History Of The Christian Churches In Mississippi

Title
Dedication
Preface
Chapter 1 - The Beginning Of The Restoration Movement In Mississippi

Chapter 2 - Early History Of The Christian Church In Mississippi
Reminiscence And Preachers Of Mississippi, by B.F. Manire
Reminiscence - Chapter 1 - Autobiography - Manire
Reminiscence - Chapter 2 - Early Years - Manire
Reminiscence - Chapter 3 - From 1856-1860 - Manire
Reminiscence - Chapter 4 - From 1860-1866 - Manire
Reminiscence - Chapter 5 - From 1867-1875 - Manire
Life Of T.W. Caskey - Chapter 1 - Harmon
Life Of T.W. Caskey - Chapter 2 - Harmon
Chapter 3 - First Christian Church In Jackson
Chapter 4 - Bryan Memorial Christian Church
Chapter 5 - Tupelo Christian Church
Chapter 6 - Hattiesburg Christian Church
Chapter 7 - Tate County Has Oldest Church
Chapter 8 - Woodville Christian Church
Chapter 9 - The Southern Christian Institute
Some Mississippi Evangelists
Closing Remarks
 

History

Of

The Christian Churches

(Disciples of Christ)

IN MISSISSIPPI

 

Compiled and Written By

M. F. HARMON

 

ABERDEEN, MISSISSIPPI 

1929

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Dedication

 

This Book Is

Affectionately Dedicated to my wife

 

Hatty Wooten Harmon

Who for nearly forty years has been a Loving and Helpful

Companion to me in all my ministerial Labors, ready

always to go with me wherever Duty called,

sharing with me the joys and Hard­

ships of a preacher's life.

 

MARION FRANKLIN HARMON, AUTHOR

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Preface

FOR several years the author has had in mind the compilation of this volume, and from time to time has gathered all the information possible so as to make a History that would be worthy of our Brotherhood, and thus preserve for the coming generations of the Church, much material that was in my possession, that possibly no one else had. It is more a desire to preserve this History than it is to write a book that has urged me on. I have endeavored to get the "beginnings" of the various congregations, so as to make the work both historic and interesting, but have had to work against odds in this respect. The pioneers who were in possession of the facts of the "beginnings" and who naturally would have been the most interested, in many instances have gone to their eternal reward, while the younger generation lacked both incentive and the information. Hence this part of the book has necessarily been slow of accomplishment. And even now I am sure that many things have been overlooked because of this indifference, that will be regretted by many when they see the write up of their individual congregation. 

I am indebted to Brother Frank K. Dunn, our worthy State Evangelist, who has used freely the columns of the Southern Christian Courier to promote this work. Bro. J. W. Bolton, of Ruleville, but recently of Utica, Mississippi, has rendered valuable service in procuring the history of many of the smaller congregations that have been in his fields of labor during the past 20 to 25 years. Then, too, I have printed in full a small booklet which I printed for the "Sainted Manire," in 1892, entitled: "Reminiscences of Preachers and Churches, in Mississippi, " which besides being an autobiography of the author, gives material that can be found nowhere else. For this booklet, I am under obligations to Mrs. Ella V. Hipple, of Jackson, the daughter of George A. Smythe, one of the pioneer preachers of the church in Jackson. For nearly forty years I have known this good woman, and have always referred to her as the "angel of the Church in Jackson." I am sure that no preacher who has served that church during this nearly half century will think that I am extravagant in my reference to her.

Because of the high cost of printing, and the limited pa­tronage that can be expected, this edition is small, and when it is exhausted, it will be out of print. It has been a labor of love on the part of the author, without any hope of financial gain, and I trust that this volume will be received by the broth­erhood of the state as joyously as it has been a pleasure to the author to produce it. ‑

Fraternally,

Marion F. Harmon Aberdeen, Mississippi, February 1929.

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PART I

The Beginnings of the Restoration in Mississippi

CHAPTER 1

OUTSIDE of Reminiscences of Preachers and Churches in Mississippi, by B. F. Manire, found elsewhere in this book, and a chapter on the same subject by the editor of this volume, written in 1891, we have sought from every source at our command to find everything of interest bearing upon the subject of our earliest work in this state. The most prolific source of in, formation available is the Millennial Harbinger, the most noted paper ever published in the interest of primitive Christianity. This book, or rather monthly paper, and afterwards put into book form, was begun in the year 1830, published in Bethany, W. Virginia, and edited by Alexander Campbell, who for nearly half a century was the outstanding writer, debater, educator and preacher among the Churches of Christ. Bethany was the center of what was known as "The Restoration, or Reform Movement," and the Harbinger was the clearing house, so to speak for all the workers throughout the whole country. We have in our possession the following bound volumes of the Millennial Harbinger, from which we have quoted, practically every, thing written from Mississippi during these years: These volumes are for 1832, 1835, 1839, 1842, 1850, 1852, 1854, 1856, 1868, 1870. We have also the following volumes, in which no report from the state was made: 1837, 1838, 1845, 1869. We have also scanned the "Memoirs" of A. Campbell, by Richardson, to see if we could find anything concerning Bro. Campbell's activities in this state, for we have heard of his making visits to Columbus and Jackson. In these "Memoirs", we find a letter dated from Jackson, Louisiana, February 8, 1839, from which we take the following: "I expect to be in Natchez in about a week, and in Vicksburg in some two or three weeks. I have spoken here to very large and attentive audiences several times, and expect to leave tomorrow, if it does not rain, for Woodville, Mississippi. I think much good has resulted from my labors here, as well as in other 1833, to take the Word of God for our only rule of faith and conduct. Our number was nine when we commenced; but since that time it has increased to nineteen; most of them have been immersed; eight of them had been Methodists, one of them a lady of 70 years of age, who had been a member of that society for 26 years. Opposition runs high here as in other places. The world and the sects all oppose us; bestowing on us many harsh names, such as Campbellites, Infidels, &c.; but we are still looking and praying for better times, believing that the Word of God is mighty and will prevail. W. P. CHAMBERS.

An appeal had evidently been sent to Bro. Campbell for help in Mississippi some time during the year 1839, for we find the following letter from him addressed to "The Brethren of Mississippi" in the September, 1839 issue of the Harbinger: 

TO THE BRETHREN IN MISSISSIPPI

Dear Brethren:­

I have succeeded, according to my promise to you, in obtaining a brother of good standing and of ability to do the work of an evangelist among you. I am not, indeed, personally acquainted with brother Carey Smith, now of Ohio, who has consented to remove with his family among you; but I have ascertained from various respectable sources his credible, intellectual, moral, and religious character; and I have no hesitation in recommending him to the brotherhood in Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Natchez, Consolation, Woodville, and their vicinities, as worthy of their patronage. Brother Smith did, while a Baptist minister, itinerate in South Carolina and other southern regions, and is well acquainted with southern manners, customs, &c. I think he ought to locate not far from Consolation or Woodville, and cultivate that region well, and make excursions to other points. He will devote, he has indeed devoted himself to the Lord and the brethren, and will give himself wholly to the work. The brethren will, no doubt, discharge their duty faithfully to him.

I stand pledged for them. If on a fair trial you think, brethren, you ought to have another evangelist, and can sustain him, please inform me. I will endeavor to obtain another. I will not recommend to you one that will not, in my judgment, de­serve your cordial support. You need help‑we sympathize with you. May the Lord bless you all, and the labors of our beloved brother Smith among you! You may expect him about the middle of November.    A. C.

As will be seen from the date attached, the next news from Mississippi was in 1842. Utica, Mississippi, October 9, 1842. I lately attended a meeting some twelve miles north of Jackson, during which twenty‑three united‑eighteen by immersion, and five who had been united before. The occasion was one of peculiar interest. All the brethren and sisters were active. At recess and at night each one was found doing his part. Under circumstances of this kind truth has always been found to prevail. In other places prospects are quite promising.

     Please give notice, that on the second Lord's day in April next, a state meeting is designed to be held in Brandon, Rankin County, 12 miles east of Jackson, to commence on Friday before.  All the churches throughout the state are requested to send delegates, with concise statements of their date of organization, num­bers, increase, &c. We wish to organize and prepare for more efficient operations. J. H. JOHNSON

On November 5th, 1849, Bro. W. S. Speer writes from Oakland, Mississippi as follows:

Oakland, Miss., Nov. 5, 1849

Brother Campbell: By request of Brother Wilcox, I hasten to inform you that, during the month of October, we have gained 17 additions to our members, in the bounds of our labors. Brother Wilcox has planted a new and interesting church (Berea) seven miles south from Oxford, Lafayette County, of about 30 members. The brethren have done themselves much credit in erecting a neat house of worship, and the Elders there requested me to notice them in a periodical, so that preachers might call on them. The house is at Browning's Springs, on the Sheen Pike Road from Oxford to Coffeeville. Bro. Wilcox is still in the field, and doing effective service. Truly yours,       W. S. SPEER

And in the same issue, on Nov. 26th, William Baxter writes as follows: Port Gibson, Mississippi, Nov. 26, 1849.

Brother Campbell: My health has improved so much that I have recently been able to deliver eleven discourses in twelve days, and, during their delivery, had the pleasure of seeing several persons yield to the Savior. I trust, if life and health are spared, still to be more useful than ever in the good cause.  WM. BAXTER

For many years there was a flourishing church in Port Gibson, but for more than 25 years now the work there has gone down. After coming into this state in 1891, during the lifetime of Bro. John Andrews, the editor of this book preached a time or so for the brethren there. But even at that date, the membership was small. After the death of Bro. Andrews in the early nineties, as he was the moneyed member and most faithful attendant, it was an easy matter for the work to lag.

On July 25th, 1850, we find a brief letter from that stalwart soldier of the cross, J. A. Butler, dated at Athens, Mississippi. It follows: Athens, Mississippi, July 25, 1850 Brother Campbell: I am now at Athens. Yesterday I immersed 3, and 4 more have just confessed. Among them, Dr. Robinson and his most intelligent and dignified consort, and her brother‑in‑law and consort. One of the individuals immersed on yesterday, Sister Hardy, was a bright luminary in the Methodist society. Your tracts on baptism are wielding a most salutary influence upon this whole floral south. The good cause is onward. Truth is mighty and will prevail. Its ultimate triumph is in the hands of the brotherhood. If we do our duty, the cause is safe. In hope,       J. A. BUTLER.

