Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/516

 456 IlISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI meetings, especially at that at Yorke Chapel, in Perry County. More than twenty united with the church there, axid quite a number were savingly converted." Work of the church moved on with wliat must have seemed to those engaged in it very great slowness, but there was a con- stant and steady growth in every part of this section of the state. New societies were organized, new circuits were established, and supplied with preachers and here and there over the district new houses of worship were built. At first these houses were small, sometimes of logs, ofteuer there were frame buildings, but we are able to see a constant im- provement in the character of the buildings themselves. More and more the people were impressed with the idea that the church house ought to be in keeping with the character of the community and was inevitably a reflec- tion of the conditions existing. One thing that halted to an extent the work of the Methodist church in Missouri was the controversy over slavery. This tierce and bit- ter stmiggle concerning the ownership of slaves was not confined to the political arena, it extended to the homes of the people and even into the church organizations. Perhaps no other church suffered more severely on ac- count of this contention than did the ]Meth- odists. When the General Conference met in New York in 1844 it passed a resolution known as the Pinley Resolution which sus- pended Bishop Andrew of Georgia from the exercise of his ofSce on the ground that he was an owner of slaves. He was not to be reinstated as a bishop of the church until he had disposed of these slaves. This resolution was adopted on the first day of June, and, on the 5th. the southern members of the General Conference presented a declaration in which it was said that they believed the continual agitation of slavery and abolition in the con- ferences of the church and especially the sus- pension of Bishop Andrew from his office would result in a state of things which would render the continuance of the jurisdiction of the General Conference over the conferences of the South inconsistent with the success of the ministrj- in the slave-holding states. This declaration, which was signed by all the members of the Southern, Conference and * by one member from the Illinois Conference, was referred to a committee with instructions to provide a plan for adjusting difficulties which had arisen over the subject of slavery, or, if that were found to be impossible, a plan for a friendly division of the church. After some deliberation this committee reported that it was impossible to settle the difficulties of the situation and recommended that the church should be divided. A conference of delegates from the organizations of the church in those states where slavery existed was held in Louisville, Ivy., May 1st, 1845. It was pre- sided over by Bishops Soule and Andrew and the final result of its work was a declaration that the Southern Conference should become a separate church under the name of the ]Methodist Episcopal Church. South. The next meeting of the ^Missouri Confer- ence following the action at Louisville was held in Cohuubia. ilissouri. September 24, 1845. Bishop Soule presided and he deliv- ered an address asking the Missouri Confer- ence to unite with the Southern Church. Af- ter a discussion and delay it was finally voted that the Missouri Conference should become a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At this conference John K. Lacey was appointed Presiding Elder for the Cape Girardeau District. The appointment for the circuits were: Cape Girardeau, A. Peace; Crooked Creek, J. 0. Wood ; New ]Iadrid,