran members, and out- 
 side the few congregations in Lincoln and Rowan, in 
 which his labors, may be said to have been equally divided 
 between the two, the whole of his ministry was to build 
 up and to extend Lutheranism. The question of the reason- 
 ableness of such a mixed work is not now under considera- 
 tion. The fact of his very great services during all the 
 best years of his life to the cause of Lutheranism in the 
 two Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee, is not disputed. 
 
393 
 
 Dr. Bernheim says of him : "He organized several" (he 
 might have said many) "Churches in our midst, and accom- 
 plished much good as an active energetic minister, and 
 our Church owes a debt of gratitude to his memory which 
 cannot easily be cancelled or forgotten." Yet it does not 
 appear that in his efforts to build up the Church and to 
 recover for it those individuals and congregations which 
 under his pastoral care had been associated with the 
 Lutherans, he received any encouragement 01 assistance 
 whatever. The lesson which he draws from his experience 
 in this matter is that it is vain, if not absurd, to suppose 
 "that the successful attempt of amalgamating the different 
 sects, creeds, order and worship of all those who call them- 
 selves Christians, will, or can, produce that unity of faith 
 and practice enjoined by the pure Word of God." "And 
 it furnishes us with an experimental demonstration, how 
 impossible it is to attempt, in any degree, a compromise 
 with error, schism, or heresy, without injury to the 
 truth." He seems to have found it impossible to recover 
 for the Church those congregations which in consequence 
 of his action had so long been identified with Lutheranism : 
 and he sadly reflects that "neither sorrow nor lamentation 
 will recover the ground that has been lost to the Episco- 
 pal cause in this section of the country in consequence of 
 that fatal error of mine." 
 
 After his return from the Convention at Raleigh, Air. 
 Miller renewed the energy and enterprise of his youth. 
 White Haven, and Smyrna, in Lincoln county were ad- 
 mitted into the Convention in 1822: Christ Church, Rowan, 
 had been admitted in 182 1: St. Peter's Lincoln, and St. 
 Andrew's, Burke county, were admitted in 1823; as a ^ so 
 St. Peter's Church, Lexington. All these were under Mr. 
 Miller's charge. The Missionary Society of the Diocese 
 assigned to him as assistants in this extensive field the 
 Rev. Thomas Wright, ordained Deacon in 1820, and the 
 Rev. Robert Davis, of Orange, ordained Deacan in 1821, 
 
399 
 
 though most of Mr. Wright's time was given to Wades- 
 boro'. St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, was also under the 
 same pastoral charge. In 1823 Mr. Davis left the Dio- 
 cese, and Mr. Wright confined himself to his work in 
 Wadesboro', with an occasional visit to St. Luke's and 
 Christ Church, for the purpose of administering the Holy 
 Communion. Mr. Miller, for some years, was the only 
 pastor for the whole section from Davidson county to 
 Burke. In 1824,- ^ e reports that most of the Lutheran 
 members of St. Michael's in Iredell county, have with- 
 drawn, and after 1825 tne name of St. Michael's disap- 
 pears from the Journals of the Convention. The portion 
 of the congregation remaining under his care was chiefly 
 composed of members of the Mills family and their con- 
 nections — Mr. Charles Mills, being the head of the family 
 at that time. For some years the congregation was re- 
 ported to the Convention in the name of that family — 
 "MilVs, Iredell County." It is now the parish of St. 
 James. 
 
 The little that remains to be told of Mr. Miller's minis- 
 terial labors can be gathered from the Journals of our Con- 
 vention, and therefore need not to be narrated here. St. 
 Luke's, Salisbury, Christ Church, Rowan, St. James', 
 Iredell, upon our present parochial list, may fairly be 
 claimed as parishes which he founded. St. Andrew's, 
 Burke, was the beginning of the present parish of St. 
 James, Lenoir. He also preached in a log church on 
 John's river, which may have been the Trinity, referred to 
 on a former page, but there was no regular congregation 
 there. White Haven, has long ago crumbled to decay, of 
 vSt. Peter's and Smyrna, not even the location is known. 
 
 In 1827, Mr. Miller had the misfortune to lose his wife 
 after a union of nearly fifty years. His large family all 
 occupied positions of credit in the community. Many 
 worthy descendants of his still represent the Church of 
 his affections in the country where most of his mature 
 
4oo 
 
 years were spent. One of his daughters married the Rev. 
 Godfrey Dreher, a Lutheran minister of Lexington district, 
 Sorth Carolina. Others married into the most distinguished 
 and respectable families of Burke county. The names 
 Miller, Scott, Kent, and others, are borne by his descen- 
 dants at the present day. 
 
