USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 4th series, 1885-1902 > Part 11
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istered to the Barnesville, Rockville, and Germantown churches, but he returned to Virginia, and his last work and last days were spent in his native State and in that section of it to which he had already given so many years. He was "a man of splendid person and grand intellect. His scholarship was broad and accurate. He delighted in scientific investigations as well as in theological dis- cussions. In the pulpit he was commanding, instructive and attractive. His voice was strong and flexible. His preaching was profound while not wanting in ornamen- tation." Although he had been feeble for some time, his death, which took place August 20, 1892, was rather sud- den. He left a wife and two sons. His eldest son had died in Atlanta, Ga., July 23, 1891.
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WILLIAM S. PERRY
While Maryland was the birthplace of Wm. S. Perry, the northern end of the Valley of Virginia was his resi- dence and field of labor for more than fifty years. Day- ton, Mount Crawford, and Bridgewater were in turn his places of residence. He seems to have labored in this section of Virginia, where Baptists, forty years ago, were very weak and few, neither in connection with the State Mission Board nor as a regular pastor. If he was pastor at all it was for a very brief period. He was instrumental in organizing a church at Mount Crawford in 1841 and another at Bridgewater in 1873. The Mount Crawford Church called for his ordination. His health was so delicate as not to allow him to do much active ministerial work. "He was an able minister of the New Testament-a lover of his Bible." While he does not seem to have been in the habit of attending the annual sessions of the General Association, he was appointed as a delegate by the Mount Crawford Church to the great "Memorial Meeting" at Richmond in 1873, and the minutes of the Association for that year enroll his name as one of the great crowd that came up then. He died August 24, 1892, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, at the time a member of the Bridgewater Church, and was buried at Mount Crawford. He left a wife and a number of children. His memory is associated with Bridgewater, a little village whose clear flowing streams are not unlike the waters of "sweet Afton" and of the "bonnie Doon," which Burns has made famous by his matchless verses.
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FERDINAND H. HALL
Rev. Addison Hall, who for so many years was a leading pastor among the Baptists of the Northern Neck, was married three times and was the father of eighteen children. One of these children, the son of his father's second wife, Miss Catharine C. Crittenden, was Ferdi- nand H. Hall. As a teacher and as a preacher he was useful. Notwithstanding the War, he had secured a fairly good English education, and after the War he spent a brief season at the Theological Seminary at Greenville, S. C. While at Greenville he was connected, as assistant editor, with a Baptist paper. Upon return- ing to Virginia he taught school for a time and then be- came colporteur in the Rappahannock Association. He visited Gloucester County frequently and preached there as occasion offered. His supply work at Providence Church led to his being called to this church and to his ordination on March 4 at Harmony Grove Church, Mid- dlesex County, where he was a member. Brethren W. E. Wiatt, Julian Broaddus, and Benj. Bristow formed the presbytery. Providence and Union churches formed his field. After several years he gave up Union to de- vote a part of his time as pastor to Poroporone Church, King and Queen County. Providence and Poroporone churches formed his field at the time of his death, that occurred October 30, 1892, when he was about forty-five years old. He was instrumental in the erecting of a very large and handsome house of worship, which was completed just before his death. The congregation at his funeral was immense. He was married twice. His first wife was Miss M. D. Pitt, a daughter of Dr. Doug- las Pitt, of Middlesex County. His second wife was the daughter of R. C. Heywood, of Gloucester County. Of each of these marriages two daughters survived.
