USA > Georgia > Bibb County > Macon > Georgia Baptists: historical and biographical > Part 37
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Joseph Polhill.
eral times with liniment, and he complained of it no more. His physicians (among whom was Dr. Miller, his son-in-law,) were convinced, from the first, that his injuries would prove fatal. When we were around his bed, he said to me, 'Mother, let us hold one another's hands to the last.' He looked at the children and said, 'All here except our first-born. Tell my dear John that I have fought the good fight.' He retained his rea- son and speech to the last, and said to a good brother that his hopes were so bright as almost to alarm him. When brother Tom Key took leave. of him, he said, 'Farewell, brother Tom ; I hope to meet you on the banks of deliverance.' Old brother Key came to see him, and prayed with him. Your father asked him if he thought it possible he could be deceived, seeing he felt the presence of his Saviour so gloriously, and had such evi- dences of his acceptance. Brother Key assured him he had confidence that he was not deceived, which seemed to gratify him much. Frank Carswell staid with him the last night he lived. He knew him as soon as he spoke. Said to him, 'I am going home, Frank; there is not a cloud between me and my Saviour.' He asked how late it was, and being informed it was. past eight, he raised his clasped hands and exclaimed, 'Oh ! my gracious Master, when will the hour come !' Then closed his eyes and lay two or three minutes, opened them again, and looking at me, said, 'Be composed, they are making prepara- tions ;' closed them for the last time, and was gone, without a groan or a contortion. A most angelic smile rested on his dear face till it was hid from mortal gaze. His body lies in the field in front of the house. His old horse, Buck, and his gray drew him to his last resting place. His friends from far and near, old and young, came to his burial. Old brother Key performed appropriate services in the house, and brother Palmer prayed at the grave.
" But, O, my son, when our married children and their fami- lies left me, then did I feel my loneliness. And when the hour came to surround the family altar, and he who had always of- fered the sacrifice was gone, it was almost more than I could do to read the scriptures and kneel in his accustomed place to implore God's blessing and protection."
This excellent woman kept up family worship as long as she
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lived, unless confined to her bed by sickness, proving herself, a she had ever done, worthy to have been the wife of this mos devoted and useful minister of Christ. With the influence c his example upon her, she could hardly have done otherwise
It had been his custom not only to attend family worship morning and evening, but also whenever he was leaving hi: family for any length of time, they were assembled for specia prayer, and were thus left under God's immediate protection.
Mr. Polhill was a strong and consistent advocate of the tem perance cause. From the hour of his conversion, he abstainec altogether from intoxicating drinks. In his last illness, one, 0: his physicians offered him brandy. He looked him steadily in the face and said, " Doctor, will you, as a physician, say this is nec. essary to save my life ?" The doctor replied that, as an honest man, he could not say so. "Then," said he, " doctor, take it back; I cannot violate the promise I made to my God many years ago, when he converted my soul."
He was of, a stout, heavy build, somewhat bordering on cor- pulence ; of a pleasant, open, honest countenance, and of a kind, fraternal, benevolent spirit. He loved his friends, and no man in turn was more beloved than he. They ever found a cordial welcome in his hospitable mansion, and with his intelligent family, and he knew how to make himself at home with them. His mind, though not of the first order, was of sufficient clear- ness, depth and power to render him a forcible and successful preacher of the Word. His education, though neither thorough nor extensive, was sufficient to qualify him for the business of life, and for great usefulness in the church. He belonged to the class of medium men-far the most useful class, whether in the church or in the world.
THOMAS U. WILKES.
During the author's pastorate in Macon, Georgia, in the spring of 1831, T. U. Wilkes, his mother and sister presented themselves before the Conference with letters of dismission from a church in South Carolina, of which State he was a native. He was then about twenty years of age. His father, en route from South Carolina to Alabama, finding the roads in an almost
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Thomas U. Wilkes.
¿ as impassable condition, concluded to stop near Macon until such time as he could prosecute his journey to better advantage, which he did the ensuing winter. Being a mill-wright by trade, he and the subject of this sketch undertook the erection of a mill on Walnut creek, three miles above Macon, for the brothers Austin and Thomas Ellis. Those excellent men ever after held T. U. Wilkes in the highest esteem. Indeed, a cordial friend- ship then sprang up between them which lasted throughout their lives.
