Centennial Address 
 
 The History of 
 
 St. Luke's Parish 
 
 BY 
 
 Professor Archibald Henderson 
 
 PH.D., D.C.L., LL.D. 
 OF THE 
 
 University of North Carolina 
 
ARS ET SC>ElrsriA 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyofstlukesOOhend 
 
St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, N. C. 
 
The History of St. Luke's Parish 
 
 AND 
 
 The Beginnings of the Episcopal 
 Church in Rowan County 
 
 Address by 
 Archibald Henderson 
 
 Delivered in St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, N. C, on October 19, 1924, 
 in Commemoration of the CentenniaLof the Union of St. Luke's 
 Parish with the Diocese o/ North Carolina 
 
A Centennial Prayer 
 
 Almighty God, the God of our Fathers, in whose 
 Name others have labored and we have entered into 
 their labors, we give Thee hearty thanks for the 
 grace and virtue, the forethought and liberality of 
 Thy servants in this parish through a hundred years 
 of Thy mercies and blessings. And we pray Thee 
 that we of our day may be inflamed to leave to those 
 who come after us a similar record of fruitful lives 
 by being obedient to Thy will and by giving freely 
 of ourselves and of our substance to the enlighten- 
 ment of the ignorant, the conversion of wrongdoers 
 and the building up of Thy Kingdom here and 
 everywhere. Increase our labors and our laborers, 
 multiply our givers, enlarge our gifts, that we may 
 honor Thee and magnify Thy Holy Name, now and 
 evermore, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
An Historical Address 
 
 The history of St. Luke's Church, the centennial 
 of which we celebrate today, is a theme which might 
 well inspire any churchman — especially one who, like 
 myself, for more than a quarter of a century has 
 made a diligent and loving study of this great and 
 historic county of Rowan. In order to realize the 
 missionary labors and devoted services which laid the 
 foundations for this holy institution, I must ask you 
 to go back with me in fancy, three quarters of a cen- 
 tury before 1824, to the earliest days of Salisbury. 
 A wealth of documents, hitherto unknown or unused, 
 together with the rich depository of the Colonial and 
 State Records of North Carolina, will enable us to 
 gain a "close-up" view of the difficult beginning of 
 the Episcopal church in Rowan. 
 
 On April 12, 1753, Matthew Rowan, the acting 
 governor, approved a bill for the erection of a county 
 and parish, by the name of Rowan County and St. 
 Luke's Parish. The following year, however, this act 
 was revoked by George II, on the ground that the 
 Assembly had begun to exercise more power than 
 was entirely agreeable to the royal government in 
 England and that by the establishment of new coun- 
 ties the Assembly was increased in membership too 
 rapidly. Two years later, however, with the consent 
 of the king, Rowan was re-established with the same 
 
 Page Three 
 
 305507 
 
boundaries and limits as formerly, and all deeds and 
 conveyances of land made during the period of the 
 revocation were declared valid. 
 
 It is the year 1755. This town, named after the 
 cathedral town of Salisbury, England, is but just 
 laid out, the court house built, and 7 or 8 houses 
 erected. In the entire county of Rowan, which was 
 bounded to the westward in the charter only by "the 
 South Seas," there are only about 1250 taxables. 
 Thirteen years later this number had trebled. At the 
 beginning of 1766 Governor Tryon ventured the 
 opinion that North Carolina was being settled faster 
 than any other province, and that in the preceding 
 autumn and winter about one thousand wagons with 
 accompanying families had passed through Salisbury. 
 When George Washington passed through Salisbury 
 a quarter of a century later (1791) he recorded in 
 his diary: "Salisbury is but a small place altho it is 
 the county town and the district court is held in it; 
 . . . there is about three hundred souls in it and 
 tradesmen of different kinds." Whether the Father 
 of his Country meant to intimate that the tradesmen 
 represented "soulless corporations" is not clear j but 
 we will charitably give both Washington and the 
 tradesmen the benefit of the doubt. 
 
 The many acts on the statute books of these early 
 times clearly demonstrate the efforts of the royal 
 government of the province to make the Church of 
 England the established church of North Carolina. 
 We must recall that the freeholders, that is men 
 
 Page Four 
 
owning fifty acres of land or a lot in some town, were 
 required, under penalty of twenty shillings, to elect 
 twelve vestrymen to serve three years. The vestry- 
 men so elected had to subscribe on oath that they 
 would "not oppose the doctrine, discipline and liturgy 
 of the Church of England as by law established." If 
 a dissenter was elected and failed to qualify, he was 
 liable to a fine. The vestry was authorized to levy a 
 tax of ten shillings on each taxable in the parish for 
 the erection of churches or chapels, the payment of 
 ministers, purchasing a glebe and erecting a parson- 
 age. According to an act of 1765, the minister of a 
 parish was to receive an annual salary of one hundred 
 and thirty-three pounds, six shillings, and eight 
 pence, and a fee of twenty shillings for every mar- 
 riage solemnized in the parish, whether he performed 
 the services or not, provided he did not neglect or 
 refuse to do so. 
 
 The marriage, parish and vestry acts of the prov- 
 ince were so unpopular in the west, of which Salis- 
 bury was the center, that little attention was paid to 
 them by the inhabitants. Various petitions were pre- 
 sented to the Assembly asking for their repeal, one 
 such petition (Mecklenburg County, 1769) actually 
 stating that if Rowan, Mecklenburg, and Tryon 
 "were wholly relieved from the grievances of the 
 marriage act and the vestry acts, it would greatly 
 encourage the settlement of the frontiers, and make 
 them a stronger barrier to the interior parts of the 
 province against a savage enemy." The dissenters, 
 
 Page Five 
 
 305507 
 
who constituted a majority of the population of 
 Rowan, particularly objected to the marriage act, 
 under which no minister or magistrate could perform 
 the rite of marriage without a license or the publica- 
 tion of banns — an act which the Presbyterian minis- 
 ters in the west consistently disregarded. In Salisbury 
 and environs, according to my father's estimate, the 
 members of the Church of England amounted to 
 from one-fourth to one-third of the population. On 
 one occasion, probably between 1764 and 1768, sun- 
 dry inhabitants of the county of Rowan petitioned 
 for a "lawful vestry," complaining that the dissent- 
 ers "from dread of submitting to the national church, 
 should a lawful vestry be established, (would) elect 
 such of their own community as evade the Acts of 
 Assembly and refuse the oaths — whence we can never 
 expect (i. e., without a lawful vestry) the regular 
 enlivening beams of the Gospel." These churchmen 
 prayed that means be taken for compelling persons 
 chosen vestrymen to take the oaths prescribed, or such 
 other means as may produce a regular lawful vestry. 
 
