When We Were Greers XXVI

by Glenn N. Holliman

Jesse Greer, Sr. Makes a Confession of Faith


Jesse, my generation's 4th great grandfather, did not write a book such as St. Augustine's Confessions, but Jesse in a long and laborious paragraph, described his own faith experience.  Sometime in the 19th Century in a school notebook, Jesse Greer, Jr. copied from notes his father had written, Jesse Sr.'s anguished confession of sin and contrition.  What 'sins' this father of 17 children by one wife had to confess, we know little other than his cursing and drinking.  He mentions in passing 'all kinds of sin' which we leave to imagination but suspect they were relatively minor - no murder or horse thieving!


Below copied, with Jesse's imaginative spelling and capitalization intact, is that confession as transcribed by Mary Floy Katzman, and on the web site, A Gathering of Greers.  The original is held by Annie Greer Heaton of Heaton, North Carolina, but I have a copy (see July 16, 2011 post) and a much better one is available at the Center for Appalachian Studies in Boone, North Carolina.  Note that Jesse begins by referring to himself in the 3rd person. Although only one paragraph, to ease our reading, I have broken this into many paragraphs.  


                                            A Smawl travil of Jesse Grear


He was born the son of Benjamine and Nacy Greer in Wilkes County, North Carolina on the 14th November 1778.  then traveled on to the year of maturity under a tender father and mother and at 16 years old I left my Parents much Against their will.  then serving the Devil was all my delight.  till the year 1800, then married Polly Morris which was born a daughter of Henry and Franky Morris on the 17th september 1787. 


then went on in the Gall of Bitteness as tho there was no soul to save or to be lost, til the year 1810, at the Baptism of Brother Bejamin, I Began to think that my soul must dwell with the richman.  then I betook my self to trying to pray for about ten months.  But the Devil pursuaded me it was so hard that I could pray no longer.  But betook myself to cursing and swearing and drinking and all kinds of sin til the year 1814.  


Very Gardless we went to meeting at the Oldfeel (Old Field) meeting house but there was no ministry  Came to preach, but as they thought proper that they should sing and pray one of them began and as I set I saw a small child about twelve or thirteen years old crying as if He would Break her heart.  and it seamed to strike me like a Clap of thunder, to think that God was at work with such small Children and I still in the gall of bitterness then I went  hence trying to pray.  but it oppressed (?) to me that God would not hear my weak pertishion. 


 I soon began to think that I had passed the day of grace and soon betook my self to my friends and to the people of god to see if they could give an Conslation.  but I had to go moving through the wilderness until 1815.  I had been from home and on my return home some hour in the night I thought if I was lost I would  die a praying.  and as I was trying to pray I thought that my Blessed Jesus meet with me and Bid me not fear.  


Then I went home Rejoycing and praising God and I had Been lost But now was found.  and in the time to follow his Companion Got a hope that she had made peace with god and we was Received in to the Baptist Church and was Baptized on the 4th Sunday in June 1815. 

Above Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick in 2009 stands in front of the latest version of the Sutherland Methodist Church in Ashe County, North Carolina.  Her great grandparents, Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, became Methodists during a revival in the 1850s at this church, a few mountain valleys west and in the same county where Geraldine's 3rd grandfather, Jesse Greer, Sr. 'got religion' in 1815. 


Historians report that the Baptist and Methodist Churches grew rapidly during this period, especially in the Southwest (Tennessee, Kentucky and western Virginia).  In this time period, these churches were considered radical, too emotional, too democratic to more established denominations - the Episcopal and Congregational denominations for example.  Yet within a generation, Baptists and Methodists (although both split into numerous factions, especially the Baptists) were main stream, middle America and have remained so to this day.  Many Scotch-Irish remained Presbyterian, and this denomination also grew dynamically during the Second Great Awakening.


Before we go to Jesse Greer, Jr., we will detour back to Scotland and look at some home sites of our Grierson ancestors.  I pause here for two reasons: one I made a recent trip to Scotland and want to record my research while still fresh, and two, the Jesse Greer, Jr. story rolls right into the Civil War and more recent times.  His story and that of his wife, Frankie Brown Greer, and of course, their daughter, Caroline Greer Wilson, is fascinating, suspenseful and courageous in turbulent times.  Their stories are well recorded and worthy of a closer look.  In the first articles on this blog, I devoted several stories to Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, my generation's 2nd great grandparents.