USA > Virginia > Sketches and portraits of the Virginia Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church > Part 13
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In "A Hundred Years of Methodism" Dr. Pell uses as an opening sentence in his introductory this language: "The idea of celebrating the one Indredth anniversary of the establishment of Methodism originated with the Rev. Joseph T. Mastin, pastor of Trinity church." This was a great work and required much good sense and taet to carry it to completion. It was so well managed from its very inception to the last number on the programme that it was not only pronounced by all who were permitted to hear or take part in it a great snecess, but was the greatest revival of Methodist enthusiasm that Richmond has ever known.
REV. JOHN M. BURTON, A. M.
He rises like Ajax in the Grecian host, or towers, like Saul, above his fellows. Ilis mental altitude measures with his inches. Randolph-Macon was honored in his diploma. There is first-rate tissue in that elevated eranimn. He is making use of his powers with credit to himself and to the gain of the Church. He is modest, withal; a gentleman and a man of culture.
Mr. Burton has never had a city "station" nor eldership. There is not a city church nor district that would not get a lever of uplifting by his service. Men are kept out of what are called "prominent places" by some flaw of mind, bodily defeet or family affliction. Mr. Burton is rounded, balanced and discreet. Ile puts a spell on the affections of his parishioners. He is fitted for any society-"all conditions of men." He is not held back by any poverty of re- sources or exhaustion of soil. No man could "sustain himself," as the phrase is, more creditably. Ile is our best scholar. He owns brimming bins of garnered wisdom. His wife, a beautiful, wise and lovely lady, could adorn the finest rectory in the land. Mr. Burton has a disrelish of city life. Ile loves the woods, the streams, the farm homes-rural life. He thinks the stimulus of the intel- ligent congregations in our best country churches will provoke him to best exer- tions. Ile gives the hearers in chapels by the grove and brook a feast of fat things. They give him back full measure of admiration and love. As things go in the popular mind, if not in the pious estimate, he chooses the lower seat. It is worth a long ride, even in bitter winds, to sit under his mature and mas- terfil sermons. In the meanwhile, he is healthy, jovial, and without a minim of vinegar in his robust sonl. He does not take pride to himself for his abnega- tion of steepled synagogues, nor attitudinize by puckering his mouth and stif- fening into a graven image of sculptured and immaenlate godliness. John Bur- ton is withont pretense; devont, yet mellow, juicy, genial, and fondly embraced by his familiars in the Conference. .
Everything prospers under his ministry. On a late eirenit, historic Meck- lenburg, noble edifices of tasteful architecture arose in all directions. The par-
REV. BASCOM DEY.
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sonage took on improvements, and was never empty of the gifts of an admiring people. His flock follow him with unfeigned love to the limit of his term and lament his departure. As with Pierce, in Georgia, and the magnetic Lowe, of the Roanoke, the wooden structures in the forest and field are listening to the best sermons wherever Burton itinerates.
Ile is the youngest child and only son of Jesse A. Burton and Damaris Bur- ton, and was born in Bedford county, Virginia, June 7, 1848. IIe was eon- verted at Court-Street church, Lynchburg, during the winter of 1871, at a pro- tracted meeting conducted by Rev. L. Rosser, D. D. About the middle of March of the same year he entered Randolph-Macon College, and graduated with the degree of A. M. in June, 1876. At the opening of the session of 1876-'77 he returned to college and taught a part of the classes of Professor Blackwell, who had recently been elected to the chair of English, French and German, and had not returned from Europe. He remained at college until Professor Blackwell's return, which occurred just prior to the Conference held in Richmond in the year 1576. At this Conference he was admitted on trial and appointed to Orange Circuit ; then, Boydton Circuit, Culpeper, Mecklenburg, Concord, Lun- enburg, Bethany. Albemarle, Madison. . He has charge of our Culpeper church.
REV. THOMAS MON. SIMPSON.
There are state occasions when men in publie life ought to have all possible consideration. The Duke, Earl, Marquis arrays him in his ribbons and garrish goods on days of ceremony and high "functions," but it will be found that these personages are in well-worn garments, napless hats, easy old shoes, when off parade. So of ministers, congressmen, jurists, university Dons. Among their familiars they go by their first names, if not by nicknames.
The pastor of the first church in Danville, a grave person, with seant locks, is, among his cherished friends, merely "Mack Simpson," but the homely words add to the value of the man at the fireside.
