History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc, Part 55

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 55

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The REV. HENRY SLICER, so long known as "the war-horse of Methodism," was among the greatest men produced by her itinerant system. He was born in An- napolis, Maryland, March I, 1801, and be- came a resident of Baltimore in his six- teenth year, where he ever afterwards made his home whenever his labors enabled him to do so On reaching Baltimore he was apprenticed to the firm of John Finlay and Company, fancy furniture painters, for the purpose of learning that trade. At the same time he professed religion at the Exeter Street M. E. Church; induced to do so under a sermon preached by Rev. Gerard

Morgan. Immediately after his conversion he joined that church. He had received an English education, and being convinced it was his duty to preach, he commenced the study of theology under Bishop Emory. In his twentieth year he was licensed to preach, and was employed on the Balti- more Circuit under Rev. Stephen G. Roz- zell. He joined the Baltimore Conference in 1822, served seven years on circuits, twenty-one at stations, fifteen on districts as Presiding Elder, two years agent of the Metropolitan Church, Washington. It was under his supervision that that structure was commenced, and eight years as chap- lain of the Seamen's Union Bethel, Balti- more.

After Mr. Slicer had been four years in the ministry, he was stationed in Baltimore at City Station, in 1826. His other Balti- more appointments were: East Baltimore, 1844-45; North Baltimore, 1846-47; Balti- more City Station, 1852; Seamen's Bethel, 1870-74. For many years and up to the close of his life, he resided on East Balti- more street near Ann street. He could conveniently do so as most of the time he was Presiding Elder and had to travel over his districts. During the year 1827 he was united in marriage to a daughter of Rev. George Roberts, which proved to be a happy alliance. He was by nature a con- troversialist, bold and aggressive, never knowing fear; few could compete with him. He had controversies with the Methodist Protestants on their secession from the par- ent church, dealing them hard blows; and with the Baptists, when serving on the Po- tomac District, in 1836 and 1837. He wrote two pamphlets when engaged in contro- versy with Rev. William F. Broddus, and a

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larger treatise on the subject of baptism. He was for seven sessions of Congress chaplain to the Senate of the United States, and by resolution at the close of his service, allowed the privilege of the floor thereafter. In 1838 he was pastor of the Fronndry Church and chaplain to the Senate. It was at this time that Mr. Celley, a member of Congress, was killed by Mr. Graves in a duel. On the 9th of July, 1838, Mr. Slicer delivered "a discourse upon the history, character, causes and consequences of duels, with the means of prevention." He afterwards published it in pamphlet form of sixteen double pages.

The following selection is from that ser- mon: "Every man before he consents to send, or accept, a challenge to fight a duel, should consider well how he shall settle the account with his own conscience, how he shall avoid the maledictions of Jehovah, and how he shall escape from the ghost of his victim, which will pursue him in soli- tude and company, in his night dreams and in his waking hours, the balance of his days. A wounded spirit who can bear and although many and strenuous efforts be made to stifle conscience, and silence its painful voice, it will still point to the blood spot and his victim, ever and anon, arising in his pathway, shall shake his gory locks at him! And despite all his efforts at cheerfulness and gaiety, there will be a worm that shall gnaw at his heart's core; and in his imagination he will hear the wail of the widow, and the scream of the orphan, and the death groan of the father and the husband; and in all future time, when he reads or hears of death by duels there will come up a sad recollection of his own guilt. It would have been easier,

far easier, to have borne the imputation of cowardice, with a good conscience, than to feel through life 'afraid to think what he has done'-conscious that all the water of the great ocean is not sufficient to wash a brother's blood clean from his hands."

The church difficulties of 1844 were at hand and Mr. Slicer was ready to fight the Southern Church secession movement with all his strength. His most triumphant discussion was in September, 1852, when he was attacked in a public speech in front of his house by Joel G. Sever, of Louisiana, whom the Whigs had invited to speak in Frederick. A personal question arose be- tween them and Mr. Slicer appeared pub- licly upon the hustings and literally crushed his adversary.

The opposition of Doctor Slicer was feared in the Conference when the eloquent Doctor Guard was an applicant for admis- sion. It was rumored that Doctor Slicer would oppose the proposition. It was a re- lief to Doctor Guard's friends when Doctor Slicer, on the floor of the Conference, de- nied the report, saying: "Doctor Guard was not the first Irishman who had present- ed himself for admission and been received."

