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 9
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 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
"After several hours' debate the practical part began with the contribution of money for its relief and benefit. The Bishop of Maryland was instantly on his feet and stated what he would give; nay, more, with the energetic promptness peculiar to himself, he laid down the money then and there. Bishop de Lancey and the two Bishops Potter, and others, followed in his wake. Then a portly, dignified clergyman,
about 6 feet in height, of robust and vigorous appearance, though evidently advancing in years, went to the secretary's table and put his name down for $100. It was Bishop Free- man. When this was done, he took his hat and cane (the cane which Bishop Ravenscroft had carried in his day) and quietly passed out through the Vestry door."
Bishop Freeman was greatly sustained in his mission- ary labors by his excellent wife, whom the annalist affection- ately remembers as a punctilious Churchwoman, a stately, refined, and cultivated woman and worthy helpmeet for a Bishop. When Bishop Freeman first located at Little Rock he took a suite of rooms in one of the handsome briek build- ings erected by Charles Kapley, merchant, whose name is on the first Vestry list, on the north side of Markham street, between Scott and Main streets. The first floors of these buildings were occupied by dry goods merchants. the second
108
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
and third floors were arranged with spacious parlors and chambers in suites, with galleries surrounding the inner courts. The staircases to these stories opened from hallways on the street, with balustrades of mahogany, obtained from Cuba, where Mr. Rapley's father had amassed a fortune. These buildings were destroyed by fire several years later. Charles Rapley was a member of the first Vestry of Christ Church, but afterwards became a leading member of the newly organized congregation of "the Disciples of Christ," which the Bishop denominates "one of the modern sects." His wife, who was Ann Bailor Field, also seceded from the Episcopal Church, and their children were brought up in the new faith. The Bishop, his wife, and son occupied a suite of rooms on the third floor of the eastern building, and were greatly appreciated by the other occupants of the build- ing, all of whom took board with the landlady, the widow Burnett. Mrs. Freeman was the widow of Hon. Thomas Gholson, of Gholsonville, Brunswick County, Va. She was the daughter of Colonel William Yates and granddaughter of Rev. Bartholomew Yates.
A. D. 1817. "Hon. Thomas Gholson, son of Thomas Gholson, Sr., was born at Gholsonville, Va., and educated at William and Mary College, Virginia. He married Miss Ann Yates and was a member of Congress from 1812 to 1816. He died in 1817 or 1818, four or five years after the receipt of the injury from a gunshot wound of the chest, in the war of 1812, so-called. He was acting, during a recess of the Con- gress, as volunteer aid, on the staff of some general, whose name escapes me. He left a wife, two sons and a daughter- my father, William Yates Gholson, Thomas, and Cary Ann. My grandmother, Mrs. Ann Yates Gholson, moved to Raleigh. N. C., after the death of her husband, and there met
109
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
and married George Washington Freeman, who was Rector of a parish in that city. He was afterward made Bishop of Arkansas and Texas. Soon after his consecration he removed his residence to Little Rock, Ark., where my grand- mother and he died."*
The children of Hon. Thomas Gholson and Ann Yates, his wife, were:
Hon. Wm. Yates Gholson, late member of the Supreme bench of Mississippi; Hon. Thomas Gholson, member of the Tennessee bar, and Cary Ann, who married her cousin, a very promising lawyer of Petersburg, Va., and had two daughters, Georgie and Cary Ann Gholson.
The children of Bishop Freeman and Ann Yates Ghol- son, his wife, were:
A. D. 1819-1895. 1. George Russell Freeman. Born December 6, 1819, in Raleigh, N. C .; married to Kate Wal- thall, of Holly Springs, Miss. She was the daughter of the late J. B. Walthall, and sister of Edward Cary Walthall, the lately deceased United States Senator from Mississippi, who sat continuously in the Senate from January, 1894, to March, 1895. He served in Confederate army in the Civil War as major-general.
2. Andrew Field Freeman, afterwards Rector of Christ Church, Little Rock.
A. D. 1826. 3. Charles Edward Freeman. Born October, 1826, in Newberne, N. C., of whom no further accounts have been obtained.
*Extract from a letter of response to a request of the annalist by Dr. S. C. Gholson, of Holly Springs, Miss.
110
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
REV. ANDREW FIELD FREEMAN.
