David B. Mintz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David B. Mintz was an early-nineteenth-century minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Carolina. He was a revivalist of the Second Great Awakening, and published two collections of camp meeting songs, despite the official stance of the Methodist Church which prohibited popular folk hymns.[1]
Very little is known of Mintz' early life. His father may have been John Mintz, who owned land in Johnston County, North Carolina in 1761. He may also have had a brother, John Westley Martin Bryan Mintz, who bought land in New Bern in 1812.[2]
At the 1802 Methodist Episcopal Church annual conference in Virginia, Mintz was made a travelling circuit rider minister on a standard one year probationary trial,[3][4][5] and was stationed in the Amherst circuit. He was made a deacon in 1803, and was assigned the Gloucester, North Carolina circuit. In 1804, he was stationed in the Pamlico circuit, and in 1805 – only three years after becoming a minister – was made an elder, and took on the Tar River circuit with John French.[6][7] That year he published the Spiritual Song Book, his first collection of camp meeting hymns, printed by Abraham Hodge in Halifax.[1]
In 1806, he was assigned the New Bern circuit,[6] where he published his second collection Hymns and Spiritual Songs,[1] as well as books by Samuel Coate, and the famous preacher Lorenzo Dow.[8] In 1807, he gave up his ministry, settled in New Bern,[6][3] and married Susannah Armstrong née Bryan (born 1778) on January 28, 1807. Susannah was the daughter of Brigadier General William Bryan (c. 1730s – 1791) of the North Carolina militia, and had five children from her first marriage. Together they had a daughter, Hollon A. Mintz (c. 1810 – 1852), probably named after Susannah's sister.[2][9] Mintz bought land in New Bern "on the east side of Front Street and upon the Neuse River" in 1811,[2] and by 1812 had become a freemason of St John's Lodge, New Bern.[10] He continued to receive money from the estate of Susannah's first husband for the upkeep of their children until January 1, 1816, after which mentions of him cease,[11] and by the time of the 1820 United States census, Susannah was listed as head of the household.[2]