USA > Arkansas > Pulaski County > Little Rock > The annals of Christ church parish of Little Rock, Arkansas, from A. D. 1839 to A. D. 1899 > Part 7
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and marked attentions from the officers of the garrison. The commandant has every day detailed an orderly for my use.
March 26. Rain this morning. Write to Messrs. Gay and Johnson, of Ch. Hill, Ala. Lieutenant Armistead and lady arrived by steamboat. Heavy rain. Mr. Kingsberry calls. Write to Mr. Ch. Tomes and send draft on T. at Harford, N. Y., for $500. At night prayers by Mr. Harris and sermon by myself.
March 27. Left Fort Towson. Rain. Lieutenant Wet- more, three privates and wagon, Dr. Baily, to Spencer Academy. Fifty boarders, under Rev. McHenny, Mr. Wil- son, and Mr. Dwight (Mr. Dwight, Choctaw) ; $6,000 amount of allowance. Rode through a well watered and good coun- try at first, then very poor and rough. Stop and pitch tents about 5 p. m.
March 28. Camp Pecose. Slept comfortably under a tent. Fished last night. Lientenant Wetmore and I caught a mess for supper. March at 6:30. O, the mountains ! the blue mountains ! how they remind me of my own ! my native land ! Prairies; Kimishi River, thunder cloud. In camp by 6 p. m.
March 29. In a prairie (Camp Pluviose). Thunder, lightning; high wind and heavy rain all night ; propose fire; rain and muddy in the morning; water courses all up. Left our camp at 8 a. m. Rains all day till at night it changes into snow. Reach Pursley's Creek; find it high, 10 or 15 feet of water. Pitch our tent. Cold, wet and muddy ; high .wind, etc.
March 30. Camp Moose. Snow half inch deep; clear and cold; light clouds flying. Slept with little comfort. Cross the dividing ridge between the Red and Arkansas rivers. Waited eighteen hours to cross Pursley's Creek. Broke the king bolt; roads very deep in places; extensive pine barrens; prairies ; mountains on mountains !
March 31, Sunday. Camp Terrill. Day of rest. Reached Terrill's (Indian) at sundown. The Poteau im-
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passable. Slept in Terrill's house last night-the hardest floor I ever felt! Went to top of mountain and again dedi- cated myself and all that I have in solemn prayer to God. This is the anniversary of my wife's birth. Fervently have I prayed for her !
April 1. Poteau still too high to cross, and we have to wait here to-day, perhaps to-morrow. Went "afishing" and caught nothing. Passed the remainder of the day in read- ing. Mr. Harris went with DeWit into the country to find some Indian families. Saw one family in a comfortable condition, etc.
April 2. Clear. I cross the Poteau this morning. Road passes to-day through some good land and some of the most beautiful prairies I ever saw. Mountains on our right. the "Sugar Loaf;" on our left, the "Caviniole"-called by the Indians, "Grumbling Mountain," an extinct volcano. Fine streams; grouse, deer; large mounds.
April 3. Left camp early this morning and reached Fort Smith about 9 a. m. Was invited by General Zachary Taylor to his quarters. After dinner rode with Major Hun- ter to see Mrs. Nowland. Saw Mrs. Berryhill, Mrs. Bates, Mrs. Pease, Mrs. Magee, and returned. Mr. McManus is, I hear, sick.
April 4. Rode with General Taylor this morning and viewed the new fortifications. Bought cigars, belting, bags. $6. Saw Colonel Loomis and lady, Mrs. Hunton, Houghman and daughter. Dined with General Taylor, then rode to Van Buren. Saw Mr. MeManus, who read prayers at night. I preached in C. II. Congregation large and attentive.
April 5. Good Friday. Very unwell this morning. Mr. Harris came down and left on steamboat "Roller" for Fort Gibson. Wrote to Bishop Whittingham and clergy in Baltimore. Met with the Masons in lodge; walked in pro- cession and laid the corner stone of Trinity Church. Van Buren. Then delivered an address after appropriate religious exercises, etc.
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April 6. Boat came last night at 11 p. m., went aboard. Left Van Buren about 9:30 a. m. Scenery on the Arkansas grand and imposing; high, beetling cliffs on the banks, espe- cially on the right side. Heavy storm of rain, thunder and lightning.
April 7. Easter. Compelled to pass this blessed and holy day on a steamboat. Rain, thunder and lightning this morning. Rev. Mr. Foreman (Cherokee) left the boat last night at Spadra, making it a matter of conscience not to travel on Sunday. Mountains approach very near the river at times ; sublime cliffs ! Read prayers and preached in the afternoon.
