USA > Virginia > Sketches and portraits of the Virginia Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church > Part 29
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"As a lecturer, he is very successful, though at times, through bodily weak- ness, or the lack of an andience who understood him, or some accidental misfit of man and occasion, he has failed. When in good trim and iu the presence of an assembly which is assuring and encouraging in advance, he carries everything by storm, and such roaring fun as is furnished and digested then has seldom found existence on an American platform.
"As a preacher, Dr. Lafferty is interesting and often very effective. The subject chosen is apt to be unusual and the treatment quite aside from the common line. The characteristics of style, in general, are those of his writings, eliminating the humorous and satirical. Here and there may be an odd expres- siou or turn of thought, but the prevailing tone is lofty and grave.
"Early in the sixties, Dr. Lafferty was married to Miss Mattie A. Brown, of Albemarle county, a representative of the ancient family of Methodists of Brown's Cove. She is a helpmeet, of pleasing person, agreeable manners, and nobleness of character. Of eight children, two were cut off in infancy and two have died after reaching mature life. Thus with a happy lot in domestic life, these parents have tasted also the cup of deep sorrows. Their home has always been the abode of a warm and open hospitality and of refined Christian cour- tesv."
Mr. Lafferty is a native of Virginia, born in 1837, the only child of George and Elizabeth Lightfoot Lafferty. The father (educated in Ireland) was of the the staff of Colonel Charles Fenton Mercer Garnett, the engineer who sur- veyed the railroad running out of Virginia across the Roanoke into North Caro- lina. Mr. Lafferty's mother was of the historie Virginia family of Lightfoots. When the son was eleven months old, the father, with some friends, were drowned at the ferry on James river called Osborne. A sudden wind struck their carriage and upset the boat.
The estate of the father, in various locations, was robbed to a large extent.
The Washington and Lee University conferred "Doctor of Letters"; Emory and Henry, the Master of Arts.
REV. NATHANIEL J. PRUDEN.
There is a curious page in the religions history of Mr. Pruden. He is, to all appearance, the best specimen of soberness of temper in the Conference.
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And yet his eonviction of sin dates from a great gust of uneontrolled rage. IIe was not led to repentance by preaching or reading the Bible or exhortation of friends. One day, on the farm, he got into a cyclone of wrath. Sudden terror scized him. The horror of his sin took hold upon him. A "something" re- buked him almost in words. He made a vow to change his life, and kept it. Ile began to read the Bible and more often to attend church. He sought for- giveness for a year in great bitterness. Light and joy came, first in morning twilight, and then in meridian fullness. Following this was the earnest desire to preach, accompanied with a certain diffidence.
The war had interfered with his education. He went to Randolph-Maeon for two or three years, beginning on February 25, 1873, and leaving in June, 1876. He served under the Elder on the Charles City and Henrico Cireuit, as junior, from July, 1876, to the Conference in November, when he was re- eeived in the traveling connection and sent as helper to Rev: Oscar Littleton, Gloucester Circuit. In 1877 he was appointed to Chatham Circuit. In 1878 he was ordained deaeon and returned to the same charge. Since that year he has served Charlotte, Matoaea, Berlin, West Brunswick and Meherrin, Surry, Prince George, Wicomico, Matoaca, Fluvanna, Culpeper Circuit, Mt. Pleas- ant, his present charge.
There is the most substantial stuff in the mental make-up of Pruden. The promise of a career of solid usefulness has been verified. He has strong sense and sound character. IIe studies. He is discreet and in earnest.
REV. EDWARD LEIGHI PELL, D. D.
Dr. Pell is a native of North Carolina. Raleigh is his birthplace; date, Scp- tember 7, 1861. Ile is the son of the late Dr. William E. Pell, a member of the North Carolina Conference, and for many years a Presiding Elder. During the latter part of his life he edited the Raleigh Sentinel, the leading paper of the State. Dr. Edward L. Pell is by best right a Virginian, for his mother was of our State, dating ancestors baek to the settlement in Jamestown.
