Prospecting for Gems of Bloomington's Past #11
"Black Aaron", the Great Awakening and Camp Meetings in Bloomington
Last time, we discussed how former slave, Aaron Wallace, procured a lot in 1818 for David H Maxwell in Bloomington at a real estate auction occurring shortly after the town was founded and lots were laid out. The Maxwells, stanch Presbyterians of the mainline variety, helped found the first church in town as early as 1819, and immediately had three of their children baptized. Isaac Reed, Presbyterian missionary and brother-in-law of Professor Baynard R Hall, was their first pastor.1
The Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival which began in Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s and early 1800s among Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. During this period, the Methodists sent circuit riders and the Presbyterians, traveling missionaries, to reach people in frontier locations with the gospel.2 Revivals characterized by emotional preaching were popular, sparking a number of reform movements and attracting hundreds of converts to new Protestant denominations.
The Restoration Movement, the Campbellites, and the Christian Church
Some of the followers of early Presbyterian reformer, Barton W Stone, arrived in Bloomington by the time the town was laid out in 1818. Stone, a Kentuckian who rejected all creeds, preached dependence on the Word of God on a visit to Bloomington in the mid 1820’s. This sect had no church building at first, meeting during the winter in their log cabins for worship and, in summer, in a grove of trees to the northeast where they held “camp meetings”. The organization of the Christian Church in Bloomington occurred in 1826 with the purchase of Lot 167 on Kirkwood Avenue for $61 from George and Lucy Ritchey and the building of a log church on that site.3 John Henderson was their first pastor.
The Campbell House, a two-story brick house standing today at 213 E. Kirkwood (presently, the Bloomington headquarters of Habitat for Humanity) was named for Thomas and Alexander Campbell, two founders of the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) who, along with Stone, were also part of what was known as the Restoration Movement, Their followers, called Campbellites, were seeking the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the early church in the New Testament. “By 1884, church trustees purchased the corner Lot 165 and immediately started to build a new red brick church. The church was dedicated in 1885 and named the Kirkwood Avenue Christian Church. As the new church was being built, the original building was taken down and Campbell House was constructed”, re-using bricks from the old church. It served as a parsonage for many years..4 5
Below are pictures of the leaders of The Restoration Movement and founders of the Disciples of Christ:6
“Black Aaron”, preacher
Sometime before 1827, Aaron Wallace became a preacher in camp meetings near Bloomington. He was listed as “Rev. Aaron Wallace”, a resident of Bloomington in 1818.7 Since he was already a preacher at this time, he could have preached in the church when he lived with the Maxwells in Hanover, Indiana or, even earlier, as a slave in Kentucky.
A description of Wallace’s preaching appeared in an early history of Lawrence and Monroe County.“Old settlers said that the voice of John Henderson singing the old-time hymns at evening could be heard a mile away. He had in his employ an ex-slave brought from Kentucky. The people called him ‘Black Aaron’ (Aaron Wallace). He could preach and act out his sermons at the same time. When he took David and Goliath as his text, he would fold his handkerchief into a sling, put in the stone, whirl it and let it fly, then turning quickly he would personate Goliath, receive the stone in his forehead and fall down dead on the platform.” 8
Baynard R Hall, Indiana State Seminary’s first principal and professor, recalled his experience at a camp meeting at which Aaron Wallace was one of the featured preachers in his book, The New Purchase. Hall had reluctantly attended the camp meeting around 1828 at the urging of a friend-observing, rather than participating.
While Hall’s book was called a work of fiction, it appears to have been an exaggerated recollection of real experiences in early Bloomington, with only the names of the characters changed. Aaron Wallace’s fictitious name in this book was Mizriam Ham.
Above is a drawing by German engraver, William Momberger of “Mizraim Ham”preaching at a camp meeting. This comes from Baynard R Hall’s second addition (1855) and revision of The New Purchase from 1843, which deleted critical comments about President Andrew Wylie or “Dr. Bluduplex”, but added four illustrations.9
According to Hall, the camp was located about 8 miles from “Woodville” (Bloomington) in a clearing of a thick forest, with fires illuminating the meetings at night. “The camp was furnished with several stands for preaching, exhorting, jumping and jerking; but still one place was the pulpit, above all others…….But our finest performance was to be at night : and at the first toot of the tin horn, we assembled in expectation of a ‘good time’ ….. Our dusky divine, the Rev. Mizraim Ham (Aaron Wallace), commenced his sermon, founded on the duel between David and Goliath. ……Mr. Ham wonderfully personated all the different speakers, varying his tone, manner, attitude, etc., as varying characters and circumstances demanded. “
The Second Great Awakening notably altered the religious climate in America, as ordinary people were encouraged to make a personal connection with God, instead of relying on a minister.
It is remarkable that a talented black former slave was able to have a successful preaching ministry to white people in early 19th century America before the Civil War.
Blanchard, C. (1884). Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana: Historical and biographical. Chicago: F. A. Battey & co., p 479.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Great_Awakening (accessed 6/13/2022)
Monroe County Deeds, Book B, Page 076.
http://www.bloomingpedia.org/wiki/Campbell_House. (accessed 6/13/2022)
https://www.fccbloomington.org/about-us/the-fcc-story/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_Movement
Blanchard, C. (1884). Counties of Morgan, Monroe, and Brown, Indiana: Historical and biographical. Chicago: F. A. Battey & co., p 455.
(1914). History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana: their people, industries, and institutions. Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen, p 309-310.
The New Purchase, or Early Years in the Far West 1855, Jno. R. Nunemacher, D. Appleton and co., J. B. Lippincott and Co.Microform - Second edition, revised by the author. Two volumes in one., pp 361-381.