 Difficulties arising from dissatisfaction with these 
 acts, especially in a county populated by inhabitants 
 of almost all the nations of Europe, professing relig- 
 ious tenets of every sort, from the beginning con- 
 fronted the Church of England in Rowan and finally 
 reached a dramatic crisis. Yet we must not conclude 
 that the Church was wholly neglected by the provin- 
 cial authorities. The first stronghold of church people 
 in Rowan was not here in Salisbury, but in the Jersey 
 
 Page Six 
 
Settlement, in the neighborhood of present Linwood. 
 As the result of an exhaustive investigation, I con- 
 clude that a settlement was made there by people 
 from New Jersey, probably from the neighborhood 
 of Scotch Plains (now Plainfield) some time prior to 
 
 1 754. This was perhaps the colony referred to by the 
 Moravian Bishop Spangenburg in his diary of 1 752- 
 53. The Rev. Benjamin Miller, who was the pastor 
 of Scotch Plains Baptist Church, visited Rowan 
 County in 1 754 and conducted services for the inhab- 
 itants of all denominations at their "meeting house" 
 in the Jersey Settlement as early as September 3, 
 
 1755. The Rev. Hugh McAden, the Presbyterian 
 missionary, in his diary complains of the activities 
 of Miller j but after making Miller's acquaintance, 
 he spoke favorably of him and in company with him 
 preached at the Jersey "meeting house" on January 
 11, 1756. In his report to the Secretary for the 
 Colonies (March 29, 1764), Governor Dobbs says 
 there are six clergymen of the Church of England in 
 the entire province. Regarding one of these, named 
 Miller, he speaks in unfavorable terms as to his 
 manner of living, stating: "I had the misfortune to 
 recommend (Miller) to be ordained upon my first 
 coming over (1754-5) upon a petition of many in- 
 habitants of Rowan County." There were, then, two 
 preachers named Miller — one Baptist, one Church 
 of England — preaching in Rowan County at the 
 same time — unless indeed these two Millers were 
 one and the same person. We do know that in 1767 
 
 Page Seven 
 
a Rev. Mr. Miller, of the Church of England, was 
 the incumbent by presentation of St. Patrick's, Dobbs 
 Parish, which had been cut off from St. Luke's. 
 
 In 1755 or 1756, a Baptist preacher, the Rev. 
 John Gano, of New Jersey, who had formerly visited 
 the Jersey Settlement twice, settled there in response 
 to repeated solicitations. Soon after his arrival, a 
 meeting house was built, which was attended by the 
 inhabitants of various denominations. "In order that 
 all might be concerned upon various occasions," says 
 Gano in his autobiography, "we appointed a board of 
 trustees, some of each denomination. They continued 
 to be united while I remained there." — which was 
 until the spring of 17^9. A deed for the land on 
 which this meeting-house had been standing since 
 1755 or 6 was not executed until some twenty years 
 later (1775) to the trustees of the United Congrega- 
 tion of the Jersey Meeting-House : to James Macay, 
 Esq., Benjamin Rounceville, and Herman Butner, 
 described respectively as professors of the Church of 
 England, the Church of Scotland, and the Baptists. 
 In the Moravian Diary preserved at Salem, this set- 
 tlement around present Linwood is described in 1756 
 as the "Jersey (Irish) Settlement." The great grand- 
 father of James Macay, the leading man in the Jer- 
 sey Settlement, was, however, an emigrant from 
 Scotland, as stated in the will of his son, Spruce 
 Macay, famous jurist, and preceptor in the law here, 
 of both Andrew Jackson and William Richardson 
 Davie. 
 
 Page Eight 
 
It must not be thought that the Church of Eng- 
 land people in Rowan were wholly neglected by the 
 colonial authorities. Governor William Try on, who 
 had close family affiliations with the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel — two of its treasurers 
 being presumably his father and uncle, Charles and 
 William Try on respectively — was a devoted church- 
 man, and labored unceasingly for the furtherance of 
 the Established Church in the Province of North 
 Carolina. Rev. George Micklejohn, the minister of 
 St. Matthews Parish, Orange County (1766-1776), 
 writes of Tryon, presumably before the days of 
 Regulation troubles: "He rules a willing people with 
 the indulgent tenderness of a common father." Writ- 
 ing to the Secretary of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel, October 1, 17/6, shortly 
 after the arrival of Parson Micklejbhn in the 
 Province, Governor Tryon says: "I have great expec- 
 tations from Mr. Micklejohn; he is lately gone into 
 Rowan County." In addition to this visitation of the 
 Rev. George Micklejohn^ the Rev. Richard Sankey, 
 said to have been of Virginia, visited Rowan County 
 in very early times; and he was afterwards called to 
 Rowan County (prior to 1767), but presumably did 
 not accept the call. My father believed that, although 
 said to be a Presbyterian, Mr. Sankey had probably 
 received Episcopal ordination. In the summer of 
 1769, the Rev. Charles Cupples, St. John's Parish, 
 Bute, made a tour through Rowan and baptized many 
 persons. 
 