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JOHN S. MASON
John S. Mason was born "at or near Lynchburg, July 20, 1814, when that now beautiful city was only a vil- lage." He was converted at a Methodist camp-meeting, but his study of the New Testament led him to become a Baptist. He began preaching when he was nineteen years of age, and when twenty was ordained. His first church was Mount Calvary (now Kedron), Campbell County, Appomattox Association. His ministry ex- tended over a period of fifty-eight years and "was re- markable for long pastorates. His long ministerial la- bors were confined to that scope of country embraced in the triangle cornering at Lynchburg, Danville, and Richmond. In early life he was pastor a year or more of a colored church in Lynchburg, and often referred with satisfaction to that work. For many years Brother Mason was the foremost preacher in the Appomattox Association." He was moderator of this body in 1862 when it met with the New Chapel (Campbell County ) Church, and in 1863 when it met with the New Salem (Charlotte County) Church. In 1861, when the Appo- mattox Association met on August 6 and 7 in the town of Farmville, Brother Mason offered a resolution touch- ing colportage among the soldiers in the army and urg- ing the churches to take collections for this object. The following statement in the mniutes of that year gives an interesting suggestion of how war was already dis- turbing life at many points: "Brother Sands now rose and explained why the Herald had failed to come, and announced that they had at Raleigh found paper and would recommence publication." At the session of the
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Appomattox in 1867, Brother Mason was appointed to look after Bethany Church, which had not reported to the Association since 1860. He was also appointed a corresponding messenger to the next General Associa- tion. The churches which he served in the Appomattox Association were Mount Vernon, Union Hill, Kedron, and New Chapel, and for many years his home was near Concord Depot, on the edge of Campbell County. "Often his soul seemed to be aflame with the love of Christ and his heart would melt in tenderness towards sinners. His labors were largely evangelistic. It would not be too much to say that thousands were converted under his ministry. He was free from kinks and eccentricities, and the churches he served were notable for harmony, Christian love and good work." He died at his home, near Concord Depot, November 10, 1892.
THOMAS B. CREATH
Thomas B. Creath belonged to a family rich in Bap- tist preachers. His father, Wm. Creath, and four brothers, Jacob, J. W. D., Servetus, and Melancthon, were preachers. And his son, William Thomas, bearing the names of two older brothers who were killed in bat- tle in the service of the Confederacy, is now a Virginia Baptist pastor. A sketch of Rev. Melancthon Creath will be found in the second series of "The Lives of Vir- ginia Baptist Ministers." Thomas B. Creath died at his home, near Jarratts, Sussex County, Virginia, Thurs- day, November 24, 1892. His funeral was preached November 26 by Rev. Dr. A. E. Owen, and the vener- able preacher was laid to rest, as he had requested, in the garden of his home where he had lived so long. Be- fore the War he was a prosperous farmer and dispensed a generous hospitality. "In his later years he was more circumscribed in his means, but he lived above want and died peacefully in the bosom of his family."
What follows is, with some omissions and some verbal changes, a sketch of his life which Mr. Creath prepared, dated September 4, 1880: "I was born January 22, 1802, in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. I was con- verted in the woods near Wilson's Meeting House, Meck- lenburg County, while Rev. Thomas Jeffries, a promi- nent young minister, was praying for me. He and Brother Jas. Jeffries were under the instruction of my father. My father's house was the resort of ministers who sought instruction and advice in doctrines of the Bible, he being considered the champion in the de- fense of election and baptism. He was called in his day
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a strong Gillite such was his readiness in an argument. Multitudes followed him when it was announced Wm. Creath would preach or speak. John Randolph, of Roa- noke, .. . . availed himself of every opportunity to hear my father. John Kerr and Wm. Creath were the only two men he could listen to for hours without being tired. The day I found peace, Ps. 62:11 came to me just before I found peace, while on my knees, Brother Thomas Jeffries praying. I was overwhelmed with grief as a great sinner. The above passage came to my mind and such was the bright manifestation of the goodness of God, I felt like telling the whole world what the Lord had done for me. Brother Thomas Jeffries led me to my father, at the church, saying: 'Brother Creath, here is your son.' I commenced exhorting sinners to flee from the wrath to come. This was June 18, 1820. The following July I was received by Wilson's Baptist Church. I was baptized by my father. From that time to the present I have felt it my privilege to preach the gospel of our blessed Saviour, feeling at the same time my inability for the want of an education. My father died in Edenton, N. C., on a tour of preach- ing in August, 1822. I itinerated in this and lower coun- ties of North Carolina a year or two. Feeling the im- portance of close study to qualify myself for the minis- try, I located in Princess Anne County, calling Major Morris' my home. Under his hospitable roof I was kindly treated, especially by his kind wife during a long spell of sickness.
The churches of Pungo (now Oak Grove) and Muddy Creek called for my ordination. I was solemnly ordained to the ministry by Elders Samuel Brown and Smith Sherwood, June 12, 1830, serving some two years or more as the pastor of said churches.
