Isaac Lamar Chestnutt (1851-1907), Part 1

In the records of the Disciples of Christ in North Carolina, Isaac Chestnutt appears for the first time among the delegates who attended the denomination's annual state convention in 1877, held that year at Salem. The "List of Preachers" indicates he was minister for the church at Johnson's Mills in Pitt County.[1] Chestnutt delivered the "Introductory discourse" to the assembled representatives on the first day of the convention, no small honor for a minister just twenty-six years old. Also, he was appointed to serve on a three-man committee that would report on "Lord'sday [sic] Schools" in the state.[2] The recommendation of his committee included the following: "We respectfully recommend to this Convention, the importance of urging upon our preachers the necessity of laying this matter before their respective congregations without delay, making the subject of Lord'sday Schools a specialty." The committee also recommended curricula by Isaac Errett in Cincinnati, and by the Transylvania Publishing Co. in Lexington, Kentucky, trusted sources among the Disciples.[3] 

The annual reports from the years 1877 to 1895, after which Isaac Chestnutt no longer appears, reveal a pattern of frequent moves. During the fifteen years from 1877 to 1892, he and his family moved six times, never staying with a congregation longer than about three years. They went from the church in Johnson's Mills to the church at Maple Cypress, and from there on to Kinston, Farmville, Snow Hill, New Berne, and back to Snow Hill again. Their life seems to have combined social prominence with a good measure of hardship.[4]

Notes

[1] Minutes of the Annual Convention of the Disciples of Christ in North Carolina, Held with the Church at Salem, Pitt County, N. C., October 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1877 (New-Berne, NC: N. S. Richardson, 1877), 2. Chestnutt's name is misspelled twice as "Chesnutt." 

[2] Ibid., 3, 6. The expression Lord'sday appears more than once in this document.

[3] Ibid., 6.

[4] See the various Minutes, sometimes called Proceedings, from the annual gatherings of North Carolina Disciples of Christ.