Hle is one of the sons of North Carolina who adorn our ministry in the Vir- ginia Conference-contributions from that region of "the Old North State" . which has always been under our eare. He was born at Hertford, North Caro- lina, March 7, 1852. When five years of age he was drowned, and, being given up for dead, was about to be shrouded, when a sea captain, a stranger, coming in brought him to life. Nearly a third of a century later a letter came to the postmaster of Hertford, N. C., enquiring about a little boy named Simpson he rescued from drowning. The letter was forwarded to the Rev. Mr. Simpson. He replied to the writer. The next year he visited New Bedford, Mass., and, under the hospitable roof-tree of Mr. Josiah G. Childs, the sailor who resusci- tated him, Mr. Simpson enjoyed days of peculiar pleasure. What a coinci- dence !
Mr. Simpson in person is somewhat slender, of medium height, with full beard, black. like his bright, intelligent eyes; has a pleasant face, genial spirit and an open but somewhat grave manner. He was well educated at Randolph- Macon College; and with intellect of decided analytical power, and being a eare- ful and diligent student and a faithful, hard-working pastor, it is not wonderful
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REV. ROBERT M. MAXEY.
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that his sermons please every thoughtful hearer and that churches have solid progress where he takes hold of the helm. His preaching is earnest, close and .. practical, with enough animation to keep attention wide awake. His treatment of the theme is natural, well-pondered and accurate-especially suggestive, but never sensational. His style is graceful, and often elegant, but never gaudy or pretentions.
Blessed with a noble wife-a jewel also of North Carolina's diadem-and lovely children. his home is happy and bright.
Ile served Memorial, Lynchburg ( successor to John Hannon) ; has been at Smithfield, Lyim Street ( Danville), Ettrick ( Petersburg), Berkley, Mon- mental ( Portsmouth ), Farmville, and is now pastor of Main Street, Danville.
REV. WILLIAM H. RIDDICK.
It is a preaching family, the Riddicks-and clever preachers, too. This one illustrates the assertion of their fitness for the vocation. From 1877 to this good year of grace, 1901, he has been diligent in the King's business, fervent in religious duty, and not slothful in Church work. The Conference knew full well that a "good report" would come from his charge. Every department had his attention, care and inspiring example. In the pulpit, the people were fed on the marrow of the Gospel. The whole counsel of God was declared in faith- ful, loving and fearless words. By the fireside, the children as well as the parents knew that a man of God was under the roof-tree. The monuments and witnesses of his apostleship are seen and known of men. Converts, augmented piety among the people, building and betterments of the towers of Zion, concern for holy things in the heart and in the house of worship-these all testify to his loyalty to Christ and labor.
Mr. Riddick is of medinm height, stoutly built, with rich, full jet hair; com- plexion dark, almost verging on olive; a face grave and firm in its lines, and when in repose settling into a shade of melancholy. When he is in brisk converse or before the people, the thought brightens the sedate features into glowing radiance.
Mr. Riddick has rank and position among the best type of the new generation of Virginia preachers, equipped by culture, training and natal forces to conduct Methodism to a yearly stadimn of progress.
Hle is from Nansemond, having been born near Suffolk, July 23, 1847. He was converted August 27, 1866, after a secret struggle of years. He was farm- ing up to JJanuary, 1876, when he entered Randolph-Macon; licensed in the fall of 1876: admitted into the Virginia Conference in 1877. From that date he has served his own generation truly and to their good. The future, if God keeps this stalwart reaper among the ripening grain, will show sheaves thick through his fields.
God has blessed him in each of his two marriages.
REV. JOIN W. NICHOLSON.
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REV. WILLIAM W. LEAR.
There is both depth of soil and judicious cultivation. The elements of a solid and true manhood were born in him. They were in his parents. Ile is not deficient in intellectual endowments. He has redeemed the time for study. There are ontgivings in his sermons of a well-conditioned mind in excellent ex- ercise. Ile has the lingual gift. He speaks to the point, and well. Success has crowned his wise work.
He is the son of the late Rev. Joseph Lear, of the Virginia Conference, and of Susan Wilkinson, of New Kent, and was born in that county on December 5, 1844.
His height is about five feet eight inches ; compact in build; with dark hair and eyes, and weighs, when in good plight, near one hundred and -fifty pounds.
