1850 Coosa County, AL Census:
#H1129
Aaron G. Brewer 55 Protestant Methodist Clergyman Born NJ
Martha Brewer 50F Born NJ
Ann Brewer 22F Born NY
George Brewer 18M Born SC
Samuel Brewer 16M Born SC
Sarah Brewer 14F Born SC
==========
1870 Coosa County, (Rockford) AL Census:
#H184
G. E. Brewer 37M Minister of Gospel R$250 P$300 Born GA
L. A. Brewer 31F Keeping House Born AL
S. T. Brewer 14F Born AL
Edgar Brewer 12M Born AL
S. O. Brewer 8M Born AL
G. F. Brewer 4M Born AL
M. L. Brewer 1F Born AL
A. G. BREWER 75M Born NJ
Delany Harper 45F Born NC
==========
The book, "Sketches of the Founders of the Methodist Protestant Church", by T. H. Colhouer, 1880, devotes an entire chapter to Aaron George Brewer, as follows:
Rev. Aaron G. Brewer, the apostle of Southern Non-Episcopalian Methodism, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on the 5th of December, 1795. He was of Quaker extraction, his mother being a strict Friend, whom he lost by death in the eleventh year of his age. After long and pungent conviction for sin, he was converted to Christ on the 1st of March, 1816, in the twenty first year of his age; and like Bartimaeus, began at once to tell his Quaker friends what great things Christ had done for him - holding meetings among them, when forty of them were converted to Christ in the month, before he had joined the M. E. Church, which was on the last of March, 1816, at Wrightstown, New Jersey. In 1829 he was licensed to exhort, and moved to a village called Black Horse, in Burlington County, New Jersey, which, like Pergamos of old, was a place "where Satan had his seat." Here Charles Pitman, afterward known as Dr. Pitman of precious memory, was teaching school in the Academy, and preaching there on the Sabbath; while Brother Brewer worked at his trade and acted as class leader. Here they had a mighty struggle with an infidel military club, who did all in their power to break up the religious meeting. They persecuted, slandered and even threatened the lives of brother Pitman and Brewer. They would bring down the cannon, load and fire it in front of the Academy, then surround the building with their company and fire their muskets all at once, and continued to do this during religious services just as if they were in the heat of battle. But the brethren went forward in the strength of Jesus, "and overcame them by their testimony and the blood of the Lamb," and soon had a number of these persecutors converted to Christ, and in a few months organized a Methodist Church.
In March, 1818, he was married to Miss Martha Taylor, a converted Quakeress, who proved to be a true "help meet," and who cheered him along the weary journey of life for over fifty one years, until God took her home to heaven. In 1819, he removed to Tuckahoe, New Jersey, where he was appointed a class-leader by Rev. Edward Stout and where they had a glorious revival, some three hundred persons being converted in one year. In 1820, in his absence, and without his consent, he was licensed to preach; but became so utterly disgusted with the arbitrary and despotic course pursued by Bishop McKendree, and Rev. Joshua Soule, Bishop elect, in overriding by their Episcopal power and influence the solemn actions of the General Convention of that same year, that on January 1st, 1821, after having examined and compared the M. E. Discipline with the New Testament Scriptures, and finding such marked contrast, in its teaching and equity, he withdrew from the M. E. Church. On the 3d of September, 1821, he attended by invitation the Stillwell "Methodist Society" camp meeting, which was held on Staten Island, New York, it being the first meeting of the kind ever held in this country by Methodist Reformers, and was most graciously blessed by God, there being about eleven hundred souls converted to Christ. In October following, he removed to New York, and in connection with the eccentric, but pious Lorenzo Dow, united with these Reform Brethren at their first Annual Conference, held in April. 1822. At this conference he was ordained Deacon by Rev. William Stillwell, Dr. James Covel and Isaac Lent, and appointed a General Missionary to labor and organize churches in the State of New York and Connecticut, to which capacity he was very successful, and hence, continued in that relationship for several years.
Being blest with an executive mind and realizing the great importance of union and concentration of effort, he succeeded at the Conference of 1825 in getting a call issued to all the Non-Episcopal Methodist Societies in the Nation, to meet in Convention, in New York, which Assembly was held on the 1st of June, 1826; when a Constitution, Declaration of Rights and Articles of Religion were adopted. At the Conference of 1827, he, in connection with Dr. James Covel, was appointed to a committee to visit the State of Georgia, and form churches, ordain preachers, and organize an Annual Conference among those who had recently withdrawn from the M. E. Church, in Columbia and Warren Counties of that State. Dr. Covel failed to go, but Brother Brewer reached "White Oak," Georgia on the 25th of December 1827, and on the next day organized an Annual Conference, consisting of fourteen lay delegates and four preachers, representing some two hundred members. The four preachers were elected first to Deacons, then to Elders' Orders, and ordained.
In connection with Dr. Covel, he was elected by the New York Conference of the "Methodist Societies," to represent them in the Methodist Reform Convention, which was held in Baltimore in November 1828. Having made such a fine impression in the South, by his Missionary tour in 1827, he was most earnestly importuned by the brethren in that section to come and labor among them, and like the Missionary Titus, "set in order the things that were wanting." He accepted the kind invitation and went to Georgia the second time, in 1829.
