I. 
 
 White Haven Parish. 
 
 In reading the scanty accounts 
 which have come down to us con- 
 cerning the history of the Church 
 in North Carolina before 1830, it 
 often happens that we come upon 
 names of parishes which convey no 
 definite idea of locality, so com- 
 pletely have they died out and been 
 forgotten. Such a name was that 
 at the head of this article, at least 
 to the writer, until a few months 
 ago. White Haven Parish, Lincoln 
 county, was familiar as the parish 
 of Parson Miller, whose ministry 
 covered so long a period and saw so 
 many and great changes in the 
 Church which he served so zeal- 
 ously; but where White Haven 
 Parish was situated no printed let- 
 ter, or journal, or clergy-list could 
 tell. Thinking that others may 
 feel a curiosity to know something 
 of this old parish — its past history 
 and its vanishing memories — I have 
 ventured to put down such things 
 as I have been able to learn con- 
 cerning it. 
 
 White Haven church stood upon 
 the east side of the old plank road 
 from Charlotte to Lincolnton, about 
 sixteen miles from Charlotte and 
 one mile south of the present village 
 of Lowesville Lowesville is in Lin- 
 coln county, but the site of the old 
 church is in the county of Gaston. 
 An old grave yard, surrounded by 
 a dry stone wall, identifies the lo- 
 
(2)' 
 
 cality ; and back of the grave-yard 
 a few scattered trunks, dead and 
 fast decaying, of what were once 
 noble chestnuts, mark the spot 
 where the humble log church stood 
 beneath their shade. A Presbyte- 
 rian church, called Castania, stands 
 on the other side of the road, a hun- 
 dred yards or so nearer to Lowes- 
 ville. A few of the older inhabi- 
 tants of the country on both sides 
 of the Catawba remember when 
 the old church was standing, and 
 once in a while an old man comes 
 along who remembers that he was 
 baptized by Parson Miller; but even 
 in its immediate neighborhood many 
 are ignorant that a church ever 
 stood there. 
 
 On the tenth of August, 1885. by 
 the kindness of Mr. Frank Blythe, 
 I was taken to this interesting spot. 
 My companion had been baptized in 
 infancy by Parson Miller, and re- 
 membered being sent by his mother, 
 who had been brought up in that 
 church, to take a hand with the 
 neighbors in the periodical cleaning 
 up of the grave yard. But for his 
 personal knowledge of the location 
 of the old church, I should have 
 been unable to find it, as none of 
 the neighbors could give me any 
 certain information on this point. 
 Some who knew that a church had 
 once stood there, were not alto- 
 gether positive about its having 
 been the original White Haven, 
 since another church of that 
 name had once stood about two 
 miles north of Lowesville. 
 
 The grave-yard is still kept up 
 and used, as some recent graves 
 
and grave stones testify. But it 
 was very disappointing to find that 
 none of the stones were of an early 
 date, so far as appeared by their 
 inscriptions. I was told that the 
 most ancient graves lay just north 
 of the present grave yard, and out- 
 side the stone wall. The earliest 
 date discovered was 1804; and after 
 this the next were not earlier than 
 1827. None were of any special 
 interest. The earliest was the most 
 curious, and the following inscrip- 
 tion on it may possibly be an 
 effusion of Parson Miller's muse: 
 
 Here lies the body of 
 
 BURCHATT KIMBELLE, 
 
 who was born March 20th, 1782. And 
 died October 17th, A. D„ 1804. 
 
 Early, not sudden, was her fate. 
 Soon, not surprising, Death his visit 
 
 paid. 
 Her thought went forth to meet him on 
 
 his way, 
 Nor gaiety forgot it was to die. > 
 
 Does youth, does beauty read the line? 
 Does sympathetic fear their brefst 
 
 alarm? 
 Speak, dead Burchatt! breathe a strain 
 
 divine 
 Even from the grave thou sbalt have 
 
 power to charm 
 Bid them give each day the merit and 
 
 renown 
 Of dying well, though doomed but once 
 
 to die. 
 
 The young lady above spoken of 
 was much beloved and admired 
 and her death caused wide-spread 
 grief and distress. Persons are now 
 living who — though not old enough 
 to remember her — can still recall 
 the feeling of general sorrow at 
 her death, which lingered long in 
 
the community, and which was a 
 strong testimony to the beauty and 
 graces implied in the words of her 
 epitaph. 
 
 Besides this we were interested 
 in two other stones — simple, un- 
 dressed pieces of rough granite — at 
 the head of two neighboring graves, 
 with only the inscriptions, "C. N., 
 June, 18ol," and "M. N." These 
 my friend was able to identify, by 
 the initials, the date, and the later 
 head-stones near by, as the graves 
 of his grandfather Clement Nantz 
 and his wife. 
 
 After leaving the old grave-yard 
 we went to the house of Mr. Green 
 Abernathy, near Cowan's Ford, and 
 found that he, his wife, and another 
 old man living with him, all remem- 
 bered more or less of the old church 
 and the old Parson. 
 
 The following account is derived 
 from various sources, from printed 
 journals, from manuscript letters, 
 and from personal relations received 
 from different quarters. From Mr. 
 Abernathy were obtained some new 
 facts, and the confirmation of the 
 chief points which had already been 
 discovered. The principal source of 
 information is, of course, Mr. Mil- 
 ler's letter' to Dr. Hawks, dated 
 "Mary's Grove, Burke Co., N. C, 
 Api'il 15th, 1830," which appeared 
 first in the Church Review, and was 
 republished in the Church Messen- 
 ger of October ]5th, 1879. 
 
 The Bev. Bobert Johnston Miller, 
 a Scutohman by birth, and a Metho- 
 dist preacher on the Tar Biver Cir 
 cuit in 1785, having lett the Metho- 
 dists because he found that they 
 
 y 
 
were drifting away from the 
 Church, settled on the west bank of 
 the Catawba in 1786. At the re- 
 quest of the people of "White- 
 haven and the lower and upper 
 Smyrna," he began to act as lay- 
 reader, keeping up services on Sun- 
 day and catechising the children. 
 His congregation were settled chief 
 ly along the west bank of the Ca- 
 tawba in what was then Lincoln 
 county, though at present much of 
 it is within the limits of Gaston 
 county. "They were chiefly emi- 
 grants from Pennsylvania, Mary- 
 land, and Virginia," "a mixed peo- 
 ple, Germans, English, Irish, and 
 some Scotch, originally, but at that 
 time very destitute of any regular 
 religious instruction." "The most 
 of them and their forefathers were, 
 and had been, members of the Epis- 
 copal Church." 
 
 A congregation was organized, a 
 vestry elected, and application was 
 made to the General Assembly for 
 an Act of incorporation. Prayer 
 Books could not be obtained. They 
 had a few of'the English Books, 
 and Mr. Miller prucured two copies 
 of the first edition of the American 
 Book published at Philadelphia. He 
 also had printed at Salisbury the 
 Catechism, to which he added some 
 explanations of Church principles 
 and usages. 
 