Ile is rather averse to conversation, except when called to it by a sense of duty. He very often, even in company, seems more engaged with his own thoughts than with what is passing around him. Hence, to the eye of the stranger, there is at times an air of indifference and lack of cordiality. Bue those who know him, know that there is no want of warmth nor absence of full- hearted sympathy in his composition.
A native bashfulness, unsuspected by some, and a doubt of his own strength, are among his characteristics. The fear that he might not be equal to the demands has led him to shirk places eagerly sought for, and were filled by others inferior to himself. . Perhaps a peculiar mental constitution is the cause of this intimmity. He says of his intellectual operations :
"I have to work for what I get, and the trouble is, I never know what I am going to get till the work is done. Digging for ideas is, with me, like the mining for gold. You may 'strike it rich,' or you may get your labor for your pains."
Such an one would, of course, be naturally fearful lest the gold should not be ready on demand just simply because he could not see it.
Ilis sermons are, for the most part, written. He says, "I can always think better with my pen in my hand." In keeping with the characteristic already mentioned, he will sometimes labor over a sermon for days, while at other times he writes with rapidity. Some of his best sermons have been written in a few hours ; but perhaps much of the subject matter was already in mind. As a rule, that upon which he spends the most time, revising and rewriting, will show very decidedly the improvement due to the extra labor. In the pulpit he uses only brief notes, and does not confine himself strictly to these. In fact, he rarely preaches a sermon as it is written. His temperament is almost uniformly cheer- ful ; even the proverbial "Blue Monday" has no place in his calendar.
Mr. Lear married a daughter of the late George W. Nolley-an energetic and alert person, gifted with quick and clever mind and winning graces and genius. In December. 1861, he was sent to Randolph-Macon College, where he spent the remainder of that session. The following year, while at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia, he professed religion and joined the church. Early in the session, however, he left college, and soon after this enlisted in the Confederate States army as a private in the third company, Richmond Howitzers. Although , he was with this company in all its after battles until it surrendered with the Army of Northern Virginia, he escaped unhurt, with the exception of a slight wound in the head, received in the battle of May 10, 1864, at Spotsylvania Courthonse. For several years after the war he engaged in secular pursuits.
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REV. ALBERT A. JONES.
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lle had been impressed from the time of his conversion with the conviction that he onght to preach, and was kept from so doing only by a felt lack of intel- leetnal fitness for the work and because he was without money to pay for school- ing. Unable to rid his mind entirely of the thought that God had called him to preach, he made the issue of this question to depend upon his ability or non- ability to secure an education; and only after an absence of ten years did he again ( in the fall of 1872) enter Randolph-Macon College, this time to study for the ministry.
Here, on January 17, 1874, he was licensed to preach. He remained at col- lege until the close of the session in 1875, and then went, by invitation of the Quarterly Conference of Albemarle Circuit, to help Rev. R. W. Watts, their preacher in charge, until the Annual Conference should meet.
In November of that year he was received on trial into the Virginia Annual Conference, then being held at Danville, Virginia, and was, by Bishop Mc- Tveire, assigned to Spotsylvania Circuit. In 1876 he was sent to Prince George Cirenit. In 1877 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Doggett, and returned to the same work. In 1878 he was advanced to the class of the graduating year, and continued on Prince George Circuit. He has since served West Dinwiddie, King and Queen, Brunswick and Nottoway, Petersburg, ke. He is now sta- tioned at Centenary, Richmond.
It is not beyond sober truth to say that no man in our ranks, with the same maturity and might of his mind, has so little notoriety; or, rather, recognition of merit with the Methodist publie. It is conceded he leads a stainless life, performs his duty with serupulous care, and is endowed with virile powers ; yet the silent, retiring, studious man falls behind, except in the estimate of the "few and fit," his rightful position in the popular estimate. And such men lay the main walls of Methodism in granite.
REV. ALBERT C. BERRYMAN.
Mr. Berryman was born January 31, 1851. His birthplace was Surry county, Virginia. This is, they say, a good county to be born in. The writer does not speak from experience, however, as he never tried it. It is well known that it produces good and true men-and peanuts to perfection.
His parents were Robert W. and Sarah E. Berryman. They were both of English stock. His ancestors came to this country not far from the time that John Smith arrived. How near the Berrymans are to lineage from Pocahontas, history does not say.
Ilis father, Robert W. Berryman, is one of five brothers, all of whom were ministers of the Gospel. Thus we see that his call is along the regular line of inheritance. Ile was instructed in the very beginning in those things which lead to a better and a higher life. He was brought up in the Church of God. Ilis earliest recollections are of longings to be with the people of God. The heavenly light shone into his heart, and the divine call, which none but those who have heard it know, came upon him when he was fourteen years of age.
