Moral Policemen on the Ohio
Frontier
By PAUL H. BOASE*
BUCKEYE FRONTIERSMEN wishing to join the Methodist
Church needed to possess only one
virtue, "A desire to flee
from the wrath to come, and be saved
from their sins."
Previous church membership, specific
doctrinal beliefs, and
even conversion, during the
probationary period, mattered
little. The seekers soon discovered,
however, that prolonged
fellowship in the church, and the
"desire to flee," meant strict
adherence to an earthy code of ethics, interweaving
elements
of the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, and the
Sermon
on the Mount as interpreted by John and
Charles Wesley.
Sin was no vague, ill-defined,
philosophic concept, and few
frontiersmen needed theological
training to understand the
"General Rules" in the Discipline
on how to show their desire
for salvation:
First, by doing no harm, by avoiding
evil of every kind, especially
that which is most generally practiced:
such as,
The taking of the name of God in vain.
The profaning of the day of the Lord,
either by doing ordinary work
therein, or by buying or selling.
Drunkenness: or drinking spirituous
liquors, unless in cases of
necessity.
The buying and selling of men, women,
and children, with an intention
to enslave them.
Fighting, quarrelling, brawling, brother going to law with
brother;
returning evil for evil; or railing for
railing; the using many words
in buying or selling.
* Paul H. Boase is chairman of the
department of speech at Oberlin College.
His last article published in the Quarterly
was "Romance Rides the Circuit." It
appeared in the April 1956 issue.
MORAL POLICEMEN 39
The buying or selling goods that
have not paid the duty.
The giving or taking things on
usury, i.e. unlawful interest.
Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation: particularly
speaking evil
of magistrates or of ministers.
Doing to others as we would not they
should do unto us.
Doing what we know is not for the Glory
of God: as,
The putting on of gold and costly
apparel.
The taking such diversions as
cannot be used in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
The singing those songs, or
reading those books, which do not tend
to the knowledge or love of God.
Softness and needless self-indulgence;
Laying up treasure upon earth.
Borrowing without a probability of
paying; or taking up goods
without a probability of paying for
them.1
An equally detailed list of positive
"goods" followed the
prohibitions, and members caught in
either the sins of omis-
sion or commission--evidence of an
insufficient desire to flee
otherworldly punishment--unleashed the
ever-present wrath
of the church. Methodists were
literally on trial, and few
sessions of the annual or the quarterly
conferences adjourned
without judicial, often punitive,
action.2 No member was
forced to submit to a church trial, but
apparently love for
Methodism, fear of divine punishment,
and the desire for
community approval conspired to induce
the aggrieved to
charge and the defendant to submit,
thus producing a novel,
picturesque glimpse into morals and
manners on the Ohio
frontier.
The Discipline outlined a strict
legal code for the trials of
both the layman and the minister, and
most circuit riders in
their zeal to promote law and order
attempted to enforce
each letter. But on the frontier, where
copies of the Discipline
1 The Doctrines and Discipline of the
Methodist Episcopal Church (New York,
1832), 77-78. Cited hereafter as Discipline.
These rules were prepared by John
and Charles Wesley in 1739, but did not
appear in the Discipline until 1789. They
were retained without change by the
Methodists in America and appeared in
each issue of the Discipline. See
David Sherman, History of the Revisions of the
Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal
Church (New York, 1874), 113.
2 Church trials, of course, were not
confined to the Methodists, but were com-
mon during the frontier days in all the
major Protestant denominations.
40
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
were scarce, and for some,
unintelligible, it is hardly sur-
prising that justice sometimes
miscarried. Augustus Eddy
of the Scioto District, endeavoring to
promote legalistic
conformity, asked his fellow presiding
elder James B. Finley,3
"whether a quarterly meeting conf.
can try a Local Minister
& expel him, before he has been
tried by a committee? I
mean legally expelled. I mourn
over the neglect of a judicious
administration," wrote Eddy, but
"what can I do?"4 If other
preachers and laymen were as perplexed
by legalistic niceties,
they did not permit their confusion to
deter them from en-
forcing disciplinary law as they
understood it. Minor infrac-
tions, such as "indulging in
sinful tempers or words," the
cause for Jacob Binkley's expulsion
from the Fairfield, Ohio,
Circuit,5 usually meant
simply a private reproof. Second
offenders received a more public
reprimand and the third
misdemeanor or the indulgence in a sin
"sufficient to exclude
a person from the kingdom of grace
and glory," called for
a formal church trial.