In 1830, he and Rev. Epps Tucker were elected ministerial, and Col. R. A. Blount and Charles Kennon lay, representatives to the General Convention of Methodist Reformers which was held in Baltimore in November, 1830, after the rise of the Convention, he moved his family to the South and united with the Georgia Conference, where he labored with great acceptability and success.
On the 20th of September 1834, he organized the Methodist Protestant Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and became the pastor for the two following years. The cost of supporting and educating his large family, exceeding greatly the amount of salary received from the Church for several years, produced financial embarrassment, and hence, in 1836, he located and became principal of the Academy at Mechanicsville, South Carolina, for the succeeding year. Here God overruled his Episcopal persecution to the organization of the second Methodist Protestant Church in that State, which has greatly prospered and formed the nucleus of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, where its first session was held on December 26th, 1839. At the close of the school year, the Trustees of the Academy offered him a salary of $2,000, if he would continue to serve as principal for another year, but having relieved himself from pecuniary embarrassment, and feeling with Paul, "woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel," he returned in 1838 to the itinerancy in the Georgia Conference, and was again appointed General Missionary in that District. During this year, his health and that of his family failed, and he removed to Lawrence District in South Carolina, where he resumed his profession of teaching school and preaching as opportunity was afforded, until 1852 when he became the editor of the Christian Telegraph and Southern Olive Tree, which was published at Atlanta, Georgia. This newspaper enterprise proved financially ruinous, and he was under the sad necessity of returning again to teaching until 1858, when he united with the Alabama Conference where he filled several good appointments until the war broke out in 1860, when he was appointed and served as Chaplain in the Confederate Army until his health failed, when he was transferred to the Quarter Master's Department, where he remained until the close of the war. The end of the civil conflict in 1865 found him in the 70th year of his age, with a shattered constitution and his health so much impaired, as to preclude any further active service in the Church. So, at the request of his son-in-law, Mr. James E. Walker, and his daughter, he went to Charleston, South Carolina to live with them. There, on the 18th of June 1869, he lost his kind and devoted wife, who died in great peace, and entered into her reward in heaven. [See note below] In February, 1870, he returned to the residence of his son, Rev. George E. Brewer, in Alabama, where he spent the evening of his life, in reading, writing and in preparing manuscripts for the press on various subjects: watching for the Bridegroom, who came for him on the 7th of April 1877, and having his lamp trimmed and his light burning for over sixty years, he entered in, and sat down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
(Note: The compiler has in his possession a copy of a letter written by Aaron George Brewer to his son, Aaron Henry Brewer, dated January 12, 1870, in which he states his wife died on September 13, 1869.)
He is also mentioned in "A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church", by Ancel H Bassett, Pittsburgh, 1877, both in the Original edition and in the Revised edition dated 1882. Also, in the History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida,: by Marion Elias Lazenby, Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church, 1960, in the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1871-1880, he is mentioned on pages 417, 419, 420 and 422. On page 420, he is shown as having been elected President of the 47th Conference, held at the Friendship Church in Coosa County, Alabama on November 18, 1875, and was again elected President of the 48th Conference, held at the Robinson Springs Church in Autauga County on November 16-20, 1876. In the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1921-1930, he is mentioned on page 708 as Rev. Dr. Aaron G. Brewer, "who organized the Conference one hundred years ago." This reference and his gravestone are the only documentations found evidencing his having a Doctor's degree. In Chapter 19, Roll of Deceased Ministers, pages 1122-1123, he is shown as having been born 5 December 1795, in Monmouth, New Jersey, and died 7 April 1877 in Opelika, Alabama.
In 1840, he is found on the U. S. Census in Troup County, Georgia, Page 319, Troup County, Georgia was formed in 1826 with an Inferior Court as its first governing body. It was reorganized in 1827 at which time a council of five was elected with powers to create militia a district, govern the county and build bridges and roads. The county court was created in 1866. Thus the county was somewhat still in the formative stage when Aaron George Brewer lived there. (Source: Troup County, Georgia, official website.)
In 1850, he is found on the U. S. Census in Coosa County, Alabama, page 81. Coosa County, Alabama was formed in 1832 from lands ceded from the Creek Indian Treaty of Cusseta and from parts of Montgomery County. It is named for the Coosa River, which forms the county's western boundary with Chilton County. The county seat is Rockford, which was originally named Pondalassa. (Source: U. S. Genweb website for Coosa County, Alabama.)
Some records place his birth as being near Trenton, New Jersey.
He is buried in Section 38 of the Rosemere Cemetery, Eastern part, in a tract, which includes one of his sons, Rev. George Evans Brewer and other members of his son's family. The front of his gravestone includes the following words, just below a Masonic lodge emblem.
Dr. A. G. Brewer, Born in Monmouth Co. N.J. Dec. 5, 1795, Died April 12, 1877. He began to preach 1821 and was ordained 1822 and a member of the council which organized the M. P. Church and remained a member and minister of it until his death, filling therein various positions of honor and usefulness.
The reverse side of the marker reads:
He was for many years an active member of the Masonic Fraternity. He died in the peaceful triumphs of faith, and calmly sleeps in Jesus, awaiting the resurrection morn.
