USA > Virginia > Sketches and portraits of the Virginia Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church > Part 32
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conscientions in it. Underneath it all is zeal for Zion. He would have de- lighted Luther or Knox had he lived in the days of either. Let it be remem- bered that when he throws his whole weight against what he regards as wrong, or in favor of what he regards as right, it is not as a belligerent that seeks some detached, isolated individual, but as one seeing and rallying to a cause that calls him, to a cause that constrains him. And the object is not to wrestle with men, but to grapple and uphold with all his power the principles that make for eternal truth and right. Some may think that he sometimes sounds a call to war to settle questions that might be best dealt with through the methods of diplomacy, conventionality. Some may think he sometimes advances where and when he should not venture. Some may think that in his aggressive war- fare on the wrong, as he saw it, he has made some mistakes in the past. Some may think that consideration of the individual should have more weight with him than it does. If all this should be granted as admitted facts, there is another-an abiding fact. Those who know him fully know that his is a true, sincere, courageous heart, full of loyalty to God and his Church; and his aim is God's glory and the good of men, even when his methods might not indi- eate it on the surface or manifest it in expression.
REV. GEORGE FEARING GREENE.
This consecrated and successful young minister was born in Perquimans county, N. C., December 17, 1864; a son of Constant C. Greene, who was a native of Newport, R. I., and of Hannah S. Wiles, of Harford county, Md., a sister of the late Rev. Alfred Wiles, of the Virginia Conference. Both parents were godly, active Methodists, who trained their children in the mrture and admonition of the Lord.
George spent nine years in private schools in Elizabeth City, N. C., where his parents lived, and was afterwards engaged for a time in the dry-goods trade. In 1888 he entered Randolph-Macon College, where he studied faithfully for two sessions. After leaving college he was General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association at Berkley, Va., which position he held for two years, doing a most excellent work in behalf of the young men and boys of that town.
On the first day of June, 1892, he married Miss Annie W. Gaskins, of Eliza- beth City, N. C., and at the session of the Virginia Annual Conference, held in November of the same year, he was received on trial into the traveling comice- tion. Ilis first charge was Haygood Memorial and Lynnhaven Circuit, where he remained three years and did a remarkably fine work. He then served Ebenezer church, at Crittenden's, two years, and Princess Anne Circuit one year, after which he was appointed to his present charge-Ettrick Station-where he is just entering upon his third year of successful service.
He was ordained a deacon by Bishop Haygood in 1894, and an elder by Bishop Duncan in 1896.
Brother Greene is below the average physical stature of men, but compactly built and a possessor of health and endurance. Mentally, he is well endowed, and he has read and studied assiduously. He preaches to edification, sings nu-
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usually well, plays the organ with ease and skill, is handy with the blackboard, devoted to work in the Sunday-school and Epworth League, and a careful pastor of his people. Withal, he is devout in spirit and clean in life. From the be- ginning of his ministry he has been a success, and the future holds for him, no doubt, still greater usefulness and honor in the service of the Master whom he loves. The portrait tallies with the record-unwrinkled by ridges of wrong thoughts.
REV. CHARLES ELAM BLANKENSHIP.
lle is the second of this name on the roll of our Conference, but as far as our knowledge goes there is no relationship. Morristown, Ten,, was his birthplace, but his parents were Virginians, and it was during their residence of a few years that the incident of Charles' birth transpired beyond Virginia. That important event took place September 8, 1872. Twelve years after, his parents returned to Virginia, and made Lynchburg their home. Here the subject of our sketch was put to school and advanced rapidly in learning, laying a good foundation, especially in the English branches. His father's death and the widowhood of his mother, devolving upon her the maintenance of a considerable family of sons and daughters, compelled him to leave off his education and seek employment that would give support to the family. At the Sam Jones meeting in the fall of 1890 he professed conversion and was baptized and received into membership in Cabell Street church. Rev. John L. Clarke was the administrator. In the spring of 1891 the family moved to Richmond, and he found employment with the Richmond Cedar Works. His certificate was deposited at Trinity, from which place he removed to St. James. Here he distinctly realized the call to preach, and fully decided to yield himself up to a prompting of the Spirit, which he had resisted for some years. At the urgent request of his pastor he was licensed to preach November 12, 1894. By attendance on night school and diligent application at home, his educational preparation for the itinerant ser- vice was greatly improved, so that he felt emboldened, at the Annual Conference of 1895 to seek admission, Accordingly, he was received, and thus entered npon his itinerant career.
