Born 1794, died 1862. A Methodist preacher who delivered the first religious address in Blount County at “Bear-meat Cabin” - the precursor settlement to Blountsville. George Powell’s 1855 “History of Blount County” dates this to 1816-17; a historical marker in Blountsville gives a more precise date, April 18, 1818 - the two sources disagree by a year or two, not resolved here.
Had served as a soldier in Andrew Jackson’s army before turning to the ministry. The first minister assigned to the Alabama Territory by the Tennessee Conference. That first sermon founded what became Blountsville United Methodist Church. Presided the first day of a Methodist Conference meeting at Tuscaloosa on November 24, 1830. In his later years, at conferences held in Talladega starting 1854, he would shoulder a walking stick and act out how the battlefield there had been won, from his own service in the campaign.
Related: George Powell.