A. D. 1822-1849. Rev. Andrew Field Freeman suc- ceeded Rev. William T. Saunders in charge of Christ Church, in 1849, and served as the first elected Rector for nine years. He was born in Warrenton, N. C., December 3, 1822, and was a graduate of the General Theological Seminary of New York, in 1845. Mr. Freeman was ordained Deacon and Priest by the Rt. Rev. Alfred Lee, D. D., of Delaware. The last ordination occurred in 1845. He accompanied his parents to Little Rock, where, on December 4, 1850, he married Frances Ann Ashley, only daughter of Hon. Chester Ashley, United States Senator from Arkansas. This was an ideal union, and, while it lasted, a blissful one. The Bishop and his son built a handsome residence on lots belonging to the bride on Holly (Eighth) and Cumberland streets, now owned by the widow of the late Hon. George H. Van Etten, a former member of Christ Church Vestry. They furnished it com- fortably and tastefully for her occupation. She did not live to appropriate it, but died within the year, universally lamented, leaving a daughter.
Both families were prostrated with grief at this sudden sinking of their ship of life, freighted with all that made life beautiful. Mrs. Bishop Freeman did not long survive. She had been in failing health after exposures in a tour of visita- tion through Texas with her husband, and this great sorrow was too much for her strength. "On the 26th of March, 1856, the Bishop left her, with hesitation and great reluctance, for a visitation of Texas, which circumstances rendered highly important, if not absolutely necessary. He shortened his visitation as much as possible on her account; and after an
REV. ANDREW FIELD FREEMAN.
111
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
absence of two months and fifteen days, returned, to find her on that siek bed from which she never arose.
A. D. 1856. He arrived on Monday, 11th of June, and in a week from that day, June 18, her spirit took its flight from earth to "brighter worlds on high." She died in the serene faith of a holy immortality. Her funeral took place on Wednesday morning, June 26, 1856, from the Church, the services being conducted by her husband and son, according to her own request. The scene was most pathetic.
Both father and son being thus bereaved, the property on Eighth street was sold and a house on Fifth and Scott streets was purchased. Here the Bishop died April 29, 1858, in the seventieth year of his age.
The beautiful tribute which the Rev. Dr. Norton quotes from Bishop Hawks's address to the Convention of Missouri in May, 1858, forms a most fitting conclusion to the memoir of this distinguished Bishop, who conferred upon the annalist the holy rite of confirmation, and claimed her highest reverence.
"As a subject of deep interest to the Protestant Episco- pal Church in these United States, and one which has called up very tender emotions in my bosom, I may now mention the recent departure from this life of the Rt. Rev. George Washington Freeman, D. D., our Missionary Bishop in the Southwest. At an advanced age, though not aged in his Episcopate, after thirteen years of hard and unceasing struggle for the Church in the desolate region assigned to him, a Christian Bishop has gone to rest. But to me, the departed was something more than a Christian Bishop. In my native town in North Carolina, he was one of the pre- ceptors of my early youth, before my entrance upon collegiate duties as a student of the University. Boys do not always remember with tenderness the teachers who have had the charge of their youth ; yet will I say that the manliness, truth-
112
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
fulness, and consistency of this good man claimed the love of my boyhood-that manhood, with me, only mellowed that love into softer and yet deeper hues, until professional asso- ciation and sympathy fully proved to me that the affections of my boyhood had not been misplaced. There are those companions of my schoolboy days still living to whose bosoms the tidings of his death will bring like feelings to my own; for his fearless honesty, his hearty sincerity, his ceaseless fidelity, his Christian firmness, and his unbending principle, were proverbial with us all. Well do I remember when I last met him at the time of our late General Convention in Phila- delphia. In company with another of his former pupils, I called upon him. We talked of former days. Among other things he showed us the staff upon which the godly and gifted Ravenscroft used to lean as he walked, and which had been given to him by one of his proselytes. What son of the Church does not reverence the name of Ravenscroft, the first Bishop of North Carolina ? Yet, as we came away, we felt and rejoiced that the staff was still carried by one as honest and as true as Ravenscroft. Of the late good Bishop of the Southwest we may all say, 'he has fought a good fight, he has finished his course, he has kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for him a crown of righteousness.' "
On the day following his decease, the remains of Bishop Freeman were deposited in the same grave with those of his beloved wife.
His son, Rev. A. F. Freeman had marble tablets placed in the north and south walls of the chancel of the first Church in memory of his parents, which perished with the Church. In the new Church a Prayer Desk was contributed to the chancel furniture, of handsomely carved walnut, having a silver plate with this inscription :
"In memory of Rt. Rev. George Washington Freeman, consecrated October 26, 1844, died April 29, 1858."
113
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
A. D. 1858. Four months after the death of his father, July 8, 1858, Rev. A. F. Freeman was married a second time to Susan E. Dunlop, daughter of James Dunlop, Esquire, of Petersburg, Va.
