USA > Missouri > Presbyterianism in the Ozarks : a history of the work of the various branches of the Presbyterian Church in Southwest Missouri, 1834-1907 > Part 34
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"Life's labor done as sinks the clay, Light from its load the spirit flies, While heaven and earth combine to say How blest this righteous when he dies."
JAMES BELL LOGAN. (Written by W. C. Logan.)
Rev. James Bell Logan, D. D., who labored for a dozen years in Southwestern Missouri, was born in Limestone county, Alabama, December 18, 1820. # * * When about four years of age his father moved to East Tennessee with the expectation of securing some Indian land which had been put on the market and known as the Hiwassee Purchase. * * * All the avail- able land had been purchased before his arrival and he was com- pelled to lease school land under adverse circumstances. Here, toiling night and day, to help his father, young James lived un- til he was fourteen years of age. At this time his father moved some sixty or seventy miles west, into what was called the Cher- okee country, where the family lived for seven years, having at first no neighbors to speak of except the Indians. * * #
In the spring of 1842 they moved to Lawrence county, Missouri, near King's Point." There a cabin was erected, and about half . the floor laid when the father died, leaving James as the one upon whom the family cares rested.
His mother was a sufferer from asthma, and there were a younger brother and a sister to care for.
At this time James was about 22 years old. He purchased some improved land, to pay for which he taught school in a Mr. Carr's house. It was here that he met Miss Mary Stephenson, with whom he was united in Marriage February 16, 1843. Two girls were born to them. When Spring River Academy was built he was put in charge, and continued in that capacity for a number of ears, and until a Mr. King from the east took his place. Mr. Logan's wife did not live many years.
Mr. Logan's parents were converted under the preaching of Rev. Robert Donnell, a distinguished Cumberland Presby- terian minister in Alabama, who also baptized this first-born son. When the family was living in East Tennessee, religious privileges were few. At a camp meeting held by Cumberland Presbyterians, James, then about twelve years old, professed re- ligion, and about a year later joined the church. In his sev- enteenth year he united with Presbytery and was licensed in his twenty-first year by Hiwassee Presbytery. After going to Mis-
*N. B .- King's Point is in Dade County, not far from Lawrence.
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souri he was ordained by Ozark Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1843. In 1849 the General Assembly met at Princeton, Ky., and Mr. Logan went on horseback with a family of Kimbros, who were to visit relatives near Bowling Green. After the Assembly Mr. Logan went to Bowling Green, that he might return with his companions in travel; but a sick child of theirs delayed the return journey. Meantime Mr. Logan formed the acquaintance of Miss Susan Hendrick, who became his bride in October of that year. He took his bride back to Missouri in a two-horse wagon.
In 1851 Mr. Logan traveled four months in the interest of a mission church in St. Louis, of which Rev. J. G. White was minister. He went down the Missouri river from Kansas City to Boonville, visiting the camp meetings and protracted meet- ings in the interest of the mission. In the spring of 1852, at the earnest solicitation of many of his ministerial brethren, he lo- cated at Lexington and started a church paper, called the Mis- souri Cumberland Presbyterian. His expectations concerning the paper were not realized, owing to lack of proper financial backing. Rev. C. A. Davis was his pastor here, and he had Hon. R. C. Ewing for a neighbor. After a year he moved the paper for greater convenience to St Louis, where he consolidated it with another, the united paper being called the St. Louis Ob- server. Sickness in the family and other reasons caused Mr. Logan to move his family in 1855 to Alton, Ill., some twenty- five miles up the Mississippi river, whither he took his paper the year following. But because of financial conditions he sold out the paper to a Mr. Cox, who continued it for some time. There were other ventures made in journalism which were a part of Mr. Logan's experience during his stay in Alton of some nineteen years. In fact, he was connected with a religious jour- nal in some capacity most of his time.
On going to Alton Mr. Logan assumed charge of a strug- gling mission, without house and with very few members. But he remained in charge for. seventeen years, during which time over seven hundred professed faith in Christ in connection with the services, and four hundred united with the church on con- fession. While here he wrote a number of books which were quite popular at the time and for years afterward. These were years of hard struggle and great sacrifice, yet fruitful in good works. For years he was connected with the St. Louis Board of Missions as President and Secretary, and in 1872 he resigned his pastorate to give all his time as General Superintendent of the Board of Missions. In 1871 he was honored by his church as the choice for Moderator of the General Assembly, which met in Nashville, Tenn. In 1875 he received the degree of Doc-
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tor of Divinity from Lincoln University, Lincoln, Ill .- a school with which he had been intimately connected from its founding. In 1874, having resigned his connection with the Board of Mis- sions, he accepted a call to the church at Taylorville, Ill. Here he labored successfully till called to his reward, September 14, 1878. His remains were taken for burial to Alton, Ill., the scene of so much of his life's labors and successes. His last words were, "All is well."
