Tennessee by J. S. Washburn

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 2, 1912

Tennessee

By J. S. Washburn

It was my privilege to attend a canvassers’ institute in Springville, Tenn., recently, and to hold a short series of meetings with the church there.

This place is one of interest to all Seventh-day Adventists, as in it is located the oldest Seventh-day Adventist church in Tennessee, if not in the entire South; and it was here, in 1885 and 1892, that wholesale prosecutions for Sunday labor were carried on. A number of our people were sent to jail, and three industrious Christian farmers were forced to work in the chain-gang. Of these brethren, one, James Stem, is still living at Springville, and is now eighty-one years of age, still faithful and true; another, who was sentenced to 280 days’ labor, contracted malarial fever, from which he was never able to recover, and thus he died a martyr for the truth. As in other parts of Tennessee, in Arkansas, Maryland, and other States, a determined effort was made to break up the work in Springville by Sunday prosecutions.

This effort has entirely ceased, the latest arrests for Sunday labor in this State being those of Brother Geo. B. Thompson and Brother Deedon, in Manchester, in 1907. These were clear cases of religious persecution, for the sheriff stated to me that while many in the town and county worked on Sunday, these were the only arrests for Sunday labor in that county for many years. After the imprisonment of Brother Thompson for several days in a very unsanitary cell in the county jail, the brother’s goods were levied on to pay the remainder of the fine, and Brother Thompson was set at liberty.

This case was brought to the attention of ex-Governor Porter, who had opposed Sunday legislation years before. He expressed himself as most favorable to our people and our work, and gave us a letter to his successor in office, who, however, would take no action in the matter. The mayor of Nashville told the writer that he knew of the time when our people were “hounded by the Sunday-law people,” and said he was unalterably opposed to all Sunday-law prosecutions, and made the voluntary statement, “Your people are incontestably right.”

The persecutions of those days have helped to make many of the best people of Tennessee very friendly to our work, and especially to our religious liberty principles. The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, one of the strongest papers in the South, has published editorials favorable to our position on religious liberty. The leading papers of Nashville gave good reports of our recent union conference, and the leading business men of that city, with the governor of the State, extended a most cordial invitation to our people to hold the next General Conference in Nashville.

In no section of the country are the best-educated people more friendly to our work than in Tennessee. There is a wonderful change in the sentiment of the people, the most bitter prejudice having formerly been manifested.

This is especially evident in Springville. The old church is built in the woods, two miles from the little village near the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad, built before the war.

During the time of the meetings it was so rainy that the roads were impassable, and yet when the time of the services approached, from almost every direction could be seen among the trees the twinkling of lights of lanterns carried by people walking to the meetings, some of them coming two or three miles through the rain and mud. The interest shown by our own people and by strangers was really remarkable. On this old battle-ground, it was encouraging to see how the truth had won respect and interest. The Lord blessed in the meetings, and several are going out into active work as missionary colporteurs.

It is a fact, demonstrated in my own experience and in that of others, that with many of the people of Tennessee it is a positive recommendation to say, “I am an Adventist,” or, “The book I am selling is an Adventist book.”

The cities are well supplied with excellent schools, and the public schools in the country are rapidly improving. The winters are mild and short; the summers, though long, are by no means unpleasant. We have seen it much warmer in Iowa than in Tennessee.

Workers who have tact to adapt themselves to the situation and be at home among the generous, hospitable, warm-hearted, Bible-loving people of the South can accomplish much good right now, both in the cities and in the country. We can not expect this condition to last long; now is the time to work in the South.

J. S. WASHBURN.