USA > Alabama > Memorial sketches of the lives and labors of the deceased ministers of the North Alabama conference, Methodist Episcopal church, South (1870-1912.) > Part 11
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Brother Glover was not an educated man, but he liked to study, and thus improved his mind all along the course of his ministry. He was especially given to the study of the Scriptures, and was well informed on all the fundamental doctrines of his Church as taught therein.
His close friend, the late Hon. E. A. Powell, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., said of him: "Brother Glover was a truly pious man. He never lost sight of his reli- gion. Consequently it was always a source of com- fort to him. To those who knew how he lived the news of his triumphant end was no surprise."
REV. URIAH WILLIAMS.
R EV. URIAH WILLIAMS was born and partly reared in Pulaski County, Ky. He was the son of William and Martha Williams. He was born on August 2, 1807 ; and died at the home of his son, Emory .T. Williams, White Plains, Ala., March 18, 1888. When he was six years old his parents re- moved to Maury County, Tenn., where he grew to manhood, was graciously converted, joined the Church, was licensed to preach by a Quarterly Con- ference presided over by Robert Paine, presiding elder, and started out on his life work of preaching the gospel and leading a life of exemplary piety. For fifty-nine years he was a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a record! Our glorified brother was a man of strong convictions. He saw things clearly. Hence, when he fully real- ized that he was a guilty sinner, his sorrow and pen- itence stirred his soul to its depths. When relieved of the "pains of hell that got hold on him," his de- liverance was clear and satisfactory. He believed in and preached a known Jesus and a felt religion. He was a firm believer in the doctrines of the gos- pel as taught by the fathers of Methodism. He believed in the doctrines of inherent depravity, the necessity of a radical change in regeneration, and the witness of the Divine Spirit. These doctrines he
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found clearly taught in the Word of God and cor- roborated by his own personal experience. Per- haps the most remarkable trait in his character was his unaffected humility. If he had not had so much self-distrust, no doubt he might, with his clear, sound judgment, have been more useful in many instances. While too much self-assertion may lead to dogmatism, yet too much self-distrust may lead us to fail to do good when we might. If our broth- er had a fault, it was at this point. Fidelity to every trust committed to him was a prominent trait of his character. Whether as an itinerant or a lo- cal preacher, a school-teacher or a citizen, a hus- band or a father, he was faithful to every trust, and came up to the scriptural requirement ; and no doubt the Master said: "Well done, good and faithful servant: . .. enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." He was one of the few links that bound this gen- eration of Methodist preachers to the past. That was the heroic age. But we must not murmuringly inquire why the former days were better than these. Let us rather glorify God by saying with Charles Wesley: "God buries his workmen, but carries on his work." Brother Williams faithfully "served his own generation by the will of God, and fell on sleep."
REV. N. P. D. SAMFORD.
R EV. NORRIS PRESTON DOWDELL SAMFORD, son of William F. and S. L. Samford, was born on October 24, 1863 ; and died May 19, 1888. He was the youngest of thirteen children, and, like Benja- min of old, he came to gladden the heart of his aged parents and to lead his family to the promised land. As he grew apace the years added grace and love- liness to the child; and when the boy began to de- velop the promise of a glorious manhood, all the household rejoiced in the prospect of a noble son and brother.
Through all the changes of childhood and boy- hood Norris evinced signs of a mental caliber far above mediocrity. He graduated honorably from the East Alabama Agricultural College, well equipped for the arena of life. He chose the law as his pro- fession and entered upon it with eagerness, and his friends looked forward to a brilliant future for him. "Man proposes, but God disposes." In the out- set he was stricken with disease and brought so low that he caught glimpses of the other side, and for months the agonizing prayer of his friends was for life, only life. In answer to these prayers he was, as if by a miracle, raised almost from the dead. From the valley of silence he slowly retraced his steps and emerged a new man. He had communed
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with God in the solitude of the dark night watches, and his spirit came forth purified as by fire. The life which had been granted a second time he ded- icated to God; thenceforth his life work was to pro- claim the unspeakable love of the world's Redeem- er. Until his health was fully restored he engaged in teaching with the firm purpose of entering upon the ministry as soon as he was physically able to perform the good work.
