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 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
1
REV. JOHN B. POWERS.
R EV. JOHN B. POWERS was a member of the North Alabama Conference only about a year and a half; but notwithstanding the fact that he served the Church most of his ministerial life in the Alabama Conference, yet most of the charges he served during that time lay in the bounds of the North Alabama Conference. He was born in Union District, in South Carolina, May 16, 1814; and died March 30, 1871. He was licensed to preach in 1845 or 1846. He continued as a local preacher about ten years. In 1846 he was received on trial into the Alabama Conference and sent to the Weewokaville Circuit. He filled successively the Harpersville and Moscow Circuits. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army in command of a company, but soon his health failed and he resigned his commisson and returned home. From 1863 to 1866 he was presiding elder of the Jasper District ; 1867, Elyton Circuit ; 1868-69, Murfree's Valley Circuit. In 1870, being then in the bounds of the North Alabama Conference, he was appointed to the Jonesboro Circuit. In 1871 he was sent to the Montevallo Circuit, where he died on the date above given.
For the full memoir of Brother Powers, the read- er is referred to the Minutes of the North Alabama Conference for 1871.
REV. WILLIAM MILTON STURDIVANT .*
N Georgia, the Empire State of the South and 1 the birthplace of many great preachers and statesmen, the subject of this sketch was born on June 1, 1817. He was the third child of Joel and Malinda Sturdivant. Before her marriage, his mother was a Miss Cochran. Her people were wealthy and intellectual. Both the Sturdivants and Cochrans moved from Virginia to Georgia and final- ly settled in Troup County, not far from West Point. The Sturdivants are of Dutch descent, and the first now known of the family they were living near Petersburg, Va. From there they went in different directions, William M. Sturdivant's grandfather, John Sturdivant, moving to Georgia with his family, and one branch going to the Caro- linas. From this latter branch it is supposed that Matthew P. Sturdivant, the first missionary to Ala- bama, was descended. In the early days of Wil- liam M. Sturdivant none of his near relatives on,
*Although Mr. Sturdivant was never a member of the North Alabama Conference, he lived and labored in the terri- tory embraced in this Conference and was at one time con- nected with the Alabama Conference. In view of these facts and by special request of his son, Rev. Joel F. Sturdivant, D.D., a member of the North Alabama Conference, we give his memoir a place among those of our own beloved dead.
326
MEMORIAL SKETCHES.
either side were religious. His father died out of the Church, and his mother became a Primitive Baptist and died in that communion. Though not religious, the Sturdivants were honest, truthful, so- ber, healthy, vigorous, hard-working people. Wil- liam M. Sturdivant despised sham, hated falsehood, feared debt, and held with a strong grip to all that was true and noble and good. He was reared on a farm in the State of his birth, and there grew to manhood. His father's love for him and his de- pendence upon him are illustrated by the fact that during a spell of sickness that lasted some weeks, and of which he died, he never wanted his son to leave his bedside. That the son, consciously or un- consciously, kept the fifth commandment is shown by the fact that he stayed with his father, although his own home and interests demanded his attention. Is not here the secret of the son's long life, lacking only one day when he died of being eighty-three years old? His father died at the age of seven- ty-seven and his mother at sixty-six. William M. Sturdivant and his brother Allen D. Sturdivant, who was afterwards Probate Judge of Tallapoosa County, Ala., for nearly a quarter of a century, as young men longed for an education; but their fa- ther had made a success as a farmer, and wanted all his sons to follow his profession. He thought reading, writing, and a knowledge of arithmetic enough for success on the farm.
William M. Sturdivant was first married in his
327
REV. WILLIAM MILTON STURDIVANT.
native State to Miss Frances Smith, who was a Christian, and in whose piety he had the utmost confidence. He moved to - Coosa County, Ala., about the close of 1846 and bought a home a few miles south of where the town of Kellyton is now located. He was converted and joined the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South, at the old Fish Pond Camp Ground, not many miles from his home, in the latter part of 1849. When he knelt at the altar as a penitent, the preacher, knowing of his confi- dence in his wife's religion, called on her to lead the prayer. While she was praying for the salvation of her husband he was soundly and gloriously con- verted. It is not known that he ever afterwards doubted his salvation. Although a married man, his desire for an education became so great that he started to school. He studied and read good books until he became a master in the use of plain, strong English. Afterwards as a preacher he often gave clear, concise, accurate meaning to the words of his text, and God's truth became luminous and powerful under his exposition.
