Information Sheet

 

 

R         Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  Southwest Missouri Conference.

864        Lebanon District.  Waynesville Charge.

                        Records, 1890-1894.

                                    One folder.

 

 

 

This collection includes a Quarterly Conference record book (1890-1893) and a postal card (1894) concerning the Waynesville Charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Pulaski County, Missouri.

 

The Waynesville Charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, included several local congregations.  At the beginning of this period they were Waynesville, Bloodland, Mount Gibson, Pleasant Grove, Cave Springs, Wilson’s, Mossy (or Mossey) Springs, Center School House, and Vaughn’s School House.  By early 1893 only congregations at Waynesville, Pleasant Grove, and Bethel were active, and by late that year Robinson’s School House had replaced Pleasant Grove.  The pastors in charge were J. M. Reid (1890-1891), H. L. Bird (1892), J. T. Turner (1892-1893) and William A. Ray (1893).  The Presiding Elder during the entire period was M. Adkisson.

 

The official administrative records of the charge were kept in The Complete Quarterly Conference Record Book, Embracing a Period of Four Years.  Questions Arranged According to Revisions Made in the Discipline by the General Conference of 1890.  Nashville, Tenn.: Publish­ing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Barbee & Smith, Agents (1891).  These re­cords include the names of clerical and lay leaders, but do not include the names of members or even membership statistics.  Entries are not complete, with the most valuable being the narrative summaries by the pastors concerning the establishment of Sunday schools and the “spiritual health” of the congregations.  For the most part the denomination appeared to have been struggling in Pulaski County during this period.  Often there was only one Sunday School, at Waynesville, and in 1891 the parsonage was sold for $300, with the proceeds “applied toward extinguishing the church debt at Waynesville.”  In 1892 the membership at Mount Gibson was transferred to Waynesville, and the next year the trustees at Waynesville were instructed to sell “part or parts of the ground adjacent to the church house” in order to raise money.  But by the end of 1893 the charge was “building a church house at Wheelers Mill,” and “Robinson School House may do some good and build up.”

 

The postal card was sent on 29 August 1894 by M. Adkisson at Lebanon, Missouri, to Thomas Christeson at Waynesville.  In his message Adkisson suggested combining the charges at Richland, Dixon, and Waynesville, and requested news about “Brother Watson’s meeting.”

 

 

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