 The most numerous religious de- 
 nomination with which he was 
 brought into contact seems to have 
 been the Lutheran, and there was 
 something in their system of wor- 
 ship and doctrine more congenial to 
 him as a Churchman than he found 
 
 
among other Protestants. They 
 were in great need oi proper minis- 
 ters, and after much persuasion they 
 prevailed upon Mr. Miller to be or- 
 dained by them though he confesses 
 that he never was able to feel sat 
 isficd that be had acted agreeably 
 to his principles in consenting to 
 thia. He took this step, however, 
 with the fullest purpose of abiding 
 faithful to the Church, and in the 
 Letter of Orders which the Luth- 
 eran ministers gave him, his obedi- 
 ence was expressly declared to be 
 due to the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 It was soon after Mr. Miller be- 
 gan his work in this county that 
 the fe«v remaining clergy in the 
 East began the effort for the organ- 
 ization of the Diocese of North 
 Carolina. Mr. Miller was elected a 
 member of the standing committee 
 in 1793, and attended the conven- 
 tion at Tawboro in May, 1794, vot- 
 ing as one of the clergy for the Rev. 
 Charles Pettigrew who was elected 
 Bisnop. Although this excellent 
 man was never consecrated, yet he 
 exerted himself to revive the inter- 
 ests of the Church throughout the 
 State, and carried on an extensive 
 correspondence with this object in 
 view. Among other letters pre- 
 served by him is one from Mr. Mil- 
 ler, the material parts of which are 
 as follows : 
 
 Whitehanen, 6th of May, 1795. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir: 
 ******* 
 
 I have reason to hope that your pious 
 wishes and charitable suppositions will 
 be verified in the Rev. Mr. Dent, al- 
 though I have not had an opportunity 
 
of a personal acquaintance with him as 
 yet; but those who have assure me that 
 he is generally esteemed as a man of 
 piety and learning, which to us. in our 
 pre.-ent situation, is, I hope, no small 
 acquisition.* 
 
 The situation of the Lutheran clergy 
 in this quarter, in my opinion, demands 
 immediate attention. They have, since 
 my last to you, lost their senior mem- 
 ber, the Rev. Mr. A. Nussmann, 
 a truly worthy, learned, and godly 
 man, although bred a Franciscan. 
 Some of them have expressed a desire 
 of sending forward a number of their 
 body to our convention, in order to 
 form some bonds of coalescing, and I 
 have reason to believe that, should such 
 a circumstance take place, and the end 
 accomplished with propriety, it would 
 be beneficial to both parties; but of this 
 
 *In the list of the "Names and Places 
 of the Clergy, ' in the Pettigrew MS. 
 ofter the names of seven clergymen, 
 numbered consecutively, and their 
 fields of labor designated, there is ad- 
 ded, "the Rev. Mr Dent, near the Yad- 
 kin river." This is all I have ever seen 
 in regard to his connection with North 
 Carolina. In Bishop Burgess's "List of 
 Persons ordained Deacons," it appears 
 that Hatch Dent and Wm. Duke were 
 ordained by Bishop Seabury, October 
 16, 1785, t Oth these names appear in 
 the earliest list of the clergy of the 
 Diocese of Maryland, as reported to the 
 General Convention in 1792 In 1795. 
 the year of Mr. Miller's letter to Parson 
 Pettigrew, Mr. Dent's name is not 
 among the Maryland clergy, but it reap- 
 pears in 1799; so that he probably came 
 to North Carolina in 1794 or 1795, and 
 returned to Maryland alter only a short 
 stay. 
 
 Since writing the above note I have 
 been pleased to find, by reading Mr. 
 John S. Henderson's Sketch of the 
 Church in Rowan (published in Dr. 
 Rumple 's History of Rowan County), 
 that my conjecture in regard to "Mr. 
 Dent, near the Yadkin river." is cor- 
 rect. I learn also that Mr. Dent was 
 the uncle of two clergymen now in 
 North Carolina— the Rev. Messrs. Rich- 
 ard W., and SamuelS Barber. 
 
you would be a much better judge, 
 were you to visit this quarter in your 
 official character; and you will permit 
 me to hope that the period is not far 
 
 distant 
 
 * * * * 
 
 As for myself and flock, I have abun- 
 dant reason to be thankful to God for 
 health of body and peace of mind, al- 
 though my progress in the knowledge, 
 love, and service of Him is far too tor- 
 pid; but with some of my charge, at 
 least, I hope it is otherwise, and may 
 God of His mercy grant that it may 
 soon be generally so. 
 
 The returns from the Register of Bap- 
 tisms, from Easter ninety- four to Eas- 
 ter ninety-five, is eighty-five infants 
 and nine adults; and the deaths are 
 three venerable and godly oJd men, 
 from eighty-seven to ninety five years 
 of age, one woman * * * and 
 her infant * * * and a man 
 about forty-six. * * * * 
 
 We suffer much for a sufficient sup- 
 ply of Prayer-Books here, and it is a 
 great bar to uniformity in our public 
 assemblies in the outward mode of 
 worship; and I sincerely wish that 
 some effectual means could be devised 
 to remedy this evil. 
 
 I am, my dear and Reverend Sir, 
 Your Son and affectionate Friend in 
 the Gospel, R. J. Miller. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Pettigrew, Bishop elect of 
 
 North Carolina. 
 
 After this letter we have no cer- 
 tain information concerning White 
 Haven for many years. Mr, Miller 
 had extended his labors over a large 
 territory, and early in this century 
 he removed to Burke county, to 
 that part since erected into Cald- 
 well county, near the present town 
 of Lenoir. He continued to visit 
 his old parish at intervals, but of 
 the particulars of its history we 
 have no Knowledge. This removal 
 
took plane probably about 1810 ; 
 certainly before 1811. 
 
 When he left White Haven he 
 recommended to his people a Luth- 
 eran minister by the name of David 
 Henckel, though he visited the 
 church for divine service occasion- 
 ally. On one of thesp visits some 
 misunderstanding arose between the 
 two about the use of the church, 
 both of them having made appoint- 
 ments tor the same day. This re 
 suited in the building of another 
 church by Henckel and his adhe- 
 rents, a mile or two north of Lowes 
 ville, which new church was also 
 known as White Haven — thus giv 
 ing rise to the confusion about the 
 name which was mentioned before. 
 
 David Henckel seems to have 
 been an asserter and maintainer of 
 the conservative and sacramental 
 system of doctrine held by the old 
 Lutherans, and to have opposed 
 the tendency towards the baldness 
 and emptiness of Zwinglinism pre- 
 valent among them in later times. 
 This gave great offence to Metho 
 dists and others, and very extrava 
 gant accounts were given of Mr. 
 Henckel's teaching in regard to the 
 power of absolution, etc. Differ- 
 ences upon these, and other 
 points, gave rise to bitter disputes 
 among the Lutherans themselves, 
 and finally led to a schism which w 
 has not been entirely healed to this 
 day. A large number of Luther- 
 ans — the bulk of those in Tennessee, 
 and many congregations in North 
 Carolina — were known as Henckel 
 ites ; and so fierce was the conten 
 tion between the two factions that 
 
10 
 
 in Cabarrus county cases are known 
 where worshippers carried their 
 fire-arms to church on Sunday in 
 order to be ready to defend then- 
 occupation of the building against 
 the expected claim of their oppo 
 nents. This, however, is a digres- 
 sion, and has nothing to do with 
 White Haven. 
 