Previous to this, he had resigned the Rectorship of Christ Church, Little Rock. His letter of resignation is here given :*
Little Rock, Ark., May 3, 1858.
To the Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church, Little Rock :
Gentlemen-Impelled by the state of my health to relin- quish all Parochial duty for a season, I do hereby resign the Rectorship of Christ Church, to take effect from the 1st instant, which completes the first half of the ninth year of my Rectorship.
Respectfully, ANDREW F. FREEMAN.
The reply of the Wardens and Vestry was as follows:
Little Rock, May 5, 1858.
Reverend and Dear Sir-Having seen your letter of the 3d instant, addressed to the Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church, of Little Rock, the undersigned beg leave to state, that while they sincerely sympathize with you in your pres- ent deep affliction, and acknowledge the propriety of your withdrawing for a season from the cares and labors ineident to the Rectorship of said Church, yet having an abiding confi- dence in your ability to perform the duties of the charge advantageously to the cause of Christ and acceptably to the congregation when the remembrance of the afflicting dispen- sation shall have been softened by time and your health fully restored, which we hope may be the case at no distant period,
*The annalist is indebted to the daughters of Warden John II. Crease for this letter.
114
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
we trust you will then find it agreeable to resume your pas- toral duties among us, and in the meantime retain your position as Rector of our Church.
Very truly, your friends, etc., LUKE E. BARBER, JOHN H. CREASE,
Wardens.
DANIEL RINGO, THOMAS CHURCHILL, JOHN WASSELL,
H. N. CASE,
WM. B. WAIT,
S. H. HEMPSTEAD,
C. F. M. NOLAND, ROBERT CLEMENTS, WM. A. CANTRELL.
A. D. 1862. Rev. Mr. Freeman went from here to Atlanta, Ga., from which place the annalist received a letter from him, dated April 18, 1862, concluding with these words :
"I should like above all things to look in upon you all once more. My own father and mother lie buried in your graveyard, and my child is amongst you. You may be sure for these reasons, if for no other, my mind often fondly and sadly turns to Little Rock. You will have heard of our great victories before this reaches you. May God soon restore peace to our distracted land. With my kindest regards to your husband and to your mother and sister, I remain,
"Yours faithfully,
"A. F. FREEMAN."
Later he went to Shelbyville, Ky., then to Vincennes. Ind., and finally settled at Louisville, Ky., where he died in June, 1896. The daughter referred to in this letter was Mary Ashley Freeman, who married the Hon. Sterling R.
115
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
Cockrill, afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas. Their children are:
1. Ashley. Married Jennie, fourth daughter of Pro- fessor and Mrs. James Mitchell.
2. Annie McDonald. Married Maxwell Coffin, presi- dent of the Bank of Little Rock.
3. Sterling R. Cockrill. Not married.
4. Emmett, (5) Garland, (6) Freeman, minors. One infant daughter, Mary, died. There are two grandchildren, James Mitchell Cockrill and Margaret Coffin, who died early.
Of the second marriage, a daughter also was born, Fanny Ashley, named for the first wife, who married Mr. Carothers, of Bardstown, Ky.
Mr. Freeman was a person of studious habits and reserved manner, with a countenance of purity, which ob- tained for him the title of "St. John" by his admirers. His simplicity and truth of character were often misconstrued into austerity, but with those who understood him, there was absolute confidence in the gentleness of his nature and kind- ness of purpose. The Church flourished greatly during his incumbeney.
The organist at this time was Dr. Ben F. Scull, who was a musician of first rank. His choir was composed of Miss Blanche Scott (afterwards Sokolski), Miss Laura Crease (Lewis), Miss Eliza Tucker (Beebe), Miss Mary Ellen Tucker (Ives-Strong), Miss Maggie Reyburn (Peay), and Miss Arbadoo Gibson ( Farelly), Messrs. Wm. E. Ashley, D. C. Fulton, Henry Ashley, Arlow Farmin, and John Wassell. Dr. Scull afterwards married "Jamie," the second of the five beautiful Misses Reyburn.
116
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
A. D. 1858. The last official act of Rt. Rev. G. W. Freeman, as Missionary Bishop of Arkansas, occurred in January, 1858, and is described in a daily paper at Little Rock by an eyewitness, a copy of which has been furnished the annalist, and appears in the account given later in the life of Bishop Wingfield .*
A. D. 1858. As has been related, Bishop Otey was ap- pointed to the office made vacant by the death of Bishop Freeman, by the Senior Bishop of the Church, Thomas Church Brownell, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Connecticut, in 1858. In his visitation as Bishop of Arkansas during that year, his last performance of the rite of confirmation took place. Mrs. Elvira Cummins Adams was the last person confirmed in the first Episcopal Church.
