USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 4th series, 1885-1902 > Part 5
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DANIEL GRAY TAYLOR
His habit in preparing a sermon was to get the text in mind, and meditate on it while about his work. Some of his best sermons, he said, were prepared while he was between the plow handles. Before starting to his ap- pointments he usually made brief notes of what he had thought out. These he rarely carried into the pulpit. Like all extemporaneous speakers, his sermons varied in power according to the occasion. Sometimes he spoke with thrilling eloquence. In all his preaching he was strictly logical. A leading lawyer of the Henry bar, who heard him on various occasions, declared that he never knew him to make a false argument. And yet he never read a chapter on logic in his life. He simply saw things clearly, and from his own vocabulary expressed what he saw.
Competent witnesses have borne discriminating and forceful testimony to Mr. Taylor's character and work. They have spoken of earnestness unquenched by dis- couragements, of sincerity unmarred by convention- alism, of frankness unobscured by temporizing. They have mentioned the conscientiousness which withstood the demands of personal interest, the intellectual power which triumphed over grave difficulties, the unosten- tatious piety which grew and ripened as the years passed by.
He did his work in the country, and sowed the seeds of truth in neglected places. The field was not one from which large harvests could be expected. In the performance of his labors he traveled by private con- veyance 65,387 miles, and preached 5,278 sermons, and baptized 794 professors of faith, ten of whom became ministers of the Gospel.
His end came on. He realized the fact and spoke of it with joy. To one of his sons, who solicited his aid in meetings soon to be held, he said: "John, I would
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be glad to visit your churches again and see the brethren once more, but my work is done." On the 1st and 2d days of February, 1890, at Beaver Island Church, he preached his last sermons. On Saturday the text was : "Let no man glory in men, for all things are yours." On Sunday: "Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." He came home feeling worse than usual. A month later he started to Beaver Island, but returned. On Sunday morning he went to Mayo and taught a class in the Sunday school. His work ended where it began. From that time he rarely left his room. He told his wife he would not recover. To the family physician he said: "Doctor, you can do me no good. For a long time I have been working for Jesus, now I am going to live with Him." A short time before the summons came he called for the hymn book, and sitting on the bedside sang his last hymn on earth :
"Hark, the voice of Jesus calling- Who will go and work to-day?" etc.
March 30, 1890, being the fifth Sunday in the month, dawned. Just forty-five years before on the 30th day and fifth Sunday in March he had been baptized. Early in the morning he engaged his family and friends in cheerful conversation. He asked for his cane and used it in changing his position. The sun was up and the light of a new Sabbath had silently fallen on forest and field. Almost as silently Daniel G. Taylor had emerged from the darkness of this earthly life, and had entered into his Father's house.
THOMAS W. SYDNOR
The county of Hanover, Virginia, famous as the birth- place of Henry Clay, was where Thomas W. Sydnor first saw the light, being the youngest child of Edward G. and Sarah Sydnor. Under Presbyterian influence the boy grew up, going regularly with his pious mother to the Pole Green Church. Here he heard a sermon which led to his religious awakening. On this important occasion the text was: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, etc.," and the preacher the distinguished Dr. W. S. Plumer. The youth was subsequently converted during a series of meetings in 1831 at the Second Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia. He was baptized by the pastor of the church, Dr. J. B. Taylor. In an address before the Gen- eral Association in 1872, soon after the death of James B. Taylor, the subject of this sketch spoke as follows of his father in the gospel and his own early religious ex- periences : "Brother Taylor was the guide of my youth. I think I am a Christian. I know I am a Baptist, and I make some humble pretensions as a preacher of the gos- pel. Now, it does seem to me, as I look back upon my early life, that possibly I should never have been a Chris- tian; probably never a Baptist; and certainly never a preacher, had I not been brought under the influence of James B. Taylor. He was the chief instrument, I think, of my conversion to God; he baptized me and his name is attached to the license I hold as a minister of the gos- pel." Not far away from this Hanover home was an- other home in which a youth named L. W. Allen was growing up. He, too, eventually became a Baptist preacher, though in later years Mr. Sydnor, the compan- ion of his youthful days, remembered him "as a young man, gay, dashing, ardent, aspiring, ambitious, especially of military honor."