 Page Nine 
 
With the arrival of the Rev. Theodoras Swaine 
 Drage in Rowan in 1769 begins the most dramatic 
 struggle in the history of the Church of England in 
 St. Luke's Parish, and indeed in the entire colony. 
 On May 29, 1 769, he was "licensed for the Planta- 
 tions" by the Bishop of London. The transcripts 
 made by the late Dr. Murdoch from the records of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel enable 
 me to tell in much greater detail than has been hith- 
 erto possible, the story of this bitter religious struggle. 
 On November 12, 1769, Governor Tryon addressed 
 a letter to the Gentlemen of the Vestry of St. Luke's 
 Parish, as follows: 
 
 "The Reverend Mr. Drage, who is lately arrived 
 from England, warmly recommended to me, waits 
 on you to officiate in your parish for the space of two 
 or three months, at the expiration of which time, 
 should he give satisfaction in his sacred calling, and 
 his situation prove agreeable to him, I purpose to 
 give him letters of Presentation and Induction to 
 your parish, agreeable to the petition of sundry of 
 the inhabitants of your county, delivered to me when 
 I was in Salisbury. . . 
 
 The religious struggle which now began was as 
 revolutionary in character as the civil uprisings of 
 the people against the royal authority, which event- 
 uated in the American Revolution. The Dissenters 
 boldly said, according to Drage, (1770) "that as they 
 have opposed England in endeavoring to intrude 
 on their civil rights, they also shall, and have a right, 
 
 Page Ten 
 
to oppose any Intrusion on their religious rights" — 
 a maxim, I presume, says Drage, prophetically, 
 "dangerous in itself, not only with respect to this 
 country and the neighboring counties, but to the whole 
 back frontier of America, principally settled with 
 Sectaries, and is deserving of the attention of govern- 
 ment, before power is added to inclination." Writing 
 to Governor Tryon from Salisbury, March 13, 1770, 
 Drage says that he has done everything in his power 
 to accommodate and pacify the Irish Dissenters, 
 claiming only the office of Curate, and agreeing to 
 ratify without fee the marriage licenses issued by the 
 Dissenting Clergymen or Magistrates. Although 
 two-thirds of the population of Rowan County, ac- 
 cording to Drage, were of the Church of England, 
 surely an overstatement, the Dissenters held the 
 upper hand, by reason of a very curious state of 
 affairs. The Irish Dissenters, for the most part, had 
 come into the county before the closing of Lord 
 Granville's land offices and had become possessed of 
 patents j whereas many of the Church of England 
 people had come in after the closing of the land 
 offices and so had been unable to obtain titles to their 
 land, for which they held only bonds. As a vestry- 
 man was required by law to hold title to 50 acres of 
 land, the Dissenters constituted the majority of the 
 freeholders. In 1769 they elected a vestry who, they 
 were assured in advance, would not qualify — and, 
 according to Drage, made up a "corruption fund," 
 as we would say nowadays — to pay their fines for not 
 
 Page Eleven 
 
 * 
 
qualifying, not only for that year, but for years to 
 come. On April 16, 1770, they planned to do this 
 again — declaring they could keep out the Church by 
 this means, had done so, and always would. "I plainly 
 perceive," says Drage, "if I lose my hold it would be 
 such a discouragement to the present members of the 
 Church of England they would never rally again, 
 many of them would quit and go into Provinces 
 where they could have a free exercise of their reli- 
 gion, others would become absorbed up in and become 
 of the same principles, as the people they staid 
 amongst." These were indeed words of prophecy j 
 for the Dissenters, by their resolution not to pay 
 taxes to the Established Church of their oppressors, 
 not only helped in their way to precipitate the Amer- 
 ican Revolution: they virtually throttled the Protes- 
 tant Episcopal Church in Rowan County for half a 
 century. 
 
 The attempt of the Royal Government to thrust 
 an Established Church upon people of opposite 
 religious convictions resulted in complete failure. On 
 Easter Monday, 1770, as anticipated by Drage, the 
 Dissenters elected a vestry, all of whom were Dis- 
 senters, and two of them elders. These vestrymen 
 assured Drage that, if he would take up a subscrip- 
 tion, they would subscribe liberally and retain him 
 as minister on those terms. Drage declined, on the 
 just technical ground, that for him to do so would 
 be a direct violation of the law. The Dissenters — 
 protestants of the classic type, imbued with those 
 
 Page Twelve 
 
principles of civil and religious freedom, for the 
 preservation of which they had come to America, 
 principles which gave rise to the Revolution — "said 
 it was their opinion, every one ought to pay their own 
 clergy, and what the law required was a constraint, 
 the other would be a free act." The second list of 
 twelve persons, who were supported by the church 
 people, was defeated; but these defiantly challenged 
 those elected to qualify. The Sheriff of Rowan 
 County, Morgan Bryan, whose brother Samuel was 
 the father-in-law of the great hunter and scout, 
 Daniel Boone, called upon the elected vestry to 
 qualify on the Monday following, and on that 
 day again argued at length with them in the interests 
 of the county, in the effort to induce them to qualify. 
 After the dissenting vestry refused to state whether 
 or not they would qualify, the members of the 
 second list, representing the church people, went 
 to the court house, and entered their names down 
 as a vestry. Mr. Drage then read to the assembled 
 company the letter from Governor Tryon given 
 above, whereupon the two members of the Dissent- 
 ers' list who were the representatives in the assem- 
 bly, Griffith Rutherford and Matthew Locke, were 
 "alarmed," says Drage, and "fired away freely 
 scandal to the church and contemptuous expressions 
 as to the power of the Crown and of the Parliament 
 of England." Here indeed were fire-eating revolu- 
 tionists in Rowan, five years before the "Mecklen- 
 burg Declaration of Independence." Drage took up 
 
 Page Thirteen 
 
the cudgels and a memorable altercation thereupon 
 ensued from which Drage declared that he emerged 
 victorious, according to the verdict of the auditors. 
 Drage had the law on his side; but the Dissenters 
 had the right on theirs — even although their pro- 
 cedure was a dog-in-the-manger act and over a long 
 period of time worked great damage not only to the 
 Established Church of England, but also to the spiri- 
 itual progress and welfare of the parish and county. 
 After the altercation, listened to in deep silence by 
 the people, was at an end, the nominal vestry of the 
 second list adjourned to another place, whereupon 
 they drafted a letter to Governor Tryon, thanking 
 him for sending them a minister and requesting him 
 to give Mr. Drage an immediate Presentation of In- 
 duction. When May 1 5th, the last day to qualify, 
 came, the Dissenters' vestry walked up and down the 
 streets of Salisbury all day long; and that night 
 occupied the court house as if it were a fortress, 
 actually remaining there the entire night of the fif- 
 teenth, to prevent the second vestry from entering 
 and qualifying. 
 