==========
#H1129
Aaron G. Brewer 55 Protestant Methodist Clergyman Born NJ
Martha Brewer 50F Born NJ
Ann Brewer 22F Born NY
George Brewer 18M Born SC
Samuel Brewer 16M Born SC
Sarah Brewer 14F Born SC
==========
1870 Coosa County, (Rockford) AL Census:
#H184
G. E. Brewer 37M Minister of Gospel R$250 P$300 Born GA
L. A. Brewer 31F Keeping House Born AL
S. T. Brewer 14F Born AL
Edgar Brewer 12M Born AL
S. O. Brewer 8M Born AL
G. F. Brewer 4M Born AL
M. L. Brewer 1F Born AL
A. G. BREWER 75M Born NJ
Delany Harper 45F Born NC
==========
The book, "Sketches of the Founders of the Methodist Protestant Church", by T. H. Colhouer, 1880, devotes an entire chapter to Aaron George Brewer, as follows:
Rev. Aaron G. Brewer, the apostle of Southern Non-Episcopalian Methodism, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on the 5th of December, 1795. He was of Quaker extraction, his mother being a strict Friend, whom he lost by death in the eleventh year of his age. After long and pungent conviction for sin, he was converted to Christ on the 1st of March, 1816, in the twenty first year of his age; and like Bartimaeus, began at once to tell his Quaker friends what great things Christ had done for him - holding meetings among them, when forty of them were converted to Christ in the month, before he had joined the M. E. Church, which was on the last of March, 1816, at Wrightstown, New Jersey. In 1829 he was licensed to exhort, and moved to a village called Black Horse, in Burlington County, New Jersey, which, like Pergamos of old, was a place "where Satan had his seat." Here Charles Pitman, afterward known as Dr. Pitman of precious memory, was teaching school in the Academy, and preaching there on the Sabbath; while Brother Brewer worked at his trade and acted as class leader. Here they had a mighty struggle with an infidel military club, who did all in their power to break up the religious meeting. They persecuted, slandered and even threatened the lives of brother Pitman and Brewer. They would bring down the cannon, load and fire it in front of the Academy, then surround the building with their company and fire their muskets all at once, and continued to do this during religious services just as if they were in the heat of battle. But the brethren went forward in the strength of Jesus, "and overcame them by their testimony and the blood of the Lamb," and soon had a number of these persecutors converted to Christ, and in a few months organized a Methodist Church.
In March, 1818, he was married to Miss Martha Taylor, a converted Quakeress, who proved to be a true "help meet," and who cheered him along the weary journey of life for over fifty one years, until God took her home to heaven. In 1819, he removed to Tuckahoe, New Jersey, where he was appointed a class-leader by Rev. Edward Stout and where they had a glorious revival, some three hundred persons being converted in one year. In 1820, in his absence, and without his consent, he was licensed to preach; but became so utterly disgusted with the arbitrary and despotic course pursued by Bishop McKendree, and Rev. Joshua Soule, Bishop elect, in overriding by their Episcopal power and influence the solemn actions of the General Convention of that same year, that on January 1st, 1821, after having examined and compared the M. E. Discipline with the New Testament Scriptures, and finding such marked contrast, in its teaching and equity, he withdrew from the M. E. Church. On the 3d of September, 1821, he attended by invitation the Stillwell "Methodist Society" camp meeting, which was held on Staten Island, New York, it being the first meeting of the kind ever held in this country by Methodist Reformers, and was most graciously blessed by God, there being about eleven hundred souls converted to Christ. In October following, he removed to New York, and in connection with the eccentric, but pious Lorenzo Dow, united with these Reform Brethren at their first Annual Conference, held in April. 1822. At this conference he was ordained Deacon by Rev. William Stillwell, Dr. James Covel and Isaac Lent, and appointed a General Missionary to labor and organize churches in the State of New York and Connecticut, to which capacity he was very successful, and hence, continued in that relationship for several years.
Being blest with an executive mind and realizing the great importance of union and concentration of effort, he succeeded at the Conference of 1825 in getting a call issued to all the Non-Episcopal Methodist Societies in the Nation, to meet in Convention, in New York, which Assembly was held on the 1st of June, 1826; when a Constitution, Declaration of Rights and Articles of Religion were adopted. At the Conference of 1827, he, in connection with Dr. James Covel, was appointed to a committee to visit the State of Georgia, and form churches, ordain preachers, and organize an Annual Conference among those who had recently withdrawn from the M. E. Church, in Columbia and Warren Counties of that State. Dr. Covel failed to go, but Brother Brewer reached "White Oak," Georgia on the 25th of December 1827, and on the next day organized an Annual Conference, consisting of fourteen lay delegates and four preachers, representing some two hundred members. The four preachers were elected first to Deacons, then to Elders' Orders, and ordained.
In connection with Dr. Covel, he was elected by the New York Conference of the "Methodist Societies," to represent them in the Methodist Reform Convention, which was held in Baltimore in November 1828. Having made such a fine impression in the South, by his Missionary tour in 1827, he was most earnestly importuned by the brethren in that section to come and labor among them, and like the Missionary Titus, "set in order the things that were wanting." He accepted the kind invitation and went to Georgia the second time, in 1829.
