Who Shot Callaway Manes? Part 3

  "My Savior's Call I Must Obey"

In brief:  Callaway Manes' history of organizing Baptist churches in Pulaski, Laclede, and Camden Counties, as postmaster of Conn's Creek, and as school master.  This section ends with the murder of his brother-in-law, Daniel Tucker.  Time period 1839 to 1859.

                                             Headings Chapel Cemetery, Owens County, Indiana

Callaway's mother, Mary Lawson Manes, died in Indiana in 1851. Her tombstone inscription reads "Died a member of the Babtist Church."  Both Callaway and Seth were ordained Baptist ministers. "It is said they preached all the way across Missouri from the Mississippi to the Missouri Rivers, organizing Churches, wherever they passed."  Preachers were not given much if any money then and what little they received was something that could be used by him or his family. No one ever thought of demanding a salary, if he had people would have scornfully said 'He is preaching for the money.'"  Services were held in homes until a large open shed, on the order of a brush arbor, was built on the Seth Manes farm, with Callaway as pastor. They held services in the Manes Shed until the Manes Schoolhouse was built of logs in 1850.(1)
                                            

 Meeting of the Pulaski County Association of Baptist Churches at the Old Friendship Baptist Church circa 1900.(1)

Not long after Callaway Manes had been preaching here, he got acquainted with Harrison Elliott who lived in Camden County and was also a Baptist preacher. "They became chums when they first met, and for years and years, they traveled all over Pulaski and adjoining counties. Both were poor laboring men, sometimes horseback, and often on foot, and I have never heard of either one of them ever receiving one cent for their preaching. They were moved by different motives than that of money."(3)  When both men had sons born within months of each other in 1846, Harrison named his son Harrison Manes Elliott and Callaway named his son Harrison Elliott Manes.

Samuel Jasper Manes tells of hearing Harrison Elliott preach as a young boy one Saturday, church meeting day, in 1855, at Callaway's house on Conn's Creek. "I well remember his text: 'And the Lord said to Noah, Come thou, and all thy house, into the Ark': Genesis 7th Chapter 1st verse. It was the custom then for an exhortation to follow after the main sermon if there were more than one preacher present.  Callaway followed, and it was invariably the custom before the exhortation to sing a verse or two of a song.  Callaway had a favorite song which he invariably sang on such occasions, and the following is part -

'My God and King has said to me, Go and proclaim
To Jew and Gentile, bound and free, Behold the Lamb of God;
My Savior's call I must obey
With joy that's mixed with pain.
I'll go in tears, both night and day, Salvation to proclaim.'

At this point, his voice got hoarse, and tears run down his cheeks. Harrison Elliott arose to his feet, said 'Amen,' and shook hands with Callaway. The poor old pioneer preachers are gone and, although
'their bodies lie moldering in the clay,
Yet they live in memory's page.
They live in future glory,
Honored both by youth and age

And fill their graves with glory.'"(3) 

The Zion Church, twelve miles north of Lebanon, was organized in 1854 when C. H. Manes became their minister and so continued for three years.(5)   

Callaway also preached in the Old Friendship Community before there was a church there. This church began when some women, hearing of a Baptist preacher who was passing through, went to a certain road to intercept him and waited almost all day.  He finally came, and organized a church sometime during 1857.(1)(2)   The first building was a little log house.  "The early pioneers who worked and labored, and some even shed their blood that the gospel might be planted here in Pulaski County has born results as Pulaski County has more Baptists pro-rata population than any other county in Missouri."(1)

In 1859 Callaway and his best friend Harrison Elliott together organized the Good Hope Baptist Church in the Auglaize Township in Camden County. "(4)

Callaway Manes was the Postmaster at Conn's Creek from 1847 to 1850.  In support of neighbor James Yates' application for a Revolutionary War pension in 1851, he wrote:

                          Image from the National Archives and Records Administration

Callaway taught the first school here, on Conn's Creek in a cabin that had been built by Daniel Tucker.  Daniel was married to Elizabeth "Betsy" Evans, a sister to Sallie and Rebecca Manes. The school house was built on the county line between Pulaski County and Camden County and Callaway arranged the seats so all the girls were taught in Camden County and the boys in Pulaski County.(1)

Daniel Tucker, Callaway's brother-in-law, was killed by bushwhackers in 1847.  Daniel, as told by his son Daniel Lorenzo Tucker, "had just come home from selling his cattle. He knew the area was crawling with thieves and bushwhackers in those days, so he hid his money under an apple tree. However, the Bushwhackers found out he had the money and came to his house. Daniel, knowing he was going to be killed, removed some buttons from his shirt and gave one to each of his kids. That day his children had to watch him be murdered."(3)

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Sources:

(1) "Where there is no vision, the people perish" by Oma Hensley Willits.  Printed by Missouri Baptist Press in 1970.  The book is available through the Family History LIbrary in Salt Lake City, Utah, the William Jewell College Library in Liberty, Missouri, and the McDonald County Library in Pineville, Missouri.

(2) History of Friendship and Swedeborg Baptist Churches, Pulaski County, Missouri.  By May Gan Cox.   The State Historical Society of Missouri.  This account can be viewed at the State Historical Society in Columbia, Missouri, or a copy requested by mail.

(3) Manuscript of family history and letters written by Samuel Jasper Manes and Jesse Gustin.  These pages are contained in the collection edited by E.V. Brezeale.  The collection is available on microfilm at the Springfield, Missouri Public Library or the microfilm may be requested at any LDS Family History Center.

(4)  Good Hope Baptist Church Minutes, 1859-1882.  Abstracted by Bob Barr.  A copy of these minutes can be requested by mail from the Ozarks Genealogical Society in Springfield, Missouri.

(5)  A History of the Baptists in Missouri by Robert Samuel Duncan.  1882.  Available online as a free ebook.