WILLIAM J. GARRETT.
Rev. William J. Garrett was born on a Tennessee farm May 4th, 1820. At twenty years of age he made a profession of religion and soon thereafter placed himself under the care of the Elk Presbytery, C. P. His education was obtained under the private tuition of Rev. Nelson P. Modrall, after which he was sent by his Presbytery as a missionary to Georgia. In com- pany with Rev. W. W. Hendrix he rode a circuit of two hundred miles and preached on week days as well as on Sundays. In March, 1843, Mr. Garrett was ordained and for about nine years he supplied churches in his native state. In the fall of 1852, ac- companied by a brother, he came on horseback to Southwest Missouri, to consider the spiritual destitutions of this region. The field was inviting to one who sought to build up the king- dom in waste places. Mr. Garrett bought a farm seven miles north of Springfield, returned to Tennessee after his family and in the fall of 1853 returned with his wife and four children to his greene county farm. Immediately he began an active itin- eration and ministered to numerous congregations-notably Mt. Comfort, Walnut Spring, Pleasant Hope, New Providence and Springfield. Induced by the urgent call of the Greenfield Church, and the superior school facilities, there in the fall of 1855, he sold his farm and began his monumental work in Dade county. Mr. Garrett was much in demand for Sacramental meetings. His sermons had a freshness and variety that at- tracted attention and were delivered with great unction. He organized and established various congregations in Dade, Law- rence, Barton and Cedar counties, and preached and labored for days and weeks in Marionville, Aurora, Verona, Pierce City, Sarcoxie, Carthage, Iantha, Milford, Mt. Vernon, Stockton, Ash Grove, Everton. etc., as well as many rural communities. His last work was at Neosho, Mo. After a three years' pastorate there he yielded to the weight of years resting so heavily upon him, and retired from active duties. He returned to Greenfield and resided there until the death of his wife in 1903. Since that time he has made his home with his oldest son, John E., in
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Springfield. Mo. Now in the ninetieth year of his age, he is still able to read and to meditate on the ways of God with men. He continues to walk about three miles daily. Of the three men whose labors were truly apostolic in the planting of Cumberland Presbyterianism in Southwest Missouri, and in rehabilitating it after the desolation of war, Mr. Garrett alone remains. Young and Montgomery have long since entered into their reward. Of the three it is probable that Mr. Garrett excelled in scholarly attainments and he evidently gave more attention to the educa- tional interests of the Southwest. But this did not detract in the least from his pulpit work. He felt like Paul: "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." He was an exemplary Presbyter and the annals of his Presbytery give evidence of his punctual attendance and conspicuous interest in all that pertained to the well being of his church. Wise in counsel and versed in all that pertained to the progress of his church he was frequently sent by his brethren as a commissioner to the General Assembly.
REV. R. J. SIMS.
"Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor." As an elder, R. J. Sims obtained a good report. He was elected to that position in the Mount Comfort Congregation in Williamson county, Tennessee, in 1852, and in 1856 was elect- ed to a similar position in the Mount Comfort church, Greene county, Missouri. Gradually he began to perform the functions of a teaching as well as a ruling elder, and was soon ordained to the work of the ministry. Before and after the war his lab- ors were abundant in the northeast part of Greene county and in other parts of Southwest Missouri. But while his work in the pastorate is worthy of mention he is remembered conspicuously as a type of new kind of evangelist in the church. "A natural, simple manner was a rare things in those days of pulpit thun- der." The incidents that follow are taken from McDonald's history :
"One of our aged ministers once traveled some distance to attend the meetings of Rev. R. J. Sims. * * * There was an immense congregation. The evangelist made a very simple, earnest address with no loud tones, violent gestures or exciting appeals. The talk was conversational, and in subdued accents. Then the speaker asked those occupying the four pews in front of the pulpit to vacate them, to accommodate the penitents. To the aged preacher who sat behind the evangelist this seemed a foolish proceeding. 'Four seats indeed !' thought he. 'If one mourner comes forward it is more than I expect.' The evange- list said, 'Let all who want to be saved here today come quietly
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to these seats.' In a few moments all four seats were filled; then four more were called for and filled; then two more. The visiting preacher was amazed-almost frightened. He continued with the evangelist a week, and watched him closely, to find out how all this was accomplished. The first day and night he found that the evangelist spent about six hours alone in prayer, and that he gathered two or three chosen ones to join him in short, special prayers. This was the daily programme. The se- cret of his success was that God was with him."
