CHAPTER XXVIII.
Takes Charge of the Church.-Condition of the Country.-Impoverishment of the People.-R. M. Bishop's Generous Aid.-Brave People.-The Doctor's Indebtedness in Missouri nearly Doubled.-Visit to Kentucky.-Preachers throughout Virginia.-Bro. Shelburn, his Money and his Calf.
On the Doctor's arrival in Richmond, he ascertained from the brethren, and Bro. Pettigrew himself, that his resignation was positive and final, before he would accept the invitation to become pastor of the church. He said no amount of money would influence him to rob a brother preacher of a deserved and desired position. When he found the way satisfactorily cleared, he consented to take charge of the church. He felt very grateful to the people of Virginia for the manner in which they had treated us when we came among them strangers during the war, and he felt that he would like to know them in times of peace as well. He at once entered upon his work, and the following week I joined him.
I scarcely know in what terms of praise to speak of the brethren and sisters in Richmond, and, indeed, all Virginia. The country outside of and surrounding the city was desolated. Stock gone, fences destroyed, farming implements worn out,literally, they seemed to have lost everything but pluck and honor. In the conflagration attending the evacuation, nineteen blocks were burned in the business center of the city; shops, stores,
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hotels, everything, went up in smoke. Our brethren, many of them, were severe sufferers. While they were left too poor to buy goods, if their stores had not been burned they might have rented them to the numerous parties who flocked to the city with large stocks of goods as soon as it came into the possession of the Federal troops. Many families, once wealthy, had to draw rations of the government to sustain life. Others, rather than do that, boarded government officials and army officers, who were glad to secure quiet homes in private families.
We were kindly cared for at the house of Mr. David Baker, one of those noble Jasons abounding in the world. His wife was a member of the church and a great sufferer. In a short time we were able to secure board with the family of Bro. E. B. Spence.
When we arrived in Richmond we had plenty of money and bonds, but it was a little out of date and in large bills, nor could we readily get it changed into the currency of the country. Dr. Hopson notified Bro. R. M. Bishop of his impecunious condition. Bro. Bishop responded with a check for $300, and notice to call for more whenever needed. That his friends in Kentucky did not forget him you will see from an extract of a letter from Bro. L. A. Cutler, of Richmond, pastor of Marshall Street Church:
"When Kentucky brethren sent the Doctor money to use as he thought best, he supplied some of our preachers with clothing. A box of clothing came to me when I was sadly in need of it. Oh, I am so sorry he is not able to preach the old Jerusalem Gospel which he formerly proclaimed with such impressiveness and power."
The money sent him he distributed to those he
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thought needed it most. The money he borrowed he used to pay board, and purchase a few store clothes in the place of our Confederate home-made coats, dresses and bonnets.
With all their poverty, the church determined that the gospel should be preached and the minister of God supported. It took no little self-denial to accomplish this result.
Bro. Kinnaird, at his death, near the close of the war, left the church a nice house for a parsonage. It was partly furnished, but we were not able to add the needed furniture, and the Doctor rented it, in this way supplementing his salary.
He now began to look the situation in the face, and the condition of things was not at all inviting. He took an inventory of his assets and liabilities. He had paid the interest on his indebtedness up to January, 1861. He was arrested in July, 1862. The war closed in April, 1865, and he was unable to pay anything on interest or principal until January, 1866, when he paid $1,600, given him on his visit to Kentucky by the brethren. His indebtedness still remained $11,284.00. His assets were wife, daughter, father and mother, good health, and a determination to pay his creditors to the uttermost farthing.
He felt it to be his first duty to pay father and mother for their tender care of Sadie, her board, clothes, music lessons,the actual expense they were at for her during the four years of her sojourn with them. This amounted to $1,000, which he saved from his first year's salary in Richmond. In August, 1865, he sent for father to bring Sadie to us. He felt unwilling to give her up any longer. Her education was not completed,
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but we had good schools in Virginia where she could go and yet be near us. After her arrival she spent some time with us in Richmond, and then the Doctor made arrangements for her to finish her school life with Bro. James Goss, at Piedmont Academy, which she did the following year. When she came to us, it was very difficult to realize that the little girl of twelve we left in 1862 was now a grown young lady.
