In my earliest recollection, the Methodists were few and despised. The Baptists had meeting in our neighborhood once a month; and, as mother was a Baptist, we attended these meetings quite regularly. We went to only the camp-meetings of the Methodists. William McKendree was Presiding Elder when we came to Kentucky, but I do not think he held any camp-meeting in our vicinity—in fact, I do not know that we so much as saw him. John Page was Presiding Elder, and Thomas Wilkerson and Jessee Walker circuit-preachers, at the first camp-meetings we attended—1802, 1803.
It was during their ministry that those celebrated revivals occurred, which were accompanied by such a singular species of excitement. This was familiarly known among us as “the jerks.” I saw women, who were held by two or more strong men, throw themselves back and forward with such violence, that they threw the combs out of their hair, and then their loosened locks would crack nearly as loud as a common carriage-whip. I saw one old lady spring from her seat, and pass a dozen times across the house in every direction, by a succession of leaps from two to six feet; and, to my astonishment, she never failed to light squarely and firmly upon a bench! This was the more remarkable, as the seats were like those in the school-house before described, simply split logs, somewhat smoothed upon the flat side, and averaging about seven inches in width. Another old lady of our acquaintance, who had heard of these strange exercises, but had not witnessed them, was fully convinced that it was “all put on;” but went to the meeting on purpose more fully to satisfy herself. She sat for some time looking about, wondering who would be the first “to pop up and take one them there tantrums.” All at once, as she afterward told us, she felt something like a bullet rise up on her throat, with a taste as sweet as honey. She fell helpless to the ground, and was for a long time unable to breathe. Then she began to laugh; and she declared that her laughter was perfectly uncontrollable, and she found it impossible to stop; though she was seriously afraid it would take her life. When the paroxysm passed off, she seemed to feel exceedingly happy; and she expressed herself as entertaining views differing materially from those with which she came.