 Letters and petitions now flew thick and fast. 
 Drage wrote a long, able, and in many respects extra- 
 ordinary letter to Governor Tryon giving a history 
 of the controversy. He did not hesitate to employ 
 modern slang, denominating those voters who chose 
 a Dissenting vestry in order to keep out the Church 
 of England people, as "rotten nuts." Tryon replied, 
 deploring the opposition of the Dissenters to the 
 
 Page Fourteen 
 
Established Church, a religion, he declares, that "was 
 engrafted upon and grew up with the Constitution 
 of this Colony, a religion that has ever since been 
 recognized and upheld and was by the act of the 
 Legislature in 1765 established upon most solid 
 foundations." Unwilling to offend the Presbyterians, 
 who had strongly supported him in his administra- 
 tion, the Governor recommended that the church 
 people memorialize the next General Assembly, by 
 enclosed letters of Presentation and Induction. This 
 was accordingly done, considerably more than a thou- 
 sand people signing a petition to the Assembly to 
 remove their incapacity for voting for want of deeds. 
 The Dissenters also petitioned the Legislature not to 
 be required to pay towards the support of the Parish 
 Minister, and to be permitted to publish banns and 
 marry by their own clergy — a petition which Drage 
 characterized as "an act directly levelled at the Con- 
 stitution." For the sake of historic record, I give here 
 the names of the members of the nominal vestry, 
 who, according to Drage, were all "members of the 
 Church of England, men of respect and character, 
 except one": John Ford, John Kimbrough, Morgan 
 Bryan, James Macay, William Fields, Samuel Bryan, 
 George Magoun, John Cowan, Roger Turner, Evan 
 Ellis, William Giles, and William Cowan, Sen'r. 
 The Dissenters' list consisted of nine magistrates, 
 two of whom were representatives in the Assembly 
 (Rutherford and Locke), one a Captain of Militia, 
 
 Page Fifteen 
 
and two senior elders, (one of whom was named 
 Allison) — all Dissenters. 
 
 This was a curious conflict — for, according to 
 Drage, the numbers of those of the Church of Eng- 
 land and those desirous of its establishment (most of 
 whom were disqualified for want of deeds) outnum- 
 bered the others by five to one; and on Feb. 28, 
 1771, there was only one Dissenting clergyman in 
 the St. Luke's Parish. The Assembly on January 25, 
 1771, delayed determination upon the nominal ves- 
 try's petition until the next session of the Assembly. 
 "The struggle continued unabated j and early in 1772 
 Drage protested to Governor Josiah Martin that the 
 Clerk of Court encouraged the people who obtained 
 marriage licenses to have the rite performed by the 
 magistrates instead of by him and concealed the num- 
 ber of licenses granted. The Dissenters, according to 
 Governor Martin, writing to Earl Dartmouth on 
 March 31, 1773, "actually expelled Mr. Drage, the 
 Rector, a very worthy clergyman, by withholding his 
 salary, the only means of his subsistence, and forced 
 him to retire to an Asylum, to which he was invited 
 in South Carolina." Mr. Drage petitioned the Assem- 
 bly for relief, and Governor Martin, February 7, 
 1773, ventured the hope that the "peculiar hard cir- 
 cumstances" of the late Rector of St. Luke's will rec- 
 ommend him to the benevolence of the House. The 
 Church's effort met its death blow when John Har- 
 vey, Speaker, reported to Governor Josiah Martin 
 (February 20, 1773) regarding the Rev. Mr. Drage's 
 
 Page Sixteen 
 
petition that in the opinion of the House "the Laws 
 of the Province now in force are sufficient to remove 
 the grievances complained of." Shortly after Drage's 
 departure, be it noted, eighty-five Dissenters united 
 in a petition praying that the Presbyterian ministers 
 be allowed to marry members of their own congrega- 
 tion by the publication of banns. 
 
 One of the most remarkable episodes, indicating 
 the broad spirit of the Established Church and its 
 sympathetic attitude toward the German Lutherans, 
 who at this time employed almost identical forms of 
 service with the Episcopalians, was occasioned by the 
 trip of two prominent Lutherans, Christopher Layrle 
 of Mecklenburg and Christopher Rintelman of 
 Rowan, to England, Holland, and Germany, in 
 1771, to secure a Lutheran minister and a school- 
 master who spoke German to preach to the German 
 congregation, and to teach the German people of 
 Rowan, Orange, Mecklenburg, and Tryon, who 
 understood no English. Dr. Drage officially recom- 
 mended their mission, so too did Governor Tryon, so 
 too did the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
 pel j and so too did the official secular head of the 
 Church of England, that good German, George III, 
 who contributed to the support of the minister and 
 schoolmaster: as King of England and as Elector of 
 Hanover. 
 
 For four long years, as we have seen, the Rev. 
 Mr. Drage labored unceasingly, under the greatest 
 difficulties, for the advancement of the Established 
 
 Page Seventeen 
 
Church. Two years before he came to St. Luke's 
 Parish, 1767, the number of taxables of Rowan is 
 given as 3,000 — and the inhabitants are officially 
 described from Governor Tryon's office as "very 
 able j mostly Presbyterians." During the year from 
 December 20, 1769, to December 20, 1770, Mr. 
 Drage organized about 40 congregations, consisting 
 of 7,000 souls or 900 families, inhabiting a country 
 of 180 miles in length and 120 miles in breadth j 
 and baptized in all 802 persons between the ages of 
 one and sixty. Two-thirds of the people were of the 
 Church of England, the others a "motley mixture," 
 so Mr. Drage reported on February 28, 1771. The 
 Irish Dissenters, he declared, "had the whole power 
 of government, as to these parts, invested in them by 
 the late governor," Arthur Dobbs. During his stay 
 in St. Luke's Parish Drage founded a chapel in the 
 Jersey settlement — near the present house of Mr. 
 Willie Mears. A sincere tribute is due the Rev. Mr. 
 Drage for the indefatigable efforts he put forth and 
 the sacrifices he made in behalf of the Church of 
 England. In his letter to the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel, February 28, 1771, he says: 
 "I am greatly obliged to the Honorable Society for 
 the honor that hath been done my draughts, as I have 
 received but few fees, taking nothing for Baptisms, 
 no burial fees allowed, and excepting their assistance 
 entirely at my own expense, as there is a year's salary 
 now due from the parish, and no vestry to assess it, 
 and have but little expectation but it will be the same 
 
