BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand

Subject: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Gerard
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:07 PM

Interesting anecdotes and articles collected by Ross Phares in his book "Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand - The Story Of Frontier Religion", 1964

Tough Times On The Frontier
Frontier Saying:
"Life ain't in holding a good hand
But in playing a pore hand well." p. 11

Funerals And Headstones:
"He was young, and brave, and fair,
But the Indians raised his hair." p.36

"Here lies the body of Jeems Hambrick
    who was accidentally shot
on the banks of the pacus river
    by a young man
he was accidentally shot with one of the large
colt's revolver with no stopper for the cock
to rest on it was one of the old-fasion kind
brass mounted and of such is the kingdom of
heaven." p. 36

"Played five aces,
now playing a harp." p. 37

"He had sand in his craw,
But was slow on the draw,
So they laid him out under the daisies." p. 37

Marriage In Texas:
"Wilt thou take her for thy pard,
For better or for worse,
To have, to hold, to fondly guard,
Till hauled off in a hearse?"

"Wilt thou buy her all the snuff
She in her little box can pack;
Buy her shoes and extra stuff.
And feed her on hardtack?"

"Wilt thou comfort and support
Her good and aged mother,
Aunt Jemima, Uncle John,
Two sisters and a brother?" p. 40

Frontier Pulpit:
"A very fine church and a very tall steeple
A herring-catching parson, and a wicked set of people."
p 65

Camp Meetings And Great Revivals:
(capturing the democratic spirit of the times)
"Come hungry, come thirsty, come ragged, come bare,
Come filthy, come lousy, come just as you are."
p 90

The Many Uses Of Tobacco:
*Insecticide in the home
*Poultices applied to wounds to stop the bleeding
*Treatment for snakebite
*Smoke blown into ears to relieve ear-aches
*Good for jaundice, dyspepsia, toothache, corpulent persons (would make them 'spit their fat away.')
Some parents testified that unhealthy children began to grow when they started using tobacco, theorizing that tobacco killed the poisons existing in their systems. p 109

Admonitions Against Its Usage:
"Ye chewers of that noxious weed
Which grows on earth's most cursed sod
Be pleased to clean your filthy mouths
Outside the sacred House of God

"Throw out your 'plug and cavendish'
Your 'pig tail' 'twist' and 'honey dew'
And not presume to spit upon
The pulpit, aisles or in the pew." pp 110-111

Songs Of Denominational Enthusiasts:

"Baptist, Baptist, Baptist,
Baptist till I die.
I'll go along with the Baptists
And eat that Baptist pie."

"The world, the devil, and Tom Paine
Have tried their force, but all in vain,
They can't prevail, the reason is
The Lord defends the Methodists." p 121

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.    Religion Arrives
II.   The "Brush College" Graduates
III   Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
IV.   Emotions in Strong Doses
V.    Fightin' the Devil
VI.   "Bad" Preachers and "Badmen" Who Preached
VII. Camp Meetings and Great Revivals
VIII. Church Discipline before Court Discipline
IX.   Rivalry among Denominatons
X.    Prayers of the Frontier
XI.   Scoffers and Troublemakers
XII. The Hard Lot of Saddlebag Preachers

182 pages, paperback

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 02:13 PM

Now this could probably go up the page (as information, not BS) and be useful as a source of interpretive material when working to understand songs of a certain region, age, or genre.

I realize the song (as mentioned) is a ditty, but we like those, too!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Kim C
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 04:00 PM

Before every raid, Jesse James prayed
Maybe Jesse was a God-fearin man

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 05:01 PM

He came from Christian parents, just like Captain Kidd

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 05:22 PM

Me too ...

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 08:16 PM

Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand

Perhaps better than the other way round.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 09:34 PM

The early circuit riders and preachers were a tough bunch. They had to be. There are quite a few stories of times in the West when a preacher would use a saloon for his preaching, the customers would contribute to the collection, and then go back to their gambling and drinking. And often this was done by the saloon keeper calling everyone to order for the preaching.