In 1830, he and Rev. Epps Tucker were elected ministerial, and Col. R. A. Blount and Charles Kennon lay, representatives to the General Convention of Methodist Reformers which was held in Baltimore in November, 1830, after the rise of the Convention, he moved his family to the South and united with the Georgia Conference, where he labored with great acceptability and success.
On the 20th of September 1834, he organized the Methodist Protestant Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and became the pastor for the two following years. The cost of supporting and educating his large family, exceeding greatly the amount of salary received from the Church for several years, produced financial embarrassment, and hence, in 1836, he located and became principal of the Academy at Mechanicsville, South Carolina, for the succeeding year. Here God overruled his Episcopal persecution to the organization of the second Methodist Protestant Church in that State, which has greatly prospered and formed the nucleus of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, where its first session was held on December 26th, 1839. At the close of the school year, the Trustees of the Academy offered him a salary of $2,000, if he would continue to serve as principal for another year, but having relieved himself from pecuniary embarrassment, and feeling with Paul, "woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel," he returned in 1838 to the itinerancy in the Georgia Conference, and was again appointed General Missionary in that District. During this year, his health and that of his family failed, and he removed to Lawrence District in South Carolina, where he resumed his profession of teaching school and preaching as opportunity was afforded, until 1852 when he became the editor of the Christian Telegraph and Southern Olive Tree, which was published at Atlanta, Georgia. This newspaper enterprise proved financially ruinous, and he was under the sad necessity of returning again to teaching until 1858, when he united with the Alabama Conference where he filled several good appointments until the war broke out in 1860, when he was appointed and served as Chaplain in the Confederate Army until his health failed, when he was transferred to the Quarter Master's Department, where he remained until the close of the war. The end of the civil conflict in 1865 found him in the 70th year of his age, with a shattered constitution and his health so much impaired, as to preclude any further active service in the Church. So, at the request of his son-in-law, Mr. James E. Walker, and his daughter, he went to Charleston, South Carolina to live with them. There, on the 18th of June 1869, he lost his kind and devoted wife, who died in great peace, and entered into her reward in heaven. [See note below] In February, 1870, he returned to the residence of his son, Rev. George E. Brewer, in Alabama, where he spent the evening of his life, in reading, writing and in preparing manuscripts for the press on various subjects: watching for the Bridegroom, who came for him on the 7th of April 1877, and having his lamp trimmed and his light burning for over sixty years, he entered in, and sat down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
(Note: The compiler has in his possession a copy of a letter written by Aaron George Brewer to his son, Aaron Henry Brewer, dated January 12, 1870, in which he states his wife died on September 13, 1869.)
He is also mentioned in "A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church", by Ancel H Bassett, Pittsburgh, 1877, both in the Original edition and in the Revised edition dated 1882. Also, in the History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida,: by Marion Elias Lazenby, Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church, 1960, in the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1871-1880, he is mentioned on pages 417, 419, 420 and 422. On page 420, he is shown as having been elected President of the 47th Conference, held at the Friendship Church in Coosa County, Alabama on November 18, 1875, and was again elected President of the 48th Conference, held at the Robinson Springs Church in Autauga County on November 16-20, 1876. In the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1921-1930, he is mentioned on page 708 as Rev. Dr. Aaron G. Brewer, "who organized the Conference one hundred years ago." This reference and his gravestone are the only documentations found evidencing his having a Doctor's degree. In Chapter 19, Roll of Deceased Ministers, pages 1122-1123, he is shown as having been born 5 December 1795, in Monmouth, New Jersey, and died 7 April 1877 in Opelika, Alabama.
In 1840, he is found on the U. S. Census in Troup County, Georgia, Page 319, Troup County, Georgia was formed in 1826 with an Inferior Court as its first governing body. It was reorganized in 1827 at which time a council of five was elected with powers to create militia a district, govern the county and build bridges and roads. The county court was created in 1866. Thus the county was somewhat still in the formative stage when Aaron George Brewer lived there. (Source: Troup County, Georgia, official website.)
In 1850, he is found on the U. S. Census in Coosa County, Alabama, page 81. Coosa County, Alabama was formed in 1832 from lands ceded from the Creek Indian Treaty of Cusseta and from parts of Montgomery County. It is named for the Coosa River, which forms the county's western boundary with Chilton County. The county seat is Rockford, which was originally named Pondalassa. (Source: U. S. Genweb website for Coosa County, Alabama.)
Some records place his birth as being near Trenton, New Jersey.
He is buried in Section 38 of the Rosemere Cemetery, Eastern part, in a tract, which includes one of his sons, Rev. George Evans Brewer and other members of his son's family. The front of his gravestone includes the following words, just below a Masonic lodge emblem.
Dr. A. G. Brewer, Born in Monmouth Co. N.J. Dec. 5, 1795, Died April 12, 1877. He began to preach 1821 and was ordained 1822 and a member of the council which organized the M. P. Church and remained a member and minister of it until his death, filling therein various positions of honor and usefulness.
The reverse side of the marker reads:
He was for many years an active member of the Masonic Fraternity. He died in the peaceful triumphs of faith, and calmly sleeps in Jesus, awaiting the resurrection morn.