He had been "licensed" by his mother church in South Caro- lina, and, though his education was quite limited, and his ap- pearance, on the whole, ungainly, yet such was his thirst for knowledge, his fervid zeal, and his unostentatious piety, as to give strong hope of future usefulness. With this hope, the writer encouraged him to attend school at least two years, and pledged his own lean purse for his support, should such a resort be necessary. The project for starting Mercer Institute was then on foot, but Wilkes had no time to lose. So, at the in- stance of the writer, Rev. A. Sherwood, then residing near Ea- tonton, Putnam county, agreed to receive him into his family and give him his board and tuition, on condition that he would work half his time. With this condition he faithfully complied, working at his trade, (that of a carpenter,) in the field, or wherever his services were required. This arrangement lasted only one year, and the following winter, (the second Monday in January, 1833,) Wilkes was one of the " faithful few" who were at the opening of Mercer Institute. Here he continued two years or more, having acquired a very respectable knowl- edge of English and Latin ; and when he retired from the insti- tute, he carried with him the respect and confidence of Rev. B. M. Sanders, the principal, than whom there have been few bet- ter judges of human nature. This was also true of Rev. Dr. Sherwood, it being well known to the writer that Wilkes was ever afterwards held in high esteem by those.great and good men.
Upon leaving Penfield, he was invited by the executive com- mittee of the Central Association to become their missionary. Lot Hearn, of Putnam county, furnished him with a horse, and also a home at his house. Solomon Graves, of Newton county,
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also offered him a home, so the missionary neither lacked friend nor homes. In the course of that year he married a Miss Graves of North Carolina, a relative of the Graves family, of Newto county, one of the most respectable and influential families i the State. With his wife, a most excellent woman, he receive a handsome property, so that, in his circumstances, henceforth though not affluent, he was quite independent. Yet this im provement in his worldly condition did not divert his attention from the great work of the ministry. To this work he devoted his best energies, with unwavering fidelity, while he remained in this State, and, as far as is known, to the end of his earthly career. He resided in Eatonton, and preached there and to contiguous churches for several years. He was an earnest preacher, zealous and persevering, and was eminently success- ful in building up his churches. Indeed, he was considered by many worthy of being ranked in the first class of preachers in the regions where he labored.
Having been invited by the First Baptist Church in Atlanta to become their pastor, he removed to that city about the year 1852. Having lost his first wife while at Eatonton, he married an interesting lady of South Carolina. In Atlanta he was the same zealous and indefatigable minister that he had ever been, and many were "added unto the Lord." His case strikingly illustrates the fact, that want of early education, even though coupled with personal disadvantages, (for Wilkes had a harsh, grating voice, especially in its higher keys,) need be no obstacle to great usefulness in the ministry. About the period of the breaking out of the late war he removed with his family to the State of Arkansas, where he died at about the age of fifty-four. The writer calls to remembrance the last brief interview we ever had : It was so brief and so sad. After the storm of war had burst upon the country, he was passing down the Central Railroad one night for the purpose of preaching to the soldiers around Savannah. In passing Gordon, he stepped out on the platform, when Wilkes, who was passing up from his old home in Putnam, hearing his voice in the dark, recognized it and came to him. A few hurried words-a cordial grasp of the hand-a mutual "God bless you !" and the friends of many years parted, to meet no more on earth.
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Adiel Sherwood, D. D.