April 9. Saw Mr. Brearly last night at Dardanelle. Passed the wreck of the "Arkansas" this morning; afterwards came to the mouth of Fourche La Fevre, where a dead man (drowned) was picked up from the Arkansas, the captain of which engaged a man to bury him-from Green County, Ohio. Preach at Little Rock and confirm thirteen. Letters from home. Write to Charles Tomes.
April 9. Left Little Rock last night.
A. D. 1844. Bishop Otey made another visitation to Arkansas in 1844. Rev. James Young, Missionary Rector. A list of those confirmed by him on April 8, 1844, thirteen in number, is here given :
(1) Harriet Grafton, (2) Mrs. Samuel F. Johnson, (3) Mrs. Clarissa Beebe, (4) Miss Caroline Elliott, (5) Miss S. S. D'Estimanville, (6) Mrs. Martha F. Trapnell, (7) Dr. Skinner, (8) Mrs. Merrick, (9) Mrs. Miller, (10) Mrs. Field, (11) Miss Frances Field, (12) Miss Ellen Field, (13) Mrs. Charles Rapley.
Copy of letter from Bishop James H. Otey to Rev. Otis Hackett, of Helena, Ark., which relates the appointment to jurisdiction of Arkansas, after the death of Bishop Freeman. Courtesy of Dr. B. B. Minor, son-in-law of Bishop Otey :
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Memphis, Tenn., June 1, 1858.
Rev. and Dear Sir-I have just received a letter from the Rt. Rev. Senior Bishop T. C. Brownell, D. D., etc., ap- pointing me to the office of Missionary Bishop of Arkansas, rendered vacant by the lamented Bishop Freeman's death. As I know not what clergymen or laymen compose the stand- ing committee, nor where to address the committee, I write to you and ask of you the favor to communicate to the com- mittee my acceptance of the charge, and furthermore to ask of the committee to communicate to me as speedily as possible the names of the standing committee, president and secretary, where it may be addressed, the names and residences of the clergymen belonging to the jurisdiction of the late Missionary Bishop, the organized parishes, missionary stations, and any other information necessary for me to have in order to the administration of the affairs of the late Bishop's jurisdiction. I cannot probably make a visitation of the State before the fall, though I may find it in my power to do something in that way during the summer for the congregations near the Mississippi River. I remain, very truly,
Your faithful friend and brother,
JAS. H. OTEY.
Rev. Otis Hackett, Helena, Ark.
From a sermon prepared by the Rev. John A. Harrison for a service held at Eastertide, on the tenth anniversary of his decease, during the session of a Diocesan Convention, the following beautiful tribute is taken:
The aged Saint received his release in the sixty-third year of his age, in the thirtieth of his Episcopate, and the thirty-eighth of his ministry. As he lay in the former chancel of this Church (at Memphis) in his robes, pre- pared for his burial, the long, large frame, with a cross clasped in his hand, he looked as he was, the Christian warrior in repose. His dear remains are interred in the sweet God's acre of St. John's, Ashwood* We have the comfort of a
*See picture near that of Bishop Polk, who with his brothers erected it.
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reasonable, religious and holy hope that he now rests from his labors. "blessed in the Lord," in company with his wife and the children who had preceded him, in communion with the Stephens, Father and Son, and with Lytton, with Allston, and Tomes, and Fagg; with Ravenscroft, and Hobart, and White; with Cramner, and Latimer, and Ridley; with Augustine, and Chrysostom, and Polycarp; with St. Paul, and St. John, and St. Peter, and with the faithful departed of all ages. Their dust is gold! "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." "The memory of the just is blessed." The good husbandman waited long for the precious fruit of the seed he had sown. It never fully came. It shall come finally. Tennessee shall honor the name of her first Bishop, and the Southwest the character of its great mis- sionary. The young men and maidens he taught, the scores he ordained, the hundreds he confirmed, the congregations to whom he ministered, and all that knew him shall call him blessed. And the wilderness and the solitary places shall, after the early and the latter rain, blossom as the rose; and blessing shall be upon the head of him, who, for more than a quarter of a century, planted in and watered it. We will thank God for the good example of this, His servant. We will seek for grace to walk as he did in the footsteps of Christ. We will pray God, that with all those who are departed hence in the true faith of his holy name, we may have our per- fect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul in His eternal and everlasting glory."
Ilis own chosen epitaph was given on his death-bed. "Write me," he said, "the first Bishop of the Catholic Church of Tennessee. Say in my behalf, 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' "
There are three portraits of him. One hangs in the Epis- copal residence at Memphis, the second is at the University of the South at Sewanee, and the third is at the Historical Society rooms, at Nashville, Tenn.
