USA > Virginia > Sketches and portraits of the Virginia Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church > Part 16
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He is a native of Mathews county, and entered the Conference in 1873. Ile
REV. BENJAMIN M. BECKILAM.
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has served several fields-King William, Wieomico, Danielstown, in Lyneh- burg, and Boydton Circuit. His health has been recovered and gives promise of sustaining his ardent zeal.
He has a refined face, beaming with a kindly look; a tall and manly form, and the bearing of a Christian gentleman. His preaching is eminently spir- itual, persuasive and effectual. He is a preacher of the noblest spirit, ready for every good word and work. The brethren value him for his pure life and noble aims.
Ile is one of four preachers-all grandsons of Robert White, of Mathews county, Va .- a patriarch among the Methodists in the morning of the century.
Mr. Green was born January 31, 1846. His mother was a most devout Christian, teaching him the Scriptures before he could read. God took her when the lad was only six years old. Orphanage made his childhood rugged. He had some educational advantages.
Ile came to manhood near elose of Civil war, serving a few months in the Fifth Virginia Cavalry; farmed a year; taught in 1866-'67-'68; entered Ran- dolph-Macon College in 1869; spent two sessions; was poor; borrowed money and taught afterwards to pay college expenses. Such the short and simple annals of a Virginia youth-amid the wreck of the Civil war.
He was soundly converted at Providence church, in Mathews, August 11, 1865, under the ministry of Rev. Joseph E. Martin, then a Methodist minis- ter, now of another denomination. . Mr. Green found great pleasure in Church work for the next few years, meanwhile resisting the call to preach. While at college in 1871 he yielded and was licensed at Quarterly Conference on Mathews Cireuit, May 27, 1872, Dr. Lee presiding. In 1873, Mr. Green was employed by Rev. L. S. Reed, Presiding Elder, to finish the year's work of Rev. G. N. Guy, who died while serving the Hertford Cireuit, in North Carolina, that year.
He was received on trial into the travelling connection at Norfolk in No- vember, 1873, and sent to King William, where he spent four years. In 1877 assigned to Goochland; in 1878, to West Mathews; in 1879, to Wieomieo, Md., when his health utterly failed, compelling superannuation at the Confer- ence of 1880. He undertook work in 1881, appointed to Danielstown, Lynch- burg, where he spent two years, and then to Danielstown and Madison for one year; then to South Brunswick, one year; to King William, three years; to Huntersville, three years. Disturbed health led again to superannuation. Coming back to "the firing line," he was named for Windsor Cireuit; thenee to East Dinwiddie three years ; then to Wakefield Circuit, where he is serving his second year.
REV. JOSEPH T. ROUTTEN.
Mr. Routten, son of William C. and Louisa E. Rontten, was born at Fox IIill, Elizabeth City county, Va., November 23, 1853. In 1877 he felt called to the ministry, and in February, 1878, he entered Randolph-Macon College to prepare for his life-work. He attended the college for two and a half ses- sions, and in Angust, 1880, in consequence of the appointment of Rev, W. W.
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REV. RICHARD H. BENNETT.
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Royall as a missionary to China, he was employed by Presiding Elder George II. Ray to fill out the remainder of the Conference year at Conquest and Guil- ford, now Bloxom Circuit. In November of the same year he was admitted on trial into the Virginia Conference, which met at Danville, Va. At this Conference he received his first appointment from Bishop Keener, on his twenty-seventh birthday, to Berlin Circuit, Maryland. At the close of this year he was ordained a local deacon by Bishop McTyeire and returned to Ber- lin Circuit for the following year.
On May 31st of that year he was married to Miss Ida F. West, of Berlin, Maryland, who has been a blessed influence in his home and among his parish- ioners.
In November, 1882, he was sent to the Wicomico Circuit, where he remained three years. In 1884, in consequence of sickness, he was not able to attend the Conference in Lynchburg; henee he was not ordained elder until the following year. At this Conference, which met in Petersburg, he was ordained elder by Bishop Keener, and assigned to Currituck Cireuit, where he served four years. In November, 1889, he was sent to Princess Anne Circuit, where he served with marked acceptability for three years; in 1892 he served Asbury, Norfolk, for four years, during which time he built the handsome and notable new church, known as "LeKies Memorial," at a cost of $14,000. From LeKies he was assigned to Crewe Station, serving two years, and accomplishing the difficult task of moving the chureli, a distance of about a half mile, to a de- sirable location in the centre of the town. Having finished this work, in 1898 he was selected for Denny Street, Richmond, where he is making full proof of his ministry.
