An interesting letter from 1880 which was written to the editor of the Winchester Democrat tells about preachers in Breathitt County at the time.

Preachers In Breathitt

April 1880

Editors Democrat:

Both you and your readers know that Breathitt County has of late contracted a large share of attention on the wicked ways of some of her men. Like other folks, I had read her story as the printing and publishing people had prepared it for the papers, but when I had an occasion recently to cross over her borders, to walk about her places, and consider her peculiar people, I said to myself, "The half had not been told me."

Mountain Manners

Our polite, polished people know but little of the manners of their neighbors in "the hill country." They have read numerous accounts of their primitive implements, coarse garments, rude speech, and ill-manners, but an adequate idea of the mountain men cannot be obtained from a pen picture of him. Still, when by any accident you happen to become truly acquainted with him, you are seized with an irresistible desire to communicate what you know. Hence this letter.

The Trip

Early in February of 1880, I started to Breathitt in company with my brother, Joseph (who, by the way, came from a mountain family), and our route lay through Jackson and Owsley Counties, both older sisters of Breathitt. At Indian Lick, near McKee, the county seat of Jackson, we saw the identical oak on whose branches our father and his hunting companions used to hang their deer, over 50 years ago, and whose bark still shows unmistakable marks of many a rifle ball aimed with the accuracy of the best marksmanship at a blaze on it side for the skins of the game that had been taken. The recollection which I still have of those times, and the circumstances of my parents and their neighbors, at that epoch inclines me to excuse the mistakes, overlook the rudeness, and pass by unnoticed, many of the faults and foibles of the people about whom I am writing. The fact is, I narrowly escaped being one of them myself till this day. On arriving at McKee I was requested to preach. The supper bells were ringing, and there was time for something less than 30 minutes notice only, but on going to the courthouse I found nearly all the inhabitants of the little town, a house full of men, women, and children, for those folks go to meetings on such occasion just as they would go to the field or the shop, without ostentatious parade or ceremony, and with the slightest alternation of their toilet; a right good custom. The children sang well, the young people behaved nicely, and all things evinced the refining and elevating influence of their recently organized Sunday School. From McKee, we went to Booneville, and there we had been instructed to stop with a man by the name of Isaac Terry, which we did on getting to our journey's end in Breathitt.

Isaac Terry

When we got to the house of this genial gentleman, notwithstanding, the snow was falling thick and fast, he came out to meet us bare-headed, with no coat on, and the collar and bosom of his lindsay shirt being unbuttoned, his neck and breast were exposed to the inclement air. I do not mean to say that he was uncomfortably clad, for in making his toilet, his own comfort is the only thing consulted, as we were told. It is said, and he admits it, that in the summertime he wears but one garment, a long cotton shirt made in the fashion of a gown, and that he will not be bothered with such trifles as hat and coat.

The building was of wooden structure, built on the old-fashioned plan, with two pews and a hall between. It is covered, and has floors and chimneys, but the cracks are neither daubed, nor chinked, nor painted, nor covered with boards. On the occasion of which I now speak the floor was white with snow, and the air in the room was exceedingly fresh, and as he claimed, refreshing to him and his family. His theory is that "a right human can't live in the tight houses they have down below." Mr. Terry is not unacquainted with the ways of "the people down below." He goes to Frankfort often on business, knows the governor and other officials of the state personally, and has endured the restraints of polite society quite frequently. He is able to have things; otherwise, if he wished them so. He owns about 5,000 acres of land, and Judge Randal thought his name sufficient on a $10,000 bond a few months ago. He is a democrat, in his own inimitable style, "the chief corner stone of the Breathitt democracy in little Mat Adams' district." Several times his name has been before the conventions when the order of the day was the nomination of a county representative. He has abundant provisions for his family, his friends, and the stranger who may luckily happen his way. He gives freely, talks freely, and in his way lives well. He has no religion, but among the people of Breathitt, he is not peculiar in this, for not many of her citizens are intensely pious. This leads me to think and speak of Dick Johnston.

Dick Johnston

This Negro is a very distinctly marked type of the African race. He is the only resident preacher we met or heard of while in the county. He claims to be a Baptist, but admits that he does not know to what order of Baptists he belongs. He preaches to, baptizes, and married both Negroes and whites indiscriminately, showing no partiality to his own race on account of color, and this is more than can be said of many white preachers in this country, you know. Dick is doing what he can for his countrymen, but it is a shame to the more favored portion of our boasted Christian land that no more efficient ministrations are known in Breathitt's benighted borders. I am apprised of the visit and work of the Evangelist, Rev. Geo. O. Barnes.

Rev. Geo. O. Barnes

I am acquainted with the spasmodic effort which was made by him at Jackson. But, I am also aware of the difference between an impulse and a sentiment, between a revival and a healthy Christian life. In many respects Mr. Barnes' effort was a commendable one, but a laborer is needed in such a field who will cultivate in season, guard during growth, and garner in harvest time; an untiring, unremitting effort is the only kind that gives promise of success in such a place. You will agree with me in this opinion when I tell you that there are not more than a dozen persons in the entire county who are able to apprehend the doctrines of Christianity as set forth in an ordinary gospel sermon sufficiently to obey intelligently what is preached. Here, I must refer to their behavior in church.

Behavior In Church

At a place where Dick Johnston was expected to preach, I met with the people on a Sunday. Here, I learned that they are in the habit of passing in and out of the house during the services as bees go in and out of a hive. Some 10 or 15 smoked in the room, while the preaching was going on; yet, to their credit I must say that they only talked occasionally when it was necessary to ask for tobacco, a match, or the like. They evidently did not aim to disturb me.

Ignorance Illustrated

To illustrate what has been said of their deep ignorance about religious matters I will state the fact that two young ladies of one of the very best families, said to us that their father would not let them go the hear Dick often, for fear they would "join him;" that he was not willing for Dick to baptize them, but that if we would preach in their neighborhood they would "join" us. This shows that they simply know that something should be done in the name of religion, but that they had no adequate conception of the meaning or purpose of that something.

But, Mr. Editor, I did not set out to write a book on this theme, and therefore, I must close this letter. Shall we hope for a better blessing for benighted Breathitt? Let out missionaries and evangelists answer.

Yours fraternally,

Wm. Azbill