Dr. Pell was educated at the University of North Carolina. He entered the North Carolina Conference at the age of twenty, continuing for ten years. Ill healfth forced him from the pastorate. In 1891 he eame to Richmond, where he edited the Bible Reader for seven years, achieving a wide fame as a brilliant writer. He is widely known in the newspaper world as a paragrapher and an editorial contributor to a number of the leading metropolitan papers; in the magazine world as a writer of timely articles on great problems; in the biblical world as the author of several books on biblical subjects; in the Sunday-school world as a leeturer and the writer of Pell's Notes.
For nearly eight years he has lectured at the Young Men's Christian Assoeia- tion every Saturday afternoon on the Sunday-school lessous. These lectures have been regularly attended by Sunday-school workers of all denominations in Richmond and Manchester.
Dr. Pell has won upon the regard of a large circle in his ehosen home at the capital of Virginia. ITis contributions to literature would seem to tax the exer- tions of men of seasoned health, yet his work is done by a person vexed by dis-
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turbed nerves, often in disarray, displaying the highest fortitude and recalling the genius of Heine triumphing over pain.
Not only the quality of the output, but the amount of the finished product shows tenacity of purpose conjoined with the illuminating element, the current carrying energy and fire.
REV. JOHN R. GILL.
Mr. Gill is a native of Northumberland county, in the famous Northern Neck of Virginia. The son of Zaccheus R. and Nannie L. Gill, of that county, he was born August 22, 1869. His father was an industrious and successful farmer, who was deeply interested in the welfare and improvement of his sons, and brought them up to habits of labor, economy and thrift. John became a Christian and joined the church at the age of sixteen. After receiving the schooling within his reach at home, he became impressed with his duty to pre- pare himself for the work of the ministry of Christ, and for this purpose set himself to lay up the means of pursuing a course of study at a higher institution of learning. For several years he was a student at Randolph-Macon College, despite of hindrance produced by weak eyes, which have continued to obstruct his close application to study. Nevertheless, few men have more pertinaciously studied, even when he had to be read to in order to acquire the knowledge which his defective eyesight could not bring him.
Ile was received into the Conference, on trial, in 1892, and passed success- fully his probation for full connection and Deacon's and Elder's orders in 1894 and 1896, respectively. His first year's service was as junior preacher (under John W. Nicholson, P. C.) on Aecomac Circuit ; next lie was sent to West New Kent in charge for one year; afterwards to South Chesterfield for three years. In all these places he was diligent, untiring, indomitable; a faithful preacher, a discreet administrator, and industrious and methodical pastor. In South Chesterfield he was the main agency in the building of a good parsonage at Beach Station, F. & P. railroad. It is not saying too much to assert that proba- bly but for him that enterprise would not have been brought to completion.
This is his third year on Bloxom Circuit, in Accomac again, where he labors once more in the midst of the people of the seashore country, among whom he found a wife in his first year (rather a rash proceeding, we confess, but an ex- cellent choice), a fine young woman, who has done, and will all his life, do him nothing but good and not evil.
Gill is tall, with a long stride, a look of courage and modest determination, and much power of endurance and toil. He brings things to pass, wins the hearts of the people by his simplicity and sincerity, and pointing the road, leads the way to a liolier life and a better world. Many scores of souls have been brought to Christ under his ministry, and every charge he has had has improved.
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REV. ROBERT TANKARD WATERFIELD.
If it be true that the face and form of an individual are the first things which attract or repel, then the subject of this sketch would command attention and challenge admiration in any crowd. Ilis features are strong, clear-cut and handsome, and his form is symmetrical and finely developed.
Mr. Waterfield was born near Onancock, Va., August 6, 1867. Ile is the son of William Il. and Margaret S. Waterfield. Ilis earliest mental training was received at the public schools of his native county. In 1887 he entered Ran- dolph-Macon College, where he prosecuted his studies with diligence for four years. In the autumn of 1886, when the evidences of life's brevity and end were visible on every hand-when the leaves began to fade and fall, the flowers to wither and the grass to perish, his thoughts turned seriously and earnestly in the direction of Nature's great Architeet, the Judge of all the Earth. About this time he attended a protracted meeting at Evergreen church, on the Pungo- teague Cirenit, conducted by the Rev. Dr. Leonidas Rosser, of distinguished career and hallowed memory. Under the earnest, eloquent and soul-stirring ap- peals of this consecrated servant of God he was deeply convicted and genuinely converted. Ile immediately united with Evergreen church, and became an active and useful member.
