Daniel Bragg Clayton, commonly known as D.B. Clayton (April 7, 1817 – November 12, 1906), was an American Southern Universalist minister who was instrumental in spreading and defending Universalism in the South. He was a self-taught scholar on the scriptural justification of universal salvation and frequently debated this theological topic with clergy of other denominations.
Early life Clayton was born on April 7, 1817, in Sandy Ford in the southwest corner of Spartanburg County (then known as Spartanburg District) near the Enoree River in South Carolina. Clayton was the elder of two children born to William Clayton (1791–1856) and Mary Newport Bragg (ca. 1795–1826).
Clayton's mother died three weeks after the birth of his brother, James W. Clayton (1826–1873). In 1827, his father married Elizabeth Brewton (1794–1858), a distant relation.
Clayton's father was a prosperous farmer who, by 1830, owned 12 slaves. In 1844, he moved from South Carolina to Red Banks in Marshall County in northern Mississippi on land recently occupied by the Chickasaw Nation. This land had become available to white settlers following the 1832 Treaty of Pontotoc Creek. Clayton's father continued to prosper, and by 1850, he had expanded his slave holdings to 22.
Education Clayton's formal education was brief, starting at age nine and lasted only six years. He attended school in a log cabin classroom staffed by a revolving set of traveling teachers. Nonetheless, he received a foundational education in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and surveying.
At the end of his formal schooling, Clayton continued his education through self-study, allowing him to earn a living as a traveling teacher. Several years later, Clayton again pursued a self-study program, this time to prepare himself for the Universalist ministry.
Marriage and children In 1838, Clayton, 21, married Rebecca Farrow (1821–1847), a member of Clayton's church community. Rebecca was four years Clayton's junior and gave birth to two sons Daniel Emmett (1842–1862) and William Perry (1845–1917). Their marriage ended in 1846 when Rebecca died.
Following the death of Rebecca, Clayton married Mary Amanda Rodgers (1825–1906) in 1848. That union resulted in seven children: Virgil Pingree (1849–1920), Calhoun (1852–1857), Mary Newport (1854–1902), Sallie (1855–1856), twins Rose Taylor (1860–1950), and Albert William (1860–1905) and Carrie Lee (1867–1899). Rodgers died in 1906 just a few months before Clayton's death.
Early religious life Located a mile from the Clayton family farmstead was the Bethel Baptist Church in Woodruff. The repeated preaching in this church of Adam's fall from grace and the Creator's subsequent threat of eternal damnation shaped the young Clayton. When a religious awakening swept his church in 1832, Clayton recollected that he "did not hesitate to regard the work then in progress as being due solely to the operation of God's unerring spirit of truth." However, the 15-year-old Clayton deemed his religious fervor wanting and sought the counsel of church elders. The elders assured him that he was not teetering on the precipice of hell and accepted his application for church membership. Yet, despite the elders' assurance, Clayton remained ill at ease with the church's Calvinistic teachings.
Those Calvinistic teachings taught God's sovereignty and the predestination of the elect to eternal happiness and the un-elected to endless torment. Clayton thought these teachings rendered God a "horrid monster of cruelty." Arminian teachings also unsettled Clayton. Although Arminianism provided people an opportunity to secure everlasting salvation, the frailties of human free will still left people prey to endless misery. Clayton rejected these conflicting intentions of God as errors in scriptural interpretation.
First steps toward Universalism
The Universalist periodicals in circulation in his hometown opened a theological alternative to Clayton. After reading a copy of the Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, devoted to "free inquiry" and "religious liberty," Clayton declared that he had been set free of "the shackles of religious error." A chance encounter in 1838 with Rev. Allen Fuller, a Massachusetts Universalist minister, would have an even more profound impact on Clayton's journey to Universalism.
Eight years earlier, Fuller had moved to South Carolina in response to a call from the state's fledgling Universalist community to support their cause. Like many Southern Universalist ministers, Fuller supplemented his ministerial income by farming. On that day, Fuller had come to Van Patton's Mill to have his wool processed. A well-known preacher, Fuller was asked and accepted a request to delay his return home and preached. Clayton, employed as a teacher, was also present at the mill.
Fuller's impromptu oration was the first Universalist sermon Clayton had ever heard. He was struck by the absence of the threats of hopeless misery in the afterlife he often heard at his Bethel Church. Instead, Fuller preached a message of a merciful and loving God. Clayton later referred to the sermon as manna for a hungry soul. Twenty years his senior, Fuller took the young Clayton on as his protégé. They remained close colleagues and friends until Fuller died in 1864.
These experiences did not immediately lead Clayton to pursue a career in the Universalist ministry. After his teaching position ended at Van Patton's Mill, he continued with secular employment as a clerk in Columbia, South Carolina. When he returned home, he resumed teaching.
