George Went Hensley (May 2, 1881 – July 25, 1955) was an American Pentecostal minister best known for popularizing the practice of snake handling. A native of rural Appalachia, Hensley experienced a religious conversion around 1910: on the basis of his interpretation of scripture, he came to believe that the New Testament commanded all Christians to handle venomous snakes.
Hensley was part of a large family that had moved between Tennessee and Virginia, before settling in Tennessee shortly after his birth. Following his conversion, he traveled through the Southeastern United States, teaching a form of Pentecostalism that emphasized strict personal holiness and frequent contact with venomous snakes. Although illiterate, he became a licensed minister of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) in 1915. After traveling through Tennessee for several years conducting Church of God-sanctioned services, he resigned from the denomination in 1922. Hensley was married four times and fathered thirteen children. He had many conflicts with his family members because of his drunkenness, frequent travels, and inability to earn steady income, factors cited by his first three wives as reasons for their divorces.
Hensley was arrested in Tennessee on moonshine-related charges during the Prohibition era and sentenced to a term in a workhouse, from which he escaped and fled the state. Hensley traveled to Ohio, where he held revival services, though he and his family rarely stayed long in one location. He established churches, known as the Church of God with Signs Following, in Tennessee and Kentucky. His services ranged from small meetings held in houses to large gatherings that drew media attention and hundreds of attendees. Although he conducted many services, he made little money, and he was arrested for violating laws against snake handling at least twice. During his ministry, Hensley claimed to have been bitten by many snakes without ill effect, and toward the end of his career, he estimated that he had survived more than 400 bites. In 1955, while conducting a service in Florida, he was bitten by a snake and became violently ill. He refused to seek medical attention and died the following day. Despite his personal failings, he convinced many residents of rural Appalachia that snake handling was commanded by God, and his followers continued the practice after his death. Although snake handling developed independently in several Pentecostal ministries, Hensley is generally credited with spreading the custom in the Southeastern United States.
Early life Hensley told his children he was from West Virginia and that his family's roots were in Pennsylvania. In reality, his family lived in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1880, the year historian David Kimbrough argues Hensley was born. One of 13 children, Hensley lived in Tennessee in Hawkins County and Loudon County in the 1880s. His family lived in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in the 1890s, and there he witnessed an elderly woman handle a snake during a revival service at a coal mining camp. His mother and sisters were very religious, and he was reared a Baptist.
Hensley left the Baptist church in 1901, the year he married Amanda Winniger. The couple moved to her brother's farm in Ooltewah, where they lived in a shack. Hensley worked in local ore mines, helped in his brother-in-law's lumber business, and was involved in making moonshine, a common practice in the region. Hensley experienced a conversion while attending a Holiness Pentecostal Church of God service in Ooltewah, led by an evangelist's teenage son. He forsook alcohol, tobacco, and friendships with those he deemed "worldly".
Ministry Hensley was initially content following his experience at the Church of God, but he began to question whether he was living a sufficiently righteous life. He became fixated on a passage in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:17–18, KJV): "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name ... They shall take up serpents", which suggests that Christians might take up "serpents" without injury. Psychologists Ralph W. Hood and W. Paul Williamson, as well as one of Hensley's children, have proposed that his preoccupation with this verse arose from a childhood memory of witnessing snake handling in Virginia. Hensley later recalled that he began to doubt his salvation and withdrew to a nearby hill to pray and seek God's will. In a 1947 newspaper interview, he claimed to have seen a snake while walking on the hill. He said that he knelt in prayer, took hold of it, then brought it to his church and told the congregation to also prove their salvation by holding the snake.
Hensley's first experience with snake handling occurred between 1908 and 1914, after which he held snake-handling services in parts of rural Tennessee. His supporters later asserted that a revival broke out at the start of his ministry, a claim considered dubious by historians. At first, the Church of God did not object to his snake-handling services, and, in 1914, he held a snake-handling meeting with a Church of God bishop in Cleveland, Tennessee. The next year, Hensley applied to be licensed as a Church of God minister, but required his wife's assistance to complete the paperwork owing to his illiteracy. He had memorized some Bible verses but also stated that he received divine revelation while speaking. After being licensed, Hensley held Church of God services throughout Tennessee, including revival services at church general assemblies. He preached about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, a Pentecostal teaching that referred to an additional spiritual experience after conversion. His ministry was often mentioned in Church of God newsletters, and his wife Amanda contributed an article about him. In the 1910s, Hensley is thought to have led churches in Grasshopper Valley (northwest of Cleveland, Tennessee), Cleveland, and Birchwood, Tennessee.