With a bishop, an elder, or a deacon in
the chair, the accused
and the accuser presented their
evidence, testimony, and wit-
nesses to a select committee composed
of laymen or clergy, de-
pending on the rank of the defendant.
Majority vote de-
termined guilt. Elaborate minutes,
including questions and
answers during the cross-examination,
enabled all, except those
who failed to appear (an open
confession of guilt), to make an
appeal to a higher court. Convicted
laymen might appeal
3 Minutes of the Annual Conferences
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the
Years 1829-1839 (New York, 1840), 124. This is Volume II of the Minutes
of
the Annual Conferences. Volume I contains the minutes for the years 1773-1828.
Subsequent volumes cover the years after
1839. They will be cited hereafter as
Minutes, by the volume number.
4 Augustus Eddy to James B. Finley, January 3, 1832. Finley Papers, Ohio
Wes-
leyan University. All letters cited
hereafter are in the Finley Papers at Ohio
Wesleyan unless otherwise noted.
I have used the original spelling and
punctuation as nearly as possible in all
direct quotations.
5 Record of the Fairfield Circuit, April
3, 1824. Ohio Wesleyan University. All
circuit and quarterly meeting records
cited hereafter are at Ohio Wesleyan unless
otherwise noted.
MORAL POLICEMEN 41
to the following quarterly conference.
A circuit rider found
guilty by a committee of his peers was
silenced until the
next annual conference, where he stood
trial once again. His
appeal, if he so chose, went to the
supreme court of the
church, the quadrennial general
conference.6
The case of Samuel Williams illustrates
one reason why
laymen submitted to ecclesiastical
discipline. For many years
Williams ranked as one of Ohio's leading
Methodist laymen.
In 1809, with other citizens of
Chillicothe, he helped organize
a Fourth of July celebration, proposing
a cold-water toast
to "Liberty--civil &
religious; May we always rightly
appreciate these invaluable rights,
which we so eminently
enjoy."7 His brethren
on the Hockhocking Circuit at the
time of his trial probably approved of
the non-alcoholic
beverage, but unanimously agreed
"that the attending of
barbacues and Drinking of toasts on the
4 of July is contrary
to the Sperit of Christianity and
cannot be don to the glory of
God."8 In a letter to
his friend John Widney, Williams
virtually sobbed out the story of his
expulsion: "I am no
longer a member of the Methodist E.
Church! And while I
write this sentence a deep &
involuntary sigh bursts from
my aching heart."9 Adam
Sellers, dismissed from the local
ministry at Lebanon, Ohio, experienced
the same pangs of
sorrow, confessing that he "never
knew or felt the full import
of the word expelled before."10
The preachers in charge of the Williams
and Sellers trials
may have shared the victims' grief, but
often they were
powerless to save the defendant from
congregational wrath.
Indeed, circuit riders who failed to
bring the accused to
justice stood in danger themselves of
being charged with
neglect of duty. Moreover, as in the
Williams suit, petty
jealousies sometimes inspired
irresponsible members to seek
6 Discipline,
63-66, 89-91.
7 Samuel Williams Memoirs. Williams
Collection, Ohio Historical Society.
8 Record of the Hockhocking Circuit,
August 19, 1809.
9 Samuel Williams Memoirs.
10 Adam Sellers to James B. Finley,
February 22, 1852.
42
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
revenge or personal redress through a
church court. For
example, in 1842 a sharp-tongued
Methodist sent the follow-
ing letter to Thomas A. Morris, the
presiding bishop of the
Ohio Conference:
I charge Joseph McDowell with gross
negligence of duty in not
bringing to trial a certain disorderly
member of his charge although
he knew that he was openly charged with
lying and fraud and was
urgently solicited to do so, and assured
that ample testimony of his
guilt would be adduced--and also that a
Regular member of his charge
was unable to fellowship [with] him,
and was most seriously afflicted
at the immoralities of said member.
Pliny M Crume
Sir
By bringing the above charge properly
before the Conference you
will as I think fulfill a solemn duty
you owe to the church of which you
are a member and much oblige yours,
Pliny M Crume
N.B. The above named individual never
came near me although
he had promised you he would and I
remained at home purposely. I
believe more than ever he seeks to treat
me and my family with
contempt.