 Mr. Miller attended no Convention after that of 1829. He 
 is mentioned from time to time in the addresses of Bishop 
 Ravenscroft and Bishop Ives, and always with the greatest 
 affection and respect. His bodily strength gradually de- 
 cayed with increasing years until May 13th, 1834, when he 
 fell asleep in the Lord, after an earthly pilgrimage of sev- 
 enty-five years, ten months and two days. His mortal 
 remains were interred in the family grave-yard at "Marx 's 
 Grove," near the present town of Lenoir, which continued 
 for many years afterwards to be the residence of his son 
 Elisha P. Miller. The funeral service was read and an 
 appropriate sermon preached by the Rev. John Morgan, 
 Rector of St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, and Christ Church, 
 Rowan. In his address to the Convention of 1835, Bishop 
 [ves says : kk In recording the changes which, during the 
 past year, have occured among us, I notice with unfeigned 
 sorrow the death of the Reverend Robert J. Miller, of 
 Burke county, a clergyman of whom we may emphatically 
 say, for him to live zvas Christ; and to die is gain 
 
 in. 
 
 FRATERNAL RELATIONS. 
 The Diocesan Convention and the Lutheran Synod. 
 
 [t is a fact not generally remembered that delegations 
 from the Lutheran Synod once sat in the Conventions of 
 the Diocese of North Carolina, and that our delegates also 
 had honorary places in the Lutheran Synod. The names 
 of the Rev. Gottlieb Shober, the Rev. Daniel Scherer, 
 
40i 
 
 Gen. Paul Barringer, and Col. Henry Ratz, are found in 
 the list of the members of the Convention of 1823; ano< 
 during this period the minutes of the Synod record the 
 presence of the Rev. Adam Empie, the Rev. G. T. Bedell, 
 and the Hon. Duncan Cameron, of our Convention. 
 
 These mutual courtesies were due directly to the influ- 
 ence of the Rev. Robert Johnston Miller, and they consti- 
 tute a pleasing after-piece to the curious and anomalous 
 position occupied by Mr. Miller and the congregations of 
 Episcopalians under his charge during their twenty-seven 
 years connection with the Lutheran Synod. A brief con- 
 sideration of the relations formerly existing between the 
 Lutherans and the Churchmen of North Carolina will not 
 unfitly conclude this imperfect account of old White 
 Haven Chnrch and its Pastor. 
 
 Concerning this episode in our diocesan history, there is 
 very little to be recorded, and that little is mostly con- 
 tained in the Journals of our Conventions. Complete sets 
 of these are now become so rare that few persons are 
 acquainted with their contents, which is the excuse offered 
 far transcribing a few of these particulars of our recorded 
 history. 
 
 Rut although the story of the interchange of these formal 
 greetings between the two ecclesiastical bodies is but brief, 
 and concerning them there is nothing new to relate, yet 
 there is this to be observed, which has hitherto escaped 
 attention — that the friendship between the Lutherans and 
 the Churchmen of North Carolina did not result from the 
 action or the influence of Mr. Miller. On the contrary it 
 is morally certain that Mr. Miller's action in this connec- 
 tion was to a very great extent influenced by the state of 
 feeling between these two bodies, the mutual sympathy 
 and friendship which had begun long before Mr. Miller 
 came into this part of the count}-. He only perpetuated 
 and rendered more close and intimate a friendly alliance 
 which he found existing in 1786. 
 
4-02 
 
 It has already been remarked that there was much in 
 the doctrines and worship of the old Lutherans to attract 
 the favorable regard of Churchmen. Indeed, it is well 
 known that Luther and Melancthon, and other Protestant 
 divines, exercised no small influence upon the course and 
 character of the English Reformation. The further fact 
 that the Hanoverian Kings of England were originally 
 Lutherans, and so far as they displayed any religious feel- 
 ing at all, remained Lutherans, until the accession of 
 George III, must have tended to promote a friendly feeling 
 between members of the two communions in the Colonies. 
 In the reign of Queen Anne, overtures were made by the 
 King of Prussia looking to the adoption by the Lutherans 
 of Prussia of the Articles and Liturgy of the English 
 Church; and the proposition that the English Bishops 
 should consecrate Bishops for Prussia, and so convey to 
 that Kingdom the Apostolic succession, was so favorably 
 received that the most sanguine hopes were entertained of 
 the result. But for delays and complications caused by 
 the desire to included Hanover in this arrangement, it seems 
 more than likely that these two great barriers against 
 Roman tyranny, the Church of England and the Lutherans 
 of Germany, might have been happily united. As further 
 illustrating the friendly relations which have thus for cen- 
 turies been preserved, it may be mentioned in passing that 
 for a number of years during this present century, the 
 British and Prussian governments maintained a Bishop at 
 Jerusalem, selected alternately from England and Germany, 
 and consecrated by English Bishops. 
 