In 1852 we find the following news items from Mississippi: Mississippi.‑Bro. D. C. Gordon, of Aberdeen, under date of February 4th, writes as follows: "Bro. W. M. Brown, of Illinois, is now with us—has been here twelve days, lecturing in a schoolhouse, for want of a church. I think we will have one of the right sort soon, as it is now under contract. Bro. B. has added only 1 to the church. Says he will remain in this section a few weeks, and then pursue his journey to North Carolina. He is a pious, able, and persevering Christian."

Mississippi.‑Bro. W. V. W. M'Lendon, under date of August 9th, (whose favor has been so long mislaid,) gives us cheering news from the region of his late location, in Chickasaw County. Our brother, with a few other *Disciples, in the year 1847, emigrated from East Alabama to where they now reside. Latterly they have been visited by Bro. T. W. Caskey, an evangelist, whom they had invited to visit them occasionally. The results of his labors have added much to the spiritual comfort of the brethren in that hitherto desolate region. Some 7 or 8 additions have been made to their number, in which is included the entire family of Bro. M'Lendon. These brethren now number 13 in all. They have formed themselves into a Bible Class, and meet every Lord's day.

Mississippi. ‑Bro. D. L. Phares, under date of February 12, reports 21 additions during a meeting held at Whitesville‑1 from the Baptist, 2 reclaimed, and 18 by baptism. Bro. Wm. Baxter, who expects to labor for the brethren in that place during the current year, was the speaker on that occasion. Prospects were, it is said, never more favorable than at present for the advancement of the good cause in that portion of the State. ‑Under date of April 7th, Bro. T. M'Caskey, of Columbus, writes, "Bro. Brown, of Illinois, has been with us for some weeks. We held a meeting at Mount Olivet Church, now Palo Alto, Chickasaw County, which resulted in 28 additions to the church, some of the Baptists united. From thence Bro. Brown proceeded to Houston County‑12 were added to the church there, 7 from the Baptists and 2 from the Methodists. From thence to this place, (Columbus)‑7 have been added, 3 from the Baptists. Meeting still in progress.

"‑Bro. D. L. Phares, of Whitesville, writes March 31st, "Since my last, we have added to our church here 4 members at the Christian Chapel; also, in this county, 6 or 7 additions recently."

Mississippi.‑Bro. D. L. Phares, of Whitesville, under date of June 25th, reports 39 additions to the church of that place since the early part of February.

In 1854, we find four letters written to the Harbinger during the year from the state, and are as follows:

Mississippi‑Bro. W. V. W. M'Lendon, of Chickasaw County, under date of September 24th, reports 9 additions‑7 of whom confessed the Lord, and 2 united from the Baptists. This church, a little over two years ago, numbered only 18 members, and now numbers 34. After closing his labors in the aforesaid county, Bro. Ben. Cooper visited Choctaw, some thirty miles distant, where he preached about ten days, and immersed 12 persons. Thence he goes to Oakland, whence we hope to hear from him next month.

Mississippi‑Bro. W. Clark, of Jackson, under date of September 14th, reports 10 additions‑7 of whom were added by the labors of Bros. Casky and Mays, during a meeting held at Liberty Grove, Madison County; and the remaining three, judge Mays, wife and daughter, Mrs. Potter, by Bro. Clark himself, who, though not professedly a preacher, is indeed a most zealous disciple, and exerts a most excellent influence wherever he goes in favor of the Truth. Bro. C. informs us that the judge has become a public advocate of the good cause. We trust that his ability in the advocacy of the cause of his Redeemer, may be equal to that which, in the legal department, has placed him in the foremost rank of the profession. "A better meeting," says Bro. C., " I have not seen for a long time. My heart's desire and prayer to God is, that my fellow‑citizens may be saved."

Mississippi.‑Bro. J. M. Baird, of Crawfordsville, under date of January 9th, says: "We have an interesting little church here, some most excellent and worthy members, mostly females; but, unfortunately for us, we are at this time without a preacher, and without anyone having the qualifications requisite for an overseer or instructor of the little flock. We need some one who could present with force, and defend with ability, the great truths which we as a people are striving to promulge. We are, unfortunately, surrounded by as much talented opposition, and that, too, from those of whom we might have expected better things as falls to the lot of any who are striving to restore the primitive gospel. Sanballat‑like, they are doing all they can to obstruct us in building again the walls of Zion, because we will not mingle with them and speak half the language of Ashdod and half the language of Canaan." "Could you send us an able preacher, who could live on $700 or $800 per annum? This we could pay, or perhaps more, if necessary."

(Who, brethren, will respond effectively to the Macedonian cry? ‑A. C.)

Mississippi.‑Bro. W. H. Hooker, of Palo Alto, April 9th, writes: I held a meeting in Columbus a few days since, at which we had 5 accessions to the good cause."

There has been through all the years a brotherly feeling existing between the Southern states, and often has this spirit been manifested by the closest cooperation between the brethren. Especially has this been true of the states of Alabama and Mississippi. The same climate, same needs, same character of people are to be found in both states. As will be, seen from the following letter of Bro. P. B. Lawson, who writes from Mississippi, but is trying to get Bro. Campbell to visit Selma, Alabama, where it is evident that Bro. Lawson then lived.

CONTEMPLATED SOUTHERN TOUR

Crawfordsville, Miss., June 18, 1856. Brother Campbell‑Dear Sir: As corresponding Secretary of the South Alabama Co‑operation, I write you to solicit a visit from you the coming fall. Our Co‑operation will hold its Annual Meeting in the city of Selma, commencing Friday before the 1st Lord's Day in November. Our brethren will be represented there, and are exceedingly anxious you should be with them, to comfort and strengthen them. We have a new and handsome house of worship in this pleasant and growing city, and the route from Wheeling there is all railroad, except from Montgomery to Selma, which is by river. The brethren of North Mississippi wish you to meet them in Columbus or Aberdeen, or both places; from either of which you can take railroad to Mobile. Great anxiety is manifested in all the South for you to pay us one visit, and a willingness expressed to do all in their power towards the endowment of Bethany College. If you can possibly do so, do come, for no point of the compass is struggling against more fearful odds than the South, nor is there any people more in need of encouragement, or who would appreciate it more. If you can visit us, please announce it through the Harbinger, and let your stopping places be at Augusta, Atlanta, Griffin, Georgia; Montgomery, Selma, and Marion, Alabama, and at Columbus and Aberdeen, Mississippi. You will find this a pleasant and accessible route. The brethren of North Mississippi and Alabama sent a special messenger last year to meet you at Nashville; but he failed, I believe, to get there in time; yet they still urge you to come; they wish to see you face to face in the flesh, and feel satisfied a visit from you will strengthen us very much.

In hope that your life may long be spared to the church, to the world, and your family, I remain most affectionately, yours in hope of immortality.

P. B. LAWSON

(In response to the request of many brethren in the South and South‑West, and to those especially represented by Bro. P. B. Lawson, in the preceding kind invitation, I intend, the Lord willing, to make them a visit during the coming winter, and that with special reference to the claims of Christianity and of Bethany College, in raising up an efficient ministry, for which they have been long praying. We will, at as early a day as possible announce our appointments‑A. C.)

Mississippi. ‑Bro.W. V. W. McLendon, writing from Chickasaw Co., Aug. 23rd, says: "Brother Robert Usrey has been laboring in our midst, (at Union Valley,) for about a week. Our meeting closed last night; 14 accessions was the result; 5 from the Baptists, 1 from the Methodists, and 8 from the world, most of them valuable additions.

Besides the above, Bro. Usrey immersed 3 last Spring, and 2 from the Baptists united with us‑making in all 19 accessions the present year.

We now number 52 at Union Valley.

From the last clippings from the Harbinger, 1856, to the letter following, 1868, is a long jump, 12 years. Alexander Campbell had died in the meantime, 1866, the year after the close of the civil war. The great and bloody war lasting four years had been fought and peace declared. The South was left in a deplorable condition, and our churches had been wrecked, and congregations died out. But there is one bright spot in the midst of the gross darkness of that period, and that was that the Christian Church had not divided over the war. There was no Christian Church South and Christian Church North. After the death of Mr. Campbell, Bro. Pendleton, who was connected with Bethany College, became the editor of the Harbinger. To him this letter is addressed. Notice its spirit, the spirit that permeated the entire South after the war was over.

GOOD WORDS FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS

Columbus, Miss., June 26, 1868 Dear Bro. Pendleton:‑ *Recently the brethren at this place "sent" me out evangelizing. We have some twenty congregations, more or less, in North West Alabama and North, East Mississippi, and no general evangelist (except perhaps Bro. Manire) and but few preachers, many of the smaller churches "gone down" for want of preaching and discipline, having never enjoyed the necessary instructions in the "all things whatsoever Christ commanded." Some of these, like the church in Pergamos, "dwell where Satan's seat is." Others again, like the church in Sardis, "have a name that they live, while they are dead," their "works" not being "perfect before God." Many unfortunately, from a variety of causes, are in this situation, and hence the great need and necessity of good men in the field, to "set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders." I opine that you brethren in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, where you have so many good meetings and good preachers, have never fully realized our situation. Since the death of our excellent old brother Usery, I know of not over half a dozen preachers in this great state, now contending for the faith once delivered to the saints; perhaps not more than a dozen in the State of Alabama. Therefore, my dear brother, when it goes well with you, think of us.

Owing to the great preponderance of sectarianism through, out all this region, we have long since learned how to be thankful for even a little success. Some weeks since, I held a meeting at Caledonia in this county, preaching every nig ht and on Lord's Day. A single sister was, at the commencement, the only one in the neighborhood found contending for "the more sure word of prophecy." You can only imagine how our hearts rejoiced together and were glad, when, at the close of the meeting I had the pleasure of immersing 6 intelligent persons in a creek hard by, for the remission of their sins,‑one of whom was the husband of the sister aforesaid. These seven gave themselves to each other and to God, and promised to keep the ordinances as delivered to them in his word. The first Lord's day in July we commence a protracted meeting at that place, at which we hope and expect to gain several more.