Since the foregoing was written, the following additional facts have been furnished by Rev. W. H. Robert, of Arkansas, viz: That Wilkes moved from Georgia to Phillips county, Arkansas, in 1861, and settled on a farm near the town of Trenton. During the war, like most of his neighbors, he suf- fered the loss of all his earthly goods. He remained at home attending to his business, promoting the general good of the community, encouraging the hearts of the desponding, and elpreaching to his churches as usual. By much patience and edperseverance he was enabled to keep up his appointments regu- arly, and some of his largest congregations were had during he war. For feeding his brother-in-law, a Confederate soldier, he was arrested and treated with great indignity, and his farm- ng implements, stock and household furniture either destroyed or taken away. He preached at Trenton, Blackfoot and Spring Creek churches in Phillips county, and occasionally to Concord nd salem churches in Monroe. His last days were spent in reaching the gospel, the work he loved so well. In a meeting f several days at Salem church he became much exhausted, and having rested at home only one night, he began a similar meet- ng at Concord church. He had labored here about a week when he was stricken down by disease, which in two weeks erminated his earthly career. Brother Robert says, "He was onscious to the last. Not two hours before his death, being hformed of his condition by his wife, he exclaimed, 'I know it- Thy will, oh God, be done!'" This was his last utterance- Thy will, not mine be done!" This event occurred in the neigh- orhood of Concord church, August 12th, 1865. He left a wife nd five children, one of whom, Luther, is a theological student t William Jewell College, Missouri. He was a native of Marl- oro' District, South Carolina, was born in 1816, and died as bove stated.
ADIEL SHERWOOD, D. D.
Though this venerable brother is yet living, and remarkably ctive and energetic for one so advanced in years, (for he is ow, 1874, in his eighty-third year,) yet the history of the Bap- ists of Georgia would be very incomplete without a sketch of
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his useful life. When he returned to the State in 1857, it wa with the intention of spending the remainder of his days among us. But his little farm in Butts county was in the track o Sherman's army, and he and his helpless family were stripper of all they had about them, which rendered his return to Mis souri, where he had some property remaining, necessary.
He was born at Fort Edward, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson, forty-five miles north of Albany, October 3d 1791. [His father, Colonel Adiel Sherwood, was an officer du- ring the revolution, was twice in command of Fort Ann, and was with Washington that cold winter at Valley Forge.] He was baptized by Ebenezer Harrington, and commenced the study of the classics at Granville, November, 1810, under Dr. Salem Town, who was in charge of Powelton Academy, in this State, in 1822 and 1823; entered Middlebury College at Town's suggestion in 1814, and in 1816 he went to Union College, Sche- nectady, near his home, where he was graduated in 1817. His graduating speech was a poem styled " The Battle of Niagara."
He began to teach school in 1811, and taught, more or less, until 1858, when he had charge of Marshall College at Griffin. His knowledge of elementary books was so perfect that he could repeat (give him the first word or line,) most tables or chapters in those books, also most of Watts' psalms and hymns. He was at Andover Theological Seminary parts of 1817 and 1818, and studied Hebrew under Professor Stuart.
In October, 1818, he arrived in Savannah, where he preached his first sermon, and taught the Academy at Waynesboro, Burke county, during the ensuing winter. He was ordained at Bethesda church, Greene county, in March, 1820, by a presby- tery consisting of Mercer, Reeves, Roberts and Mathews, and was pastor of Bethlehem church, near Lexington, in 1820 and 1821. In May, 1821, he was married to Mrs. Early, relict of Governor Peter Early. He and Jesse Mercer aided in organ- izing the Baptist church at Greensboro, in June, 1821, of which he was pastor eleven years in succession. In April, 1823, he attended the General Baptist Convention of the United States, and in the summer of the same year he and Mr. Mercer visited the Mission Station at Valley Town, North Carolina. In 1820 and 1821 he was missionary of the Savannah Missionary So-
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Adiel Sherwood, D. D.
ciety, in Pulaski, Laurens and other counties in that region. ng In October, 1820, he prepared the resolution which was offered ofin the Sarepta Association, at Ruckersville, by Charles J. Jen- edkins, father of ex-Governor Jenkins, which resulted in the for- ismation of the Georgia Baptist Convention, (or General Associa- tion, as it was first called,) at Powelton, in June, 1822. Having nklost his first wife, he was married to Miss Heriot, of Charleston, South Carolina, in May, 1824.