Brother Sturdivant was licensed to preach by Rev. Walter H. McDaniel in 1852, and in Decem- ber of the same year he was admitted on trial into the Alabama Conference at Marion, Ala. There were thirty-one or thirty-two in the class. Among the number were Mark S. Andrews, a great preach- er and long a leader in his Conference ; F. M. Grace, a gifted writer and accurate scholar, whose last serv-
328
MEMORIAL SKETCHES.
ice was as a professor in the Birmingham College; Joe B. Cottrell, an independent thinker and ardent lover of nature; Warren D. Nicholson, afterwards a member of the North Alabama Conference, who gave long and unpretentious service to the Church; John W. Starr, S. H. Cox, and others of note. The first appointment of William M. Sturdivant was on the Autaugaville Circuit as assistant to John T. Roper, who was in charge. F. G. Ferguson was the presiding elder. In 1854 Mr. Sturdivant was on the Abbeville Circuit, and in 1855 on the Troy Circuit. He then located. In 1858 he served the Hillabee Circuit as a supply, and in 1865 the So- capatoy Circuit. At the time of his death he had preached more around Alexander City than any other man. At Flint Hill, a church four miles south of Alexander City, he preached once a month for over a quarter of a century; and when nearly eighty years of age he walked to that church and preached to those people. They loved him and he loved them. . When the distance and his advanced age made it hard for him to get there, the people still insisted on having him preach to them. Just why he located is not known, unless it was to look after his property. At the time of the Civil War he was the owner of a number of slaves, coming into the possession of some of them by his second marriage. These slaves were always re- quired to be at family worship, and he had family prayers twice a day until late in life. He always
329
REV. WILLIAM MILTON STURDIVANT.
afterwards regretted his location and sometimes complained that his life was a failure. He has been heard to say that he ought to have gone as a mis- sionary to China when Young J. Allen went, but was prevented from offering himself because of his lack of educational advantages. His friends told him several times that if he had remained in the Conference he would have become one of the first men in his Church. He read good books, his Bible, his Church papers, and became a man of unusual intelligence.
His first wife having died in April, 1850, he was married the second time in January, 1855, to Miss Louisa Pearson, the daughter of Thomas and Su- san Pearson, whose home was some six miles north of where Alexander City now is, and for whom the Pearson's Chapel Church was named. This church was built on Thomas Pearson's land, or on land do- nated by the Pearson family. The church, or one built at the same place, still stands (in 1912) and continues to exert a healthful influence on that com- munity. In that church Dr. T. G. Slaughter, Dr. J. W. . Christian, and Rev. J. F. Sturdivant each preached his first sermon. After his location Wil- liam M. Sturdivant bought a home a little more than a mile from this church on the road leading to Alexander City. There all his children were born. Some years later he secured a home within a quar- ter of a mile of the church and dispensed a generous hospitality. In this community he labored and
330
MEMORIAL SKETCHES.
reared his children, served the people, and moved to Alexander City after his children were grown and several had married. His second marriage re- sulted in seven children, five of whom are living. Two died in infancy. The living children are : Thomas P. Sturdivant, who at this writing lives at the old home, and for years has been an official in Pearson's Chapel Church; Joel F. Sturdivant, a member of the North Alabama Conference; James Olin Sturdivant, a teacher by profession and gifted as Sunday school superintendent and steward; Mrs. J. W. Brazelton, of Weatherford, Tex., a woman of faithfulness to the Church and of power in prayer ; and Cecil L. Sturdivant, also of Weatherford, Tex .. a man of piety and faith and great in prayer.
William M. Sturdivant's home, at Pearson's Chapel, was the stopping place of all the preach- ers, and Thomas P. Sturdivant still keeps up the example of his father. It is yet the preachers home. William M. Sturdivant was a man of much kindness of heart, but he was a strong man. He did his own thinking and was not spasmodic or im- pulsive. Great principles ruled his life. He was responsive to kindness and greatly appreciated any favor. He usually kept his own counsel and told his business to but few.
He was the friend of education, and used his in- fluence to build up the schools of his community. At the close of the war he was left with nothing but his home, a few head of stock, his wife, and
331
REV. WILLIAM MILTON STURDIVANT.
three very small children. Hard work, strict econ- omy, and wise planning became necessary to live and keep out of debt; but his rule was to put his boys in school one year and on the farm the next. He kept good books, and the Christian Advocate came regularly to his home. His exhortation to his children was: "Do your best and leave the rest with God. Use the light you have and trust God for more as you need it." In a lifetime they can hardly forget the old saying: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.".