A. D. 1840-1842. She was the widow of Dr. W. W. Adams, a graduate of the medical college at Amherst, Mass., to whom she was married in 1842. He was for many years a practicing physician in Little Rock. She was born in Jefferson County, Ky., near Louisville, in 1820, and came to Arkansas in 1840. She had four distinguished brothers, William and Ebenezer, shining lights at the bar of Little Rock before the war; Dr. David Cummins, a distinguished physician of Louisville, Ky., and John Cummins, who lost his life while fighting for the independence of Texas.
Her devotion to the Episcopal faith never wavered. She was a regular and generous contributor to the cause of the Church. With refined grace of manner and well-stored mind, she was at all times an ornament to society. In the south wall of the new Church is a window, donated by her, representing our Lord as the great physician, healing the sick of the palsy, grouped with three other figures, in "Loving memory of W. W. Adams." She was a childless wife, but *Page 121.
117
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
several nieces and nephews survive, who will cherish her memory as an example of rare virtue. She died December 31, 1898, and on Sunday afternoon was laid beside her hus- band in Mount Holly Cemetery, sincerely mourned by a legion of friends.
MRS. ELIZABETH-RECTOR (BEALL) HEMPSTEAD.
A. D. 1841-1858. Among the first acquaintances of the writer in Little Rock, in 1849, was Mrs. Elizabeth-Rector (Bcall) Hempstead, wife of General S. H. Hempstead, who lived on lower Markham street, then the fashionable residence street of the capital. She became the wife of General Samuel H. Hempstead at Little Rock in 1841, having formerly lived at Bardstown, Ky. General Hempstead was distinct in the galaxy of legal lights, that has been claimed to be the most brilliant in the records of the State. He was a Vestryman of the Church in 1858, during the Rectorship of Rev. A. F. Free- man. His beautiful wife was an acknowledged leader in society, where her influence for sincerity, kindliness, loyalty to her friends, and generous hospitality, which was nobly pro- moted by her husband, has been felt to this day. Later they purchased and occupied the large two-story brick house, built in colonial style, which erowned the hill on Walnut street (Fourth) in the eastern part of the city. This had been erected by Richard C. Byrd, president of Arkansas Senate in 1848-1849, and acting governor of the State in the brief inter- regnum after the resignation of Governor Thomas S. Drew and the inauguration of his successor, John Selden Roane. Having renovated and embellished this home, General and Mrs. Hempstead made it one of the most elegant and attractive in the city. Not a vestige of it remains, except the site, a part
-9-
118
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
of which is now occupied by the Forest Grove School. General Hempstead died in 1862. His wife survived him several years, and the memory of this noble woman, whose deeds of charity were seldom known to other than her God, still lingers, to embellish that of the husband, whom she so sincerely mourned. To the emigrant camps, so frequently set like a white village in the valley below her home, she appeared as an angel of mercy, as she passed in and out, accompanied by her servant, bearing delicacies for the sick. A family of inter- esting children was born to this worthy pair: Beall, Carl, Albert, Fay, Roy, Lena, Lec, and Shelby, all of whom were baptized members of the Church. Of the three brothers who survive, Messrs. Beall, Fay, and Roy, Mr. Fay Hempstead, poet and historian, is the only one married. His wife was Miss Gertrude O'Neale, of Virginia. Their children are Carrie, Samuel, Lindsay, Evelyn, Janet, Beall, and Robert O'Neal. Mrs. S. H. Hempstead's niece, Miss Ada Beall Coch- rane, became the wife of Rev. T. B. Lee, former Rector of Christ Church, and now Rector of St. David's Church, Austin, Texas, whose biography appears in these annals.
A. D. 1858. Bishop Freeman was the connecting link between Christ Church and the Northern District of Cali- fornia, in 1858, by the Episcopal act of ordination, of one who is affectionately remembered by the old citizens.
ยท
-
-
r
RT. REV. JOHN HENRY DUCACHET WINGFIELD, D. D., LL. D., D. C. L.
119
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
RT. REV. JOHN HENRY DUCACHET WINGFIELD, D. D., LL. D., D. C. L.,
MISSIONARY BISHOP OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Consecrated December 2, 1874, in St. Paul Church, Petersburg, Va. Died July 27, 1898, at his home, St. Augus- tine College, Benicia, Cal.
On Friday, June 3, 1898, the annalist addressed a letter to Bishop Wingfield, asking for some notes of his residence in Little Rock, and his connection with Christ Church, where he was ordained Deacon by Rt. Rev. G. W. Freeman, in 1858. In the issue, August 4, 1898, of the Southern Churchman of Richmond, Va., under the article "Northern California," I read the announcement of his death with grieved surprise.