In the spring of 1866 the Doctor decided to move his father and mother to Virginia, the boarding school in Paris having suspended. They were getting old, and he felt that, as far as possible, care and anxiety as to the future should be removed from them. It was a joyful time when we all were united under the same roof again. Their advent was a benison to us after the long years of separation.
We found the brethren bearing their reverses nobly, and giving more liberally in their adversity than they had done in their prosperity. I heard but one regret expressed by them throughout the State, and that was that they had not given more of their means to the cause of Christ before they were swept from them. Now, money, servants, and, in many instances, houses, were swept away, but they took up the burden of their lives without a murmur, as brave, true Christian men should. They had risked and lost, and accepted the penalty.
Most of our preachers throughout the State were men of means, and were generous, enough to preach for the churches without fee or reward. Brethren Goss, Henley, Shelburn, Ainslie, Coleman, Bullard, Flippo, Walthal, all owned property, some more, some less. These men were a noble and devoted band of men, self-sacrificing to the last.
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Dear old Bro. Shelburn used to visit us nearly every mouth after we went to Richmond to live. He staid with us whenever he brought a load of marketing to sell. One day Bro. Shelburn seemed more than usually anxious to see the Doctor. When the Doctor came home, the old gentleman told him he had brought a thousand dollars to town with him, and wanted him to take it and keep it for him. He said he was afraid some one would steal it from him. The Doctor told him he would not like to be responsible for such an amount of money in such troublesome times, and advised him to deposit in Bro. Maury's bank. He knew nothing about banks; had never had any money to put away before. The Doctor explained how banks took care of one's money, until Bro. Shelburn understood how to get his money into the bank. But he says: "Doctor, how shall I get it out again? They might keep it." After the Doctor had explained all about check-books and checks, he went with the dear old man to the bank and saw the money safely deposited. He staid several days with as after the important event, and every little while he would say, "Well, well, it beats all!" alluding to the bank.
Somebody stole a calf from Bro. Shelburn. He followed it to Richmond, and got the Doctor to go with him to the market to look for it. Dr. Hopson said: "Bro. Shelburn, would you know the calf!" He responded: "Know my calf! Better than I should one of my grandchildren," and they found it, sure enough, he identifying it easily. The Doctor wanted to know if he was going to prosecute the thief He said: "No, I have got my calf. I don't want the thief." Nor did he prosecute the man, a mere youth.
Whenever the Doctor was holding a meeting, he
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would come and remain with its several days. I remember, one night, after the Doctor had preached, there were several persons to be immersed. Bro. Pettigrew was to do the baptizing. Bro. Shelburn was stretched out full length on the front seat, with his head propped on the back of the pew. Bro. Pettigrew had retired to the dressing-room to prepare himself to administer the ordinance. A dead silence was in the church. All at once Bro. Shelburn raised his head, and turning his beaming face to the congregation, said: "Brethren, sing a song, while Bro. Pettigrew has gone to change his breeches." You may imagine the sensation, and how difficult to raise a tune under such conditions, but old Bro. Tyler was equal to the occasion and led in the song, "How happy are they." The dear old man was as free from guile as a child, and had a mould of granite with a heart of gold. He was a diamond in the rough. I must tell one more anecdote of him, even if I wander a little.
A large portion of his life he had occupied a house in which the family room was several steps lower than the other portion of the house. He often had people come to his house to be married. They came through the hall and down the three or four steps into his room, where he performed the ceremony. At length he moved into a house where the floors were all on a level. He said, one day a couple came to be married. They walked into the room, and he started to say the ceremony, but could not get on at all. He could not imagine what was wrong. At length he discovered that there were no steps to the room. He had the couple go up the stairs leading out of the room and come down again, when he married them without any trouble. He told us this himself. This man of God, so simple, honest, and plain of
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speech, was a very Boanerges in the pulpit. While Bro. Shelburn was bold and aggressive, like Peter, Bro. Walthal was loving and tender, like John, and Bro. Chester Bullard struck a happy mean between the two.
Bro. Goss rarely left his school life in his mountain home to mingle in the great world outside. He was as modest as he was pure and good, and was always living near the white throne to which he expected almost daily to be summoned. In a few short years his life closed suddenly, as he had been expecting for a long period, and heaven won and earth lost a beautiful spirit.
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