PART II JOSEPH WILLIS The Apostle to the Opelousas By Randy Willis www.randywillis.org Nothing but a Horse, Bridle and Saddle Many years later, in Louisiana, Joseph would tell his grandchildren, Polk and Olive Willis, who were tending to him in his last months, that he left North Carolina "with nothing but a horse, bridle and saddle." Polk and Olive later told their nephew Dr. Greene Strother this fact and Greene Strother told me (also see Greene Strother’s Unpublished Th.M. thesis "About Joseph Willis" and his book "The Kingdom Is Coming"). Different grandchildren also asked him from time to time about the family, and he would tell how his mother was part Indian and his father was English, and that he was born in Bladen County, North Carolina. Family tradition is consistent among all the different branches of the family that I have traced. Every branch of the family, including some that have had no contact in many generations, has this identical family tradition handed down. Joseph’s first cousin, John Willis, who helped emancipate him, became a member of the General Assembly of North Carolina in 1782, 1787, 1789 and 1791, a member of the Senate in 1794 and of the House of Representatives in 1795. In the same year that he helped obtain Joseph’s "legal freedom," 1787, he was appointed one of a committee of five from North Carolina to ratify the Constitution of the United States. This was done just in time for North Carolina to enter the Union as the twelfth state and too assist in the election of George Washington as the first President. In 1795, Governor Samuel Ashe commissioned John Willis as a Brigadier General in the 4th Brigade of the Militia Continental Army. The land that the county seat of Robeson County, North Carolina (Lumberton), is located on was donated by him from his Red Bluff Plantation. A plaque of General John Willis stands there today. John Willis moved to Natchez, Mississippi, in about 1800 and died April 3, 1802. He is buried behind the Natchez Cathedral. His son Thomas was almost elected Attorney General of Louisiana. The Swamp Fox It was during these trying times for Joseph that the Revolutionary War began. Joseph and a friend of his from Bladen County, Ezekiel O’Quin, left for South Carolina to join up with General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." Marion operated out of the swampy forest of the Pedee region in the lower part of South Carolina. His strategy was to surprise the enemy, cut his supply lines, kill their men and release any American prisoners they might have. He and his men then retreated swiftly back again to the thick recesses of the deep swamps. They were very effective and their fame was widespread. They also took great pride in themselves. Marion’s orderly book states, "Every officer to provide himself with a blue coatee, faced and cuffed with scarlet cloth, and lined with scarlet; white buttons; and a white waistcoat and breeches…also, a cap and a black feather." Joseph would later proudly tell his family, "We were called Marion men." The lessons learned with Marion would serve him well his entire life. Joseph was proud of his service under Marion, for at the time in Bladen County in 1777, it was estimated that two-thirds of the people were Tories. An oath of allegiance to the state was also required at that time in North Carolina and those refusing to take it were required to leave the state within sixty-days. It was in South Carolina, with the Marion men, that Joseph would become a friend with Richard Curtis, Jr. Curtis was to play a major role in Joseph’s decision too go west. Later, in 1791, Curtis would become the first Baptist minister to establish a church in Mississippi. Ezekiel O’Quin would later follow Joseph to Louisiana, as the second Baptist minister west of the Mississippi River, in Louisiana. In 1786, part of Bladen County became Robeson County and Ezekiel is listed as the head of a household there in 1790. Early Louisiana author, W. E. Paxton, in his book "A History of the Baptist of Louisiana, from the Earliest Times to the Present" (1888), would write many years later that Ezekiel was born in 1781, and every major author that followed used that date. Of course, this could not be true if he fought in the Revolutionary War and was a head of a household in 1790. Ezekiel’s son John also wrote that Ezekiel "grew up in the same area as Joseph." Soon, after the Revolutionary War, Joseph would marry Rachel Bradford. Rachel was born about 1762. They named their first child after Joseph’s father, Agerton Willis. He was born circa 1785. I’m a descendant of this son. Mary Willis was born next, about 1787. Both children were born in North Carolina. Later, Louisiana census records confirm North Carolina as their place of birth. The last mention of Joseph in North Carolina was in the 1788 tax list of Bladen County. He was listed with 320 acres. Taxed in the same district, in 1784, was a William Bradford, whom I suspect was Rachel’s father. By 1790 Joseph was living with Rachel in Cheraws County (now Marlboro, Chesterfield and Darlington Counties), South Carolina, just southwest of Bladen County, across the state line. The 1790 census lists him as the head of the household there with two females and one male over 16. It was also here that Rachel died, about 1794; she would have only been about 32-years-old. It is also of interest to note that Richard Curtis, Sr. was on a jury list in 1779 for the Cheraws District. This indicates that the Curtis family lived in this area for at least a short time. Other historians have stated that the family was living in southern South Carolina at this time. By 1794, Joseph had moved to Greenville County (Washington Circuit Court District), South Carolina and purchased 174 acres on the south side of the Reedy River on May 3, 1794. Two adjoining tracts of 226 acres were purchased on August 16, 1794, and 200 acres were purchased on May 8, 1775, also on the Reedy River. These three tracts totaled 600 acres. The 226 acres had rent houses and orchards on it. These deeds also give us the name of Joseph’s second wife, Sarah an Irish woman. In