P.M.C.11
Happily, the Rev. Mr. McDowell escaped disciplinary
action for his failure to
"oblige" Pliny Crume,l2 but had he
preferred the charges, the alleged
"disorderly member" might
in turn have accused the preacher of
maladministration. John
Young received such treatment from John
Milice and Saman-
tha Mann when he expelled them from
the Mechanicsburg,
Ohio, church for adultery. On the eve
of the 1846 Ohio
Conference meeting at Piqua, F. A.
Morrison, a layman from
Mechanicsburg, wrote to James B. Finley
in great agitation
11 Crume to Morris, September 30, 1842.
Fry Papers, Ohio Wesleyan University.
12 Disciplinary
action taken against McDowell, if indeed it were, was to send him
to the Troy Circuit, where he had two
colleagues instead of one. He remained
popular with his brethren, however, and
when he transferred to the Iowa Confer-
ence in 1849, one of them wrote to James B. Finley
asking him to influence the
bishop to appoint McDowell as a
presiding elder over one of the new districts.
See Minutes, III, 298; IV, 371.
Joseph Brooks to James B. Finley, May 28, 1849.
MORAL POLICEMEN 43
over the case of Milice and Mann,
expressing the opinion
that "they are as clear of the
charge as you or any other
person, and I verily believe that if
any other man belonging
to your conference had managed the case
instead of Bro.
Young, it would have terminated
different."13 The defendants
concurred, submitting four charges
against the circuit rider,
accusing him of expressing an opinion
before the trial, intro-
ducing illegal evidence, and
withholding other evidence that
would have altered the decision.14
Writing about the incident
in his journal, Uriah Heath, one of
Young's colleagues on
the Urbana District, referred
contemptuously to "disaffected
& excluded members [who] pursue
their preachers to Con-
ference with charges of
Maladministration,"15 and was highly
gratified when the conference found
Young not guilty, passed
his character, and mercifully sent him
to Jamestown, some
forty miles south of Mechanicsburg.16
The hazards, however, were not all with
the defendant
and the prosecutor, for the plaintiff
often suffered equally.
When James Davis and wife haled Eli
Straton to church
court for allegedly asking Ann Williams
for her hand and
then failing to appear at the altar,
Straton filed a counter
suit against Mrs. Davis and the jilted
bride. Charging both
ladies with falsehood, he accused Mrs.
Davis of lying when
she reported hearing him "agree on
Monday morning to be
Married to Ann Williams on the
following night," and "in
saying that Ann Williams fainted on the
Thursday night
referred to." The eligible
bachelor further accused his mar-
ried assailant of making preparations
for a wedding without
authority, and of unchristian conduct
"in saying that she
would poison a man who would serve her
so." Straton
appears to have won acquittal, whereas
the original plaintiffs
received varying degrees of ecclesiastical reproof.17
13 F. A. Morrison to James B. Finley,
September 1, 1846.
14 Manuscripts of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Ohio. Ohio Historical
Society. All such citations hereafter
are to these papers.
15 Journal of Uriah Heath. Ohio Historical Society.
16 Minutes, IV, 72.
17 Williams Collection.
44
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Arthur W. Elliott, for many years
considered one of the
"Fathers" in the Ohio
Conference, discovered the risks
entailed in church trials when he
leveled charges against
Samuel A. Latta. A physician from
Lebanon, Ohio, Dr. H.
Baker, cautioned Elliott to "be
prudent & careful." The
case against a man "preferred from
the purest motives,"
may be legally sound, warned Baker, but
"where there was
skill and perseverance in parrying off,
especially where some
influential member, or members of Conf.
should aid them,
the accusers motives may be
misconstrued & finally himself
become the injured man."18 In less
than two years Elliott
learned to his sorrow the truth of
Baker's intuition, finding
himself embroiled in a trial, the
victim of charges which
began with the Latta case.19
In spite of the dangers, most circuit
riders held the searing,
pruning process of disciplinary action
vital to a prosperous,
healthy church. William B. Christie
welcomed the "squally
times" he endured at Lebanon in
1830. "John Conroy has
been expelled for suing Henry B.
Miller," he wrote to a
ministerial friend, and "charges,
I am told, have been pre-
ferred against Miller--suit yet
pending. So we go--but all
the time down hill--If two or three
more scraps were kicked
up they would probably blow some of the
chaff away--Then
we would begin to look up."20
Continuing fellowship with
the Methodists was considered a
privilege; half-hearted sup-
port was a crime worthy of banishment.