After the death of Elder Nathaniel Chambliss · and removal of Elder Jeremiah B. Jeter to the Northern
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Neck of Virginia Sappony and Seacock in Sus- sex extended to me a call, also Meherrin in Southamp- ton, where old Brother Robert Murrell lived and labored for many years, succeeded by Hardy Cobb. I found it in a very feeble and declining condition, the house of worship going to decay. The church at Seacock was not only without a house to keep them dry, but the church was about extinct. The people of the world said if I would consent to preach for them they would furnish money and build a meeting-house on a more de- sirable site. Lemuel Bain proffered the land, the people went to work and soon built a house near the spot where Elam now stands-changed its name after its removal from Seacock to Elam by the suggestion of Brother Bev- erly Booth, of Surry. I held meeting from house to house ; in most instances none of the family were profes- sors. The result was a glorious revival extending in different sections, numbering about ninety-five conver- sions. Brother James L. Gwathmey, who was mission- ary in our bounds, held a series of meetings near what was then called Cotton's Springs. The result was a number, in addition to those converted at Elam, deter- mined to build a house of worship and constituted a church now called Newville. Owing to declin- ing health I was forced to resign in favor of Elder Caleb C. Gordon.
Paralytic stroke, both sides, after baptizing seventy-two persons on a hot July day. I bap- tized about 1,400 persons; assisted in constituting several churches and ordaining several ministers and deacons. A second stroke of paralysis prostrated me, al- most destroying my nervous system. The erysipelas in my left leg from hip to knee followed, causing the flesh to slough off, attended with lockjaw, the most excruciat- ing pain endured by man to live; indeed, my physician said but for my strong faith I could not have endured
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such pain The doctor told me I was the second person he had ever read of or known of to recover; he graduated in medicine in France. My delicate situation was such my friends advised me to desist from public speaking. I gave the prime of my life to the churches and to the public, not exacting remunera- tion. I told them that I could live without being charge- able to them, advising them to give all they could to other objects. I married Mary C. Atkinson, in 1832, who is the mother of seventeen children, eleven living. Two sons were killed near Richmond in 1862."
ISAAC T. AUSTIN
The service of this minister of the gospel seems to have been given wholly to churches in the Valley Asso- ciation. In this section for upwards of thirty years he labored. The churches of which he was pastor were Bradshaw's Creek, Dry Run, and Mount Calvary. His work at the first of these churches lasted a number of years, having begun about 1873. He received little com- pensation for his labors and often was not paid at all. While not greatly gifted as a public speaker, his life was an epistle known and read of all men. Within a short period two of his daughters were carried off by the dreaded disease, consumption, and not long afterwards the same malady caused his death. He departed this life at his home in Montgomery County, December 1, 1892.
WILLIAM CAUTHORN HALL
On July 5, 1812, William Cauthorn Hall was born in Fluvanna County. Upon the death of his father, being left in charge, when seventeen years old, of his mother and seven brothers and sisters, by strict economy and good management he succeeded in giving the young peo- ple a good English education. When nineteen he was already a Methodist preacher, but in 1849 he united with the Baptists, and for the rest of his life was earnest in their ranks. The churches that he served during his ministry were: Williamsburg, Scottsville, Diana Mills, Blacksburg, and Four Mile Creek. His rather frail health seriously interrupted his work as a preacher, mak- ing it necessary more than once for him to resign his charge. During the earlier years of his ministry he re- fused to receive any compensation for preaching, gain- ing his support by business. His early educational ad- vantages were limited, but loving study and being a wide reader and an independent thinker, he surpassed as a scholar many whose youthful opportunities had been far better than his. He was fond of writing and left behind him many manuscripts, among others one in the archives of Richmond College and a "History of the James River Association." He wrote frequently for the papers, and at the time of his death was an associated editor of The Organizer, a small Associational sheet published in Lynchburg. His death was tragic. The Apostle Paul tells of his "perils of robbers," and Mr. Hall, while pas- tor near Richmond, was brutally assaulted by a burglar ; he never recovered from the injuries he then received, and on December 1, 1892, at his home in Buckingham County, he passed away. He was married twice. His first wife, who was Miss Eliza A. Sanderson, of Cum- berland County, bore him four sons. His second wife was Miss Mattie Tompkins, of Buckingham. This sketch is based on an article in the Religious Herald by Rev. J. R. Daniel.
