The historical society was gifted a circuit rider’s journal a couple of years ago from some Taggart descendants. If you don’t know what a circuit rider was, he was a man or woman who traveled the countryside to bring religion to those that were out in the far reaches of the county.

Back in the beginnings of our county, Brown County was a wilderness. Huge forests covered the land and our early settlers set out to tame their small part of it. That meant cutting trees, building a home, growing their own crops and raising their own livestock.

Being out in the far reaches of this wilderness could be lonesome, and you may not see anyone for weeks or months at a time. When the circuit riders came around, it was like a holiday to see a new face, especially one you knew could bring news from the outside world and someone who would make you feel inspired to go on.

The journal is fairly mundane when reading the minutes of each meeting. William Taggart was the secretary of the group and most all the writings in the journal were his.

The Methodist movement in the early 1800s was sweeping across the newly settled states and Indiana was one of them. Brown County was right in the middle of it all.

Some of you have may heard of the more famous circuit rider, Eli P. Farmer, who started the Brown Mission. He was the first to come to Brown County. He wrote in his journals about the experiences he encountered here. He was determined to reach our county, and the wildness of the land as well as some of the wild people who lived here.

There were some areas that were especially rough that acquired just as rough names. We don’t know where these areas are now, but they got names such as the Big Hog Thief Settlement. But that’s not all our county was about. There were good upstanding citizens here as well, people such as William Taggart, Patterson C. Parker, Jesse Hamblen, Elias Weddle and many many others. They enveloped the movement, took Eli Farmer’s mission, and it grew to unlimited bounds. Their membership swelled into the hundreds. All of this was centered in Brown County, but their reach went all over the southern Indiana. Some even traveled as far as Illinois and Ohio.

The Brown County group was still associated with the United Brethren for many years until one of its members had to take a stand. The Mexican War had erupted, and some of their members protested the stand that the U.B. church took. The Brown County group was caused to split from the main movement in 1848 because of a difference in patriotism. According to their minutes, “Whereas, by the action of our late White River Annual Conference, Brother Patterson C. Parker was expelled from the Ministry, on a charge of public immorality, for Volunteering in the service of his country in the War with Mexico; and upon this charge alone, was he expelled, and upon examination we have been unable to find any rule, either in our Bible, or the Discipline of the Church, for or against a man’s volunteering in the service of his country. Moreover, we conceive that we have national rights which have been handed down to us, sealed by the blood of our Revolutionary Father’s sanctioned.”

They worked to try to get Brother Parker reinstated for a couple of years, but the U.B. church denied him. In 1853, the Brown County group split from the church and they created a new name. They called themselves the Republican United Brethren Church. They met at the Taggart meeting house to adopt their new name and organization.

The Taggart meeting house was located near where the Taggart Cemetery is located now. One can visit the cemetery and be near the beginnings of this great movement in our county. There is a marker there commemorating the location of this first church in Brown County.

— Rhonda A. Dunn, Brown County Historical Society