Some of the preachers were like "The Reverend Mr. Black", but others were more direct and when they "cut him down like a big oak tree" they used their fists.

Check out the early history of Methodism, the United Brethren, people like John Early, Joseph Thomas, Benjamin Larkin, Jacob Lurton, Peter Cartwright, and others.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 10:24 PM

"The Preacher of Cedar Mountain," by Ernest Thompson Seton, 1917, is a fictionalized account about a sky pilot of the early days. Often found in a bookstore for a few dollars. Old-fashioned but a good read.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Frankham
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 10:52 PM

The Great Awakening and the Circuit Riders made the history books but in my view...Bible and guns....what's wrong with this picture?
I don't care what Saint Augustine said. (Still love the Sermon on the Mount).

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 11:31 PM

No kidding, Frank, thanks for pointing that out. An ancestor of mine was a Quaker and went exploring the "wilds" of Indiana and Ohio, before they were settled by Europeans, without a gun and made mention of the fact that he had no need of it, that his honest face would do him well. Apparently it did as he survived.

Of course, on the other side of my "house" I did have recent ancestors who used guns, but they were not what you'd call religious, either!

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Gerard
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 01:03 PM

I am not sure where the title comes from. And, I think there are only stories about preachers going into a town where some of the people wanted to hear them preach but the "toughs" tried to disrupt the sermons and deprive the congregation of the preacher's message. In this case, force would have to be used against detractors.....

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 02:31 PM

I seriously doubt that happened very often...most people back then were raised as Christains and whether they wanted a preacher among them or not, in most Western towns a church and school were some of the first things to be built once the women and children came to live there. It sounds more like Hollywood's version to me, than what I've learned growing up out here and with ancestors settling in early.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Gerard
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 05:31 PM

For several years, though, on the frontier, there were no churches, no mention of the Gospel. The book is worth reading itself. It is not based upon Hollywood biases but on newspaper articles and stories from that era. It is a historical book.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 05:47 PM

The book does sound interesting and I am not questioning it's validity and I LOVE some of the ones you've shared.

I'm just saying I don't think that what you posited was a very common scenario. Also, there may not have been many churches on the frontier, but there was plenty of mention of the Gospel, I am sure, as, as I said, most of the explorers, etc. were raised in Christianity, plus in some areas, missionaries/priests were right there along with the first explorers. Look at California, for instance, some of those missions have been there since the very beginning of European exploration, as well as other places such as New Mexico and Canada. Look at the histories of the American Indian tribes and the devastating effect early spreading of the Gospel had on them, forbidding them their languages, taking their children from them, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: Helen
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 05:53 PM

I'm sorry for the thread creep but I thought this thread would be about George Bush, according to the title.

Interesting thread, though.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 08:15 PM

Helen, more than one thought of that, I'm sure.

I have to agree with Kat. Where there was settlement, the church was there. Of course for a time there were large stretches where the whites were trappers, hunters and prospectors, but these people were as nomadic as the plains Indians. Some bought women from the Indians, but generaly the woman, after having a child, relocated with the tribe or near a fort, the man returning after sessions of trapping or other effort (Kit Carson's first wife was an Indian maid, I forget her name. He finally married the money of an old family in Taos).

As Kat said, areas with white settlers in California east through New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana all had the padres in the churches and missions, who trekked to outliers periodically.

The wild west of the gunslinger really existed in railhead towns, mining camps or trade centers where the saloons, brothels and gambling halls were located. All of these places had churches.
There was no profit in holding up a prairie dog town "out on the lone prairie," and of course, no bread for the sky pilot without parishioners.

Subject: RE: BS: Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 12:26 AM

The wild west of the gunslinger really existed in railhead towns, mining camps or trade centers where the saloons, brothels and gambling halls were located. All of these places had churches.

And, from what I know of direct family history, most of them left the churches and congregations alone.