In 1827 he took charge of Eatonton Academy, Putnam nd county, and at the same time preached to the churches at Ea- He tonton, Milledgeville, and Greensboro. Was pastor at the for- he mer place ten years, and, during a portion of that time, rode forty miles and back monthly to preach to the newly consti- tuted church at Macon. He also had under his instruction a ew theological students. In the Georgia Baptist Convention t Big Buckhead church, Burke county, in 1831, he made the motion for a theological institution, which finally culminated n the establishment of Mercer University. As the project was not pushed forward with such energy as met his views, he started a small manual labor school on his farm, two miles north of Eatonton, early in the year 1832; which, however, ne discontinued so soon as .Mercer Institute got into opera- tion.
He was several times a delegate from Georgia, in the Baptist Triennial Convention of the United States, in 1829, in company with Dr. Manly of Charleston; in 1832, with Hon. Thomas Stocks; and in 1835, with Jesse Mercer. He also aided in the formation of the American and Foreign Bible Society, in Phil- adelphia. He was elected to a professorship in Columbian College, District of Columbia, in which position he labored two years; and in 1838, returned to Georgia, and entered upon the duties of professor of sacred literature in Mercer University. He remained here only some three years, when he was called to the presidency of Shurtleff College, Illinois. While in Georgia, he was several times appointed by the Governor one of the board of visitors to the State University.
His connection with Shurtleff College was continued several years, during which time the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Dennison University at Granville,
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Ohio. While in the West, he served, for a time as President of the Masonic College at Lexington, Missouri. He also suc. ceeded the lamented and indefatigable Isaac McCoy, as secre. tary of the American Indian Missionary Association, in which capacity he visited the Mission Stations West of Fort Towson, and also in Kansas Territory. In 1822, he removed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri ; but rheumatism compelled him to return once more to Georgia, which he did in 1857. He took charge of Marshall College, with which he was connected until called to the pastorship of Griffin church. He resided in that city several years, which he at length left for his farm in Butts county, where, as already stated, he was broken up by the Yankee army in its victorious (?) march through the State in the fall of 1864. He and his family struggled against want until the following September, when they returned to Missouri and settled in St. Louis, where they now reside.
Dr. Sherwood has ever manifested a fondness for literary pursuits and employments. He has written and published much. His " Gazetteer of Georgia," which has passed through several editions, with improvements, first appeared in 1827. It is an excellent work of the kind, and contains much valuable information no where else to be found. His "Jewish and Chris- tian Churches " is concise and comprehensive, and is conclusive upon the subject of which it treats. His " Notes on the New Testament," an invaluable contribution to our religious litera- ture, was first issued in 1856, and has passed through four edi- tions of five hundred each. He was engaged on this work many years, and it is, perhaps, the most important he has ever published. Quite a number of his sermons have been published by request of those bodies before whom they were delivered. And then he has contributed hundreds, if not thousands, of ar- ticles for magazines, reviews and other papers in all parts of the land, and on all sorts of subjects affecting the welfare of mankind, and especially the interests of the cause of Christ. It would not comport with the design of this work to go into a detailed account of these productions of this laborious servant of Christ.
As a preacher, Dr. Sherwood is ever systematic, concise and pointed. To those accustomed to hear him, it would seem that
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he could not be otherwise. In early life he was somewhat given to controversial preaching, in which he sometimes indulged in a degree of asperity of language towards his opponents. Later in life he has pursued a different course, and the writer "has heard him express regret for what he considered un- e wise and unprofitable in this particular. His long life has been n eminently a laborious one. He has not eaten the bread of the edler. Whatever his hand has found to do, he has done with d his might-not for worldly gain, for, be it recorded to the re- yproach of those who have enjoyed the benefits of his preaching, he has been paid, on an average, only about one hundred dollars eper annum during forty years of his ministerial career. Of course he has had to support his family by teaching, farming nd other means, in all of which he had been successful. He how resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
He has been eminently successful in winning souls to Christ, ynd few men are more efficient in seasons of revival than he. ed Che great revival of 1827 and 1828 commenced under his minis- ry at Eatonton. Thence it extended to the session of the Oc- 7. hulgee Association at Antioch church, Morgan county, where undreds were converted, (among whom was the celebrated is- ohn E. Dawson,) and thence the blessed influence was carried y the delegates, ministers and visitors throughout all the in- prior counties, whence it spread to the remotest parts of the tate, resulting, in two years, in the hopeful conversion of up- di- ards of fifteen thousand souls.