Brother Samford was married on February 19, 1885, to Miss Sallie Barron, of Burke County, Ga., and joined the Alabama Conference the same year. The first year he was stationed at Marianna, Fla., and the zeal and enthusiasm of youth, added to earnest piety, crowned the year with great success. A sec- ond appointment to the same place resulted in a still greater ingathering of precious souls for the Mas- ter. For personal and satisfactory reasons he was transferred to the North Alabama Conference, and the third year of his ministry was appointed to the Birmingham Circuit. He was very zealous in the cause, and the prospect for great usefulness which opened out before him seemed to enlist his whole being. He loved his charges and was almost pain- fully anxious to do them good. His entire conver- sation was of plans for the upbuilding and extension of the Church. There was a halo of sacred love about him which consecrated his every word and action as of one set apart for the Master's own use. To human ken the grand possibilities of the man
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seemed a great acquisition to the cause. But, alas for his devoted friends and joy for him! God was satisfied with the offering. In his inscrutable wis- dom the verdict went forth: "It is enough ; come up higher." And the answer of his faithful servant was: "Thy will be done." In the words of the young martyr McCall, when called from the mis- sion fields of Africa, the dying sentiment of this dear brother is expressed : "Lord, I gave my life to thee-body, soul, spirit-all are consecrated fully, freely to thee. If thou choose to take the life thou gavest to me instead of the work I planned for thee, what is that to me? Thy will be done." Brother Samford quietly fell asleep in Jesus on May 19, 1888, and his remains were interred the following day in the family burying ground at Auburn, Ala.
REV. TABOR F. HARDIN.
R EV. T. F. HARDIN was born in Auburn, Ala., No- vember 21, 1863. He was blessed with early educational advantages, and graduated from Au- burn Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1884. In the winter of the same year he was licensed to preach, was admitted into the Alabama Confer- ence, and was appointed to the Repton charge, where he labored faithfully and zealously. His next work was the Plantersville Circuit. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Keener in 1886, trans- ferred to the North Alabama Conference, and ap- pointed to the Northport Circuit. This covered the year 1887. In 1888 he was appointed to the Romulus Circuit, and went immediately to his work. Such were his zeal and faithful work that he soon won all hearts, and was fast making an enviable record as a preacher and pastor. But his career, so well begun and so full of promise for the future, was destined to be of short duration. In the very springtime of a hopeful life it came to an untimely end. His death was sudden, and the news of it fell like a thunderbolt upon the ears of his friends. A mysterious accident, which has never been fully ex- plained, took the young laborer from the vineyard of the Lord and gave him a place with the redeemed in heaven. His short but brilliant life ended on April 4, 1888.
REV. FRANCIS T. J. BRANDON.
R EV. FRANCIS T. J. BRANDON was born in Gwin- nett County, Ga., May 26, 1832; and departed this life at Birmingham, Ala., July 31, 1909. Brother Brandon was of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock. His ancestors came to America in the early days, . settling first in Pennsylvania, removing thence shortly afterwards to Halifax County, Va .; and in that State were born and reared the father, grand- father, and great-grandfather. The father, Francis Lawson Brandon, married Miss Zillah Haynie, of South Carolina, and removed to Gwinnett County, Ga., where was born the subject of this sketch. Most of the childhood of our brother was spent in that part of Georgia now embraced in the counties of Gwinnett, Bartow, and Chattooga, and from there he came into Cherokee County, Ala.
Francis Lawson Brandon and his wife were de- vout Christians, after the Virginia-Carolina-Georgia type. In that section of Georgia to which they came they were pioneers of the Methodist faith. Francis Lawson Brandon and his uncle at a very early date built Brandon's Chapel, a log meetinghouse, which has been rebuilt and maintained by succeeding scions of Brandons, and which stands till this day near Stilesboro, Ga., and is yet in use-a fit monu- ment to a pious ancestry. Our Brother Brandon in his early ministry preached a sermon in that
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church to a congregation composed of Brandons and their connections, and he also preached during the Civil War to a congregation of one hundred Bran- dons on the Dan River, in Virginia.
The household of Francis Lawson Brandon was ordered after the fashion of the Methodists of his day, and after that pattern the children were brought up in the service and favor of God. Amid such sa- cred scenes and associations F. T. J. Brandon grew to manhood's estate, and thence went forth into the world to play a true man's part in the destiny of his people and of his day, bearing with him ever those ยท principles of noble impulse and lofty inspiration whose influence grew with his increasing years and gave temper to the fine quality of his splendid man- hood till the end came.