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Bishop Otey published a number of charges, sermons, speeches and addresses-"The Unity of the Church," "The Ministry," "The Apostolical Succession," and three dis- courses in 1852, viz: "Doctrine," "Discipline," and "Wor- ship of the American Branch of the Catholic Church, Ex- plained and Unfolded." His work in Tennessee lost nothing, it seems, by the generous distribution of his time in the interest and welfare of the mission in Arkansas. He died revered and lamented in both States. In the new Church at Little Rock a memorial has been placed to his memory-an eagle lecturn, with outspread wings, earved in walnut wood, bearing the reading desk. This is supported by a column with tri- angular base, having three feet, each foot a carved lion, the whole decorated with fleur de lis. It bears this inscription :
"In memoriam, Rt. Rev. James Hervey Otey, D. D., Consecrated January 4, 1834; died April 23, 1863."
The children of Rt. Rev. James H. Otey, D. D., and Eliza Davis Parnell, his wife, were:
1. Virginia Maury. Married May 26, 1842, in St. Peter's Church, Columbia, Tenn., Benjamin Blake Minor, a lawyer of Richmond, Va. They are now living in that city, both over three score and ten years. Dr. Minor has been editor and proprietor of the Southern Literary Messenger; corresponding secretary of the Virginia Bible Society ; seere- tary of the Virginia Colonization Society; president of the Richmond Traet Society ; director of the Virginia Historical Society ; Vestryman, Warden, Register and Delegate of St. James's Church, Richmond, Va .; principal of the Virginia Female Institute (Episcopal), at Staunton, Va. ; delegate and vice president of the Commercial Convention, at Memphis : president of the State University at Missouri, which conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL .. D. ; principal of Minor's
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Seminary for Young Ladies, in St. Louis, Mo. He is now the secretary of the Virginia Society of the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution. Mrs. Minor was promoter of the Mount Vernon Association, and of other laudable enterprises, and has been the author of numerous highly creditable produc- tions in prose and in verse, besides excelling in vocal and instrumental music on the piano, harp and guitar. They have had eight sons and three daughters .*
2. Henrietta Coleman. Married the Rev. Charles Tomes, who died in Nashville, whilst he was Rector of a Church there. She has recently died in Washington, D. C. They have left two children, Margie (unmarried), George, in New York (married and has children). Mr. Tomes was an Englishman, a widower with children and a member of a large hardware house in New York. He there became ac- quainted with Bishop Otey and went to Tennessee to pursue his studies for the ministry under the Bishop. After he became his son-in-law he took charge of a Church in Sing Sing, N. Y., but was called to Nashville, where he proved to be an efficient and successful Rector, and was instrumental in having built a new and handsome Church.
3. Reginald Heber. Died in his tenth year at Franklin, Tenn.
4. Paul Hooker. Died in Memphis of the last yellow fever there. In that visitation and the previous one, he ren-
*The accompanying notice from a Richmond paper announces the distressing death of one of these sons:
MR. MINOR'S BODY HERE. KILLED NOVEMBER 4, 1898-HIS REMAINS INTERRED YESTERDAY.
The body of Mr. Washington Minor, who was killed at Wickford Junction, R. I., last Friday, arrived here at 8:40 o'clock yesterday morning, and was conveyed to the home of his father, Mr. B. B. Minor, No. 520 West Grace street, whence at 3:30 o'clock, it was taken to All Saints' Church, where funeral services were held. Rev. J. Yates Downman conducted the services, and the interment was in Hollywood. The family have not yet received the particulars of the young man's death, though they have been advised by the railroad authorities that a letter of particulars has been mailed.
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dered valuable service. He attended Kenyon College, Ohio, but was educated medically in Richmond, and in Philadel- phia, under the celebrated Dr. Muter. He married Mary Ann Bowles, of Holly Springs, Miss., and became a planter near Marianna, Ark. ; was a surgeon in the Confederate army ; lost his wife about the close of the war, and settled in Mem- phis for the practice of his profession. They had no children, but adopted an orphan girl, whom they reared to be a fine woman, who survived them and married well.
5. Sarah McGavock. Died just as she finished her course at the Columbia Female Institute, and her eighteenth year. She was richly endowed in every respect. She was so beloved by her father that her death was a crushing blow to him.