HENRY COLLINS
Was a native of Jackson county, Georgia, where he was born ebruary 20th, 1798. The poverty of his father prevented him. om affording his son a liberal education, so that he attended hool only long enough to acquire a knowledge of the rudi- ents of the English language. At the age of about twenty- ven, he obtained hope in Christ and was baptized into the llowship of Sharon church, Henry county, Georgia. He was ensed to preach in February, 1835, and was ordained in Janu- y, 1836, by a presbytery consisting of A. Sherwood, W. A. allaway and J. H. Campbell. Soon after his ordination he
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removed with his family to Cobb county, which was thert frontier country, inhabited by Indians and hunters. In Is neighborhood there were only two professors of religion, Methodist exhorter and a Hard-shell Baptist. But the zeal f this humble yet faithful man of God soon found places f preaching and people to preach to. As the country was tally destitute of meeting houses, he called the settlers togeth" in private houses, under bush arbors, and frequently under t shades of the primeval forest trees; and with such heaven" unction did he deliver the gospel message, that hundreds we soon brought to a saving knowledge of Christ, who were ba tized and constituted into churches. Meeting houses so sprang up as if by magic, and "the wilderness and the solita place " was literally " made glad." He labored in that fie about twenty-five years, and was instrumental in accomplishi incalculable good. Frequently, during the summer and f months, he would be engaged in revival meetings almost inc( santly, preaching day and night, and baptizing hundreds. ( one occasion, during a period of three months, he attend meetings regularly, with an intermission of only one day a two nights, during which time he baptized seventy-five sou
Sunday-schools and the temperance cause found in him a co sistent and ardent supporter and advocate. Indeed, there w nothing calculated to promote the best interests of his fello citizens that did not receive the whole weight of his influenc which, though an extremely modest and unpretending man, w generally controlling in his field of operations. Of course, su a 'man could not do otherwise than command the respect al confidence of all who knew him.
In September, 1859, he contracted a violent cold while labc ing in a meeting at Holly Spring church, Cherokee count which resulted in chronic pneumonia, and which finally tern nated his useful life. The following winter he withdrew fro the field of labor which he had cultivated so long and so su cessfully, and located in Dooly county, in the hope, perhar that a warm climate might improve his health. But he w able to preach but few times in his new field of labor, on a count of the diseased condition of his lungs. It would see or go that the Lord had given him warning of his approaching en
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mas several months before his death, while yet able to ride about Ithe neighborhood, he was often heard to say that his work was lone. Several times he said to his family that Paul's declara- lion (Timothy, iv. chapter, 6, 7, 8 verses,) rested with great flveight on his mind : "For I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand," etc. He lingered for months, heenjoying the brightest evidences of his acceptance with God, thund finally fell asleep in Jesus on the 5th day of June, 1860, in he sixty-third year of his age.
The Noonday Association, at its session in 1861, thus notices is demise : " We also notice the death of one other minister, sod ho, though not a member of our body at the time of his death, tad et his name and labors are so intimately connected with the fiebaptist cause in this section of country, that we cannot refrain hisom mentioning him : We refer to your former moderator, Rev. IfLenry Collins, a man who lived in your midst for many years ; hose voice has been heard in nearly every Baptist church, and @ almost every nook and corner of this part of Cherokee Geor- ndsia. He ' bore the heat and burden of the day.' 'He went ran'rth weeping, bearing precious seed.' God abundantly blessed soutis labors, and hundreds still live to testify that he was the fa- pred instrument in the hands of God in bringing them to hrist. He was eminently a man of prayer; and, not only in s waking moments, but sometimes in the stillness of the night, ave the families with whom he tarried been awakened from . eir slumbers by his unconscious, though fervent appeals to a rone of grace for some poor lost sinner. He was a good min- er of Christ, and, though not great in the estimation of the orld, yet was he blessed of God, and loved and honored by his ethren. Like a shock of corn, fully ripe, has he been gath- ed into the garner of the Lord, that he may rest from his bors, and so that his works may follow him." A noble testi- onial to a worthy man !
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