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JOHN LANSING BURROWS
Until a few years ago, there stood on North Pearl Street, Albany, N. Y., a building, which, with its gable roof, narrow windows and wooden shutters, must have looked doubly quaint surrounded by costly modern structures. This edifice, known as the Lansing house, was erected in 1710 out of brick brought in a sailing ves- sel from Holland. The building, intended for a trading post with the Indians and, therefore, placed outside the stockade, did not escape rude attacks from the red men, but the old fireplace tiles, with their Scripture scenes, suggest that behind the stout doors were true, brave hearts. In this house on February 14, 1814, John Lan- sing Burrows first saw the light. His father was Samuel Burrows, the captain of an American privateer in the War of 1812, while his mother, a Miss Lansing, came of old Knickerbocker stock.
The life of John Lansing Burrows, which was des- tined to stretch out through threescore and nineteen years, breaks up into four fairly distinct periods, almost equal in length, though very unequal in importance and in our knowledge of them.
The first of these periods extends to 1835, in which year the subject of this sketch attained his majority, en- tered into the state of matrimony, and was ordained to the gospel ministry. Of these two decades not much is known. When six years old the boy lost his father, who died of yellow fever in Mobile. From this time he came under the watchful care of an uncle, who was a Presby- terian elder of the strictest sect, and of his grandfather, Nathaniel Burrows, who lived in Bucks County, Penn-
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sylvania. Rev. Dr. Junkin, of Germantown, Pa., pre- pared him for college-Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., became his classical, Andover his theological alma mater. He was ordained at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and shortly afterwards married Miss Adeline Benthuysen, a union which was to last through thirty-eight happy years. Upon his ordination, Mr. Burrows became co-pastor with Rev. Dr. McClay, in New York City, whence, after about a year, he removed to Kentucky, where he first helped in a school at Elizabethtown, and then presided over one of his own at Shelbyville. While in Kentucky, he not only helped to establish churches in Owensboro and Henderson and was one of the founders of the Gen- eral Association of the State, but also became known in many sections through his successful labors for the cause of Christ. Already the good man's love and capacity for work were being developed and made known. An- other strong point in his character-an honest, intelli- gent interest in men and their highest good-appeared at this time as he entered heartily into the plans of two young men hungry for an education.
In 1840 Philadelphia captured from Kentucky the young preacher-professor for the pastorate of the San- som Street Baptist Church. The loss Kentucky and the South thus sustained was not to be permanent, for Dixie- land was eventually to have the larger and most fruitful part of this noble life. After four years with the San- som Street saints, Mr. Burrows went out at the head of a colony to form the Broad Street Church. His skill in leadership, and his power to bring things to pass, were seen in the erection of an imposing house of worship for the new flock. He met the strong opposition to the new edifice with the assurance and entreaty: "Let me alone and I will build it." His energy in the accomplishment of this vow knew no bounds, for not satisfied with col-
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lecting money, he kept the accounts and worked on the church with his own hands. The refrain of the Sunday school hymn: "Do you know any barefoot boy? Bring him in, bring him in," which during Dr. Burrows' Rich- mond pastorate gave him and great .congregations of children more than once a thrill of delight, had already found an echo in his soul while he was in Philadelphia. Many "poor boys" were buried by him in baptism, one of whom afterwards became a multimillionaire, whose generous gifts to educational and other denominational movements have made the name of Jno. B. Trevor well known among us.
After fourteen years in the "Quaker City," Dr. Bur- rows accepted a call to the First Baptist Church, Rich- mond, Virginia. To this church he was to give a score of years, the best years of his life. From this church, one of the most influential and historic in the South, he was to receive the most lavish and lasting affection. He was coming to a city of literary aptitudes and genial social refinement. He was coming to this city on the eve of a great civil war, in which war Richmond was to play a leading role. He was coming to the First Church to be the "successor of the laborious Courtney, the elo- quent Kerr, the wise-hearted Jeter, the Christly Manly." While Dr. Burrows had under consideration the call of the First Church, high hopes had been raised among the Baptists of Richmond and Virginia as to the bishop they sought to win from Pennsylvania. These hopes, not to be disappointed, were inspired by his first appearance be- fore the General Association. At a mass-meeting held at Grace Street Church, he had followed J. G. Oncken, the Baptist apostle of Germany, in an address of thrill- ing power. The place which this address gained for him in the esteem of the denomination throughout the city and State was a prophecy of his wise and enthusi- astic leadership among Virginia Baptists for two decades.