But, "thanks to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," the best is yet to be told. Since the meeting at Caledonia, I have visited the brethren at two of their places of worship in Fayette Co., Ala. And (as I cannot communicate all the good results with pen and ink) will say, I commenced preaching at night to the brethren of Berea, on New river, near Doublin, in Fayette Co., as before; continued over Lord's day,‑audiences increased in size from the beginning. On Saturday evening a Baptist brother came in and was introduced, who arose and stated (he was a preacher, and said to be a most excellent man) that the Baptists from his congregation, some four miles south of where we then were, had sent him up to invite me down on Lord's day to preach for them. The invitation was accepted, and after morning service at Berea, 1, with the congregation at Berea, went down to preach for the Baptists at 4 o'clock P. M. A very large audience' assembled, for a country meeting, I arose and sung, "Let Christians all agree and peace among them spread," knelt and prayed, arose and read the 17th chapter of John, and spoke an hour and a half, urging the union of Christians upon the foundation laid in Zion‑the first article of the Baptist "Confession of Faith", ‑‑at the close of which a proposition to this effect was submitted, viz.: to throw away to the moles and bats all partyism and human creeds as bonds of union and communion among Christians, and unite in fact on the foundation of prophets and apostles. Descending to the floor from the pulpit, an aged Baptist arose with tears running thick and fast down his furrowed cheeks,‑"I give you my hand and my heart to this work," said he; "I have long prayed for it, and believed Christians ought to be united, but could not see how it could be done, until you explained the difference between faith and opinion." So saying, he extended his hand. Next came the preacher; then a perfect rush of all the Baptists, numbering, I judge, some 60 or 75 persons, including males and females. All came forward and extended the hand. Then our brethren, all shaking hands and actually hugging each other. Never but once have I witnessed such a scene. Some shouted, some laughed, others cried. And "I too wept, though not to weeping given." To prove their sincerity in this glorious union movement, the Lord's Table was spread (at Berea) at night, and there around one common table they met and ate and worshipped together. Oh! surely, no one present will ever forget this meeting! And if there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, what a commotion was then created among those heavenly messengers. The Lord grant that this may be the commencement of one grand and yet more glorious movement for union between our brethren and the Baptists in Alabama! I left them Monday morning trying to agree upon another union meeting, to come off some time between this and the coming Fall. Some of the other brethren there propose to give you other particulars, which, will obviate the necessity of my extending further this already too lengthy epistle.

The churches mentioned in the first part of this letter, are all earnestly soliciting to meet through their delegates or messengers at Columbus on Friday before the 2nd Lord's Day in Oct. next, in a general consultation meeting; the prime object of which is, to put two general evangelists in this field. Many other things will also come up for consideration and consultation. Meantime, "a call" for such a meeting is now being circulated among the churches, which, when completed, with names, &c., will be forwarded to the Harbinger for publication. The attention of the brethren is now merely called to the time and place, of the proposed meeting, and, as the phrase is, it is greatly desired to make this meeting a success.‑In hope of eternal life, your brother in Christ,

C. S. REEVES

In 1868, soon after the Civil War had ended, Bro. R. V. Wall wrote from Utica, Irinds County as follows:

Utica, Hinds Co., Miss., Oct. 31st, 1868 Bro. Pendleton:  I have been waiting a long time hoping to get some cheering words to write you; as yet I have but few. I have been laboring in word and doctrine, as best I could, to gather up some of the fragments of the ruined Temple of the Lord in this waste place of Zion.

Recently we have had some little encouragement. Several of the old members of the church have rallied around the banner of the Lord, five have been added by immersion, two from the Baptists, and one from the Methodists. There is a great want of ministerial labor throughout all this portion of the vineyard of the Lord. The churches have been broken up. The members have gone from their labors‑some to sectarian churches, some to the kingdom of the wicked one. And so the cause of truth is bleeding for want of suitable men to bear the Banner of Truth. Could we get some ministerial aid to conduct a protracted meeting at this place, much good might be done with the blessing of God. The field appears white for the harvest.

But from whence shall such aid come? We have but three or four preaching brethren in this state. I am of opinion that an evangelist might be well sustained in this section. Yours in hope, R. V. WALL.

It will be observed that Bro. Wall writes to Bro. Pendleton who was then the editor of the Harbinger. Bro Campbell had passed to his reward in 1866, Bro. Pendleton, who had been associated with Campbell as a teacher in Bethany College assumed editorial management of the Harbinger. The outlook for the cause in the state as presented by Bro. Wall, was very gloomy, to say the least of it.

Two years following the foregoing from the pen of Bro. Wall, of Utica, we have a letter written by Bro. B. F. Manire, of Winona, Mississippi, which gives a little more roseate condition of affairs of the Kingdom. This was in 1870, the last year the Harbinger was published, and this letter was in the last monthly installment of the paper. Bro Manire's letter follows:

THE CAUSE IN MISSISSIPPI

Bro. Pendleton:‑The Annual Meeting of the brethren in this State was held in the city of Jackson, on the 24th, 25th and 26th of November. Thirteen preachers were present,, twelve white and one black, being about half the entire number of preachers we have in the State. I give their names and address Dr. S. R. Jones, Hon. Geo. L. Potter, Geo. A. Smythe, Esq., and J. W. Harris, Jackson, Miss.; Eld. W. H. Stewart, Utica; W. C. Scholl, Woodville; Eld. W. T. McKay and Dr. J. H. McKay, Madison Station; J. P. McKinley, Waterford; N. B. Gibbons, Ellistown; Alex Ellett, Starkville; B. F. Manire, Winona.... and Win. Ramy (colored), Carrollton. Bro. J. C. Oliver, Baldwyn, reported his labors and success since the middle of July last by letter. These and other brethren present represented at least three‑fourths of the entire brotherhood of the State.

Eight business sessions were held, in addition to which there was preaching every night and on Lord's Day. The utmost harmony prevailed throughout the entire meeting. Not a discordant note was heard. There was no discussion of "plans." "Plans" were not mentioned; and I doubt if "plans" were thought of during the meeting.

The time was spent in hearing reports from Evangelists and others; in learning the condition, wants and prospects of the churches; and in active efforts to ascertain what could be done to meet these wants for the coming year. Special attention was given to the subject of Sunday Schools, and the religious wants of the Freedmen. The Evangelists were requested to bring these subjects before the churches. To the latter of these, it is my purpose soon to call the attention of the entire brotherhood throughout the United States.

The reports were all very encouraging. They showed that about 450 persons had been added to the churches; that four new congregations had been planted, and several old ones revived and reorganized; that a nucleus had been formed at several points around which it is hoped self‑sustaining congregations will soon be collected; that the brethren generally had been much strengthened and encouraged, and in many places a deep interest had been excited in the whole community by our labors, and the labors of other Evangelists. It was also shown that almost two thousand dollars had been paid during the year for State work, and something over this amount for home work. Full reports from all the preachers in the State, would doubtless have largely increased the number of additions, and to a considerable extent the amount contributed to the support of the Gospel.

About eleven hundred dollars, partly in cash and partly in pledges, were raised by the meeting, mostly from the members of the church in Jackson, for the purpose of canceling the indebtedness for labor already performed, and starting the work again. A contribution of seventy‑eight dollars in cash was raised for our colored brother, to enable him to extend his labors among the colored people He represented a congregation of 140 members, ',0 of whom have been added this year, and are included in the number given above.

On reviewing our labors, we feel that we have great cause to thank God, renew our courage, and redouble our efforts.

Three years ago when the writer of this, without the promise of a dollar, entered the field, relying on the providence of his Heavenly Father, and the justice and liberality of his brethren, there was not another preacher in the State devoting his whole time to the work. Now there are six; and we trust there will soon be four more, as the fields in which they can be sustained are looking out for the laborers. In these three years more than a thousand persons have been added to the churches, and the truth more widely disseminated than at any previous time. Bro. Ellett and myself are again in the general field, relying wholly on the voluntary contributions of the brethren; and we expect to be joined soon by our able, eloquent, and beloved brother Caskey.

In God is our trust. Pray for us, Bro. Pendleton, that the word of the Lord may have free course in this our afflicted coun­try. ‑Your Bro. in Christ, B. F. MANIRE

Winona, Miss., Dec. 21, 1870

Thus ends the scattering history of the Church as gleaned from the columns of the Harbinger. From 1870 to 1884, the year when the State Work was organized in a more permanent way than had been done previously, there is but little to learn concerning the dooings of the church. About all we can learn is from Bro. Manire's "Reminiscences of Preachers and Churches," which forms a part of this book, and from whatever may be said by the older members of some of the congregations of the State. But as there are few now living who remember back that far, it will be next to impossible to get much information covering this period.

In this connection, and as the last letter was written to the Harbinger by Manire from Winona, Mississippi, recalls a statement which we have heard Bro. Manire make many times concerning the work in Winona. For a number of years the church in that city was one of our very best churches in the state. When I came to this state in 1891, 1 visited the church there and preached one night to a very good audience, but the church was without ministerial oversight, and the work gradually went down till sometime early in the present century the church house was sold and the money loaned to the church in Gulfport, (I believe it was) and there has been no work there for years.

But the story of Bro. Manire. He said that there was a debate there, just what year we do not remember, between Bro. Caskey and a Methodist preacher. Caskey was in his prime, and there were but few better debaters ever among us. Bro. Manire said that Caskey so outmatched his opponent, and was so bitter in his attack on the Methodist that it reacted against Bro. Caskey. Whether or not this had anything to do with the decline of the work there we do not know, as the work has declined in towns where there never was a debate held.

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EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN MISSISSIPPI

CHAPTER 2

IN 1891 there was published from Jackson, Mississippi, a large book the title of which was "Memoirs of Mississippi", in two immense volumes. The Goodspeed Publishing Co., of Chicago, were the publishers. This book contained the history of Mississippi in all of its varied make up, together with many Biographical sketches of prominent men in the State. One of the features of this book of "Memoirs" was the Religious feature of the State, and among the various religious organizations was a write up of the Christian Church, prepared by the editor of this book. While he was a new man in the State, there were living in Jackson at that time some women who remembered personally many men and events connected with the Church from its earliest days. We mention especially Mrs. Goodyear and Mrs. Smythe, who furnished the information. These good women have long since gone to their eternal reward, and it is doubtful if there is a living soul in the state who could reproduce the facts contained in this Church sketch. And as the volume in which it is contained is so large and cumbersome, and possibly very few of them in the hands of members of the Christian Church we reproduce here that sketch. Mrs. Goodyear was the daughter of General Clark, who founded the church in Jackson.