Hensley was short, normally soft-spoken, and friendly with churchgoers. Most attendees at his services were miners or farmers from the Appalachian Mountains. Congregants typically arrived at services on horseback or in a Model A Ford. Many were from Holiness Pentecostal backgrounds, but unfamiliar with the snake-handling practice. Hensley's sister Bertha, who lived in Ohio, was also a licensed minister with the Church of God. In 1922, he conducted services with her in Ohio. Around that time, more articles documenting his ministry were published in the denomination's newsletter, and by the early 1920s snakes were regularly handled in Church of God services.
Resignation and return to ministry In 1922, Hensley resigned from the Church of God, citing "trouble in the home". His resignation marked the zenith of the practice of snake handling in the denomination. He separated from Amanda around this time, possibly owing to his temper or drunkenness. Arrested on moonshine-related charges in 1923, he was sentenced to four months in jail and fined $100. (This occurred during the Prohibition Era, when alcohol production and consumption were illegal in the U.S.) In lieu of jail time, he was permitted to serve the sentence at the Silverdale workhouse. He was initially placed on a chain gang constructing roads, but the guards found him likable and gave him other assignments. After being sent to a nearby well for water, Hensley fled and evaded recapture, possibly by hiding in the mountains near his sister's farm in Ooltewah. While a fugitive, he may have been arrested and released on unrelated charges. He ultimately fled Tennessee to his sister's house in Ohio.
After arriving in Ohio, Hensley returned to his personal ministry and held services in the area. Because he was illiterate, Bertha would read passages from the Bible during services, after which Hensley would deliver a sermon on a theme drawn from the verses. He also frequently preached on the topic of faith healing during this period. He remained in Ohio for several years, divorcing Amanda in 1926.
While ministering at a Salvation Army church in Ohio in 1926, Hensley met Irene Klunzinger. He married her in 1927, although he was about 25 years her senior. After the wedding, they moved to Washingtonville, Ohio, near one of Hensley's brothers. There Hensley found employment at a coal mine and Irene gave birth to their first child. They later moved to nearby Malvern, Ohio, where she bore their second child.
In 1932, Hensley and his family moved to Pineville, Kentucky, after a religious layman, who had seen Hensley handle snakes in Chattanooga, entreated him to come to the area. He returned to ministry and built the Pineville Church of God. Hensley established the church himself and characterized it as a "free Pentecostal" church. He continued to move frequently, a practice which Thomas Burton of East Tennessee State University attributes to "wanderlust". In July 1935, Irene gave birth to a child in Pennington Gap, Virginia, and a month later, they were living in St. Charles, Virginia, while Hensley performed snake-handling services in the area. He successfully drew crowds to his preaching. In Norton, Virginia, 500 people attended an event, although that service was thrown into disarray after a boy in the audience killed one of the snakes. In 1936, Hensley built a house on the back of a trailer truck and drove to Florida to hold revival services. By March 1936, he had reached Tampa, Florida, where he drew over 100 people to a snake-handling service. He traveled to Bartow, Florida, where over 700 people attended one of his tent meetings. He subsequently ministered in Bloomingdale, Florida, before traveling north to Barrow County, Georgia, in late April. During a service in Barrow, a young agricultural worker was bitten by a snake and became ill. Hensley spoke to reporters and claimed that the man was bitten because he was "not quite ready for the demonstrations of the power". He predicted that the young man would miraculously recover, but the man died. This was the first death by snakebite to occur at one of Hensley's services. He conducted the man's funeral and left the area for fear of prosecution. His conduct was condemned by a local newspaper.
Hensley traveled to Ohio to bring one of his sons to live with a sister of Irene while attending school. Hensley then returned to Pineville, where he worked as a railroad conductor and pastored the East Pineville Church of God. He was arrested for handling snakes and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1939. He subsequently bought a farm near Knoxville.
Ministry in Tennessee and final years
Hensley lived in Tennessee until at least late 1941. He then moved to Evansville, Indiana, after separating from Irene. After a brief stay in Pineville, Hensley returned to Ooltewah in 1943. There he stayed with family members and held religious services. Snake handling had lost popularity since the late 1920s and groups that promoted nontrinitarianism had become popular. Various churches in the area barred those who practiced snake handling from membership.
In 1943, Raymond Hayes, a young adherent of Hensley's teachings, arrived in the Ooltewah area and began successfully preaching about snake handling. Hensley and Hayes started a church together in 1945, which they named the "Dolly Pond Church of God with Signs Following". Later in 1945, a member of the church was bitten by a snake and died. The members of the church continued to handle snakes at services, including at the funeral of the man who died from snakebite. The man's death was viewed as ordained by God to test the faith of the congregants, and to demonstrate to non-believers that the snakes they handled were, in fact, dangerous. That year, Hensley was arrested for snake handling in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was given a $50 fine, which he refused to pay even when threatened with a workhouse sentence. He was released after members of his church appealed to authorities.