"For Five Years I Even Buried the Dead": Meta Chestnutt's Ministry, 1889-94 (1)

In a brief retrospective piece she wrote near the end of her life, Meta Chestnutt Sager spoke about her thirty years of work as an educational missionary in Indian Territory and Oklahoma: "Christian work was always paralleled by the intellectual and social training, for five years I even buried the dead."[1] The "five years" ranged from 1889, when she first arrived at Silver City, Chickasaw Nation, until 1894. By then, several more preachers affiliated with the Stone-Campbell Movement had come to the area and sometimes visited the congregation at Minco, the town along the railroad that replaced Silver City in 1890. Around the same time she penned those words, she also wrote her own funeral service. The document details the order of her funeral, Scripture selections, prayer leaders, the songs to be sung and who should sing them. It also includes five pages of her life story, a eulogy of sorts. It even provides specific directions for the committal service: "The three ministers standing at the head of the open grave, Brother Smith give the words, The others join him in the 'Amen'."[2] (Even in death, the old school teacher and college president would direct everyone and everything). In the eulogy section of the service, she wrote, "In that early day, beginning September 8, 1889, I taught school, I taught the Bible, I buried the dead, I set the Lord's table. There was no man to do it then."[3] There is no record of her officiating at a wedding or baptizing a new believer.

Notes

[1] The two-page document written in her hand is titled "Meta Chestnutt Sager," box 3, folder 12, Meta Chestnutt Sager Collection.

[2] "Funeral Arrangements Written by Mrs. Meta Chestnutt Sager before Her Death," box 3, folder 13, Meta Chestnutt Sager Collection.

[3] Ibid.

Meta Chestnutt Sager Genealogy and Early Life

By her own account, Meta Chestnutt "was born on a plantation near Kinston" in "Lenoir County, North Carolina, September 8, 1863."[1] Her earliest experiences included being "taught the Bible around the fireside in a Christian home."[2] Wiley Nobles, her maternal grandfather, was a planter and physician who served as a preacher among the Disciples of Christ. He became acquainted with Alexander Campbell during his visit to North Carolina. Her mother, Almeda Nobles Chestnutt, was "a charter member" of the Bethel church, a Disciples congregation.[3] Eventually, every member of Meta's immediate family became a member of that church, her father "being the last of the family to come in."[4] Her father, Lemuel Allen Chestnutt, was a believer who had perhaps been immersed before he became a part of the Bethel church. Meta notes that he entered the church "having dropped his denominational name."[5] At the age of twelve, in August 1876, she was baptized by a "Dr. H. D. Harper" in Contentnea Creek, while those gathered on the shore sang "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand."[6]

Notes

[1] Meta Chestnutt Sager, undated manuscript, Meta Chestnutt Sager Collection, box 3, folder 12.

[2] Meta Chestnutt Sager, "Funeral Arrangements written by Mrs. Meta Chestnutt Sager before Her Death," MCS Collection, box 3, folder 13.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

Spreading the Lord's Table: History of an Idiom (3)

Naturally, the language of well-known hymns made its way into the common speech of people who sang them. For example, in his series "On the Breaking of Bread," published in 1825, Alexander Campbell quoted an English translation of John Calvin's monumental Institutes of the Christian Religion to the effect that "Every week, at least, the table of the Lord should have been spread for Christian assemblies; and the promises declared, by which, in partaking of it, we might be spiritually fed."[1]

In 1861, Isaac Errett noted that Restoration Movement congregations in his time would typically "spread the table in the name of the Lord, for the Lord's people, and allow all to come who will, each on his own responsibility."[2]

According to David Lipscomb, the Lord's Supper is "a board spread with the food our Father has prepared for sustaining and developing the spiritual life of his children." In response to the Lord's intention, it is the duty of the church, "our mother," to "spread the table with the life-invigorating viands provided by the Father, and invite the children to partake of them at the regular interval."[3]

Notes

[1] Alexander Campbell, "A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things. No. IX. On the Breaking of Bread. No. IV," Christian Baptist 3, no. 4 (November 7, 1825), 85.

[2] "Letter from I. Errett," Millennial Harbinger, Fifth series, 4, no. 12 (December 1861), 711.

[3] David Lipscomb, "The Lord's Supper," Gospel Advocate 10, no. 9 (February 27, 1868), 200.

