OUR LEGACY FROM THE PAST - NCCUMC

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WASHINGTON SANDFORD CHAFFIN
1815-1895
By 1860, the ROANOKE CIRCUIT had been changed to the
WASHINGTON CIRCUIT, and the first minister to serve on this
new circuit was Washington Sandford Chaffin of Stokes County.
As stated previously, he served this church in 1847,and he noted in
his Journal that the town had improved a great deal since his last
visit. He expressed sorrow at that first service however, when he
saw so many strange faces in the congregation, showing how
many had died since he first served the church. He stated that the
church members met on the night of February 20,1861 to discuss
plans to build a new church on the lot of the old one, and that it was
projected to cost $3000. (This was the second Methodist Church
building and was built about where the parsonage is today.)
Reverend Chaffin kept detailed notes on a daily basis in a
Journal which has given a great deal of insight as to what was
happening here in Williamston at the outbreak of the Civil War.
He said there was much controversy in this county concerning
secession from the Union, and that when news came that North
Carolina was seceding from the Union, riots broke out in the town,
leaving one man with a broken skull and others injured as well. He
also stated that someone attempted to set Asa Biggs' house on fire
on two different occasions, but both times it was put out before
much damage was done.
In his April 20, 1861 entry, he describes a meeting that was
organized to get volunteers for the Confederate Army. The idea
was very painful to him and he cries out in his Journal, "0 God!
Save us from the havoc of war!" In July, he tells about going down
to the river to see the Volunteers, called the "Hatteras Avengers,"
leave for battle. He was asked to make a speech, but expressed
disgust at the drunken condition of many of the men. He states
that by November, most of the able-bodied men had joined the
army, and there were just a few boys and old men left in the town
of nine hundred inhabitants.
In his September 3rd entry, he tells about the epidemic of influenza
and fever which swept through the town, his own family