Mr. Routten is five feet ten inches in height and weighs about one hundred and fifty pounds. He is somewhat of a dark complexion, having full, deep brown eyes. He is keen of perception, has a good share of common sense, thinks for himself, forms his own conelusions in regard to men and things, and, when right, would defy Beelzebub to drive him from his position; but, when once convinced that his position is not properly taken, will yield as quickly as any man. He is quite a favorite with all the preachers, and especially with the young men of the Conference. He is very fond of singing "The Old Ship of Zion," from which fact he is familiarly ealled "The Old Ship;" and no man enjoys trne friendship and brotherly familiarity more than he. In a word, he has in him an equal blending of all the qualities that make a first-elass Chris- tian gentleman.
As a preacher, he is systematic in arrangement, clear in statement, logical in plan, pure in language and full of zeal and vim. He has a voice of great compass, but not harsh, and sometimes he reaches a degree of pathos which will inelt the hardest hearts. Those who heard it, will not soon forget a sermon de- livered by him at Boykins, Va., in 1887, on the subject, "The Resurrection of a Dead Conscience." He is untiring in his efforts to build up the work com- mitted to his eare. Every charge he has served has been improved under his judicious management. In a private note to the writer, which was written about two months after the close of Conference, he incidentally remarked: "I have made eighty-seven visits, read the Seriptures and prayed with sixty-four families, held ten Church Conferences, read the General Rules four times, and ridden five hundred and twenty-nine miles." This shows something of what he can do and is doing.
REV. EDWARD M. JORDAN.
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As a student, he is assiduous, untiring, progressive. When he goes into the pulpit, you may rest assured that he has prepared in his study what he has to say in public; and when he makes an assertion in the pulpit, or elsewhere, in connection with his discourse, that fact or assertion has been carefully weighed, and all the light at his command has been thrown upon it before he presents it to his audience.
Taken altogether, J. T. Routten is destined to stand among the first men of our Conference, and none of our work will suffer by being committed to his hands.
REGINALD H. POTTS.
Mr. Potts is the oldest son of Rev. Joseph E. Potts, an honored minister of the Virginia Conference, and Mary A. Potts. He was born July 10, 1858, in Hampshire county, West Virginia (then a part of Virginia).
Trained under pious parents, his early life was in great measure exempt from noxious atmosphere, and unfolded without the rank weeds incident thereto. Conscience was quiekened and educated. The bent was towards the Right. Early, therefore, and constantly was felt "the hand of Him who over- rules," directing him toward the accomplishment of Ilis designs-in his case the work of the ministry. To use his own words, "I was always impressed with the thought that it was my duty to preach."
The first point we notice was in his fifteenth year. Then "the new life" began. At this time he was consciously converted-old Conquest church (since removed to Temperanceville), in Accomae county, being the place. The year thereafter he entered Randolph-Macon College, where he continued till nearly graduated, deterred from taking his degree by the unhealthiness of his eves. A striking characteristic of him as a student was his manly bearing, not stooping to the little or the mean. His motto seemed to be that character is "the meas- ure of the man." Ile was not frivolous, but genial ; not haughty, but dignified and self-respecting. IIe was diligent in his studies, and stood well in his classes, showing himself possessed of excellent mind.
After leaving college, the question, "What shall I do ?" presented itself in car- nest. With an impression of his call to preach, as stated above, but with a con- sciousness of the sacredness and peculiar demands of the minister's office, he was kept back from entering upon the work. He wanted to solve the problem of a Divine call before engaging in so great and responsible a work. Finally the question settled. and doubt vanished, and "I set myself to work"-these are his words. He entered the Conference on probation at its session of 1883, in Ports- month, and has been regularly advanced to deacon's and elder's orders.
As a man, he has peculiar charm of manner. The traits of the boy have been perfected in the inan. He is self-maintaining, not self-asserting ; dignified, not cold; social, not gossiping or presumptive. As a pastor, he is peculiarly at- tentive to those to whom he ministers. As a preacher, he is polished and schol- arly, having the purpose of "the message" at heart. In voice, he is pure and sonorous ; in manner, he is deliberate, firm and free to a great degree ; in style, he is clear, forcible, striking, with a leaning to the ornamental; in thought, he
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REV. JOHN L. BRAY.