Mr. Blankenship is five feet ten inches in height, ercet, spare, and moves with a measured tread. Ile has a pleasing countenance, firm-set jaw, keen, dark eye and complexion, and would pass for a beardless boy. There is a trifle of stiff- ness, the result of a hurt, which causes a slight limp in a leg. In disposition he is firm, decided, self-reliant, and is not easily turned aside by ordinary difficulties. His sermons are well thought out and delivered with the courage of his convic- tions. In his first charge-the West Franklin Circuit-where men of larger experience in itinerancy have found difficulties almost insurmountable, he achieved a success but little short of miraculous. He built the elegant new St. James church at Ferrum and the Highland church at Piedmont in the face of conditions that would have daunted men of greater age. Men familiar with the surroundings have been perplexed to know how the thing was done. The expla- nation, in part at least, may be that, during those years there stood at his side one of the pluckiest little women ( nee Mary A. Walford ) that Richmond could
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afford, who ventured in the midst of his first year of itinerant service to join him in matrimonial alliance and to share with him the privations of a mountain circuit of eight or ten appointments.
Ile is now serving his second charge in the Conference-Washington-Street Tabernacle, Fourth Ward, Danville-where large accessions during the past year bear testimony to zeal and fidelity to his charge. We connt him among the rising men of the Conference.
REV. SAMUEL JACKSON BATTIN.
Mr. Battin was born in Portsmouth, Va., September 8, 1866, and is the son of Methodist parents. His father, Mr. William A. Battin, of Nansemond county, was a prominent member of and class-leader in our Church. He followed Lee through the strife between the States and was present at the surrender at Ap pomattox. In 1867, when the subject of this sketch was but four months old, the father's pure spirit took its flight to God. But the great loss sustained in the death of a godly father was in large measure compensated for by the watchful care and wise counsel of a devotedly pions and consecrated Christian mother, who was Miss Margaret Pitt, also of Nansemond county, and who still survives.
Mr. Battin's early education was secured in the city schools of Portsmouth, which he attended until fifteen years of age, at which time he entered the em- ployment of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and in a short while became recognized as an operator of unusual ability and excellence. His skill in the profession was of great value during the quarantine of 1899 of National Soldiers' Home and vicinity on account of yellow fever. He was at this time pastor of West End church, Hampton, and stood bravely by his post of duty when others had fled, conmunmicating by means of the electric current between the infected district and the outside world,
Many will recall the wonderful meetings held in Norfolk in 1886 by the great evangelist, D. L. Moody. It was under their influence that on April 15th Mr. Battin was converted to God, to which fact he gave public testimony on the fol- lowing day. Ile at once united with Monumental church, Portsmouth, of which the sainted Dr. John D. Blackwell was at that time pastor. Simultaneously with his conversion came a call to preach the Gospel, but business prospects were flattering, his salary was large, and in March, 1887, he was offered and accepted the position of Secretary to the Superintendent of the Norfolk and Virginia Beach railroad, and the call to the ministry was stubbornly resisted. But the voice of the Spirit could not be hushed ; the call was loud and clear, and a feeling akin to that of the apostle, "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel," took pos- session of his soul. He determined at last to obey the Divine command, and in September, 1890, he resigned a most Inerative and promising position and en- tered Randolph-Macon College as a student for the ministry, Here he remained four years, prosecuting his studies with fidelity and success, and exerting a noble Christian influence among his fellow-students, by whom he was elected to the position of Secretary and afterwards President of the College Young Men's Christian Association. In 1894 he entered Vanderbilt University, where in three years he took the full theological course, graduating with high distinction.
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He paid his expenses through college and university by his own exertions, spend- ing all of his vacations, save one, at work as a telegrapher.
