Much of the history of Free Will Baptists in the nineteenth century is limited to analyzing the events that occurred within the movement but fails to connect the hopes, dreams, pursuits, and fears of our movement fully to the broader cultural and political context. In this essay, I provide some context to the culture of Free Will Baptists at the turn of the twentieth century by considering the life of John R. Gower, a farmer, social leader, politician, and Free Will Baptist minister active in the Cumberland Association in Middle Tennessee from the 1870s to the 1920s.[1] The particularities of his life, interests, and activities offer new insights into the world of Free Will Baptists at the turn of the twentieth century. In a successive essay to post later this year, I will show how this social and cultural information helps us better understand the temperance and unity movements among Free Will Baptists during this time.
A Free Will Baptist Frontiersman
John Robert Gower was born in Robertson County, Tennessee, in 1844, to a notable Free Will Baptist family. His father, James, was a prominent Free Will Baptist minister in the area and the son of Wilson L. Gower. On his mother’s side, John Gower was the grand-nephew of George Head. Wilson Gower and George Head were key participants in the founding of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptist in 1843.[2]
John Gower was educated at the local “rural schools” of Robertson County and quickly became a successful tobacco farmer and dealer in the Thomasville area on the border of Cheatham County, Robertson County, and Montgomery County. Though John would have been sixteen when conflict broke out, he does not seem to have fought in the War between the States. However, he did marry during those tumultuous years, wedding his life-long neighbor Martha Woodruff in late 1863.[3] A little over twenty years later, after making a “record” tobacco trade deal, he purchased 365 acres of excellent farmland in Port Royal from Col. William Weatherford for $10,000. The farm lay in a bend of the Red River and gave him ready access to the river port from which the town derived its name.[4]
His father was a farmer and Free Will Baptist minister, who pastored at least the Good Springs and Heads churches—probably others as well. Prior to the twentieth century, most rural Free Will Baptist churches met only once per month and were pastored by local farmers whose call to preach had been confirmed by the local congregation. When multiple men from the same congregation were ordained, they often struck out to found new churches in the area.[5] Perhaps Gower’s father, James, was part of that process because the number of Free Will Baptist churches in the area expanded significantly over the mid-nineteenth century.[6] As a result of these circumstances, preachers often oversaw multiple churches without clearly articulated terms of service.
John Gower was an active layman in the association for many years before he was ordained as a minister in 1890 at forty-six years of age. He reported as a delegate from Heads and Good Springs to the Cumberland Association multiple times, serving on the Missionary Board regularly.[7] In 1879, Gower, who also had other responsibilities, was appointed by the association to write a history of their organization, a task that was eventually taken up by G. V. Frey and published in 1911.[8] He also may have been an early advocate for adopting resolutions in favor of prohibition.[9]
Soon after making his home in Port Royal, Gower began working with W. H. Bigger, J. F. Lockert, and S. B. Nichols to gather Olivet Free Will Baptist Church in the community, planning to build a meeting house near Lockert’s School House.[10] The men not only pooled their considerable resources for this effort but also asked for financial support from their community with the goal of sharing the meeting house with other denominations on a weekly rotating basis.[11] By 1890, Olivet Church was reporting twenty-five members to the Cumberland Association.[12]
Farming and Farmer’s Cooperatives
Gower remained a widely respected tobacco and vegetable farmer in the area throughout his life. He was regularly listed among the most “substantial tobacco dealers” in Montgomery County by the Leaf-Chronicle Weekly newspaper out of Clarksville, Tennessee, and consistently competed for the highest price per hogshead of tobacco.[13] Even during droughts, he seemed to produce better crops than most.[14] Like many other Southern farmers at the end of the nineteenth century, Gower actively participated in cooperative associations in order to strengthen the economic might of individual farmers.
Gower and his wife, Martha, became part of at least two agricultural cooperatives during the late nineteenth century. The Planter’s Protective Association provided a means for tobacco farmers to pool their resources to contend for higher and more regular prices for their crops.[15] But the Gowers were also interested in diversifying their crops, and John served as the first president of the Red River Truck Growing Association, which was formed to help local farmers build commercial connections with canning companies for tomatoes and corn.[16]
Both of these organizations were part of the larger cooperative movement amongst farmers that began in the 1890s, with the goal of combining the economic power of individual farmers to compete more fairly against the trusts and corporations that bought their crops in regional, national, and global markets.
These cooperative organizations also provided education to farmers about ways to modernize their practices and make their farms more efficient so that they could successfully work together to “standardize production, centralize distribution and marketing, and set prices.” Furthermore, as historian Charles Postel reveals, farm reformers saw these cooperatives as only one piece of a larger social transformation where cooperation would be carried into “every department of human life to its fullest extent.” In the end, the farm reformers believed that applying “cooperative business principles [w]as an essential part of a more rational, dynamic, and modern path of development.”[17]
Gower’s active participation in farmers’ cooperatives suggests that he was inclined to see collective social action as a means of transforming society, by using the power and influence of the group to make society more efficient, standardized, and centralized, but only along lines that conformed with his deeply held religious beliefs.