 The story of the old parish is al 
 most ended. It never had enjoyed 
 the benefit of regular ministerial 
 services, and the wonder is that it 
 lived as long as it did. Any vigor 
 ous or aggressive life was, under 
 the circumstances, impossible. Those 
 who had brought from other parts 
 the knowledge and the love of the 
 Church had died out, and their 
 children not unnaturally fell away. 
 Some families of intelligence and 
 culture, and also some of the plainer 
 but substantial inhabitants of the 
 neighborhood, adhered for years to 
 the Church of tbeir fathers. The 
 names Forney, Abernathy, Shipp, 
 Nantz, Hager, Eobinson, Burton, 
 Fite, are still associated with the 
 memory of the old parish. The 
 revival of the Church under Bishop 
 Ravenscroft and Bishop Ives came 
 too late; and for many years the 
 Church in this diocese was too ill - 
 lurnished with ministers to look 
 properly after this scattered and 
 distant flock. The parish of White 
 Haven was indeed admitted into 
 union with the convention under 
 the nominal rectorship of Parson 
 Miller in 1822; in 1828 Dr. Wm. 
 Johnston was appointed by the con- 
 vention to solicit funds in this par- 
 ish for the Missionary Society ; and 
 in 1824 Robert H. Burton and Dan 
 iel M. Forney were appointed lay- 
 readers. Bishop Ravenscroft made 
 two visitations to it in 1824, and 
 confirmed sixteen persons, probably 
 the old communicants who had 
 never before had an opportunity of 
 receiving the Laying on of Hands. 
 But Bishop Ravenscroft saw clearly, 
 
11 
 
 and intimates in his Address to the 
 Convention of 1826, that there 
 was little hope of the continuance 
 of the congregation. It seems that 
 some of the original Churchmen 
 were so much identified with the 
 Lutherans, by reason ot their per 
 sonal affection for Mr. Henckel, that 
 they became almost entirely 
 estranged from the Church, of which 
 indeed they had seen and known 
 but little. Add the further fact that 
 this was the period of the great 
 exodus from North Carolina to the 
 West and South west, and that a 
 very large proportion — perhaps the 
 best part in strength and influence 
 of the congregation — about this 
 time removed to Missouri, and the 
 extinction of the old parish is easily 
 accounted for. Mr. Miller for some 
 years made occasional mention of it 
 in his reports; but in 1833, when 
 Bishop Ives made his first visita 
 tion to this part of the djocese, he 
 could find but three or four persons 
 in Lincoln county who still adhered 
 to the Church, though be made 
 "diligent inquiry." The Rev. Ed- 
 ward M. Forbes began his work in 
 Lincoln county in fc§4#-; he makes /o^/ 
 no mention of any congregation or 
 parish in the county. Two years 
 after he seems to have begun work 
 at White Haven, and in ig*4=the Rev. /fyS 
 A. F. Olmsted reports a visitation of 
 the Bishop, and seven confirmations, 
 and fourteen communicants. Mr. 
 Olmsted left Lincolnton in 1846, * /> _#£ - , 
 and trba rl, >ea i , Juiie— 45 £fe, Bishop /^^ " * /ty"~ 
 Ives made his see#ed- and last visi- rfi^^& 
 tation. From that day to this, so 
 far as is known, the sound of the 
 
 ancient services of the Church has n a £/ & ^ —> 
 
 never been heard in White Haven. *' /d ^ 2*- #^**~ *-*^ *<~ 
 The site of the old church is a eul <£<^<rHx^$Zi t j ^ sfaL«L<l /<fy, 
 
 tivated field, and persons whose 
 memory goes back thirty years re- 
 member it only as it is now 
 
 The history of White Haven is 
 ended. J. B. C, Jr. 
 
 Oct. 3, 1885. 
 
II. 
 
 Robert Johnston Miller. 
 
 There is no more interesting 
 character in the annals of the 
 Church in North Carolina than the 
 man whose name stands at the head 
 of this article. In the course of his 
 long life he had strange ecclesiasti- 
 cal experiences. He himself tells 
 us that in the perplexities of his 
 situation he did not alwa3 T s succeed 
 in making a correct application of 
 his principles to the facts before 
 him ;.yet no one can study his his- 
 tory without being impressed with 
 the feeling that even in his mistakes 
 of judgment he displayed noble 
 qualities of heart. In every action 
 of his life, so far as we know it, he 
 commands our sympaty and respect. 
 The following too meager account 
 of him is gathered from various 
 soui-ces — ^partly oral, partly manu- 
 script, partly published histories, 
 journals, letters. The fullest ac- 
 counts of his life to be met with in 
 print are probably in his letter to 
 Dr. Hawks, referred to in a former 
 article on White Haven parish, and 
 in Dr. Bernheim's History of the 
 German Settlements and Lutheran 
 Churches in Carolina. 
 
 Robert Johnston Miller, the third 
 son of George and Margaret Miller, 
 was born in Baldovia, Angusshire, 
 Scotland, July 11th, 1758.* His 
 
 *These particulars of his early life are 
 taken from Dr. Bernheim 's work above 
 alluded to. I know not whence he de- 
 
13 
 
 parents are said to have intended 
 him for the ministry, and with this 
 view to have sent him to the classi- 
 cal school at Dundee. He was bred 
 up in the communion of "the Cath- 
 olic remainder" of the Church of 
 Scotland, under the pastoral care of 
 the venerable Bishop Kail, so long 
 as he remained in his native coun 
 try ; but when he was fifteen years 
 old an elder brother, then a pros- 
 perous merchant in Charlestown, 
 Massachusetts, invited him to make 
 his home with him, and he therefore 
 came to America, arriving in 1774. 
 During the war of the Revolution he 
 enlisted upon the American side, 
 and was in the battles of Long- 
 Island, of Brandy wine, and of White 
 Plains, in the first of which he re 
 ceived a flesh wound in the face; he 
 was also with the army during the 
 memorable winter at Valley Forge. 
 He came South with the army, and 
 was in Virginia when it was dis- 
 banded upon the conclusion of hos- 
 tilities, and for a time made his 
 home in that State. 
 
 At this period of his life he became 
 identified with the Methodists, and 
 for a time acted as one of their 
 preachers. The Methodists at this 
 time distinctly repudiated the idea 
 that they intended any separation 
 from the Church, and were consid- 
 ered by Mr. Miller as being Church- 
 men. Having left home at so early 
 
 rived them, but there are incidental 
 correspondences between this account 
 and Mr. Miller's briefer mention of his 
 early years, which lead me to conclude 
 that Dr. Bernheim had access to authen- 
 tic sources of information. 
 
14 
 
 an age, and having thereby been 
 deprived of proper instruction in 
 Church principles, it is not to be 
 supposed that he had very clear and 
 intelligent views on the subject, 
 though his convictions appear to 
 have been firm at all times. He 
 was very strongly drawn towards 
 the Methodists by ttie stress which 
 they laid upon the importance of 
 personal religious experience, and 
 by the enthusiasm and Christian 
 zeal which from the first character- 
 ized this great movement. While 
 one of their preachers he rode with 
 Dr. Coke from Virginia to attend a 
 conference held in the fall of 1784 in 
 Franklin county, N. C, and con- 
 tinued with Coke for several weeks-. 
 Their conversation was chiefly upon 
 Coke's plan for organizing the 
 Methodists of America into what 
 was to be called the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church — up to this time it 
 having been only a society making 
 no claim to have power of ordination 
 and the administration of the sacra- 
 ments. Mr. Miller tells us that he 
 was unable to give his assent to this 
 plan, since it had early been im- 
 pressed upon his mind that to con- 
 stitute a true branch of the Church 
 there must be the apostolic ministry 
 transmitted by episcopal ordination. 
 It may be remarked here that there 
 is no reason to suppose that Mr. 
 Miller, while a Methodist preacher, 
 ever undertook to administer the 
 sacraments. With his known views 
 on the subject it is quite certain that 
 he never did. Yery few of the most 
 extreme of their ministers had up to 
 this period ventured upon this step ; 
 
15 
 
 an attempt made by some of those 
 in Virginia just before this to ordain 
 ministers and to administer the 
 sacraments, had caused great dis- 
 sensions amongst them. In this 
 very year of 1784 the Rev. Devereux 
 Jarratt tells us that he was present 
 at the conference held at Ellis's, in 
 Virginia, and that Asbury himself 
 was in attendance "still striving to 
 render an attachment to the Church 
 yet more firm and permanent. For 
 this end he had brought Mr. Wes- 
 ley's Twelve Reasons against a sepa- 
 ration from the Church," the first of 
 which reasons was, "because it 
 would be a contradiction to the sol- 
 emn and repeated declarations, 
 wbich we have made in all manner 
 of ways." 
 
