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Chapter 7
Call of the Bush River Church

Near the end of the period, historian O'Neall records that "On the 9th of October 1816, Elder Charles Crow was called to, and took upon himself the pastoral care of the . . ." Bush River Church. "Never was any religious body confided to abler or better hands. Few preachers were better endowed with grace from on high; few men in and out of the ministry presented more lovable lives than Charles Crow. He continued to discharge the duties till . . . like many of his brethren, he thought it to be his duty to his family to seek his home in the Southwest. There he . . . preached most acceptably his Master's Kingdom, and . . . continued faithful, able and venerable . . ., to labor in that work." As O'Neall's account foretells, Charles Crow would not remain long as pastor of the Bush River Church. In three years, he would be on a new field of service along the Big Oakmulgee Creek and other areas of Perry County, Ala-bama.

By 1820, cotton was king of Newberry County. The price of good land rose to $15.00 an acre, making 100 acres cost $1,500. General Andrew Jackson's military defeat of the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and treaties signed with other tribes, transferred much of the land in what became the state of Alabama to the United States government, who put it up for sale to white citizens for about $2.00 an acre. Thus, 100 acres in Alabama could be had for $200, or thirteen per cent of the same size plot of land in Newberry County.

The economics of the times dictated what happened next. An excitement was generated in the Bush River region to move to Alabama. This ex-citement was so intense that it came to be called "Alabama fever." The only cure was to move to Alabama. The congregation at Bush River Church was infected. Some people there wanted to expand their for-tunes and were lured to Alabama when the state was opened to settlers in the period beginning in late 1817.

Newberry historian Pope reports that " . . . a sizable group went out from the neighborhood of Bush River Baptist Church." The Bush River migration was only part of a larger migration out of Newberry County to Alabama and Mississippi. With Newberry and the whole state on the move, Charles Crow could hardly escape the influence of commu-nities abandoning their homes and farms and moving West. That he moved too is a natural conclusion.

Circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that Charles left South Caro-lina sometime in early 1819. He purchased land in Alabama on April 7, 1819. He may have traveled to Alabama first without his family and then returned for them later in the year. He asked the Bethel Baptist Association for a letter of recommendation in early October 1819 be-cause " . . . our Beloved Brother the Reverend Charles Crow has signi-fied to us that he intends to leave the state . . . " On November 13, 1819, he applied to the Bush River Church for a church letter for Sarah Harlan and himself, " . . . together with testimonials as to his ordination and reputation as a Minister of the Gospel. . . "

The only logical reason for these requests is because he was moving, or had already moved, as both of the requests could have been made through correspondence from Alabama. Whichever the case, Charles ended his Carolina years in 1819 for a new home on the Alabama fron-tier.

Sketches Outline | Chapter 8
Copyright 1995 by J. Hugh LeBaron