Biography of John Culpepper
The Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
by William S. Powell:

John Culpepper, Baptist clergyman and Federalist congressman, son of Sampson Culpepper, was born near Wadesboro in Anson County, in the area later made into Montgomery County. Nothing is known of his personal life, although one reference indicates that he may have served in the Revolutionary War, perhaps in Georgia where he lived for a while before 1784. He said in 1820 that "he knew what it was to be a soldier himself, and to serve when a morsel of bread was a luxury."

He attended local schools and was ordained in the Sandy Creek Association some time prior to 1812. It is probable that he preached at Meadow Branch Church in Union County, where he acquired a reputation as a "great evangelist." By 1815 the number of Baptist congregations had increased, and the new Pee Dee Association, to which Culpepper belonged for the remainder of his life, was created. At the 1816 meeting of the Sandy Creek Association, he was the guest preacher, using as his text for the opening discourse Hebrews 4:16.

Unconcerned over the issue of separation of church and state, Culpepper ran for the General Assembly of North Carolina and was elected as one of the two Anson County representatives in 1801. His service was not remarkable; he favored the calling of a constitutional convention for revision of the state constitution, and he favored stricter laws to regulate gambling. On the last day of the session, however, he and two other clerical members were challenged by the House of Commons on the basis of having violated Section 31 of the constitution, which forbade practicing clergy to hold office in the General Assembly. His seat was thereupon declared vacant, he was awarded all his back pay, and a new election in Anson County was called.

This event did not discourage him, for in 1807 he ran for Congress as a Federalist against Duncan McFarland and won in a contested election. McFarland appealed to the House of Representatives, which, after taking testimony evidencing such irregularities as an insufficient number of judges and failure to administer proper oaths to election officials, declared the seat vacant but would not award it to McFarland. A new election returned Culpepper again, whereupon he took his seat and began the first of six
terms in Congress (1807-9, 1813-17, 1819-21, 1823-25, 1827-29).

Philosophically, Culpepper was more nearly an Old Jeffersonian than a Federalist. As he himself stated, he "had always been independent enough to disregard precedents in his course, and he should continue to do so." He stood with the Federalists in opposition to the War of 1812, averring his willingness to support a defensive war but never a war "for the purpose of invasion of Canada." He voted against the Loan Bill of 1814 in a lengthy speech, referring to "this premature, this ill-advised, this miserably conducted
war......" Culpepper did not follow the nationalist surge that ensued at the close of the war. He voted against the charter of the second Bank of the United States and against the protective tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828. Although he initially supported an appropriation for roads and canals, by 1824 he also opposed these expenditures, on the grounds of invasion of states rights. He did not hesitate to vote for appropriations that would benefit the "little man," supporting pensions for all Revolutionary War soldiers, for instance, and salary increases for government clerks.

Although it is not known if he was a slave holder, Culpepper supported the institution. During the 1820 struggle over the admission of Missouri, he voted consistently for slavery in the new state but was willing to support its prohibition north of 36 degrees 30 minutes. Further, he opposed an authorization for the president to negotiate with foreign countries to abolish the African slave trade, and he also objected to the use of resolutions in the House as vehicles for abolitionist propaganda.

To some, the country preacher was good only for "log-rolling or corn shucking." Indeed, once the members of the House walked off the floor in the midst of a Culpepper speech. To others, he "was deemed a man of sound sense, but not brilliant, useful rather than showy." Not a wealthy man, he did not consider himself able to serve in Congress without adequate compensation. "My family are to be provided for, and I shall vote for the compensation I deem just, and use my wages to support myself, to pay my debts, to support my family, etc., just as I would the avails of my labor on my farm, or any where else...."

His socioeconomic status and his views are generally Jeffersonian, and it must remain a mystery why he called himself a Federalist. Following the end of his sixth term he retired; he died twelve years later, at the age of eighty, at the home of a son in Darlington County, SC. He was buried in the Welch Neck Church cemetery at Society Hill, SC.

Note by Lew Griffin. The first letter below is the only record I know of in which John Culpepper mentions his children, so it is a pivotal document in that regard for his descendants. The text below also gives a good over-view of the split between the Missionary Baptists and the Primitive Baptists which was taking place in the late 1830's.

From the Biblical Recorder, November 30, 1839

The following letter extracted from the Marengo Gazette, from Brother Culpepper, of N.C., will be read with interest by the Baptists of this State; he is no ordinary man. He has done much in the service of his country, as well as in the ministry, and he is emphatically, an old fashioned Baptist, of the very stamp of Roger Williams, John Ireland, and others, who under God built up the Church in these United States, and labored in the revolution to establish freedom of conscience in the worship of God. Many of us are well acquainted with the writer of this letter from character, and others have seen him face to face. It is our privilege to say we have seen him and heard him preach at old Grassy Creek Church, in Granville county, N.C. Our Father, who was one of the Deacons of that Church loved him, as he did every other intelligent, faithful minister, truly, and always carried us to hear him preach.

From the Marengo Gazette.