With Brother Brandon conversion was clear-cut and memorable. With childhood cradled in such a Christian home as was his, with youth inspired by the living epistles of practical piety as afforded by his excellent parents, it is easy to apply St. Paul's famous pronouncement to Timothy: "I call to re- membrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother, ... and in thy moth- er." The faith of the parents was caught into the life of childhood and youth, and hence became the abiding buttress of strong manhood.
As youth opened into manhood, the time came for settling the line of life's labor. Brother Bran- don, under the influence of a devoted uncle, Dr.
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David Brandon, was inspired with the ambition to become a lawyer, and with such a purpose in view residence was taken at the home of that uncle, at Thomasville, Ga., there under favorable conditions to complete his education and fit himself for the law. But while there and while incited by worthy ambition to climb engaging heights of noble prefer- ment in ample field, another call came and another issue was presented-a call and an issue resulting in a radical change of all the alluring lines laid out for a life time; a call to service, if not one more appeal- ing to the legitimate ambitions of an aspiring and capable young man; a service, if not one to be crowned with laurels of forum or bar and attend- ed by the plaudits of admiring men; a service, if not one holding the allurements of ample fortune with abundant ease after a while and the engaging promise of an old age of plenty-still a service open- ing a way for heroic ministry to fellow men, and fraught with unwritten sacrifice, attended by priva- tion nearly all the time, and with not a little "suf- fering affliction with the people of God" on many of the most difficult fields from Tennessee to the Gulf.
It is not a little thing, even when the great God calls, to reverse ambition's pressing purpose to- ward a promising lawyer's life or toward any other honorable business or profession and turn to the comparatively hard lot of an itinerant Methodist preacher. When such a call came to F. T. J. Bran-
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don, it was met in a spirit of serious calmness and decided with prayerful deliberation; and when de- cided, there was at once a corresponding change of motive, of direction, and of action. From the agreeable occupation of legal study the path thence- forth pointed to a preparation for that ministry which was hereafter to command without reserve every resource of his life. Accordingly praisewor- thy plans for the law were left at Thomasville, Ga., and to Hiwassee College, in Tennessee, went the future preacher of the gospel, there to fit himself as best he might for the work of the Christian min- istry. And in the light of a finished course, with a comprehensive view of life, of death, and of des- tiny, who but reckons that our brother chose his way with consummate wisdom?
At a session of the Alabama Conference, Bishop Andrew presiding, at Talladega on December 13- 21, 1854, Brother Brandon was admitted on trial as a probationer. In the same class were Gabriel Hawkins, William C. Hearn, George J. Mason, William A. McCarty, William M. Motley, John W. Rush, John W. Solomon, and others. Many of these, like our brother, were by reason of long and distinguished service justly esteemed as men of renown. Admission into full connection came at a session of the Conference at Tuskegee on Decem- ber 10-17, 1856, and at the same time ordination as a deacon by Bishop George F. Pierce. Ordi- nation as an elder was at the hands of Bishop Rob-
REV. FRANCIS T. J. BRANDON. 225
ert Paine during the annual session at Macon, Miss., November 24 to December 3, 1858.
His pastoral appointments for fifty-two years follow: 1855, Uniontown Circuit; 1856, Athens, Miss .; 1857, Navy Yard, Pensacola; 1858-59, Montevallo; 1860, Jacksonville; 1861, East Selma ; 1862, Wetumpka. He joined the Confederate army that year. For 1863-64 the entry on the minutes is, "In C. S. army." About this time the Alabama Conference territory was divided into the Mont- gomery Conference and the Mobile Conference. Brother Brandon's membership was with the. for- mer. For 1865 he was returned to Wetumpka ; 1866, Gadsden District; 1867, Talladega; 1868-69, Jacksonville; 1870, Harpersville. The North Ala- bama Conference was organized by Bishop Paine at Gadsden, Ala., November 16-21, 1870. His appoint- ments as a member of this body were: 1871-72, Harpersville Circuit; 1873-75, Athens; 1876-79, Tuscaloosa; 1880, Oxford Circuit; 1881-84, Fay- etteville Circuit; 1885, Anniston; 1886-89, Tusca- loosa District; 1890-93, Huntsville District; 1894- 97, Gadsden District; 1898-99, Jacksonville and White Plains; 1900, Elyton; 1901, Gaylesville Cir- cuit; 1902, Trinity, Birmingham; 1903, East Bir- mingham; 1904, East Thomas and Ninth Street, Birmingham; 1905-06, Cullman; 1907, Trinity, De- catur District ; superannuated at Tuscaloosa, No- vember 27-December 3, 1907, rounding out fifty- two years of faithful and effective service.
