[1812] N. Y. Herald, May 10, 1868; Buckley, “History of Methodism,” Vol. II, p. 191.
[1813] In 1871, Lakin stated that of his 15,000 members, three-fourths were whites of the poorer classes; that there were under his charge 6 presiding elders’ districts with 70 circuits and stations, and 70 ministers and 150 local preachers; and that he had been assisted in securing the “loyal” element by several ministers who had been expelled by the Southern Methodists during the war as traitors. Ala. Test., pp. 124, 130. Governor Lindsay stated that some of the whites of Lakin’s church were to be found in the counties of Walker, Winston, and Blount; that there were few such white congregations, and that some of these afterward severed their connection with the northern church, and by 1872 there were only two or three in the state. Lakin worked among the negro population almost entirely, and his statement that three-fourths of his members were whites was not correct. See Ala. Test., pp. 180, 208.
[1814] Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 111, 112, 124, 180, 623, 957. Lakin secured all church property formerly used by the southern church for negro congregations.
[1815] Lakin never acknowledged the present existence of the southern church.
[1816] Ala. Test., pp. 238, 758.
[1817] One of Lakin’s relations was that while he was conducting a great revival meeting among the hills of north Alabama, Governor Smith and other prominent and sinful scalawag politicians were under conviction and were about to become converted. But in came the Klan and the congregation scattered. Smith and the others were so angry and frightened that their good feelings were dissipated, and the devil reëntered them, so that he (Lakin) was never able to get a hold on them again. Consequently, the Klan was responsible for the souls lost that night. Lakin told a dozen or more marvellous stories of his hairbreadth escapes from death by assassination,—enough, if true, to ruin the reputation of north Alabama men for marksmanship.
[1818] Shackleford, “History of the Muscle Shoals Baptist Association,” p. 84.
[1819] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 106. In 1905 there is a much better spirit, and the churches of the two sections are on good terms, though not united.
[1820] Annual Cyclopædia (1865), p. 705. See p. [23] and [Ch. IV, Sec. 7], above.
[1821] Thompson, “History of the Presbyterian Churches,” p. 167.