John Early (January 1, 1786 – November 5, 1873) was instrumental in organizing the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was their bishop from 1854.
Early and family life
John Early was born in the
Forest, Virginia neighborhood of
Bedford County, Virginia
Bedford County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Bedford, which was an independent city from 1968 until rejoining the county in 2013.
Bedford County was ...
, to Joshua Early (1738–1812) and his wife, the former Mary Leftwich (1746–1818). He married Ann Winnifred Jones (1790–1820) in 1815 and Elizabeth Browne Rives (1805–1857) in 1822. He fathered seven children in his second marriage.
Career
Although his parents were Baptist, Early awakened to Methodism in 1804, appreciating early circuit riders' eloquence and fire at camp meetings. He was licensed to preach by the Virginia Annual Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
in 1806. He began his labors among slaves of
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
concentrated to erect a retreat styled
Poplar Forest
Poplar Forest is a plantation and plantation house in Forest, Bedford County, Virginia. Founding Father and third U.S. president Thomas Jefferson designed the plantation, and used the property as both a private retreat and a revenue-generating pl ...
. Early was received on trial in 1807 and dispatched to preach along a
Meherrin River
The Meherrin River is a long 6th order tributary to the Chowan River that joins in Hertford County, North Carolina.
A twenty-foot-high dam on the river creates a reservoir in Emporia. For most of its length, the Meherrin is not large enough f ...
circuit reaching into
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
before being ordained a Deacon by Bishop
Francis Asbury
Francis Asbury (August 20 or 21, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. During his 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States, he devoted his life to ...
in 1809. Ordained an Elder in 1811, Rev. Early was assigned to the
Greenville, North Carolina circuit of the Virginia Conference. He was credited with converting a thousand souls in week-long camp meeting at
Prospect, Virginia
Prospect is an unincorporated community in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. This town was a stop on the Southside Railroad in the mid-nineteenth Century. This became the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870 and then a ...
in 1815. He stepped into church administration with 1817 appointment as Presiding Elder on his circuits.
Parson Early was ambivalent toward slavery until inheriting souls at his father's 1812 death. He married well and settled in
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch (1740–1820), John Lynch, the city's populati ...
where, in 1823 he was among incorporators of The Lynchburg Charity School, the town's "first organized effort for public education." Early was named a Trustee when the Virginia Legislature chartered
Randolph–Macon College
Randolph–Macon College is a private liberal arts college in Ashland, Virginia. Founded in 1830, the college has an enrollment of more than 1,500 students. It is the second-oldest Methodist-run college in the country, and the oldest in continu ...
in 1830: he was elected President of that board, chaired its inaugural Building Committee and served the college as Rector and business agent. His term as Trustee (1830–1873) is longest in the college's history.
He presided over formation of the Lynchburg Chapter of the
American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...
in 1825. From 1825 Early was involved in banking, and used his preaching and organizational skills to promote internal improvements including Lynchburg and Salem Turnpike,
James River and Kanawha Canal
The James River and Kanawha Canal was a partially built canal in Virginia intended to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast. Ultimately its towpath became the roadbed for a ...
and
Virginia and Tennessee Railroad
The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad was an historic gauge railroad in the Southern United States, much of which is incorporated into the modern Norfolk Southern Railway. It played a strategic role in supplying the Confederacy during the American ...
. He served in 1837 as inaugural trustee for the Female Collegiate Institute at
Buckingham Female Collegiate Institute Historic District ... the first chartered college for women in Virginia, and much of the nation. All while secretary to or presiding over Methodists' Virginia Annual Conference in almost unbroken streak from 1822 to 1850. Early acquired two plantations and at least sixteen slaves in that interim.
Retaining Methodists' pro-slavery position kept other clergymen from electing him bishop at Methodist Episcopal General Conference of 1832. Methodist Episcopal Bishops appointed John Early to a Committee that developed a Plan of Separation in 1844 as the denomination split over abolition. The following year "delegates of the several conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church in slaveholding states" elected Early President pro tempore at inaugural convening of what would become the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was appointed to chair Committees of Organization and Finance; delegates elected him their business agent. Through ultimate fiscal settlement in 1855, Early represented Southern publishing entities as assets were ultimately divvied up by ruling from the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
.
