By Tom Perry
James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart was a devout Christian. Like many things in his life, he did not stop with a strong faith; he took it to another level. He didn’t just practice temperance; he gave temperance speeches while in the United States Army from 1855 until May 10, 1861, when he resigned and offered his sword to his native state of Virginia. The family tradition is that young Jeb promised his mother, Elizabeth, at the age of twelve that he would not drink alcohol.
Something often overlooked in his history is the multiple churches Stuart was involved in during his short 31 years. He began with churches with the Old Methodist Meeting House on Lebanon Hill in Mount Airy, North Carolina, where his mother’s Episcopalians met. The church is gone, but the steps leading up to it remain. Trinity Episcopal Church at the corner of Main Street and Independence Boulevard, one of the oldest buildings in the “Granite City,” is the same congregation the Stuarts attended.
Stuart joined the Methodist Church while a student at Emory and Henry College (1848 to 1850). Followed by four years at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (1850 to 1854). Next came seven years in the United States Army, with the First U.S. Cavalry, mainly in the Kansas Territory (1854-1861).
While stationed in the West, in what are today the states of Texas, Kansas, and Colorado, Stuart never forgot where he came from. He wrote his mother, asking her to start a church near Laurel Hill, his birthplace in Ararat, Patrick County, Virginia. “I wish to devote one hundred dollars to the purchase of a comfortable log church near your place because, in all my observation, I believe one is more needed in that neighborhood than any other that I know of; and besides, ‘charity begins at home.’ Seventy-five of this one hundred dollars I have in trust for that purpose, and the remainder is my own contribution. If you will join me with twenty-five dollars, a contribution of a like amount from two or three others interested will build a very respectable free church.” In 1859, when Mrs. Stuart sold the property, she set aside one acre for the church, but it was never built. Stuart joined the Episcopal Church, which his mother belonged to at that time.
There are two churches in present day Kansas that have a link to Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart. One is located on the U. S. Army base at Fort Riley. “Legend has it that J.E.B. Stuart and Chaplain Clarkson (Ft. Riley’s first chaplain) laid the chapel’s cornerstone. St. Mary’s Chapel at 3 Barry Avenue was built in 1855 with limestone walls and foundations, wood floors, and a slate roof. It is the first stone church in Kansas and one of only three remaining structures from Fort Riley’s initial construction period. The chapel also served Fort Riley as an arsenal during the Civil War and later as a schoolhouse.” Today, St. Mary’s Chapel serves the Catholics on the base.
Another church associated with Stuart is the Episcopal Church of the Covenant, located at 4th & Adams Streets in Junction City, Kansas, which is part of the St. John’s Episcopal Mission. “The Episcopal Church of the Covenant Had a Military Origin. The long history of the military and the citizens of Junction City began when Major Ogden came to Kansas in 1855 with his troops and carpenters to build a fort. With him came several men responsible for establishing the Episcopal Church in Junction City. The first church services of any denomination in Junction City were held by The Reverend Preston, an Episcopal Priest, in a room upstairs from the jail on Jefferson Street between Eighth and Ninth Streets. The Reverend David Clarkson, who organized the Episcopal congregations in 1858, was the first Post Chaplain at Fort Riley. Clarkson was replaced by Chaplain George Henderson in 1859, and it was this man, aided by young Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart (later Major General Stuart of the Confederate Army), who built the Episcopal Church that stands today at 314 North Adams Street in Junction City. The $1,500 to build the church was raised from officers at Fort Riley. Construction began with several laymen and a stonecutter named James M. Harvey, who later became the Governor of Kansas. Some of the more famous past attendees at the Episcopal Church of the Covenant include Roy Eisenhower (who was a pharmacist in Junction City and the brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower, General George Patton, General Jonathan Wainwright, and Brigadier General Andrew Seitz.” The last time I visited the church, there was a plaque at the entrance crediting Lt. J. E. B. Stuart with its founding.