 Page Eighteen 
 
as to the current year as there is no probability of a 
 vestry. No great reliance can be had on a free dona- 
 tion of the people, as money is scarce, and it carries a 
 subjection with it." In writing to the Secretary of the 
 Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
 July 22, 1770, Governor Tryon says: "I conceive the 
 firmness of Dr. Dr age's conduct claims the protection 
 and continuance of the 5006:7." The late Dr. Mur- 
 doch has stated in print that the strength for the case 
 of the Established Church lay, as Mr. Drage stated, 
 in the fact that the laws on this subject had been the 
 law of the land long before the Dissenters moved 
 here. But in a manuscript sketch of Governor Tryon, 
 Dr. Murdoch unequivocally says in his downright 
 way: "The policy he tried to carry out was then the 
 policy of all the friends of the church, to maintain 
 it as a state establishment. It failed and ought to 
 have failed. He saw that the church needed a Bishop 
 in North Carolina and if he had obtained one, the 
 history of the church in the state might have been 
 very different." 
 
 Dealt thus a deadly blow by the Dissenters, the 
 church lanquished and almost died in Rowan County. 
 Exactly half a century elapsed between the virtual 
 expulsion of the devoted Drage from Rowan in 
 1773 and the establishment of the present St. Luke's 
 Parish in 1823. During this period, indeed, the 
 Episcopal Church was in a parlous and evanescent 
 condition in the entire province and state. In the 
 whole state of North Carolina there was only one 
 
 Page Nineteen 
 
more clergyman in 1822 than there was in 1768 — 
 a gain of one clergyman in 54 years. Despite the 
 efforts to revive the spirit and cause of Episcopacy 
 in North Carolina, through the conventions of 1790, 
 1793, and 1794, few beneficial effects resulted; and 
 even the Rev. Charles Pettigrew, who was elected 
 Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina in 1794, 
 never made application for consecration. The history 
 of the church in Rowan and western North Carolina 
 during this period is told almost wholly in the career 
 of the famous Parson Miller — a man who for brav- 
 ery, energy, purity, and ability, has no rival in the 
 entire religious history of the state, of all denomina- 
 tions, with the single exception of Dr. James Hall, 
 the distinguished Presbyterian divine. Miller's career 
 has been so thoroughly traversed by G. D. Bernheim, 
 by Bishop Cheshire, and by my father, that I shall 
 not repeat it here. His life was a succession of ecclesi- 
 astical transitions; but never, amid his many affilia- 
 tions, did he waver from the Episcopal faith. Born 
 at Baldovie, near Dundee, Scotland, July 11, 1758, 
 he was reared in the Jacobite Episcopal Church under 
 the venerable Bishop Rait of Brechin; and was de- 
 signed for the Episcopal ministry. Coming to Amer- 
 ica at the age of 16, he soon afterwards joined the 
 army of Nathanael Greene; and fought bravely in 
 various battles, being wounded in the Battle of Long 
 Island; and endured the epic hardships of Valley 
 Forge. First he became a Methodist preacher and 
 rode the circuit in North Carolina with Dr. Coke. 
 
 Page Twenty 
 
Later, he received ordination at the hands of the 
 Lutherans in this state j but in his letter of orders 
 he had it expressly stipulated that he was held to be 
 "obliged to obey ye rules, ordinances, and customs of 
 ye Christian Society called ye Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in America." During his ministry in this sec- 
 tion, he deserves credit for founding this church of 
 St. Luke's, Christ Church, Rowan, and St. John's 
 Church, in Iredell. 
 
 When he stood up here in Salisbury, in the Dio- 
 cesan Convention in 1817, representing his little 
 congregations, they were, says Bishop Cheshire, "the 
 only congregations in North Carolina, outside the 
 three towns of Edenton, Newbern, and Wilmington, 
 which had preserved any kind of being from the time 
 of the Tarborough Conventions until the successful 
 organization of the Diocese in 1817." I think St. 
 Luke's and Rowan have just cause for pride in the 
 labors of Parson Miller and in the fact that the suc- 
 cessful reorganization of the Diocese of North Caro- 
 lina took place here in this historic old town of 
 Salisbury. When Bishop Richard Channing Moore 
 was shown Miller's Lutheran orders as an Episcopal 
 clergyman at the convention of 1821, he is said to 
 have exclaimed: "Why, you belong to us." After 
 three decades of arduous labors in the cause of Christ 
 as an Episcopal minister preaching alternately and 
 simultaneously to Lutherans and Episcopalians, Mil- 
 ler was ordered deacon in the forenoon and ordained 
 priest in the afternoon of May 1, 1821, by Bishop 
 
 Page Twenty-One 
 
Moore — port after stormy seas. He now resumed his 
 labors with all the energy of youth — labors conse- 
 crated with the names of Smyrna and Whitehaven 7 
 Christ Church, the story of which has been so well 
 told by the Rev. R. B. Owen; St. Peter's, Lincoln, 
 St. Peter's, Lexington, and St. Andrew's, Burke. Yet 
 he never ceased to regret what he called his "fatal 
 error" in consenting to receive Lutheran ordination — 
 even though he was actuated by the noblest principles 
 of Christian fellowship: to carry the word of God 
 to his fellowmen of all creeds and denominations. 
 The story of his missionary labors is a story of stren- 
 uous physical exertion and great personal self-sacri- 
 fice. One of my greatest treasures is a copy of his 
 diary telling of his long missionary journeys — in 
 one of which, made during four months in 1 8 1 1 , he 
 traversed South Carolina, the present state of West 
 Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and 
 the eastern part of Tennessee, travelling 3,000 miles, 
 baptizing 62 persons, preaching 67 times, and receiv- 
 ing $70.44 for his support without asking for a cent. 
 
