We Gather Together, for 175 Years: Methodism in Hodgenville, Kentucky

What follows is an expanded version of my historical overview written for the Quartoseptcentennial Celebration in 2014 for Hodgenville United Methodist Church's 175 (actually a bit more) years of spiritual & community service to the people of LaRue County, Kentucky. 

It has taken awhile, but I think at last we as a church body have an identity. It was never an easy task for a small congregation so long on the fringes of established religion. Not to say that Hodgenville Methodists lacked faith. I think they had that in abundance from the beginning. No, it was only an identity that we as a congregation lacked for a long period of time, but looking back to our origins, that isn’t too terribly hard to understand. 

From the time of the first Euro-African settlement, and until Kentucky gained its statehood, we considered ourselves Nelson Countians. We hardly gave thought of a denominational identity at first, but even then we knew what county we were from! For the next 50 years, now an official recognized faith only 8 years old, we thought of ourselves as Hardin Countians, and our fledgling congregations began to organize. Then we up & change our identity once again in 1843 and become LaRue Countians! Still, as Methodists, we didn’t have an easy time becoming “established” in territory dominated by Baptists that spurned the old Anglican traditions, especially when some of our first members still clung to other older denominations & the original Methodist concept of “classes” as opposed to organized church.

But slowly things changed. Itinerant clergy like Peter Cartwright gave way to appointments. 2nd & 3rd generations were born into the church. We started to feel solid, unified, & firmly planted in the community. The venerated grey heads that began to dot the congregation were those of dedicated members with names as old as the long-dismantled pioneer fort. As we gained a history, we gained an identity. We took pride in the present out of a pride for the past. Today, we gather together to remember and celebrate not just a history, but a proudly shared common identity that has never yielded, never fractured or split in 175 years.

Over the past several months (referencing a series of bulletin inserts discussing the history of the church)we have read the vignettes of our congregational story as told by our windows. Like the light itself, these have been only glimmers of the entire saga. Many who deserved such memorials were never so remembered. This is especially so of the many who have ministered to us. We forget just how young Methodism was when it first took hold in the Bluegrass of Kentucky. Beginning as a communal study & fellowship rather than a denomination, that first Kentucky “class” was organized in 1783, the year before the very first Conference in 1784 to acknowledge Methodism formally. Appointed by Wesley himself, our first Bishop, Francis Asbury, was unanimously elected. He would officially recognize the Kentucky Circuit in 1786, at which time only about 90 settlers professed their ties to the young faith. To strengthen those ranks, Asbury himself traveled west to officiate over our 1st Annual Conference in May of 1790. This was no easy task. He recorded the perils of the frontier due to Indian attack when he wrote in his journals how they “saw the graves of the slain– 24 in one camp.”

Yet Asbury’s efforts were fruitful. By year’s end, Kentucky boasted a Methodist population of 1,459 white and 94 slave members, all spiritually led by only 9 ministers who served the entire state. Then a part of the Danville Circuit, residents of Phillips’ Fort & Goodin’s Station, those early fortifications that would eventually supply the first residents of Hodgenville, would have to wait some time for the famed Circuit Riders to finally carry their ministry that far inland from the church base closer to Lexington. In those earliest years, when still a part of Nelson County, the first faithful Methodists here studied together in their homes until the arrival of Rev. John Baird from Maryland. His first sermon in what was to be LaRue County was preached on August 7, 1796, after which he formed our county’s first Methodist Society which grew into the rural church that serves LaRue Co. to this day. 

There is no doubt that those residing in the area of “Hodgen’s Mill” took advantage of the country ministry of Rev. Baird until such a time as a Society could take root in town. Prior church historians even hint that the local Society that formed the nucleus of our church’s initial congregation was actually a direct result of Baird’s efforts. As well, those early Methodists in Hodgenville surely took religious guidance from the “Elizabeth Circuit,” once the old Salt River Circuit, which supplied the initial Methodist ministers to Elizabethtown & Hardin County, including our portion that “seceded” in 1843. Founding families of Methodism there, including the Helms whose descendants would later populate the Hodgenville church, wielded great influence spiritually and socially, giving credibility to the faith as a whole and aiding its spread. While still a part of the older Danville Circuit, and a good two decades before the first Methodist Society was formally established in Elizabethtown, that community’s first itinerant minister was sent out. Here, with this particular appointment, legend and lore tie in with another famed LaRue Countian.

To have had little direct influence upon our community’s formation, living only his first 7 years among its people, the formidable presence of Lincoln seems to cast its shadow upon the history of Methodism in LaRue County in countless chapters of our church’s story. Reverend Benjamin Ogden was the first official appointment by Bishop Asbury to Hardin County, inclusive of what would become LaRue. He arrived at least by 1803 but, due to tensions between him & Conference Elder Poythress, Ogden stepped down from his official assignment in 1806 to become jailer of Hardin County. According to oral history, Ogden continued to preach, as well as teaching school along with cabinet & chair making. In this capacity he came to know Thomas Lincoln who, in 1808, Ogden hired as a jail guard. Lincoln as well worked for Ogden as a county slave patroller. Clearly the two men had become acquainted a bit earlier, however, likely as a part of Ogden’s ministry. There was a special relationship formed between the two as early as 1806, for in May of that year Mrs. Ogden procured the silk for Nancy Hanks’ wedding dress &/or veil on behalf of Thomas. She may well have fashioned Nancy’s wedding trousseau.

