USA > Virginia > Sketches of Virginia : historical and biographical > Part 28
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Early in the spring, having accepted the call from Silver Creek and Paint Creek, which had been in his hands about two years, Mr. Allen removed to Kentucky. His father sent by him the following letter to Jacob Fishback :
Cumberland Cy., Virginia, March 7th, 1794. .
SIR-I received your letter 'by my son Cary; and I read it, and I believed every word that you wrote to be the truth. My heart said give him up, cheerfully up, to do the Lord's work, be it where he was called for most. But my flesh scringes at it, and would make the water flow out of my head very freely; and I could not help it. But it appears to me now, at this time, he is wanted here as much as at Cantuck ; and I will give reasons for it. Cary's connexion is very large, and people that are of no church are very fond to hear him ; they have faith in him. He is now married, and I am pleased at that ; perhaps it may be a means of hearing from him oftener than had he married in Cantucky. But now, my dear sir, you have all the advantage of me, his old father, who must go out of the world shortly, and Cary a favorite child. Will you sympa - thise with me, and let him come to see me. His friends would now stop him from going could they do it. But his heart is at Cantucky ; and I never did undertake to persuade him against going, but often told him I was opposed to it, and could not be angry with him. I am now sixty-five years old, a planter, and never was but a little over one hundred miles from home in my life. I have seen and felt two revivals in my time ; and now we are very cold in religion again. I was in Hanover when religion first sprung up in my neighborhood ; and now at that place there is scarcely the shadow of religion. And will it be so here ? God forbid it should. If it should I can- not stay here. But I am in hopes when the seed is sown in the heart it will not die. My desires are the same now as ever ; and I feel now like I never could give up to the foolish fashions and cus- toms of the world. I remain a stranger, but am in hopes a friend to you and you to me. DANL. ALLEN.
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REV. WILLIAM CALHOON.
The simplicity and godly sincerity that appear in this letter characterized all that section of country around Hampden Sidney College, occupied by the Presbyterian congregations, Mr. Allen would probably have yielded to the wishes of his father and friends, and have remained in Virginia for life ; but his numerous admirers in Kentucky gave him no rest, sending messages and letters to call him west of the Alleghenies.
On the 11th of October, 1794, he was ordained pastor of the two churches that had given him the call. Feeling himself the shepherd of the flock, he was ready to spend and be spent for those for whom Christ laid down his life. One cold winter night he preached in a log cabin to a crowded auditory. After service, leaving the room in a free perspiration, he rode some miles to the place of his lodg- ing ; took cold and fell ill. A cough succeeded, and a rapid decline. On the 5th of August, 1795, he breathed his last, being in his twenty- ninth year ; leaving a wife and one child, a daughter. . As he ap- proached his end, his desire to be useful lost none of their intensity. He called the elders to his room for counsel and exhortation. He sent for members of the church in companies, and exhorted them ; and thus kept the spirit of piety alive. He departed in the tri- umph of faith. His grave is in a burying-ground near Danville, marked by head and foot-stones, erected in 1823 by the Presbytery of Transylvania.
WILLIAM CALHOON.
The sedate, unaffected, sincere, and conscientious young com- panion of Cary Allen, on his second trip to Kentucky, William Cal- hoon, was reared in Prince Edward County, the son of a pious elder in the Briery Church. Born in 1772, and early instructed in reli- gious truth, and the practice of strict morality, unusually inclined to gravity, and very respectful to religion, and its ministers, he became a member of Hampden Sidney College, at the age of fourteen. He was a student there during the great revival, which made its appear- ance, among the Presbyterians, first in Briery ; and was a partaker of its blessings. His father lived about six miles from the College, and required his son to return home every Saturday, and pass the Sabbath with the family in private, social, and public worship of God. This keeping the Sabbath holy cherished in the mind of the youth those religious impressions early made. All the jeers and laugh of the thoughtless boys in College, not one of whom was known to be religious, could not destroy the conscientious sedateness of young Calhoon in any matters that concerned morality and religion. In cheerfulness and close attention to his studies he was surpassed by none.