Spreading the Lord's Table: History of an Idiom (2)

Two more hymns indicate that the language of "spreading the Lord's Table" remained current among the Churches of Christ and Christian Churches in America up to the dawn of the twentieth century. 

"Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless," was composed by James Montgomery (1771-1854), a Scottish poet and hymn writer. It appears in The Christian Hymn-Book (1865), The Christian Hymnal (1871), and The Christian Hymnal, Revised (1882). Its lyrics include the two following stanzas:

Be known to us in breaking bread,

But do not then depart--

Savior, abide with us, and spread

Thy table in our heart.

Then sup with us in love divine;

Thy body and thy blood,

That living bread and heavenly wine,

Be our immortal food.

Edward Henry Bickersteth (1825-1906), an Anglican clergyman, composed "Till he come, O let the words," which was included in the New Christian Hymn and Tune Book (1882). In this song, worshipers are reminded of the eschatological feast as well as the present one:

See, the feast of love is spread:

Drink the wine, and break the bread-

Sweet memorials-till the Lord

Call us round his heavenly board-

Some from earth, from glory some,

Severed only - "Till he come."

Spreading the Lord's Table: History of an Idiom (1)

Whatever the source of the idiom, British hymn writers popularized the language of "spreading the Lord's table" as a reference to preparing and serving the Lord's Supper. A number of hymns contain this language, including two by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), a nonconformist minister and one of the greatest of all composers of English hymns. "Jesus is Gone Above the Skies" expresses the greatness of the exalted Christ and refers to the experiences and the hope of his followers. In the third of six stanzas, worshipers sing,

The Lord of life this table spread,

With his own flesh and dying blood;

We on the rich provision feed,

And drink the wine, and bless our God. 

The song appears in at least six Stone-Campbell hymnals of the nineteenth century.[1]

Watts also composed "How Sweet and Awful is the Place,"--clearly in an age when awful meant not what it means now, but something more like awesome. The hymn highlights the experiences of the gathered church, including their observance of the Lord's Supper:

Here every bowel of our Lord,

With soft compassion rolls; 

Here the new cov'in his blood 

Is food for dying souls,

While all our hearts and all our songs

Join to admire the feast

Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,

"Lord, why was I a guest."

"Why was I made to hear thy voice,

"And enter while there's room;

"When thousands make a wretched choice,

"And rather starve than come?

'Twas the same love that spread the feast,

That sweetly drew us in.

Else we had still refus'd to taste,

And perished in our sin.

The song appears in the 1815 and 1829 editions of The Christian Hymn-Book. Above all, Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), an important Independent minister, writer, and educator, composed a hymn titled "The King of heaven His table spreads." The first stanza reads:

The king of heaven his table spreads, 

And dainties crown the board;

Nor paradise with all its joys,

Could such delight afford. 

The final stanza calls believers to participate:

All things are ready, come away,

Nor weak excuses frame;

Crowd to your places at the feast,

And bless the founder's name."[2]

In time, this song would appear in dozens of hymnals, including no fewer than eleven published by adherents of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement during the nineteenth century.[3] Naturally, the language of hymns like this one made its way into the common speech of people who sang them.

Notes

[1] The Christian Hymn-Book (1815); A Selection of Christian Hymns (1818); The Christian Hymn-Book (1829); Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1843); Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1853); and Fillmore's Christian Psaltery (1867).

[2] This wording appears in The Christian Hymn-Book, 3rd ed. (Cincinnati: Looker and Wallace, 1815), 167-68, hymn number 187.

[3] The Christian Hymn-Book (1815), A Selection of Christian Hymns (1818), The Christian Hymn-Book (1829), Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1834), Christian Psalms and Hymns (1839), Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1843), The Sacred Melodeon (1848), The Christian Psalmist (1850), Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1853), The Christian Hymn Book (1865), The Christian Hymnal: Revised (1882).

Gilded Age Reform and Education for Women

The Gilded Age (1865-c. 1900) brought a tremendous amount of change to American culture and society, including issues directly related to women. Based on the popular idea that they were morally superior to men, some women argued they were therefore better qualified to help cure society's ills. Reform in the mid-nineteenth century had allowed more women to venture outside the home. Nearing the end of the century, that trend only grew. Education in general, especially academic opportunities for women, also expanded during this time. In 1870, there were a total of 160 high schools in the entire country. In 1882, that number had grown to eight hundred high schools. By 1900, there were six thousand. Also, the number of female college students grew from "eleven thousand in 1879 to eighty-five thousand in 1900."[1] Without these trends, Meta Chestnutt's academic career in the 1880s is hard to imagine.