==========
1850 Coosa County, AL Census:
#H1129
Aaron G. Brewer 55 Protestant Methodist Clergyman Born NJ
Martha Brewer 50F Born NJ
Ann Brewer 22F Born NY
George Brewer 18M Born SC
Samuel Brewer 16M Born SC
Sarah Brewer 14F Born SC
==========
1870 Coosa County, (Rockford) AL Census:
#H184
G. E. Brewer 37M Minister of Gospel R$250 P$300 Born GA
L. A. Brewer 31F Keeping House Born AL
S. T. Brewer 14F Born AL
Edgar Brewer 12M Born AL
S. O. Brewer 8M Born AL
G. F. Brewer 4M Born AL
M. L. Brewer 1F Born AL
A. G. BREWER 75M Born NJ
Delany Harper 45F Born NC
==========
The book, "Sketches of the Founders of the Methodist Protestant Church", by T. H. Colhouer, 1880, devotes an entire chapter to Aaron George Brewer, as follows:
Rev. Aaron G. Brewer, the apostle of Southern Non-Episcopalian Methodism, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on the 5th of December, 1795. He was of Quaker extraction, his mother being a strict Friend, whom he lost by death in the eleventh year of his age. After long and pungent conviction for sin, he was converted to Christ on the 1st of March, 1816, in the twenty first year of his age; and like Bartimaeus, began at once to tell his Quaker friends what great things Christ had done for him - holding meetings among them, when forty of them were converted to Christ in the month, before he had joined the M. E. Church, which was on the last of March, 1816, at Wrightstown, New Jersey. In 1829 he was licensed to exhort, and moved to a village called Black Horse, in Burlington County, New Jersey, which, like Pergamos of old, was a place "where Satan had his seat." Here Charles Pitman, afterward known as Dr. Pitman of precious memory, was teaching school in the Academy, and preaching there on the Sabbath; while Brother Brewer worked at his trade and acted as class leader. Here they had a mighty struggle with an infidel military club, who did all in their power to break up the religious meeting. They persecuted, slandered and even threatened the lives of brother Pitman and Brewer. They would bring down the cannon, load and fire it in front of the Academy, then surround the building with their company and fire their muskets all at once, and continued to do this during religious services just as if they were in the heat of battle. But the brethren went forward in the strength of Jesus, "and overcame them by their testimony and the blood of the Lamb," and soon had a number of these persecutors converted to Christ, and in a few months organized a Methodist Church.
In March, 1818, he was married to Miss Martha Taylor, a converted Quakeress, who proved to be a true "help meet," and who cheered him along the weary journey of life for over fifty one years, until God took her home to heaven. In 1819, he removed to Tuckahoe, New Jersey, where he was appointed a class-leader by Rev. Edward Stout and where they had a glorious revival, some three hundred persons being converted in one year. In 1820, in his absence, and without his consent, he was licensed to preach; but became so utterly disgusted with the arbitrary and despotic course pursued by Bishop McKendree, and Rev. Joshua Soule, Bishop elect, in overriding by their Episcopal power and influence the solemn actions of the General Convention of that same year, that on January 1st, 1821, after having examined and compared the M. E. Discipline with the New Testament Scriptures, and finding such marked contrast, in its teaching and equity, he withdrew from the M. E. Church. On the 3d of September, 1821, he attended by invitation the Stillwell "Methodist Society" camp meeting, which was held on Staten Island, New York, it being the first meeting of the kind ever held in this country by Methodist Reformers, and was most graciously blessed by God, there being about eleven hundred souls converted to Christ. In October following, he removed to New York, and in connection with the eccentric, but pious Lorenzo Dow, united with these Reform Brethren at their first Annual Conference, held in April. 1822. At this conference he was ordained Deacon by Rev. William Stillwell, Dr. James Covel and Isaac Lent, and appointed a General Missionary to labor and organize churches in the State of New York and Connecticut, to which capacity he was very successful, and hence, continued in that relationship for several years.
Being blest with an executive mind and realizing the great importance of union and concentration of effort, he succeeded at the Conference of 1825 in getting a call issued to all the Non-Episcopal Methodist Societies in the Nation, to meet in Convention, in New York, which Assembly was held on the 1st of June, 1826; when a Constitution, Declaration of Rights and Articles of Religion were adopted. At the Conference of 1827, he, in connection with Dr. James Covel, was appointed to a committee to visit the State of Georgia, and form churches, ordain preachers, and organize an Annual Conference among those who had recently withdrawn from the M. E. Church, in Columbia and Warren Counties of that State. Dr. Covel failed to go, but Brother Brewer reached "White Oak," Georgia on the 25th of December 1827, and on the next day organized an Annual Conference, consisting of fourteen lay delegates and four preachers, representing some two hundred members. The four preachers were elected first to Deacons, then to Elders' Orders, and ordained.
In connection with Dr. Covel, he was elected by the New York Conference of the "Methodist Societies," to represent them in the Methodist Reform Convention, which was held in Baltimore in November 1828. Having made such a fine impression in the South, by his Missionary tour in 1827, he was most earnestly importuned by the brethren in that section to come and labor among them, and like the Missionary Titus, "set in order the things that were wanting." He accepted the kind invitation and went to Georgia the second time, in 1829.
In 1830, he and Rev. Epps Tucker were elected ministerial, and Col. R. A. Blount and Charles Kennon lay, representatives to the General Convention of Methodist Reformers which was held in Baltimore in November, 1830, after the rise of the Convention, he moved his family to the South and united with the Georgia Conference, where he labored with great acceptability and success.