 These weeks of intercourse with 
 Coke, and the rapid progress of 
 events at this period, opened Mr. 
 Miller's eyes to the change in the 
 attitude assumed by the Methodists, 
 though he did not at once sever his 
 connection with them. During the 
 year 1785 he acted as preacher 
 upon the Tar River circuit, but at 
 the end of -the year he withdrew 
 from the conference, being unwill- 
 ing to co operate with them in tbeir 
 open and avowed separation from 
 the Church. He cheerfully testifies 
 to the brotherly kindness which 
 had marked his intercourse with the 
 members of the conference, and 
 says that they publicly declared 
 that they had nothing against him, 
 but that he had voluntarily with- 
 drawn on account of bis "disap- 
 probation of their conduct and 
 rules." 
 
16 
 
 His health having shown signs oj 
 failing in the low country, be re 
 moved in 1786 to the west bank of 
 the Catawba in Lincoln county 
 (now Gaston county) and at the re- 
 quest of the inhabitants, who were 
 very destitute of religious instruc- 
 tion, he began to act as lay reader 
 and catechist, as has been narrated 
 in the account of White Haven 
 parish. His ministrations seem to 
 have proved very acceptable to the 
 people, and gradually extended his 
 influence among those of the in- 
 habitants who had been attached to 
 the Episcopal Church in the 
 countries from which they had emi- 
 grated. 
 
 Mr. Miller now found himself in a 
 very distressing situation. There 
 were no ministers of the Church 
 within hundreds of miles of him. 
 He could not baptize nor administer 
 any holy ordinance. His people 
 had to go to the Lutheran or the 
 Presbyterian ministers to have 
 their children baptized, or to let 
 them go unbaptized. , He does not 
 seem to have felt any inclination to- 
 wards seeking a closer union with 
 the Presbyterians. His feelings as 
 a Scotch Episcopalian probably ren- 
 dered such a thought distasteful to 
 him, and he knew that their doc- 
 trines and his were too different to 
 allow such an association to be a 
 comfortable one. On the contrary 
 there was much in the old Latheran 
 teaching in regard to the sacra- 
 ments which as a Churchman he 
 could approve, and there was in his 
 mind no inherited or acquired pre- 
 judice against them. It is possible 
 
17 
 
 that he knew that many of the 
 Lutheran churches had preserved 
 the Episcopal form of government, 
 and that the Scandinavian Church 
 is generally conceded to have pre- 
 served the Apostolic Episcopate. 
 Their liturgical worship, wiih the 
 familiar Collects, Epistles, and Gos- 
 pels, and their observance of the 
 holy seasons of the Christian year, 
 must also have had no little infiu 
 ence in inclining him to a closer 
 union with his Lutheran neighbors, 
 who formed a considerable and a 
 very estimable portion of the popu- 
 lation of Lincoln, Eowan, and 
 Mecklenburg counties. And when 
 the idea was suggested by them 
 that he should receive ordination 
 from them, it must have occurred 
 to him that if he should consent to 
 this his people would at least be in 
 no worse case than they were in 
 already. And so finally, notwith- 
 standing an irrepressible feeiing 
 that he might be making a mistake, 
 he consented to be ordained, and in 
 St John's church, Cabarrus county, 
 May 20th, 1794, at the first Lutheran 
 eynodical meeting ever held in North 
 Carolina, Robert Johnston Miller, an 
 avowed Episcopalian, was ordained 
 by the Lutheran Ministeriun,, the 
 first English Lutheran minister in 
 North Carolina, and the first Luthe- 
 ran minister of any kind ordained 
 in this State.* 
 
 * "Their congregations (the Luther 
 ans) were at that time in a very de- 
 clining state, and overrun by impostors 
 assuming the ministerial office without 
 any regular authority whatsoever. To 
 remedy these evils they pressed me 
 
18 
 
 Mr. Miller I say, was an avowed 
 Episcopalian, and even in taking 
 this extraordinary step be was care 
 ful not to be misunderstood. Tbe 
 ordination certificate, as given by 
 Dr. Bernheim from tbe original 
 document, agrees witb wbat Mr. 
 Miller himself tells us in regard to it, 
 and is as follows : 
 "To all whom it may concern, greeting: 
 
 Whereas, A great number of 
 Christian people in Lincoln county 
 bave formed themselves into a 
 society by the name of White 
 Haven Church, and also having 
 formed a vestry: We, the subscri- 
 bers, having been urged by the 
 pressing call from the said Cburch 
 to ordain a minister for the good of 
 their children, and for the enjoy- 
 ment of ye Gospel ordtnances among 
 them, from us the ministers of the 
 Lutheran Church in North Carolina" 
 (here much of the certificate is torn 
 away and lost) "according to ye in- 
 fallible word of God, administer ye 
 
 with the plea of necessity, to accept 
 ordination from their hands, and men- 
 tioned that the Rev. Dr. Pilmour, of 
 Philadelphia, had done so in the time 
 of the Revolutionary war. There is 
 now and was then a considerable num- 
 ber of Presbyterian clergy in this sec- 
 tion, and the most of them with whom 
 I had any intimacy recommended tbe 
 same course, and the congregation 
 earnestly requested me to accept of it, 
 and that they would be perfectly satis- 
 fied with my ministrations. In short, 
 as I thought then, and do think now, 
 conrary to my own better sentiments, 
 I consented to receive the ordination 
 from them , not as a Lutheran minister, 
 but as an Episcopalian." — Mr. Miller'' $ 
 Letter to Lh' Hawks. 
 
19 
 
 sacraments, and to have ye care of 
 souls; he always being obliged to 
 obey ye rules, ordinances and cus- 
 toms of ye Christian Society called 
 ye Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 America. Given under our hands 
 and seals, North Carolina, Cabarrus 
 county, May 20th, 1794. Signed 
 by Adolphus Nussmann, Sr., Johan 
 Gottfriedt Arendt, Arnold Roschen, 
 Christopher Bernhardt and Charles 
 Storch." 
 
 Dr. Bernheim states that "on the 
 reverse side of this certificate the 
 Lutheran ministers gave their rea- 
 sons why they had ordained a man 
 who was attached to the Episcopal 
 Church as a minister of that de 
 nomination," but with a reserve 
 characteristic of his dealings with 
 delicate questions, he is careful to 
 give not the least intimation what 
 those reasons were. J. B. C. Jr. 
 