South Carolina two more "known children" were born to Joseph and Rachel: Joseph Willis, Jr., born about 1792 and Rachel’s last child (named after her), Rachel Willis, born circa 1794. Joseph’s wife Rachel may well have died in childbirth. Also, two children were born in South Carolina to Joseph and Sarah: Jemima Willis, born circa 1796, and Sarah’s last child named after her, Sarah Willis born about 1798 (she later married Nathaniel West). Sarah is called Joseph’s wife in a deed dated August 8, 1799, but died soon thereafter. Joseph lost two wives in about six years. These were the first of a series of personal tragedies. A Baptist Through & Through In Greenville County, South Carolina Joseph became more active in the church joining the Main Saluda Church. He attended the Bethel Association as a delegate from Main Saluda from 1794 to 1796 with church reports. Bethel Association was the most influential Baptist Association in the "Carolina Back Country" at that time. Main Saluda was declared extinct by 1797 and Joseph became a member of the Head of Enoree Baptist Church. Head of Enoree (known as Reedy River since 1841) was also a member of the Bethel Association. Joseph is listed in the Head of Enoree Chronicles, along with William Thurston, as an "outstanding member" of Head of Enoree. It was this same William Thurston that would buy Joseph’s 600 acres for $1,200 on August 8, 1799, after Joseph returned from a trip to Mississippi in 1798. It was also here at Head of Enoree that Joseph was first licensed to preach. After the 1798 trip to Mississippi, Joseph returned to South Carolina to move his family and sell his property. Never one to squander time, he helped in incorporating the "Head of Enoree Baptist Society" in 1799 before leaving. It seems that he tarried until the spring of 1800 to depart on his second trip west, thereby avoiding the winter weather. Joseph’s religious background seems to have been strongly influenced by the Separate Baptists in North Carolina as well as South Carolina, although he came into contact with other influences in both states. The Bethel Association, prior to 1804, held in general Calvinistic sentiments. The majority of Baptists that entered the South Carolina backcountry, which included Greenville County, were at first known as Separates. Another member of the Bethel Association in 1797 was William Ford. Later, in Louisiana, Joseph was closely associated with a William Prince Ford and gave his diary to him, but it seems this William Ford was originally from Kentucky. The Separates came from New England and were one of the effects of the Great Awakening led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. This "new awareness" caused a division in the Congregational churches into groups called Old Lights and New Lights. The New Lights claimed the religion of the Old Lights had grown soulless and formal and no longer had the light of scriptural inspiration. Therefore, since the New Lights withdrew from the Congregational churches, the New Lights were known as Separates. The Separates had great missionary zeal and spread at a rapid pace to the other colonies. It was Shubal Stearns that led the Separates into North Carolina. He established Sandy Creek Church in Guilford (now Randolph) County in 1755. Stearns and his followers ministered mainly to the English settlers. Forty-two churches were established from Sandy Creek in seventeen-years. An interesting side note is that just a few years before Joseph became a member at Head of Enoree, the pastor of Head of Enoree in 1793, Thomas Musick was excommunicated for immorality. This same man later organized the Fee Fee Baptist Church in Missouri in 1807 (according to their church history) located just across the Mississippi River, near St. Louis. Fee Fee would certainly be the oldest Baptist church west of the Mississippi River in the entire United States, if this were accurate. Calvary Baptist Church, at Bayou Chicot, Louisiana was not established until 1812. Nevertheless, Musick did not preach west of the Mississippi River until several years after Joseph Willis and after the Louisiana Purchase. Mississippi Missionary As mentioned before, Joseph was a member of Head of Enoree in 1797. Late that year or the next, he made his first trip to Mississippi with Richard Curtis, Jr. This trip was made without his family, as was the custom of the time to venture farther west, find a safe place and then return for the family. Baptist historian, W. E. Paxton records the results of this first trip: "They sought not in vain, for soon after their return they were visited by William Thompson, who preached unto them the Gospel of our God: and on the first Saturday in October, 1798, came William Thompson, Richard Curtis and Joseph Willis, who constituted them into a church, subject to the government of the Cole's Creek church, calling the newly constituted arm of Cole's Creek, ‘The Baptist Church on Buffaloe." This church was located near Woodville, Mississippi and the Mississippi River east of Alexandria, Louisiana. Joseph returned for his family by 1799, but it would seem he might have made a trip across the river into Louisiana before this date, since this is where he returned with his family. Curtis had already made one trip to this part of the country in 1780. In that year Richard Curtis, Jr. along with his parents, half-brother and three brothers, and all their wives, together with John Courtney and John Stampley and their wives, set out for Mississippi. Mississippi Baptist historian T. C. Schilling wrote that "two brothers by the name of Daniel and William Ogden and a man by the name of Perkins, with their families, most of whom were Baptists" were also along on this first trip. The late Dr. Greene Strother, maternal great-grandson of Joseph Willis, told me that it was family tradition in his family that Joseph's first trip into Louisiana was in search of a Willis Perkins. Years later (1833) in Louisiana, a Willis Perkins was a member of Occupy Baptist Church while Joseph was pastor. Census records reveal that this Willis Perkins would have had to be a son of the