"The Exodus"
The following is an account of the Exodus from Mecklenberg County, NC to Marshall County, MS which I found in a book entitled PHILADELHIA....CHURCH OF SIX GENERATIONS written by Marie Gooman Jenkins in 1955 (it has been out of print for many years):
"The Exodus"
(From an unpublished account written by Mrs. R. S. Morris)
Among the earliest communicants of Philadelphia (Red Banks) Presbyterian Church were the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who
migrated to Red Banks from North Carolina in 1847. Some were formerly members of Old Rocky River Church of Concord, N.
C. the pastor of which was Rev. Daniel A. Penick.
There was a large company of these pioneers (about a hundred) and they settled in Tennessee as well as Mississippi. They were
the very early settlers of Buncombe, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg Counties, N. C. Their ancestors participated in the Revolutionary
War and their spirit of independence is unquestionable, when it is remembered that they drafted the Mecklenburg Declaration a
year before the Philadelphia Declaration of Independence. That is why the date, May 20, 1775, appears on the N. C. state flag.
These people were God-fearing and would bow their heads to no monarch, be he king or potentate. Their consciences dictated
their every thought and action. So in the year 1847, a large group of them, led by Rev. Angus Johnson decided to move westward
to ever fairer lands. There were Methodists as well as Presbyterians in this "Exodus" company.
Although they all started out together in one large caravan, the two congregations came to a parting of the ways. The reason was
the Presbyterians' well established custom of resting on the Sabbath, while the Methodists preferred to waste no time in pressing
forward toward their destination.
The Presbyterians would pitch camp wherever they hap-' pened to be on Saturday afternoon. They observed the Sabbath Day by
listening to sermons by Rev. Angus Johnson, who used the back end of a wagon for a pulpit. They also prayed, sang hymns and
rested. So, when they broke camp on Monday morning, they felt rested and refreshed and made better time than their Methodist
friends who felt tired and jaded, and whose horses were weary from lack of rest. A very interesting sidelight on this is the fact
that the Presbyterians overtook and arrived three weeks ahead of the Methodists.
After crossing the North Carolina state line the families of the two congregations gradually separated and some of them settled
along the way in towns of Tennessee. Several families made their way to Red Banks, in Marshall County, Mississippi where they
bought land and established themselves. They were the Newells, Canons, Houstons, Blairs, Martins, Johnsons, Blacks and Flinns
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The Canon Family
There were two brothers, Harvey and Alfred Canon and their families who were in the Exodus Company and settled near Red
Banks. Their sister, Margaret Louise Canon, later became the second wife of Dr. R. W. Martin.
The Canons owned large plantations and many slaves. Alfred 0. Canon was a Ruling Elder of Philadelphia Church in 1875. He
and his family later moved to Germantown, TN (NOTE: In my mother's hand: "Incorrect. He never moved.").