 In his famous historical letter, Parson Miller 
 categorically attributed the virtual dissolution of the 
 Church in North Carolina to the great wave of infi- 
 delity set in motion by the French Revolution, which 
 inundated this country for several decades, and 
 affected the people of all denominations. In his diary 
 of 1813, dealing with a missionary tour in Virginia, 
 he thus visits his condemnation upon Thomas Jeffer- 
 son and James Madison: "I could not but observe the 
 
 Page Twenty-Two 
 
Archibald Henderson, Historian 
 For years a member of St. Luke's Parish. 
 
general neglect, or rather total disregard, of' all 
 religious institutions, in passing through this quarter: 
 I mean the counties of Orange, Albemarle, and Nel- 
 son. 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 ruin. 
 It may be supposed by some that these observations 
 proceed from a malignant disposition of mind; but 
 the supposition is either weak or wicked; for in my 
 view an enemy of the religion of Jesus Christ is 
 the worst enemy of his country, whatever his profes- 
 sions to the contrary may be ; and the higher he is in 
 station the more fatal his influence." 
 
 Dying on May 13, 1834, Parson Miller is thus 
 remembered by Bernheim, the Lutheran historian: 
 "Our church owes a debt of gratitude to his memory 
 which cannot be cancelled or forgotten"; by Bishop 
 Ives of North Carolina, who described Parson Miller 
 as "a clergyman of whom we may emphatically say, 
 for him to live was Christ; and to die is gain." 
 
 On Monday evening, September 8, 1823, St. 
 Luke's Parish was organized by Bishop John Stark 
 Ravenscroft, during the eighth annual convention of 
 the Diocese held in Salisbury. At the next annual 
 convention, held at Williamsboro, in 1824, this 
 Parish was admitted into the union with the Diocese. 
 I have before me now a copy of the advertisement 
 for bids, in the Western Carolinian, March 13, 1827, 
 for 80,000 brick and a large quantity of pine and oak 
 
 Page Twenty-Three 
 
lumber, planks and shingles — signed by Stephen Lee 
 Ferrand, John McClellan, John Beard, Jr., Edward 
 Cress, and Thomas Chambers. The brick were burned 
 by the widow of General John Steele, and the ground 
 for the church was given by Major John Beard — the 
 deed being of date, September 15, 1827. The church 
 was erected in 1828, the architect being the Rev. 
 Francis L. Hawks. 
 
 The history of this parish, down to the incumb- 
 ency of the late Dr. Murdoch, has been so fully told 
 by my father in the chapter in Dr. Rumple's History 
 of Rowan County, entitled "Episcopacy in Rowan," 
 thus I shall not resume it here. I can but give brief 
 mention of the various devoted men who have faith- 
 fully labored here. The Rev. Thomas Wright of 
 New York, who was drawn to the ministry after 
 almost losing his life at sea, took charge of St. 
 Luke's in 1826, serving until 1832, when he re- 
 moved to Tennessee, where he did a splendid work 
 as missionary and in the founding of churches. He 
 was succeeded by the Rev. John Morgan, a native of 
 London, England, serving until 1834. He was eccen- 
 tric, as is often the case of profound scholars who 
 happen to be ministers as well; and on inheriting 
 $30,000, he expended $24,000 of it in the purchase 
 of 4500 works on theology, amounting to more than 
 8000 volumes. He was an amiable man, an instruc- 
 tive teacher, delighted to do kindnesses, and was 
 Christ-like — or as we say, quixotic! — in his generos- 
 ity — even to giving to a shivering beggar the over- 
 
 Page Twenty-Four 
 
coat off his back and riding home without one in the 
 cold. 
 
 The next incumbent was William W. Spear, who 
 went to school in Salisbury to the able teacher and 
 Presbyterian preacher, Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman. 
 Both of my grandmothers attended the admirable 
 school conducted by Miss Maria Spear, the Rev. Mr. 
 Spear's sister. After the resignation of Mr. Spear, 
 who seems to have been discouraged by the separa- 
 tion of St. Luke's from Christ Church, the Rowan 
 congregation were ministered to by the Rev. M. A. 
 Curtis, then missionary deacon. In his original diary, 
 which I have examined, he describes his constant 
 tours through western North Carolina in 1835 from 
 headquarters at Charlotte to Lincolnton, Beattie's 
 Ford, St. Andrew's in Burke, Yadkin Valley in 
 Wilkes, Christ Church, Rowan, and St. Luke's, Salis- 
 bury. He records preaching at times in Methodist 
 Meeting Houses j and having in his congregation 
 Jews, Unitarians, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, 
 and Episcopalians. Later, for a period of upwards of 
 thirty years he was rector of St. Matthew's Church, 
 Hillsboro. I cannot refrain from quoting the fol- 
 lowing remarkable entry from Mr. Curtis' diary, 
 when he was in Boston (November 5, 1833): "At- 
 tended the first of the fourth course of lectures 
 before the Boston Society of Natural History. Price 
 of admission to the course with the privilege of 
 visiting the Society's Cabinet is one dollar. The lec- 
 ture this evening by Rev. Ralph W. Emerson was 
 
 Page Twenty-Five 
 
on the advantages of the study of Natural History. 
 Several hundred were present and seemed highly 
 gratified with the address. There was indeed much 
 elegance in it, but on a retrospect there seems to be 
 very little of it that is tangible. His last topic of 
 consideration seemed to be a kind of occult sympathy 
 between the spirit of man and the material world, in 
 which there was so much of a metaphysical dreami- 
 ness that I was unable to catch his meaning — neither 
 do I suppose that himself knew what web he was 
 weaving." I need scarcely add that this young minis- 
 ter was none other than one who afterwards became 
 one of America's greatest writers and thinkers but 
 was then unknown to fame: Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Frederick Davis, a native of 
 Wilmington, N. C, whose brother was the Hon. 
 George Davis, member of the Confederate Cabinet, 
 labored devotedly here for the decade 1836-1846. 
 During his stay at the University of North Carolina, 
 where he was graduated in 1 8 22, he numbered among 
 his friends and class-mates James K. Polk, after- 
 wards President of the United States, and Otey, 
 Green, and Polk, afterwards Bishops of the Episco- 
 pal Church, and Francis L. Hawks, afterwards fam- 
 ous as historian and divine. He was instrumental in 
 building Calvary Church, Wadesboro, St. Bartholo- 
 mew's Church, Pittsboro, and St. Andrew's Church, 
 Rowan, which was consecrated August 30, 1840. 
 After his removal to South Carolina, he was elected 
 Bishop of that state, being consecrated at the same 
 
 Page Twenty-Six 
 
time as Bishop Atkinson (Oct. 17, 1853). In his 
 latter years, his sight failed him completely; but he 
 bore his affliction with resignation and labored bravely 
 on as Bishop, until strength as well as sight failed 
 him. We revere his memory and treasure his 
 example. 
 
