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 9
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Brother Tucker was received on trial into the North Alabama Conference in November, 1875, and appointed to the Mountain Mills Mission, which he served during the year 1876. In 1877-78 he served Waterloo; 1879, Antioch Circuit; 1880- 81, Blountsville Circuit; 1882, Coketon Circuit; 1883-85, Asheville Circuit; 1886-87, Blount Springs Circuit ; 1888, South Side Mission ; 1889-90, Spring
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Garden Circuit; 1891, Piedmont Circuit ; 1892-95, Goodwater Circuit; 1896-98, Roanoke Circuit; 1899, Northport and Wesley Chapel; 1900, North- port and South Side Mission; 1901, Carrollton Cir- cuit ; 1902-04, Millport Circuit ; 1905-07, Heflin Cir- cuit ; 1908-10, Childersburg Circuit; 1911, Piper and Coleanor. At the session of the Conference held in Florence, Ala., December, 1911, he was reap- pointed to Piper and Coleanor, and at once entered upon his work with his usual zeal, with fair pros- pects for another year of successful service for his Lord. But, alas! his work was finished, though he knew it not. Strong both in body and mind, he had a right to expect many more years of service ac- cording to the ordinary course of nature. Early in 1912 he had the misfortune to be severely in- jured in a railroad accident. After several weeks of suffering, it was discovered that his arm would have to be amputated, having been injured in the accident. The operation resulted in blood poison- ing, which soon terminated his earthly life.
Brother Tucker was considerably above the aver- age as a preacher. His sermons were prepared with much care; and when delivered in his usual force- ful and eloquent style, his audience was carried with him to rapturous heights, where they would forget that they were listening to an ordinary cir- cuit preacher preach the gospel. By reference to the list of his appointments for thirty-seven years it will be seen that he spent his itinerant life serv-
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ing charges that did not pay large salaries; but he always went to his work with the determination to do the best he could, and he always brought up good reports. It will also be seen that he seldom left a charge at the end of one year, but generally remained from two to four years. This fact of it- self indicates his general popularity as a pastor and preacher.
As a good man no one among us can show a cleaner, purer record than that of J. Wright Tucker. He was a very modest man. He never spoke of his ability nor boasted of his work. Perhaps if he had made more ado about these things he might have gotten the ear of the world more than he did ; but the fact that he did not do so is to his credit rather than to his discredit. He stood high with his Lord, and that is higher than all the united world could place him. Perhaps his best sphere for service lay just where it fell to his lot to work. He wrought well and was successful; and that, after all, is the crown of a minister's life.
REV. THOMAS WILLIAM RAGAN.
R EV. THOMAS WILLIAM RAGAN was born in Tal- ladega County, Ala., June 2, 1862; and died at Easonville, Ala., March II, 1909. His parents, John T. and Jane E. Ragan, were of strong native stock, transmitting to their son rich elemental en- dowments. He was educated in the common schools of the country and in the Normal School at Jack- sonville, Ala. In 1886 he was married to Miss Lil- lie Golightly, of Winston County, Ala., of which union were born five children. This faithful com- panion in life's labors kept company with him for about sixteen years and then fell on sleep. He was married the second time on September 2, 1903, to Miss Sue Gee Binford, of Athens, Ala., and to them was born one child.
The mother of Brother Ragan, good Christian woman that she was, prayed that one of her boys might be called of God into the Christian minis- try. No doubt those prayers, going up to the great Head of the Church year after year, helped to bring to bear upon Thomas W. Ragan the heavenly influ- ence that determined his life direction. When about nineteen years of age he felt and submitted to the divine impression. He was admitted on trial into the North Alabama Conference at Talladega in November, 1884 ; ordained a deacon by Bishop Hen-
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drix and admitted into full connection at Florence in December, 1886; ordained elder by Bishop Hargrove at Anniston in November, 1888. His ministry in the North Alabama Conference, cover- ing almost a quarter of a century, was in the following fields : 1885, Clear Creek Mission; 1886, Godfrey Circuit; 1887-89, Corona Circuit ; 1890-93, Glen Addie ; 1894-95, St. John, Birmingham; 1896- 97, Birmingham Circuit; 1898-99, Bridgeport Sta- tion; 1901-02, Meridianville Circuit; 1903, Court- land Station; 1904-05, Goodwater Circuit ; 1906-07, Madison Circuit; 1908, Columbiana Circuit; 1909, Easonville and Pell City.
