TARVER-L Archives

Archiver > TARVER > 2002-05 > 1020257241


From: "John R. Clarke" <>
Subject: Re: [TARVER-L] leake co / attala co., ms tarvers >arkansas
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 08:47:21 -0400
References: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0204302139281.21007-100000@sick1.cirilo.net>


> : ORPHANS' COURT RECORD - AMITE CO, MS, p.387 14 Dec 1801 Vol.1 pp.62-64
John Tarver, the Methodist minister "set apart as deacon & licensed to
preach, M.E. Church, by Bishop Francis Asbury, State of South Carolina."

That's not proof of anything. That's like a lot of the genealogy that
is out there. If you remember, preachers were usually licensed in the
county/state they preached in and it was about 1835 in most states before ME
preachers could marry individuals but that varied from state to state.
Bishop Francis ASBURY (1745-1816) would not have not been involved in
the actual licensing part of it. The Tennessee location you listed would
also be a part of the Holston Conference and there were records of this
conference published in 1913. "Holston Methodism, From Its Origin to the
Present Time" is the title of this book and it is a multi-volume set
published in Nashville, TN by the Publishing House of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, 1913. If he was a ME preacher, this work should
list him and include when he was accepted in the ME Ministry and his various
ministerial assignments.
I also find it a little difficult to reconcile purported court records
from Mississippi dated 1801 when Mississippi did not become a state until
1818. Generally US territories had no de jure legal system which is why
they were all too often used as a refuge by criminals escaping prosecution
in other states. Kentucky and Vermont are two example of this, just to name
two of them.
To my knowledge the ME Church always held its annual conference in NY
where it was incorporated in 1784 -- not in Green County, TN, which is
located about 100 miles east of Knoxville. Do you have any idea how far
Greeneville, TN is from Amite County, MS? It has to be at least 600-700
miles "as the crow flies."
In those days one did not travel directly overland from eastern
Tennessee to Amite County, MS because one would have to travel through
Indian territory. From Greeneville, TN, one could have gone overland to one
of the Virginia ports or Charleston and then take a boat to either Mobile or
New Orleans and then overland to Amite County, MS. They also could have
gone overland over almost the full breadth of the State of Tennessee and
then floated down the Mississippi River to Southern Mississippi.
Regardless, that would have been a journey, even later. There was no I-81,
I-75, I-85 and I-10 in those days.
Also, Claiborne, MS (of that era) is in current Jasper County (just
below Meridian) and at least 150 miles northeast (as the crow flies) from
Amite County, MS. One-hundred and fifty miles in that era was not a walk
across the street, either.
I am not saying that John TARVER was not a ME preacher of some variety.
He could well have been, even though current ME records do not list him as
such. What I am saying is some of the sources you listed are questionable
and others do not make any sense.

John R. Clarke
For some of the best in the outdoors visit
www.outdoorwriter.com
This message is virus also free
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lotus Cirilo" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 12:44 AM
Subject: Re: [TARVER-L] leake co / attala co., ms tarvers >arkansas


>
> John Clarke writes:
> > You might want to check the part about John TARVER being
> > licensed to preach in the ME Church by Francis ASBURY against
> > the historical records of the ME church posted on
> > http://www.ccel.org/b/bangs/history_mec/HMEC34.HTM. It
> > supposedly lists them all (including my ME ancestors) from
> > before 1840 but a John TARVER is not listed. He may have been
> > some kind of itinerant preacher with a circuit but he was never
> > installed in an ME church, according to these records. In
> > fact, there are no TARVERS listed in this ME Church records from
> > before 1840....
>
>
> Two sources below help confirm John Tarver's ME church affiliation:
>
> : ORPHANS' COURT RECORD - AMITE CO, MS, p.387 14 Dec 1801
> Vol.1 pp.62-64 John Tarver, the Methodist minister "set apart
> as deacon & licensed to preach, M.E. Church, by Bishop Francis
> Asbury, State of South Carolina."
>
> -----------------------
> : Excerpts from A Complete History of Methodism,
> by Rev. John G. Jones, 1887
>
> The author writes that the TARVER's on the Amite were one of
> the leading families who were hospitable to the traveling
> ministers. Others included Adams, White, and Winbourn (on the
> Amite). On the Tangipahoa and Bogue Chitto were Felder,
> Sandell, Bullock, Bickham, Connerly. On the Pearl River,
> families were Ford, Rawles (2 of them preachers), Regan, and
> Lenoir. On the Tombigbee were Carr, Boykin, Funches, McRae,
> Godfrey. In the Fork, families included Mrs. William Cade and
> her partially paralyzed widowed sister, Mrs. Harper, and their
> brothers the Easleys in the Marengo Circuit.
>
> Rev. White's church was on the lower Amite and was the site of
> early campmeetings services. Local preachers who lived there
> in 1824, near the remains of the old camp, were Campbell and
> Tarver -- both well respected in the community. Here also
> were the families of White, Winbourne, McKay and McMorris.
>
> September 20, 1806. When the M.E. church held its Conference
> in Green Co., Tennessee at Ebenezer Church in Sep 1806, the
> Mississippi preachers were all reappointed. John Tarver went
> to Claiborne with Nathan Barnes. Caleb W. Cloud went to
> Natchez, William Pattison to Wilkinson, Thomas Lasley to
> Opelousas, and Bowman to Ouachita (Washita).
>
>
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