 The Rev John Haywood Parker, named for his 
 maternal uncle, John Haywood, treasurer of North 
 Carolina (1789-1829), was born in Tarborough, 
 January 21, 1813. In 1832 he was valedictorian of 
 the graduating class of which the distinguished ora- 
 tor, Thomas L. Clingman, was the salutatorian. It 
 is worthy of record that his valedictory was an argu- 
 ment in behalf of the gradual emancipation of the 
 negroes, in the State of North Carolina. He was 
 twice married: to Maria Toole Lawrence, and eigh- 
 teen years after her death, to a daughter of Dr. 
 Stephen. Lee Ferrand. His whole ministry was spent 
 in St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, to which, for a time, 
 was joined the charge of two country parishes in 
 Rowan county. A marble shaft in this churchyard 
 bears the beautiful tribute which many of you have 
 read. Dr. Murdoch said of him: "He was a singu- 
 larly pure, amiable, and tender spirit, yet strong and 
 manly in character. He was truly consecrated to the 
 service of God and of his church. . . In his parish of 
 St. Luke's, Salisbury, he was a devoted, sympathetic 
 and diligent pastor and priest, whose life confirmed 
 and illustrated the gracious words that came from the 
 
 Page Twenty-Seven 
 
pulpit . . . His faith and love left a light upon the 
 path which he trod." 
 
 The Rev. Thomas G. Haughton, of a disting- 
 uished family of eastern North Carolina, who was 
 married to the widow of the Rev. Mr. Parker, was 
 rector of St. Luke's from 1858 to 1 866 j a brilliant 
 preacher and a lovable, though faulty, man; and he 
 was succeeded by the Rev. John Huske Tillinghast, 
 who served from 1867 to 1872 — being remembered 
 by his parishioners, my father says, with great regard 
 and affection. And now a new and brighter day for 
 St. Luke's is ushered in with the coming of the late 
 Dr. Francis J. Murdoch, whom so many of us knew, 
 admired and revered. He was born in Buncombe 
 County, North Carolina, March 17, 1846, fourth son 
 and tenth child of William and Margaret Murdoch, 
 natives of Ireland, but of Scotch blood. As a lad of 
 fifteen he enlisted in the famous First North Caro- 
 lina Volunteers, known as the "Bethel Regiment," 
 and served until the end of 1861. He won distinction 
 in the S. C. Military Academy, Charleston, where 
 he was raised to the rank of Lieutenant in the Cadet 
 Corps. After teaching in Dr. Buxton's school in 
 Asheville, he continued his studies for the ministry 
 under the Rev. Dr. Buxton, and was ordained to the 
 Diaconate in this Church in 1868, to the Priesthood 
 in 1870 in St. Paul's Church, Edenton, by Bishop 
 Atkinson. After serving at High Shoals, Gaston 
 County, and as missionary in Buncombe, Haywood, 
 and Rutherford counties, he entered upon his duties 
 
 Page Twenty-Eight 
 
as rector of St. Luke's on June 7, 1872 — continuing 
 here for thirty-seven years — a glorious career of 
 Christian service severed only when he was called 
 to rest, June 21, 1909. 
 
 Despite the devoted labors of his predecessors, 
 the "growth both of the town and of the parish," 
 says Bishop Cheshire in a memorable memorial ser- 
 mon he delivered here in 1910 which I am privi- 
 leged to quote, "seemed to have been slow and 
 languid, and little progress had marked the decades 
 immediately preceding" Dr. Murdoch's rectorship. 
 New life was imparted to St. Luke's by Dr. Mur- 
 doch's energetic efforts. Besides upwards of a hun- 
 dred baptisms and a hundred confirmations each, the 
 number of communicants doubled in the first five 
 years. Under his vigorous policy of expansion, there 
 were organized or vitalized: St. Mary's, China 
 Grove; All Saints, Concord ; church services held at 
 Mocksville; St. Jude's, Locke township; St. Paul's, 
 Chestnut Hill; and St. Peter's Chapel. In 1892 St. 
 John's Chapel was built upon a lot given by Mrs. 
 Mary Steele Henderson. In 1893 St. George's 
 Chapel, Woodleaf, was built to accommodate the 
 congregation of old St. Andrew's; and a few years 
 later, the little Chapel of St. Mark's. Due to Dr. 
 Murdoch also was the erection of St. Cuthbert's 
 Chapel, Proximity, near Greensboro ; and the Church 
 of the Good Shepherd at Cooleemee, in which he 
 co-operated with that large-hearted philanthropist 
 and devoted churchman, Mr. W. A. Erwin. Says 
 
 Page Twenty-Nine 
 
Bishop Cheshire: "Dr. Murdoch was the pioneer of 
 'Parochial Missions' in this section of the country — 
 and organized 'The Evangelist Brotherhood,' con- 
 sisting of the Rev. Wm. S. Bynum, the Rev. Chas. 
 J. Curtis, and himself, for the purpose of promoting 
 and carrying on this kind of aggressive work by 
 which much good has been accomplished. These 
 missions have become one of our regular methods of 
 church workj and the extraordinary quality of his 
 own preaching and that of the Rev. Mr. Bynum, his 
 associate, had much to do in securing the ready 
 acceptance" of this type of "direct, didactic, and 
 hortatory preaching." 
 