 Considering all these things, it is not surprising that 
 Lutherans and Churchmen, finding themselves in a con- 
 dition of common poverty and spiritual destitution in the 
 wilds of the new world, should have drawn close together 
 in Christian feeling; and we are prepared to find evidences 
 of this kindly regard among the German and English set- 
 tlers upon the banks of the Yadkin and the Catawba. 
 
403 
 
 The presence of a vigorous and aggressive population of 
 Scotch-Irish Calvinists would also tend to lead them into 
 this friendly alliance. 
 
 The records of those early days are too meager to afford 
 us detailed accounts of .such matters as these, but the 
 evidence, though scanty, is conclusive. In Dr. Rumple' s 
 account of the establishment of the "oldest Lutheran con- 
 gregation organized in the Province of North Carolina," 
 given in his History of Rowan county, he says : "In the 
 year 1768, John Lewis Beard, a wealthy citizen of Salis- 
 bury, and a member of the Lutheran Church, was bereaved 
 by the death of a daughter, and her body was interred in a 
 lot of ground owned by her father. To prevent her re- 
 mains from being disturbed by the inarch of civilization, 
 Mr. Beard executed a deed for the lot, containing 144 
 square poles, to a body of trustees of the Evangelical 
 Lutheran congregation of the Township of Salisbury, 
 allowing ministers of the High {sic) Church of England to 
 occupy it, when not used by the Lutherans. ' ' The build- 
 ing afterwards erected upon this lot was used in accordance 
 with the provisions of this deed down to the year 1825. 
 This is the first evidence of the friendship between Luth- 
 erans and Churchmen in this section. 
 
 The Rev. Thodorus Swaim Drage, having been 1 'licensed 
 for the Plantations" by the Bishop of Loudon, May 29th, 
 1769, was by Gov. Try on recommended to the Vestry of 
 St. Luke's Parish, Rowan count}-, by letter dated Novem- 
 ber 12th of the same year. July 9th, 1770, the Governor 
 sent him a letter of induction. He seems to have gone to 
 Salisbury at the end of 1769, or the beginning of 1770, 
 and to have entered zealously upon the task of putting 
 into effect the Colonial statute for the organization of the 
 parish and the support of the Church. In this he was 
 strenuously opposed by the Presbyterians, and a long strug- 
 gled followed, from which Mr. Drage seems to have retired 
 after a year or two, despairing of success. This is alluded 
 
404 
 
 to merely to show, in connection with this bitter struggle 
 with the Presbyterians, the fact that the kindliest feeling 
 existed between the Churchmen and the Lutherans during 
 the whole of this exciting period. Mr. Drage says the two 
 lived together in much harmony: a second example of the 
 disposition of Lutherans toward Churchmen. 
 
 Dr. Bernhehn in his History says that "in the year 1772, 
 Christopher Rintelmann, from Organ Church, in Rowan 
 county, and Christopher Layrle, from St. John's Church, 
 in Mecklenburg count}', were sent as a delegation to 
 Europe, * * * for a supply of ministers and school- 
 teachers, for the various Lutheran congregations, then or- 
 ganized in North Carolina," and adds that "these com- 
 missioners travelled first to London." ' In this Dr. Bern- 
 heim mistakes the date and overstates the facts. Rintel- 
 mann and Layrle went upon their mission to Europe early 
 in the year 177 1, and they did not go "for a supply of 
 ministers and school-teachers for the various Lutheran 
 congregations then organized in North Carolina; 1 ' nor 
 were they, the one from the Organ Church, and the other 
 from St. John's. It appears from their own record book, 
 lately discovered in Salisbury by the Rev. Francis J. Mur- 
 doch, and by him presented to St. Luke's Church, Salis- 
 bury, that these men represented the only Lutheran con- 
 gregation at that time organized in this section, and they 
 went to obtain help to support a minister and school- 
 teacher for that congregation. No name is given to this 
 organization, but it is said to be composed of "sixty Ger- 
 man Lutheran Protestant families," forming a settlement 
 on Second Creek, in Rowan county. The}- were sent ex- 
 pressly to England and made their first appeal for assist- 
 ance to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and 
 the Bishops of the English Church. Before setting out 
 from home, Mr. Drage gave them a letter of commendation 
 to Gov. Tryon, and one to the Secretary of the Society. 
 They say that Gov. Tryon "according to his known 
 