After the lapse of four years he applied to the Quarterly Conference of the charge to which he belonged for license to preach. His application was granted, and for some time he exercised his gifts in the local ranks. During the session of the school he went to the Berlin Cireuit to assist Rev. O. L. Martin during the summer months. In the fall of that year he again entered Randolph-Macon College in order that he might better equip himself for the high and noble work to which he had been called. In September, 1892, he was elected principal of Sanford High School, in Accomae county, but resigned in December to take charge of Liberty-Street church, South Norfolk, under Rev. J. H. Amiss, the Presiding Elder. At the ensuing Annual Conference he was received on trial into the traveling connection and reappointed to Liberty-Street church. When he assmued charge of this appointment the church was destitute of membership and furniture, but by his untiring industry and zeal he soon equipped it for ser- vice and recorded upon its register 122 members.
On October 17, 1894, he was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Wilson Han- ford, a young lady of culture and high Christian character.
At the Conference of that year he was sent to Bowling Green Cireuit, where he remained for two years. In 1896 he was appointed to Owens Memorial church, Portsmouth, where he is now completing his quadremium. His labors there have been crowned with phenomenal success. On his arrival he found the church struggling in the throes of cruel debt. An injudicious expenditure of money in its erection and equipment had entailed upon its small membership a burden well-nigh intolerable. Hope had almost expired, activity seemed to be paralyzed, and some talked as if the church would have to be sold. The active, energetic and enterprising Waterfield at once began to plan and toil for the amelioration of the conditions by which he was confronted. The verification of the Latin maxim, Fortes Fortuna Jural. was soon realized, and the aspect of affairs assumed a very decided change. A considerable amount of money, raised from various sources, was applied to the debt, reducing it to an amount
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which can be easily carried. The membership of the church has been greatly increased, and all of its departments give evidence of unparalleled success.
As a preacher, Mr. Waterfield is clear, logical and frequently ornate. He possesses a voice of marvellous compass and sweetness. It enables him to ex- press with remarkable precision and effectiveness the different shades of thought and feeling which occupy his mind and heart.
As a pastor, he is diligent, systematie, and indefatigable. No man can aecuse him of partiality or discrimination. He visits the humble dwellings of the poor as well as the elegant mansions of the riell. He does not discharge the duties of the pastorate simply because they are expected or required. He es- teems it a privilege to instruct, exhort, counsel, if need be rebuke, and, above all, to pursuade men to lead holy, blameless lives.
Mr. Waterfield is a man of genial and generous disposition, eordial manners and refined sensibilities. Nature has endowed him with superior mental facul- ties which have been cultivated with assiduity and care. He is steadfast in his principles, firm in his convictions, and fearless and eloquent in his defense of the right. He knows full well that the genius of success is the genius of toil. Ile has the ability not merely to plan, but to execute. In a word, he possesses all of the elements which guarantee a career of usefulness and snecess.
REV. ROBERT SPENCER BAUGHAN.
Ile is the son of W. L. and Mary M. Baughan, and was born in Cumberland county, Va., December 15, 1864. The first years of his life were spent in at- tending the public schools of his native county and in working upon the farm -an ideal life for developing character, and the one in which the major part of the men who make and sustain nations are reared.
In February, 1883, young Baughan went to Lynchburg, Va., where he was employed in mereantile pursuits for more than five years. Although the Spirit of God had very early in life made impressions upon his mind and heart, and striven with him for the mastery, he did not make the full and final surrender of his will until the year 1884, during a meeting conducted by our lamented Dr. George C. Vandersliee at Centenary church, Lynchburg, of which he was at that time pastor. In May of that year Mr. Baughan united with Court Street Methodist church, and at onee took and maintained, with scrupulous fidelity, a high stand as a consecrated, aetive and zealous worker for God. He was always in his place at all the services of the church, and was an active parti- cipant in the prayer-meetings, the class-meetings and in the Sunday-school. Hle was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Young Men's Christian Association of the city.