6. Mary Fogg. Married Daniel C. Govan, of Missis-
sippi. He became a planter near Marianna, Ark. During the struggle of the Southern Confederacy, he was the colonel of the Second Arkansas; was promoted to the rank of briga- dier general; was wounded and taken prisoner in the battle of Franklin. After the war he resumed his planting in
Arkansas. By the administration of President Cleveland he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs in Wash- ington State, where he is now. His wife was, not very long ago, killed by an accident on the street car in Seattle. They have sons and daughters, several of whom are married.
7. Eliza Ripley (called Donna). Married Robert Compton, of Lexington, Va. He was a student of the Vir- ginia Military Institute and a member of the famous Stone- wall Brigade. Since the war he and his wife lived several years in Missouri, where he was a teacher. He died several years ago in Norfolk, Va. She has lived for years in Wash- ington City, where she has some employment under the gov-
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ernment. She has four interesting daughters, three of whom are married, and she is a grandmother.
8. Frances Jane Bretney. Died in her very promis- ing girlhood.
9. William Newton Mercer. Named for the Bishop's very dear friend, Dr. Mercer, of New Orleans, La. Is now living at Oakland, Cal., and doing business in San Francisco. Has his second wife, Geraldine Gager, with three sons and two daughters. He left the Virginia Military Institute to go into the Confederate army; where he was engaged mostly il: the signal service with General Polk's corps. After the war he married Patsy Compton (sister of Robert, who married his own sister Donna), and she and her first infant were buried at the same time.
From the Richmond Dispatch, of date April 24, 1900. we copy the notice of Mrs. B. B. Minor's death :
MRS. B. B. MINOR DEAD.
SHE PASSES AWAY AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS.
Mrs. Virginia Maury Otey Minor, wife of Dr. Benjamin Blake Minor, died at her home, No. 520 West Grace street, last night, after an illness of short duration of pneumonia.
Deceased was in the seventy-eighth year of her age. She was the eldest child of the Right Rev. James H. Otey, D. D., the Bishop of Tennessee, but a native of Bedford County, Va. Just after the completion of her education at "the Columbia Female Institute," of which her father was the founder, he brought her to Virginia for the purpose of restoring, at the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, her health, impaired by earnest study, and of her visiting his and her mother's brothers, in Lynchburg and Petersburg. It was in the latter city that she first met the young lawyer who became her life companion for fifty-eight years. At the time of their engage-
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·ment he removed to the city of Richmond, and pursued his profession here for one year before marriage.
When she, a beautiful and brilliant bride, arrived here, in the summer of 1842, she was most cordially received by the very best people of Richmond. She was a fine musician and an exquisite vocalist, and played upon and sang to the harp and guitar as well as the piano. She was also a spirited and pleasing writer in prose and verse.
Before her graduation she was a contributor to the magazine of the Columbia Institute, called The Guardian. She was a contributor to the Southern Literary Messenger, and gave some assistance in the editorial department during some absences of her husband. She was the author of the "Prize-Tale, Stephano Colonna," and several others. She assisted her husband in his educational work in Staunton, Richmond, and St. Louis, Mo.
Before her removal to the University of Missouri she took an active part in whatever interested the ladies of Rich- mond, and particularly in the efforts of the Mount Vernon Association, to purchase the home of Washington. She, with a part of her children, returned to Richmond in 1884, and had resided here ever since.
On the 26th of May, 1892, she celebrated her golden wedding, which was largely attended by the friends of herself and family.
For several years past she had been an invalid. but her malady only endeared her the more to her family and friends, and vet it was an unexpected attack of pneumonia which elosed her long and interesting life.
Her husband, B. B. Minor, and five children-Dr. B. B. Minor, Jr., of Texas: William P. Minor. of Michigan ; Misses Viola, Jane. and Zelle Minor, of Richmond-survive her, together with Mrs. G. R. Frost, B. L. Minor. and Vir- ginia S. Minor, her grandchildren, and one sister, Mrs. Comp- ton, of Washington.
The funeral arrangements have not been made.
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REV. JAMES YOUNG.
A. D. 1844-1846. Rev. James Young succeeded Rev. Mr. Yeager in 1844, bringing with him a wife and several children, the youngest of whom, if not born here, was bap- tized here, for there is a tradition that when the name of George Washington was suggested to Mr. Young, he demur- red, on the plea "that too many George Washingtons had been hanged." In further evidence of his character, a letter written by him to one of his former parishioners has been kindly granted for use in these pages. It was written to the late Colonel Win. E. Ashley on the occasion of his marriage with the beautiful Miss Fanny Grafton, and is here transcribed :
Berlin, Worcester County, Md., December 7, 1846.