When William Hill began to be disturbed about the condition of his soul, he requested this sedate lad, as he was going home of a Saturday, to ask his father to send him some good book to read. The message was delivered in presence of the family. Miss Peggy, a pious elder sister, said, "I know what to send-1 have got the very
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book for him." And on Monday, young Calhoon carried to College a much used copy of Alleine's Alarm to the Unconverted. This book was the occasion of discovering the seriousness in College, and of uniting the prayerful in a social band. In the revival which fol- lowed, the bearer of the book was a hopeful partaker of the blessings. That Allen, and Hill, and Read, and Calhoon, and Blythe should cherish a warm friendship for each other and for Legrand, was but the natural consequence of companionship in the early exercises of a renewed heart. Allen, mirthfully eccentric ; Hill fiery, passionate and lofty, yet mirth-loving ; Read, resolute but full of kindness, with the simplicity of a child ; Blythe, full of generous feeling, and from the hour he wept in Hill's room over his remissness in religion, an unflinching defender of the truth as it is in Christ; and Calhoon, with his gravity, ardor, and tender conscience, all of them ran for Christ a race marked with their individual characteristics, and abounding in blessings to the church.
When about nineteen years of age, Mr. Calhoon offered himself a candidate for the ministry, to the Presbytery holding its sessions at. the Briery Meeting House, April 1st, 1791. His examination took place that evening, in the dwelling of Mrs. Morton, and record was made of his acceptance. In the absence of the moderator, Robert Marshall, a licentiate under the care of the commission of Synod, opened the Presbytery, being present, in preparation to go with Allen to Kentucky on a mission. In October, at Cub Creek, the candidates, Moses Waddell and William Calhoon, appeared for ex- amination. In the evening, at the house of Littlejoe Morton, they read their trial pieces, Mr. Calhoon's being a lecture on 110th Psalm. The examination on Greek and Moral Philosophy was on May 10th, 1792, at D. S. Mr. Calhoon was called to open Presbytery with his trial sermon for licensure, on John 6th, 37, All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. On the 12th, William Calhoon, Moses Waddell, and William Williamson, having passed the various exami- nations and trials required by Presbytery, were licensed to preach the gospel. One of the candidates for licensure, Mr. Waddell, had a seat in Presbytery as elder from Cumberland congregation. At a meeting of the Presbytery at Bethel, July 27th, 1792, Mr. Calhoon was recommended to the commission of Synod :- And at a meeting of the commission, in Harrisonburg, Sept. 22d, he was appointed missionary, and sent with Mr. Allen to Kentucky, on his second visit to that region.
In descending the Ohio, the boat in which the missionaries were embarked, was fired upon by some bands of savages, for plunder. The cheerful Allen, and the sedate Calhoon stood bravely for de- fence, and demanded an equal exposure to danger. Allen, by his mirth-moving eccentricities, would first attract the attention of strangers, and his frank, open-hearted bearing in his piety, would im- press those whose attention he had won. The youth, gravity, upright- ness, and bravery of Calhoon, now about twenty years of age, made
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an impression in his favor as a minister of the gospel, who was to be listened to with respect. His sociability in private circles, and deep earnestness, in the performance of his ministerial duties, held the attention once gained, aud often ripened it into abiding seriousness. Allen preferred Calhoon's manner to his own, and would have adopted it if he could ; but found, like Marshall, who preferred Allen's, in some things, to his own, that in style and manner, it is better to improve nature, than to try to change her ; imperfections may be remedied, and excellencies improved.
Mr. Calhoon was an acceptable missionary, and travelled exten- sively among the infant and scattered settlements of Kentucky. He left no diaries or journals. It is not known that he ever kept any. He had an excellent memory. He trusted it like Robinson of North Carolina ; and it was faithful to him. Almost everything respecting himself he committed to her charge, the dates and facts of his various travels, his experience, his reading, his observations on men and things, the sayings of those he loved, his interviews and discussions, all were safely treasured up for time of need. He often entertained his family and others with his adventures in Ken- tucky ; but left no record.