He was a prophet, a man with a vision. He ap- preciated the great inventions of the age in which he lived, and could foresee others. He felt the throb of the moving years and seemed to know that greater things awaited posterity. Many a time he was heard to say: "I will not live to see it, but my children will see men flying through the air as birds." He had been dead scarcely a dozen years when the daily papers announced that the govern- ment was planning to send mail in an airship. He seemed to know forty years ago that such things would occur, and did not hesitate to declare his belief.
He believed in prayer, and was himself mighty in prayer. His great and powerful appeals to God as he led the congregation at a throne of grace are still the talk of those who heard him. He had some remarkable answers to his prayers. He has one son and two grandsons who are preachers, and the
332
MEMORIAL SKETCHES.
probability is that they are there in answer to his prayers. One incident will illustrate his power with God. His wife, sometime after the birth of the oldest son, was very ill with pneumonia, and the physician, a successful practitioner, told her in the presence of her husband that she could not live through the night. She turned her eyes to her husband, saw his tears, realized that his heart was almost breaking, and said: "Mr. Sturdivant, if you want me to live, pray for me." Then and there all the company, including the doctor, bowed, and Mr. Sturdivant opened his heart to God, told his sor- row, pleaded his case before the throne as a great lawyer pleads the case of his client. God heard the cry, yielded to the argument, and the next morning she was rapidly recovering. She got well and lived to bless his home for nearly forty years afterwards.
· The last few years of Brother Sturdivant's life were spent in Alexander City. The house he oc- cupied was on the very spot where the Methodist church now stands. There he and Mrs. Sturdivant lived until God took them to himself. From that place, since consecrated to God's worship, they as- cended to the skies. Mrs. Sturdivant, a gentle, timid, true, self-sacrificing soul, at about the age of sixty- seven, on April 5, 1900, entered into rest. Mr. Sturdivant, an independent, strong, devout man of God, lived nearly two months longer, and departed this life on May 30, 1900, lacking one day of being
333
REV. WILLIAM MILTON STURDIVANT.
eighty-three years old. They both lived right and went to heaven. Their dust sleeps in the Pearson Graveyard, in the community where they lived long and served well their generation by the will of God. They "rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."
REV. W. L. CLIFTON.
R EV. W. L. CLIFTON was born in DeKalb County, Ga., April 26, 1836. When he was about two years old his parents moved to Northeast Alabama and settled in Cherokee County, and there he grew · to manhood on his father's farm. His parents were both Methodists, pious and God-fearing people. Brother Clifton attended the neighborhood schools until he was twenty-one years old, when his father sent him for one year to a high school, and after- wards by his own efforts he kept himself in the high school for two terms. He was baptized in in- fancy by Rev. John Smith, of the Georgia Confer- ence, at a camp meeting on Peach Tree Creek, near where Atlanta now stands. He was converted in August, 1855, under the ministry of Rev. R. S. Woodward, who was serving his first year in the Alabama Conference.
Of his religious experience Brother Clifton spoke as follows: "I was happy in a Saviour's love. I have been happy almost ever since. I have never needed a 'second blessing' to destroy the 'old man,' for the new man triumphed from the very start. Thank God I am still happy after over fifty years of care and responsibility." He was received into full connection in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in January, 1856, by Rev. William Monk,
335
REV. W. L. CLIFTON.
then of the Alabama Conference, afterwards of the West Texas Conference. At the time of his recep- tion into the Church Brother Clifton was appointed class leader, and the next year was chosen steward, which office he filled for two years. He was li-
REV. W. L. CLIFTON.
censed to preach on May 6, 1857, by Rev. Charles Strider, a presiding elder of the Alabama Confer- ence, Rev. W. S. Nicholson being at the time his pastor. He remained a local preacher, serving also as steward and class leader, until December, 1860, at which time he was admitted on trial into the Ala-
336
MEMORIAL SKETCHIES.
bama Conference, Bishop Andrew presiding and Bishop Soule being present at the session. The Civil War coming on, Brother Clifton enlisted in the Confederate army as a private, joining a regi- ment which was organized at Montgomery, Ala., and his company was soon afterwards sent to Pen- sacola, Fla. Here he was appointed by General Jones as provost marshal of the city, and was con- tinted in that and other places of trust and respon- sibility until he was appointed chaplain of the Twenty-Ninth Alabama Regiment by the Secretary of War. He was continued in that capacity in Polk's Corps ( afterwards Stewart's ), Walthall's Division, Shelley's Brigade, until the surrender. After the surrender he came home and taught school and preached on the Gadsden Circuit with Rev. P. K. Brindley, of the North Alabama Conference, until the Montgomery Conference met in Lowndes- boro, Ala., at which time he was transferred to the Montgomery Conference. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Wightman at Jacksonville, Ala., in 1866, and elder by the same bishop at Opelika, Ala., in 1867.
