James Madison Pickens
(1836-1881)

Gospel Preacher In Alabama & Mississippi. 

Biographical Sketch on the Life of J.M. Pickens

    In the latter part of 1867, at the call of Bro. J. M. Pickens, of North Alabama, a meeting was held at Columbus, Miss., for the purpose of consulting with reference to the condition and needs of the church in Alabama and Mississippi, and of inaugurating a cooperative meeting, I know not what churches, nor how many, were represented. From the report made at the time, I learned that the brethren in attendance had a very pleasant and harmonious meeting, discussing the state of affairs, and listening to the good sermons that were delivered by the preachers who were present, The only practical result of the meeting so far as I know, was that Bro. Pickens was selected to evangelize in Alabama and Bro. Manire in Mississippi. The selection of myself was at the suggestion and urgent solicitation of Dr. S. R. Jones, as I learned from him on his return from the meeting. It was resolved that our salary for the year's labor should be fifteen hundred dollars each, that is, provided that we raise it ourselves. This proviso, it is true, was not expressed in the resolution; but it ought to have been, for so far as our financial support was concerned, it was the very gist of the whole matter. An executive committee was appointed to solicit contributions for the work; but, if that committee ever received a dollar, or even a penny, I never heard of it. That treasury was filled with emptiness from beginning to end. Bro. Pickens entered on the work in his State, but for want of an adequate support was soon compelled to enter the schoolroom as a teacher, and that ended the Alabama part of that cooperation. 

    J. M. Pickens was then comparatively a young man, although he had been preaching for several years. He was a man of superior ability both natural and acquired. He afterwards labored extensively both in North Alabama and North Mississippi, and had more than ordinary success, considering the times and the circumstances. In 1870, as I remember, he began the publication of the "Southern Christian Monthly" in Columbus, Mississippi. This was afterward changed to the "Southern Christian Weekly," which was published for a short time at Eutaw, Alabama, then at his residence, Mountain Home, Alabama, and finally at Jackson, Tennessee, where he sold it to William E. Hall, who moved it to New Orleans, and changed it into the "Iron Preacher."

    Only a man of Bro. Pickens' indomitable perseverance, untiring, energy, and inflexible will, could have sustained such a work so long under conditions so unfavorable. He was fond of discussion, and had a number of debates, the most noted of which was with the renowned Jacob Ditzler. With all these, the brethren who heard them were not only satisfied but also delighted, and with none more so than with his debate with Ditzler. The doughty Dr. not expecting to find such a man in the mountains of North Alabama, had anticipated an easy victory, but was doubtless as badly disappointed as in any debate he ever held, for Pickens picked him all to pieces. The last year of Bro. Pickens' regular work as a preacher was spent in Columbus, Mississippi. Returning to his home in Alabama in 1880, he became a candidate for Governor of the State on the Greenback ticket, but was defeated. Resuming his studies and labors as a preacher, he was wantonly murdered in the spring of 1881, in broad daylight, and within sight of his own house. He was in the very prime of a vigorous manhood, and had hardly reached the zenith of his power and usefulness, when he was so strangely and so sadly cut off.
  --From "Reminiscences Of Preachers And Churches In Mississippi," by B.F. Manire, Chapter 5