4°5 
 
 humanity lias countenanced their petition under the great 
 seal of the Province, and referred the case to the Honora- 
 ble Society, * * * which Society has likewise piously 
 countenanced under their seal this undertaking." Gov. 
 Tryon, his sister, the Honorable Miss Tryon, the Arch- 
 Bishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel headed the sub- 
 scription for this pious object, and at the request of the 
 commissioners, the Treasurer of the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel, consented to act as Treasurer of the 
 fund. It may be noted in passing that the Rev. Mr. 
 Drage speaks of these German Lutherans as his parish- 
 ioners, and everything shows that there was the kindest 
 and most cordial relations existing between them. The 
 fact that so uncompromising a champion of the Church 
 should have spoken and acted in this way in regard to this 
 effort of the Lutherans to obtain a minister and teacher for 
 their struggling congregation puts it beyond all doubt that 
 a warm and earnest feeling of mutual sympathy and affec- 
 tion prevailed at this time. This is also confirmed In- 
 other parts of Mr. Drage' s correspondence. These docu- 
 ments have never been in print, and therefore the light 
 which they throw upon the relations of the Lutherans with 
 the Churchman of Rowan comes in to supplement the evi- 
 dence of the same thing from other sources. 
 
 When Mr. Miller settled on the Catawba river in 1786, 
 the onlv Lutheran ministers in the whole of the (Term an 
 settlement were the Rev. A. Nussman, and the Rev. J. G. 
 Arndt, who had been sent from Germany in 1773 in re- 
 sponse to the appeal ot the commissioners before men- 
 tioned. Mr. Arndt had come out as a school-teacher, but 
 had since become a minister. These men owed their posi- 
 tion and power for usefulness among their people, very 
 largely to the assistance rendered by Churchmen in the 
 first effort to put tne Lutherans of Rowan upon their feet. 
 It was therefore but natural that they should receive Mr. 
 
406 
 
 Miller cordially, and that they should desire, and that he 
 should reciprocate the desire, to preserve and to perpetuate 
 this brotherly feeling among their people. The steps by 
 which they were led to attempt a closer and more organic 
 union have already been narrated. 
 
 With the first rise of Church life in North Carolina, the 
 idea of organic union was found to be impracticable. It 
 had so far been all give by the Churchmen, and all take 
 by the Lutherans. Naturally the stronger body did not 
 relish the idea of reversing the process. But there were 
 deeper causes than any mere selfishness or sectarian feel- 
 ing, which stood in the way of union between the two 
 bodies. 
 
 Lutheranism, during Mr. Miller's connection with the 
 Synod, had been gradually drifting away from its old 
 standard of doctrine and of worship, and becoming more and 
 more assimilated to the various bodies of English Dissen- 
 ters by which it was surrounded. This is no place for an 
 examination of the question, but it is a fact disclosed by 
 their own records that in 182 1 when Mr. Miller was or- 
 dained by Bishop Moore, the Lutherans had almost wholly 
 abandoned those devotional practices and those sacramen- 
 tal doctrines, which had both in Europe and America been 
 such a bond of union between them and us. * But there 
 remained a sentiment springing from the memory of past 
 association, and Mr. Miller sought anxiously to perpetuate 
 the fraternal relations in which he had lived with his 
 Lutheran brethren for more than a quarter of a century. 
 
 His first appearance in our Convention was as a delegate 
 from the Lutheran Synod. On page 4, Journal of 1821, is the 
 following entry : "It being ascertained that the Rev. Rob- 
 
 * In a MS. note to a copy of a former pamphlet containing this state- 
 ment which I sent to Dr. Bernheim. he says : "All this, tho' true for 
 that time, is greatly changed now. The Lutherans are rapidly returning 
 to the true and original faith as set forth in the unaltered Augsburg Con- 
 fession, and other symbolical writings of the 16th century." 
 