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is practical, spiritual. At times a highly poetical vein runs through his dis- course.
During his ministry he has occupied the following charges: Essex Circuit, three years; West Lancaster, one year; Charlotte, two years; Asbury Station, How Lekies Memorial, Norfolk, four years; Cambridge Station, four years. On each of these charges his efforts have been blessed with many conversions, and he has won that love and respect which come to the true minister of God. After serving four years at Salisbury, Maryland, he was assigned to Suffolk, Va., at the Conference of 1900.
REV. LEWIS B. BETTY.
The Presiding Elders are eager to secure Lewis Betty. He unites the gravity and discretion of age to the freshness and vivacity of youth. Ile is prudent, quick, tireless, and a preacher of weight and brilliancy. The marrow of the Gospel is served. He was free from the faults that come of popularity to boys in the ministry. There is an old head on young shoulders. A noble heart guides to the highest and purest deeds. He studies to show himself approved. He knows the genus of work.
Rielmond is his native city. He was born here on February 3, 1853. His parents, George L. and Martha B. Betty, were both devoted and staunch Metho- dists. His early education was received in Richmond, and principally at the English Classical School of S. T. Pendleton, Esq.
Ile was converted in the spring of 1868 at the Sidney Baptist church, under the ministry of Rev. Mr. Massie, and united with the Sidney Methodist church, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Robert A. Armistead. In December, 1872, he was licensed as a local preacher by the Quarterly Conference of Sidney church, and was sent that year, by Rev. L. M. Lee, D. D., Presiding Elder of RieInmond Distriet, to the Gloncester Cirenit, Virginia Conference, as a junior preacher, under Rev. James C. Martin. He was employed by the Presiding Elder of the district as junior preacher on this cirenit for three consecutive years. In November, 1875, he joined the Virginia Annual Conference, which held its session that year in Danville, Va., and was returned by Bishop Me- Tyeire, as junior preacher, to the Gloucester Cireuit for the fourth consecutive vear. Two of the four years he spent on Gloneester Circuit were spent as an assistant to Rev. James (. Martin and the other two as assistant to Rev. Oscar Littleton. His ministry on this cirenit was attended with very great spiritual pleasure and profit to himself, and with a degree of snecess in winning souls for Christ. He has served Charles City Cirenit, Accomac Circuit, Queen Street church, Norfolk, four years; AAshland and Chaplain to the College, two years; two years at Momt Vernon, Danville; four years at Court Street, Lynchburg; four years at Monumental, Portsmouth ; he is now serving Clay street, Rich- mond.
Mr. Betty married Miss Lney T. Waddill, daughter of Edmund Waddill, Esq., Clerk of his county for nearly forty years. She has been a blessing to him and a helpmeet in his work. They have children, some with them and some
REV. WALTER J. WILLIAMS.
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gone before. Alas! Death removed this fond mother, devoted wife and de- vont Christian.
Mr. Betty is a close preacher, making out directly the matter in hand with- out wanderings, confusion or repetitions. He is apt at fastening a truth with Scripture. Ilis manner is earnest. He is somewhat spare in build, but straight and firm.
In the autumn of 1896 Mr. Betty made a judicious selection of a wife in Miss Lula C. Baily, of Lynchburg. He has no children by his second marriage. His wife has been a model minister's helpmeet-cultured, domestic, prudent in counsel, attached to our form of worship, and happy to serve the Lord in her sphere of life-a beautiful household.
REV. WILLIAM F. HAYES.
HIe is the son of William Thomas and Athalia Hayes; was born in Branden- burg, Meade county, Ky., May 11, 1857. During the dark and troublous days of 1864 the family moved to Gloucester county, Va .- the native place of his parents-where, soon after, his father died.
Ile was converted when about sixteen years old, and united with Bethlehem church, in Gloucester county, from which place, seven years later, he went forth to preach the Gospel. He was licensed as a local preacher by Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D., in the Gloucester Cireuit, in 1879, Rev. George E. Booker being preacher in charge; was employed by Rev. George II. Ray, Presiding Elder of Eastern Shore District, to serve on the Dorset Mission in 1881-'82; received on trial by the Virginia Conference at Portsmouth, Va., in 1882, and returned to Dorset Mission for the third year; 1883 was sent to Berlin Circuit, where he remained two years; in November, 1885, was appointed to the Wicomico Cirenit, remaining there two years; from the Conference of 1887 he was sent to Accomac Circuit ; 1891, Fox Hill; 1893, Aecomac Courthouse; 1895, Smith- field ; 1896, Bowling Green ; 1900, to Burkeville.