As Book Agent for the new denomination, Early in 1854 established the highest-capacity printing plant (at
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
) south of the
United States Government Publishing Office
The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes informatio ...
. That year he was elected Bishop. He oversaw expansion of church missions onto Indian Reservations and among plantation owners. Polyglot Bibles printed by the Book Concern were directed at mission efforts he promoted there and in Mexico and China.
Early was made a founding trustee of Central University, endowed by Southern Methodists, in 1858.
(It was reorganized as
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
in 1872.)
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Bishop Early supported the
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
. Among countless other responsibilities, he presided over the multi-state Holston Annual Conference 1862–1865 ... as preachers deemed disloyal were suspended without due process. At conclusion of hostilities, Bishop Early met with U.S. President
Andrew Johnson and coordinated with administrators of military occupation to retake possession of various church properties seized in war.
Having alienated clergymen in the General Conference for maladministration of the Holston Conference, he was pressed to resign from the College of Bishops in 1866; yet was encouraged to remain self-directed in episcopal affairs. Grievously injured later that year in a railroad accident, Bishop Early recovered to prevail in relocating Randolph-Macon College from
Boydton, Virginia
Boydton is a town in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States. The population was 431 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, and it is near Kerr Lake.
Geography
Boydton is located at (36.667997, −78.389001) ...
to
Ashland, Virginia
Ashland is a town in Hanover County, Virginia, United States, located north of Richmond along Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,225, up from 6,619 at the 2000 census.
Ashland is named after the Le ...
and see that it was staffed and received new endowment. The Book Concern, plundered at Nashville, was also retrieved from military authorities and – with scrip and creative financing – restored to operation.
Death and legacy
Rev. Early died at his manse in 1873. He was interred at Spring Hill Cemetery at Lynchburg. (For which Early and wife Elizabeth had donated land, and over whose organization he had presided in 1852.)
Early was credited with introducing Standing Committees to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Due to his extraordinary longevity, peers at his death associated Early as connecting link to Asbury and establishment of Methodist Society in America. Historians sought him out. "He knows what is in the
ethodist's ''Book of''''Discipline'', having helped to put it there. He knows what the General Conferences have said, and decided, without reference to 'Proceedings.' He was present, and helped them to say, decide, and make up their 'Proceedings.' The rules which ordinarily govern deliberative bodies are as familiar to him as forty years' practice can make them," wrote a chronicler in 1856.
Early 1822–1829 backed establishment of the Lynchburg Water Works. Clay Street Reservoir remains extant on land he conveyed to the project. The adjacent Court Street United Methodist Church (at 7th St.) stands on the site of Court Street Station, a Methodist edifice Early helped organize and finance in 1850. His manse was cater-corner to the 1851 structure. (The home was relocated to 3890 Peakland Place c1935.)
Randolph-Macon College received many of his papers as a gift upon its centennial.
J. Rives Childs submitted transcripts of John Early's 1807–1814 Diary to the ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' between 1925 & 1932, available at
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
. Others are spread out among a dozen other institutions. The
Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, n ...
holds an oil portrait of John Early, attributed to
John Blennerhassett Martin
John Blennerhassett Martin (September 5, 1797 – October 27, 1857), was an American painter, engraver and lithographer.
Biography
Martin was born in Bandon, County Cork Ireland, but emigrated at age 18 to the United States in 1815. He initi ...
.
See also
*
List of bishops of the United Methodist Church
This is a list of bishops of the United Methodist Church and its predecessor denominations, in order of their election to the episcopacy, both living and dead.
1784–1807
;Founders
* Thomas Coke 1784
* Francis Asbury 1784
* Richard Whatcoat ...
References
Bibliography
*Gross, Ernie. ''This Day in Religion''. New York: Neil-Schuman Publishers, 1990. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Early, John
1786 births
1873 deaths
People from Bedford County, Virginia
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
American Methodist Episcopal, South bishops
19th-century Methodist bishops
19th-century American bishops
American proslavery activists