In November, 1793, he was received back from the commission by the Presbytery, at Cumberland meeting-house, at the time Mr. Alexander was received a licentiate from Lexington ; on December 25th, of the same year, he was transferred to Transylvania Presbytery -
to become a resident of Kentucky. On the 12th of February, 1795, he was ordained pastor of Ash Ridge and Cherry Spring. Not being entirely satisfied with his position and prospects he returned to Virginia, and at the Cove, May 9th, 1799, was, without written credentials, received, on oral testimony of a dismission from Tran- sylvania, a member of Hanover Presbytery. For some years he preached at D. S. and other places in Albemarle. On the 3d of May, 1805, at a meeting of Presbytery at Bell Grove, he accepted a call from Staunton and Brown's meeting-house, and was on the same day transferred to Lexington Presbytery. To these he de- voted his time and strength for a series of years. The increasing services, required by the enlarging congregations, induced him, as the infirmities of age came on him, to withdraw, first, from Staunton which he thought, and rightly, required the undivided attention of a minister ; and then, from Brown's meeting-house, which had taken the name of Hebron, and which required the labors of a strong man. Retaining a great degree of activity and resolution he sup- plied vacancies, and preached in neighborhoods that were desirous of hearing the gospel, and not favorably situated to attend upon divine service in the regular churches. His ministerial labors were always equal to his strength, and often, in the estimation of his family, beyond it. He was never satisfied, in that particular, till he felt conscious he had gone to the utmost of his strength, and that consciousness he often found on a bed of pain and exhaustion. His
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family were never afraid that he would rust out. He was always afraid that he should not wear out.
He was united in marriage to the eldest daughter of Dr. Wad- dell ; and was happy in his domestic relations. She survived him, having been his companion in his joys and sorrows about half a century.
Mr. Calhoon was a hearty Presbyterian. Reared under the fos- tering wing of Virginia Presbyterianism, he gave the Church of his parents his earliest and his latest love. He carefully studied her doctrines, examined her forms, and investigated her history. In comparison with the Church of Rome, he was a Protestant upon conviction ; in the philosophy of his religious creed, he was a Pre- destinarian ; in the forms of the Church he held to the parity of the clergy and simplicity in worship ; in practice he was pure in morals, upright between man and man, and exercised a benevolence that would embrace the whole race. He was a friend of all insti- tutions by whomsoever conducted that contemplated the conversion of the world to God, and the elevation of the human race, on Christian principles.
Mr. Calhoon was a ready, prompt man. All his stores were at his command at a moment's warning. His self-possession was never surprised. He always appeared at ease. Preaching, at a' certain time, at Rocky Spring, Augusta County, a member of another church exclaimed in the midst of sermon - "I deny that doctrine," and by his rudeness excited some uneasiness in the congregation. " Good people," said Mr. Calhoon, "be pleased to be quiet ; that gentleman and myself will discuss the matter." In a few moments the discussion was through, and Mr. Calhoon went on with his argu- ment, and finished his discourse as if nothing had happened. Quick in retort, he would sometimes disconcert that master of words and humor, Dr. Speece. The directness of the thrust was equalled only by the kindness of the manner.
Mr. Calhoon was a brave man. Unobtrusive, unpretending in his manner, very polite in his intercourse with his fellow-men, frank, open and cheerful, and master of his passions - he was never known to show any cowardice. He seemed to know his position and the danger that was imminent, and the way he must ward it off, escape, or overcome, and could adapt himself to circumstances with wonderful facility. In one of the necessary journeyings from Ken- tucky, which in those days were always performed on horseback, he was passing alone a track of wilderness, and was overtaken by the approach of night, some miles from the lonely tavern where he might lodge. A bright moon cheered him with her light. Suddenly a horseman emerged from a forest path, and, in silence, took the road a few steps in his rear. Annoyed by the singular conduct of the stranger, after proceeding some distance, he suddenly wheeled his horse and said -"Sir, I am strongly impressed with the belief, from your appearance, that you are a robber. I must protect my- self. Now l order you to take the road before me until we reach the
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next house. Then if it appears that I have wronged you, I will make any amends in my power." The horseman, after a moment's delay, took the lead in silence for about a mile, then suddenly by a side path dashed into the forest. It was the opinion of those at the tavern, which Mr. Calhoon soon reached, that by his presence of mind and promptness he had escaped the hands of one of those who had for some time infested the wilderness and committed numerous robberies, and some murders. Prompt in command and in danger, he was profoundly submissive to constituted authority in its legiti- mate exercise, fearless of exposure or of disgrace.