Expulsion from Baptist Church Once back home, the Bethel Baptist Church elders grew suspicious of Clayton's exploration of Universalism. They demanded to know if he had declared himself a Universalist. Clayton denied making such a declaration but admitted to considering that religious option. This inclination toward Universalism, a belief system the elders deemed heretical, was sufficient for the elders to seek the withdrawal of Clayton's church membership. Hoping to avoid an outright expulsion, Clayton asked if he could withdraw his membership. His request was denied, but the elders did note in their 1838 proceedings that Clayton was excommunicated "at his own request."
Freed from his formal membership in a Baptist church, Clayton embarked on a two-year course of study for the Universalist ministry. Since there were no nearby seminaries, Rev. Allen Fuller guided Clayton through his studies.
Pre-Civil War Universalist Ministry At the urging of Rev. Fuller, Clayton delivered his first Universalist sermon in 1841 in Greenville County, South Carolina. Fuller encouraged Clayton to continue preaching, and a few months later, Clayton delivered his next sermon. This sermon was a spontaneous oration, a characteristic style that would come to define Clayton's ministerial career as a staunch advocate of Universalism. The occasion of this impromptu sermon arose during an encounter with Rev. Warren Drummond, 20 years Clayton's senior. Drummond was preaching at the Antioch Baptist Church near Mountain Shoals, South Carolina, while the 23-year-old Clayton taught at a nearby schoolhouse. Seizing the opportunity of his proximity to Drummond, Clayton mounted a tree stump midway between the church and schoolhouse, boldly declaring, "My friends, if any three men of this congregation will listen to me . . ."
A crowd gathered and Clayton proceeded to offer a scriptural defense of salvation for all. Rev. Drummond had not left the meetinghouse to listen to Clayton. Rather he sat before his pulpit and sang at the top of his voice hoping, to no avail, to bring his folk back into the meetinghouse. Only upon the end of the allotted 30 minutes for the recess, Clayton ceased preaching, and the people returned to the meetinghouse. .
South Carolina
Although Clayton had inaugurated his ministerial career in 1841, he preached only sporadically for the next three years. He devoted his time to teaching and continuing his Universalist studies. He maintained his involvement with South Carolina's Universalist community by attending Universalist state conventions from 1842 to 1845.
In 1844, the Universalist State Convention approached Clayton and asked him to become its circuit rider. Citing his intention to move to Mississippi to join his father, Clayton declined the offer. However, when Clayton's wife fell ill, he postponed his move to Mississippi and accepted the convention's circuit rider position. During his year of service in 1845, he delivered monthly sermons at the meetinghouses in Feasterville, Huntsville, Partlow, Fredonia, and Hartford.
With Clayton now actively engaged in the Universalist ministry, Revs. Allen Fuller and C.F.R. Shehane, a former Campbellite who converted to Universalism, ordained Clayton at the 1845 Universalist State Convention held at Partlow's meetinghouse.
After fulfilling his circuit-riding duties in South Carolina, Clayton embarked on a two-month circuit ride of Georgia in the spring of 1846. His serpentine route through the state was formed by invitations he had received to preach and his desire to visit acquaintances. Clayton resumed his postponed plans to move to Mississippi in July that year. During his journey from South Carolina, Clayton attended the Georgia State Universalist Convention in Marietta, about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. At this convention, Clayton met William Coleman who suggested hosting a future convention on his property in Cuthbert, Georgia. Originally from South Carolina, William Coleman's family had been founding members of that state's Universalist convention.
Mississippi On his father's plantation in Marshall County in northern Mississippi, Clayton no longer had access to a ministerial support system of a Universalist state convention. Unlike Georgia and South Carolina, Mississippi did not yet have such a structure. However, Universalism was not unknown in Mississippi. In 1836, an Ohioan Universalist minister, Rev. George Rogers, traveled to Mississippi and delivered sermons in Salem, Spring Hill, and Ripley in neighboring Tippah County. Although eight years had passed since Rogers' last visit, Clayton began a once-a-month preaching circuit in Salem and Spring Hill. He also used opportunities to preach during his secular travels as a merchant.
Although Clayton reprised his South Carolina circuit-riding preaching style in Salem and Spring Hill, there were no formally organized Universalist societies in those towns that could raise subscriptions to pay for his services. However, the more pressing challenge facing Clayton in raising Universalist societies in northern Mississippi was the lack of a critical mass of Universalist families. Traditionally, Universalist societies were formed by related families bringing their Universalist faith to an emerging agrarian community. Even where Universalists gathered, such as Spring Hill, there was a lack of the ability, or willingness, to raise the subscription for his services. Nevertheless, Clayton continued to provide his once-a-month circuit-riding service to both towns for a year.
Clayton temporarily suspended his preaching services in Mississippi following the death of his wife Rebecca in September 1847. He then embarked on a three-month trip to Alabama where he grieved and occasionally preached whenever a door "was opened to him." On his return to Mississippi in early 1848, Clayton resumed his circuit riding duties. He also extended his itinerant preaching services to southern Tennessee.