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When the Civil War began, F. T. J. Brandon was appointed a regimental chaplain. It does not ap- pear, however, that he went at once to the front in that capacity, but rather that he took his way back to his home in Cherokee County, Ala., and there from among his kinsfolk and friends aided in raising and equipping Company E, of the Forty- Seventh Alabama Regiment, C. S. A. As a lieu- tenant of that company he went to the front and to the firing line. While doing active service he was promoted to a captaincy, and about the same time he was appointed chaplain to the Forty-Seventh Alabama Regiment. He served in both capacities, as captain and chaplain, at one and the same time, leading his company in the thick of the fight when occasion called and preaching and praying with the "boys in gray" when not facing shot and shell. His record as a soldier of the Southern Confederacy is as unsullied as honor's radiant scroll, his escutcheon as stainless as a star. His old comrades believe that no braver or truer man ever wore the gray. And as chaplain no Palmer went to Palestine more godly than he. When Lee met Appomattox and battle's serried line was broken, when waking morn echoed no more resounding reveille nor evening zephyrs droned along the rolling drum's tattoo, when camp fires died and flags were furled, the reverend cap- tain laid aside the accouterments of a Confederate soldier and the martial captain resumed the saddle- bags of a Methodist preacher. He hastened to his
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Southern home and took his place in life's thorough- fare alongside the battle-scarred brethren to do a true and valiant man's part in restoring the waste places and out of the ravage and ruin of war to assist in rearing the enduring structure of peace and prosperity for his people. Our honored brother's contribution in that behalf was worthy his patriot- ism and his piety, and becomes a priceless legacy to his children and his neighbors.
As a preacher Brother Brandon was scriptural, unctuous, effective. When he gave time to thor- ough preparation, he rose easily to lofty altitudes of thought or sounded the profound depths of af- fection. At such times he was scholarly, chaste, ornate, beautiful. There was in his intellectual movement the overflow of a rich current which in- dicated the fine poetic quality of his soul. To the latest day of his ministry his preaching was in demonstration of the power of God through the preached gospel to save. He was a soul winner to the last.
By hereditary instinct, by individual choice, and by personal design Brother Brandon was a gentle- man after the best American meaning of that term. He was guileless like a child, chaste like a maiden, virtuous like a woman, courtly like a cavalier, sym- pathetic like a saint, and brave like Lee's legions in their primest condition-at once "a good soldier of Jesus Christ" and of his country, quitting himself
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well-yes, creditably, gloriously-amid all the vary- ing fortunes that fell to him.
On August 22, 1867, Brother Brandon led to the marriage altar that elect lady, Miss Carrie Wood- ward, of Jacksonville, Ala. Seven years was he wooing and waiting to win his bride-seven years of manly fidelity to his heart's ideal-and when she came, there came with her into the life of our be- loved brother the exceptionally splendid qualities of that exceptionally gifted and gracious woman, which qualities were at once a complement, a but- tress, and a grace to the noble life of the man of her choice; and these same qualities from the gifted mother have been happily blended in their children with the poetic charm of Brandon genius. Here was, indeed, a beautiful illustration of the scriptural ideal of marriage in that the twain became one. Of this sacred and beautiful union came five sons and one daughter, children "proper," as was said of Moses, to receive sacred impress and to pass on to the progeny of coming years the impulses of de- votion to God, home, and humanity.
For fifty-two years Brother Brandon did the full work of an itinerant Methodist preacher, and did it excellently. To particularize as to the fields he cul- tivated, the churches and parsonages he built, the very great company brought by his ministry into the faith and following of the Lord Jesus, many of whom abide with us to honor God and bless men, while perhaps many more have already joined the
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white-robed throng by the throne-to particularize as to these would far overrun our allotted space. Our honored brother asked and received a place upon our Conference Honor Roll at Tuscaloosa in the autumn of 1907; and yet the superannuate did not cease the exercise of an active ministry, for dur- ing 1908 Governor Comer, without solicitation, ap- pointed him to a chaplaincy of State convicts, the work being at Flat Top Mines. There among those unfortunate people he labored gladly and effective- ly and to their evident profit. This chaplaincv he filled to the day of his departure.