How inadequately do these bare data set forth the heroic character and abundant labors of our de- parted brother! Only those who knew him best can appreciate him for the man he was-strong in body and mind, upstanding in his robust manliness, loyal to the heart's core, as brave as the bravest, yet in meekness and modesty, in gentleness and affection as a little child.
Thomas W. Ragan was no ordinary man in his in- tellectual gifts. No one who ever heard him preach went away feeling that he had been listening to a weakling. The range of his reading was not wide, but what he addressed his thought to he mastered ; and when he spoke, his message was compelling in its logic. It is doubtful if there was a man in the Conference who knew more thoroughly the Con- ference course of study. He devoured and digest-
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ed it; and when he spoke on the doctrines and polity of Methodism, his words went home with the impact of solid shot. At the Preachers' Institute of the North Alabama Conference, held at Birmingham College in the spring of 1906, he delivered a lecture on the atonement that profoundly impressed the able men present with the strength of mind and thor- oughness of the speaker. Dr. Tigert accepted the manuscript of this lecture for the last issue of the Methodist Review under his editorial control.
Brother Ragan's loyalty and devotion to the Meth- odist itinerant system reached the height of the sub- lime. His appointments, as a rule, were hard ones ; his salaries were meager ; and with a large family of children growing up about him to be cared for and educated, he was in straits that tested the mettle of his manhood. There were those standing close to him who advised him to turn aside from the minis- try to some calling in which he might do a better part by his children. His answer rang like the crack of a rifle : "No! no! My work is to preach the gospel. Money is not the consideration."
Thus he lived and thus he died, inured to hard- ships but moved from his divinely appointed task by none of these things.
The door of Tom Ragan's heart was wide open to his friends. He gave them a brother's love and his heart's holiest confidences. In that big, brave heart there was nothing of the bitterness of disap- pointment, nothing of petty envy and jealousy to-
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ward his brethren. He was rugged, but he was also tender. He knew his strength, and he knew also his limitations. He aspired, as it is human to do, to better appointments ; but when his aspirations were not realized, he went bravely and contentedly to the fields that fell to him in the providence of the Head of the Church. His lips seemed not to know how to frame the language of complaint. Strength of intel- lect, sweetness and simplicity of heart, and sublime unselfishness of purpose were the marks of the man.
The secret of that lofty and sustained purpose was in his inner life of union with Christ. The vision that flashed upon the young man of nineteen years never faded from the sky of a hard and trying life. The divine impulsion that carried him into the min- istry grew stronger with all the years. His every power belonged to God. Those who knew only his rather angular exterior did not suspect the radiancy and ripeness of his inner spiritual life. I have seen him transfigured in the pulpit. I have sat with him by the fireside and felt the glow of his heart while he talked of what Christ was to him and the world. He was never so happy as when men were saved under his ministry. He loved above all things else to talk of the triumphs of redeeming grace. In the past few years I noted how he grew closer and closer to the great Companion, and how the increment of divine power was coming to him. It seemed to me that he was growing gentler and stronger, that he carried with him more and more the atmosphere
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and suggestion of the divine life. And so his passage into heaven seems to me a natural tran- sition. He was ripening for the change during these years wherein I have walked by his side in the sweet and holy bond of friendship. Since he slipped away from us I have sat alone by the hour and thought of him. I have tried to imagine his awak- ening when his eyes, just closed in the weariness of mortal sleep, opened upon the glad surprises of heav- en. I have wished that he might come to me in his joys, as he so often has done, and tell me in his own way "what it is to be there." But it may not be.
Thomas W. Ragan is not dead; he has only passed through a door into another room in our Father's great house of many rooms. And it is a
higher and brighter and better room. He is still my friend, strong and good and true. Such love as bound him to me refuses to be conditioned by time and place. It leaps all the distances and endures all the ages and kindles its inextinguishable light in the heart of the mystery that men call death.
The tattered, worn-out tent in which Thomas W. Ragan camped for a few brief, hard years on his journey upon God's great highway was folded up and put away by tender ministrant hands in the old family burying ground in Talladega County. But the traveler has gone on upon the highway that rises from the lowlands where the shadows gather to the heavenly highlands where the light never fails.
REV. JOHN T. MILLICAN.