Note

[1] Gayle V. Fischer, "Women," in Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Paul Finkelman (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001), 3:402-03.

E. G. Sewell's Typological Interpretation of the Tabernacle, 1889

In an 1889 article titled "Information Wanted," E. G. Sewell responded to a question from "Wm. Jackson, Elk River Mills, Limestone county, Ala." Sewell wrote that "the tabernacle itself is understood to be typical of the church of God on earth, and of heaven." He further detailed that the Holy Place represented the church, and that the Most Holy Place was "typical of heaven itself." He also suggested that the candlestick represented the word of God, the table of shewbread pointed to the Lord's Supper, the altar of incense stood for prayer, and the brazen laver signified baptism. Here, Sewell commented that while the New Testament called on baptized believers to pray, the various Protestant denominations "in their prayer system of conversion" placed prayer before baptism. Sewell also suggested that the divine presence of the Lord in the tabernacle "is understood to be typical of the Holy Spirit, which filled the spiritual house, the body of Christ . . . and which dwells in the church, in Christians."[1]

Note

[1] E. G. Sewell, "Information Wanted," Gospel Advocate, October 2, 1889, 631.

News of Sand Creek in Eastern North Carolina

Across the nation, Americans heard about and condemned the crime at Sand Creek. The outcry could be heard in eastern North Carolina, where in 1865 Meta Chestnutt was a toddler. For example, a piece in the Newbern Daily Times, published in nearby Craven County, called it "the Chivington massacre."[1] An article titled "The Indians" in the Daily North Carolina Times in August 1865 spoke of "the massacre of the Cheyennes by Colonel Chivington."[2] An editorial piece in the very same issue of the paper pointed to the Christianized character of Americans and what at least some thought at the time:

The best statistics in possession of the Indian Office at Washington shows the number of tribes now extant in the States and Territories of the Government to be seventy-eight, numbering in population three hundred and fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty-two in the aggregate.

This furnishes a ruinous commentary upon the doctrine that 'all men are free and equal,' or else augurs a fearful accountability for the Anglo-Saxon race in America, at the final day of accounts. They are either not free and equal with the white man, or else the white man has committed great sin, for if equal they should now number several millions instead of only a third of one million.[3]

This was certainly not the only perspective on Indians reported in North Carolina newspapers in 1865. But it was one.

Notes

[1] Newbern Daily Times, May 12, 1865, 1.

[2] "The Indians," Daily North Carolina Times, August. 5, 1865, 2.

[3] Daily North Carolina Times, August. 5, 1865, 2.

The Origins and Character of Grant's Peace Policy

The lyrics of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," written by abolitionist Julia Ward Howe in November 1861, make clear that the Civil War was, among other things, a religiously-charged event.[1] Yet, once the war had ended, America's reforming spirit was still alive. Its interests now turned toward justice for American Indians. More than anything else, news of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre sparked public interest in real change. It symbolized a long series of American misdeeds. Acknowledging those misdeeds meant a new demand for national repentance. As Francis Paul Prucha describes the reaction, America experienced "an upsurge of Christian sentiment demanding Christian justice for the Indians that would be proper to a Christian nation."[2] The practical answer has been called "Grant's peace policy." But its ideas antedated the Grant Administration (1869-77), and lasted till the end of the century. It was, essentially, "a state of mind" according to which an old, inhumane, and ineffective system would be replaced by new one characterized by "kindness and justice."[3]

Notes

[1] Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 1:479, refers to the Civil War as "a great Christian crusade."

[2] Ibid., 480.

[3] Ibid.

Religious Aspects of the Post-Civil War Peace Policy

After the war, the powerful reform impulses stemming from the Second Great Awakening were no longer directed against slavery. At least some of the old interest in reshaping American society for the betterment of humanity and the glory of God was now focused on the Indian "problem."[1] In that era, the Protestant establishment and the party of Lincoln saw a good deal of cooperation, and this can be heard in the summary of the Peace Policy by Columbus Delano, Grant's Secretary of the Interior. The policy, said Delano, set out to place Indians on reservations where they could be taught "such pursuits as are incident to civilization, through the aid of the Christian organizations of the country now engaged in this work, cooperating with the Federal Government." A central part of the policy was to 

establish schools, and through the instrumentality of the Christian organizations, acting in harmony with the Government, . . . to build churches and organize Sabbath schools, whereby these savages may be taught a better way of life than they have heretofore pursued, and be made to understand and appreciate the comforts and benefits of Christian civilization, and thus be prepared ultimately to assume the duties and privileges of citizenship.[2]  

Notes

[1] Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 166. Timothy L. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Row. 1957) makes the case that antebellum evangelicals did not disdain reform movements. On the contrary, mid-nineteenth century evangelists were in the vanguard of reformers who railed against slavery and other aspects of American society they deemed ungodly. In fact, they laid the foundation upon which the post-war Social Gospel was built.