In 1886 he was deeply impressed with the thought that it was the will of God that he should preach the Gospel. He determined that he would not be dis- obedient unto the heavenly vision, but his circumstances were such that he could not enter college to prepare for his life work until September, 1888. Five years of faithful toil as a student were spent at Randolph-Macon. He would have received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1893, except for the fact that
REV. NATHANIEL J. PRUDEN.
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the severe strain of student life had so impaired his health that he was unable to stand the final examination on all his subjects.
Immediately upon the elose of the college session of this year he went to Nor- folk, where he had been employed by the Presiding Elder, Rev. J. H. Amiss, to take charge of and organize a new work under the name of Trinity church. He began with nineteen members, but his labors were blessed with a gracious revival of three weeks' duration, and eighty-two names were reported to Confer- ence as members of the Church.
In November, 1893, Mr. Baughan was admitted on trial into the traveling connection of the Virginia Conference at the session held that year in Dan- ville, and was returned to Trinity, Norfolk. This year there were seventy- eiglit additions and one hundred and forty members reported to Conference. He had by this time demonstrated his ability for organizing new work, and was sent in 1894 to Hampton to take ellarge of West End church as its first pastor, where he wrought nobly for God and the people. The next year he was sent to Benn's Cireuit, and here he remained for three years.
On the 25th of March, 1896, he was married to Miss Onie Portloek Wilson, youngest child of Rev. E. P. Wilson, for many years an honored member of the Virginia Conference. She is by birth, training and character eminently fitted to be a helpmeet, indeed, to a minister of the Gospel.
In November, 1898, he was assigned to Burkeville Circuit, and during the two years spent there he built and nearly paid for one of the best parsonages in the Conference outside of our cities. Of themselves the people were not able to build and pay for a home for their preacher; and the pastor, by personal effort and solieitation, secured several hundred dollars in easlı and material from Methodist friends outside of his charge. Under his direction one of the churches of the circuit that was worn out with age, was practically inade new, the architecture being modern in style and conducive to the true spirit of wor- ship. But during this pastorate a great shadow fell over the preacher's home. God loaned the father and mother a lovely boy, Robert Wilson, and at the end of two years took him back to Himself. Another son has come to bless and soothe their aching hearts, and ITis grace is sufficient.
Mr. Baughan is now serving his first year on the North Mecklenburg charge, with encouraging prospects.
Mr. Baughan strives to live close to the Master. His highest ambition is to know God and Jesus Christ, His Son, and to lead others into the enjoyment of the same blessed fellowship.
In his preaching there is nothing sensational. He earnestly seeks to attain naturalness and simplicity of manner. Ile has no theories other than the great truths of the Gospel, and his great delight is to open to his hearers the plain teaching of the Word of God. ITis prepared method of preaching is the expositional. He delivers his message with great earnestness and sincerity.
Not overbearing in spirit, nor denuneiatory in preaching, he has much of that gentleness that is so beautiful a Christian trait, and yet no man is more true to his convictions or more ready to speak the truth in love.
In his pastoral work he is conscientious and faithful, and all the interests of the Church receive careful attention at his hands. He is a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, and God is crowning his labors with suecess.
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REV. M. S. COLONNA, JR., A. B., B. D.
Mr. Colonna came of good Methodist stock. He was born June 6, 1871, in Hertford, N. C., at the home of his parents, Rev. M. S. Colonna and Adona J. Colonna. Born in the home of a Methodist preaeher, reared under Methodist influences, and educated at a Methodist college, it is not remarkable that he himself should have beeome a Methodist of sterling type, and that, when ealled of God to enter the ministry, he should have cast his lot with the Metho- dist itinerants.
After several years in preparatory schools, Mr. Colonna entered Randolphi- Macon College. Here he immediately took high rank as an earnest and intelli- gent student, and this standard he maintained throughout his course. In 1891 he graduated with the A. B. degree. For a short while he taught in Hertford, N. C., but, having been soundly converted and having experieneed a definite call to the ministry, he dedieated himself to the glorious work of preaching the Gospel. In order to more thoroughly fit himself for the work of the ministry, in the fall of 1892 he matriculated in the Theological Seminary of Vanderbilt University. The earnestness and fidelity which had marked his eollege course were apparent at Vanderbilt. His aceurate scholarship and well-trained mind eaused him to be regarded by both faculty and student body as one of the most mature and thoughtful men in the Seminary. He graduated with great distinc- tion and with the degree of B. D. in 1895.