 An interesting part of Mr. Mil- 
 ler's history is his connection with 
 the effort to organize the diocese of 
 North Carolina, and to obtain a 
 bishop for it, in 1794. His attach- 
 ment to the Church, and his activit} 7 
 in keeping up its influence and its 
 services, st,em to have been widely 
 known; and at the meeting in Taw- 
 boro, Nov. 21st, 1793, he was elected 
 a member of the standing commit- 
 tee, and was notified of the meeting 
 to be held May 28th, 1794, for the 
 purpose of perfecting the organiza- 
 tion and electing a bishop. He 
 must have gone immediately from 
 his Lutheran ordination to the Epis- 
 copal Convention, for he appeared 
 upon the first day of the session — 
 
20 
 
 May 28; and at that time it could 
 hardly have required less than a 
 week to travel from Cabarrus coun- 
 ty to Tawboro. At this meeting he 
 took his seat as one of the clergy, 
 reading the Morning Service on the 
 second day ; he was chosen a cleri- 
 cal member of the standing com- 
 mittee, voted as a clergyman in the 
 election of a bishop, and signed the 
 testimonial which was transmitted 
 to the General Convention, as one 
 of the clergy, as may be seen by 
 reference to the testimonial, given 
 in Bishop White's Memoirs. In the 
 proceedings of this convention of 
 3794 there is nothing to indicate 
 that he had not been duly ordained ; 
 but in the list of the "Names and 
 Places of the Clergy" in the Petti- 
 grew MS., though his name and 
 parish stand first in the list, there 
 is a note added at the bottom : — 
 "P. S. The Kev. Kobert Johnston 
 Miller, White Haven Parish, Lincoln 
 Co., a Lutheran minister." In one 
 of Mr. Pettigrew's letters to Bishop 
 White, he says of him: "At our 
 convention there was a gentleman 
 who had been ordained in the Luth- 
 eran Church, and wished his ordi- 
 nation could be recognized in our 
 Church, and, indeed, signified that 
 if it should be considered invalid, ho 
 would submit to a re-ordination. 
 He appears to be a decent man. He 
 has since our convention wrote me 
 that he thinks the society would 
 wish (of which there are a number 
 of respectable clergy) a coalition 
 with our Church." 
 
 After this convention Mr. Miller 
 returned with new ardor to his 
 
21 
 
 parochial duties, and seems to have 
 had great hopes of the prosperity 
 of the Church when Mr. Pettigrew 
 should be consecrated and begin his 
 work as bishop. He exerted him- 
 self to incline the few Lutheran 
 ministers towards a plan for union 
 with the Church, and hoped that 
 the influence of Mr. Pettigrew 
 might accomplish this to the advan 
 tage of all concerned. These hopes 
 are indicated in his letter to Mr. 
 Pettigrew, dated May 6th, 1795. 
 But unfortunate circumstances pre- 
 vented the hoped for consecration, 
 upon which so much seemed to de- 
 pend, and Mr. Miller was left pow- 
 erless to do anything for the effec- 
 tual building up of the Church. It 
 was many a long year before he 
 again saw the face of an Episcopal 
 minister. 
 
 For nealy thirty years after his 
 ordination by the Lutherans, Mr. 
 Miller continued to be one of their 
 most active and influential minis- 
 ters. As Secretary of their Synod, 
 as a zealous and untiring mission- 
 ary, and as a member ot most im- 
 portant committees, he appears as 
 exerting no little influence upon the 
 growth and development of the 
 Lutheran denomination, not only 
 in North Carolina, but in Virginia, 
 Tennessee, and South Carolina, as 
 well. He tells us that he drew up 
 the constitution adopted by the 
 Synod in 1803, upon the lines of the 
 constitution which had been adopted 
 by the General Convention ; and 
 that it was intended as a basis of 
 union between the Lutherans and 
 Episcopalians while the latter 
 
22 
 
 should remain in their unorganized 
 condition. He says further that 
 when he first entered their ministry 
 he reserved to himself and his peo- 
 ple perfect liberty "to return and 
 unite in full, and without any im- 
 pediment, with the bosom of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, when- 
 ever it should please God to revive 
 her in this State ; " and that "by 
 the spirit, terms, and obligation of 
 our union, they [the Lutherans] 
 were bound to forward this object 
 to the utmost of their ability." Mr. 
 Miller says that this union was 
 effected and the constitution drawn 
 up at Salisbury. Dr. Bernheim 
 mentions the meeting at Salisbury, 
 May 2d, 1803, but says that the 
 constitution was not adopted until 
 the second session of the Synod, 
 held at Lincolnton, Oct. 17th, of 
 the same year. He does not give 
 any account of what were the se^ 
 ral articles of the constitution then 
 adopted. He mentions that Mr. 
 Miller was Secretary of this and of 
 the next Synod, 1804. Mr. Miller 
 resisted the tendency among the 
 Lutherans at this period towards 
 loose views of the ministerial office, 
 and has the honor of being the only 
 member of the Synod of 1817 whose 
 vote was given against allowing 
 unordained men to administer the 
 sacraments. In the same year he 
 was one of a committee of three to 
 examine and report upon a book 
 called "Luther," which was after- 
 wards published by the Synod for 
 the doctrinal instruction of their 
 people. 
 
 But it was not only in the Luth. 
 
23 
 
 eran Synods that he was active and 
 prominent. His chief work was 
 pastoral. None of his associates 
 Hurpassed him in parochial diligence 
 and missionary enterprise. Besides 
 his parish of White Haven he 
 served several other churches, St. 
 Peter's and Smyrna, in Lincoln 
 county; St. Michael's, in Iredell; 
 and afterwards St. Andrew's, in 
 Burke, though the last was not 
 organized until after he had been 
 ordained by Bishop Moore. He 
 also ministered with more or less 
 regularity in Salisbury, and in the 
 neighborhood of the present parish 
 of Christ Church, Rowan county. 
 His principle charges, however, 
 were White Haven and St. Mi- 
 chael's. The latter was composed 
 partly of German Lutherans and 
 partly of Churchmen who had 
 emigrated from Maryland about 
 1794, part of the colony which 
 came to Rowan in that year. 
 
 It was during this period of his 
 Lutheran ministry that he removed 
 to Burke county, where he contin 
 ued to reside, near the site of the 
 present town of Lenoir, until his 
 death. In what year he made this 
 change is unknown to the writer, 
 though it must have been before 
 the year 1811. He had also mar- 
 ried a Miss Perkins, of Lincoln 
 county, by whom he hud several 
 children, some of whom are st'll 
 living. 
 
 In 1811, he set out from his home 
 in Burke county upon an extensive 
 tour, being sent out by the Synod, 
 the first of a number of exploring 
 missionaries , who were to seek out 
 
24 
 
 scattered Lutherans, and not only 
 to minister to them as occasion 
 should serve, but also to report to 
 the Synod the condition and pros- 
 pects of the missionary field. In 
 the performance of this arduous 
 duty he travelled through a good 
 part of Virginia, and of South 
 Carolina, and also into Tennessee. 
 He made an interesting report to 
 the Synod, extracts from which are 
 given by Dr. Bernheim. It con- 
 cludes thus: "On my whole tour 
 I have baptized this year two 
 adults and S'xty children, preached 
 sixty-seven times, travelled three 
 thousand miles, and received $77.44 
 for my support, without asking for 
 a cent in any way, and arrived at 
 home in health and safety. Honor, 
 thanks, and praise be to the Lord " 
 The year 1817 was almost as 
 much of an epoch to the Lutherans 
 as it was to the Churchmen of 
 North Carolina, though of a d ffer- 
 ent character. In the Synod which 
 met in October, 1817, the latitudi- 
 narians carried the day in regard 
 to the licensing of unordained men 
 to administer the sacraments, and 
 by that and other action under the 
 leadership of the Moravian, Gotlieb 
 Shober, laid the foundation for the 
 split with the party led by David 
 Henkel, and the consequent organi- 
 zation of the Tennessee Synod. 
 Mr. Miller, as was before remarked, 
 was the only minister in the Synod 
 who opposed this measure to the 
 end ; and he seems to have taken a 
 part in only one subsequent meet- 
 ing, viz., that in 1819. The organi- 
 zation of the Diocese of North Car- 
 
25 
 
 olina, in 1817, and the visitations of 
 Bishop Moore in 1819 and again in 
 1820, encouraged him i.o hope that 
 the long desired opportunity of ob- 
 taining episcopal ordination was 
 now at hand. In 1821 the conven- 
 tion met in Raleigh, April 28th. 
 Mr. Miller attended, and on Tues- 
 day, May 1st, in the forenoon, after 
 divine service in the Methodist 
 church, he was ordained deacon by 
 Bishop Richard Channing Moore, of 
 the Diocese of Virginia. In the 
 evening of the same daj' he was ad- 
 vanced to the priesthood. 
 