William Porter
observed the shrinking membership on
his Worthington
Circuit as a happy omen. "When I
find Quakers and wine-
branerians and Presbyterians and
nothingarians who will not
attend classmeeting and the means of
grace I turn them out."
Rather than doing injury to the cause,
he informed his
18 H.
Baker to Arthur Elliott, September 26, 1837. Williams Collection.
19 Williams Collection. The trial
concerned the intemperate habits of Latta.
For a more complete discussion of church
trials dealing with drinking and smoking,
see my article, "In Cases of
Extreme Necessity," in Historical and Philosophical
Society of Ohio, Bulletin, XVI
(1958), 191-205.
20 William B. Christie to James B. Finley, December 16, 1830.
MORAL POLICEMEN 45
superior, "our Strength is not
diminished, but . . . increased.
Obsticles being removed the action of
the boddy is more free
and vigorous."21
Men in high places received no
preferential treatment,
and even Ohio's first governor, Edward
Tiffin, also a Meth-
odist local preacher, suffered the
humiliation of a church
trial. His indictment for idolatry in
the celebration of an
Indian chieftain's birthday now appears
fantastically trivial.
Nevertheless, he appealed to the 1811
Western Conference
meeting in Cincinnati, where the editor
of the Scioto Gazette,
Joseph S. Collins, ably defended the
former governor,22 who
"was triumphantly vindicated and
restored to his standing
and privileges in the church."23
The first Methodist itinerant
to preach in Ohio, celebrated in verse
as the "illustrious
Callahan, that fear'd not devil, no,
nor man," cowered before
the Fairfield Circuit Quarterly
Conference. In a struggle
to save his daughter Mary from
expulsion, he was declared
"guilty of the Second grade of
Railing & Dispositions"
and was forced to make "Addiquate
Acknowledgment" to
the presiding elder, who was required
to administer a re-
proof.24
On the frontier, where news, good, bad,
or slanderous
traveled a precarious communication
pathway, the church
served as an instrument for curbing
malicious gossip and
mediating personal feuds. Ebenezer T.
Webster, the minister
at Circleville, Ohio, in 1835, felt
keenly the need to punish
newsmongers. "As soon as any
Displeas them," he wrote to
a friend, "Circuit Preacher,
Presiding Elder, Church, or
Discipline, or thing Civil, Sacred or
Divine," they attack
secretly "without giving the
Supposed offender an opor-
21 William
Porter to Finley, February 26, 1850.
22 Journal of the Western Conference,
October 1811. Ohio Wesleyan University.
All conference journals cited hereafter
are at Ohio Wesleyan University.
23 Samuel W. Williams, Pictures of
Early Methodism in Ohio . (Cincinnati,
1909), 212.
24 Methodist Magazine, XI (1828), 191; record of the Fairfield Circuit, August
19, 1814.
46
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tunity to explain himself."25
On the Fairfield Circuit one
busybody apparently so exasperated her
brethren by "Tatling
and Making Mischief and none attendance
to class meeting"
that they expelled her. The same
circuit helped settle a quarrel
between two of its local preachers,
Elias Vickers and Ben-
jamin Spry. The former, the quarterly
conference decided,
"in calling Spry a Liar and
hipocrit and meanefellow . . . has
spoken and acted unworthy of a
Christian and Minister of
the Gospel." Spry had also
"done Rong" and "acted unworthy
of a Christian." Both men were
required to confess their
guilt, express their sorrow, and beg
one another's forgiveness.
"This acknowledgment being maid
and reproff being given
before the Conference the above
mentioned Brethren are
Restored to their former privileges in
the Church."26
An ecclesiastical eye likewise
scrutinized the business affairs
of both preachers and laymen. Indeed,
resort to civil court,
as Martin Hitt discovered, resulted in
his suspension for
"causing a suit to be brought
against Richard D. George
contrary to the discipline of the
church."27 Charles Covender's
failure to pay ninety dollars to his
creditors prompted the
Cincinnati Quarterly Conference to
suspend him from all
official duties as a local preacher
until he settled the account.28
David Mussulman also fared poorly in
his trial before the
Queen City congregation which expelled
him for fraudulent
business dealings.29 The
Pickaway Circuit in southern Ohio
reproved three of its members for
making sugar on Sunday,
but allowed the Sabbath-breakers to
retain their standing in
the society after they promised to
confine all future labor to
the other six days.30
When a circuit rider retired from the
itinerancy, he was
classified as "superannuated or
worn out," but he still had
25 Ebenezer
Webster to Charles Lybrund, October 5, 1835. Williams Collection.