Perhaps it was the commonalities between these two cabinetmakers that forged a lasting friendship, for after Abraham’s birth & the family’s move from Hodgenville (in part due to the ensuing gossip from a fight between Lincoln and Abraham Enlow of our church family!) to the Knob Creek farm on the Bardstown Road, it is said that Rev. Ogden traveled there to the fertile valley of the Rolling Fork River in the Knobs of LaRue County to hold revival in the great “camp meeting” tradition begun at Cane Ridge. It was one of the earliest religious experiences of the man destined to become President. The remainder of young Lincoln’s childhood would be influenced as well by Methodism, thanks to the impact of his beloved Methodist step-mother, Sarah Bush (whose descendants would later be members of our church). Thomas & the young widow Johnston were wed in 1819 by Methodist Rev. George L. Rogers who had only recently relieved the ministerial burden of Thomas’ old friend Ben Ogden upon his retirement.

Thomas Lincoln had been influenced by Methodism long before his acquaintance with Ben Ogden. He grew up in Washington County where as a young man he came to know yet another furniture making Methodist, the Elder Jesse Head, a Maryland born and trained cabinetmaker considered by some to be one of the men who aided in training Thomas in that craft & vocation. When Thomas Lincoln asked neighbor Nancy Hanks to marry him, it was Rev. Head who officiated over the ceremony on the 12th of June 1806. Ironically, Rev. Rodman's nephew and namesake, Dr. Jesse Head Rodman, would eventually become one of Hodgenville's most influential citizens long after the Lincoln's had left Kentucky. Rodman would be cited in 1900 recounting Abraham Lincoln's description of the Knob Creek farm in LaRue County given Dr. Rodman during an 1863 visit with Lincoln in the White House. Jesse Head Rodman related Lincoln's story of planting pumpkin seeds which were washed away by the deluge of waters off the knobs from heavy rains.

“We have many reasons for honoring Abraham Lincoln . . . He typifies and exemplified America; his life is a kind of epitome of our history, beginning as it does in the back woods, and reaching the crest of our civilization.  When we honor Lincoln we honor primitive Kentucky, and primitive America.”— From an address by the Reverend William E. Barton at the monument dedication at the grave of the Reverend Jesse Head, Thursday, November 2, 1922.

Decades earlier though, Thomas Lincoln surely heard the sermons of Dr. Rodman's austere Uncle Jesse, and may been directly influenced very early on by the elder Head's views on slavery, if not upon Methodism itself as a choice of denomination. Considered a moderate of the church and, per Dr. Graham, very "Southern", Head yet spoke out "boldly" in support of the rights of man and against the institution of slavery, a message that must have resonated with Thomas Lincoln who, with other's of the community, withdrew from South Fork Baptist to create the Little Mount congregation of anti-slavery Baptists, a church whose memory is nearly extinct in LaRue County today but for the ancient little cemetery that survives.

Yet another early, and important, Kentucky Methodist interjects his story into that of Abraham Lincoln himself. Rev. Peter Cartwright was a vehement anti-slavery Methodist circuit rider. Converted during the "Great Awakening" in Kentucky, Cartwright was ordained by Bishops Asbury and McKendree in 1806 and quickly became an Elder of the church. Kentucky's embrace of slavery repulsed Cartwright who, much like the Lincolns before, moved in protest from the Commonwealth in 1824 to Illinois. There he entered the political arena and in 1832 defeated Abraham Lincoln for a seat in the state legislature. Lincoln later wrote that he, "was beaten... the only time I ever have been beaten by the people." In 1846 the two Kentucky-born men opposed one another again, this time for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Their race was far from complimentary. Associating with neither Baptist, Methodist, nor any established faith, Reverend Cartwright hailed Lincoln an "infidel" and a "Deist." Cartwright, already criticized for combining his electioneering with his ministry, spotted Lincoln in the crowd listening to his "message" at one campaign stop and tried to lure Lincoln into an embarrassing political opportunity. Calling to the crowd to repent of their sins and demanding an immediate display of obedience to the Lord (and to Cartwright), he ordered those accepting Christ to stand. Lincoln did not. Cartwright then said,

"I observe that many responded to the first invitation to give their hearts to God and go to heaven. And I further observe that all of you save one indicated that you did not desire to go to hell. The sole exception is Mr. Lincoln, who did not respond to either invitation. May I inquire of you, Mr. Lincoln, where you are going?"

Lincoln responded,

"I came here as a respectful listener. I did not know that I was to be singled out by Brother Cartwright. I believe in treating religious matters with due solemnity. I admit that the questions propounded by Brother Cartwright are of great importance. I did not feel called upon to answer as the rest did. Brother Cartwright asks me directly where I am going. I desire to reply with equal directness: I am going to Congress."

And he did!

Neither Abraham Lincoln, nor Thomas Lincoln, ever fully embraced Methodism, but the influence of Kentucky Methodists was strong nonetheless and shaped the lives of both father and son, as it shaped and influenced countless souls who passed through central Kentucky and rural little LaRue County. Always the politician, Abe summed up that influence of Methodism well when he said,

"Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might, in the least, appear invidious against any. Yet, without this, it may fairly be said that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is, by its greater numbers, the most important of all."

So it was that these faithful men of God, Clark, Asbury, Baird, Ogden, Barnett, and so many others, planted & nurtured the seeds of Methodism that would sprout, and flower, in our own small town of Hodgenville. Some 15 years after those first evangelistic efforts of Thomas Lincoln's dear friend Rev. Ogden, the revival spirit was still working to at last create a cohesive Methodist community in Hodgenville. From Society in 1831 to congregation in 1839, we today are gifted with an identity, and heritage, to treasure for many generations & anniversaries to come.