4o 7 
 
 ERT Johnson Miller, of Burke county, has come to this 
 Convention in the capacity of a delegate from the German 
 and English Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, and for 
 the purpose of effecting as far as practicable, intercourse 
 and union between the Episcopalians and some of the 
 Lutheran congregations : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Miller be cordially re- 
 ceived in the above capacity and admitted to a seat in this 
 Convention. " 
 
 Mr. Miller being thus admitted presented a formal com- 
 munication from the Synod, and upon the recommenda- 
 tion of the committee upon the state of the church, the 
 Revs. Adam Empie and G. T. Bedell and the Hon. Dun- 
 can Cameron were appointed a committee to attend the 
 Lutheran Synod, and "to consider of and agree upon such 
 terms of union, as may tend to the mutual advantage and 
 welfare of both Churches, not inconsistent with the Con- 
 stitution and Canons of this Church. ' ' 
 
 This committee attended the meeting of the Synod held 
 at Lau's Church, Guilford county, June 17th, 182 1, with a 
 letter from Bishop Moore, conveying to that body informa- 
 tion concerning the above action of the Convention. The 
 minutes of the Synod record that this committee "were all 
 affectionately received," and a committee appointed to 
 confer with them, namely : the Revs. G. Shober, and 
 Michael Ranch, and Henry Ratz, Esq. The result of the 
 conference between the two committees was a series of 
 Resolutions, to be found on page n of the Journal of the 
 Convention of 1822. They declare that it is deemed "ex- 
 pedient and desirable that the Lutheran Synod, and the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church of North Carolina, should be 
 united together in the closest bonds of friendship," they 
 therefore provide that each of these bodies "may send a 
 delegation of one or more persons," to the other., and that 
 these delegates shall be entitled to speak and to vote "in 
 all cases except when a division is called for, in which 
 
408 
 
 case thev shall not vote;" and they further provide that 
 all ministers of either body shall be entitled to honorary 
 seats in the other. These resolutions were at once adopted 
 by the Synod, and the Revs. G. Shober and Jacob Seherer, 
 and Henry Ratz, Esq., were appointed delegates to the 
 Convention appointed to meet at Raleigh in April, 1822. 
 
 Xont of the Lutheran delegates attended this Conven- 
 tion of 1822, but our committee presented the report and 
 resolutions agreed upon in conference with the Lutherans, 
 and adopted by the Synod, together with a letter from the 
 Rev. Gottlieb Shober; and the resolutions were unani- 
 mously adopted. At the same meeting Messrs. Miller, 
 Wright, and Davis, of the clergy, and Messrs. Alexander 
 Caldcleugh and Duncan Cameron, of the laity, were 
 appointed delegates to the Synod. 
 
 In the Journal of the Convention held at Salisbury in 
 1823, amon R the names of the attending members, we find 
 the following : "The Rev. G. Shober, the Rev. Daniel 
 vSherer, Gen. Paul Barringer and Col. Henry Ratz;" and 
 on a subsequent page we find that the Revs. Messrs. Mil- 
 ler and Davis of the clergy and Messrs. Win. R. Holt and 
 Alexander Caldcleugh, of the laity, were appointed dele- 
 gates to the next meeting of the Synod. 
 
 With the Convention of 1823 all mention of delegates to 
 or from the Lutheran Synod disappears from our records, 
 though no formal action was taken to repeal the "Frater- 
 nal Union,' 1 and under it a delegation from either body 
 might still probably be entitled to a seat in the other. 
 Hut the Lutherans and the Episcopalians were mostly set- 
 tled in different and distant sections of the State, and each 
 body held its meetings in towns usually inconvenient for 
 the attendance of the other. There were therefore difficul- 
 ties in parrying out this arrangement, while no correspond- 
 ing benefits seemed likely to arise. The Convention of 
 1823 was held in Salisbury: hence the full attendance ot 
 the Lutheran delegation at that Convention. It was not 
 
409 
 
 until 1840 that another Convention met so far west, with 
 one exception; and we hear no more of delegations from 
 Synod or Convention. 
 