26 Record of the Fairfield Circuit,
February 14, 1814, June 23-24, 1810.
27 Williams Collection.
28 Records
of the Cincinnati Quarterly Meetings, December 29, 1832.
29 Williams Collection.
30 Records of the Pickaway Circuit, July 9, 1814.
MORAL POLICEMEN 47
to earn a living. Retirement funds were
small and inadequate.
Thus, when Francis Wilson and J. P.
Taylor left the itinerant
ranks in 1834,31 they formed a business
partnership, which
apparently encountered stormy financial
waters at the launch-
ing. The following year their business
ethics came to the
attention of the church and both men
faced a committee of
six, which found them guilty of
"having bought Hogs or
taken up goods without a probability of
paying for them,"
and further charged that "they
have borrowed money . . .
held inducements without foundation and
made promises
which they could not perform."
Until the Ohio Annual Con-
ference meeting in Springfield could
review their case, Wilson
and Taylor lost all their clerical
rights.
In a letter to the conference, Taylor
eloquently presented
his apologia, and begged for mercy.
Vividly describing his
financial plight, he pictured his
"afflicted Wife & four small
children to support! Add, one more
circumstance to this scene
of woe," he pleaded, "and it
is rendered complete--" If the
conference could not save him, he would
"submit to my
dreadful fate," but "my poor
wife whose name & family,
are identified, with Methodism, and
whose heart is almost
broken, will doubtless sink--"
Closing his plea, Taylor asked
the conference to "let these just
& beautiful words
of the
poet, guide you. VIZ 'Teach me to feel
anothers woe, to hide
the fault I see; That mercy I to
others show, that mercy show
to me.'"
Pope's "Universal Prayer"
fell on unsympathetic ears,
and both men were suspended for one
year, apparently to
find out whether their economic ethics
would improve. In
1836, when the conference examined
their characters, only
Wilson retained his full standing.
Perhaps Taylor continued
to borrow, or failed to justify certain
misconduct in Cincin-
nati which he confessed was
"similar to Mania or insanity,"
but was in reality caused by the
"opiates & stimulants" he
31 Minutes, II, 289.
48
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
had taken for an attack of cholera.32
His seizures may have
occurred too frequently; "a motion
to restore him so far as
to permit him to preach failed--it was
then moved &
carried that John P. Taylor be
expelled."33
Considering the average frontiersman's
alleged fondness
for rough and tumble fighting, it is
hardly surprising that
the church attempted to subdue or
sublimate this pugnacious
spirit. James B. Finley recalled that
after his conversion
some of his former antagonists, hiding
behind this ecclesiastic
restraint, freely insulted him. A
non-Methodist friend, how-
ever, rescued Finley by notifying his
tormentors that the
church had voted the new convert the
privilege of thrashing
anyone who teased him about his affiliation.34
In his declining
years Finley recalled nostalgically the
brawls of his precon-
version days, and when one of his
former drinking cronies
reminded him, ironically at a love
feast, of that "awful fight,"
the former New Market Devil interrupted
to remark, "I
remember I whipped the fellow."35
Relatively few trials for assault
appear in quarterly con-
ference records, which indicates,
perhaps, that the average
member curbed his pugilistic urges or
confined his combats
to the respectable pastime of thrashing
rowdies at camp-
meetings after the fashion of Peter
Cartwright. Isaac
Pavey, a member of the Scioto District,
was not as fortunate
as Cartwright in escaping censure, and
faced a church court
in 1826 for "an assault and
Battery on the person of a
certain John Man . . . with threatening
to shoot the said
Man," and "with commanding
his sons Charles & William
to drag the said man by force and
violence from his premises,"
thus "encouraging them in
unchristianlike conduct and unlaw-
ful acts." Found guilty on at
least two counts, he was sus-
pended from all official church duties.
His love for the
32 Manuscripts of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Ohio.
33 Journal
of the Ohio Conference, September 1836.
34 James B. Finley, Autobiography, edited by W. P. Strickland
(Cincinnati,
1853), 187-188.
35 John L. Smith, Indiana Methodism (Valparaiso,
Ind., 1892), 184.