Populist Politics
Gower’s leadership in the church and farmers’ cooperatives was only part of the reason he was considered a very active, “clever,” and “highly esteemed” citizen in his community.[18] He was also very active politically. For many years, he served as a judge over local elections, monitoring the polls for irregularities.[19] He even served in this capacity for the Democratic Party’s primary elections and was regarded as a staunch member of the party in the community.[20]
The Democratic Party of the late nineteenth century was significantly different from the party of the twenty-first century. From its founding in 1828, under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, until the early twentieth century, the Democratic Party was largely the political party of rural America, opposing the centralization of government in Washington D.C. and the industrialization of the American economy. The Democratic Party was particularly incensed by the use of federal tariffs that protected American industries while significantly harming farmers who sold their crops to other countries and imported most of their manufactured goods. They rightly considered tariffs as a means of redistributing wealth from the countryside to the urban centers. The party had been strongest in the South prior to the War between the States, though there were also many Democrats in Northern states, especially New York. While the Republican Party, founded in 1854, dominated federal and state political power in the North during the War and the South during Reconstruction, the Democratic Party began to recover during the 1870s, slowly retaking control of Southern legislatures and governor’s mansions. However, the party was also beginning to transition in important ways.
During Gower’s years of political activity in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, the Democratic Party in the South was dominated by Populists, like William Jennings Bryan, who advocated for increased democratization of the federal government so that Washington D.C. might be harnessed to achieve the goals of rural America.[21] More specifically, they sought a looser currency through bimetallism, women’s suffrage, prohibition, rural education, the direct election of senators, and a progressive income tax. These policy goals remained central to the Democratic Party until most of their goals were achieved during the 1910s, at which point the Democratic Party began to be dominated by Progressive leftists and started shifting toward the party we know today.
While the Populist movement included some black voters and was not ideologically tied to segregation in the same way the Progressives were, many white Populists nonetheless worked to end black suffrage and pursued white governance in local, state, and federal government.[22] For some, segregation was merely a continuation of informal prejudices, but for many others it was an attempt to be modern and scientific according to the standards of the day. Still, segregation was not the dominant goal in Populist politics. Many black and non-black Populists alike opposed segregation. The heart of the Populist movement was the pursuit of social reform toward the values and interests of fervently religious rural communities.
From what we know, Gower’s political activity focused on prohibition and rural education. As will be discussed in a later post, he was a strong advocate for using the power of the state to eliminate the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol. Gower also seems to have had an abiding interest in education. As mentioned above, he attended the “rural schools” of the early nineteenth century before the advent of public schools in the South, which means that his family went out of their way to provide him with at least basic education.
As an adult, Gower was “one of the staunchest supporters” of the local school in his community and was repeatedly elected to serve as a director of schools in district one of Montgomery County.[23] He seems to have taken this office seriously, attending a teacher’s institute with some of his school’s teachers to hear presentations on American history, school organization, and book-keeping.[24] He also offered his “genial presence” to school gatherings following end-of-the-year exams.[25] His children seem to have caught his passion for education, with his son Charles and his daughter Mary serving as leaders of a community literary club when they were young. Charles went on to become a medical doctor, while another son, named John, attended the University of Tennessee.[26] Perhaps his commitment to education also led the Cumberland Association to offer him opportunities to serve on the Literature and Union Committee of 1890 and gave him the task of writing the history of the association.
Conclusion
Free Will Baptists are full members of the communities and always have been. Their lives as rural Southerners informed their actions within the Free Will Baptist movement just as their doctrinal commitments shaped their political and communal activity. This small glimpse into the culture and society of turn-of-the-century Free Will Baptists through the life of John R. Gower offers interesting insights into the worldview of the day that informed many of the developments within the movement at that time. In the following essay, we will consider how two specific developments were influenced by and took part in this broader cultural context.
[1] In my chapter of Leader, Scholar, Shepherd, I offer a summary of and critical engagement with Robert E. Picirilli’s important work in Free Will Baptist history. I particularly extol his efforts in gathering and organizing the records in the Free Will Baptist historical collection, but I also praise his detailed research into unfamiliar or previously untouched areas of our tradition’s history. I also urge future historians to build on Picirilli’s work by more fully incorporating the cultural and political context of our movement into our history. This essay is a modest attempt to begin that process. See Phillip T. Morgan, “Picirilli and Free Will Baptist History,” in Teacher, Scholar, Shepherd: Essays in Honor of Robert E. Picirilli, ed. Phillip T. Morgan and Matthew Steven Bracey (Nashville: D6 Family Ministry, 2024).