On January 10, 1866, Brother Clifton was hap- pily married to Miss Laura Bowers, daughter of Rev. Lemuel Bowers. To this union were born seven children. Olin McTyeire, the third son, died when three years of age ; and Sallie Pearl, the fourth daughter, died at Farmersville, Tex., when six and a half years old. The other children and his wife
337
REV. W. L. CLIFTON.
survive him. He served the following charges : In the Alabama Conference, Oak Mountain Cir- cuit ; in the Montgomery Conference, Lebanon Cir- cuit, Gadsden Circuit, Van Buren Circuit, Carroll- ton and Pickensville, Elyton Circuit, Birmingham Station, Little River Station, Gadsden District, Gadsden Station, Dadeville and Alexander City. In 1883 he was transferred to the North Texas Con- ference, in which he served the following charges : Farmersville Station, Sulphur Springs District, Ter- rell District, Sulphur Springs District. In 1895 he was given the superannuate relation, which rela- tion he sustained till his death, having been fifty- four years a preacher and fifty-one years a mem- ber of the Conference. He died at St. Paul's Sani- tarium, Dallas, Tex., on Saturday, March 11, 191I, following a surgical operation which was resorted to in the hope that his life would be prolonged. He was buried at Commerce, Tex., on the Monday following, after impressive funeral services at the Methodist church at that place. His funeral ser- mon was preached by his pastor, Rev. J. L. Pierce, and a large number of his brethren of the ministry were present and assisted in the last tribute to this man whom they loved and honored.
Born into a pious home, dedicated to God in in- fancy, Brother Clifton spent all of his life in the Church; and no man ever loved his Lord and Church more devotedly. He was an earnest and faithful defender of the faith and doctrines
22
338
MEMORIAL SKETCHES.
of his Church. As a preacher Brother Clifton was far above the average, and at times he was a really great preacher. He was strong of body, intellect, and character; a tall, commanding figure; a leader in all things true and good. He was well versed in Church polity and doctrine, and was a safe counselor. He always took a lively interest in gov- ernmental affairs, both local and national, and tried as a good and loyal Christian citizen to meet the responsibilities that were involved in all questions. He was a man of very decided and positive con- victions, and expressed himself accordingly.
After long years of hard and faithful service, the old soldier receives his discharge, lays down his armor, and enters into rest.
REV. THOMAS H. WHITBY.
R EV. THOMAS H. WHITBY was born in Spartan- burg District, S. C., in 1811; and died in Gaylesville, Ala., in September, 1870. He joined the Church in 1828. Soon after his connection with the Church he was appointed class leader, in which capacity he served faithfully and efficiently. He was licensed to preach in 1844, was ordained a dea- con by Bishop Andrew in 1847 at Marietta, Ga., and in 1850 in the same town and by the same bish- op he was ordained elder. We have no information as to when he joined the Conference, but the Geor- gia Conference gave him his first appointment. In 1841 he traveled the Villa Rica Circuit. No rec- ord of him and his work is at hand from that date to 1853, when he was on the Campbellton (now Carrollton) Circuit. In 1858 he was on the Rus- sell Circuit, Alabama Conference, and the next year the Oak Bowery Circuit, after which he served oth- er charges in East Alabama. In 1868 he was on . the Asheville Circuit, which he served two years. In 1870 he was appointed Bible Agent in the Gads- den District, but died before the next session of his Conference.
Of course he died, as all such faithful men die, believing the gospel he had preached so long and trusting in the Lord for full redemption at the last great day. His last words were: "My hope is bright ; my faith is firm,"
[The following autobiographies are given place in this Me- morial volume for these reasons : The first four, Andrews, Mel- ton, Newman, and Whitten, are the only remaining members of the class received at the first session of the North Alabama Conference. The other, Dupree, is supposed to be the oldest living member of the Conference.]
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REV. W. T. ANDREWS.