"The Rev. R. J. Sims was holding a meeting in Arkansas. Two sisters were attending, one a Christian, the other not. The Christian sister asked Sims what he thought about fasting. He is an earnest believer in its efficacy. He gave the young lady incidents pointing to the divine blessing on fasting as a means of grace. She resolved to observe a protracted season of fast- ing and prayer for her sister's conversion. At the closing hour of her appointed fast she was seated beside that sister in the church. Up to this time no indications of any answer to her prayer had been given. The unconverted sister had made no public demonstration of interest or concern; but now she arose to her feet, and, extending her hand, very quietly said, "Your prayers are answered. I am saved."
"At one of Mr. Sims' meetings, a woman who ridiculed ex- perimental religion carried her Bible to church and made a vigor- ous canvass among the mourners, trying to prove that the minis- ter's teaching about repentance, and faith, and the love of God in the heart, were unscriptural and false. She was noisy, insolent, and persistent. Sims inquired about her and learned that her parents were good Methodists. Taking an elder with him to the grove the two joined in prayer to God for the fulfillment of the promise made in Psalms 74:10-12. The meeting went on, and the mocker pursned her opposition. Then her daughter was among the rejoicing converts. The mother railed on her, argued with her, but the daughter, after hearing respectfully all that her mother had to say, replied calmly: 'I can not but testify to what I know and feel in my own soul. I know I am happy in Jesus.' At this the mother fell prostrate and began praying for salvation. She continued to seek, until she was enabled to testify before the whole congregation that she now knew for herself the reality of that spiritual experience which she had ridiculed."
"At one of the meetings * * a band of unconverted men determined to break up the meetings. Sims went to God in fasting and prayer. The wife and danghter of the ring leader of the band became deeply concerned about their souls, and went to the monrner's bench. This enraged the wicked man.
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At the next service he took his stick and went with his family to church, declaring it to be his purpose to beat the preacher with his stick. Sims, who had just ended one of his seasons of fasting and prayer, made his usnally solemn though simple talk, and then started through the congregation to the spot where the man with his stick was seated. There was a power in the preacher's presence which made this boastful opposer of religion tremble. Along with this power, given in answer to prayer, the minister showed that fearlessness which the con- scious assurance of divine protection always imparts. As Sims approached, the ruffian retreated, leaving the church and go- ing to his home. The wife and daughter were converted that day and when they entered their house they found the wicked man prostrate in prayer. He was at last converted and went to work for other lost souls. He held prayers in his family, and gave of his money freely to the canse of Christ. Other violent opposers were also reached by the Holy Spirit, and became part of the praying band."
For some years Mr. Sims has lived in retirement in Mount Vernon. About fifteen years ago I heard him preach and the quiet pervasive power of his message stamped itself upon my memory so forcibly that I recall that sermon to this day.
GEORGE W. BROWNE.
The religious debater belongs to a species that is practically extinct and if here or there a living specimen is discovered he is not properly regarded as an example of the survival of the fittest. And even in the eocene era to which he belonged the individual who could have a revival follow in the wake of his discussions was a rarity. Such an one was George W. Browne -- probably the ablest-most aggressive contender for the faith as formulated by the C. P. Church who has labored in Southwest Missouri. Doubtless religious debates were at one time essential. They served the double purpose of indoctrinating the masses at a time when religious literature was not so plentiful, and they made the contending hosts careful in the formation and perpetnation of their tenets and no doubt in so doing lopped off some excrec- ences and brought the denominations in this indirect way into closer vital harmony. To George W. Browne was accorded the task of indoctrinating many of the people and churches in this section of the state. Himself the son of a manse he is survived by a ministerial son who is an ardent admirer of the union of the churches. Mr. Browne was of Scotch-Irish lineage-a son of one of the pioneer Cumberland preachers, and was born in Crawford county, Mo., Dec. 13, 1833. At ten years of age he pro-
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fessed a saving faith in Christ; and was ordained by the C. P. Presbytery of St. Louis in 1862. He served his country as a Un- ion soldier, then as chaplain from '63 to the close of the war. Denied the privileges of a college education by dint of hard study he acquired a mastery of the English language, was skilled in dialectics and spoke with ease, fluency, persuasive and argu- mentative power. An ardent admirer says: "As a theologian he had no superior in his church." He was especially versed along controversial lines and declared that if the Bible were destroyed he could reproduce his part from memory. Mr. Browne came to Southwest Missouri in 1874* Here he located on a farm near Lockwood. From time to time he served as stated supply the churches of Greenfield, Mt. Zion, Ash Grove. Mt. Vernon and Verona. "But he was mostly an evangelist most all his life." He is characterized as "doctrinally evange- listic," and is said to have possessed great spiritual power.