He was a member of eight General Con- ferences, viz .: 1832-1840-1844-1852-1850- 1860-1868-1872. In the book-concern con- troversy, consequent upon Dr. John Lana- han's report of irregularities in its man- agement; he sided with his Conference in sustaining the Doctor and upon the floor of the General Conference defended that posi- tion.

President Andrew Johnson was attached to him. He had often heard him preach, and attended his church in Washington. He did not forget his old friend when

This Role this, Son

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Executive of the Nation, but appointed him at one time on the annual board to visit West Point and be present at the ex- amination of the cadets.

Doctor Slicer was charged by some people with being a politician. On one occasion an admirer of the Doctor asked a friend to go and hear him preach; he agreed to do so, but said "he will say something about politics in his sermon." "No, he won't," promised the friend; and the Doctor did not in his sermon. He took up a collection and a few persons left while he was doing so, whereat he exhorted everybody to re- main, in stentorian tones exclaiming "you need not be afraid, there are no Plug Uglies in here."

In preaching, he was assertive and doc- trinal, practical and always attractive. He was unlike anyone else in substance and method of expression. His majestic per- sonal presence inspired awe and respect. He had a big brain but a larger heart. In one of his sermons he spoke of sinners "throwing themselves on the bosses of Je- hovah's buckler." For fifty-two years he was a preacher and a shining light. As his end approached, he said "I am willing to preach no more if need be. I have, per- haps, preached long enough." On Thurs- day afternoon, April 23, 1874, his sun set on earth. Mount Vernon M. E. Church did not hold those who gathered to pay · honor to the departed warrior of the cross. Bishop Ames and several of his fellow- preachers officiated; near the evening hour, tender-hearted friends left, him beneath the shades that hovered over Greenmount.

His type is a rare one; his earthly career was a glorious one, and there lives no man like him on all this earth, his survivor.

The race of Slicers such as he was is ex- tinct.

REV. CHARLES B. TIPPETT, D. D., was a native Marylander, born in Prince George's county, December 19, 1801. He was a convert under the ministry of the famous Henry Smith. The date of that event was during the year 1816. He was admitted to the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church in 1820, and on the 7th of March, 1827, was married to Mar- garet S. Lewis, of Virginia, whose kinsman was United States Senator Lewis. The churches he served in Baltimore were: East Baltimore, in 1825; North Baltimore, 1838- 39; Baltimore City Station, 1840; Fayette Street, 1841; North Baltimore, 1848-49; Caroline Street, 1862-63; Exeter Street, 1864, and Whatcoat, 1865-66; Whatcoat was his last appointment and while filling it he died, February 25, 1867.

He was Presiding Elder for sixteen years; book agent at New York four years, and a member of the General Book Com- mittee nineteen years. Besides, he was often sent as delegate to the General Con- ference.

When he was first at North Baltimore Station, occurred the marvelous revival at Exeter Street Church, which was irresistible and has taken rank as among the most powerful in the annals of American Me- thodism. Mr. Tippett has always been credited with a large share in promoting that work. . Wherever he was sent, spirit- ual success followed in his wake. He had in him the elements of true greatness; "the caste of his features, the tones of his voice, the courteousness of his manner, revealed his heart." He sought no controversies and wanted none. He was intensely spirit-

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ual and believed in prayer and lived rigidly up to all the ordinances of the church, re- quiring his members to do the same.

He was a wise man and governed firmly but not tyrannically. At appointments in the Methodist Church the preachers have week-day classes. Mr. Tippett had one, a female class, the members of which were noted for lateness. He determined to cor- rect them in a novel way. At the hour for the meeting of the class he was promptly on hand; he sang a hymn, engaged in prayer, exhorted, gave in his experience, exhorted himself sung another hymn, prayer, then dismissed class and went to the parsonage. He had hardly entered his house and closed the door before the mem- bers began to arrive in the class-room, and in fifteen minutes they filled the room, and thought it dreadful that Brother Tippett had forgotten it was class hour. They went to the parsonage in a body, and when he entered the parlor, they all shouted: "Oh! Brother Tippett; you have forgotten class meets this afternoon." "No, I have not, ladies; I was there promptly, and no one being there but myself, I soon got through with class and dismissed it, and we shall not have class again, dear sisters, un- til this day one week hence." He attended to his pastoral duties until two days prior to his death. His passing away was mourn- ed throughout the extended fields of his use- fulness and in the church of which he had been a conspicuous figure.