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In 1835 he entered the Virginia Baptist Seminary, · what is now Richmond College. Among his fellow-stu- dents were J. W. D. Creath, J. C. Bailey, James C. Clop- ton, T. N. Johnson, S. G. Mason, Sam Harris, Elias Dod- son, A. P. Repiton, Jno. O. Turpin and J. L. Shuck. After a part of a session, as it seems, at Richmond, he entered Columbian College in the fall of 1835. Here he remained three years and graduated in 1838. Among his associates at Columbian were W. Carey Crane, J. D. Herndon, Cornelius Tyree, J. C. Hamner, Solon Linds- ley, H. W. Dodge, N. Marshman Williams, R. H. Bagby, S. Standish Bradford, H. H. Tucker, J. S. Walthall, W. B. Cooper, Andrew Broaddus, Robert Ould, R. A. Clay- brooke, and J. N. Schoolfield. The faculty of Columbian in those sessions consisted of Rev. S. Chapin, D. D., President, and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Phi- losophy; Wm. Ruggles, LL. D., Professor of Mathe- matics; J. O. B. Chaplin, A. M., Professor of Ancient Languages; Thos. Sewell, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology; John L. Lincoln, Tutor; S. C. Smoot, Principal of Preparatory School; Adril Sherwood, D. D., General Agent. From Columbian College he went to Newton Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, where he remained two years. Among his companions here were J. G. Barker, E. L. Magoon, J. C. Upham, A. N. Arnold, T. D. Anderson, J. R. Scott, E. G. Robinson. In these several lists of students are the names of one who after- wards was the president of two great universities, of another who became a distinguished judge, and of sev- eral who rose to high eminence as preachers. In 1888 Dr. Sydnor wrote to the Herald: "My pen is itching to write something about the old college. If I had more time and more tact, more brains and more brass, more sense and more cents, I would let it scratch. . If I could write better I would write more."
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During his course at Columbian College he was licensed by the Second Church, Richmond, and after fin- ishing his work at Newton was ordained at Bruington Church, King and Queen County, Elders Philip Mon- tague and E. L. Magron constituting the presbytery. He served the Bruington Church for a season as a supply and then became pastor of the Farmville Church. To Bruington he brought his bride, a daughter of one of his college professors, Dr. S. Chapin, President of Colum- bian. This union was broken after a few brief years, Mrs. Sydnor dying during the Farmville pastorate. Be- fore and after his Farmville pastorate of one year, Mr. Sydnor was engaged for a number of years in agency work, laboring for his alma mater, Columbian College; for the Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions ; for the Southern Baptist Convention, and for the Ameri- can Baptist Publication Society in its Sunday-school de- partment among the colored people. In 1845 he was married a second time, the bride being Miss Blanche W. McClanahan, of Roanoke County, Virginia. She and two sons and a daughter survived him.
In 1847 Nottoway County became his home and the field of his labors. Here he remained for the rest of his life, a period of some forty-three years, exerting a wide influence in many directions, loved and esteemed through- out the whole region. Of the Tussekiah Church, which was organized in 1777, he was pastor twenty-five years, and of the Jonesboro Church, organized in 1850, twenty- six. His pastorate of a third church in the Concord As- sociation reached thirty-two years. This last church was first known as Cool Spring. To-day it is known as the Blackstone Church. This church, along with what is now the town, has had several names, Blacks and Whites, Bellefonte, and finally Blackstone. The first of these names did not refer to the colored and white races, but
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to families. Mr. Sydnor himself liked the title Bellefonte for town and church and hated to see it go. It was re- tained by the church, so a letter of his to the Herald says, after it was abandoned by the town.
Mr. Sydnor's work was not confined to the bounds of the Concord Association. For a number of years he was pastor of Mount Hope and Central, two churches in the Middle District Association. During his long years as pastor he baptized over 3,000 persons. Mr. Sydnor was useful not alone in his own churches. He held public office. Upon the establishment in Virginia of the public school system, he was made public school superintendent of Nottoway. This position he held until his death, with the exception of the four years of Governor W. E. Cam- eron's administration. He was most faithful in his at- tendance upon his Association, the Concord, and was elected as moderator every time made possible by the provisions of the constitution. He was active in the work of his denomination in the State, and the brother- hood showed their confidence in him by electing him to positions of honor. In 1871 he was made moderator of the General Association. He was also president of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. At the General As- sociation in 1866, which led to the reorganization of Richmond College, he took part in the discussion, and years later was made a trustee of the College. He con- tributed frequent and valuable articles for the columns of the Religious Herald, now upon biographical or his- torical subjects, now upon questions arising in the life of the denomination. In 1873 the degree of D. D. was con- ferred upon him by Columbian College. He died May 4, 1890.