 Of Mr. Miller's history after this 
 period we must speak very briefly, 
 and must confine ourselves to his 
 pastoral labors. His efforts to effect 
 a fraternal alliance between the 
 Lutheran Synod and the Diocesan 
 Convention require a separate arti- 
 cle. But before leaving this subject 
 it may be worth while to say that 
 he did not feel that after his ordina- 
 tion in 1821 he met with the co 
 operation from his late associates, 
 which by the spirit and terms of 
 their union he had a right to expect. 
 The lesson which he draws from his 
 experience is that it is vain, if not 
 absurd, to suppose "that the suc- 
 cessful attempt of amalgamating 
 the different sects, creeds, order, 
 and worship of all those who call 
 themselves Christians, will, or can, 
 produce that unity of faith and 
 practice enjoined by the pure Word 
 of God." "And it furnishes us with 
 an experimental demonstration, how 
 impossible it is to attempt, in any 
 degree, a compromise with error, 
 schism, or heresy, without injury to 
 
26 
 
 the truth." He seems to have found 
 it impossible to recover for the 
 Church those congregations which 
 in consequence of his action had 
 been for thirty years identified with 
 the Lutherans, and he sadly reflects 
 that "neither sorrow nor lamenta 
 tion will recover the ground that 
 has been lost to the Episcopal cause 
 in this section of the country in 
 consequence of that fatal error of 
 mine." 
 
 After his admission to the minis- 
 try of the Church, Mr. Miller labored 
 most faithfully as long as his 
 strength endured. Christ Church, 
 Rowpn, was admitted into union 
 with the convention with Almond 
 Hall as its representative in 1821; 
 St. Michael's, Iredell county, and 
 White Haven and Smyrna, in Lin- 
 coln, in 1822 ; St. Peter's, Lincoln 
 county, and St. Andrew's, Burke 
 county, in 1823. All these were the 
 fruits of Mr. Miller's labors, and 
 later on he reports also a congrega- 
 tion on John's River, in Burke 
 county. It seems probable, also, 
 that the congregation admitted into 
 union with the convention in 1822, 
 under the name of St. Peter's 
 Church, Lexington, was part of his 
 charge. In 1821 the congregations 
 in these counties were under his 
 pastoral care, and the Missionary 
 Society of the Diocese gave him as 
 his helpers the Rev. Thomas Wright, 
 of Wilmington, who bad been or- 
 dained Deacon by Bishop Moore in 
 1820, and the Rev. Robert Davis, of 
 Orange county, ordained Deacon in 
 1821 — though Mr. Wright's time 
 was mostly given to Wadesboro. 
 
27 
 
 in 1823 Mr. Davis left the diocese, 
 and Mr. Miller reports for all the 
 churches in Rowan, Lincoln, Iredell, 
 and Burke counties. In 1824 he 
 reports that the Lutheran members 
 of St. Michael's had all withdrawn, 
 and after 1825 the name of this 
 parish disappears from the journals 
 of the convention. The portion of 
 the congregation remaining under 
 Mr. Miller's care was composed 
 almost entirely of one family — that 
 of Mr. Charles Mills — and lor some 
 years it is reported under the name 
 of that family, "Mills', Iredell 
 county." It is now the parish of 
 St. James, Iredell county. 
 
 There is little more to be told, 
 except the bare outlines contained 
 in the parochial report. St. Luke's, 
 Salisbury, Christ Church, Rowan, 
 St. James, Iredell, fairly represent 
 parishes partly founded by this 
 venerable man. St. Andrew's, 
 Burke, was probably the beginning 
 of the present parish at Lenoir; 
 White Haven has long crumb'ed to 
 decay ; of St Peter's and Smyrna, 
 Lincoln county, even the locality is 
 forgotten. 
 
 Mr. Miller attended no conven- 
 tion after that of 1829. He is men- 
 tioned from time to time in the Ad- 
 dresses of Bishop Ravenscroft and 
 of Bishop Ives, and always with the 
 greatest affection and respect. His 
 bodily strength gradually decaj'ed, 
 and in his address to the convention 
 of 1835 Bishop Ives says: "In re- 
 cording the changes which, during 
 the past year, have occurred among 
 us, I notice with unfeigned sorrow 
 the death of the Reverend Robert J. 
 Miller, of Burke county, a clergy- 
 man of whom we may emphatically 
 say, for Mm to live was Christ; and to 
 die is gain." 
 
 Oct. 8th, 1885. J. B.C., Jr. 
 
III. 
 
 Fraternal Relations. 
 
 THE DIOCESAN CONVENTION AND THE 
 LUTHERAN SYNOD. 
 
 It is a fact not generally remem- 
 bered that delegations from the 
 Lutheran Synod once sat in the 
 Convention of the Diocese of 
 North Carolina, and ihat our dele- 
 gates also sai in the Lutheran 
 Synod. The names of the Rev. 
 Gottlieb Shober, the Rev. Daniel 
 Soberer, Gen'l. Paul Barringer, and 
 Col- Henry Ratz are found among 
 the list of members of the conven- 
 tion of 1823, and during this period 
 the minutes of the Lutheran Synod 
 record the presence of the Rev. 
 Adam Empie, the Rev. G. T. Be- 
 dell, and the Hon. Duncan Came 
 ron, from our convention. 
 
 These mutual courtesies were due 
 directly to the influence of the Rev. 
 Robert Johnston Miller, and they 
 constitute an after-piece to the pecu- 
 liar and anomalous position which 
 he occupied for the twenty-seven 
 years of his connection with the 
 Lutheran Synod. A brief consid- 
 eration of the relation formerly 
 existing between the Lutherans 
 and Churchmen in North Carolina, 
 will, therefore, not unfitly conclude 
 this imperfect account of his life 
 and work. 
 
 Concerning this episode in our 
 diocesan history there is little of 
 importance to be related, except 
 what is contained in the journals 
 of the convention, for the years 
 1821, 1822, and 1823. But copies 
 
29 
 
 of those early journals are now so 
 scarce that few persons are ac- 
 quainted with the particulars of our 
 diocesan history during that period, 
 and it is hoped that the following 
 paragraphs may not be considered 
 as altogether superfluous. 
 
 It is often apparent that the best 
 informed members of our diocean 
 conventions are ignorant of the 
 recorded proceedings of the conven- 
 tions of fifty years ago, even when 
 those proceedings relate to ex- 
 isting interests. In the conven- 
 tion held at Asheville, in May, 
 1885, an important matter was 
 discnssed, affecting the present 
 interests of the dioceses of 
 North and East Carolina. The 
 question at issue depended upon 
 certain recorded action of former 
 conventions, and yet not one man 
 who discussed it, bishop, priest, 
 deacon, or layman, could give any 
 clear and acurate information in re- 
 gard to it. It is, therefore, not im- 
 probable that many persons in 
 North and East Carolina may be 
 ignorant even of those facts of 
 our fraternal intercourse with the 
 Lutherans, which the printed jour- 
 nals preserve. 
 
 But though concerning the actual 
 interchange of friendly greetings 
 between the two bodies, and the 
 visits of fraternal delegations, there 
 is little new to be related, yet there 
 is this to be observed, which has 
 hitherto escaped attention; that the 
 friendship between the Lutherans 
 and the Churchmen in North Caro- 
 lina did not result from the influence 
 of Mr. Miller. On the contrary it 
 
30 
 
 was the state of mutual sympathy 
 and friendship between the two, ex- 
 isting long before Mr. Miller came 
 into the country, which explains his 
 curious course of conduct. He only 
 perpetuated and rendered more close 
 and intimate a state of feeling be- 
 tween them which he found exist- 
 ing in 1786. 
 