REV. JOHN A. COLLINS is an illustrious example of the ephemeral nature of fame. When he lived, it was to soar above lesser lights and to have few equals, and in the kingdom of pulpit oratory to know no su- perior. Crowds did him homage; the great

men of the land were held by his entrancing eloquence and paid tribute to its charms. Forty years have passed since he lived and save with his contemporaries who survive, and a few others who have heard of him from them, by everybody else, he has been forgotten. And so will it be with many of us who thirst for fame, and so has it been with most of the men who are the subjects of these sketches. Mr. Collins was born near Seaford, Del., in 1801; when he finished his education in Georgetown, Va., he entered the office of William Wirt, to equip himself for the practice of the law, but did not complete his legal studies.

In his twentieth year he was converted at a camp-meeting in Loudoun county, Va. For a short while he held a place in the Postoffice Department, under Postmaster General McLean. He was a local preacher from 1826 to 1830, but the last named year he gave up his office and was admitted to the Baltimore Conference. He served on circuits, in stations, as Presiding Elder, agent for Dickinson College, and in 1836, assistant editor of the New York Christian Advocate. New York's climate did not agree with his family, and his preferences were for itinerant work, so he shortly after receiving his appointment, resigned it. He was elected to the General Conference when eligible and to each succeeding one as long as he lived. It is claimed for him that in debate, he never had an equal on the floor of the General Conference. He served the most prominent churches in Baltimore and filled them with overflowing congrega- tions. His speech was always brilliant; he could not be summoned to speak and be found unprepared. Words flowed freely from his mouth and his ideas were born in

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a moment. His sentences were polished when they fell from his lips and needed no revision to bring them to perfection. He was generous in the extreme and never en- vied another's good fortune. He was im- pulsive and in consequence indiscreet at times, but he was not obstinate, and freely admitted his error when pointed out.

To analytical and logical power he added originality of thought, precision and clearness. Those qualities, with his match- less diction, made him the giant that he was in the church. May 7, 1857, he died and was buried in the Preachers' Lot in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

REV. THOMAS SEWALL, D. D., was born in Essex, Mass., April 28, 1818. He was educated at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Philips' Academy, Andover, and the Wesleyan Seminary, Readfield, Me.

His father was Dr. Thomas Sewall, a medical practitioner, and his mother was Mary Choate, a sister of Rufus Choate. Although born in Massachusetts, he lived the days of his life-after his manhood-in Maryland, and sleeps beneath her soil.

He commenced his ministry in 1838, in the Baltimore Conference. It is not neces- sary to follow him through his line of entire . appointments, which were always the best. His health in 1849 was impaired and he ceased preaching and for ten months, under appointment by President Taylor, he was Consul to Santiago de Cuba. His being a Protestant clergyman did not please the Papal Church and its influences with Spain, caused his exequator to be denied him. He returned home and received a position in the Interior Department and was after- wards transferred to a desk in the Depart-

ment of State, Daniel Webster being at that time Secretary of State.

He resumed pastoral work in 1853, and continued in the Baltimore Conference un- til 1864. During that time he was pastor of the following Baltimore churches: Fay- ette Street, Union Square, City Station and Charles Street, with one term as Presiding Elder of the Baltimore District. In 1864, Dickinson College conferred upon him the degree of D. D. In 1860, he was sent a delegate to the General Conference, and in 1866 he was transferred to the New York East Conference and stationed at Pacific Street Church, Brooklyn. His health gave way and he was returned to his old Con- ference and located in Baltimore. He was appointed to a clerkship in the Baltimore Custom House and was serving in that position when death summoned him hence, August II, 1870.

Mr. Sewall was a born orator, whose reputation was known in all the churches. his voice was silvery and musical. He had developed the finest aesthetic taste, and it has been said of him he was "clear in ar- gument, unsurpassed in description, with a poetic imagination under the restraints of sound judgment, he spoke as few living men can speak."

When his voice was almost gone and he could no longer do other than whisper, he prepared for the end and coolly put his house in order for death. He requested that his funeral should take place without ostentation; that none of his manuscripts should be printed and only a plain me- morial as simple as possible placed at his grave.