The desire to be abont his Father's business has been the ruling impulse of his life. With such education as the schools of his neighborhood could give, he
REV. ERNEST STEVENS.
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was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Methodist Protestant Church on May 6. 1874. Feeling the need of more education, he entered Randolph-Macon Col- - lege. Ill health prevented him from completing his work there, but he continued bis studies. For several years he did good, solid work in the ranks of the Mary- land Conference, Methodist Protestant Church. He was received into the Vir- ginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at the session held in Danville, Virginia, in November of 1880. Since then he has been a constant and faithful itinerant minister, first on the Madison Mission ; then on the Scotts- ville Cirenit for two years ; afterward on the West Amherst Circuit, three years ; then Batesville Cirenit, three; Gordonsville and Orange, one year ; Onancock, three years ; Sonth Princess Anne, one year ; Fairmount Avenue, Richmond, one year ; Amherst, two years; Chesterfield, one year; Sussex, one year, and is now serving his second year at West-End Memorial, Manchester.
Mr. Berryman is possessed of good physique, pleasant address, even tempe- rament and generally good health.
Subsequent to the last year of his pastorate on the Batesville Circuit until his first year at West End Memorial, Manchester, was necessarily a secker of health.
Hle is a good, substantial preacher, always presenting in clear, plain manner the Gospel truth. He preaches the Word. He never enters doubtful fields. His efficiency is seen in the results of his labors. He is a faithful shepherd of the sheep. When one is seen going astray, he does not hesitate to go after him and bring him back "to the fokl again." He looks carefully after the interests of everything on his cirenit. The property does not go down under his careful oversight. The parsonages are better when he leaves them than when he re- ceives them. His successor will never find a leaky roof or neglected garden. He knows well the religions status of all his members. There is no blustering display or fulsome talk about him. He is quiet, gentle, easy, kind; but firm, painstaking, careful, and never faltering in the line of duty. Ilis work will only be known when the great harvest is gathered. May he continue in health and strength for many years.
Mr. Berryman was united in marriage to Miss Helen K. Payne, of Campbell county, Virginia, on December 23, 1879. Wisely and worthily wed.
REV. RICHARD B. SCOTT.
Mr. Scott is the son of Robert and Mary Scott, and was born in Hanover county, Virginia, July 4, 1849. Ilis father was for thirty years a member of the Virginia Conference, and the mantle of the departed prophet seems to have fallen on the son. When but a wee boy Richard would often say, "I am going to be a preacher like pa, when I am a man," and he would gather the children on the place, both white and colored, and, standing on a chair or stool, would preach and sing. When nine years old he was sent to a private school near his father's home. His teacher was a Quaker lady, a woman of fine sense and deep piety. Here he remained four years. In 1861 he received the appointment as State cadet at the Virginia Military Institute. The war of the States then being waged, the Institute was elosed a few months after his arrival and all the cadets put into active service. This service, though only for a few months,
REV. NICHOLAS HI. ROBERTSON.
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came very near costing Cadet Scott his life. He marched three days in a driz- zling rain with clothing saturated, and he contracted a deep cold. For three. years physicians thought that consumption would soon carry him to a premature grave. llis father prayed over the precious, pale and wasted boy, and the prayer was answered.
After the close of the war Virginia lay devastated and in ruins. Many boys left the old State, seeking their fortunes, Richard Scott among them. Away from the sweet influences of home life, surrounded by evil companions, he almost lost the "precions pearl" of other days. He came back to Virginia, then went to Maryland, and while attending a camp-meeting, God called upon him to preach. Hle felt his utter unworthiness, his incapacity, his want of scholastic training, and said, "I am not fit." He engaged in farming, then in mercantile business ; but the voice would not be silenced. In 1873 he was summoned to Ashland, Vir- ginia, to attend the burial of his mother. After the sad rites were over he obtained a sitnation in the village, in order to attend the lectures at Randolph- Macon College. Often and again was he almost ready to give up; but the "still, small voice" would whisper, "Be of good courage; I will be with thee."