R EV. J. T. MILLICAN was born in Talbot County, Ga., December 7, 1849; and died in the Sam Turner Home for Superannuates, in Cottondale, Ala., March 21, 1906. He was reared in a Christian home where family worship was had regularly and where church and Sunday school were attended, and, as was natural and the thing expected, he was led to trust in Christ at the age of eight years. Had he been encouraged, he would have united then with the Church, but did not join the Church until his nineteenth year. He was educated at Collinsworth Academy and Providence High School, near his fa- ther's home. In speaking of his life he said: "My school days at the old academy were among my hap- piest." Soon after he joined the Church the pastor organized a young men's prayer meeting, where he began to pray in public. From the high school he went out as a teacher. In his first school, among his pupils, he found Miss Cintha Josephine McClung, to whom he was happily married in her father's home in Marion County, Ga., November 30, 1873. His father moved to Chambers County, Ala., about this time. Three years later, in the fall of 1876, at the earnest entreaty of an invalid mother, he moved to Alabama. He was licensed to preach by the Quar- terly Conference of the Fredonia Circuit in 1882, J.
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B. Stevenson, presiding elder; admitted on trial into the North Alabama Conference in 1883; ordained (leacon by Bishop Wilson in 1885; ordained elder by Bishop Hargrove in 1888. He served consecutively the following charges : Wedowee Mission, 1884-85; Camp Hill, 1886-87; Vernon Circuit, 1888; Gurley Circuit, 1889-90; Gadsden Circuit, 1891-94; Ashe- ville Circuit, 1895-96; Henegar Mission, 1897-1900; South Hill Circuit, 1901-02; Langston Mission, 1903-04. That year his health gave way, and the following November he was granted the superan- nuate relation and went to the Superannuate Home in Cottondale, Ala., where on March 21, 1906, he ended his earthly career.
This is the brief story of the life and itinerant labors of John T. Millican. His body rests in the cemetery at Cottondale to await the resurrection of the just. In all the relations of life he was faith- ful and true. As a true itinerant he always went without complaint to the place assigned him. He was a strong preacher in that he understood and preached the simple Scriptures. His mind was in- cisive and logical. Many of his sermons still live in the memory and lives of those who heard them. He was also a strong and clear writer. What he wrote was worth reading. While on the Gadsden Circuit he wrote for the county paper a number of strong articles on the cause of temperance. I. would not enter the sacred precincts of the home, but there as husband and father kindness and love
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abounded. As a friend you will not find one more abiding and true than was he. His wit was often quick and sharp.
During his last days there was a halo of divine light in his room. It was a benediction to all who visited him during those days. He was in a state of ecstatic joy. He was preaching and shouting the praises of God. Among other things he said: "I have cut the cables and swung out on the promises of God. I have no fear; my Saviour is with me." His mind was as clear as a bell .. He could quote texts and tell of sermons he had heard long years ago. Not a shadow of doubt passed over his tri- umphant spirit. He exhorted and preached to many who visited him during those days of wonderful triumph.
REV. THEODORE BOWDEN M'CAIN.
R EV. THEODORE B. M'CAIN, son of William and Matilda McCain, was born in Talladega Coun- ty, Ala., October 2, 1844. His early days were spent in the village of Lincoln, and his boyhood was vi- brant with life. The young man was counted a splendid comrade, for he was open, cordial, bold, and was ever ready to lead the sport of the "gang" down to the river, out through the woods, or among the villagers. The buoyancy of the youth led him into many a forbidden escapade.
At the close of the war his wild spirit engaged in daring exploits which took him far from home. He wandered across the ocean, and in distant lands his career was checkered with bold adventures. This brought to him associations which he afterwards deplored.
Back home again, he was converted in the old Pine Grove Meetinghouse, in Calhoun County. Rev. R. A. Timmons was his pastor. The change wrought in him was radical, and he cherished this experience to his dying day. He joined the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South. The nature of the man was so intense that he must needs throw him- self with all his strength in the direction he was go- ing. It is not strange that he responded to a call to preach and sought the itinerant ranks.
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REV. THEODORE BOWDEN M'CAIN.