From June to November, 1896, he was employed to take charge of the work at West Norfolk. In November, 1896, he was admitted on trial to the Annual Conference, but continued for another session as a student at Vanderbilt Uni- versity. In 1897 he was assigned to Richmond Circuit, his first appointment. The next year he was made pastor of West End, Hampton, and in November, 1899, he took charge of Floyd Street ehireh, Danville, where he is doing prob- ably the best work ever done at that charge since its organization. The church building has been greatly beautified and enlarged to nearly twice its former seating capacity, and also re-named "Sledd Memorial," in honor of the late Rev. R. N. Sledd, D. D.
M.r Battin is an excellent preacher and a faithful pastor. All the interests of the Church receive careful attention under his administration. Ilis life is perfectly transparent. There is nothing in it that he wishes to conceal, nothing of which he is ashamed. Ile deems it a privilege and an honor to preach the Gospel, and accepts cheerfully any field, however difficult, to which he may be assigned, doing the work thankfully with a zealous and a willing heart. His social qualities are of unusual excellence, and he possesses an affability and ease of manner that make him gladly welcomed in any company. But his greatest ambition is to glorify God by a blameless life and to bless the world in seeking and saving the lost.
REV. WILLIAM B. JETT.
Mr. Jett was born in King George county, Va., November 28, 1900, of Epis- copal parents-Dr. W. V. Jett and Virginia Mitchell Jett. His home in- fluence, socially and religiously, was good.
He loved and performed farm work till 1880, when he entered and for a time represented a commission house in Baltimore, Md. In April, 1881, he en- listed for five years in United States cavalry service, and went West, where he served also as "cow-boy" and teamster.
He was converted in a tent meeting, conducted by the "Holiness Band," in Phoenix, Arizona, September 25, 1887, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church January 1, 1888. He returned to Virginia in August and united with Union Methodist Episcopal church, South, in King George county. In Sep- tember he entered Randolph-Macon, staying two sessions. He joined the Vir- ginia Conference November, 1890.
Ile reads a good deal, but he has never learned how to study, and his thoughts wander away from the subject in hand. His sermons lack ornament and pathos, but the Gospel is plainly declared and in love, and his ministry does not lack fruit. Ile is much "on the go," and perhaps spends too much time visiting.
He was married March 28, 1895, to Miss Viola G. Bryant, a true-blue Methodist of Richmond county, Va., and two of the prettiest little girls in the world bless the union.
He was sent in November, 1890, to Marvin Grove, now Richmond Cirenit ; in 1894, to Oaklette and Gihuerton; in 1896, to Essex Circuit; 1900-'1. to
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Whaleyville. He does fairly good work on a country charge, but would be a failure in the city pastorate.
The reader sees a charcoal sketch of Jett by Jett. It is not a portrait. It is unjust. Hle is as gemine a man of God as the Conference roll contains. He visits the poor. Ile nurses them. His sermons have fat, marrow, muscle. They nourish. Men heed when he hails them to a better life. Sinners are converted. Jett knows no fatigue in the service of Jesus.
REV. LEROY LEE BANKS.
Mr. Banks has been in the ministry about ten years. He is the grandson of the late Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D., who had hoped that God would call one of his sons to the ministry and thus perpetuate an almost unbroken succession of the name and family of Lee in American Methodism from its foundation on. Ilis illustrious unele, Jesse Lee, and himself, had for a century, with a short interim, kept up the name with distinction. His hope in his latter days turned to his young grandson, and he desired that should he receive a call to the min- istry, his name should be entered on the rolls of the Conference and he should be known among his brethren in full-Leroy Lee Banks.
Mr. Banks was born in Norfolk, Va., April 3, 1866. He was born again when about twelve years of age under the ministry of Rev. E. N. S. Blogg and Rev. Dr. L. Rosser, in the old chapel at Ashland, Va. He professed sanctifica- tion during the preaching of Rev. Dr. Carradine in Portsmouth, Va., in 1897.
Brother Banks has served in the following fields: Petersburg, 1890-'91 (under Presiding Elder) ; Petersburg, 1891-'92 (joined Conference) ; East King and Queen, 1892-'93 and 1893-94; New Kent, 1894-'95, 1895-'96 and 1896-'97; Surry, 1897-'98; West Buckingham, 1898-'99 and 1899-1900; Essex, 1900-1901.