ALEXANDER EARLY GIBSON, D. D., was a companion piece to John A. Collins; he

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succeeded him in the Baltimore Confer- ence; and if any one can be said to have done so, equalled Mr. Collins in eloquence and ability. He was born in Baltimore City September 2, 1825. In babyhood he was taken by his parents to St. Paul's Epis- copal Church, presided over by Doctor Wy- att, and that good man held him in his arms and baptized him.

When a boy of sufficient age, he was apprenticed to Jacob Dailey, a member of Exeter Street M. E. Church, who con- ducted a chair painting establishment. The apprentice attended the church of his em- ployer, and in his fifteenth year was con- verted, and in the language of the author of his obituary, "converted at a Methodist al- tar, he never ceased to be an altar worker; and needing the inspiration of Methodist responsiveness, he never could have been at his best in a conservative pulpit."

He was admitted to preach in the old Baltimore Conference at its annual session of 1849; his appointments were always of the best. He began with Shrewsbury, Al- toona, Bedford, Carlisle and Williamsport, in Pennsylvania, and Frederick, in Mary- land. He was at Foundry and Waugh, in Washington, but Baltimore had the advan- tage of his gifts and services. He was at Baltimore City Station, East Baltimore and Broadway, Madison Avenue, Fayette Street, Exeter Street, Grace Church, Straw- bridge, Whatcoat, Harlem Park and Ful- ton Avenue. Besides, earlier he served the two Harford Circuits and later Laurel. He died on the 10th of January, 1897, while stationed at Fulton Avenue, in Baltimore.

His first education was received in the public schools of Baltimore; he absorbed learning so easily that his training was ex-

ceedingly rapid. When stationed at Car- lisle, he was a student at Dickinson Col- lege, and in 1860 graduated with honors, receiving the degrees of A. B. and A. M. When at East Baltimore and Broadway, he pursued a course of studies in medicine at the University of Maryland, and received his diploma as a M. D. He had two rea- sons for desiring to do so; one was to have a profession to fall back on if he became unable to preach, and the other was, that he might assist the poor of his charges who were without the means to employ medical advice. During his ministry at Broadway, the martyrdom of President Lincoln took place, and Mr. Gibson's sermon Sunday morning after that dismal tragedy was one of the most stirring, eloquent and finished orations ever delivered.

His obituarist said of him: "He blended an iron will with a woman's tenderness. He would have died for a conviction, and yet, with his latest breath, like his master, would have prayed for his murderers." The same authority wrote: "In the pulpit he blended investigation with exquisite fancy and spiritual unction. He was of aes- thetic tastes, a poet and composer of music; nevertheless a practical man and safe ad- viser in the business of the church. He was approachable and magnetic; children loved him, and their grandparents lighted up at his coming. In the sick room he was a benediction, dispelling gloom by his sympathetic manner and cheery words."

When Lee first invaded Maryland, being in Frederick, he, with a party of friends, ascended the tower of the old German Re- formed Church to view the operations of the two armies. A Federal soldier suspect- ing them to be Confederates, covered them

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with his gun, but was ordered not to fire by General Reno, who, with his glass, ascer- tained that they were led to the top of the tower by curiosity.

After the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, he hastened to succor and assist the wounded. He had not graduated in medicine, but used what knowledge he pos- sessed to relieve sufferings. He attended among others who were wounded, a North Carolina Confederate. A few days after- wards he was out riding, and so was the soldier, who, in passing him, greeted him with "How d' ye do, doctor? I'm getting along all right, thank ye."

Dickinson College conferred upon him the degree of D. D. He kept up his read- ing and studies and was always abreast of the times.

After his death, the friendly hand that has penned these lines in a communication to the "American," which appeared in that paper January 13, 1897, said of Doctor Gib- son: "In 1861 the Baltimore pulpit had in it men of signal ability and eloquence whose successors as an entirety have not reappear- ed. Prominent among them was a man in the dream day of life, with a soul of fire and pathos, who could thrill your heart and sway your emotions until you had been completely captivated and subjugated by the flashes of brilliant imagery that warmed in his brain, whose glow spread like a fiery contagion throughout his congrega- tion. That man was Alexander E. Gibson, pastor of the Broadway M. E. Church. The last of March, 1861, Matthew Simpson, in his day one of the greatest of inspirational speakers, preached in Doctor Gibson's Broadway pulpit. War was coming! The speaker in his masterful sermon approached

its close in a climax which was intense and dramatic. In consisted of an invocation to the flag and its effect was electrical.