On the 20th of September 1834, he organized the Methodist Protestant Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and became the pastor for the two following years. The cost of supporting and educating his large family, exceeding greatly the amount of salary received from the Church for several years, produced financial embarrassment, and hence, in 1836, he located and became principal of the Academy at Mechanicsville, South Carolina, for the succeeding year. Here God overruled his Episcopal persecution to the organization of the second Methodist Protestant Church in that State, which has greatly prospered and formed the nucleus of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, where its first session was held on December 26th, 1839. At the close of the school year, the Trustees of the Academy offered him a salary of $2,000, if he would continue to serve as principal for another year, but having relieved himself from pecuniary embarrassment, and feeling with Paul, "woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel," he returned in 1838 to the itinerancy in the Georgia Conference, and was again appointed General Missionary in that District. During this year, his health and that of his family failed, and he removed to Lawrence District in South Carolina, where he resumed his profession of teaching school and preaching as opportunity was afforded, until 1852 when he became the editor of the Christian Telegraph and Southern Olive Tree, which was published at Atlanta, Georgia. This newspaper enterprise proved financially ruinous, and he was under the sad necessity of returning again to teaching until 1858, when he united with the Alabama Conference where he filled several good appointments until the war broke out in 1860, when he was appointed and served as Chaplain in the Confederate Army until his health failed, when he was transferred to the Quarter Master's Department, where he remained until the close of the war. The end of the civil conflict in 1865 found him in the 70th year of his age, with a shattered constitution and his health so much impaired, as to preclude any further active service in the Church. So, at the request of his son-in-law, Mr. James E. Walker, and his daughter, he went to Charleston, South Carolina to live with them. There, on the 18th of June 1869, he lost his kind and devoted wife, who died in great peace, and entered into her reward in heaven. [See note below] In February, 1870, he returned to the residence of his son, Rev. George E. Brewer, in Alabama, where he spent the evening of his life, in reading, writing and in preparing manuscripts for the press on various subjects: watching for the Bridegroom, who came for him on the 7th of April 1877, and having his lamp trimmed and his light burning for over sixty years, he entered in, and sat down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
(Note: The compiler has in his possession a copy of a letter written by Aaron George Brewer to his son, Aaron Henry Brewer, dated January 12, 1870, in which he states his wife died on September 13, 1869.)
He is also mentioned in "A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church", by Ancel H Bassett, Pittsburgh, 1877, both in the Original edition and in the Revised edition dated 1882. Also, in the History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida,: by Marion Elias Lazenby, Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church, 1960, in the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1871-1880, he is mentioned on pages 417, 419, 420 and 422. On page 420, he is shown as having been elected President of the 47th Conference, held at the Friendship Church in Coosa County, Alabama on November 18, 1875, and was again elected President of the 48th Conference, held at the Robinson Springs Church in Autauga County on November 16-20, 1876. In the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1921-1930, he is mentioned on page 708 as Rev. Dr. Aaron G. Brewer, "who organized the Conference one hundred years ago." This reference and his gravestone are the only documentations found evidencing his having a Doctor's degree. In Chapter 19, Roll of Deceased Ministers, pages 1122-1123, he is shown as having been born 5 December 1795, in Monmouth, New Jersey, and died 7 April 1877 in Opelika, Alabama.
In 1840, he is found on the U. S. Census in Troup County, Georgia, Page 319, Troup County, Georgia was formed in 1826 with an Inferior Court as its first governing body. It was reorganized in 1827 at which time a council of five was elected with powers to create militia a district, govern the county and build bridges and roads. The county court was created in 1866. Thus the county was somewhat still in the formative stage when Aaron George Brewer lived there. (Source: Troup County, Georgia, official website.)
In 1850, he is found on the U. S. Census in Coosa County, Alabama, page 81. Coosa County, Alabama was formed in 1832 from lands ceded from the Creek Indian Treaty of Cusseta and from parts of Montgomery County. It is named for the Coosa River, which forms the county's western boundary with Chilton County. The county seat is Rockford, which was originally named Pondalassa. (Source: U. S. Genweb website for Coosa County, Alabama.)
Some records place his birth as being near Trenton, New Jersey.
He is buried in Section 38 of the Rosemere Cemetery, Eastern part, in a tract, which includes one of his sons, Rev. George Evans Brewer and other members of his son's family. The front of his gravestone includes the following words, just below a Masonic lodge emblem.
Dr. A. G. Brewer, Born in Monmouth Co. N.J. Dec. 5, 1795, Died April 12, 1877. He began to preach 1821 and was ordained 1822 and a member of the council which organized the M. P. Church and remained a member and minister of it until his death, filling therein various positions of honor and usefulness.
The reverse side of the marker reads:
He was for many years an active member of the Masonic Fraternity. He died in the peaceful triumphs of faith, and calmly sleeps in Jesus, awaiting the resurrection morn.
