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Bishop Willia.M Taylor and Methodist Mission: a Study in Nineteenth Century Social History

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Bishop Willia.M Taylor and Methodist Mission: a Study in Nineteenth Century Social History Methodist History, 27:4 (July 1989) BISHOP WILLIA.M TAYLOR AND METHODIST MISSION: A STUDY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY SOCIAL HISTORY DAVID BUNDY Part I: From Campmeeting Convert to International Evangelist The figure of William Taylor (1821-1902) is a recurring feature of the historiography of mission activity under the aegis of the Methodist Episcopal Church during the last half of the nineteenth century. Taylor was involved in missionary endeavors from 1849 when he was sent to California by Bishop Beverly Waugh until his retirement in 1896. He worked on six continents and was instrumental in the establishment of Methodist churches in Panama, Belize, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Zaire, and South India. He assisted the Wesleyan Methodists in Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean. During his missionary episcopacy, the struggling Methodist mission in Liberia was strengthened and expanded. Despite his frenetic and often quite successful efforts, relations with the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church were anything but cordial. Methodist periodicals and Taylor's own publications record the continuous struggles to define and control the methods and results of missionary endeavor. Taylor and the Missionary Society viewed the con­ flict as related to missiology. It will be argued here that the conflict be­ tween Bishop William Taylor and the Methodist Missionary Society was not only a function of mission method and ecclesiological control; it was also related to the socio-religious structures ofTaylor's life and to the socio­ religious transitions within Methodism during the second half ofthe nine­ teenthcentury. Sources and Method The diaries, notebooks and collected correspondence of Bishop Taylor have not, in so far as I have been able to ascertain, survived.l Such cor­ respondence as has been preserved is scattered throughout th<fUnited States. The largest body of letters is that in the archives ofthe Board of Global Ministries at the Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church,Madison,NJ. Other materials appear to be lost. Although judgment must be withheld, it would appear that the lack of manuscript sources is not a serious drawback. Taylor published, usually in awesome detail, the record ofhis ministry, travels, joys, sorrows and IBecause ofthe excessive length of many ofthe footnotes they will be found at the<end of the article rather than in the normal location. 197 ••g cm _ 198 Methodist History conflicts. As was the custom of period publications, these often included the complete text of important legal and ecclesiastical documents as well as of the correspondence he viewed as crucial to understanding the situa­ tion. Naturally, one would expect that in this selection process, data not helpful to explicating his position was not incorporated into the various books and periodical articles. Taylor published, often with the aid of an editor, seventeen books most of which appeared in more than one edition,2 and was involved in the edition of two periodicals and other serial reports and newsletters. 3 These provided a living for Taylor and his family as well as the financial base for the "Self-Supporting Missions." The style and contents of the first volume, Seven Years Street Preaching in San Francisco (1856) are unpolished and disjointed.4 His writing style (and his choice of editors) improved significantly through four decades of publishing. However, even in The Story ofMy Life (1895) edited by historian John Clark Ridpath, it is difficult to follow the often disjointed narrative in the early sections which depend on Taylor's memory 75 years removed from the events. When he had sources upon which to draw, the volume is clear and fluent. His last book, Flaming Torch in Darkest Africa (1898), is a remarkable dOCUluent of American perceptions of African society, traditions, economics and mission history. Four unpublished, and as yet unused, sources provide insight into aspects of Taylor's life. The first is a journal kept by a certain Ann Booth of their voyage from Baltimore to San Francisco in 1849. It provides an important independent witness to Taylor's early style of ministry, character and family relationships. 