He joined the Virginia Conference in 1877. The first year he travelled the Bedford Circuit with Rev. W. F. Bain ; the next year he was sent to West Lun- enburg Mission. There his work was greatly blessed. In 1882 he was sent to West Campbell Cirenit ; thence he was sent to Nelson, where he remained four years. More than ever before did God bless his work. More than one hundred converts bore witness to his faithfulness. From Nelson he went to Bertie, North Carolina ; thence to Northampton, North Carolina ; then to Amherst, Lancaster, in 1890; Atlantic, to Chesterfield, in 1893; Hanover, 1897; Princess Ane, 1898: Bedford Cirenit, 1900, his present work.
In height, Mr. Scott is five feet ten inches ; in weight, one hundred and eighty pounds ; in complexion, fair, with blue eyes and light hair. His voice is pleasant and strong, earnest and pleading, especially in prayer; in disposition, kind, generous, devoted and indulgent to friends.
In 1878 he married Miss Maud Percy, of Lynchburg, Virginia-an engaging and accomplished woman, who is a loving companion, a wise counsellor and an efficient co-worker in his ministry.
REV. R. FINLEY GAYLE.
IIe is a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, and the third son of Robert J. and Sarah II. Gayle; born January 22, 1858; received on trial in the Virginia Con- ference in 1879. April 6, 1882, he was married to Miss May Jeannette, eldest daughter of Joseph L. and Carrie E. Young, of Portsmouth, by whom he has eight children.
In person, he is slight, and one of the tall men of the Conference; his habit is easy and deliberate; his air confident, rather than abstracted ; his countenance generally pleasant and smiling, and his manner engaging. A vein of humor in his composition, added to his naturally elastic spirits, makes him a welcome visitor to the many homes he enters in his pastoral work. As a companion, he is agreeable, intelligent, carnest and respectful, and never fails to win the confi-
REV. WILBUR F. DAVIS.
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denee and kind feelings of the many with whom he comes often in contaet. He is fond of his work, and never seems happier than when engaged in a revival." He has been instrumental in saving many souls. God has blessed him with a wonderfully retentive memory. Hle reads much, keeping himself well posted in seenlar affairs as well as informed in matters pertaining to the Church. He has served the following work: East Halifax, West Bedford, North Mecklen- burg, East Dinwiddie, Crewe, Norfolk Circuit, Onancock, and is now pastor of Laurel-Street, Richmond, Virginia.
Mr. Gayle has the rare endowments of the elements that constitute a man of affairs and also exceptional pulpit aptness. In either department he would be ranked as a distinct suecess. It seems to come to him by instinet what to say, how to say it, the time to say it, and particularly to say it within a certain arc of the minute-hand on the dial. IIe has the gift of keeping eye on the entire audience, gauging their state, noting the effeet of the sermon and change of range if not well aimed, and all the while giving attention to fixing and firing the cartridge.
Between Sabbaths he examines the church machinery, tapping wheels, testing bolts, tightening bands, and oiling bearings. There are no loose nuts nor slack belts nor cutting journals. The Church runs without jostle. He has common sense.
ITis memory is next to a phenomenon. It is airtight-never leaks. It seems to have a end. It stores away food for thought, with power of fetching forth in the future for mastication. Like a jeweller's glue, it holds whatever touches it-ingot, diamond, microscopic serew-ornamental or useful. Each event per- forates a pigeon-hole for itself. There is no effort to retain facts. They load themselves like the automatic tipple filling the coal-cars.
Methodism is debtor in its practical aspect to this class of inen, who never say a foolish thing nor do an unwise one-alert, judginatieal, timely. Our system utilizes such talents on the firing line. The men are honored by these emer- gency assignments, yet their rank and remuneration may not be commensurate with the tasks. The dress sword in case of chamois-skin to save it from the dust of drawing-rooms sometimes receives superior pay to the bayonet with blood on it.
REV. THEODORE O. EDWARDS.
He is of light, wiry, active build-five feet ten inches, and spare; his eye, bright hazel, full of expression ; his complexion fair; hair, light brown ; his face intellectual, attractive, sympathetic; his manner quick, nervous, energetie. showing him to be what he is-a person of character, force, will, a man of decision, ready to show his colors to the foe, to stand by his faith, to be true to his friends and to forgive his enemies. He speaks with fluency, directness and precision. Ile is as free from bombast or redundancy as he is from cant or foolishness. He is so sincere and truthful that his most severe eritie might say that he was sometimes blunt. In the assembly of men he is always the knightly gentleman. He is in the prime of his intellectual and physical manhood-abont forty years of age. He has promise of a future stored with a large measure of
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