==========
#H1129
Aaron G. Brewer 55 Protestant Methodist Clergyman Born NJ
Martha Brewer 50F Born NJ
Ann Brewer 22F Born NY
George Brewer 18M Born SC
Samuel Brewer 16M Born SC
Sarah Brewer 14F Born SC
==========
1870 Coosa County, (Rockford) AL Census:
#H184
G. E. Brewer 37M Minister of Gospel R$250 P$300 Born GA
L. A. Brewer 31F Keeping House Born AL
S. T. Brewer 14F Born AL
Edgar Brewer 12M Born AL
S. O. Brewer 8M Born AL
G. F. Brewer 4M Born AL
M. L. Brewer 1F Born AL
A. G. BREWER 75M Born NJ
Delany Harper 45F Born NC
==========
The book, "Sketches of the Founders of the Methodist Protestant Church", by T. H. Colhouer, 1880, devotes an entire chapter to Aaron George Brewer, as follows:
Rev. Aaron G. Brewer, the apostle of Southern Non-Episcopalian Methodism, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on the 5th of December, 1795. He was of Quaker extraction, his mother being a strict Friend, whom he lost by death in the eleventh year of his age. After long and pungent conviction for sin, he was converted to Christ on the 1st of March, 1816, in the twenty first year of his age; and like Bartimaeus, began at once to tell his Quaker friends what great things Christ had done for him - holding meetings among them, when forty of them were converted to Christ in the month, before he had joined the M. E. Church, which was on the last of March, 1816, at Wrightstown, New Jersey. In 1829 he was licensed to exhort, and moved to a village called Black Horse, in Burlington County, New Jersey, which, like Pergamos of old, was a place "where Satan had his seat." Here Charles Pitman, afterward known as Dr. Pitman of precious memory, was teaching school in the Academy, and preaching there on the Sabbath; while Brother Brewer worked at his trade and acted as class leader. Here they had a mighty struggle with an infidel military club, who did all in their power to break up the religious meeting. They persecuted, slandered and even threatened the lives of brother Pitman and Brewer. They would bring down the cannon, load and fire it in front of the Academy, then surround the building with their company and fire their muskets all at once, and continued to do this during religious services just as if they were in the heat of battle. But the brethren went forward in the strength of Jesus, "and overcame them by their testimony and the blood of the Lamb," and soon had a number of these persecutors converted to Christ, and in a few months organized a Methodist Church.
In March, 1818, he was married to Miss Martha Taylor, a converted Quakeress, who proved to be a true "help meet," and who cheered him along the weary journey of life for over fifty one years, until God took her home to heaven. In 1819, he removed to Tuckahoe, New Jersey, where he was appointed a class-leader by Rev. Edward Stout and where they had a glorious revival, some three hundred persons being converted in one year. In 1820, in his absence, and without his consent, he was licensed to preach; but became so utterly disgusted with the arbitrary and despotic course pursued by Bishop McKendree, and Rev. Joshua Soule, Bishop elect, in overriding by their Episcopal power and influence the solemn actions of the General Convention of that same year, that on January 1st, 1821, after having examined and compared the M. E. Discipline with the New Testament Scriptures, and finding such marked contrast, in its teaching and equity, he withdrew from the M. E. Church. On the 3d of September, 1821, he attended by invitation the Stillwell "Methodist Society" camp meeting, which was held on Staten Island, New York, it being the first meeting of the kind ever held in this country by Methodist Reformers, and was most graciously blessed by God, there being about eleven hundred souls converted to Christ. In October following, he removed to New York, and in connection with the eccentric, but pious Lorenzo Dow, united with these Reform Brethren at their first Annual Conference, held in April. 1822. At this conference he was ordained Deacon by Rev. William Stillwell, Dr. James Covel and Isaac Lent, and appointed a General Missionary to labor and organize churches in the State of New York and Connecticut, to which capacity he was very successful, and hence, continued in that relationship for several years.
Being blest with an executive mind and realizing the great importance of union and concentration of effort, he succeeded at the Conference of 1825 in getting a call issued to all the Non-Episcopal Methodist Societies in the Nation, to meet in Convention, in New York, which Assembly was held on the 1st of June, 1826; when a Constitution, Declaration of Rights and Articles of Religion were adopted. At the Conference of 1827, he, in connection with Dr. James Covel, was appointed to a committee to visit the State of Georgia, and form churches, ordain preachers, and organize an Annual Conference among those who had recently withdrawn from the M. E. Church, in Columbia and Warren Counties of that State. Dr. Covel failed to go, but Brother Brewer reached "White Oak," Georgia on the 25th of December 1827, and on the next day organized an Annual Conference, consisting of fourteen lay delegates and four preachers, representing some two hundred members. The four preachers were elected first to Deacons, then to Elders' Orders, and ordained.
In connection with Dr. Covel, he was elected by the New York Conference of the "Methodist Societies," to represent them in the Methodist Reform Convention, which was held in Baltimore in November 1828. Having made such a fine impression in the South, by his Missionary tour in 1827, he was most earnestly importuned by the brethren in that section to come and labor among them, and like the Missionary Titus, "set in order the things that were wanting." He accepted the kind invitation and went to Georgia the second time, in 1829.
In 1830, he and Rev. Epps Tucker were elected ministerial, and Col. R. A. Blount and Charles Kennon lay, representatives to the General Convention of Methodist Reformers which was held in Baltimore in November, 1830, after the rise of the Convention, he moved his family to the South and united with the Georgia Conference, where he labored with great acceptability and success.
