Most famous camp meeting or sacrament of the Great Revival in the West (1797-1805); hosted by the Presbyterian Church at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, and its pastor, Barton W. Stone, August 6-12, 1801.
Little is known of the arrangements made in preparation for this meeting. Four-day celebrations of communion, with two days of preparation beginning on Friday, followed by the reenactment of the Supper on Sunday and a thanksgiving sermon on Monday, were a well-established Presbyterian practice with roots in the Church of Scotland. Word of the upcoming sacrament at Cane Ridge was spread through a network of religious activities that Stone made sure included Methodists as well as Presbyterians. Accounts of the meeting refer to the “tent” — a covered lecture platform or stage made of wood located 100 yards to the southwest of the meetinghouse. Based on attendance reports in the thousands for Presbyterian sacraments in central Kentucky earlier in the summer, such structures were necessary since the log meetinghouse had a maximum capacity of 400.
People began arriving at Cane Ridge during the day on Friday, August 6. The first scheduled service was in the evening, with Presbyterian minister Matthew Houston preaching. The service was in the packed meetinghouse, where some lingered all night. Rain may have curtailed the numbers. Presbyterian minister John Lyle and others worshiped that evening in the home of Cane Ridge elder Andrew Irvine. No doubt worship was also conducted in the homes of other members of the congregation who, like Irvine, provided hospitality to visitors who had come some distance to participate in the sacrament.
Saturday a growing crowd filled the grounds of the meeting house and spread into the adjoining grove owned by a Methodist, Ilai Nunn. The number of wagons camped on the grounds, at least over Saturday and Sunday, was estimated at between 125 and 148, covering, as one observer reported, an area the equivalent of four city blocks. In addition, thousands of participants arrived for the day, including not only those who lived within horseback riding distance but also people who found accommodations in neighboring communities.
Estimates of the number of people on the grounds Saturday and Sunday ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 and beyond. Since most daily visitors had to come by horse or wagon, logistical considerations, including space to accommodate animals, suggest that no more than 10,000 persons could have been on the grounds at any one time. It is possible that 20,000 different people (nearly 10 percent of the recorded population of Kentucky in 1800) were at Cane Ridge at some time during the week.
The first sermon Saturday morning was delivered in the meetinghouse. In the afternoon, preaching was continuous both in the meetinghouse and from the tent. Before dark the grounds echoed with penitent cries and shouts. People crowded into the meetinghouse to hear Stone and others preach. People began falling, a phenomenon that had marked the revival since Methodists had been included in the leadership of the Presbyterian sacraments, beginning in Logan County, Kentucky, in the summer of 1800.
In his autobiography, Stone described the phenomenon as he first observed it early in the spring of 1801. “Many, very many fell down, as men slain in battle, and continued for hours together in an apparently breathless and motionless state — sometimes for a few moments reviving, and exhibiting symptoms of life by a deep groan, or piercing shriek, or by a prayer for mercy most fervently uttered.” Gradually they would obtain release; the “gloomy cloud, which had covered their faces” giving way first to smiles of hope and then of joy, they would finally rise “shouting deliverance” and would address the surrounding crowd “in language truly eloquent and impressive.” “With astonishment,” Stone exclaimed, “did I hear men, women and children declaring the wonderful works of God, and the glorious mysteries of the gospel.” He reported that their appeals to others were “solemn, heart-penetrating, bold and free.” Noting that he was amazed at “the knowledge of gospel truth displayed” in their addresses, he observed that, hearing their appeals, others would fall down “into the same state from which the speakers had just been delivered.”
At Cane Ridge, some of the persons who fell were removed to some place where a smaller group could offer prayer on their behalf and engage in singing hymns. Others were allowed to remain where they fell. On Saturday evening, the sweltering heat inside the meetinghouse, along with the growing emotional pitch, drove Presbyterian preacher Lyle outdoors, where he and two other Presbyterian preachers, Richard McNemar and Matthew Houston, preached from the stand.
Sunday, the day reserved for the celebration of the sacrament, was marked by a steady, pouring rain. In the morning, exhorting and sermons were offered in the meetinghouse. Presbyterian minister Robert Marshall gave the traditional action sermon from the stand, identifying the character of persons invited to the Table. The Supper itself was served in the meetinghouse. Once inside, communicants were seated at long tables set up in the aisles, heard the scriptural words of institution joined with prayer, and received the elements of bread and wine. Estimates of the number of communicants ranged from 800 to 1,100. Since no more than 100 could be seated in the meetinghouse at one time, at least eight table sittings, with Presbyterian ministers administering the Supper on a rotating basis, succeeded one another as the service continued late into the afternoon.