Dear Will-I was truly gratified by the intelligence of your marriage, communicated by my cherished friend, Mr. Beebe, in a letter received from him a few days ago.1 I trust that both yourself and Mrs. Ashley will allow me to offer my heartfelt congratulations on this happy consummation, and assure you of my prayers and desires for the continued hap- piness and prosperity of both in your new relationship. May God, our Heavenly Father, bless your union, and make it tributary to the temporal and eternal welfare of both. For the dear girls, to whom you stand in the relation of husband and brother,2 I have ever entertained the affection also of a brother. Their happiness secured would add to mine, however distant I might be from them, and the consciousness that in this union the happiness of one of the little band was made
1. The late Roswell Beebe, who married Miss Eliot, half-sister of the bride. Mr. Beebe lived in a large, handsome brick residence fronting on Markham street. on the ground now occupied by the post office. Gazette building, and H L. Remmel's insurance building. It was painted white, and surrounded on all sides by trees of forest growth.
2. Fanny and Harriet Grafton, afterwards Mrs. Richard Fatherly.
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sure, so far as happiness belongs to this life, afforded me and my wife the sincerest and most lively pleasure and satisfac- tion. It would have added greatly to my gratification had I been present to officiate on the occasion, and still more to have enrolled you both as members of the body of Christ our Lord. This, I trust, will be done for you by some other in good time, and that you and yours will ever be found on the side of righteousness and truth. Do not leave the Church to which your hearty preference hitherto has led you; but let that preference only give way to principle, which shall draw the bond of connection closer until you become fully incorporated with the great body of the elect from every tongue and kindred under the whole heaven. And may every blessing in the gift of Him, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, descend upon you and abide with you always. My wife joins me in love and congratulations, and sends her warmest love to you and the dear girls, your sisters," and to Mrs. Beebe,4 and in affectionate remembrance to your esteemed mother and sister," to whose kindness during the illness of our little boy, we owe so much. I assure you that when we look back upon our residence in Little Rock, now that all the asperities of a portion of my experience there are worn off, we discover many bright and cheering pages of its history that will ever keep open a warm place in our hearts for the wilds of Arkansas, or rather, the warm hearts that exist there, and if ever it pleases God to put me in possession of the means I shall see you all again before I die, God will- ing. I find pretty much the same effect following my efforts to make known the gospel in the Church everywhere it has been my privilege to preach. I have a small parish of about fifty communicants, composed of farmers, traders and pro- fessional men, with their families, and am getting to be quite a lion among them. My rough-hewn, straightforward, baek- woods style seems to tell powerfully upon them all, the most
3. Miss Carrie Eliott. afterwards Mrs. D. C. Fulton, and Miss Harriet Grafton, afterwards Mrs. Richard Fatherly.
4. Formerly Miss -- Eliott.
5. Mrs. Chester Ashley, and Miss Fanny Ashley, afterwards Mrs. A. F. Freeman.
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intelligent and the most illiterate alike, and I hope for good, both to the people and the Church, from the divine blessing upon my efforts in this pleasant, but secluded nook. Re- member me affectionately to Mrs. Henderson6 and to your grandpa and ma,7 to Mrs. Ringo and Mrs. Trapnall, and to all our friends in the Rock, and believe me, dear Will,
Yours affectionately,
JAS. YOUNG .*
GENERAL AND MRS. WILLIAM ELIOT ASHLEY.
General and Mrs. William Eliot Ashley were the first citizens united in marriage in the first Episcopal Church, October 26, 1846, although one other couple is reported to have been wedded there, in passing through the city.
General Ashley was the eldest son of Hon. Chester Ashley, United States Senator from Arkansas, and Mary W. Eliot, his wife, of Missouri. He married Frances Grafton, daughter of Joseph Dana Grafton, of St. Genevieve, Mo., and Mary Lewis Eliot, his wife. The bride and groom were of a common ancestry and were distantly related.
The name of William Ashley was the synonym of kind- ness, courtesy and culture. His genial temperament and quick sympathy caused his friends to be legion. In beauty of feature and symmetry of form Fanny Grafton, his wife, was acknowledged to be peerless. She had fine literary taste, and as a conversationalist was especially attractive. As she advanced in years her graces of spirit crowned and sanctified all other charms, and diselosed to her friends the most endear- ing aspects of her character. Both have passed beyond the silent river, leaving a memory that will long be cherished by
6. Sister of Mrs. Chester Ashley.
7. Mr. and Mrs. Eliott.
*By courtesy of the late Mrs. Wm. E. Ashley.
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