Mr. Calhoon was a social man. He enjoyed society and made himself agreeable. Always preserving the propriety of his minis- terial character, he would approach the young and thoughtless, and even opposers of religion, with cheerful news and pleasing anecdotes, and give the conversation a religious turn to impress some great truth of a spiritual nature. In the discussions that would. some- times follow, he was remarkably happy, in setting forth the truth, removing all difficulties and objections. In the opinion of some his preaching talents, of a high order, were excelled by his conversa- tional powers. It is certain that the good impressions made by his pulpit services were not obliterated by his private intercourse. "Do you remember" said Dr. Speece to Mr. Calhoon, soon after the death of the Honorable William Wirt, "the discussion you had with Mr. Wirt when you were living in Albemarle ?" "I do very well" re- plied Mr. Calhoon. "Well," said the Dr. "I visited him in his last sickness, and he told me that he was a miserable man ever after till he embraced Christianity."
Mr. Calhoon related the circumstance of the discussion. He called to see the family of Dr. Gilmer at Pen Park, near Charlottes- ville. Mr. Wirt the husband of the eldest daughter made a part of the family. In the afternoon the origin and authority of the Chris- tian religion became the subject of conversation. Mr. Wirt arrayed the arguments and facts and illustrations of the French infidel phi- losophers, at that time exercising a vast influence in Virginia by their novelty, apparent fairness and the support they received from men high in the public estimation. Mr. Calhoon was endeavoring to convince the young lawyer of the dangerous ground on which he was standing, and the unsoundness of the positions he had assumed. Mr. Wirt was arguing that Christianity was of human origin, and of course its facts fabulous ; Mr. Calhoon, that it was from God and its facts and doctrines of course all true. The discussion grew warm. Both felt its importance. At late bed time Mr. Wirt him- self conducted Mr. Calhoon to his room, conversing all the way, and while he was preparing for bed; then sitting down continued the discussion till the candle flickered in its socket. Then undres- sing he threw himself into an adjoining bed and continued the discus- sion. The dawn found them still warmly engaged, unconscious of the passage of the hours of night. After breakfast Mr. Wirt ac- companied Mr. Calhoon several miles on his way, still earnestly en-
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gaged in the discussion. In consequence of that discussion Mr. Wirt said he was a miserable man till he embraced Christianity.
Mr. Calhoon was a punctual and pleasant member of judicatories, fond of discussion, and not tenacious of an opinion about mere cir- cumstantials. Contending valiantly for the truth, he could yield a world of non-essentials for love, and give up a proposition frankly expressed for the proposition of a brother that would secure unanim- ity. His conscientiousness was sometimes extreme. He knew not how to give up an appointment for preaching, except for sickness or some most marked providence of God. Distance, cold, storm, mud, waters, must be in excess to shake his resolution one moment. His conscience was more likely to make him do and suffer more for little things than the generality of men will for the greatest. He would, sooner ask an ungodly crowd at a village tavern to join with him in prayer before he went to rest, than many others would call their quiet families to the worship of God. His greatest difficulty with his conscience was to find the boundaries of prudence. His great horror of being at fault in his duty as a Christian minister, or man, often led him into positions which the prudence of some would have avoided, and the cowardice of others would have shunned. He never counted the cost of fearing God and keeping a good conscience.
Mr. Calhoon was not fond of his pen. He could use it. It probably would have been better for him and those that came after him, had he used it more. One short letter of recollections sent to F. N. Watkins, enriched the sketch of the revival at Hampden Sid- ney College, in the former series. He could tell an anecdote, or relate a fact, well. He had multitudes at command; and often re- solved to commit, some of them at least, to paper; and at last suf- fered most of them to pass away with himself. He wrote but few sermons. He meditated and arranged his thoughts with care. But if, in the warmth of his public exercises, any new thoughts, or a new arrangement pleased him, he adopted them forthwith. Some- times like his beloved preceptor, he would follow one head of his discourse or the new thought, to the entire neglect of the symmetry of his announced plan, or pre-arranged order; and so subject him- self to the suspicion of having lost his way, or of not having pre- pared his sermon. Those that knew him understood the whole matter, and sometimes rejoiced, and sometimes mourned, at the event. In any circumstances he was not a dull preacher ; always good, he was often deeply interesting. God appointed him trials fitted to his nature ; he felt them and acknowledged the hand that smote. A particular relation might instruct others how to bear, and how to avoid, afflictions. But like his brother Hill, having reaped the benefit of sore trials, he has left the record of them to the book of God.
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REV. JOHN H. RICE.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JOHN H. RICE, D. D.