"The history of the Christian Church in Mississippi is less important than in most of the Southern States, as their membership is smaller, the progress of the church being greatly impeded by the late war. Since that time the great mass of emigration has gone West, made up mostly from the central states, where the Christian church is very strong, and it furnished a great many emigrants, and consequently is very strong in the West as in the central states.

The first organization of this church in the state was at Battle Springs, about the year 1836. This congregation was organized by Gen. William Clark, (the father of Mrs. Goodyear spoken of above) who preached for them once a month for many years after. This church was about eight miles from Jackson, but no organization has existed there for many years. An organization was effected at Utica, about 33 miles from Jackson, on the Jackson and Natchez road, about the same time as the one at Battle Springs. Jefferson H. Johnson was the organizer of this church. About the year 1838 President Tolbert Fanning of Tennessee and James A. Butler, two prominent ministers of the church, organized a congregation at Columbus, in the North, eastern part of the state, while William E. Mathes, an able minister, organized several small congregations in Wilkinson County. General William Clark, who was state treasurer, and Joseph E. Mathews, state auditor, organized a congregation in Jackson in 1841. The first regular pastor laboring for the Jackson congregation was T. W. Caskey, a talented man, who served from 1854 to 1860, when he went into the army as chaplain, where he served in that capacity very acceptably till the close of the war.

Since then the church has been ministered to by Elisha Pinkerton Elder Snow, of Virginia, George A. Smythe, for several years and lately by James Sharp, Robert Mayes, T. A. White, and by the present pastor, M. F. Harmon.

The congregation in Jackson previous to the civil war was one of the wealthiest and most influential churches in the state. The church house, which was a brick, and a good one for its day, was greatly damaged by soldiers during the war and was in 1884 condemned and torn down. A small neat chapel stands in the rear of where the old church stood, and a fine modern style building is soon to be erected on the old site.

There are in the state now thirty-two church houses reported, and valued at $34,000. There are about sixty organizations in the state, thirty of them having no meetinghouse, and there are about forty unorganized bands. The total white membership is between five and six thousand. There are thirty-two preachers who give part or all their time to the ministry, and about fifteen who give but little or no time. There are twenty-seven colored congregations in the state, with about two thousand membership; twenty-one church houses valued at $8,630, and thirty-two preachers.

This church teaches strict adherence to the New Testament as the "all sufficient rule of faith and practice," are opposed to all human creeds, believe in the co‑operation of all their congregations in sending the gospel to all parts of the earth. They believe in every Christian reading, studying, and interpreting the Bible for himself. They have an educated ministry and believe in a consistent Christian life. They hold, in common with all the so‑called evangelical churches, the fundamental principles of Christianity, rejecting from their faith and practice only those things, which are not commanded in the New Testament, or are not of divine precedent. They believe in the union of all Christians upon the Bible, and the Bible alone. They call themselves Christians or Disciples of Christ, as the followers of Christ were called in the beginning of the church. This people believe in Missions both home and foreign. Besides collections taken from the congregations at regular times for foreign missions they have a regular state board of missions that keeps an evangelist in the state all the time. This state work was begun with labors of T. W. Caskey from 1841 to 1854, and William E. Hooker and Robert Usrey labored in the same capacity from 1854 to 1860. B. F. Manire, a talented Christian minister, evangelized throughout the state for several years independent of any board. The Mississippi Christian Missionary Convention which is operating now in doing state missionary work, was organized in 1884, with Dr. D. B. Hill, of Palo Alto, president, who served till 1887. From that time to the present, (June 1891) Dr. D. L. Phares, of Madison Station, has been president. This board holds annual conventions, the last week in August, for the purpose of reviewing the work of the past, and planning for the future. Their work is altogether advisory. James Sharp was the first evangelist under the new board, serving from 1885 to 1890, A. C. Smither, serving from January 1890 to August of the same year. January 1st 1891, John A. Stevens accepted the position of evangelist, and is filling it acceptably yet. (He filled the position for about ten years‑Editor)

Newton College, located near Woodville, was opened March 7th, 1843, to both sexes. It closed in 1860. A great many young men were educated here, several for the ministry, who have made useful men. A number made distinguished doctors, lawyers and educators. A great many grand women were educated here.

Southern Christian Institute is a mission school with plantation, organized in 1877, for the colored people, with an organized stock basis of $10,000. The present site of the Institute was selected in 1882, near Edwards, in Hinds County, twenty six miles west of Jackson, on the Virginia and Mississippi railroad. The plantation consists of 800 acres of number one cotton land. The school at present is under the control of J. B. Lehman and wife, thorough educators.

In 1875 S. R. Jones edited a paper known as the Unitist, in the interest of the church. It continued for a year or more and suspended. An attempt or two has been made to publish a church paper, but owing to the weak condition of the churches, and perhaps more properly to bad, inefficient management on the part of the projectors, none of these attempts have amounted to much, except the last, which promises to prove a valuable church organ,‑The Messenger, an eight page, three column paper, published monthly in Jackson, by M. F. Harmon.

It would be unjust to the man, as well as to the church in Mississippi, to fail to make special mention of B. F. Manire, a consecrated minister, who has spent a great portion of his life in evangelizing throughout the state, and adding more souls to the church than any other man of his church. The Christian Church stands in the front ranks in every reform movement that is calculated to benefit humanity."

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Reminiscences of Preachers and

Churches in Mississippi

By B. F. Manire

N0 ONE in the State of Mississippi has added as much OX to the early history of the Christian Church as B. F. Manire. Late in the year 1892, in the month of October, to be exact, he began a series of articles in the Messenger, the State paper, under the heading above, which were later put into pamphlet form, and published by the Messenger. As there is possibly only one copy of that pamphlet in existence now (1927), and likely not a single copy of the Messenger to be found any, where except the copy preserved by the editor, we are reproducing this pamphlet here in this permanent form for the coming generations of the church. A brief history of the Messenger will be found in another part of this book, together with the work of its editor in helping to establish the work of the church in the early nineties.‑ (Editor's Note.)

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CHAPTER 1.

Introductory and Auto‑Biographical

ACCORDING to the family record, I was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, on the 11th day of February, 1829. I was the only child that my good little mother ever gave to the world; and to my rearing and training she sacredly devoted the remaining eighteen years of her toilsome and self‑sacrificing life. To her gentle loving nurture and my father's rigid discipline, I am indebted, next to the blessing and guidance of my Heavenly Father, for whatever of success I may have achieved in this life. Upon every remembrance of them, I thank God for such a mother and such a father.

The first event that I distinctly remember was the baptism of my father and mother which occurred in the summer of 1834, when I was only a little over five years of age. This event made a deep and lasting impression on my juvenile mind; and if I were an artist I could paint the scene‑the clear, winding, little stream, the grass‑covered banks, the over‑hanging trees, the hushed and solemn crowd that came to witness the act, and the candidates themselves as they were led into the water and buried with their Savior by a faithful servant of God, while I trembling and awestruck clung to the hand of a loving and beloved aunt. The memory of that scene has ever dwelt within my heart, and often cheered me along life's dark and rugged way.

My father and mother were both religiously of Baptist descent. My great grandfather Manire lived and died a Baptist preacher before the great Baptist family became so unhappily divided. My grandfather and grandmother Manire, my grandmother Smith, and my great grandmother Dixon were Baptists; but in the year 1828, in response to the call of their preacher, Joshua K. Speer, they laid aside the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, and, with almost the entire church took their stand on the Bible alone, accepting the New Testament as the all sufficient Rule of faith and worship. It was by the hands of this saintly man who thus led the way of return to New Testament Christianity in Middle Tennessee, that my father and mother were baptised on a simple confession of their faith in Jesus as their only Lord and Savior. In this faith I was brought up, to this faith I still cling, and in this faith I expect to die.

My father and several others who came into the church about the same time he did, soon began to read and talk and pray in the Lord's day service; and in order to their own improvement they would often meet at private houses, especially at my father's as he was a leading spirit among them, and spend hours at night in such exercises. If there were a dozen of these embryo preachers present at one time, every one of them had to try his hand, or mouth rather, before the meeting adjourned; and often the exercises were protracted far beyond the hour of midnight. Sometimes a poor fellow's mouth would fool him by failing to go off, and then he would sit down, bow his head between his hands, and look the very picture of despair; but the others would tenderly console and affectionately encourage him, and the next time he would try again usually with a better result. Such efforts as these were a part, and a large part too, of a preacher's training in those days. When any one had advanced far enough to talk to the edification of a household audience, and could conduct Lord's day services satisfactorily, then one of the old and successful preachers would take him around through a series of protracted meetings for a year or two and graduate him. Some of our most devoted and most successful preachers were made in this way fifty and sixty years ago. It was in such meetings as these that the idea got into my little heart that I must be a preacher, and that idea is there yet, and will remain there till I die.

In my boyhood days it was my privilege to hear Joshua K. Speer, Ephraim A. Smith, C. F. R. Shehane, Elijah Craig, Willis Hopwood, James C. Anderson, John M. Barnes, J. J. Trott, and others who succeeded them. But of all whom it was my good fortune to hear in that formative period of my life, no one made so deep an impression on my heart as Joshua K. Speer. He was not learned, nor logical, nor eloquent, but he was by far the most emotional preacher I have ever heard. He not only felt himself, he made others feel. He not only wept himself, but he made others weep. I can see him now, as the tears would flow in one continuous stream down his cheeks, while he talked of Jesus and his love. Old as I am now, and short as is the time that is left for me to serve my Master in, I would gladly give the wealth of a Gould or a Vanderbilt, if I had it, for the power, the gift of exhortation which he possessed.

Most of our pioneer preachers were good exhorters, and to this fact their great success was to a great extent due. Since their day our preachers have developed a logical ability that is truly wonderful, but have lost, it seems to me, almost immeasurably in the power to stir and move the hearts of men. One of our greatest needs to prosecute the great work which in the providence of God has been committed to our hands, is heart power‑such heart power as was possessed by our pioneer preachers. This is the direction in which our young preachers should cultivate and develop themselves. We have debaters enough, and more than enough. We already have enough published debates to last for a generation at least. We now need preachers who can stir men's hearts to their very depths, convict them of sin, and turn them to righteousness. Our clear convictions of truth and duty are all right as far as they go; but we need more heart power to drive these convictions home to the heart of others.