[2] Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior, Annual Report, in Executive Documents, 1873-74, vol. 4 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1874), iii-iv, as quoted in Berkhofer, White Man's Indian, 169.

Sand Creek: The Immediate Aftermath

Upon hearing the news of Sand Creek, citizens of Denver celebrated. When Chivington and his troops returned they were hailed as heroes. But in the months that followed, those who testified before a U.S. military commission, the House of Representatives, and the Senate were not so flattering. One Congressional report concluded that Chivington had planned and carried out "a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the veriest savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty." The soldiers had "indulged in acts of barbarity of the most revolting character; such, it is to be hoped, as never before disgraced the acts of men claiming to be civilized."[1] The reports, quoted and summarized in newspapers and magazines, made the Sand Creek Massacre a powerful symbol "of what was wrong with United States treatment of the Indians, which reformers would never let fade away."[2] Once the Civil War had come to an end and the nation had buried President Lincoln, most Americans were ready for a major change in U.S. Indian policy.

Notes

[1] Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father, 1:460.

[2] Ibid., 1:461.

The Sand Creek Massacre

The discovery of gold in the Territory of Colorado in 1858 attracted thousands of prospectors and miners whom settlers called "Pike's Peakers." The sudden influx and blatant encroachment of such a large number of whites during the early 1860s irritated and troubled Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders. It also widened the gap between Indians who favored peace and those who favored war. Meanwhile, Governor John Evans was aware of events unfolding in Minnesota and Dakota Territory. When Indian leaders in eastern Colorado refused to cede land, Evans viewed their decision as veiled hostility. When the governor decreed that all Indians were to remain in their villages, Arapahos and Cheyennes mostly complied. Still, anxiety among Evans's constituents about a growing alliance of hostile Indians, all evidence in Colorado to the contrary, made preemptive war seem attractive. Cheyenne leader Black Kettle, an advocate of peace, clearly understood the stakes and did what he could to calm white fears. But by the late summer of 1864, there was nothing more he might have done. Colorado had already called up a special Third Cavalry whose members would serve for just one hundred days and whose only mission was to fight Indians. Their commanding officer was the former Methodist minister Colonel John M. Chivington, "the Fighting Parson" (pictured here). Given the relatively peaceful conditions in Colorado, Chivington's first challenge was to find something to do. As weeks turned into months, and with the end of a hundred days drawing closer, the local press ridiculed the idle Third Cavalry and their commander. With pressure growing, Chivington brought his troops to Fort Lyon in southeastern Colorado, from which he staged an attack.[1] 

In the early morning of November 29, 1864, the Third Cavalry and new enlistees of the First Cavalry, seven hundred men in all, charged into Black Kettle's camp at Sand Creek. The night before, five hundred Cheyenne men, women, and children had fallen asleep, confident they were safe. Yet they were attacked without warning and without mercy. Upon spotting the approaching troops, Black Kettle quickly raised an American flag and a white flag at his tent. White Antelope, another peace chief, "stood with his arms folded in a peaceful gesture as the whites advanced, but to no avail."[2] He was shot down in the opening volley. The panicked Cheyennes scattered and looked for cover, while cavalrymen killed men, women, and children, sometimes scalping and mutilating the victims. By the end of the day, between one hundred and fifty and two hundred Cheyennes, most of them women and children, lay dead in the valley of Sand Creek. The residents of Denver celebrated and the Rocky Mountain News announced, "Colorado soldiers have again covered themselves with glory."[3]

Notes

[1] Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 1:457-59; Robert Utley, The Indian Frontier, 1846-1890, rev. ed. (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2003), 85-92; Roger L. Nichols, American Indians in U.S. History (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), 134-35.

[2] Prucha, The Great Father, 1:459.

[3] Ibid. Prucha estimates the number of victims at "about one hundred and fifty." Utley, The Indian Frontier, 92, says "some two hundred."