In all the relations of life Brother Brandon acted well his part. He was a patriotic citizen, a brave soldier, a true friend, a faithful Christian, an ex- cellent minister of the Lord Jesus, and there gath- ered into his life by God's grace the sum of those splendid elements which give guarantee of immor- tal life in the better land.
"As a sheaf of the ripened grain, Garnered at eventide, He's gathered where angels reign, Beyond death's dark divide.
As a soldier, from battle's shock Winning a last release, He turns to the clefted Rock, And rests in realms of peace."
REV. R. A. TIMMONS, D.D.
R EV. ROBERT ABIJAH TIMMONS, D.D., son of Rev. William and Mary B. Timmons, was born in Corinth, Heard County, Ga., August 20, 1837. He made a profession of religion and joined the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South, at the age of four- teen years. He was received into the Church by Rev. Thomas Whitby, appointed class leader at fif- teen, licensed to exhort at eighteen, and in his twen- tieth year was granted a license to preach. In his twenty-first year, at Greensboro, Ala., in 1861, he was admitted on trial into the Conference, Bishop Early presiding. He had served that year as a sup- ply the Pinckneyville Circuit. In 1862 he was ap- pointed as junior preacher on the Fayetteville Cir- cuit, with Rev. E. S. Smith as senior. Here he served until the first of May, and then volunteered as a private Confederate soldier, serving one month in Hilliard's Legion. He was then appointed junior chaplain with Rev. Isaac Spangler, and served as such until December, when he resigned and came home. In 1863 he was appointed to the Hatchet Creek Mission, and in 1864 to the Arbacoochee Cir- cuit. On August 14, 1864, he was happily married to Miss Sardinia A. Bell. He served the Lineville Circuit in 1865-66. He was in charge of the Tal- lassee Circuit in 1867-69. He served the Gadsden
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Station in 1870-71. In 1872-73 he was on the Tal- ladega Circuit. In 1874-76 he was in charge of the Oxford and White Plains Station. Beginning
DR. R. A. TIMMONS.
with 1887 he was for four years presiding elder of the Florence District. In 1881 he was appointed presiding elder of the Gadsden District, and served four years. From the Gadsden District he was sent
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to the Decatur District, and served four years. In 1889 he served the Birmingham Circuit. He then served well and successfully the Tuscaloosa District (four years) and the Lafayette District ( four).
Brother Timmons said that 1897 was one of the saddest years of his life. On March 17 of that year his first wife, a good and true woman, passed away. In 1898 he was again in charge of the Ox- ford Station. He served Fredonia in 1899 and 1900. On November 20, 1899, he was married the second time to another godly woman, Mrs. Laura E. Dobbs. She was a great blessing to him in his work, and never tired waiting on him in all his months of sickness and helplessness. His last three years of service ( 1901-03) were as pastor of the Fayette Station. Here he did a great work, and was greatly beloved. At the close of 1903, broken down in health after forty-three years of active service, he asked for a superannuate relation, and it was granted.
The good people of Gadsden built a superannuate home, and it was offered to him as long as he lived. In this home, which he named "Sunshine," and in which he said the sun never set, he breathed his last and went home to God.
During his life Dr. Timmons held many impor- tant and responsible positions. In 1894 he was a member of the General Conference held at Mem- phis, Tenn. For years he was a trustee of the Ath- ens Female College and Chairman of the Board of
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Missions of his Conference. He encouraged all good works and helped by his means. He looked after all the interests of the Church committed to his hands and uniformly brought up fine reports.
At the time of his death he was a trustee of the Birmingham College at Owenton and a member of the Orphanage Board. He drew men to him by his sympathy, and was a friend to the old and the young. He avoided passing rash and harsh judgment upon men, but when necessary he was bold and severe in his condemnation of the wrong. He was a good judge of men. He was a busy man and a system- atic worker. He was in harmony with the young people's movements of the Church. He studied carefully and with continued zeal and earnestness God's Word and other good books. He studied the Bible with the help of the best commentaries.
In his last pastoral charge, which was the Fayette Station, he was admired and beloved as few men have been anywhere. All the denominations there were glad to hear him and have him visit them, and often sought him in sickness and bereavement. He says the three years here were among the hap- piest years of his life. He was a thorough Metho- dist, but he was no bigot. His influence reached far beyond his own Church.
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