MORAL POLICEMEN 49
brethren remained undimmed, however,
and in 1833, feeling
that the end was near, he asked the
conference to restore
his name to the itinerancy "for
the soal purpose of dying
with you."36 Coleman
Nash of Cincinnati was also expelled
"for whipping-----Dennison to an
unmerciful degree," and
was likewise charged with "being
found in an improper house,
sitting by the side of a girl in an
improper manner." The
record failed to indicate which offense
precipated the punitive
action.37
Sins of the flesh unquestionably
attracted widespread
attention on the circuit, furnishing
grist for gossips and
exciting sessions in both court and
cabin. Taboos surround-
ing sex did not prompt the church to
shun trials dealing with
alleged offenders, although the
suspects often occupied a
special domain beyond the reach of
salvation. R. 0. Spencer,
the preacher at Chillicothe, in a
letter to his presiding elder,
expressed this attitude as he described
a recent quarterly
meeting in which eight persons came to
the altar for prayer.
"But," wrote Spencer sadly,
"among them were at least
four abandoned prostitutes which threw
a damp on the whole
congregation."38 To
Peter Cartwright such presumption was
preposterous, but he was powerless on
at least one occasion
to prevent his "sensitive"
colleague and two "old, squeamish"
sisters from driving a pair of penitent
prostitutes from the
altar. "It is a little singular
why men, and women too," wrote
Cartwright, "should feel such
sensitiveness concerning fe-
males of ill-fame more than they do in
relation to men . . .
but it is so, though I cannot see any
just reason for it."39
In matters worldly, members and
ministers were obliged
to shun the appearance of evil, lest
overheated imaginations
and wagging tongues supply the desired
conclusion to the
circumstantial evidence. One local
preacher, the Rev. Samuel
36 Williams
Collection.
37 Records
of the Cincinnati Quarterly Meetings, July 15, 1826.
38 R.
O. Spencer to James B. Finley, April 11, 1836.
39 Peter Cartwright, Autobiography, edited
by W. P. Strickland (Cincinnati
1857), 389-392.
50
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Jones, lost his official station with
the White Oak, Ohio,
Circuit in 1812 for "imprudent
conduct in traviling a lone
by night and day with Alsey
Lemming--and after being
Talked with on the Subject he still
persisted in the same."40
The Cincinnati Quarterly Conference of
1832 debated the
case of Frances Maria Wolf for several
days before declaring
her guilty of "oft repeated
absence from home at night, and
at late hours, without her husbands
knowledge or consent."41
Violation of the seventh commandment,
if substantiated
by a church court, invariably brought
about expulsion. In
1812 the Pickaway, Ohio, Circuit
banished Betsey Russel
from the society for living in
adultery. The same circuit
puzzled at length over the proper
action in the case of Lewis
and Polly Plummer, "who were
charged and found guilty
of the crime of fornication, previous
to there marriage."
Members of their class concluded that
such conduct did not
call for expulsion, but referred the
problem to the quarterly
conference, which held the "crime
is Sufficient to expell a
member."42
Libertines and lechers gaining
admission to the conference
faced summary dismissal when unmasked.
William Westlake
lost his ministerial parchments43 for
charges brought against
him by Asseneth Culberson, who
"found myself grocely in-
sulted," and by Charlotte Johnson,
who admitted hugging and
kissing Westlake, but objected to
"other Vulgarities that Deli-
casay forbids me to mention that I
never heard of before."44
One vicious rake married a Piqua girl,
and then "obsconded
leaving her in a state of pregnancy
without the means of Sup-
porting herself, that he did contract
debts told falsehoods &
got drunk, etc."45 The
conference immediately expelled the cul-
prit, John Wood, and sent his
description to the newspapers "to
40 Record
of the White Oak Circuit, September 18, 1812. Williams Collection.
41 Records of the Cincinnati Quarterly Meetings, April 7-11, 1832.
42 Records of the Pickaway Circuit, July
18, 1812, September 20, 1820.
43 Journal of the Ohio Conference,
September 1824.
44 Manuscripts
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ohio.
45 Williams Collection.
MORAL POLICEMEN 51
prevent his imposition on others."46
Martin Kellog, if not
guilty of immorality, was at least
careless with his gestures,
or misinterpreted the significance of
the church name,
"Liberty Meeting House."