5 The second is the record book of the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission in Angola or, as it is often designated in the minutes, the "Taylor Self-Supporting Mission." It covers the period from 1885 to 1895, providing an inside account of the establishment and early development of a "Self-Supporting Mission.,,6 Finally, there is Bishop Matthew Simpson's diary of his visit to California (1853-1854), 7 as well as the diary of James Thoburn with observations on Taylor's years in 8 India. • The goal of this essay is to examine the social and religious struc­ tures of William Taylor's experiences in ministry within the context of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Wesleyan Methodism focusing on their disjunction with those of the Mission Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Because the mission activity and conflicts over that activity re­ cieved their form in the course of Taylor's work, we will begin by review­ ing Taylor's life and ministry with attention to the points of conflict, as they developed, with the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the Mis­ sionary Society of that church. On the basis of this analysis, the issues in contention, as Taylor and the Mission Society understood them, will delineated. These will then be examined in light of the larger social and Bishop William Taylor and Methodist Mission 199 religious structures impinging on Taylor, the Mission Society, and their I) ~ relationship. I" Taylor as Missionary: Phase I, 1821-1870 The Forming ofa Missionary. Taylor's father, Stuart, was converted at the Methodist's Cold Sulphur Springs Camp Meeting in the hills of Virginia during 1832 and became an evangelist. William Taylor became a regular participant in campmeetings and revival meetings. 9 In 1941 he had a religious experience at Panther Gap Camp Meeting (Virginia).lO The next year was spent studying and the summer of 1842 teaching school "at Rapp's schoolhouse, on the south branch of Buffalo Creek, near where I had lived with my grandmother when I was five years of age.nll At the end of the three month teaching appointment, N. J. B. Morgan, Presiding Elder of the Rockingham District appointed him "junior preacher" on the Franklin Circuit exhorting him to take his "Bible and Methodist Hymn Book" and preach. 12 His father supplied"... horse, saddle, bridle, and the indispensable saddlebags of the itinerents of those days, well filled with clothing and books."13 The next seven years were spent adjusting to his profession. More than half a century later he would recall disastrous situations, "the nightmare of embarrassment that choked me almost to strangulation.,,14 However, in 1845 he was admitted into full membership in the Baltimore Conference and that same year, under the influence of The Guide to Holiness and a reading of Wesley's Plain Account conditioned by that periodical, Taylor had another religious experience. 15 He met Phoebe and Walter Palmer at Shrewsbury Camp Meeting near Baltimore in 1848 and remained in contact with them for many years. 16 After the 1845 Conference, Taylor was assigned first to Sweet Springs Circuit and then to Georgetown (1846). To this point, no record has been found as to how this preacher from the mountains appeared to his parishioners, although John Paul reports a story (otherwise undocumented) that one parishioner urged Taylor to buy a suit fitted by a tailor. Taylor rejected the advice "not wishing to predicate his standing in his new sta­ tion on his outward adornment.,,17 Taylor however eventually adapted to his context, was appointed to a more prestigious church in North Baltimore (1848) and attracted the attention of Bishop Beverly Waugh. 18 Missionary to California. Taylor recalled that Bishop Waugh inter­ viewed him as a candidate for California in September 1848. He records a conversation about the appointment of Isaac Owen and the decision not to appoint Henry Benson, Professor of Greek at Indiana Asbury Univer­ sity.19 More likely it was late in November or December. Isaac Owen was appointed to the California mission, responsible to William Roberts of the Oregon Conference on October 16, 1848. 20 On November 7, 1848 Owen recommended Benson for appointmene1 and Waugh explored the .M}.'tr _ 200 Methodist History possibility despite concerns"... in regard to the feebleness of his con­ stitution and that of his wife.,,22 On January 1,1849, Waugh wrote Owen reporting that Benson had decided not to go to California and that: After due deliberation, and much prayer for direction, I this day appointed Rev. William Taylor, of the Baltimore Annual Conference, the second Missionary to California, to act in concert with you, and under your direction. Brother Taylor is a most reliable man. About 28 years old - has a wife and one child, and his wife's sister, who being a member of his family, will accompany him. He has been 7 or 8 years an Itinerant Preacher. He has a robust constitution - is pious, zealous - steady and uniform. He is a tried man, and you will find him all that you could reasonably expect in a colleague. He will write you in a day or two, at my suggestion. There are strong objections to his removal from North Baltimore, where he is now stationed. We shall have, therefore, to allow him to remain there as long as is practicable. Of course, nothing is settled about the precise time of his starting - nor of the route he will take.23 Arrangements were quickly made. These included a pre-fabricated chapel intended for San Francisco which accompanied Taylor to Califor­ nia as well as roofing lessons for Taylor.24 Taylor and his family sailed from Baltimore on April 19, 1849.
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