 It has been already remarked 
 that there was much in the doc- 
 trines and worship of the old Luth- 
 erans to attract the favorable re- 
 gard of Churchmen. Indeed, it is 
 well known that Luther and Melanc- 
 thon and other protestant divines 
 exercised no small influence upon 
 the course and character of the 
 English Reformation. The further 
 fact that the Hanoverian Kings 
 were originally Lutherans, and so 
 far as they had any religion at all, 
 remained Lutherans until the acces- 
 sion of George III, had a tendency 
 to promote a friendly feeling be- 
 tween the members of the two com 
 munions in the colonies. In the 
 reign of Queen Anne overtures were 
 made by the King of Prussia look- 
 ing to the adoption by the Luther- 
 ans of Prussia of the Articles and 
 the Liturgy of the English Church, 
 and the proposition to consecrate 
 bishops for Prussia, and so to con- 
 vey to that kingdom the Apostolic 
 succession was reee'ved so favorably 
 that the most sanguine hopes were 
 entertained. But for delays and 
 complications caused by the desire 
 to include Hanover in this arrange- 
 ment, it seems more than likely 
 that these two great barriers against 
 Eoman tyranny, the Church of Eng- 
 
31 
 
 land and the Lutherans of Germany, 
 might have been happily united. 
 As further illustrating the friendly 
 relations which have thus for cen- 
 turies been preserved, it may be 
 mentioned that for some years past 
 the Prussian and British govern- 
 ments have maintained a bishop at 
 Jerusalem, selected alternately from 
 England and Germany, and con- 
 secrated by the English bishops. 
 
 From all this it may be inferred 
 that the natural state of feeling be- 
 tween Lutherans and Churchmen, 
 who found themselves in a condi- 
 tion of common poverty and desti- 
 tution in the wilds of the new world, 
 was of the kindest and most friendly 
 character; and we are prepared to 
 find evidences of this among the 
 German and English settlers along 
 the banks ot the Yadkin and the 
 Catawba. 
 
 The records of those days are too 
 meager to afford us detailed accounts 
 of such matters as this, but the evi- 
 dence, though scanty, is conclusive. 
 In Dr. Rumple's account of the 
 establishment of "the oldest Luth- 
 eran congregation organized in the 
 Province of North Carolina," he 
 says, "in the year of 1768, John 
 Lewis Beard, a wealthy citizen of 
 Salisbury, and a member of the 
 Lutheran Church, was bereaved by 
 the death of a daughter, and her 
 body was interred in a lot of ground 
 owned by her father. To prevent 
 her remains from being disturbed 
 by the march of civilization, Mr. 
 Beard executed a deed for the lot, 
 containing 144 square^ poles,, to a 
 body cf trustees of the Evangelical 
 
32 
 
 Lutheran congregation of the 
 Township of Salisbury, allowing 
 ministers of the High [si'c] Church 
 of England to occupy it, when not 
 used by the Lutherans." The build- 
 ings afterward erected upon this 
 lot were used in accordance with the 
 provisions of the above deed down 
 to the year 1825. 
 
 The Rev. Theodorus Swain Drage 
 having been "licensed for the Plan- 
 tations" by the bishop of London, 
 May 29th, 1769, was by Gov. Tryon 
 recommended to the vestry of St. 
 Luke's parish, Rowan county, by a 
 letter dated November 12th, of the 
 same year. July 9th, 1770, the Gov- 
 ernor sent him a letter of induction. 
 He seems to have gone to Salisbury 
 in the Autumn of 1769 and to 
 have entered at once upon the task 
 of putting into effect the colonial 
 law for the organization of the par- 
 ish and the support of the church. 
 In this he was strenuously opposed 
 by the Presbyterian element in the 
 county, and a protracted struggle 
 ensued, from which Mr. Drage 
 seemb after a year or two to have 
 retired, despairing of success. This 
 is mentioned merely to emphasize 
 the fact that during all this exciting 
 period there is evidence of the most 
 perfect accord and harmony be- 
 tween the Lutherans and the 
 Churchmen. In his letters Mr. 
 Drage speaks of the relations be- 
 tween them as being kindly and 
 cordial, and in the most critical 
 period of their history he showed 
 nim3elf disposed to do all in his 
 power to further the interests of 
 the Lutherans, as the following facts 
 prove: 
 
 Dr. Bernheim relates that "in 
 
33 
 
 the year 1772 Christopher Bintel- 
 mann, from Organ Church, in Bow 
 an county, and Christopher Layrle, 
 from St. John's Church, in Meek 
 lenburg county, were sent as a 
 delegation to Europe. * * * for 
 a supply ot ministers and school 
 teachers, for the various Lutheran 
 congregations, then organized in 
 North Carolina," and adds that 
 "these commissioners traveled first 
 to London." Dr. Bernheim says 
 nothing ot the relations between 
 the Lutherans and Churchmen at 
 this period, but in the MS. volume 
 of documents relating to North 
 Carolina, in the archives of the 
 General Convention is a letter from 
 the Bev. Mr. Drage to the Secretary 
 ©f the Society for the Propogation 
 of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, dated 
 "Salisbury, St. Luke's Parish, N. 
 C, February 28th, 1771," in which 
 he commends to the attention and 
 kind offices of the Society, "two of 
 his parishioners," who, he says, were 
 about to go to England and thence 
 to Germany, to raise an endowment 
 for a Lutheran minister and school 
 master. This was unquestionably 
 the delegation of which Dr. Bern 
 heim speaks. It may have been un- 
 expectedly delayed until next year, 
 or Mr. Drage, following the old cus 
 torn, may have dated his letter Feb- 
 ruary 1771, when according to our 
 present usage we should date it 
 1772. In the same letter Mr. Drage 
 speaks of the cordial relations ex- 
 isting between the "Lutherans and 
 the Churchmen of the county. The 
 fact that so uncompromising a 
 champion of the rights of the 
 
34 
 
 Church, speaks in this way, and 
 shows so much interest in assisting 
 the Lutherans in their first effort 
 to obtain ministers and teachers for 
 their struggling congregations, in- 
 dicates a warm and earnest feeling 
 of mutual sympathy and affection, 
 which is also confirmed by other 
 parts of his correspondence. 
 
 When Mr. Miller Settled upon the 
 Catawba in 1786 the leading Luth- 
 eran minister in North Carolina was 
 the R,ev. Adolph ISussmann, who 
 had been sent out in 1773 in re- 
 sponse to the appeal of the delega- 
 tion above referred to. It was 
 therefore but natural that he should 
 find himself falling into the habit of 
 friendly intercourse, which he found 
 already established. The steps by 
 which he was led to attempt a still 
 closer and more intimate union of 
 the two religious bodies have been 
 described in lormer articles. 
 
 With the first promise of reviving 
 life and prosperity in the church in 
 North Carolina, the idea of organic 
 union with the Lutherans was found 
 to be an impracticable one. 
 
 Unfortunately the Lutherans 
 during the time of Mr. Miller's con- 
 nection with them, had been grad- 
 ually drifting away from their own 
 system of doctrine and worship, 
 and becoming more and more like 
 the bodies of English dissenters by 
 whom they were chiefly surrounded. 
 This is no place for the discussion 
 of this question, but it is a fact that 
 in 1821, when Mr. Miller was or- 
 dained deacon and priest by Bishop 
 Moore, the Lutherans of North Car- 
 olina bad almost totally abandoned 
 
35 
 
 those devotional practices, and those 
 sacramental doctrines, which had 
 both in Europe and America been 
 such a bond of union between them 
 and us. But there still remained 
 a sentiment springing from the mem- 
 ory of past association, and Mr. 
 Miller anxiously sought to perpe- 
 tuate the fraternal relation in which 
 he had lived with his Lutheran 
 brethren for neai'ly thirty years. 
 