 Dr. Murdoch was a great teacher of young men 3 
 and it is generally considered that the most striking 
 aspect of his own life was the discovery and training 
 and developing ministers of the Gospel. I am told 
 that upwards of twenty men, both young and old, 
 were brought into the ministry through his efforts. 
 Of this great service, he was modestly loath to speak 
 and being asked on one occasion how many men he 
 had brought into the ministry, he replied with ready 
 wit: "Have you forgotten that God was displeased 
 with David for counting the children of Israel — 
 and therefore smote Israel?" 
 
 Unlike most ministers, Dr. Murdoch was a busi- 
 ness man of great ability and acumen. His secular 
 interests and activities were largely prompted by an 
 unselfish desire for the good of others and a lofty 
 ideal of public service. He was classed by an eminent 
 
 Page Thirty 
 
lawyer as one of the three most remarkable men of 
 North Carolina in his day. He was a great scholar 
 and a great preacher, who spoke positively at all 
 times with the assurance of deep learning and as it 
 were with the authority of Divine sanction. "So far 
 as I know and believe," says Bishop Cheshire, "there 
 has been no man in this part of the country, who at 
 all approached him in familiar acquaintance with 
 patristic and scholastic theology" — with the ancient, 
 mediaeval, and modern commentators of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. "I always felt," continues Bishop Cheshire, 
 "that he was the most original, suggestive, and help- 
 ful expositor of Scripture whom I had ever heard." 
 Habitually meditative, his reserve of manner hid a 
 tender and loving heart, a deep emotional nature. 
 In the Memorial Resolutions of St. Luke's Vestry, 
 drafted by my father, occur these words: "We doubt 
 whether the Diocese ever produced a man more 
 gifted or more intellectual. If he had desired prefer- 
 ment, he might have attained the highest honors the 
 church could give. He had many of the characteristics 
 which would have made him a great Bishop." It is 
 of historic interest that when the present Bishop of 
 North Carolina was elected, Mr. Murdoch nomi- 
 nated Mr. Cheshire, and Mr. Cheshire nominated 
 Mr. Murdoch. 
 
 The consecrated and faithful work of the women 
 of this parish, the Sunday School teachers, and in 
 particular St. Luke's and St. Frances' Guilds, shall 
 not pass without a tribute of reverential admiration 
 
 Page Thirty-One 
 
— for their labors in building the cloister, beautifying 
 the church, and raising considerable sums of money 
 for church and parish house and many religious and 
 charitable organizations. Nor would the history of 
 St. Luke's Parish be complete without mention of 
 one aspect of church work associated with my father's 
 memory — in the form of a quotation from an article 
 by Francis J. Murdoch, Jr., and Alma Tuttle Milne: 
 "It was during Mr. Murdoch's rectorship that there 
 was formed in St. Luke's Parish the first organized 
 Bible class for men in Salisbury — the Bible class of 
 the late John S. Henderson — to which its members 
 look back as the ideal of what a Bible class and a 
 Bible class teacher may be and should be." 
 
 And now, in conclusion, I can permit myself but 
 a word. Vital to us all are memories, affectionate and 
 grateful: of Sidney Bost, for a time assistant rector 
 to Dr. Murdoch, who also had charge of Christ 
 Church, Cleveland; of St. Andrew's, Woodleaf - y and 
 of St. Matthew's and St. Jude's, all in Rowan Coun- 
 ty — able preacher and spiritual leader, who by single- 
 ness of devotion greatly endeared himself to the 
 people of St. Luke's Parish and of Rowan County, 
 now rector of St. Philip's Parish, Durham; and of 
 Bruce Owen, who had never thought of entering the 
 ministry until Dr. Murdoch claimed him for the 
 church, rector of St. Paul's Church, Salisbury, in 
 1898, now rector of the Church of the Holy Com- 
 forter in Charlotte — a scholar in temperament and 
 
 Page Thirty-Two 
 
a leader of men, who has been called one of the 
 ablest and most useful men in the Diocese. 
 
 Since Dr. Murdoch's rectorship, St. Luke's has 
 been blessed with the pious ministrations of: 
 
 The Rev. T. A. Cheatham, who served here most 
 acceptably and energetically as inspiring preacher and 
 efficient organizer of parochial work, ever ready to 
 sacrifice himself for any church cause — now dividing 
 his time between Calvary Church, Pittsburgh, Penn- 
 sylvania, and Pinehurst, North Carolina. 
 
 The Rev. F. J. Mallett, Ph.D., born in Lynn, 
 Norfolk County, England, genial gentleman and 
 able preacher who filled the enlarged St. Luke's 
 every Sunday for four years of his rectorship — tal- 
 ented as author and popular as public lecturer — of 
 whom St. Luke's Vestry recorded: "Our Rector is 
 a preacher of great force and ability and as a speaker 
 in the pulpit and on the platform he has not many 
 superiors in the American Church" — now rector of 
 St. Paul's New Albany, Indiana. 
 
 The Rev. Warren W. Way, a native of Illinois, 
 who succeeded Dr. Mallet and served as rector here 
 until 1918, when he was called to take charge of St. 
 Mary's School, Raleigh, which has made notable 
 progress under his vitalizing guidance — rarely be- 
 loved pastor, widely popular man, a strong and 
 elevating influence in the town of Salisbury ; and 
 
 The present rector, the Rev. Mark H. Milne, 
 born in Corning, New York, of Scottish parentage, 
 ordained deacon in St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, in 
 
 Page Thirty-Three 
 
1899, priest at Cornell, N. Y., in 1900— under 
 whose strong and vigorous direction St. Luke's has 
 exhibited a remarkable growth during the past five 
 years — in number of confirmations, in parochial 
 activities, in efforts, soon to be crowned with success, 
 for the erection of a beautiful parish house, designed 
 by the famous ecclesiastical architect, Mr. Hobart M. 
 Upjohn, of New York. Now fortunately restored to 
 health and strength, may this wise, forthright, high- 
 hearted Christian spirit carry on here, with continu- 
 ing success, the noble work of Christianizing and 
 uplifting humanity in the historic Parish of St. 
 Luke's. 
 
 Page Thirty-Four 
 
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