Brother McCain began his itinerant work one year before he joined the Conference by serving as a supply on the Hatchet Creek Mission. The following December he was received on trial into the North Alabama Conference and was appoint- ed to the same work, which he served one more year, 1881. From 1882 to 1885 he served the Camp Hill Circuit ; 1886, Socapatoy Circuit; 1887-88, Pel- ham Circuit; 1889-90, Leeds Mission; 1891-92, Jonesboro Circuit ; 1893-94, Walnut Grove Circuit ; 1895-97, Hartsel Circuit; 1898, Carbon Hill Cir- cuit; 1899-1900, Oakman Circuit ; 1901-02, Calera Circuit ; 1903, Woodstock and Johns; 1904, Johns and Adger ; 1905-06, Athens Circuit ; 1907-08, One- onta ; 1909, Gaylesville Circuit; 1910-1I, Pratt City Circuit. At the Conference held in Florence, Ala., in December, 1911, he was appointed to Brookwood. His labors here were of short duration. Early in the year 1912 he was taken seriously ill and was placed in a hospital in Birmingham, Ala., where he received all the attention that medical skill and good nursing could furnish. But all in vain; his work was finished. In January, 1912, the Master sent his messenger Death to release his servant from serv- ice on earth and transfer him to that higher serv- ice in the upper sanctuary where toil is rest and service is a joy forever.
Brother McCain was a typical son of nature in that he was preeminently natural in all that he said or did. By saying this it is meant that he was pe-
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culiarly himself, without ever a thought or attempt to imitate another. His facial expression, when in conversation, was somewhat on the comical order; but beneath that apparently comical air there was unmistakable sincerity that gave emphasis to his words. He hated hypocrisy with intensity. What he believed he was not afraid to speak, and you might know that he believed it profoundly.
Brother McCain's early educational advantages were very limited; but when he entered upon his work of preaching the gospel, he set himself in- dustriously to the task of completing the course of study prescribed by the Conference for young min- isters, which task he accomplished in due time and with credit. His preaching was of a plain, practical order, accompanied by zeal and spiritual fervor that gave emphasis to his message. He was a diligent pas- tor. He knew his flock and they all knew him. He was a very provident man in his domestic affairs. No matter how meager his salary (and it was gen- erally meager), T. B. McCain and his family al- ways lived well. His home life was a marvel of comfort and plenty because, like Paul, he was not ashamed to labor with his own hands to provide such things as his people could not or would not provide for him, yet he did not neglect his pas- toral or ministerial work. He wrought well and faithfully, and his work will follow him.
REV. MARCUS G. WILLIAMS, D.D.
R EV. MARCUS G. WILLIAMS, son of Justinian and Elizabeth Williams, was born in Boonville, Mo., October 25, 1831; and died in Athens, Ala., April 4, 1894. He professed religion and joined the Methodist Church at Ross's Chapel, on the Chickasaw Circuit, in North Alabama, sometime in 1853. He was licensed to preach by Rev. Finch P. Scruggs, presiding elder of the Florence District, on March 18, 1854. In October of the same year he was admitted on trial into the Tennessee Confer- ence, held at Florence, Ala., and appointed to the Savannah Circuit as junior preacher, with James McCracken, preacher in charge. The following year he served the Waterloo Circuit. At the end of that year he was ordained deacon by Bishop Andrew at Huntsville, Ala., and appointed to the Fayetteville Station. During this year he was married to Miss M. C. Coffee, of Lauderdale County, Ala. The following year he served the Shoal Circuit. He was ordained elder by Bishop Andrew at the fol- lowing session of the Conference, and appointed to Rogersville and Driskill's Chapel. His next work was the Richland Circuit, in Giles County, Tenn. His charge was then divided, and he was sent to Shiloh, the eastern end of the Richland Circuit. In 1861 the War between the States began, and Brother
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Williams went with the Third Tennessee Infantry as chaplain. In 1862 he was nominally appointed to the Prospect Circuit as junior preacher, but in reality he continued as chaplain of his regiment in the army, where he remained for the greater part of the war. In 1865 his charge was Shady Grove and Ebenezer. In 1866 he was transferred to the Ar- kansas Conference and stationed at Jacksonport, where he remained for two years. He was then transferred to the St. Louis Conference and sta- tioned at Boonville, Mo., his childhood home. In 1869 his work was Arrow Rock and Marshall, where he remained two years; thence to the Pleasant Hill Circuit, one year, and returned to Arrow Rock and spent two years there. Then, on account of affliction of the throat, he asked to be located. Dur- ing the year of his location and rest he was suffi- ciently recovered to take work, and was readmitted and appointed to Waverly Station, remaining one year ; then to Lexington Station, where he remained three years. During the third year of his pastorate at Lexington (1878) the presidency of Central Fe- male College became vacant, and he was elected to fill that position temporarily in connection with his pastoral work. He was then, at the beginning of the next session of the college, elected professor of lan- guages; but when his Conference met that fall he resigned his professorship and asked to be trans- ferred to the North Alabama Conference, and was appointed to the New Market Circuit. In 1881-82
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REV. MARCUS G. WILLIAMS, D.D.