Spiritual fruits have followed his labors in all these fields. Many souls have been awakened from sin and brought into the Kingdom of God by a truly re- generated life. Since his sanctification he has held forth this grace also as the present, personal privilege of believers, and many have pressed into the experi- ence of its fulness.
Hle is an earnest student of the Word of God as it relates to spiritual privi- leges, and striving first to incorporate its experiences into his own life, he cries in the spirit of the apostle to his hearers, "Follow me as I follow Christ." He seems to find a motto in this text, "But, as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts." God stands by him. Hundreds of souls have been converted and sanctified under God in connection with his ministry. His gift of sweet song, consecrated as it is, is wonderfully owned in his work. Ile is systematic and diligent in the management of the affairs of his charges, as his ammal reports show.
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REV. ROBERT C. GARLAND.
A criticism of the clergy is that they are a dapper and dilettante set, spoiled in the making, by too much coddling, the pets of pions and ancient spinsters, educated, clothed, fed on bequests of good but mistaken people, and coming into the pulpit with the manhood utterly eliminated. It is argued that the pulpit ought, of all vocations, to have the least "baby" qualities in it; that every preacher ought to rough it in youth and win his way by his own exertions, be- holding to no one. Phillips Brooks, of Boston, Bishop, expressed regret and alarm that his own Church had endowed its theological seminaries, till the annual inerement overflowed. The blessed "Biblets" could not consume the income, though they received changes of raiment, rich food, and a library of the "Fathers" "without money and without price," then a nice rectory, with surpliced choir, and presently "leading a sister about" as a wife.
If such things were true of our Church we might also have fears. The peru- sal of these "sketches" will seatter to the winds all dread of petted pulpiteers among us. Onr men come to the service of God like persons secure a diploma in law or medicine, or engineering-by hard work and self-denial. It sends a thrill of pride and joy to the Methodist heart to read of her preachers forcing frowning fortune to smile on them.
Mr. Garland was a farmer's lad. Ilis father dies. The young man has test of the firm sinews of the soul. He comes to Richmond and engages in houest and exacting handicraft in a metal furnace, amid the loud clamor of roaring machinery. He works, husbands his wages, never losing sight of the high call- ing. Hle attends the Academy three years, then the College. How does he spend his vacations ? Did he play the bean ? No, not for an hour. He equipped himself with an inventory of books. They were carried from house to house. There was a double benefit. The man who plants a choice and fruitful volume in a family, has wrought a noble deed. And more, he can read what he sells. It is automatic education ; besides the rebuffs he receives give him insight into human nature and toughon his fibre. It is a best training school. The old Methodists can recall that every circuit rider was a circulating publishing house on hoofs or wheels. After the sermon the preacher comes down to the chancel, opens his lige saddle-bags, displays his volumes, sells them. They were solid works. We see how our Church ancestors became mighty in the reasons for the faith and hope. A proselyter canght a Tartar when he "went up against a class leader."
And, moreover, men like Lewis Skidmore, who had a big box under his bruge "stick gig"- filled with seasonable books, became well-to-do. He owned broad aeres of fertile "low-grounds" in his old age. He made many rich in soul, while the Lord blessed his purse and plantations.
Mr. Garland's record as a self-made man, the outcome of sanctified native grit, is a proud history.
Ilis parents taught him to be good from the cradle. He is a native of Lun- enburg county, converted under the ministry of the patriarch of the Conference, the Rev. William A. Crocker, on West Brunswick Cirenit. Through a tier of connties from Norfolk to the Roanoke, Surry, Sussex, Greenesville, Brunswick, and on to the Carolina line, Methodism sent down deep in distant years its tap- root in the pioneer period. This primitive type remains.
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Mr. Garland enlisted in the Conference in 1896. He was assigned to Middle Franklin Mission. Wright was the Field Marshal, Moseley cheering the corps with a silver bugle. The report confirms the surmise of stern stuff in the new recruit. There was a hundred ( lacking one) conversions, and new churches came to the capstone. Let it not be forgotten that Methodism is militant in that region. It is invading an ancient stronghold of the "llard Shells." As an illustration : "Did you go to the Methodist Sunday-school for certain ? Why, the little raseal made me believe he was going fishing!" So the primitive Bap- tist Church court accepted the father's defence against the wickedness of allow- ing his son to attend a Methodist Sunday-school ! Garland won battles in such sections.
