Thomas Campbell Letter of Dismission (1823)


MEMOIRS


OF


ALEXANDER CAMPBELL


EMBRACING


A VIEW OF THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND PRINCIPLES
OF THE RELIGIOUS REFORMATION
WHICH HE ADVOCATED.


BY ROBERT RICHARDSON

    More sweet than odors caught by him who sails
    Near spicy shores of Araby the blest,
        A thousand times more exquisitely sweet,
        The freight of holy feeling which we meet,
    In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales
From fields where good men walk, or bow'rs wherein they rest.
WORDSWORTH


VOL. II.



PHILADELPHIA
J.   B.   L I P P I N C O T T   &   CO
1871.





Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
ROBERT RICHARDSON,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of West Virginia.




LIPPINCOTT'S PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
 




      Be it known to all whom it may concern, that we have dismissed the following brethren in good standing with us, to constitute a church of Christ at Wellsburg, namely:

Alexander Campbell, Margaret Campbell, John Brown, Ann Brown, Mary Sayres, Mary Marshall, Mary Little, Richard McConnel, Stephen Priest, Mr. Jones, John Chambers, Mary Chambers, Jacob Osborne, Susan Osborne, Mrs. Bakewell, Selina Bakewell, Mrs. Dicks, William Gilchrist, Jane Gilchrist, Mr. Brockaw, Nancy Brockaw, Alexander Holliday, Joseph Freeman, Margaret Parkinson, Jane Parkinson, Mrs. Talbot, George Young, Daniel Babbit, Catharine Harvey, Mrs. Braley, Solomon Salah, Delilah Salah.

      Done at our meeting, August 31st, A. D. 1823, and signed by the order of the church.

THOMAS CAMPBELL      

[Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol. II, p. 69.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      Thomas Campbell's Letter of Dismission from the Brush Run Church was first published in Robert Richardson's Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (1869), Vol. 2, p. 69 (footnote). The electronic version of the essay has been produced from the one-volume edition published by J. B. Lippincott in 1871.

      This church-business letter is of historical interest since it was the means by which Alexander Campbell thwarted the plans of his opponents in the Redstone Association, who had been plotting to have him excommunicated on charges of heresy. By leaving the church at Brush Run and forming the church at Wellsburg, which later united with the Mahoning Association, Alexander Campbell placed himself outside the ecclesiastical authority of his enemies. An account of this episode is found on pp. 68-70 of the second volume of Richardson's Memoirs of Alexander Campbell.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 1 January 1998.
Updated 8 July 2003.

Thomas Campbell Letter of Dismission (1823)
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