In the summer of 1846, when in my eighteenth year, I made the good confession under the preaching of J. J. Trott and W. S. Speer, and was baptized by the hands of my revered teacher, John M. Barnes, to whose pains‑taking and skillful instructions I am mainly indebted for whatever literary attainments I may have made, and to whose memory I now gladly pay this tribute of undying affection. In the autumn of the same year, I began to teach school, and continued in the same business for more than thirty years. Although I never attained any great distinction as a teacher, I think I can safely say that my influence on my pupils was always for good, and never for evil; and that through my instruction and example they became better and more useful men and women.

In November, 1851, 1 came to Mississippi as a teacher, and entered at once upon that work in the vicinity of Van Buren, a little village on the Tombigbee River in Itawamba County. I soon visited Smithville and Cotton Gin in Monroe County and afterwards taught school at both places. It was at old Cotton Gin Port, as it was then called, that I formed those associations and fell under those happy influences that led me in February, 1853, to begin that work to which my heart had been turned in boyhood days.

Robert Usrey and James A. Butter.

The first of our preaching brethren whom I met in Mississippi was the faithful old soldier of the Cross, Robert Usrey. This was in February, 1852. He stopped one night in the village of Smithville, and preached in the house of a prominent Baptist brother, as church doors were generally closed against us at that time. Though nearly forty years have passed away since that night, I remember the subject of his discourse and the manner of its treatment. It was a plain, practical, scriptural, and earnest presentation of "The Word of Truth as the Medium of God's Saving Power." He showed that from the creation of the heavens and the earth down through all the ages, God has always used agencies and means in the accomplishment of his own purposes. He then presented the Holy Spirit as the agent, and the Word of Truth as the instrument of conversion. I can look back through the mists of the many years that have since passed away, and see him now as he stood before that little audience, and pleaded with men so earnestly to receive and obey the truth.

Bro. Usrey was then evangelizing with great success in the North Eastern part of the State. He told me some years afterward that in the first seven years of his evangelistic work, he baptised over a thousand persons on a confession of their faith in Jesus; and in addition to these, many baptised believers united with us from the various denominations under his plain and earnest presentation of the great plea for Christian unity and brotherly love‑a plea that was then urged in almost every sermon, and thus kept constantly before the religious world. In view of the deep-seated prejudice that then existed in the minds of both the religious and irreligious, and the unrelenting warfare that was waged against us from almost every pulpit, this success was truly remarkable. Indeed, Robert Usrey himself, all things considered, was truly a remarkable man. He was a poor, hard workingman till he passed the meridian of life, and had become somewhat addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks through the social customs that were prevalent at that day. He was running a sawmill near Columbus, Mississippi, when Tolbert Fanning, President of Franklin College, Tenn., came there to conduct a protracted meeting. On hearing a few sermons from that able expounder of the truth, Robert Usrey confessed his faith in Jesus and obeyed the gospel. From that time onward, he was emphatically a new man. He soon began to pray and talk, first in the prayer meeting and then in the Lord's Day service, the result of which was that he soon developed into an efficient and useful preacher. His education being somewhat limited, he studied hard; and under the instruction of W. H. D. Carrington, then a lawyer but afterwards an able preacher, he learned to read the New Testament in Greek. Having a good mind he made, rapid progress, and finally became an able expounder of the Scriptures, especially of the New Testament from which he usually preached.

He had a large endowment of strong common sense, and rarely, if ever, attempted to do that which was beyond his ability. He was careful not to venture into water beyond his depth. He had good natural speaking ability, and could present a subject that he understood with great plainness and power. Having put his hands to the gospel plow, he never turned back, or intermitted his labors. In the fall of 1867, if I am not mistaken, he died of Typhoid fever in Itawamba County, away from home, but tenderly nursed by loving brethren, and also by his faithful and devoted wife who went to his assistance when the case became dangerous. He was buried at or near Smithville; and I was told a few years ago that his grave was unmarked. If this is still the case, the brethren of North Mississippi owe it to themselves and to the cause for which he labored so faithfully for some twenty years, to erect a neat plain monument to his memory over the spot where his dust reposes.

The second of our preachers whom I met one month later was the genial, versatile, eloquent, eccentric, effervescent, brilliant, belligerent, uncompromising, indefatigable, irrepressible, and inexhaustible James A. Butler, the like of whom I had never seen before, have never seen since, and will never see again. From boyhood I had seen in our periodicals his short, rich, racy, epigrammatic letters, and long desired to see and to hear him. One Sunday morning, unannounced and unexpected, he put in his appearance at the Sunday school in the Baptist church, the only house of worship then in the town of Smithville. His physique was peculiar and striking. He was about six feet high, perfectly erect, with broad shoulders and full chest. He weighed, I think, about one hundred and sixty pounds, and was well formed. He had a piercing eye and an intelligent expression. His hair was coarse, and when cut short as he usually wore it, every hair seemed to stand out by itself, which gave his head the appearance of an enormous cockle burr, and added to the sternness and fierceness of his looks. One _____glance at him. ed me to anticipate a rich treat, and I was not disappointed.

At the close of the Sunday school exercises, Dr. James Elliott arose and announced that Mr. Butler was present, and at the hour of eleven A. M. would preach in a house which he designated. This was an unoccupied business house which the young men had temporarily seated for the purpose of airing their oratory in a debating society. "What's the matter with this house?" said brother Butler, when the announcement was made; "I would just as soon preach here." The Dr. smiled and pleasantly said, "This house is not for your sort to preach in." "All right sir! All right sir," said Bro. Butler, "we will go to the other house;‑ and to the other house we went. I afterwards had the pleasure of preaching in that same church with the hearty consent of all concerned; and Bro. Butler held a debate in it of six days with W. P. Harrison, a young Methodist preacher of fine ability.

The discourse which he delivered that day I shall never forget, although I do not remember the passage which he read, nor the subject which he announced. Indeed it mattered but little whether he announced a subject or not, or from what passage he took his start. He could cover more ground in one discourse, and come nearer going everywhere and touching upon every theme than any other man I have ever heard. In that discourse, as in most others that I heard him deliver, eloquence and logic and rhetoric, wit and sarcasm, poetry and philosophy, patriotism and religion, education and the study of the Bible, conversion and the Christian life, earth and heaven, were all mingled together with the hand of a master. He was emphatically a product of the strong period through which he was brought up, and in which the greater part of his life was passed. He preached all over the country‑in churches, in schoolhouses, private houses, under brush arbors and shady trees, wherever there was an opening; and where there seemed to be no opening he rarely, if ever, failed to make one. He took more interest in bringing out young preachers and putting them forward than any other man I have ever known. His zeal in this respect sometimes got the young preacher into a very tight place, as I well know from my own experience. His oratory was of the Ciceronian type; and I have heard him deliver off‑hand speeches, which, in my judgment, surpassed Cicero's famous invective against Cataline. He was not successful to any great extent in adding members to the churches, but he broke up the ground, set men to thinking, and opened the way for the preachers who followed him to reap the harvest. If ever I have seen the man who could have gloried in martyrdom, that man was James A. Butler.

He never abandoned the pulpit, yet during the ten years preceding the war he took an active part in the political contests of that stormy period. In this, I think he made the mistake of his life. It is not because of his attitude during and after the war, that I say this; but because his participation in political affairs injured his influence as a preacher, and hindered his efforts to promote the cause of Christ. He made many political friends on the one hand it is true; but he made just as many political enemies on the other hand. There was this difference however. The friends he made were friends only so far as the party was concerned, caring nothing whatever about his religious convictions, while the enemies he made carried their political hostility into the religious camp, and did all they could to destroy his religious influence. Thus he lost more than he gained, as does every preacher of ability and of good repute who goes into the political arena. I write these things not for the purpose of casting any reproach on his memory; for I thought then, and think yet, that he verily believed that he was doing more for the good of his State and his country than he could do in any other way. In this, I think he was mistaken, and I thought so then, although on the great issue then before the people, I thought and voted as he did. I say these things, and emphasize these things, for the benefit of those now living who are wasting on barren political issues those splendid talents, which ought to be devoted wholly to the service of the Lord who gave them. How a man whose heart is in the work can turn away from the high and holy calling of preaching the gospel, to the dry and barren husks of political contention, is something I cannot understand As a rule, whenever a preacher of ability and reputation enters the political arena, his usefulness as a preacher is greatly impaired, if not totally destroyed. There are many sad wrecks along this line.

The day on which I first met Bro. Butler, he gave me a cordial invitation to visit him at his home near Cotton Gin. This I did in April of the same year, and from that hour he took me under his wing to use an expression of his own, carried me around, and almost forced me on the attention of the people. It seemed to me he was second only to Alexander Campbell. His good wife also took me to her heart, and was truly a mother to me as long as she remained in the state. There never was a purer, better, woman than Sister Butler. Peace to her sacred memory. There is one other mother in Israel to whom in passing I must pay the tribute of undying affection, Mrs. E. E. Bates, still living, and now residing at Houston, Miss. Into her hospitable home, I was most cordially received forty years ago, and under her hospitable roof I rested my weary body, and eased my lonely and aching heart the first night I spent in a private house in Miss. The affection then formed grows only stronger as the years pass away. She is growing old, but gracefully, beautifully, and sweetly, as becomes a true disciple of Jesus. May the Lord spare her yet many years to exemplify the purity and sweetness of that religion which is the only hope of the world.

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CHAPTER 2

The Early Years of My Ministry, And Those Who Helped Me.

