By the end of 1838, although Dr. Thomas had built up a large following in the country areas of Virginia, he was involved with much controversy, particularly with Alexander Campbell. In this article we will describe some of Dr. Thomas’ pursuits in the period after his departure from Richmond in late 1836 and discuss the reasons for his removal to Illinois in late 1839.
Dr. Thomas in Amelia County
Last month’s article closed with Dr. Thomas in residence on the Liberty Tobacco Plantation in Amelia County, Virginia, late in 1836, near the birth of his only child, Eusebia. It is likely his wife, Ellen, was pregnant when she rose from her sick bed for her re-baptism early in 1836. It is generally assumed she contracted tuberculosis during this year, becoming an invalid for the rest of her life.
Dr. Thomas appears mostly to have given up the practice of medicine about this time, only functioning as a medical doctor on his voyages to and from England, and in Illinois. Basically, there were three activities that now occupied him: running a tobacco plantation, publishing the Advocate, and making visits to the areas of Virginia where most of his followers were located.
Little is recorded about running a plantation, but it must have been during this experience that Dr. Thomas developed his views on slavery, which will hopefully be the subject of a future article. The fact the plantation was not very profitable was certainly a main factor in the move of Dr. Thomas to Illinois.
The Advocate
While this first of Dr. Thomas’ magazines debuted in Philadelphia in 1834, the issues through November, 1839 were published in either Richmond or Amelia County, Virginia. Curiously, he changed its name three times. It was first The Apostolic Advocate, which was changed to The Apostolic Advocate and Prophetic Interpreter in May, 1836, and to The Advocate for the Testimony of God as it is written in the Books of Nature and Revelation in mid 1837.
The supporters of Dr. Thomas in Amelia County, which is about 50 miles southwest of Richmond, subscribed to the purchase of a printing -press used for producing the Advocate and other materials. I have wondered if Dr. Thomas’ brother, Robert, took up residence with him at this time -he certainly accompanied Dr. Thomas to Illinois in 1839, and we know he was employed by Alexander Campbell in his publishing operation in 1833. He was also present (and partially responsible) when Dr. Thomas had the first of his close encounters with a rifle, as reported in the biographies.
When Dr. Thomas moved to Illinois, he took the printing press with him, resulting in the loss of the press to the Campbellite cause, which did not please them. Dr. Thomas considered the press was bought for him, and that it was his to take. The Campbellites purchased another in 1843 at a cost of between $500 and $600 -which is probably close to the cost of Dr. Thomas’ unit. Although it seems strange to us, this Advocate was a Campbellite publication, the first published in Virginia. As Dr. Thomas’ understanding grew, growing doctrinal disputes turned personal. Reuben Coleman, a chief opponent of Dr. Thomas, commenced a magazine called The Christian Publisher in Charlottesville, VA. This paper, which later took other names, was often used to denounce Dr. Thomas: it ceased publication when the printing operation was destroyed by fire during the Civil War. (You will find this paper referred to in Robert Roberts’ Biography of Dr. Thomas.)
The circulation of the Advocate started around 1000 and probably peaked at close to 2000.
With a subscription of $2 per year, this would have given Dr. Thomas reasonable additional income; his motivation was not income, however, but the propagation of his doctrinal beliefs. As a result, the circulation appears to have declined somewhat after his move to Amelia County. The Advocate was suspended after Dr. Thomas’ removal to Illinois — the last issue I have seen is dated November, 1839.
Bethel, an early “Christadelphian” church
When Dr. Thomas moved to Amelia County, he appears to have met with the Paineville church, where Paschal Townes was the elder. Townes was well known to Dr. Thomas, as he was at one time a member of the Sycamore church in Richmond, and sold Dr. Thomas his plantation. Paineville church and a neighboring church called “Bethel” in Jeffersonville strongly supported Dr. Thomas at the time of his disputes with Campbell in the 1830’s. In 1838, there is little doubt that Dr. Thomas preached to his followers both at the Paineville and Bethel churches, which were only five to seven miles from his home. (I have found the location of Dr. Thomas’ farm and the two churches on old maps of the area.)
The Bethel church claims the distinction of being the oldest “Christadelphian” church: its building still exists, as is shown in the accompanying illustration. Although Dr. Thomas preached a distinctive message there in the late 1830’s, his unique beliefs were then in their beginning stages, and the members did not formally separate from the Campbellites. The building is no longer used for religious purposes, but provides an intriguing glimpse of rural Virginia where Dr. Thomas lived and preached.
Sadly, when Dr. Thomas left the area, the strength of his following appears to have dissipated. The Campbellite records indicate that by 1845 both churches in the area had withdrawn from Dr. Thomas, and the Herald of 1846 confirms this, stating the church in the area was “dead.”
Attempted reconciliation
According to Campbell’s biographer, “Mr. Campbell had resolved not to pay any further attention to the speculative errors with which Dr. Thomas and some of his adherents were disturbing the church in Virginia. Finding, however, that these pernicious teachings were persisted in by some two or three individuals in almost every church, he found himself compelled to speak, first in private and then publicly, against these roots of discord…” It is clear Dr. Thomas had widespread support, so the two opponents met in debate at Paineville, on the doctor’s home turf, in November, 1838. (I know of no picture of this church: one of the church at Lanesville, built almost 40 years later and after Dr. Thomas’ death, has been erroneously used in some sources.)
The three topics of discussion proposed were the mortality of man, the resurrection of the dead, and the state of the wicked after their destruction.