Stone, along with local Methodist preacher William Burke, had promoted the meeting as a “united sacrament.” Not all Presbyterians, however, were as enthusiastic as Stone about uniting in communion with the Methodists. Early Sunday morning, in response to their concerns, Stone asked Burke to make a statement from the stand regarding “how the Methodists held certain doctrines” before final arrangements were made regarding the administration of the sacrament. Taking Stone’s request as an insult, Burke challenged him to do likewise for the Presbyterians, and Stone quickly withdrew the request. Without further conversation, Burke mounted the trunk of a fallen tree that had lodged against another tree about a hundred feet east of the meetinghouse and began to pray, sing, and preach. Another Methodist held “an umbrella affixed to a long pole” over Burke’s head. A large crowd quickly gathered, and many fell. Stone reported that during the course of the meeting “Four or five preachers were frequently speaking at the same time, in different parts of the encampment, without confusion.” With persons falling throughout the camp added to the simultaneous preaching, one participant remarked, “The noise was like the roar of Niagara.” Sunday, in addition to preaching from the tent and from Burke’s fallen tree, there was also preaching by an unidentified African American preacher to a group comprised largely of African Americans probably about 150 yards southeast of the meetinghouse. One participant counted “seven ministers, all preaching at one time” in different parts of the camp, some using stumps and wagons as makeshift platforms.
By Sunday evening the rain had ended, and praying, preaching, exhorting, and falling continued throughout the camp. After the thanksgiving sermon on Monday, the normal communion schedule had been fulfilled. What followed was directed by the demand of the people for more singing, praying, and preaching and the willingness of preachers to minister to them. Many participants had to leave, but the meeting continued. New arrivals kept coming until Wednesday or even, by some reports, Thursday, when organized activity came to an end. Stone indicated that the meeting would have continued even longer had provisions in the neighborhood not been exhausted. Throughout the meeting, but especially after Sunday, persons who fell addressed the crowds. Lyle reported that “Their orations consist of the plain and essential truths of the gospel that they themselves have been powerfully convinced of, but they speak them with all the feeling and pathos that human nature affected with the most important objects is capable of.” He further noted, “They speak much of the fullness [of] Christ, his willingness to save etc.”
As many as eighteen Presbyterian ministers participated in the meeting. Most were from Bourbon County or adjoining counties, though a few came from a distance of from thirty to fifty miles. John Rankin traveled nearly 300 miles from Logan County. In most cases, church members had accompanied their ministers, thus helping to account for the 800 to 1,100 who received the sacrament. Methodist preachers included William Burke, Benjamin Lakin, Benjamin Northcott, and Samuel Hitt. Methodists also received the sacrament, though given the total number who communed and the large number of Presbyterian congregations represented, probably no more than 200 of them.
Stone reported in his autobiography that both “Methodist and Baptist preachers aided in the work.” Other accounts of the meeting refer occasionally to the presence of Baptists and Baptist preachers, though none is recorded as preaching in the meetinghouse or from the tent. Cane Ridge coincided with the annual meeting of the Elkhorn Baptist Association, which convened at Higby’s meetinghouse approximately six miles from Lexington. Baptist worship there attracted an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people, including, no doubt, a large number of the Baptist preachers in central Kentucky. Also, since Baptists viewed Presbyterians and Methodists as improperly baptized and would not join them in communion, Baptist preachers may have had reservations about participating in a “united” sacramental meeting. Some Baptist ministers may have served as exhorters. However, one did not have to be a preacher to exhort. Literally hundreds of persons exhorted at Cane Ridge, including men, women, and children.
The number who fell may have reached 1,000 — estimates ranged from 300 to 3,000. Given the size of the meeting and the high level of confusion, it was difficult to judge the number of converts. In an account of the revival published in 1827, Stone acknowledged that the number of converts could never be ascertained, but he added that it was thought to have been between 500 and 1,000. In his autobiography, he eschewed offering even an estimate of the number of converts, declaring instead that “The number converted will be known only in eternity.”
Bibliography Paul Conkin, Cane Ridge: America’s Pentecost (1990) • Leigh Eric Schmidt, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern Period (1989) • D. Newell Williams, Barton Stone: A Spiritual Biography (2000).
D. Newell Williams
Foster, Douglas A.. The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (pp. 573-579). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
This entry, written by D. Newell Williams, was originally published in The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Edited by Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, and D. Newell Williams; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), pages 164-166. Republished with permission.