THE birth-place of JOHN H. RICE was in Bedford County, Virginia, in sight of the Peaks of Otter. Fearlessness, composure, frugality, open-handed hospitality, frankness, and deep religious feelings, charac- terized the region in which he was born. Plain fare, plain dress, little money, cheerful hearts, active spirits, capability of endurance, and shrewd minds, were to, be found in log-houses in that fertile and magnificent county, lying south of the river James, and at the base of the Blue Ridge.
Benjamin and Catherine Rice had six children, Edith, David, John Holt, Sarah, Benjamin Holt, and Elizabeth. John Holt, the third child, and second son, was born the 28th of November, 1777. The father grew up in Hanover County, and was by profession a lawyer, a man frank in his manners, sociable in his disposition, and shrewd in his apprehensions. A natural vein of humor, and his determined piety, made him a pleasant and safe companion, and a desirable friend. At the time of the birth of his second son, he was deputy Clerk of Bedford County, and ruling elder in the congregation of Peaks and Pisgah, the pastoral charge of his uncle, David Rice, afterwards known as the apostle of Kentucky. The mother, Cathe- rine Holt, a near relative of the second wife of Rev. Samuel Davies, born and reared in Hanover County, possessed a gentle disposition and a cultivated mind, was domestic in her habits, and devotedly pious.
Mr. Rice lived upon a small tract of land belonging to the brother of his wife, the Rev. John White Holt, an Episcopal minister, and had an income of eighty pounds from the Clerk's Office, in addition to the profits of his legal practice. His unsullied purity of princi- ple and life, and his unsophisticated manners gave him influence and a high standing in society. Hospitality, in those days of simplicity, unincumbered with expensive entertainments, was the source of great enjoyment and mental improvement. The habits of the coun- try ensured the visitor a cheerful welcome to a plentiful supply of any provision the host might have prepared, or was convenient. Of books the number was small, and the circulation of newspapers very limited ; and the conversation of intelligent visitors, at the evening fireside, or the table of refreshment, was eagerly sought for the passing enjoy- ment, and the improvement of a rising family. Some of the finest characters of the Revolution, and the times succeeding, were formed under this social influence, this contact with enlarged and improved minds. The earliest associations of Mr. Rice's young family were with the good and the intelligent. The uncle of the father, the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation, and the brother of the mother, an Episcopal minister, exercised an elevating religious influ- ence in their familiar intercourse with the young people.
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REV. JOHN H. RICE.
The son John Holt, when about two years old, appeared, after a long illness, to be near his end. He was taken from his cradle and laid upon the bed to breathe his last. Suddenly, to the surprise of the family standing around, and commending him to God, he began to revive. His recovery was rapid. His uncle Holt, declared solemnly, that he believed the child was spared for some great and good purpose, and charged the mother to bring him up piously for the work designed by divine Providence. He promised his aid in giving him a classical education. These words, like those spoken to Hannah, deeply impressed the mother's heart; and, in after years, affected the child's mind. Who can measure the influence of the thought -"I am called of God" - on the heart of a noble-minded child ? Soon after this sickness his uncle, William Rice, taught school in the neighborhood, at Coffee's old field, and resided with the family. The little boy often went with his uncle to the school, sometimes riding on his shoulders ; and the uncle amused himself by the way, and at home, in teaching the boy to call the letters, and spell words. The father was surprised to find that he could read, before he thought him old enough to be taught ; and in his joy exclaimed -" that boy shall have a good education." By the time he was four years old, he would sit on a cricket by his mother's knee, and read aloud to her in the Bible, and Watts's Psalms and Hymns.
When about eight years of age, he commenced the Latin Gram- mar at the school of his uncle Holt, in Botetourt County. That school being broken up in about a year, on account of his uncle's health, he returned home, and was, for a time, under the tuition of Rev. James Mitchel, the son-in-law and successor of David Rice. He then came under the instruction of a number of teachers in suc- cession in the neighborhood, from none of whom he received any particular advantage. The general impression on his mind, from the whole, was unfavorable to systematic study; the evil of which he felt many years, perhaps the consequences followed through life ; first in the time lost in making acquirements in after years which might have been made in these, and then the effort to counteract a bad habit of thinking and acting. His mind, however, was slowly maturing, and gathering stores of miscellaneous wealth for future use.
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