After three days of debate, they were only on the first topic, with no agreement in sight. Not surprisingly, many of the brethren present felt further debate would achieve no unity, but rather result in unending and indecisive discussion. So the two antagonists agreed to submit their differences to a committee for arbitration, with William Stone of the Fork church as moderator. (See article in Tidings, April, 1996 for discussion of the Fork church & William Stone.)
After five or six hours of debate, the committee concluded that “certain things in relation to man’s mortality, resurrection, and punishment …were calculated to weaken the restraints of Christian religion to excite the prejudices in the mind of some against our views in general.” At the time (although he certainly changed his mind later), Dr. Thomas considered these “unimportant details,” and agreed to a statement that said in part, “Believing the said views to be of no practical benefit, we recommend brother Thomas to discontinue the discussion of the same, unless in his defense when misrepresented.” (Dr. Thomas’ italics.)
The statement was signed by 23 brethren, including William Stone and the seemingly ever-present Reuben Coleman. It was intended, in the words of Dr. Thomas, to have “extinguished for ever the misunderstanding that had so long subsisted between us” (Dr. Thomas and Alexander Campbell). It effectively did so for about four years, as Dr. Thomas soon left for the American Western frontier. It is interesting that there was no discussion on the topic of re-immersion: probably Campbell realized his position would not be supported by the brethren present.
Departure for the west
It was not long after this apparent reconciliation that Dr. Thomas got a letter from his wife’s brother, James N. Hunt, who had gone from New York four years before to take up residence in Naperville, Illinois (about 35 miles southwest of Chicago). The area had only recently been settled: “About 5 years since, our cultivated fields were the Indian’s hunting grounds…and the plow has just turned over the sod stained by the blood of the last Indian war.”
His letter invited the Thomases to join him. While Dr. Thomas read it only reluctantly, at the urging of his wife, he appeared to be ready for a fresh start, and set off on horseback for Illinois in the spring of 1839. Obviously impressed by what he saw there, Dr. Thomas bought a farm of about 290 acres, or slightly larger than his current place, for $2,000, and returned to Virginia after an absence of 3 months. In the fall, he moved his whole household to Illinois, taking with him his wife, daughter, brother, and two servants.
His initial external religious activities in Illinois were almost non-existent, being confined to intermittent local contacts on Sundays, in a very sparsely populated farming area settled largely by those of German extraction. He also declared the suspension of the Advocate saying, “When I resume…I may publish a paper under a new name, and on a more miscellaneous plan…My object will be to insinuate the truth among the northeastern people, without identifying it with any party name. The title of the paper, therefore, it is probable, will be The Citizen.” He might have started such a project, as local Illinois records indicate Dr. Thomas briefly published a religious paper (not his later magazine, The Investigator) early in 1841. That is part of the story of his activities in Illinois to be covered in a later article, God willing.
Virginia followers return to Campbellites
According to Campbellite records (which may be slanted), while Dr. Thomas was in Illinois, most of his followers returned to the main body of the Campbellites. The division in the Sycamore church was healed. In southeast Virginia, where Dr. Thomas had most of his converts, Chester Bullard persuaded many “no-soulists,” as Dr. Thomas’ supporters were derisively termed, to return to Campbellite “orthodoxy.” By the end of 1840, a fairly complete reconciliation of the defecting Virginia brethren with their main body had taken place, and there is no evidence that at that time Dr. Thomas had any significant number of followers outside Virginia.
There is no doubt that the absence of Dr. Thomas from early 1839, and the cessation of the Advocate, resulted in a significant decline in his influence. His return in 1843 was to a situation where his enemies had multiplied.
Although some staunch believers remained to him, if he had not left Virginia at all, Dr. Thomas would have had many more adherents. Whether this was by the providence of God I cannot tell. He certainly left an area where his opponents were multiplying and threats of violence were heard.
Why did Dr. Thomas go to Illinois?
So why did Dr. Thomas decide to move to Illinois, suspend the proclamation of his message, and take up farming full time? He gives various reasons, “physical, intellectual, and moral.” The Virginia plantation “had been so impoverished by constant cropping, close grazing, and non-manuring, that I could not raise enough to support my family.” Paschal Townes and his wife Lucy possibly sold Dr. Thomas a “lemon,” which could help explain their personal antagonism later.
Dr. Thomas did not see the Advocate as contributing much to his support in the future. He complained about the level of religious interest in Virginia, and also said in a letter to a brother in England, “Slavery has a blighting effect upon modern professors of Christianity in slave-holding countries.”
In addition, the whole rural region where he was residing became economically depressed, so he wrote in what appears to be the last Advocate, “While it cannot but give me pain to separate from my tried friends and brethren in Virginia, I feel it my duty to follow out my convictions, and to avail myself of such opening as may be provided in the course of events.”
I have personally concluded Dr. Thomas was discouraged by the inconclusive outcome of the Paineville debate, where even in his own backyard his support was weakening. This, combined with a local recession, the strong wanderlust his whole family appears to have been imbued with, and the persuasion of his wife led to his leaving Virginia. So he temporarily abandoned all his outward religious activities and took up a life of farming and medicine at what was then close to the American northwestern frontier. How he did there is part of another story, but it will come as no surprise to readers that things went very poorly.
Notes on Sources: Darst’s book Antebellum Virginia Disciples of Christ summarizes the Campbellite version of the period here. The story of the reconciliation is mainly from Robert Roberts. The accounts of his removal to Illinois are from the last Advocate and from Life of Dr. Thomas by John Lea. The accounts of his publishing efforts are found in the old county histories of Illinois.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One