Mobile Alabama 1846

Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate
volume 17 #2 Utica, NY January 9, 1846

MOBILE
By a letter in a late number of the CHRISTIAN MESSENGER from Br. I. D. Williamson, we learn that he is again at Mobile preaching the gospel of universal grace to the people of the South; and on account of his state of health (an asthmatic complaint) will probably remain there. --The Church that his friends lately purchased and paid for was found to have a prior claim on it to that of the society of which it was purchased; and the "uncertain law" has decided that the claim is good. Hence our friends have got to pay for it AGAIN, before their title will be good. Well Br. W. says the money, some $3000 is mostly raised for the purpose, and thinks the Universalists will still secure by again buying the house. We hope so.

D.S. ((note: Rev. D. Skinner))

other notes: the Christian Messenger was a NYC paper -

Plans and other stuff

Ok, Ive been digesting alot of stuff recently, from Canon Ga ((it seems that Rev. J.M. Bower's older brother - 24 years older brother- a Church of Christ minister, was one of two voters in Georgia to vote for Abe Lincoln in 1860 - he credited his father with his thinking that way)) to re-reading the book on Unitarians in the pre-1860s south - which includes the two Unitarian -Universalist churches in Richmond and New Orleans, which led me to reading the Richmond part of the biography of one of the ministers there. Also a recent military history spends a couple pages talking about Marie Boozer (Feaster). The new Universalist Hearld came in. The Universalists had a church building in Mobile Al in the 1830s.

My plans eventually are to learn HTML coding, and put up a nice website (i have a free one from google - which is mostly blank), I then will have States and Churches and Ministers and Layity all nicely hyperlinked (does calling it hyperlinked show my age??) together, so that if someone clicks on Mobile, they get to see what I've dug up, and if they click on Rasnake (who's from Virginia and not SC by the way), they'll see what I've dug up.
The fact that I'll have to learn coding suggests how unlikely this is......
... but those are the plans

Marching Thorugh Georgia

Well this past weekend, we went to just west of Newnan Ga (between Atlanta and the Alabama line) to hear a memorial service by the SAR and the DAR to honor a relutionary ancestor of my wife. We were of course the only folks there from SC - although the guy from New Jersey did drive further - much further!
On the long drive back, we stoped by various historic sites closed due to blue laws - and then we get the idea of driving to Hart County Ga to the cemetary where the ancestor's wife is presumbly burried. Apparently, they took 1-85 from one side of Georgia to the other. With that idea, I immediately checked the internet and saw that the Canon Ga UU church was not having a service that Sunday, but since we would be driving nearby, we opted to drive past - for photo ops (pics when i get them developed, which seems to be only a yearly occasion).
I knew Canon Ga was going to be small, but i didnt know it was going to be that small! Now, Outlaw's Bridge NC Universalist Church is 1/4 of the town, and Red Hill Universalist Church, NC is out in the country, so it shouldnt have been that surprising - but it was.
the town consists of 5 churches, two streetfulls of buildings behind them (one of the churches being a storefront in the block), most of the stores looking closed - hey, there are bluelaws in Georgia, otherwise i'd know if any were open. there is a seemingly empty church beside the U church from the same blueprint (no name on their sign - my wife thinks it might be the Baptist who moved next door). The UUs do have a fellowship hall on the otherside of the building, across a side street - and a nice granite table behind the church for the usual southern outdoor picnics....
My wife saw the setting and said "what a nice place for an Universalist Convocation" - of course with fancy hotels just a ways down on the lake, it could be.....
Back home, my wife does a quick check to see if she is related to any of the Universalist Bowers - and while she has Bowers in her family (from Bowersville!), she doesnt see any blood kinship - but the family names are familiar - even J. M. Bowers mother has a good former Quaker name, that my wife is related too.... but since she is related to virtually everybody in the three counties there, and up and down the river, I suspect we will discover it somewhere.....
So we can halfway claim kinship to the church there.
Just like Im related to most of the folks at Outlaw's Bridge....

Oh despite the southern tradition of "who's your daddy", neither of us are in the DAR, SAR, SCV, Colonial Dames, etc etc, we could join of course..... ;-)

Sunday School pins - 1917 ads

these are ads for the various sunday school pins taken from 1917 (in this case from the United Brethren yearbook)

Sunday School Pins

Here are some Sunday School pins - cute, eh? I post an explanation for them next, that might or might not take away some of the magic.....

getting ready for mississippi

some people pack clothes, check their car's engine and tires, to get ready for a trip. Me? I read a book or two! Getting ready for Mississipi, Ive read the "Civil War in Mississippi" (no major battles near Ellisville); I've re-read D. B. Clayton's autobiography (no mention of services near Ellisville), Im currently reading "Disloyalty in the Confederacy" as a prelude to reading "The Free State of Jones" (no known Universalists mentioned in the index - although the Herringtons and the Duckworth family are mentioned (but they're both large families). As some of you may or may not know, there has long been the story that Jones County Mississippi during the civil war allegedly suceded from Mississippi and started their own republic -- while I wont get much knowledge of Mississippi Universalists from reading this, I should get some of the history of the area when the Universalist church was founded. Later I will re-read parts of "the Larger Hope" dealing with Mississippi in the 20th century. I already know that one of the Strain(s) was preaching nearby before the founding of the "Our Home" church... the 1933 and 1934 yearbooks list 4 Universalist churches in Mississippi, three near Ellisville! However none of those three had responded to requests for information during the height of those depression years, Burrus, Our Home, and Ellisville, Names like Kirkland, Herrington, and Collins. Preachers in Mississipi in the 1930s - John David Morris, of Laurel - ordained 1908.