HISTORICAL SKETCHES

CANE CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH

Number 4 March, 2004 www.canecreek.org 6901 Orange Grove Rd., Hillsborough, NC 27278

STEPHEN PLESANT

A couple of weeks ago we got a "hit" on our website. Someone had used Google to inquire about Stephen Pleasant. This was an ancestor about whom the family knew exactly nothing except the name and birth date (1779). Since Stephen Pleasant played a critical role in Baptist affairs prior to the Civil War, I thought it would be fun to describe what he did.

Stephen Pleasant first appears in our minutes in 1829.This was an exciting and turbulent time for Baptists. Following "The Second Great Awakening" (an outburst of zeal and enthusiasm among Protestant churches), a great debate began to rage about missions, education, Sunday Schools, and Baptist organizations above the level of the Association. Perhaps the most heated and bitter debates centered on missions. Some Baptists thought it was time to evangelize and send missionaries into the so called "waste places" of the state to save souls and plant new churches. But others, of a more Calvinistic nature, thought that it was an affront to God to send out missionaries. As one person down east put it, "if God has any elect in Gates County, in his own good time he will convert them without any meddlesome interference from you or me." Such Baptists also complained that they could not find anything in their Bibles to support Sunday Schools, State conventions, or salaries for ministers. We all know how this debate turned out. The majority of Baptists eventually endorsed missions. They also favored the education of ministers and so established Wake Forest in 1834. The State Baptist Convention was formed in 1830. The Biblical Recorder started in 1833. And Sunday Schools began in many places. Collectively, these new endeavors were referred to as "benevolent institutions." While the debate was going on, much animosity arose between churches and sometimes among members of the same church.

Stephen Pleasant married a preacher's daughter in Person County and helped out at Sunday services at Ebenezer, his father-in-law's church. One day the old man completely forgot his sermon and asked Pleasant to take over for him. Pleasant so enthralled the congregation that soon he was preaching regularly, was ordained, and became a preacher serving three churches in Person and Caswell Counties in the Country Line Association.

An argument arose over missions. Pleasant was in favor of them but an itinerant preacher from Baltimore appeared, preaching a fervent anti-mission message in church after church. He found receptive audiences in several Country Line churches. Pleasant tried to stand against the rising tide of anti-mission sentiment. To make a long story short, Pleasant was thrown out of his churches because he refused to back down on missions. He was summoned to his home church, Ebenezer, and excluded for 'holding a grudge."

Cane Creek was then looking for a pastor. Pleasant was welcomed by us in 1830 and he began serving us every other month. This would have been in a church building located at our original site near the creek. In a letter to Samuel Wait, who was soon to be the first president of Wake Forest, Pleasant said, "The people about Cain Creek are well. I staid one night at brother Joel Parrish's and one with Bro. Stephen Justice and saw most of the brethren." Later in the same letter he says "Some time after [I was excluded] I went to Cain Creek They, understanding the matter, declared their fellowship good with me and, during my exclusion, they have taken me into that church. I will try to take care of them."

Ebenezer registered a complaint with the Sandy Creek Association, to which we then belonged, saying that we had no right to accept a minister who had been excluded by another church. But Sandy Creek, at its annual meeting resolved that Cane Creek was not at fault because Pleasant "had been disowned from Ebenezer, not for immoral conduct but for being friendly to the benevolent institutions of the day." The Association urged the two churches to work out their differences.

A delegation of prominent Baptists was formed and traveled to Person County to meet with the people at Ebenezer. The results are reported tersely in our minutes: "The committee from Cane Creek attended but the church at Ebenezer refused to hear them."

Stephen Pleasant prospered while at Cane Creek. He gained several other churches and in 1834 formed the Beulah Association. Cane Creek joined Beulah in 1837. For the duration of our 33-year stay in the Beulah Association, Cane Creek was its largest church. Pleasant left us in 1839 and he was replaced by a prominent North Carolina Baptist, George W. Purefoy, who had been a member of the delegation to Ebenezer.

Our last encounter with Stephen Pleasant occurred upon the death of Stephen Justice (mentioned in the letter quoted above). Justice was a prosperous farmer owning land near Dodsons Cross Roads. His will left a huge sum, $2000, to missions and asked that Pleasant be responsible for handing out the money. Two of our members, James Morrow and Lemuel Carroll were overheard making allegations that Pleasant would try to keep the money for himself. Charges were brought against both men at a Saturday business meeting. They apologized and withdrew their allegations. Pleasant died in 1858 at the age of 73.

And what happened to the anti-mission churches of the Country Line Association? Most refused to join the State Baptist Convention. Instead they associated themselves with that brand of Baptists know as "Primitives." There are still a number of Primitive Baptist churches in the state, most near the coast, and they still hold to their Calvinistic anti-mission position.

Ed Johnson