I WAS born in Limestone County, Ala., near old Cambridge Camp Ground, six miles east of Ath- ens, Ala. My father was David Andrews, and the maiden name of my mother was Eliza Ann Brown. My father died, as I am told, when I was about two years old ; and after his death my mother, being left with a large family, moved to Giles County, Tenn., where most of her relatives lived and where she owned a good farm. There I spent my childhood and a part of my young man- hood.
I was licensed to preach at Elkton, Tenn., by Rev. William Burr, presiding elder, and W. G. Hensley, preacher in charge, in 1856. On Novem- ber 30 of that year I was married to Miss Eliza Catherine Stevenson, daughter of Rev. James C. and Margaret C. Stevenson, of precious mem- ory. Of this marriage were born five sons and one daughter-viz .: James David Andrews, of Nash-
341
REV. W. T. ANDREWS.
ville, Tenn .; Rev. John Beverly Andrews, of Si- loam Springs, Ark .; Dr. Charles Fletcher An- drews, of Fort Worth, Tex .; Rev. William Brown Andrews, of the Central Texas Conference, and at present presiding elder of the Waco District; Mil- ton Andrews, of Fort Worth, Tex. ; and Mrs. H. M. Little, of Birmingham, Ala.
I spent the first fourteen years of my ministry as a local preacher. I was ordained a deacon by Bish- op Early at Athens, Ala., in 1861, and ordained a local elder by Bishop Paine at Gadsden, Ala., in 1870. At the same time and place I was received on trial into the North Alabama Conference, its first session, forty-two years ago. My appointments have been as follows: 1871, Limestone Circuit ; 1872-74, Scottsboro Circuit; 1875, Triana Circuit ; 1876, Madison Circuit; 1877-78, Town Creek and Ebenezer; 1879-81, Scottsboro Circuit (Scottsboro was then made a station, which I served one year, 1882); 1883-86, Florence Station; 1887-89, Gads- den District ; 1890-93, Talladega Station; 1894-96, Huntsville District; 1897, Decatur Station; 1898- 1900, Florence Station ; 1901-04, Avondale Station ; 1905, Roanoke Station; 1906-07, Fair View Sta- tion.
At the session of the Conference at Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 1907, I asked to be placed on the super- annuate roll. Not that my health or age was con- sidered either by myself or my brethren as suffi- cient cause for asking for this relation, but the
342
MEMORIAL SKETCHES.
health of my wife had so completely broken down that I did not think I could do full justice to any pastoral charge and at the same time give her the attention and care that her condition required, since she had faithfully and patiently shared with me the hardships of thirty-seven years of itinerant life. For nearly twoscore years she had stood with me on the firing line; and when she fell wounded and disabled on the field, I asked the Lord and the Conference to let me bear her off the battle ground and care for her as one of God's faithful servants, and they readily, as I think, granted my request. And now here I am at my post trying as best I can to perform my providentially appointed task by the bedside of God's patient, suffering child, while we both wait for our final call to remove to our home, not a superannuate home, but our prepared mansion, beautiful and glorious, to go out to war no more.
My life and ministry have not been all that I could wish; but such as they are, they must stand till that great and final day which will reveal what- ever of success or failure they contain.
My first circuit had six appointments, to be filled monthly ; and my next had twelve appointments, likewise to be filled monthly. Of course some of them had to be filled between Sundays, which was quite common in those early days of Methodism in this country. To fill these twelve appointments twelve times each, calculating the distance from my
343
REV. W. T. ANDREWS.
home to each of them and return, I traveled between fifteen hundred and two thousand miles, to say noth- ing of visiting and other necessary travel. My cir- cuit covered an area of twenty-three miles from east to west and fifteen miles from north to south. Oc- casionally I gave a day in the week to some out-of- the-way places in the secluded coves of the moun- tains, where few visits were made by Methodist preachers. On one such occasion, crossing the mountain out of Manard's Cove to Box's Cove, where I had made an appointment to preach, follow- ing a dim trail, I came to what seemed to me to be the end of all possible progress. I knew that I must go down the mountain somewhere near where I was in order to reach the church to which I in- · tended to go. So without trail or guide I started to make the descent, threading my way between bowlders and cliffs till I came to a place where I could not possibly go any. farther without passing over the face of a great rock some ten or twelve feet wide with an incline of at least forty-five de- grees. To go around it I could not; to go back I would not. I had an excellent horse, as had most Methodist preachers in those days; but I was afraid that if he should try to go down that steep incline over the face of that naked rock he might fall and cripple himself. But I was face to face with the inevitable, and so I dismounted, took the reins, and started to lead Charlie over that rock. He did not like to go; but I insisted, and he followed. But,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.