November 5, 1885, he was married to Mrs. Emma V. Woolford, of Porches- ter county, Md.
Mr. Hayes was ordained deacon by Bishop Keener in Lynchburg, Va., No- vember 16, 1884, and elder by Bishop Granbery at Norfolk, Va., in November, 1886.
Ilis weight is one hundred and fifty pounds; height, five feet ten and a half inches ; broad shoulders and form as straight as an Indian ; hair dark ; eyes gray and deep-set in their sockets; features clear-cut and impressive; complexion rather sallow than otherwise. The whole exterior is but the index to a heart that is as true as stech and as affectionate as that of a child.
Ile is every inch a Christian gentleman, ever scorning to do anything that has the shadow of meanness connected with it. He is a friend to all men, hating the sins of the wicked, but loving their souls for Christ's sake.
As a preacher, he is logical in plan, clear in statement, pure in language, earnest in spirit, sound in doctrine and graceful in delivery. Sometimes his mind flashes out in brilliant imagery, leading his hearers to the very threshold of heaven itself. He is original and natural in the delivery of his sermons.
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REV. WILLIAM R. PROCTOR,
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SKETCHES AND PORTRAITS OF THE VIRGINIA CONFERENCE.
Those who heard it, will long remember his sermon on "Skeleton Christians" at the Bucktown camp-meeting a few years ago. There was a mighty shaking- "among the dry bones" under the influence of that sermon.
Withal, he is a student, and brings out of his study into his pulpit the pure Gospel, illustrated with things new and old. He uses books to advantage; not to copy, but to aid in the suggestion of ideas and the arrangement of thought. The cause of God prospers under his management, and many souls are converted from the error of their ways and added to the Church of the living God.
The Conference and the Church justly and well value him as a refined Chris- tian gentleman.
REV. GEORGE W. WRAY.
George W. Wray is the elder of two brothers from Emporia Circuit (Greenes- ville county, Virginia), who now belong to our Conference. He was born De- cember 4, 1853, joined the Church in his sixteenth year, under the ministry of Rev. John B. Dey, and was licensed to preach under the pastorate of the veteran, William B. Rowzie. He received the benefit of two years' collegiate training at Randolph-Macon-the last of Dr. Duncan's term as President. From that incomparable man he received a deep impression for good.
HIe entered the itineraney in November, 1877. Early in his ministry he was married to Miss Victoria S. Sherman, of New Kent county, who, with two children, blessed his home with the light and warmth of domestic affection.
In person tall, well-proportioned, graceful in carriage and with a pleasant face, rather dark hair and eyes, an agreeable voice and natural manner in the pulpit, he needed, to make an effective and popular preacher, only good sense and religion-and he has both. His mind is virile, alert, inquisitive, retentive; his taste is for solid reading and study; his preaching is on choice themes of practical value; there is nothing shallow; the keel demands deep water; he has no "quips" or eranks; nothing of the sensational or flashy; seeks and ex- pects to do good and save souls by plain, well-tried methods and the unmixed Gospel of Christ. He is affable, companionable and readily makes and holds friends.
Ile grows and gains. After faithful work in less conspicuous, though impor- tant fields, he was appointed in 1886 to assist Dr. William E. Edwards at Centenary, Richmond, where it fell to his lot to do the regular pastoral work and mich of the preaching, and where he acquitted himself well. He has served ably in Salisbury, Maryland; Central, Portsmouth, Berkley, Farmville, Newport News: Washington Street, Petersburg, and is now pastor of our chief church in Newport News.
In 1892, Mr. Wray had the misfortune to lose his wife. In 1893 he married Miss Sallie Floyd Vaden, daughter of the Rev. W. C. Vaden, of our Confer- ence, a beautiful and accomplished lady, trained in parsonages for an itinerant life, while endowed with many virtnes, gifts and graces.
Mr. Wray hes been to a degree hurt by the superiority of his native powers. Conscions that he need not dig and grind to secure ore for disconrses, a neces- sity of the dull mind, he may trust too much to his resourceful brain. This is
REV. GEORGE W. WRAY.