he was stationed at Tuscumbia, Ala. In 1883 he served the Lexington Circuit, and was appointed to the same work for 1884, which he served for a part of the year, when he was elected President of the Athens Female College. This position he filled till June, 1892, when, on account of failing health, he was compelled to resign. At the following session of his Conference he asked for the superannuate rela- tion, which was granted, and he continued in that relation till called to his reward on high.
REV. DAVID L. PARRISH.
R EV. DAVID L. PARRISH was born in Gwinnett Coun- ty, Ga., April 10, 1849; and died in Florence, Ala., May 29, 1912. The body was taken to Bir- mingham, Ala., and the funeral services were con- ducted in First Church by Rev. I. F. Hawkins, pas- tor of First Church, Florence, Ala., assisted by Bish- op James H. McCoy and Rev. L. C. Branscomb, pastor of First Church, Birmingham.
Brother Parrish was twice married, first on De- cember 10, 1868, to Miss Cornelia Forrester. His first wife died on July 19, 1882. He was again mar- ried on December 18, 1883, to Miss Georgia Comer.
Brother Parrish was converted in early life. His child mind seemed to be impressed that he was to be a preacher. When but a little boy he would gather the little children about him and preach to them. He was ordained a local deacon at Griffin, Ga., by Bishop Keener in 1875, and ordained elder at Rome, Ga., by Bishop McTyeire in 1880. He served as supply in the bounds of the North Georgia Con- ference about nine years. He joined the North Georgia Conference one year before transferring to the North Alabama Conference.
During the thirty years of service rendered in the North Alabama Conference Brother Parrish never missed roll call at the Conference sessions. His
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REV. DAVID L. PARRISH.
first work in the North Alabama Conference was as a supply on the Cedar Bluff Circuit, which was in 1883. At the session of the Conference of that year he became a member of the Conference, and was ap- pointed to Cedar Bluff Circuit for 1884; 1885, Cen- ter Circuit ; 1886-88, Cross Plains (now Piedmont ) Circuit; 1889, Somerville Circuit; 1890, Fayette Station; 1891-94, Roanoke Circuit ; 1895, Wedowee Circuit ; 1896-98, Warrior and Blount Springs; 1899, Blockton Station; 1900-02, Tuscaloosa Dis- trict; 1903-04, Athens Station; 1905, Brookwood Station; 1906, Jasper Station; 1907-08, Sulligent Circuit ; 1909, Carbon Hill, 1910-12, Florence Dis- trict. Here he ended his earthly labors about the first of June.
The above dates tell of labors abundant and trials severe. Brother Parrish had much to contend with that few knew of. He patiently endured many heart- aches without even speaking of them to others. It is customary among us, when a preacher dies, to say of him, "He was a good preacher," and of course it is true; but often it means only that he was a good man and preached a pure gospel. But when it is said that D. L. Parrish was a good preacher, it means all of this and more. He was clear in ex- egesis, forceful in delivery, and often sublimely elo- quent in the very best sense of that term. No man was ever freer from any attempt at so-called fine speech ; but he spoke the words of truth and sober- ness under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and
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this always brings good fruit. Rev. I. F. Hawkins, pastor of First Church, Florence, said in his talk at the funeral services of Brother Parrish that his church was always filled to overflowing when it was known that the presiding elder ( Parrish) was to preach. He was ambitious, of course ; but it was of that kind that coveted the best gifts that he might the better fulfill his high calling. He did not covet his brother's place in the Church nor speak dispar- agingly of his brethren who might be above him in what the world calls the good places. Even when he felt that he was wronged he was never heard to bring a "railing accusation against his brother."
Brother Parrish served circuits, stations, and dis- tricts in the North Alabama Conference continuously for nearly twenty-nine years ; and in all these places. during all the years of his ministry, he wrought well and faithfully. No man could bring aught against him as a minister or as a man. He lived above re- proach or suspicion, and he has left the savor of a good name, which is as "ointment poured forth,"
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