The following is a letter from the Rev. Mr. Culpepper, of North Carolina, to James Yarbrough, of Alabama, Marengo County, who has had the pastoral care of the Mount Pleasant Church, in the Flat settlement, for a number of years; but has recently rent himself from her, declaring non-fellowship with all benevolent institutions of the day. [Note by Lew Griffin: This James Yarbrough may have been John Culpepper’s brother-in-law, since John’s wife was Mary Yarbrough.]

Beverly, July 5, 1838.

Dear Brother:

I have the pleasure of informing you, that I and my friends in these regions are generally well. My children are scattered in different States: Benjamin, the eldest, is in Tennessee, on the Fork Deer River; he has a wife and seven or eight children, and is said to be doing well. -- Nancy is a widow with five children, and has removed to Sumter county, near you. John is living in Marlborough District, South Carolina, and has six children; he spends nearly all his time in preaching, and is considered a useful preacher. E. A. Culpeper, I am informed, went to Texas, and returned to Louisiana and has settled himself.

We have had good times in Anson, for several years. The Baptists have increased two or three hundred fold; they have ten framed Meeting Houses in Anson, and have moved on in great love and harmony, until of late; but an unfortunate division has taken place--perhaps one-fifth of the Baptists in North Carolina, have broken off from the rest, and will have no fellowship with any who hold with the Bible Society, Missionary Society, Sabbath School, or Temperance Society". This division, like the "East wind", has blasted some of our prospects. Few have joined them of late. The Bear Creek Association, in Montgomery, Anson, Rowan and Cabarrus, has ten churches. They have baptized hut one person the last year, and that was a Negro woman, who lived and professed to have got religion near the Brown Creek Meeting House amongst us. They are really like Pharaoh's lean kine, and come "thin and blasted with the East wind."-- All the old preachers you know in the country and most of the intelligent young ones, are on the Missionary or effort side, and your brother, William A. Morris, is amongst them. He and myself had a Temperance meeting yesterday at Brown Creek Meeting House; he had ninety members before, and seven joined yesterday, and I hope the cause of God and good morals are gaining though iniquity abounds, and the love of some is waxing cold.

We hear that a division has taken place among you, and it is reported that you are on the Anti-Missionary side. I desire to hope it is not so, but fear it is. I now desire to call your attention to a few facts. In 1790 or '92 a few Baptist preachers, John Rippon, John Ryland, Samuel Pearce, Andrew Fuller, and others in England, set apart the first Monday evening in every month as a time of special prayer to God, to revive religion in their own souls and in the Churches, and send the Gospel to the Heathen. In June 1793, they sent out John Thomas and William Carey to Hindoston, to preach to the Hindoos; and others have since followed and joined them. Claudius Buchanan, a young disciple of John Newton's and a preacher in the Church of England some years, went chaplain to the Indies, he there became acquainted with our Baptist brethren, and caught the Missionary flame, and traveled extensively in that country, and then returned to England, and preached and published his "Star in the East".

A few young Presbyterians or Congregationalists, in New England, read his "Star in the East", and caught the same flame, (call it wild-fire, or what you please), and in l8l2, A. Judson, Samuel Newel, S. Hall, S. Nott and Luther Rice, sailed for the Indies. Two of them, A. Judson, and Luther Rice became Baptists. Judson and his wife traveled to Burmah, and Rice returned to America and traveled and spread the news; and in 1814, the Baptists met in Philadelphia, to the number of perhaps thirty, including Baldwin, Furman, Staughton, and others, (more than two-thirds of whom are gone to reap their reward.) and formed a Missionary Society, and "The Baptist Board of Foreign Missions"; and have been from then till now sending out preachers and raising money to support them. In 1815, the Sandy Creek Association, the oldest in the State, and the third in the Union--Philadelphia being the first and Charleston the second, and we the third; appointed Robert T. Daniel, corresponding Secretary to the Baptist Board of foreign Missions; John Culpeper, Messenger to the general meeting. In 1816, the newly formed Pee Dee Association adopted the same course and appointed J. Culpeper Corresponding Secretary to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, and Messenger to the general meeting. I have been traveling agent for the Board some few years, and am well acquainted with the progress of the Missionary cause. I, last April, went to Philadelphia, when nearly four hundred Baptists met and formed a Bible Society. I am now old, and have spent the present year almost entirely in Anson. Our English and American brethren have sent our preachers to Hindoston, to Burmah, and elsewhere, and they have translated the Scriptures into about thirty languages, and they are now printing and circulating the Scriptures in many languages, and preaching the Gospel amongst the Hindoos, Burmans, Chinese, Carens, Siamese, and in many other nations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and preachers are going to and fro. The use of Missionaries to do the work formerly done by land (sic), require much time to spend in traveling and preaching, and abandoning the use of ardent spirits, enabled to raise money to spread the Gospel. The Missionary Baptists in America, raised the last year, for printing and distributing the Bible, $35,714.66; for Foreign missions, more than $63,000; for Home Missions, more than $15,000; for Tracts, more than $10,000 and large sums for building Meeting Houses, Schools and Colleges--and as we can now travel by railroads, and steam boats, and ships, so rapidly, we hope the time is near "when the earth shall he filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' lsa. xi. ch. "And from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, God's name shall be great amongst the gentiles; and when in every place incense shall be offered to his name". Mal. i. ch.

