The Galax Gatherers: The Gospel Among the HighlandersUniv. of Tennessee Press, 2005 - 220 pages Perhaps no group has had such a controversial place in the literature of Appalachianstudies as the home missionaries. Accused of cultural and religious imperialism, many scholars fault home missionaries for casting mountain peoples in the role of?other, ? as well as for partnering with economic interests to exploit the region's resources. Edward O. Guerrant, a Kentucky-born physician and Presbyterian minister, has been singled out as one of the worst offenders.For most of his adult life, Guerrant traveled the hills and hamlets of southernAppalachia, spreading gospel, building churches, and recording his keen observations ofthe landscape and the people. In 1910, Guerrant published The Galax Gatherers: TheGospel among the Highlanders, an account of these travels. Reissued here for the first time, The Galax Gatherers is a fascinating look at Guerrant's beliefs, prejudices, and vision for a people ?left behind? by the modern world.Guerrant's interest in Appalachia began when he served as a soldier in the Confederatearmy, during which time he traveled the mountains of southwestern Virginia, easternTennessee, and eastern Kentucky. When the war ended in 1865, he began training tobecome a medical doctor, eventually setting up practice near Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, where population was sparse. But Guerrant was just as interested in saving the souls of his mountain neighbors as their bodies; in 1873 he went to seminary, and by 1877 he was named to the Presbyterian Church's Home Missions Committee.So began Guerrant's famously contentious career as a mountain missionary. Using hismedical expertise to entice followers, Guerrant recruited nearly three thousand new Church members in his first four-year term as ?Synodical Evangelist, ? organized twenty-five congregations, and built fifteen houses of worship. In 1897, Guerrant founded the Society of Soul Winners, a non-denominational organization that trained ministers and teachers for mountain work and constructed churches, mission schools, colleges, an orphanage, and a hospital.In a new introduction to the text, Mark Huddle notes that the lingering picture ofGuerrant is more complex than scholars have heretofore acknowledged. The GalaxGatherers is the story of the mountain missionaries in the words of one of their own andan absorbing record of early twentieth-century Appalachian life. |
From inside the book
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Contents
Glencairn | 6 |
In the North Carolina Alleghanies | 15 |
The ScotchIrish | 24 |
Dedication on Haddix Fork | 30 |
From the Big Black Mountain | 36 |
The Ivy Patch | 42 |
From the Troublesome | 49 |
One Woman | 57 |
Mormons in the Mountains | 119 |
Satan and the Mormons | 125 |
Missions on the Canoe | 132 |
On the Canoe | 140 |
Puncheon Camp | 147 |
Highland College | 156 |
The Orphans Home Dr D Clay Lilly | 162 |
Two Highland Funerals | 171 |
On the Shoulder Blade | 67 |
Chenowee Dr J D Patton | 73 |
Elkatawa | 83 |
The House that God Built | 91 |
Preaching to the Poor | 98 |
Visit to Cataloochee | 104 |
At Ebenezer | 113 |
Glen Athol Mrs Mary Hoge Wardlaw | 179 |
A Word from Prof Gordon | 186 |
On the Grapevine Grace Guerrant | 195 |
Jetts Creek | 202 |
From the Lost Creek | 208 |
217 | |
Other editions - View all
The Galax Gatherers: The Gospel Among the Highlanders (Classic Reprint) Edward O. Guerrant No preview available - 2018 |
GALAX GATHERERS Edward Owings 1838-1916 Guerrant,Grace Owings Guerrant B. 1875 Guerrant No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
beautiful better blessed boys Breathitt Brother brought build built called Camp Canoe chapel Christ Christian church City congregation County Creek crossed crowded Cumberland dark faithful feet field fifty five Fork four gathered gave girls give God's Gospel Guerrant half hands hard heart heaven Highlanders hills hope horse hundred Kentucky lady land live lost meeting miles Miss mission missionaries Mormon morning moun mountains mule nearly never night noble North o'clock organized Papa persons poor prayers preached preacher Presbyterian present Puncheon railroad rain received ride river road rocks Sabbath school-house seats sermon singing Society Soul Winners started Sunday tains taught teachers teaching things thousand took town twenty valley walked week women young