On August 16 a letter was received from his widow, Mrs. Anne M. D. Wingfield, enclosing notices of his death, with his picture and the following postal card :
St. Augustine College, Benicia, Cal., August 11, 1898.
I send you by this mail a photograph and some papers, and as soon as I can find cuttings from old Little Roek papers, will copy and send them, together with a letter written to you by Bishop Wingfield in answer to yours. Pardon this long delay.
ANNE M. D. W.
On August 17, 1898, Mrs. Wingfield again wrote, enelos- ing his letter and a copy of the newspaper clipping from a Little Rock paper .*
*The letter and clipping from newspaper are here appended.
120
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
St. Augustine College, Benicia, Cal., August 17, 1898.
My Dear Mrs. Cantrell :
Some days ago I sent you a photograph of my husband, also newspapers containing notices of his death, which occurred July 27. The enclosed letter was written by him to you on June 27. I have not sent it to you because he asked me to copy whatever I could find in the form of a newspaper clipping, taken from an old Little Rock paper. His letter may be difficult to read, but I am very sure you will prize it, and more especially as his dear body is now laid to rest in Blandford Cemetery, at Petersburg, Va. I have a long letter from my sister, telling me of his burial.
When he fell on the floor, stricken with paralysis, on May 23, 1896, I made desperate efforts to help him, thinking he had fainted. I soon found that both my hands were sprained and helpless. Rheumatism settled in them, and I have not been able to use them for even writing, without suffering very much. Otherwise I should write more at length and give the particulars of his last hour. His death was unexpected after all his long, patient, weary time of suffering. His mind was. deranged for a year lacking two days, and was fully restored. You can see from his letter how his memory has clung to him. He has always said he believed his body would be restored suddenly, and for some weeks past had seemed so well and so hopeful that I really believed he would get well. But, with- out any premonitary symtoms, his heart suddenly failed-he did not suffer, but died quietly, like as of one going off in sleep.
A young clergyman is a member of my household, and I have gotten him to copy the newspaper clipping. I found it pasted in a blank book, and it was the only one from a Little Rock paper-the title was not given.
Let me know, please, whether the photograph and news-
121
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
papers reached you. And now, I must close, my dear Mrs. Cantrell, with all good wishes for you.
Faithfully yours,
ANNE M. DANDRIDGE WINGFIELD.
Copied from a newspaper clipping from a blank book containing scraps, belonging to Bishop Wingfield .- Anne M. D. Wingfield.
Little Rock, January 18, 1858.
Messrs. Editors-It becomes my pleasing duty to inform you of an ordination in Arkansas. This event was of singu- lar interest, from the fact that it was the first in the State, except one, and the first ordination of a Deacon belonging to this ecclesiastical jurisdiction. On the second Sunday after Epiphany, the Rt. Rev. Missionary Bishop of the Southwest admitted to the order of Deacons Mr. J. H. D. Wingfield, principal of the Ashley Institute. There were present the Rev. A. F. Freeman, Rector of the Parish; the Rev. Otis Hackett, Missionary at Helena, and the Rev. W. C. Stout, of the Diocese of Mississippi. The morning service was read by the Rector, assisted by Mr. Stout. The ordination sermon was preached by Mr. Hackett, from Acts xxviii. 22. It was an able argument in behalf of the Church, and a strong defense against numerous popular prejudices. A painful interest was given to the occasion by the feebleness of the Bishop, who was conducted from his room, in his robes, during the sermon, his health and strength not being sufficient to sustain him through the whole service. The venerable Bishop, after thir- teen years of hard service in this State, leaving his sick room to ordain the first Deacon, is a picture to look on. Should he not have the sympathy and prayers of his brethren ? No one out of this field of labor knows what hardness the Bishop has had to endure. And now that he is broken in health and oppressed by his heavy charge, shall he not have help ? He has, at no time, had laborers to fill the places that were crying to him for the services of the Church. Fields have been ripe to the harvest, but there was no one to reap.
122
THE ANNALS OF CHRIST CHURCH PARISH.
In the afternoon the Rev. Mr. Wingfield, the newmade Deacon, put on his harness, and after service by Mr. Hackett, assisted by Mr. Stout, preached from Acts xvi. 34, a discourse giving much promise of future usefulness. Mr. Wingfield is the son of the Rev. John Wingfield, Rector of Trinity Church, Portsmouth, Va. He was admitted a candidate in Virginia, and after pursuing his studies some time, was transferred to this jurisdiction. We trust that a field of great usefulness is before him, and that he is the pioneer of the many that shall follow in his steps.
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.