Ile is serving his third year on Staunton River Mission, And here, too, con- versions (95) and other spoils witness to the zeal and prudence of this devoted man. May the Lord multiply such champions!
REV. JAMES E. OYLER.
Mr. Oyler was born December 2, 1870, near Haleford, Franklin county, Va. Ilis parents, V. W. Oyler and M. E. Oyler, are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and their devotion to their Master's cause led their son to seek Christ early.
He was converted in his thirteenth year under the ministry of E. V. Goodwin, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He joined Oyler's Chapel with his parents during the same year.
He spent several years as a salesman in stores and on the road. Finally, while salesman for those godly men, W. HI. Gregory and J. B. Gregory, of Lynchburg, he became convinced that he must heed the call of God, which had been troubling him for some time to preach the Gospel. He attended Randolph- Macon Academy at Bedford City as long as he could. While at the Academy he was licensed to preach November 12, 1894, entered Conference on trial No- vember, 1896, and was ordained deacon November, 1898. His first appoint- ment was as supply on Meadows of Dan Mission, which he served one year be- fore entering Conference.
Since 1896 he has served the following charges : Staunton River, West Buck- ingham and Clarksville.
Ile was married to Miss Julia E. Miller, of Mathews county, January 26, 1898.
Mr. Oyler is six feet, light hair and eyes ; voice is clear and musical.
Ile loves his Master, and uses every opportunity to point his fellow-men to the Lamb of God. While modest almost to a fault, he is always greatly be- loved by his flock, and his ministry is always attended by large congregations. Wherever he has been he "preaches Christ and Him crucified," and presents the Gospel as the "Bahn in Gilead." Ile heals wounds, but does not make them. He loves much and teaches others to love one another.
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REV. E. L. PEERMAN.
Mr. Peerman was born February 7, 1874, at Rustburg, Va. His early life, like that of the Wesleys, was blessed with the refining influences of conse- crated Christian parents. In childhood he came to know Christ as a personal Saviour, and that meant to him: "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord ; I'll be what you want me to be." With the divine light shining in upon his mind at the conversion, he, like Paul, interpreted the handwriting of God on his conscience that he was chosen to herald abroad the good news of the Christ. In obedience to this call to preach he began earnestly to prepare for his di- vinely chosen mission.
In September, 1892, Brother Peerman entered Randolph-Macon College, where he spent four successive years. While at college he won and held the entire confidence of both students and Faculty. In the class-room he stood in the front rank as a diligent and thorough student. Hle was also a leader in the Y. M. C. A., and in recognition of his faithful labors the Association sent him in 1894 as their delegate to the Summer School at Northfield, Mass.
In November, 1896, he joined the Virginia Conference, and was sent to Ac- comac Courthouse, Va. Afterwards he served as pastor of the charge at Ber- lin, Md., and at Floyd Street, Danville, Va. As pastor of these churches he showed special talents in the pastoral care and instruction of children.
Ile returned to Randolph-Macon College in 1899, where at the close of the same session he graduated with the A. B. degree. This year he entered the Vanderbilt University with the purpose of spending three sessions there in the Theological Department.
Brother Peerman is a deeply pions and thoroughly consecrated young man, humble and sweet-spirited. Ile loves the Church, and is a true Methodist preacher in being willing to go anywhere in all the world that the Church may choose to send him. We predict for him a bright and useful career.
REV. JOHN EDWARD WIIITE.
Mr. White is of a choice type of Methodism. His parents, the Rev. John French White and Martha C. White, were Methodists of Methodists. He was born August 26, 1865, in York county, Va.
At the age of fourteen years he was converted, and joined Providence church. From childhood he has loved the Church and Sunday-school work, and desired to do what good he could. In the Sunday-school he has filled the offices of librarian, secretary, treasurer, teacher, assistant superintendent and superintendent. The school was in a prosperous condition during the . five years of his superintendeney, and presented him with a silver cup as a token of appreciation.
Ilis early education was confined to the public and private schools of the county, but by close application and perseverance he was able to pass ex- amination and obtain a certificate to teach in the public schools. Ile im- proved himself by attending several summer normal institutes for teachers.
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