On the 20th of September 1834, he organized the Methodist Protestant Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and became the pastor for the two following years. The cost of supporting and educating his large family, exceeding greatly the amount of salary received from the Church for several years, produced financial embarrassment, and hence, in 1836, he located and became principal of the Academy at Mechanicsville, South Carolina, for the succeeding year. Here God overruled his Episcopal persecution to the organization of the second Methodist Protestant Church in that State, which has greatly prospered and formed the nucleus of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, where its first session was held on December 26th, 1839. At the close of the school year, the Trustees of the Academy offered him a salary of $2,000, if he would continue to serve as principal for another year, but having relieved himself from pecuniary embarrassment, and feeling with Paul, "woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel," he returned in 1838 to the itinerancy in the Georgia Conference, and was again appointed General Missionary in that District. During this year, his health and that of his family failed, and he removed to Lawrence District in South Carolina, where he resumed his profession of teaching school and preaching as opportunity was afforded, until 1852 when he became the editor of the Christian Telegraph and Southern Olive Tree, which was published at Atlanta, Georgia. This newspaper enterprise proved financially ruinous, and he was under the sad necessity of returning again to teaching until 1858, when he united with the Alabama Conference where he filled several good appointments until the war broke out in 1860, when he was appointed and served as Chaplain in the Confederate Army until his health failed, when he was transferred to the Quarter Master's Department, where he remained until the close of the war. The end of the civil conflict in 1865 found him in the 70th year of his age, with a shattered constitution and his health so much impaired, as to preclude any further active service in the Church. So, at the request of his son-in-law, Mr. James E. Walker, and his daughter, he went to Charleston, South Carolina to live with them. There, on the 18th of June 1869, he lost his kind and devoted wife, who died in great peace, and entered into her reward in heaven. [See note below] In February, 1870, he returned to the residence of his son, Rev. George E. Brewer, in Alabama, where he spent the evening of his life, in reading, writing and in preparing manuscripts for the press on various subjects: watching for the Bridegroom, who came for him on the 7th of April 1877, and having his lamp trimmed and his light burning for over sixty years, he entered in, and sat down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
(Note: The compiler has in his possession a copy of a letter written by Aaron George Brewer to his son, Aaron Henry Brewer, dated January 12, 1870, in which he states his wife died on September 13, 1869.)
He is also mentioned in "A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church", by Ancel H Bassett, Pittsburgh, 1877, both in the Original edition and in the Revised edition dated 1882. Also, in the History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida,: by Marion Elias Lazenby, Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church, 1960, in the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1871-1880, he is mentioned on pages 417, 419, 420 and 422. On page 420, he is shown as having been elected President of the 47th Conference, held at the Friendship Church in Coosa County, Alabama on November 18, 1875, and was again elected President of the 48th Conference, held at the Robinson Springs Church in Autauga County on November 16-20, 1876. In the chapter entitled The Methodist Protestant Church, 1921-1930, he is mentioned on page 708 as Rev. Dr. Aaron G. Brewer, "who organized the Conference one hundred years ago." This reference and his gravestone are the only documentations found evidencing his having a Doctor's degree. In Chapter 19, Roll of Deceased Ministers, pages 1122-1123, he is shown as having been born 5 December 1795, in Monmouth, New Jersey, and died 7 April 1877 in Opelika, Alabama.
In 1840, he is found on the U. S. Census in Troup County, Georgia, Page 319, Troup County, Georgia was formed in 1826 with an Inferior Court as its first governing body. It was reorganized in 1827 at which time a council of five was elected with powers to create militia a district, govern the county and build bridges and roads. The county court was created in 1866. Thus the county was somewhat still in the formative stage when Aaron George Brewer lived there. (Source: Troup County, Georgia, official website.)
In 1850, he is found on the U. S. Census in Coosa County, Alabama, page 81. Coosa County, Alabama was formed in 1832 from lands ceded from the Creek Indian Treaty of Cusseta and from parts of Montgomery County. It is named for the Coosa River, which forms the county's western boundary with Chilton County. The county seat is Rockford, which was originally named Pondalassa. (Source: U. S. Genweb website for Coosa County, Alabama.)
Some records place his birth as being near Trenton, New Jersey.
He is buried in Section 38 of the Rosemere Cemetery, Eastern part, in a tract, which includes one of his sons, Rev. George Evans Brewer and other members of his son's family. The front of his gravestone includes the following words, just below a Masonic lodge emblem.
Dr. A. G. Brewer, Born in Monmouth Co. N.J. Dec. 5, 1795, Died April 12, 1877. He began to preach 1821 and was ordained 1822 and a member of the council which organized the M. P. Church and remained a member and minister of it until his death, filling therein various positions of honor and usefulness.
The reverse side of the marker reads:
He was for many years an active member of the Masonic Fraternity. He died in the peaceful triumphs of faith, and calmly sleeps in Jesus, awaiting the resurrection morn.
==========
Inscription
"He began to preach 1816 and was ordained 1822. He was a member of the Conventions that organized the M.P. (Methodist Protestant) Church, and remained a member and minister of it until his death, filling their various positions of honor and usefulness.
He was for many years an active member of the Masonic Fraternity. He died in the peaceful triumphs of faith, and calmly sleeps in Jesus, awaiting the resurrection morn."
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