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    The Story of Joseph Willis
    The Story of Joseph Willis
    The Story of Joseph Willis
    Ebook56 pages1 hour

    The Story of Joseph Willis

    By Randy Willis

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    The son of a white man and Cherokee slave, Joseph Willis, gains his freedom and swims the mighty Mississippi on a mule. There, he preaches the first Gospel sermon by an Evangelical west of the Mississippi River.

    Joseph Willis preached the first Gospel sermon by an Evangelical west of the Mississippi River, in 1798.

    Joseph Willis's life is a story of triumph over tragedy and victory over adversity!

    ✯ He was born into slavery. His mother was Cherokee and his father a wealthy English plantation owner.

    ✯ His family took him to court to deprive him of his inheritance (which would have made him the wealthiest plantation owner in all of Bladen County, North Carolina in 1776).

    ✯ He fought as a Patriot in the Revolutionary War under the most colorful of all the American generals, Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox.

    ✯ His first wife died in childbirth, and his second wife died only six years later, leaving him with five small children.

    ✯ He crossed the mighty Mississippi River at Natchez at the peril of his own life, riding a mule!

    ✯ He entered hostile Spanish-controlled Louisiana Territory, when the dreaded Code Noir (Black Code) was in effect. It forbade any Protestant ministers who came into the territory from preaching.

    ✯ His life was threatened because of the message he brought to Spanish-controlled Louisiana!

    ✯ His own denomination refused to ordain him because of his race.

    ✯ In 1798 Joseph Willis preached the first Gospel sermon by an Evangelical west of the Mississippi River.

    ✯ On November 13, 1812, Joseph Willis constituted Calvary Baptist Church at Bayou Chicot, Louisiana. He went on to plant over twenty churches in Louisiana.

    ✯ October 31, 1818, Joseph Willis (and others that had followed him from the Carolinas) founded the Louisiana Baptist Association, at Beulah Baptist in Cheneyville. Joseph had founded all five charter member churches.

    ✯ After overcoming insurmountable obstacles, he blazed a trail for others for another half-century that changed American history.

    ✯ His accomplishments are still felt today.

    Randy Willis is a fourth great-grandson of Joseph Willis and his foremost historian.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandy Willis
    Release dateMay 21, 2015
    ISBN9780990371779
    The Story of Joseph Willis
    Author

    Randy Willis

    Randy Willis is as much at home in the saddle as he is in front of the computer where he composes his family sagas. Drawing on his family heritage of explorers, settlers, soldiers, cowboys, and pastors, Randy carries on the tradition of loving the outdoors and sharing it in the adventures he creates for readers of his novels.He is the author of Destiny, Beckoning Candle, Twice a Slave, Three Winds Blowing, Carolinas Wind, Louisiana Wind, The Apostle to the Opelousas, The Story of Joseph Willis, and many articles.Twice a Slave has been chosen as a Jerry B. Jenkins Select Book, along with four bestselling authors. Jerry Jenkins is the author of more than 180 books with sales of more than 70 million copies, including the best-selling Left Behind series.Twice a Slave has been adapted into a dramatic play at Louisiana College, by Dr. D. "Pete" Richardson (Associate Professor of Theater with Louisiana College).Randy Willis owns Randy Willis Music Publishing (an ASCAP-affiliated music publishing company) and Town Lake Music Publishing, LLC (a BMI-affiliated music publishing company). He is an ASCAP-affiliated songwriter. He was an artist manager.He is the founder of Operation Warm Heart, which feeds and clothes the homeless. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Our Mission Possible (empowering at-risk teens to discover their greatness) in Austin, Texas.He was a charter member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph Willis Institute for Great Awakening Studies at Louisiana College.Randy Willis was born in Oakdale, Louisiana, and lived as a boy near Longleaf, Louisiana, and Barber Creek. He currently resides in the Texas Hill Country near his three sons and their families.He graduated from Angleton High School in Angleton, Texas, and Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. He was a graduate student at Texas State University for six years. He is the father of three sons and has five grandchildren.Randy Willis is the fourth great-grandson of Joseph Willis and his foremost historian.

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      Book preview

      The Story of Joseph Willis - Randy Willis

      THE STORY OF JOSEPH WILLIS

      HIS BIOGRAPHY BY RANDY WILLIS

      PREFACE

      My family’s story in America does not begin here. It begins in England in 1575. That year Nathaniel Willis was born, in Chettle, Dorsetshire, which is a county in South West England, on the English Channel coast. The county borders another county to the west that contains my deep Willis roots, Devonshire. Why would my ancestors leave their homeland, England, for an unknown land fraught with danger? The answer was religious persecution!

      art

      In 1620 a small group of Separatists would flee England via Plymouth Sound, situated between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, in the county of Devonshire. Besides fleeing religious persecution and searching for a place to worship, they wanted greater opportunities. The Mayflower was the aging ship that transported them. They sailed from Plymouth, on the southern coast of England, bound for the New World, seeking their new Plymouth. There were only102 passengers and a crew of about thirty aboard the tiny 110’ ship. They found their new home and named it Plymouth Colony. They became known as the Pilgrims. Five died during the voyage, and another forty-five of the 102 immigrants died the first winter. There, they signed the Mayflower Compact which established a rudimentary form of democracy.

      art

      Nathaniel later moved to London, where his son John Willis was born in 1606, only fourteen years before the historic Mayflower voyage. Fifteen years after that voyage, at age 29, John may have sailed for St. Christopher (a.k.a. St. Kitts) in the West Indies on April 3, 1635, on the ship Paul from Gravesend. But there is no record the ship stopped in New England. Gravesend is an ancient town in northwest Kent situated on the south bank of the Thames River near London. If the Paul was the ship John sailed on in route to the New World and carrying the dreams that would be passed on to subsequent generations, including myself, he may have barely escaped death. The Great Colonial Hurricane was in August of 1635. It was the most intense hurricane to hit New England since European colonization. If John would have sailed a month or two later he might not have made it to America, and this story, along with his dreams, would have ended at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

      Nevertheless, John Willis first appears in America in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, in 1635, when his son John Willis, Jr. was born. He appeared again in Duxbury, in 1637, when he married Elizabeth Hod-gkins Palmer, on January 2, 1637. She was the widow of William Palmer, Jr. Duxbury was first settled in 1632 by people from Plymouth Colony, and set off from that town in 1637.

      John Willis (a.k.a. Deacon John Willis), was later the first deacon in Plymouth Church. Reverend James Keith was the first settled minister in the area. The church parsonage, sometimes simply called the Keith House, was built for him. It is preserved and maintained by the Old Bridgewater Historical Society (OBHS), in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It is the oldest parsonage in America.

      John also had brothers who were immigrants to the Plymouth Colony area. They were: Nathaniel Willis, Lawrence Willis, Jonathan Willis, and Francis Willis.

      art

      The population was about 400 in the 1630s. John Willis would have known everyone in the Plymouth Colony area, especially its Governor, William Bradford, who was the English Separatist leader of the settlers there. William was Governor of Plymouth Colony when John arrived in 1635. John Willis held offices in Duxbury in 1637 and at Bridgewater in the 1650s. Bridgewater was created on June 3, 1656, from Duxbury, in Plymouth Colony. In 1648, John was a juror at the murder trial of Alice Bishope, who was hanged for killing her daughter, Martha Clarke.

      In 1623, Governor William Bradford proclaimed November 29, as a time for pilgrims, along with their Native American friends, to gather and give thanks. His proclamation contained these words: "Thanksgiving to

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