Dr. George T. Ashley (1864 – aft. 1941). Schoolteacher and Methodist Circuit Rider. George T. Ashley was born and brought up in a Primitive Baptist church in Mississippi. He professed "conversion," joined the church and was baptized by immersion at a revival meeting held during the summer when he was 15 years of age. He was intensely interested in the salvation of his schoolmates and felt the call of God upon his life. His pastor and neighbor provided the means for him to go to a Baptist College for two years. He later attended a Normal course to teach. As for the rest of his education, George said he obtained it, as Ralph Parlett once put it, in the great "University of Hard Knocks."
He was a licensed Baptist preacher and a schoolteacher, but was expulsed from membership because of his views on open communion.
George married his beloved wife, Marion Amanda Knight (d. 1940) and they remained married for more than fifty-six years. They had two children, a boy and a girl named Mary Fletcher.
He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in Louisiana thereafter. His first annual conference met at Shreveport in January 1888 and the Presiding Elder sent him to the Trinity Circuit on the Black River and later to a circuit near Colfax where they served until they moved to Liberal, Missouri (Barton County) to take up a circuit for the Methodist Episcopal, North church in May of 1890.
Two years later, he was appointed to go to Rolla, Missouri (Phelps County). Blind John Boone played a concert there during Ashley's tenure. After retiring, at the age of seventy-seven, he wrote a little book about his years as a circuit rider called "Reminiscences of a Circuit Rider" which was published in Los Angeles, CA in 1941.
A Bit of Trivia:
1844 = May 1. Great Division of the Methodist church into the Methodist Episcopal North and South. New York.
1939 = Uniting of the North and South Methodist Episcopal churches into the United Methodist church. Kansas City.
More to Read:
Primitive Baptist Library, Carthage, IL
Places to visit in Mo.
JW "Blind" Boone, Columbia
George T. Ashley was also the author of a book entitled, "From Bondage to Liberty in Religion / A Spiritual Autobiography." This details the evolution of his faith after leaving the Methodist church. Very interesting read.
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