To add a bit to the story of Isham Tatum who was the subject of recent messages on the GERMANNA_COLONIES Mailing List at Rootsweb. (To read about this "List" and to subscribe to it, click here .) Isham was one of the early Methodist ministers in America. His nickname was "The Silver Trumpet", in recognition of his oratorical skills. There is a lot of tradition connected with him which is difficult to prove today.
By tradition, he slept under the stars as he rode horseback for several years on the Methodist circuit in North Carolina and Virginia. He had five wives, and he is believed to be buried next to all five of them but the location is unknown. From the records that do exist, he appears to have been a successful preacher and a prosperous landowner.
His name first appears in the Methodist Episcopal Church records 21 May 1776 at Baltimore, where he was admitted on trial as a preacher. In following years, the Church Conference gives his residence as Pittsylvania County, Virginia, in 1777; Fluvanna County, Virginia, in 1778; Amelia County, Virginia, in 1779; Hanover County, Virginia, in 1780. At the next Conference, he was reported to have "...desisted from travelling this year."
Perhaps the reason he did not travel in 1781, was because of his marriage that year to Rachel Garrett in Middlesex County. He was 25 and she was almost 27. He settled in what became Madison County, where he and Rachel had nine children from 1783 to 1797. She died in 1812. At the age of 62 he married Susannah in 1812, Mary in 1832, Sarah in 1834, and Fanny Stypes in 1837. These are recorded in his Bible. Only the marriage of Sarah (of the last four wives) is recorded in a public record, and there she is called Sarah T. Jones, with an added note that she was Sarah T. Joice.
The first toehold of the Methodist church in the Culpeper/Madison area was due to Henry Fry. Fry was an alcoholic and turned to religion and prayer to overcome his addiction. Fry's ballroom (in his home "Meander") became a regular place of worship. Several Methodist preachers appeared at Fry's home including Bishop Francis Asbury.
Where Tatum preached in the Madison area prior to 1824 is not clear. He performed marriages in Orange, Culpeper, and Madison Counties. Since he had some connections to Henry Fry, he probably preached in Fry's ballroom. A church building in which Tatum would preach regularly was apparently not built until 1824. In that year, Isham Tatum, Sr., and Susanna his wife, sold (for $1.00) to John Wayland; Isham Tatum, Jr.; Ira Tatum; John Stockdell; Henry Peyton; Henry B. Fry; and Benjamin Fishback, as trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a tract of land to be used to erect a church. This was the Bethsaida M.E. Church in Brightwood. A new church was erected in 1890 on the site.
(The above information about Isham Tatum was taken from an article in
Beyond Germanna
, page 532, by Joan Hackett.)
(to be continued)
(21 May 04)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.