latter. The Curtises, like the Willises, were originally from Virginia. Paxton wrote: "The Curtises were known to be Marion men, and when not in active service, they were not permitted to enjoy the society of their families, but they were hunted like wild beasts from their hiding places in the swamps of Pedee." They were a thorn in the side of the British and their Tory neighbors." Paxton continued, "They left South Carolina in the spring of 1780 traveling by land to the northeastern corner of Tennessee. There they built three flat boats and when the Holston River reached sufficient depth toward the end of that year, they set out for the Natchez country of Mississippi by way of the Holston, Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. Those mentioned above traveled on the first two boats; the names of those on the last boat are not known. Those in the last boat had contracted smallpox and were required to travel a few hundred yards behind the other two boats. Somewhere near the Clinch River, on a bend in the Tennessee River near the northwestern corner of Georgia, they were attacked by Cherokee Indians. The first two boats escaped, but the third boat was captured. The price paid for this attack was high, for the Indians contracted smallpox from them and many died." Those on the first two boats continued on their voyage and landed safely at the mouth of Cole's creek about 18 miles above Natchez by land. Here in this part of the state they lived. They called Richard Curtis, Jr., who was licensed to preach in S. Carolina, as their preacher. He would later organize the first Baptist Church in Mississippi, in 1791, called Sa1em. As time passed the population increased. Some were Baptists such as William Chaney from South Carolina and his son Bailey. A preacher from Georgia by the name of Harigail also arrived here and zealously denounced the ‘corruptions of Romanism.’ This, along with the conversion of a Spanish Catholic by the name of Stephen d'Alvoy, brought the wrath of the Spanish authorities. To make an example of d'Alvoy and Curtis, they decided to arrest them and send them to the silver mines in Mexico. Warned of this plan, d'Alvoy and Curtis and a man by the name of Bill Hamberlin fled to South Carolina, arriving in the fall of 1795. Harigail also escaped and fled this area." Paxton said that the country between Mississippi and South Carolina was "then infested by hostile Indians." It is for this reason and others, I believe, that Curtis brought Joseph Willis with him when he returned to Mississippi in 1798, and the fact that Joseph was a licensed Baptist preacher and Curtis was an ordained Baptist preacher. Curtis also knew well Joseph Willis’ courage under fire since both were Marion men in the Revolutionary War. After the trip with Curtis to Mississippi in 1798, Joseph returned to South Carolina for his family and to sell his property. As mentioned before, he sold all of his real estate to William Thurston in August of 1799, indicating his preparation to depart South Carolina. The First Sermon Ever Preached by an Evangelical Minister West of the Mississippi River The exact date that Joseph preached west of the Mississippi River is not known, but it was before April 30, 1803; the date of the Louisiana Purchase and most likely before October 1, 1800; the date Napoleon secured Louisiana from Spain. There are three facts that confirm the above statements. First, Joseph sold out in South Carolina in 1799 and is not found there in the 1800 census. Second, very early historian David Benedict wrote in 1813 in his book "A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World" (1813), "…Joseph Willis… has done much for the cause, and spent a large fortune while engaged in the ministry, often at the hazard of his life, while the State belonged to the Spanish government." That would place Joseph Willis in Louisiana before October 1, 1800. Benedict wrote this fact just 10-years after the Louisiana Purchase; he was a contemporary of Joseph Willis. Third, The Louisiana Baptist Associational Committee wrote in Joseph Willis’ obituary in 1854, "The Gospel was proclaimed by him in these regions before the American flag was hoisted here." That would have been before April 30, 1803. The following statement by Paxton is often used to contradict the above two: "Where he entered the State or what route he took I can only conjecture. Only this is known: In November of this year [1804] he preached the first sermon ever preached in the State west of the Mississippi River by other than Catholic priests. This was at Vermillion, about forty miles southwest of Baton Rouge. At night he preached at Plaquemine Brul'e. This was during a visit in which he preached but three or four times, and that at the peril of his life." Vermillion was what is now Lafayette and Plaquemine Brule was located in Acadia Parish about 13-miles northeast of Crowley near present-day Branch, Louisiana." Paxton is writing about what he knows of Joseph’s missionary work after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The movements of Joseph before the Louisiana Purchase were even more dangerous and thus no records exist except the aforementioned two historical statements. Bienville's Black Code that permitted "the exercise of the Roman Catholic Creed only" was still in effect before the Louisiana Purchase. In January 1797, deLemos issued regulations that made it mandatory for children of non-Catholic emigrant families to embrace Roman Catholicism and also forbade the coming of any ministers into the territory except Roman Catholics. It is a historical fact that Joseph helped establish a church near Woodville, Mississippi in 1798, very near the Mississippi River. Joseph Willis first preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ West of the Mississippi River between 1800 and 1803. This would qualify as the first sermon ever preached by an evangelical minister West of the Mississippi River in any state or future state. This certainly would qualify as one most incredibly feats, by a person born to a slave-status in American history. CONTINUED SEE PART III