"During the war the finest eloquence in and out of the pulpit was delivered that it has ever been my fortune to listen to."

"A Broadway Methodist congregation had swayed like trees in a windstorm under Simpson's invocations at the beginning of the struggle. Peace was at hand! and Lin- coln was a martyr. Sunday after that tragic event the congregation in the Broad- way church filled every available space; the hush and awe of death was there. Doctor Gibson for over an hour delivered a sermon on 'The Nation's Loss,' which, in elo- quence, surpassed Simpson's former effort, and was in its composition one of the most finished, stately and ornate orations it has ever been my pleasure to listen to. It is my deliberate judgment that the two great- est of all Baltimore orators in the past forty years were Henry Winter Davis and Alexander E. Gibson. Both of them could reach heights to which only men of native genius can ever obtain. Doctor Gibson was scholarly and polished in diction and utter- ance; he had an intense soul, and could feel; no man was ever a great orator with- out a deep soul. His mind was graphic, none of your ordinary master-pieces, with the fire of inspiration running all through them. He was an artist, and his superior spirit in the mantlings of originality always struck a high key-note. His fund of logic was great and he wandered in the realm of metaphysics, but his crowning talent was the strength of imagery. In that he stood pre-eminent. I recall a sermon which he preached one Sunday morning at the Fay- ette Street Church. The audience and

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choir were bathed in tears; he had dissolved even himself to tears; when he concluded, a painful pause existed; he could not read the parting hymn the choir could not sing the Doxology; with throbbing heart he stammered through the benediction."

While he was at Fayette Street Church, Frederick Pinkney, the celebrated lawyer, was induced to go and hear Mr. Gibson. He was charmed with his powers. Mr. Pinkney on his death-bed, sent by a mutual friend this message: "Tell Doctor Gibson I am as good a Methodist as he is, although I shall die in the Episcopal Church." When the words were delivered, the reply of Doc- tor Gibson was: "I am glad and thankful to have a message from so good a man as Frederick Pinkney."

Honors befitting so illustrious a preacher were rendered to him. His funeral took place in the Whatcoat Church. His wife, a native of Frederick, had his remains buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, in that ·city.

His obituary, written by his friend and co-laborer, Rev. J. McKendry Reiley, is a master-piece. In less than a year he fol- lowed him to the grave. The obituary be- gins with a quotation from an introduction written by Doctor Gibson to a book called "Crowned Victors," which will conclude this sketch:

"Only here and there along the track of mortals are found names perpetuated in the immortality of infamy; and these are pre- served as warnings of the fate to be meted out by human justice to those who strike at virtue and innocence, or basely violate the rights of man. But by pillars of brass and stone; by polished columns; by splen- did temples of worship and learning; by

sculpture, painting and song, and a thou- sand other devices born of human affection, the names of the wise and good-the lovers of their race-are kept alive, and will be preserved until the shadows of the last sun- set shall wrap the world in its mantle of silence and death."

REV. J. MCKENDRY REILEY, D. D., was the son of a Methodist minister who was one of the organizers of the Baltimore Con- ference. His father was engaged in itin- erant work on a Pennsylvania Circuit, of which Broad Top, near Dudley, in Hunt- ingdon county, was for the time being his home, at which place, on March 17, 1817, the subject of this sketch was born. Mc- Kendry Reiley had the advantages of ex- cellent schools and was the recipient of an advanced education. He finished a colle- giate course which followed by four years of training in theology. On obtaining his majority he taught school in Richmond, Ind., and Cincinnati, O. He retraced his steps in a few years and as principal took charge of the high school at Charles- town, Jefferson county, W. Va. 'While re- siding there he married Miss Susan Gibbs, a lady of piety and ambitious in good works. It was she who urged her husband to become a preacher. Her advice was not lost, so that in 1843 he was admitted on trial in the Baltimore Conference. His wife having died, some years afterwards he was married to a daughter of Rev. Wesley Ste- venson.

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344