And now my dear Brother, in view of these things, let me say to you, if through the want of information on these subjects, you and any of your family have honestly opposed these benevolent plans, and thought you were doing God's service, recollect Saul of Tarsus, "Verily, thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus'. If you are on the lord's side, persevere (for as much as your labor is not in vain in the Lord, for as sure as God is in heaven and his word is true, so sure the effort Baptists are doing God's work. As I never expect to see you again in time, but shall surely meet you at the bar of God; till then, I bid you an affectionate farewell. J. CULPEPER. (From the Biblical Recorder -- November 30, 1839, p. 2-3-4.)

The following is an extract from a letter lately received from our venerable and much respected brother, John Culpeper, Sen. It was written, we presume, with no reference to publication; but as it touches a point in which many of our readers are interested, we take the liberty to give it an insertion. Since the formation of our Convention, bro. Culpeper has been one of its most zealous and constant supporters; and now since the infirmities of age have begun to throw impediments in the way of his attending our meetings, we are sure that his numerous friends will be pleased to hear from him through the medium of the Recorder.

We have nothing very interesting with us of late, but I hope God is carrying on his work in our region surely though slowly. I have read the discussion respecting calling up sinners or mourners to be prayed for with considerable interest, and although I differ from you in judgment, I approve of your candor and moderation in expressing your opinions; and I trust, if the friends on both sides act with Christian forbearance, it may promote God's glory and Zion's peace. I for one, have been in the habit of inviting friends to come forward to be prayed for, and although I have never been as constant as some others, I find myself more inclined to it when I feel most solicitous for their conversion than at other times; and observe my brethren who are most zealous and successful practice it frequently; and I have no doubt but it has been practiced with success, by the worshipers of God occasionally from to time Moses said to Hobab: "come thou and go with us, and we will do thee good"; until the present time. I well recollect the first time I ever witnessed a call of the kind -- It was in April, 1787, when Silas Mercer, Abraham Marshall, and others, at Hebron M. H., Wilkes County, Georgia, invited mourners to come. Numbers crowded up, when fearing I was too vile to be numbered with the mourners, I fell on my knees in my place, and if God removed my guilt it was then and there; three others shouted aloud for joy before they left the house. Notwithstanding all this, I fear we may be led to trust in practices we believe God has blessed and the means God has appointed, and not alone in the God who has appointed them. You have my opinions honestly expressed---farewell. J. Culpeper. (From the Biblical Recorder, Nov. 30. 1839, P.2: 4-5.

Anson County-Rocky River Baptist Church
E.M. Brooks

(Note: There four  church sites:. Two of the sites were on the Lee Farm. Lee's farm was approximately eighteen hundred acres.- The original owner was "Rocky River" Bill Lee, the oldest of that name so far as known).

The first site stood on a slight elevation some three hundred yards from the river.   Here the Culpepers built a home nor more than one hundred yards from the meeting house. They very likely lived here before Samson Culpeper moved to Georgia, as John Sr., and John Sr., son and grandson of Samson, were both born in Anson County.  The founding of the church has been credited traditionally to Hon. And Rev. John Culpeper, Sr.  But Mr. Culpeper being born in the year 1764 and his father, Samson Culpeper, moving to Georgia when Young John was only twelve years of age, and not returning till he was twenty. He was an early pastor and the church was often designated locally as "Culpeper's Meeting House." His return from Georgia was in 1784 and not till then could he have been pastor.   Older people of the church say that he was the pastor for more than fifty years.

Later, the church building was moved one half mile further from the river southward.  It had remained at the first site long enough for a burial ground to be laid off and a number of graves made for both white and colored.  The graveyard was placed midway between the church site and the Culpeper home.

The third site  was attached to the Lee farm by purchase, but at the time of its location thought to be from the lands of Wyatt Nance, a Clerk of the Church. The third site is a mile and one-half from the river.  The fourth site was a large frame structure erected to care for both white and colored.. It was on the same campus but on a higher elevation and was from the Darling ALLEN lands."

Barbara Parson's notes:

1. It may be noteworthy here to mention that one of the early ministers of this church was black. His name was Ralf Freeman.  He gave himself the last name of Freeman when he became free from slavery.  In further postings of rolls, and member's names, you will here more of this very famous minister, and the great contributions he made both to the community and  to the Baptist Church.   There are many historians writing the biography of Ralf Freeman.
2. It would appear that Ralf, may have been born in the 1700's. He stood in for John Culpeper, Jr., who was born  in N.C., December 9, 1800 and died: March 26, 1873, when he had to be away to serve for the North Carolina Legislature.  It is not stated, but it would appear that they were about the same age.

Source:  Anson County, North Carolina Gen Web Page. File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Barbara P. Parsons