On the second Lord's Day in February 1853, in a little log schoolhouse some two miles from Cotton Gin, I delivered my first discourse to a small but very intelligent audience. Some two years before, it is true, in another log schoolhouse near, New Lasea, Maury County, Tenn., I had made some sort of an effort, but as it was not followed up, I have never counted it. I have always been willing to throw that effort in for good, measure; and many of the efforts that I have made since, I would be willing to dispose of in the same way. The actual beginning of work as a preacher was in that school house in the pine woods of Miss.; for from that day to this, although I have spent much time in the school room, and some between the plow‑handles, yet few Lord's days have passed on which I have not spoken for Jesus. And even while teaching and cultivating my patches with my own hands, I have usually preached as many times during the year as most men who do nothing but preach. I do not, however, recommend this course to young preachers, or old ones either, if they can possibly avoid it. If I have any serious regret with reference to my life‑work, it is that I did not, from the very beginning, throw myself upon the churches, and devote all my time, labor, study, and prayer, to the preaching of the gospel.

My next effort was in Itawamba County, at the house of Bro. Nathan King, and I mention it only to mention him and his good Christian wife, both of whom from that night gave me their full confidence and Christian affection. Though un­learned and learning under many disadvantages, Bro. King after­ward became a very devoted and efficient preacher of the gospel.

The, New Testament Scriptures were his daily study, and he preached the gospel I have been told, not only with plainness, but also with power. I never met him after he began to preach; but from brethren who often heard him I have learned that he did much good in Itawamba and adjacent counties. He it was who baptised Dr. M. M. Davis, and thus planted the church at Eureka, Lee Co. He long since went to his reward, but still lives in the hearts of those who knew him, and in the good that resulted from his labors. His life was a living sermon of great power.

Pushed forward by Bro. Butler on every occasion, I soon had all the work I could do in addition to my labor as a teacher. During the remainder of that year, and through the two succeeding years, I preached regularly at Cotton Gin and Richmond and occasionally, at Aberdeen and Prairie Mount, at all of which there were well organized, working churches. I also frequently preached in schoolhouses and sometimes in private houses in the intervening neighborhoods. The churches at these places were all young churches at that time, and had been planted, I think, between '45 and '50. I can not say who was the first preacher at each place, nor can I name all who had labored in that field; but I think that Bros. Butler, Caskey, and Usrey had done the greater part of the work at these places up to this time, although they frequently had the help of visiting preachers. President Fanning, of Tenn., Dr. B. F. Hall, of Ky., and W. M. Brown, of Ill., had each visited Aberdeen, and perhaps also Alexander Graham, of Ala. In 1852, I heard Bro. Brown in a series of discourses at Cotton Gin. He was a brilliant speaker, and was quite successful in holding protracted meetings. He preached for a year or two in the State, mostly at Columbus and Palo Alto, and then returned to Illinois. He held some fruitful meetings at other points in North Miss., and among them was one at Holly Springs with over forty accessions. We then had a flourishing church at the last named place; but alas! Where is it now? I also met T. W. Caskey twice the same year and heard him speak twice; but I was with him so short a time that I did not learn to know and love him as I afterward did; hence I will write of him further on.

During these years from 1852 to 1856, I made the acquaintance of, spent much time with, and received much encouragement from, Bros. Ben Cooper, Dr. J. M. Hackworth, Dr. Wm. H. Hooker, and Dr. J. P. Deanes. Of Dr. Deanes, I will write when I come to Palo Alto. To the others, I will pay my tribute of affectionate memory now.

Ben Cooper, as he was familiarly called, was a man of only moderate ability and moderate attainments; but his fervent zeal, diligent labor, and pure life, enabled him to accomplish much for the master's cause. As he traveled around, he sold books, and thus scattered the works of Bro. Campbell and others all over the country. Wherever there was an opening, he would stop and hold a protracted meeting, usually with some success, and sometimes with marked success. I remember one meeting, which he held in the northern part of Choctaw County, which resulted in over sixty accessions to the church. He had one discourse on Christian Unity based on the metaphor of the Vine and Branches, which for a plain, practical, forcible presentation of the truth on the subject, I have never heard surpassed by any one. After laboring for several years in Mississippi he went to Arkansas, where he remained till the Lord called him away from the toils and trials of earth to the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

 

Dr. J. M. Hackworth was a dentist, a physician and a preacher. He sometimes traveled and practiced dentistry, and then for a time he would locate and practice medicine; but whether traveling as a dentist, or located as a physician, he always availed himself of every opportunity to preach on the Lord's day, and frequently held protracted meetings. By such labors many were persuaded to turn to the Lord. He was a hard reasoner, and could preach two hours and five minutes every time without looking at his watch. He was very fond of debate, and in all his discourse always had a man of straw before him, whom he never failed to demolish. He would often lay down a proposition that was startling even to the brethren; but in the end he would come out all right. As an old brother expressed it, he would set his own house on fire at the beginning of his discourse in order to show how easily and how effectually he could put it out in the conclusion. He had Indian blood in his veins, and was upon the whole a peculiar man. He was devoted to his friendships, but somewhat extreme in his dislikes. He was painfully aware of his own weaknesses and faults, and frank to acknowledge them. He often told me that it was a hard struggle with him to live the Christian life. I have heard him say in the pulpit that his life was so imperfect that he did not presume to preach to Christians, that all his discourses were to sinners, which he felt that he had done what they had not done, and was earnestly trying to do what they were not trying to do. He knew that he had confessed Jesus as his Savior, had humbly bowed to his authority, and was earnestly striving to live as a Christian, none of which had they done, hence he felt that it was his duty and his privilege to preach to sinners, and exhort them to come to Jesus and be saved. Suffice it to say that he fought to the end, and died in the triumphs of a living faith.

Dr. Wm. H. Hooker was a man of large natural endowments, good scholarship, and superior speaking ability. He began to preach, if I am not mistaken, in Middle Tennessee, under the tutelage of Pres. Fanning, thence went to Alabama, and from Alabama came into Mississippi. For many years he devoted himself mainly to the practice of medicine, but continued to preach whenever his practice did not interfere. During the three or four years in which I was occasionally associated with him, he was resting from the practice of medicine, and engaged in preaching as opportunities for so doing presented themselves. He was not then employed for any stated time by any church, or any number of churches; but as he was extensively known both in Alabama and Mississippi, he usually had all the work that he wished to do. He was better adapted to the work of evangelizing than to that of teaching and training the churches, as most of our early preachers were. When he threw his whole soul into a meeting, and all the energy that he was capable of exerting, he was a power indeed. Had he devoted his whole time to evangelistic work, he would doubtless have achieved signal success. And if to his superior mental ability, he had added that close and diligent application by which many have become distinguished whose natural endowments were far inferior to his, he might have become distinguished as a scholar and as a Biblical exegete. Dividing his time and labor as he did between the practice of medicine and preaching, he nevertheless added many to the churches for which he labored both in Alabama and Mississippi. In 1856, or '57, he returned to his former home in Alabama, and resumed the practice of medicine. During the war, as I was informed, he removed to Georgia; and not a great while after the war, I saw in the Gospel Advocate a notice of his death. The brother who wrote the notice paid a suitable tribute to his ability, and spoke of the good he had done in that, his last field of labor in the Master's vineyard.

Some time in the year 1854, in the early summer, as I remember, at a meeting held at Prairie Mount, by Bros. Butler and Deanes, George Plattenburg made the good confession, and was baptised the same afternoon by Bro. Deanes. A year or more previous to this time, he had come into the State from Alabama, and he had engaged in teaching. While on his way to the state, Bro. Butler made his acquaintance in the stage in which they were traveling, took a deep interest in him, and on their arrival at Aberdeen introduced and commended him to some prominent planters out in the prairies who gave him a school. I soon made his acquaintance, and we often met at Bro. Butler's various appointments and also at his house which was quite a center of attraction to young preachers and young men of literary tastes. From the time I first met him, I loved him as a brother; and I have reason to think that the affection was fully reciprocated.

One month from the day on which he was baptised, he preached his first sermon which for a beginner, was a masterly effort, and gave full promise of that distinction which he has since attained. Having received a thorough training at Bethany when Bro. Campbell was in the very prime of his power, being gifted in intellect, and possessing rare speaking ability, he took his stand at once in the very front rank of pulpit orators. On the third Lord's day in July 1855, if I remember aright, George and myself were ordained, or set apart to the work of the ministry, at Prairie Mount, by Bros. Butler, Deanes and Hooker with the approbation of that church and also the churches at Cotton Gin and Palo Alto. Bro. Butler was the prime mover in the matter, as he regarded George and myself as his own sons in the ministry; but Dr. Hooker preached the sermon, and Dr. Deanes delivered the charge. It was a solemn service, and one that deeply impressed the entire audience.

I did not think then, nor do I think now that it conferred on us any grace, knowledge, ability or even authority, that we did not possess before; yet it was a public, solemn covenant between us and the churches participating, in which we gave ourselves to the work and they pledged to us their hearty support, sympathy and prayers. It made a deep and lasting impression on our hearts and lives, had a good effect on the brethren, and exerted a favorable influence on those without. I have always looked back to that day with joy and gratitude, and the very memory of it has been a strength and comfort to me in many a dark and trying hour. I doubt not that Bro. Plattenburg feels as I do with reference to this matter. Although I had been preaching about a year when he began, and although I preached the sermon at the close of which he confessed the Savior, yet I have always regarded him as my twin brother in the work of the Lord.

After our ordination, Bro. Plattenburg preached for some time in the northern part of the State, at and around Thyatira. Thence he went to Little Rock, Arkansas, and remained there several years. From that place he went to Henderson, Ky., and thence to Dover, Missouri, where he now resides. Missouri has many great preachers, but none greater, in my judgment than George Plattenburg. Missouri is also indebted to Mississippi for Alexander Ellett, and the Terrell brothers; and we can also claim an interest in W. H. Cooke. George and I parted in the latter part of 1855, to meet again at Fayette, Missouri, in 1889, 34 years, or a full generation afterward. The preachers and elders who so fervently besought the Lord on that day to bless us in the work to which we were then set apart, have all passed away; but the memory of them and of their prayers will ever be green in our hearts. When these lines are published, I will probably be in Florida, and you, dear George, in Missouri; but across the States intervening, I extend to you a brother's hand with the same loving heart that beat so hopeful on that hallowed day, now more than 36 years ago. Though our fields of labor have lain far apart, yet our work in the Lord has been one, our hearts have been one, and our reward will be one. We have not grown weary in the Master's service, and we never will. We have not become soured against the brethren because of any supposed neglect, nor jealous of younger preachers; and may the Lord forbid that we ever should. Our faith and hope have grown stronger and brighter with our increasing years; and though we realize that the outward man is failing, we feel and rejoice that the inward man is renewed day by day. I fervently pray the Lord to spare your life and mine yet many years and give us health and strength, grace and courage, to contend more earnestly than ever before for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

I cannot close this chapter without paying a tribute of deep and undying affection to the entire membership of these four churches that so gladly received and so warmly encouraged my earliest efforts at preaching. Cotton Gin, Aberdeen, Prairie Mount, and Richmond. There were aged men in these churches who were well informed in the Scriptures; yet they listened to my feeble efforts with rapt attention, and bade me a hearty God‑speed in the good work. A more devoted sisterhood I have never seen and never expect to see. A change of business centres broke up the towns of Prairie Mount and Richmond; and the church at each place became extinct. Many of the members, however, carried the light of truth whither they went, and planted churches in other localities. Cotton Gin as a town has ceased to be; but the church still lives in the church at Armory with prospects of increasing usefulness. The church at Aberdeen had a hard struggle for many years for existence, but still survives, and is, we are persuaded, on rising ground. May her light and that of the church at Amory shine brighter and brighter till the Lord comes.