He held public debates with debaters of the Christian church as follows: at Mt. Vernon with Caskey; at Aurora with Cunningham; at Walnut Grove with Clark Braden and at Green- field with James Tennison.
In the language of his son: "The M. E. Church at Red Oak, Mo., had been ruined by the Campbellites. They secured G. W. Browne to deliver a series of lectures on The Church, Baptism, etc. A worldly farmer and stock feeder attending became in- tensely interested. His wife a bitter Campbellite refused to go until near the end and hearing that Browne would prove that
Jesus was not immersed went to scoff at his attempts.
*
*
*
(I will give her own words about as she told them to do.) 'I had never met your father, but had heard he was always fight- ing our church. I just hated the ground on which he walked. I tried to keep my husband from going to hear him but could not. I saw he was intensely interested. I went the night he was to prove Jesus was not immersed to treat him with contempt and laugh at his failure. I saw a gentleman, humble, learned, pro- found, impressive and spiritual. My contempt 'soon turned to admiration. I was soon lost in something entirely new. I thought the church house was a wall of melting wax and heaven was coming down to earth. Soon I arose and said, Brother Browne, I have never been baptized. I want to be baptized. He baptized me.' Not long after this a C. P. Church was organized at this place." The son continues: "In October 1901, I * *
* held a two week's meeting and organized a C. P. Church at We- tumka, I. T., * *
* I met a Mr. Mackey there. *
* He
*1875 according to the Biography of A. A. Young, which speaks of him as a valuable accession to Ozark Presbytery, "a man of great intellectual ability both natural and acquired, and a profound theologian."
J. P. FLY
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and his wife went into the organization. ** * He told me this story, 'Your father came to my father's house 29 years ago. *
* * Near West Plains, Mo., held a meeting; organized a C. P. Church and out of that organization have grown five other C. P. Churches of which West Plains C. P. Church is one."
Mr. Brown's last and ablest discussion was on the subject of "Justification." The Syllogistic reasoning of this debate is so close and the various parts thereof so intimately associated that if one begins to quote he is liable to be betrayed into con- tinning at too great length. The discussion, it is hoped, will be given to the Christian public in printed form. The St. Louis Presbytery made Mr. Browne a life member of the Missionary Board of the Cumberland Church. Mr. Browne died February 17, 1887. The following March the Presbytery gave this token of esteem :
"Whereas, In the death of Rev. G. W. Browne this Pres- bytery has lost one of its most honored and useful members and ministers, and, Whereas ,we as a body desire to express our appreciation for the labors of this very dear brother; Therefore. Resolved, that Rev. D. W. Cheek and Elders Isaac Preston and J. W. Leathers be appointed to solicit funds for the erection of a suitable monument to place over the remains of our departed brother and when a sufficient sum shall be provided to purchase the same, with suitable inscription, approved by the widow of the deceased."
JOHN B. FLY.
During the first half century of its existence in Southwest Missouri-and perhaps a little longer-the Cumberland Church possessed two elements of strength, an unusual number of able active and aggressive laymen, and a ministry reared largely in its own churches. The sons of the church-born within its pale, baptized at its altars and received by its Presbyteries as candi- dates for the ministry then set apart by solemn ordination to the holy office were to the Manor born. They needed not to be accli- mated and they understood the peculiar characteristics of the people on the borderland and on the crest of the Ozarks.