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a common fault of clever men. If he gave long and laborious days to sermons, he would gain notoriety as a magician in the pulpit. Put a pressure upon hin, and the temple of Dagon will tumble to the corner-stone. Happy is the man who can achieve at his will the palm in preaching. No audience is disappointed. The average discourse is wholesome, winning, nourishing. On propitious oc- casions, he touches the high ring of victorious speech. He is still mounting towards the noon of his career. A fine presence, cordial manner, eloquent and earnest, Mr. Wray commands the future.
REV. BERNARD F. LIPSCOMB. .
It will seem singular that this preacher had for the first four years, his whole Conference life at that time, but one appointment. He was assigned to Queen Street, Norfolk, when he joined the body. It will be more surprising when it is known that Queen Street was a new station. The Elders departed from the enstom of the fathers for good and satisfactory reasons. They knew Lipscomb. To get a capital preacher ("a light man," as the phrase is), not burdensome to a young church, and to get a long-headed one, too; ah, there was the rub. It is likely there was but one in the body. They never gave him up, working him to the last limit of the law. A prime preacher at Queen Street would have done well; but to have brought the church to such solid success required a first-rate sermonizer, to hold and augment the congregation ; a diplo- mat, to keep the old churches in good humor while their members were gently escorted to the new house; a man of affairs, to draw in fresh material and to cement the new elements and carry forward a young enterprise. For a junior to prepare discourses to the same audience for four years, is the task of a Hercules. Superadd the pastoral work and the management of the eallow church, and it puts to proof the best ability. Of course, he must be a diligent student.
Leaving school at an early age in consequence of ill health, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and subsequently filled the position of book-keeper in the State Bank of Virginia. Realizing, however, a divine call to the work of the ministry, he resigned that position in September, 1874, and entered Randolph- Macon College. Here he spent two years in the study of languages and meta- physics under those accomplished educators, Professors Thomas R. Price and James 1. Harrison and the now glorified Dr. Duncan. He was licensed to preach, September 28, 1874, by the Quarterly Conference of Trinity Station, Richmond, of which church he was then a member. While at college he filled regular appointments at Greenwood and Shady Grove churches, on the Hanover Cirenit. In November, 1876, he was received on trial by the Virginia Confer- ence and appointed to Queen Street Station.
This was the novitiate of a minister who has registered each year steady growth. The railroads gather timbers in great heaps, mortised and made ready for the exigencies of new bridges or depots. So year by year Mr. Lipscomb has ent in the forests solid lumber, and fashioned and framed it for future use, Out of the best books he has brought the firmest thoughts and used upon them his own edged tools, till he is master of much jointed, stout and seemly material
REV. W. A. S. CONRAD.
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for pulpit and platform. It comes quickly to any congregation that they have, as Bacon terms it, a "full" man. There is no danger of his ministry running aground in shallows. There is always deep water under the keel, and no small "displacement," as the naval architects say, for the cargo brings down the gun- wales towards the water. There is steadiness in motion, by the draft and method in the navigation ; not driven by the wish of the wind or wave.
With these ample stores for the public offices of the ministry are conjoined a certain genius for discovery, as if by instinct, "what Israel ought to do" and a gift for leadership-not in loud parade, but quiet muster of the zeal, enthusi- asm and energies of the Church. The best results follow. The Conference utilizes these habits of correct, rapid and noiseless work in its elaborate sta- tistical and financial calculations and tables. Mr. Lipscomb is charged with the preparation and publication of the official Minutes, which easily stand at the head of such compends.
In the pulpit, Mr. Lipscomb carries a native grace of manner far from any schooling of the hands, feet and face. The sermon has method without the tiresome refitting of a dissected discourse. The system aids the memory to hold it. It has barbs to fasten it with-apt illustrations and happy terms of ex- pression. It comes to the ear with enticing tones.
Mr. Lipscomb is tall, but not slender nor carrying the motion of an athlete. The anatomy is in admirable proportion. He is erect, grave and scholarly- not a bookish snob nor a strutting attempt at military airs. He meets friends with a smile, never overwhelming them with a blistering blandishment. In a word, he is a Christian gentleman, behaving with the case and affability of a man of culture and religion. He wears spectacles. He is married. No friend has questioned his judgment in that regard.
He is the son of Cornelius and Pocahontas Lipscomb, and was born in the city of Richmond, February 16, 1851. His early education was received at the Jefferson Male Academy, in that city.
He has served Charlottesville, Berkley, Danville, Mt. Vernon, Newport News, and is now in Petersburg at Washington Street church.
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