 But tt ough this may be a sufficient reason for the fact 
 of the interchange of delegations having ceased, yet there 
 were probably other causes lying deeper, which even 
 under more favorable circumstances would have made the 
 result not less sure. By the consecration of a Bishop for 
 North Carolina, and by the clear and positive teaching 
 of Bishop Ravenscroft, the differences between Luth- 
 erans and Episcopalians must have come out with a dis- 
 tinctness unknown before. Although several of the Luth- 
 eran Churches in Europe had preserved the Episcopate, 
 and the old Swedish Churches in Pennsylvania and in Del- 
 eware had united with the Church in those Dioceses and 
 acknowledged the pastoral government of the Bishop, the 
 North Carolina Lutherans were not at all inclined to such a 
 union as this. They had drawn their pastors and teachers 
 mostly from Hanover, and, as has been already pointed 
 out, they had fallen off very much from the purity of early 
 Lutheranism. The Augsburg Confession had been brand- 
 ed by the North Carolina Synod as tainted with Roman- 
 ism, and for some years they had allowed unordained men 
 to administer both sacraments. Liturgical services had 
 very generally fallen into disuse among them, and at this 
 very time the most acrimonious controversy was raging, 
 and a schism had already been made in their body, caused 
 chiefly by this back-sliding from their old principles. The 
 leading man in the Synod was the Rev. Gottlieb Shober, 
 not a Lutheran at all in doctrine, but a professed Moravian, 
 who seems to have had little or no respect for the ancient 
 Lutheran position. The fact that two of their most emi- 
 nent preachers, Mr. Shober and Mr. Miller, were professed 
 believers in and adherents of a different ecclesiastical 
 polity, and were of different doctrinal views from those 
 peculiar to Lutheranism, is a sufficient commentary upon 
 
4io 
 
 the condition of Lutheranism in North Carolina at that 
 
 time. 
 
 It is beyond all question that Mr. Miller's amiable desire 
 for a closer union with the Lutherans had involved his 
 own people in the same defection from those principles 
 which they held in common, besides weaning them from 
 the distinctive doctrines of the Church. Bishop Ravens- 
 croft's great work was to sound the trumpet with so cer- 
 tain and distinct a blast that no one 'could mistake it; and 
 to find out who in North Carolina was on the side of the 
 Church as a matter of conscience and with intelligent 
 convictions of truth and duty. Even had the principles 
 of Churchmen and of Lutherans been much more in accord 
 than they were, there could have been no sort of sympathy 
 between the spirit which under the new administration 
 began to animate the Church in this State, and that which 
 prevailed among their Lutheran brethren. 
 
 But again, the fundamental principle of the Church 
 being the maintenance, not only of primitive truth, but of 
 Apostolic Order as well, it was hardly to be expected that 
 those who had so far departed from this latter as to allow 
 the sacraments to be administered by men who had no 
 kind of ordination whatever, could remain in such perfect 
 accord with the Church under Bishop Ravenscroft, as to 
 take part in her councils and legislation. It is pleasant to 
 remember this long co-operation and friendship, and we 
 trust that the good will, implied in it all, continues to 
 animate both our Lutheran brethren and ourselves; but 
 such a union as the one attempted was in the nature of 
 the case impracticable. 
 
4 ii 
 
 NOTE ON THE REV. HATCH DENT. 
 
 In a list of "Names and Places of the Clergy" among 
 the Pettigrew MSS. given in connection with the pro- 
 ceedings of the Tarborough Conventions of 1790 — 94, after 
 the names of seven Clergymen, numbered consecutively, 
 and their fields of labor designated, there is added, ' 'the Rev. 
 Mr. Dent, near the Yadkin river." This was the Rev. 
 Hatch Dent, of Maryland. He was ordered Deacon by 
 Bishop Seabnry at the same time with William Duke, 
 October 16th, 1785. Both these names occur in the earli- 
 est list furnished the General Convention of the Clergy of 
 Maryland, in 1792. His name is absent from the list of 
 1795, but re-appears in that of 1799. In Rumple' s History 
 of Rowan county, page 408, Mr. Henderson states that the 
 Rev. Mr. Dent came from Maryland to Rowan county with 
 quite a Colony of Churchmen about the year 1794, and 
 purchased a farm, but remained only a few years. He 
 was an uncle of two clergymen of North Carolina, Richard 
 W. Barber and Samuel S. Barber. In a biographical 
 sketch of Win. Wirt, prefixed to an edition of The British 
 Spy, I have seen it stated that William Wirt about the 
 year 1780 went to a classical school taught by Hatch Dent 
 in Charles county, Maryland, about forty miles from 
 Bladensburg. His school room was "the vestry-house of 
 Newport Church." He is said to have been "a most ex- 
 cellent man, very good-tempered" — certainly high praise 
 lor a school-master in those days. Many of his pupils 
 afterwards became eminent men. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
N.C # 204 Z99A v. 2 1900-30 
 no s. 24-40 P42923