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Chapter 3

From 1856 to 1860

In the autumn of 1855, 1 was called to the church at Columbus, but did not begin my work there till February, 1856. 1 remained there only eight months; but they were fruitful months to me, though almost barren to the church in the way of additions. Up to this time, my appointments had all been monthly, and I could make one sermon do service at all points, I visited. I do not think that I had more than ten or a dozen different sermons when I went to Columbus; and now I had to preach twice every Sunday to the same audience, and made a brief talk at the prayer meeting Wednesday night. Then there were funerals and other occasions on which my services were required. I soon exhausted my little stock of sermons; and then I had to go to work in good earnest. I do not think I ever studied harder or to better purpose than during those eight months. In sermon‑making, it was truly a seed time with me. I would advise all young preachers to labor for a time at least for one church. It will give them an opportunity for study which otherwise they could not have, and force them to study as they otherwise would not do. I have always felt, and still feel, under deep and lasting obligations to the members of the church at Columbus, especially the older ones, for the encouragement they gave me, and the interest they always manifested in my feeble, halting efforts.

The church at Columbus has been truly a mother of churches; and nothing short of a volume could do full justice to its history. From its organization in 1842 to the present time, although often and for long periods of time without a regular preacher, few Lord's days have passed on with the death and resurrection of the Savior were not commemorated. It has been visited by many able preachers, Alexander Campbell included, and has been served at different times by men of superior ability. It became at once, like Thessalonica, a radiating center from which the Word of the Lord was sounded out through a large portion of North East Mississippi and North West Alabama. I will let its first regular preacher tell of its planting and its prospects at that early day. In the "Christian Loyalist" for February (1843‑a paper published at Whitestown, Mississippi by Dr. Wm. E. Matthews, I find the following letter.)

"Columbus, Mississippi, February 4, 1843. Bro. Matthews, Dear Sir. Some three months ago, I came to this place, where I found some 69 Disciples, "continuing steadfast in the Apostles' doctrine, breaking of bread, fellowship and prayer." This congregation is the fruit of the labors of the beloved T. Fanning of Nashville, Tennessee. I have been preaching for the brethren about three months, during which time our Bro. Butler of Alabama has been with us two or three weeks; and, as the rest of our joint labors, 27 have been added to the ranks of King Emanuel. The prospects for successful proclamation of the truth in Mississippi, are gloriously encouraging to the friends of Reform. There is a noble independence of soul, characteristic of the peo­ple of Mississippi which is always favorable to the claims of free investigation; and which, consequently, has proved to be highly conducive to the interests of primitive Christianity. The people are anxious to hear; and this is all the Gospel claims at the hands of an enlightened and liberal community. Vincitveritas.    JAMES H. CURTIS.

Dr. Curtis had himself come from Alabama, and was at that time quite a young man, but from all accounts of superior ability for one of his age. He possessed a vigorous intellect, had received a liberal culture, was of a studious disposition, and was highly gifted with a fluent and eloquent delivery. For some years he preached with success at and around Columbus, both in Mississippi and Alabama. How long he continued these labors I know not. When I went to Columbus in 1856, he was engaged in planting in the Yazoo valley near Greenwood. He had quit preaching, much to the regret of all the brethren who knew him; and for some years he stood aloof from the church, yet his convictions remained unchanged. His course during this period of his life, he afterward deeply regretted, and always frankly acknowledged.

When I made his personal acquaintance in 1870, he had returned to the church, and returned to the pulpit. While he had now passed the meridian of life, he was still a man of great power in the pulpit and on the rostrum, and he could have given his whole time and study to the work, either as a pastor or an evangelist, he could doubtless have accomplished much for the cause which he loved so well. But he was now of necessity tied up in business; and the brethren, impoverished as they had been by the war, were unable to untie his hands, and say to him, "Go and preach the gospel." Yet he was always ready to speak a word for Jesus, and preached at Columbus and at many other points as he had opportunity. He was a warm friend and sup, porter of all our co‑operative efforts, and often made it convenient to go out and lend a helping hand to the evangelists who were laboring under many disadvantages. On such occasions, he always preached with great power. In my own work from 1870 to 1876, 1 had no warmer friend, no more ardent supporter than Dr. Jas. H. Curtis. He was one of the most diligent students of the Scriptures, amidst all his cares, that I have ever known, and has a large amount of varied matter in manuscript‑sermons, essays, addresses, criticisms, and notes from which a large and valuable book might be published. Had he continued from the beginning to devote his whole time to the ministry of the Word, instead of side‑tracking for so long a time, he would have stood in the front rank of our ministry, by the side of such men as T. M. Allen, D. S. Burnett, Benj. Franklin, and Isaac Errett‑the full peer of any of them. A few years ago, in connection with a heavy financial loss, a severe physical affliction fell upon him, by which his vocal organs were partially paralyzed, and his eloquent tongue silenced from preaching. He still lives, however; still loves the service of the Lord's house, and as far as able still gives his presence and encouragement to the services and work of the church. May his remaining years be serene and hopeful, and when the Master calls him hence may he be ready to depart in the full assurance of a blissful immortality.

I can here only mention the names of some others who preached at Columbus before the war, either regularly, or occasionally‑James A. Butler, Dr. J. P. Deanes, G. W. Elley, of Kentucky, T. W. Caskey, Dr. W. H. Hooker, W. M. Brown, of Illinois, T. N. Arnold, of Kentucky, P. B. Lawson, and doubt, less many others of whom I never knew. Bro. Panning paid it a number of visits. Bro. Campbell was there twice in the interest of Bethany College, first in 1857, and again in 1859. On the latter visit, he was accompanied by W. K. Pendleton. Since the war the church has had the labors for a time of Knowles Shaw, J. M. Pickens, W. E. Hall, J. J. Haley, and others; and has been visited by Dr. Win. J. Barbee, Alex. Ellett, Moses E. Lard, B. B. Tyler, J. B. Briney and many others of varied ability. May the church at Columbus put on new life, and by the blessing of God be enabled to achieve greater conquests in the future than she has done in the past.

In the fall of 1856, I removed to Palo Alto, and took charge of a school which I conducted for four years. The church at this place was planted a few years after the church at Columbus by brethren who had removed from Columbus, including Dr. J. P. Deanes and family, Dr. D. B. Hill and family, and perhaps some others. Having the best of material to begin with, and the best of material to work on, the church grew rapidly, and soon became the largest and most flourishing church in all that part of the State. When I went there and when I left I think it was the largest church among us in the whole State, and the wealthiest too except perhaps the church at Jackson which at that time was very strong‑ in men and means, though it may not have had so many members as the church at Palo Alto. Bro. Caskey had lived and labored at Palo Alto for a number of years, and had added largely to the membership of the church. Dr. Hooker had practiced medicine there in partnership with Dr. Deanes, and had preached there often. "Billy" Brown, as he was familiarly called, had held some very successful meetings there. Butler, Curtis, Lawson, and many others had been heard there on occasional visits; and I can truly say that a better instructed church or a more intelligent community, it has never been my fortune to find anywhere.

Dr. Deanes, though engaged in the practice of medicine from youth to extreme old age, was nevertheless a preacher of much more than ordinary ability. He was a ready speaker, possessed a fine flow of words, and was a man of deep and tender feeling. He could rarely talk about Jesus without shedding tears. As an exhorter, of all the men I have ever heard, he was second only to Joshua K. Speer of Middle, Tennessee. As an evangelist, he would have been grandly successful. He often went with me to my school‑house appointments, and always closed with an appropriate and touching exhortation. It was my great desire for years that the churches would send him and myself out together to evangelize‑me to teach and him to exhort. The church at Palo Alto itself could easily have done this. They would thus have laid up treasures in heaven; and with the mammon of unrighteousness, so much of which had been entrusted to them, they would have made friends both on earth and in heaven. But they did not see their duty in this light. They let the opportunity pass. In a very few years the war came, and away went the wealth. Bro. Deanes was truly a father in Israel to me; and I often think of his faithful, loving counsel, and paternal blessing. The last time I saw him, he was full of faith and hope and love. He died as he had lived, trusting in Jesus.

Dr. Hill was associated with Dr. Deanes in the eldership of the church from its beginning. He still lives to guide the flock that remains, by his pure example, faithful teaching, and wise counsel. As a teaching elder, he has had no superior, and but few, if any, equals in the entire State, so far as my acquaintance extends. Although he has reached his four score years, he is still hale and hearty, able to practice his profession, and meet his Bible class every Lord's day. But few men who are not preachers are so well informed in the Scriptures as he is; and many preachers, both old and young, could sit at his feet for months with great profit to themselves. May he live to see the dawn of the twentieth century, if not the dawn of the millennial age.

It was at Palo Alto that I became fully acquainted with Bro. Caskey and learned to appreciate his unique talents and sterling work. He made two visits to this, one to his old home churches, while I was preaching for it, at each of which he delivered a series of sermons which, for original thought, severe logic, keen wit, cutting sarcasm, eloquent delivery, and deep pathos, all combined, I have never heard equaled, much less surpassed. As a preacher, he had faults, it is true‑and who has not; but he had great merits that largely overbalanced the faults. The absolutely faultless man is very apt to be a cipher so good that he is simply good for nothing. He could say the hardest things in the hardest way, the sharpest things in the sharpest way and sometimes the ugliest things in the ugliest way; but then he could say the prettiest things in the prettiest way, the tenderest things in the tenderest way; and the good and grand always largely predominated.