Rev. John B. Fly, the son of J. N., and Nancy Fly, was born in Barry county, August 16, 1840, and was reared on a farm near Corsicana, Mo. On the last day of December, 1867, he pro- fessed saving faith in Christ and united with the Mount Joy Cumberland Presbyterian church. He was educated in the pub- lic schools and for nine years taught school in Barry and Law- rence counties. The records of Springfield Presbytery state that
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on the first day of October, 1870, J. B. Fly, Baxter Fullerton and M. J. Scott gave evidence of their experimental knowledge of religion and of their internal call to the ministry and were re- ceived as candidates. Shortly after this the Presbyteries were reorganized along the lines existing prior to the war and Mr. Fly passed under the Presbyterial supervision of Neosho .Pres- bytery by which he was licensed March 17, 1871, and ordained March 17, 1872. The newspaper clipping from which I received this information also said that he was received under care of Springfield Presbytery March 17, 1870; but the records of the Presbytery give the date as October 1st, 1870. I do not know whether the writer in question, or the subject sketched was a de- scendant of the sons of the Emerald Isle, or whence the predil- ection for the day sacred to the Shamrock. Like his contem- porary, Rev. G. W. Browne, Mr. Fly was skilled in dialectics. He was considered an able exponent of the doctrines of the Bible as taught by his denomination and was both evangelistic and doctrinal in his preaching. He was in the active work of the ministry from 1870 to 1903. During these thirty-three years he held eighteen public discussions on doctrine themes in which it is said he "never laid his honor down or lowered the standard or dignity of the Christian ministry, his opponents themselves being judges." Mr. Fly was elected a commissioner to the gen- eral assembly six times, three times he represented Neosho Pres- bytery, twice he represented Ozark Presbytery and once he rep- resented the Presbytery of Wichita. After an intensely active ministry of about thirty-three years Mr. Fly was compelled by the infirmities of the flesh to rest from his labors for about three years-calmly waiting until he should see his Pilot face to face. He died the 28th of August, 1905. On the 28th of March, 1858, he led to the matrimonial altar Miss Susan E. Woodward. With their four living sons and three daughters she survived him. In the Mount Joy church where he had professed his Saviour near- ly thirty-eight years before, Rev. W. C. Hicks conducted the ser- vice over his remains.
To Mr. Fly, in conjunction with Rev. L. A. Dunlap, we are indebted for that exceedingly interesting biography entitled "Life and Labors of Rev. A. A. Young." Mr. Young had col- lected the materials for an autobiography-but when it became evident that he would not be spared to complete the work he committed the materials to Mr. Fly. He undertook the task of publishing the memorial Con Amore and produced a work worthy of his efforts albeit he was led into some inaccuracies as to dates and minor statements by reason of the fact that he neg- lected to verify Mr. Young's memory.
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BAXTER P. FULLERTON
Before I entered the ministry most of the ministers that I greatly admired and who left the deepest impression on me were men with whom I had little personal contact. The same is true to a limited extent since I have been in the ministry. There may be a streak of heterodoxy in my make-np. But when I sit in the pew if a minister feeds my soul and if I know that he stands four-square for truth and righteousness-it is altogether a sec- ondary consideration as to whether he ever knows me by sight. or ever greets me with anything more than a formal passing of the time of the day. Many men of prominence and power have a reserved disposition and are so preoccupied with larger affairs that they have failed to cultivate those characteristics that make a man one of the common folks. For one I can greatly admire such a man-though at a distance. If he shows no disposition, to get near me. I am apt to show none to get near him. But I am just as sure not to criticise him for being cold until I have started toward him and gone at least half way. The intimacies of per- sona! friendship are one thing ; an appreciation of a man for his work and worth is another thing. Of the prominent men in our church Dr. Fullerton is one of the most approachable with whom I have formed an acquaintance. In the corridors where the As- sembly meets in a committee room, on the floor of Synod or in your own home he is always plain and always approachable. He was reared in the foothills of the Ozarks-near Pleasant Hope- then called Pin Hook. There on the twentieth of March, 1851. Andrew Washington Fullerton and Harriet, his wife, rejoiced in the birth of a son, whom they christened Baxter. W. J. Haydon, a veteran Sunday school missionary, says that forty years ago he found him a bashful barefooted lad and enticed him into Sun- day school hy playing with his dog and cat; and Rev. W. C. Hicks says that one of young Fullerton's past-times was to chal- lenge other lads to eat green persimmons to see which could look the homliest. We have no accurate information as to whether or not the narrator of this incident was a successful competitor! For three and a half years Mr. Fullerton attended McGee Col- lege at College Monnd, Missouri. How far beyond amo, amas, amat he delved in classic lore I can not say, but
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