 His first appearance in the con- 
 vention was as a delegate from the 
 Lutheran Synod. On page fourth 
 of the journal of 1821, is the follow- 
 ing entry: "It being ascertained 
 that the Rev. Robert Johnson Mil- 
 ler, of Burke county, has come to 
 this convention in the capacity of 
 a delegate from the German and 
 English Lutheran Synod of North 
 Carolina, and for the purpose of 
 effecting as far as practicable, inter- 
 course and union between the Epis- 
 copalians and some of the Lutheran 
 congregations : 
 
 Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Mil 
 ler be cordially received in the 
 above capacity and admitted to a 
 seat in this convention." Mr. Mil- 
 ler also presented a formal commu- 
 nication from the Synod, and upon 
 the recommendation of the com- 
 mittee on the state of the church, 
 the Revs. Adam Empie and G. T. 
 Bedell and the Hon. Duncan Cam- 
 eron were appointed a committee to 
 attend the L utheran Synod and "to 
 consider of and agree upon such 
 terms of union, as may tend to the 
 mutual advantage and welfare of 
 both churches, not inconsistant with 
 the constitution and canons of this 
 church." 
 
36 
 
 This committee attended the 
 meeting of the synod held in Lau's 
 Church, Guilford county, on the 
 17th of June, 1821, with a letter 
 from Bishop Moore, conveying to 
 to that body information concerning 
 the above action of the convention. 
 The minutes of the Synod say ex 
 pressly that the committee "were 
 all affectionately received," and the 
 following committee appointed to 
 confer with them, namely: the 
 Eevs. G. Shober, Michael Eauch, 
 and Henry Eatz, Esq. The result 
 of the conference between these 
 two committees was a series of res- 
 olutions which will be found on 
 page 11 of the journal of 1822. They 
 declare that it is deemed "expedient 
 and desirable that the Lutheran 
 Synod and the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church of North Carolina should 
 be united together in the closest 
 bonds of friendship;" they then 
 provide that each of these bodies 
 "may send a delegation of one or 
 more persons" to the other; and 
 that .these delegates shall be entitled 
 to speak and to vote "in all cases 
 except when a division is called for, 
 in which case they shall not vote," 
 and they further provide that all 
 ministers of either body shall be 
 entitled to honorary seats in the 
 other. These resolutions were at 
 once adopted by the Synod, and the 
 Eevs. G. Shober, Jacob Scherer and 
 Henry Eatz, Esq., were appointed 
 delegates to the convention, which 
 was to meet in Ealeigh in April, 
 1822. 
 
 At this convention (1822) none 
 of the Lutheran delegates were 
 
37 
 
 present, but the committee pre- 
 sented the resolutions agreed upon 
 and adopted by the Synod, together 
 with a letter from the Eev, G. 
 Shober, and the resolutions were 
 unanimously adopted. At the same 
 time the Eev. Messrs. Miller, Davis 
 and Wright of the clergy, and 
 Messrs. Alexander Caldcleugh, and 
 Duncan Cameron were appointed 
 delegates to the Lutheran Synod. 
 
 In the journals of 1823, page 3, 
 among the names of the attending 
 members of the convention, we 
 find the following : " The Eev. G-. 
 Shober, the Eev. Daniel Sherer, 
 Gen. Paul Barringer and Col. 
 Henry Eatz," and on page 15 we 
 read that the Eev. Messrs. Miller 
 and Davis, of the clergy, and Dr. 
 Wm, E. Holt, and Alexander 
 Caldcleugh, of the laity, were ap- 
 pointed delegates to the Lutheran 
 Synod. 
 
 With the Convention of 1823 all 
 mention of delegates to or from the 
 Lutheran Synod ceases, though no 
 formal action was taken to repeal 
 the "Fraternal Union ; " and under 
 it a delegation from either body 
 might still probably be entitled to 
 sit and to vote in the other. But 
 as the Lutherans and Episcopalians 
 were chiefly settled in different 
 parts of the State, and held their 
 meetings in towns far distant from 
 each other, there were difficulties 
 in carrying out this arrangement, 
 while no compensating benefits 
 seemed likely to be gained. The 
 Convention of 1823 was held in 
 Salisbury ; hence the attendance of 
 Lutherans at that time. Up to 
 
38 
 
 1840 only once again did the Con- 
 vention meet in the west, and we 
 hear no more of delegations from 
 Synod or from Convention. 
 
 But though this may be a suf- 
 ficient reason to account for the 
 fact of the cessation of this in- 
 terchanges of delegations, yet there 
 were probably deeper and more 
 fundamental causes which would 
 under other circumstances have 
 produced the same result. By the 
 consecration of a Bishop of North 
 Carolina, and by the distinct and 
 positive Church teaching of Bishop 
 Ravenscroft, the differences between 
 the Lutherans and Episcopalians 
 must have been brought out with a 
 distinctness unknown before. Al- 
 though several of the Lutheran 
 Churches in Europe had preserved 
 the Apostolic episcopate, and the 
 old Swedish churches in Pennsyl- 
 vania had already united with the 
 Episcopal Church and acknowledged 
 the pastoral government of Bishop 
 White. The IN orth Carolina Luther- 
 ans were not at all inclined to such 
 a union as this. Their pastors were 
 mostly from Hanover, and, as has 
 been said before, they had fallen off 
 very much from the purity of early 
 Lutheranism. The Augsburg Con- 
 fession itself was branded by their 
 Synod as being tainted with Roman- 
 ism, and they had for some years 
 allowed unordained men to admin- 
 ister both the sacraments; liturgical 
 services had very generally fallen 
 into disuse, and at this very time 
 the most acrimonious controversy 
 was raging among them, and a 
 schism had already oeen made, re- 
 
39 
 
 suiting chiefly from this back-slid- 
 ing from their old principles. 
 
 It is also beyond question that 
 Mr. Miller's creditable desire for a 
 closer union with the Lutherans 
 had involved his own people in 
 these same corruptions of doctrine 
 and practice, so that perhaps the 
 greater part of them had become 
 almost entirely estranged from the 
 principles and the customs of the 
 Church. Bishop Raven sci-oft's great 
 work was to give such a certain 
 sound that no one could mistake it, 
 and to find out who in North Caro- 
 lina was on the side of the Church 
 as a matter of conscience and with 
 distinct and intelligent convictions. 
 Even had the principles of Church- 
 men and Lutherans been much 
 more in accord than they were, 
 there could have been no sort of 
 sympathy between the spirit which 
 began to animate the Church in this 
 State, and that which then prevailed 
 among the Lutheran brethren. 
 
 But still further, the fundamental 
 principle of the Church being the 
 maintenance, not only of primitive 
 truth, but of Apostolic Order as 
 well, it was hardly to be expected 
 that those who had departed from 
 the latter, and who did not require 
 any kind of ordination in a minister 
 of God's Word and Sacraments, 
 should remain in such perfect sym- 
 pathy with her as to take part in 
 her councils and legislation. It is 
 gratifying to remember the spirit 
 of mutual love which this long co- 
 operation and friendship indicated, 
 and we may trust that it still con- 
 tinues, but such a union as the one 
 attempted was, in the nature of the 
 case, impracticable. 
 
 J. B. C, Jr. 
 
 Oct. 22d, 1885.