Mr. Colonna was received into the Virginia Conference on trial in 1894, was received into full connection and ordained deaeon in 1896, and became an elder in 1898. His first appointment was to Richmond Cireuit, where he remained two years. Thenee he was transferred to Chestnut Avenue, Newport News, where he closed the third year of his pastorate in November, 1900. His work there has been attended with marked suecess, resulting in the development of the work from a mission ehapel, with no organization, to a self-sustaining church with a strong membership, a perfeeted organization, and a hopeful future.
Mr. Colonna ranks as one of the most promising of the younger members of the Conference. There are few better equipped in mind and soul than he. Ile is a man of one purpose-thoroughly consecrated to the great work of preaching the Gospel. One who knows his heart has said : "Ile seeks not place, nor prominence, nor popularity, but only a people to whom he may minister of the things of God." His sermons are well wrought, being the product of a mature and logical mind, a clear and certain faith, and a desire to serve and save men. He is absolutely free from seeularism and sensationalism, but con- structs his sermons from the truth as taught in God's Word. His attitude towards the Bible is one of reverent inquiry, seeking to know the results of modern criticism, but unshaken in his faith in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. In addition to his ability as a preacher, he is a faithful pastor, a good organizer, and especially gifted in working among young men and young women.
Mr. Colonna was married, on June 6, 1900, to Miss Mattie S. Gayle, of New- port News, Va., a member of his church, whose sympathetic co-operation in all his work renders him better fitted than ever for a career of great usefulness to God and the Church. At the Conference of 1900 he was assigned to Cabell Street church, Lynchburg, where he will give a good account of himself.
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REV. GEORGE WESLEY JONES.
He is of the itinerant elan, for his father is of the Bedouins-the Circuit Knights-Rev. Albert A. Jones, of our Conference. George counts his years from May 2, 1871. Petersburg is his native city. His education was gained from the Academy at Bedford, the College at Ashland and from Princeton, a Presbyterian school in New Jersey. Mr. Jones doesn't seem to have been soaked in "tan-vats" of Bishop Haygood's merry mention at Charlottesville. If so, he came out genuine "vici kid," and not a "Jersey" calfskin.
Whether from school at the base of the Blue Ridge, or from the lecture-rooms hard by "the slashes of Hanover," or the Calvinistie college beyond the Potomac, who can say ? But, at any rate, the finished product is a best article of the pedagogie skill. Jones is bright as a new pin-a pin with a head on it and a piereing point. The cleverness behind the brow shows itself in a couple of dark- gray eyes-perfect optical orbs. They seem to swim in sockets of liquid light. They have a certain sheen, the genial outflow of a true interest in men, that plays over his well-moulded countenance.
Ile has gifts for his vocation. Ile sings, not with the baritone and leonine notes of Crawley, not the witching melody of Bledsoe; yet there is a sweetness of tone that finds welcome by the car. Hle is a student, but not a slave of books. The briefest notes, mere key words, are all the manuscript he carries in the pulpit. His voice is not too fat for its flight, like the flutter and fall of a sora. It is swift and sure, reaching the rim of the circle of listeners. But best of all, Mr. Jones has "the root of the matter" in him. He has a thorough consecration. There is no posturing as a devotee, no claim to chernbie excellence nor angelic clarification of the human dust; but a plain, practical common sense purpose to "walk as IIe walked." This is an age without patience for the verbosity of vehement virtue. It is the even tenor of a seasoned and ecrtain loyalty to Jesus that tells. Mr. Jones is on Monday just as firm in fealty to the colors of the Christ as on the Lord's Day. "My heart is fixed." The Church can count on this genial, genuine, gracious gentleman as true to its interest, always, every- where. While these pages are passing through the press, God is descending in Pentecostal power upon the people Mr. Jones is ministering to. And no man craves this sort of honor more than this "lad with the loaves," which the Lord makes more and more feeding the hungry people. The ambition of this cul- tivated and clear man is limited rather to a chapel, not "a first church," but a Bethel, though it be but a "stone," so there is a gradient of glory, the avenue of the angels, ascending and deseending with the bulletins of gladness evoking "joy in Heaven."
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