The substance of all the sermons alluded to above, and the substance only, is found in "Caskey's Book." The grand declamation, or thrilling exhortation, with which he closed each sermon, lifting the soul to the very gates of heaven, or melting the heart into penitence and love, is wanting in the written and published discourses. The line of original thought is there, the logic is there, and many descriptive passages of great beauty are there; but those impassioned outbursts of poetic eloquence that were called forth by the occasion and the audience, and that seemed to well up spontaneously from the very depths of his soul, are not there. Hence to me, and doubtless to many others also, his published sermons, able and interesting, grand and original as they are, all seem to have been chopped off at the end. In subsequent years, I heard him preach the same sermons many times, and always with increasing interest. He was then in the very prime of manhood physically and intellectually; but for the next twenty years or more, he seemed to grow in power of thought, logical acumen, and beauty of diction, but some, what at the expense of power to stir and move the heart. Or, to put it in another way, he expended his time and strength on the argument and its illustration, and then had neither time nor strength for an appeal to the emotions. Hence he was more successful as an evangelist in his earlier, than in his later ministry.

Bro. Caskey is a born debater, and has always been ready and anxious to defend with all his power what he believes is right, and to oppose with all his might what he thinks is wrong. Having strong convictions, he always put things in a strong light. What he believes, it is with all his heart and avows most positively with full confidence of its truth, and has but little respect for the man who has not the courage of his own convictions. Hence, by many he has been regarded as not only dogmatic in his manner, but also as hard and uncharitable in his feeling towards all who may differ from him. This. is a great mistake, and does him much injustice. His heart is as tender as that of a woman. He deeply sympathizes with the erring and the afflicted. He is liberal and magnanimous in sentiment toward all candid and honorable opposers. He asks nothing for himself that he is not willing to grant to any and every opponent. If his bitterest foe was in want, he would divide with him the last crust that he ever expected to have on earth. While he has no mercy on a man's dogmas, which he thinks are false, he will take the man himself to his heart and treat him as a brother. While his physical man has been broken and almost crushed, having had both a hip and a shoulder dislocated, yet his mind is still vigorous; and in his heart he cherishes a growing love for his savior, for his brethren, and for his fellow man. There is but one T. W. Caskey, and he is ours. May he long live to think and talk for Jesus.

The beloved P. B. Lawson, of Marion, Alabama, visited Palo Alto several times while I was there, and held two successful protracted meetings, at the latter of which he baptized my wife. Bro. Lawson was not a profound scholar, nor a great logician, nor a grand orator; and yet he was decidedly a great preacher. He had a natural gift by which he was enabled to ingratiate himself into the good will and affections of all parties, both religious and irreligious, regardless of denominational affiliations or predilections. He was a plain, faithful, earnest and. devoted gospel preacher. He had a smooth and flowing delivery and a very persuasive manner in addressing the unconverted. He was one of the few men who could succeed about equally well as an evangelist and a pastor. He labored a great deal both in Alabama and Mississippi, and lived first in the one and then the other for a number of years at a time, and was to both about what Geo. E. Flower was to Illinois and Kentucky. Indeed they resembled each other very much, not in person, but in manner and method, in loveliness of character and usefulness of labor. Bro Lawson finally returned to Alabama, where he died universally regretted by those who knew him. Would that we had a score of such men now in every southern state.

It was at Palo Alto that I made the acquaintance of J. W. Harris, in the summer or fall of 1858, as I remember. He was then quite a young man, engaged in teaching, and just beginning to preach. A brotherly love at once sprang up between us that will never end. Death may separate us for a time; but the survivor will cherish the memory of the one gone before; and when we meet on the other side, the golden chain will be reunited to be severed no more forever. The next year he entered Bethany College Virginia, and remained there till some time in the spring of 1861. Since the war he has devoted his time mainly to teaching and partly to farming for a livelihood; yet during all this time he has faithfully preached on Lord's days and during his vacations. His time has been so pre‑occupied during the week by his teaching and farming, one or both, that he never had the opportunity to develop himself fully either as an evangelist or as a pastor; yet, laboring under so many disadvantages for so many years, he is nevertheless an excellent teacher for a church. His consistent Christian life is a daily sermon, known and read by all, wherever he goes; and some of the best meetings that I have ever held have been where he had lived, taught, and preached for a time. He has spent his life so far in planting and cultivating while others have almost invariably reaped the harvest; yet no pang of envy or jealousy of his brother preachers has ever clouded the serenity of his mind or blighted the joy of his heart. He has doubtless received less pecuniary compensation for his preaching than any other man in the State who has labored so long. When he had been preaching twenty years, he had received, all told, up to that time just One Hundred and Fifty dollars, or an average of seven and a half dollars a year. Yet not one goes to the work more cheerfully and willingly than he, whenever the brethren call, if within his power. There will certainly be a bright crown laid up for him in heaven. He is at this time able both physically and intellectually, as well as morally and spiritually, to do better work in the Lord's vineyard than ever before; and his whole time and service ought to be called into this field.

During my stay at Palo Alto, I preached for the church there two Sundays in each month. The other two Sundays I put in elsewhere. For two years I visited Aberdeen, 22 miles distant, and Prairie Mount, 30 miles distant, each once a month. I would preach Saturday night and Sunday morning, and return home Sunday afternoon to be ready for school Monday morning. As these visits were made on horseback there was much physical as well as mental labor connected with them. In vacation I would remain over and preach Sunday night, and sometimes would continue to preach of nights through the week. At Prairie Mount I held my first protracted meeting without help of another preacher. It was only a week long, and resulted in only five additions; yet it was to me a great meeting, and I still look back to it with the greatest pleasure. Among the converts were two lovely girls who grew up to be noble women, but have long since gone home. For two days I sat at the bedside of the younger in her last illness, and read and talked and sang to her of God and Christ and Heaven, and prayed with her for the loved ones she was leaving behind. When I bade her farewell, she took a ring from her hand, put it upon mine, and asked me to remember the little girl of thirteen whom I baptized at my first protracted meeting. Oh! there are hallowed memories of souls saved and other good done connected with the preacher's work that are worth infinitely more than all the wealth of this world.

During the year 1859, I preached monthly at Union Valley, a church 22 miles west of Palo Alto. This church had been planted in 1849, according to my memory of what the brethren told me, by Bro. Caskey and had been ministered to by Bro. Usrey, Bro. Cooper, and others. I had a good hearing at all my appointments, and in the summer quite a successful protracted meeting, in which I was assisted by Dr. J. M. Hackworth. The brethren promised me one hundred dollars on subscription for my year's service. Of that subscription, every dollar was paid; and at my last visit, a young man who was not a member of the church chipped in an extra half dollar in silver. If I had known as much about church subscriptions then as I have since learned, I would have kept that half dollar as a curiosity. At any rate, I have thought of it oftener in the many years that have since rolled away, than any other half dollar that has ever passed through my fingers. That church has changed its local habitation twice since that time, and now meets at Mount Hope some three miles from Cumberland. It has been my happy privilege to participate in many joyful meetings with that church since; and there are few dwelling houses belonging to the older brethren in which I have not preached. At my last visit, 32 years from the time of the first, there were 24 additions, 22 of them by confession and baptism.

In the summer of 1858, I visited Carroll County for the first time, and assisted Bro. Usrey in holding two meetings, the first with the church at old Middleton, the second with the church at New Bethel in the vicinity of what is now called Hemingway. Both of these meetings were successful, but the number of additions I do not remember. At the first of these W. Frank Parker, a young Baptist preacher of good education and fine speaking ability, united with the church. He was then teach­ing at Middleton. When that school closed, he taught for a term in the vicinity of New Bethel. Then for a year or more he evangelized mostly in North East Mississippi. In the fall of 1860, he went to Georgia. Thence during the war he went to Kentucky, and from Kentucky to Indiana. For several years he was the pastor of one of the churches of Indianapolis. For the past few years, he has been evangelizing, I think, mostly in the West, where I suppose he now is. May the Lord greatly bless his labors wherever he may go. The next year, I visited these two churches again, and held a short meeting at each. These two visits led to my removal to Carroll County in the latter part of 1860; but of my sojourn there, and those whom I knew, I will write in another chapter.

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CHAPTER 4

1860‑1866

My removal to Carroll County in the fall of 1860 was due mainly to the influence of J. W. S. Merrill who had established a school on his own place, of which he wished me to take charge. He was then, as he is yet, the senior elder of the church in that vicinity. In the winter of 1842‑3, he had removed from Tennessee to Carrollton, where he lived for several years. While residing at that place, he and a few others kept up the Lord's day service in memory of the Savior's death and resurrection. Preachers in passing would stop occasionally and deliver a series of discourses, but did not succeed in establishing a church there. The same may be said of Paul at Athens. In 1849, he removed to the place on which he still resides, about 13 miles southwest of Carrollton. The church in that vicinity had been planted a few years previous to this time. It was first called Bethel; afterward when a new house was built, it was called New Bethel; and now in its fourth house on a different site, it is called New Hope. Long may it live, and may its hope never grow dim. It was at New Bethel that my work was done.

In 1842, or '43, Ananias Pate had removed from the vicin­ity of Whitestown in Wilkinson County to Carroll County, and had settled on Coila creek where he opened a large plantation. Through his influence Dr. Wm. E. Matthews was induced to remove from Wilkinson County in 1845, and to settle in the same neighborhood. It was through his labors and the support of Father Pate that the church at Bethel was established. When Bro. Merrill settled in that vicinity he entered at once most heartily into the work, and in consequence of his zeal, energy, and ability to teach, was soon put into the eldership. When the health of Dr. Matthews failed, as it had done before I made my first visit, the burden of church management fell mainly on Bro. Merrill's shoulders where it has since remained. That the church has had a continuous existence through all these years, and that it still exists with a reasonable prospect of continued existence and prosperity, is due mainly to his wise management, untiring energy, and unwavering fidelity. Although he has passed his three score years and ten by some years, and is now on "bor­rowe