Three suspicious males, while
attending a protracted meeting in this
chapel, observed Kel-
log's "very imprudent unbecoming
if not immoral conduct
towards two different women . . . in
laying your hand upon
the thigh near the body [and] leaving
it there near a half
a minite in the action of pressing or
feeling."47 Silenced for
a year, Kellog never again entered the
active ministry.48
The case of Charles Waddle shook the
Ohio Conference
to its very foundation. Admitted on
trial in 1811, he soon
won the admiration of his colleagues,
and was appointed a
presiding elder in 1818.49
Six years later the conference
voted him their representative to the
general conference.50
As early as 1820, however, rumors of
immorality reached
the Ohio Conference, but the committee
appointed to investi-
gate found the evidence insufficient
and passed his character.51
Idle gossip presently turned to direct
accusation, and on May
30, 1826, Waddle faced a church court
on four charges of
immorality. After the fashion of
Boccaccio's priests, Waddle
had apparently assured his paramour
"that there was no
impropriety in good people gratifying
themselves . . . and
alledging at the same time that she
need not be fearful of
any difficulty, for that he could have
intercourse with her a
dozen times, and she should not be with
child." Suspended
until the annual session of the Ohio Conference at
Hills-
borough in October, Waddle tried in
vain to discredit the
testimony of his victims. He was
declared guilty on all
counts except that by Clarissa Watkins,
who accused him
of "unchristian, and Immodest
conduct . . . when helping
46 Journal
of the Ohio Conference, September 1830.
47 Manuscripts of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Ohio.
48 Journal
of the Ohio Conference, September 1845.
49 Minutes, I, 203, 331.
50 Journals of the General Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, I,
1796-1836 (New York, 1855), 242.
51 Williams Collection.
52
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
her on her horse, and at other
times," and was expelled by
a vote of 57 to 0.52 Waddle threatened
an appeal to the
general conference, but failed to
appear.53 Referring to this
case in his memoirs, Jacob Young
declared their conference
"a gloomy time,"54 and
William Simmons recorded in his
diary, "0 Lord keep me from
falling into the Same condemna-
tion."55
Although church trials were inherently
fascinating, and
the gloomy times eminently enjoyable,
the circuit riders were
probably most highly pleased when they
could police the
frontier by means of the spoken word.
William H. Raper,
for thirty-four years a leading Ohio
clergyman,56 learned
that his sermon preached in Cincinnati
helped to reconcile
two antagonists. In a trial extending
from November 1842
to January 1843, Robert Richardson and
his wife, Ann, faced
charges of "Unchristian and
inhuman conduct in permitting
the late Mrs. Stibbs to suffer from the
common necessaries
and decencies of life during a long
period of sickness." The
principal complainant was Joseph
Coppin, who printed his
version of the Richardsons' treatment
of the old lady. The
forty-one pages of testimony reveal
clearly the bitter hatred
of the two men. As the trial drew to a
close, Raper preached
a sermon reaching the heart of Coppin,
who termed the
minister's "Victory over me . . .
equal to the Victory of Genl
Jackson at the Battle of New
Orleans." In a letter to his
pastor, Coppin pointed out that since
Richardson "said Amen
to your Discourse," he must also
possess kindred feelings.
"I will meet him half way,"
wrote Coppin, "and we will
Burry the Tomhawk and try by the help
of God to live in
the enjoyment of that your text
Directed."57
Whether through exhortation, preaching,
or legal compul-
sion, the circuit rider and his church
sought to bring moral
52 Manuscripts of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Ohio.
53 Journals of the General Conference,
I, 348.
54 Jacob Young, Autobiography of a Pioneer (Cincinnati,
1857), 379.
55 William Simmons Collection,
Ohio Historical Society.
56 Minutes, V, 123.
57 Williams Collection.
MORAL POLICEMEN 53
order to a rude, ill-mannered,
frequently corrupt backwoods
society. Gradually, as the frontier
receded, and the restrain-
ing influences of civilization
advanced, the church likewise
matured, and less sensational, more
sophisticated methods of
enforcing the law replaced the
old-fashioned ecclesiastical
trial. As a young adolescent,
struggling for position and
recognition, the church set rigid,
absolutistic standards for
its membership; after coming of age it
mellowed, developed
confidence, and adopted a more
relativistic code, which if
not sympathetic to all deviators,
nevertheless eliminated the
trivial and insignificant actions often
endorsed by the parent
body. Writing at the beginning of the
nineteenth century
while suffering the agonized grief of
the unjustly banished,
Samuel Williams forecast the modern
position: "The exclu-
sion of anyone from the 'visible Church
of Christ,' must
under any circumstance be of momentous
concern."58
58 Samuel Williams Memoirs.