[2] “John R. Gower is Buried Today,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, February 18, 1925. For information on Wilson L. Gower and George Head, see Phillip T. Morgan, “Founding of the Cumberland Association,” in The Cumberland Association: Celebrating 175 Years of Leadership, Ministry and Service, by Roy W. Harris and Phillip T. Morgan (Nashville: RHM, 2018); Phillip T. Morgan, Heads Free Will Baptist Church: A Rich Heritage; A Bright Future (Gause, TN: Heads Free Will Baptist Church, 2015); Phillip T. Morgan, “Robert Heaton (1765–1843): Free Will Baptist Founder in Middle Tennessee,” in Arminian Baptists: A Biographical History of Free Will Baptists, ed. David Lytle and Charles Cook (Nashville: Randall House, 2022); and Robert E. Picirilli, “Robert Heaton and the Separate Baptist Origins of Middle Tennessee Free Will Baptists, 1808–1842,” in Little Known Chapters in Free Will Baptist History, by Robert E. Picirilli (Nashville: Randall House, 2015).
[3] “John Robert Gower (27 August 1844–17 February 1925),” Family Search, https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LHPH-3K5; Tennessee Census Record Indexes 1910, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TDN-PM3?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMGX7-RYR&action=view&cc=1727033&lang=en&groupId=.
[4] Clarksville Weekly Chronicle, November 7, 1885; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, November 6, 1885; “John R. Gower is Buried Today,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, February 18, 1925.
[5] Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 82.
[6] The Cumberland Association expanded from seven churches at the founding meeting in 1843 to nineteen in 1876. James W. Gower wrote a circular letter, printed in the 1885 Cumberland Association minutes, calling for renewed fervor in building Free Will Baptist churches in the area. See Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1843; Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1876; and Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1885.
[7] Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1879; Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1884; Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1886.
[8] Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1879; Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1911.
[9] Because we currently have no minutes of the Cumberland Association for the years 1844–1875, we cannot know that 1876 was the first time a resolution against the sale, manufacture, or consumption of alcohol was taken up by the Cumberland. However, it is intriguing that their interest in this topic before 1894 seems to have wavered whenever John R. Gower was not recorded as being present. Gower also hosted a radical prohibitionist rally on his property in Port Royal in 1886. Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1876; Clarksville Weekly Chronicle, July 17, 1886; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, July 20, 1886; W. H. Hook, “A Big Barbecue: The Meeting of Several Lodges near Port Royal,” Clarksville Weekly Chronicle, August 7, 1886; Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1896.
[10] “News from Forest Hill,” Leaf-Chronicle, September 5, 1890; “Port Royal Items,” Leaf-Chronicle, October 14, 1890.
[11] Leaf-Chronicle, August 20, 1890; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, August 22, 1890.
[12] Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Free Will Baptists, 1890.
[13] Tobacco sales were recorded in hogsheads going back to the seventeenth century when it was shipped to market in large wooden “hogshead” barrels. Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, January 27, 1882; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, February 10, 1882; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, June 27, 1882; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, April 18, 1884.
[14] Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, September 16, 1887.
[15] F. G. Ewing, “Chairman Ewing on the Tobacco Situation: The Association Has Made Large Sales During Past Four Weeks,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, November 13, 1905; “News from Hopkinsville Concerning a Charter for the Planters’ Protective Association,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, September 20, 1906.
[16] “Branch of the Truck Growers Association Established by Farmers of Rossview Neighborhood,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, April 18, 1904; “Montgomery County Farmers Will Gladly Grow the Necessary Vegetables,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, April 18, 1904.
[17] Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 103–06.
[18] Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, December 19, 1882; “John R. Gower is Buried Today,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, February 18, 1925.
[19] J. T. Staton, “Election Notice,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, July 10, 1888.
[20] “John R. Gower is Buried Today,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, February 18, 1925.
[21] For a brief overview of William Jennings Bryan’s political career, see Phillip T. Morgan, “William Jennings Bryan and the Progressive Era,” Helwys Society Forum (Nov. 21, 2019), https://www.helwyssocietyforum.com/william-jennings-bryan-and-the-progressive-era/.
[22] For more information on the political landscape of the turn of the twentieth century and the Populist movement, see Allen Johnston Going, Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 1874–1890 (1951; rprt., Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1992); Michael Kazin, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006); Ross A. Kennedy, The Will to Believe: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America’s Strategy for Peace and Security (Kent: OH: Kent State University Press, 2009); Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); Sidney M. Milkis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2009); Postel, The Populist Vision; and C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, 3rd rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).
[23] Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, June 27, 1882; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, August 7, 1894.
[24] J. H. Aayer, “Teacher’s Institute: Report of Proceedings from Yesterday to this Afternoon,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, June 28, 1895; “A White Ticket was Elected in Both the City and the County,” Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, August 11, 1896.
[25] Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, April 5, 1898.
[26] Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, November 6, 1888; Leaf-Chronicle Weekly, April 7, 1902.
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