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It so happened that Dr. Burrows' first Sunday at the First Church was also the first Sunday that two young men, then students at Richmond College, afterwards of- ficers in the college, ever spent in the capital city of their State. The incoming pastor made a deep impression on them, as they testified at his funeral. Their words set the scenes of that first Sunday, and the chief figure in those scenes vividly before us. Dr. W. E. Hatcher said: "It is easy now to recall with what wonder I sat in these galleries and heard the new preacher. Such crowds I had never seen before, and as for the preacher, he was a revelation to me. That form so full and round and yet so elastic and graceful, that eye so splendid in its flash, that voice so rich and thrilling, that exhaustless flow of language, so apt and elegant, and that whole combination of art and soul, which marked his public speech, was a quickening sensation to my whole nature. I did not know that God made men like that." Professor H. H. Harris (the other young man) said : "That was a notable day, for a new pastor, coming in the pride of his manhood, was just entering upon the greatest and best work of his life. His two sermons on the "Mutual Duties of Pastor and People" still linger in my recol- lection."
The high hopes and rich promise of such an auspicious beginning were not to be dashed to the ground. In his own church, in Richmond, throughout the State, his in- fluence for good was soon felt. He depended for suc- cess in his preaching, not on clap-trap or sensational methods, but upon the simple story of the Cross. "He made the church feel that its power lay not in numbers, wealth, secularities, but in the ever-present, ever-efficient Holy Spirit. He strongly impressed the church with his spirit of unselfishness." Dr. George Cooper, afterwards pastor of the church, says that the spiritual impress
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which Dr. Burrows made upon the church is still felt. When such a feeling was prevalent among the members, it was no doubt an easy matter for the pastor to intro- duce, without causing any dissension, an organ, for the improvement of the singing. The fact that he did in- troduce the organ suggests the thought that with his high spirituality there was combined practical common sense. He believed in making all good things subserve the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. His own preëminent success as a preacher had, as one of its fac- tors, his elocutionary power. His grace as a speaker and reader came not alone from natural gifts, but also from a faithful and painstaking cultivation of these gifts. In Philadelphia he had taken lessons from a distinguished teacher of elocution, and in Richmond he did not fail to practice reading aloud in private. His study being at the church gave him the larger opportunity for such prac- tice. His excellence as a reader made the people's sat- isfaction with his reading his sermons the more ready, though such a custom had been in disfavor in the South, among the Baptists at least.
His secret of power as a preacher lay deeper than in merely graceful and effective elocution. "His sermons were methodical, fresh, clear, forcible, practical and sometimes very eloquent and impressive." Not only in Richmond, but also in all quarters he was increasingly in demand for dedications, Associational meetings, Sun- day school conventions, college commencements, popular lectures, patriotic addresses, banquet speeches, and other such things.
In illustration of Dr. Burrows' power as a preacher, a description from the pen of Dr. Andrew Broaddus is appropriate : "He was, I think, on the whole, the finest elocutionist I ever heard. He was entirely free from the affectation that marks the performances of some who
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pride themselves on their elocutionary skill. His voice was full and round, his enunciation clear and distinct, and neither too rapid nor too slow, and his emphasis correctly placed, and so significant that it brought out vividly the sense of what he read or spoke. I recall two occasions on which I heard him preach with power and effect. In 1860 he preached the dedicatory sermon on the opening of the new and beautiful house of worship erected by the Upper King and Queen Church, of which I was then pastor. A great congregation filled to reple- tion the spacious audience-room, and the three long and wide galleries, and blocked up the doorways. A crowd, so far from intimidating Dr. Burrows, as it does some nervous speakers, seemed to inspire him. His text was Psalms 45:15: 'With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king's palace.' He depicted, with no little beauty and eloquence, the splen- dor and glory of the king's palace, and the triumphant songs of joy with which his people enter it; and drawing near the end of his sermon, he requested the congrega- tion to rise, and with the dramatic effect of which he was no mean master, he dedicated the building, in striking language, to the service of God and closed with a fervid and eloquent invocation. It would have been difficult for any man to have preached a more appropriate ser- mon. The other sermon to which I allude was preached at a meeting of the Rappahannock Association. A very large arbor had been built. All the seats under it were occupied, and carriages filled with people were drawn up around its borders. There were probably 1,500 peo- ple in the congregation. It had been arranged that there should be two sermons-the first by Dr. Burrows and the second by Dr. Poindexter. Dr. Burrows' text was Matthew 25, part of verse 45: 'Inasmuch as ye did it not'; and his theme was the guilt and danger of omis-
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