Rev. Dr. Cornelius Tyree, who was the life-long friend of Dr. Sydnor, wrote as follows in the Religious Herald:
"This writer knew Dr. Sydnor long and well. We were classmates in Columbian College, and, unlike some
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of the members of this class, he was singularly pious. He was a model of gentlemanly courtesy, kindness, dili- gence as a student, and promptness in all college duties. His religion was real and apparent. While not sin- gularly gifted in any one respect, he combined an assem- blage of personal and ministerial excellencies. He was an able minister of the New Testament. He was unsur- passed in the scripturalness, naturalness, simplicity and tenderness with which he preached the gospel. I call to mind two sermons I heard him preach while agent of our Foreign Mission Board. One was on the foundation that God laid in Zion; text, Is. 28:16. The other, the greater prevalence and wickedness of practical than theoretical atheism. I have rarely heard abler and more impressive sermons than were both. These were the only sermons I heard him preach, but judging from the opin- ion of others, who heard him more frequently, and from an excellent sermon he published in the Baptist Preacher on the perseverance of the saints, we may safely say that he was a model preacher. He was an excellent pastor, faithful and yet tender and encouraging. One of his prominent traits was his conscientious accuracy in the minutiæ of life. He was excelled by some in the breadth and comprehensiveness of their views, but none surpassed him in a knowledge of the details of our his- tory for the last fifty years. In all of our plans his mind would turn to particulars. He knew, perhaps, more cor- rectly than any other the history of our leading ministers who have died within the last half-century.
With him it was sudden death and sudden glory. He preached Christ in the morning and was with him in paradise that evening."
SAMUEL JOHNSON ATKINS
Samuel Johnson Atkins was born in Mecklenburg County, May 11, 1811. He died at his home in Prince Edward County, June 26, 1890, in the eightieth year of his age. He was reared by Presbyterian parents. At the age of sixteen he made a profession of religion, and joined the Protestant Methodist Church. He was more fortunate than some of his time in educational advan- tages in his early life. He acquired a fairly good English education, with some knowledge of Latin, Greek, and mathematics. He had a logical mind, and when thoroughly enlisted reasoned with great clearness and force. His memory was remarkably accurate, and served him never so well as when in mental contest. These elements, coupled with his calm self-possession, made him a formidable adversary in debate.
For a while he was clerk and salesman in a country store, and then spent several years in teaching a country school. In 1840, he began to preach as a Protestant Methodist preacher, and labored in the counties of Buckingham and Cumberland. When preaching from the text: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," he sought earnestly to defend what he had hitherto held as baptism; but became satisfied that his position was un- tenable, and soon after renounced the doctrine of the Methodist Church and became a Baptist. He was baptized by Rev. Wm. Moore, of Buckingham County. Soon after, he was ordained to the full work of the ministry, at Tarwallet Church, by a presbytery consist- ing of Revs. T. N. Johnson and Wm. Moore. The sermon was preached by Rev. T. N. Johnson. Text : II Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word."
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SAMUEL JOHNSON ATKINS
For more than forty years he was a Baptist minister, and was abundant in labors and crowned with the bless .. ings of the Lord. As God's servant he loved- to preach. It was a source of delight to him to tell the glad tidings of salvation. When he entered the ministry he was im- pelled by a deep conviction of duty, and he prosecuted his work with ever-increasing joy. He was not only willing to preach, but seemed to be always ready. He did not push himself to seek recognition and prominence, but when called upon to stand up for the Master he was not hindered by difficulties and embarrassments. As a preacher he was fearless, plain, and practical. He had clear views of doctrine and well-defined convictions, with the courage to preach anywhere that which he be- lieved to be the truth, and to stand by his convictions regardless of consequences. He seemed not to care for ornamentation of style and floral decorations. When he had preached several days in a meeting, Dr. J. A. Mundy said to the congregation: "Brother Atkins has given you rich clusters of luscious fruit without a single flower."
He was pastor of a number of churches, and in some cases for a long time. He served Union, fifteen years; Sandy Creek, seventeen years; he was many years pastor at Nottoway and Mount Lebanon churches; was also pastor of Concord, Buckingham County, and Mount Hope and Walker's Church, in Appomattox County. He was twice pastor of Tarwallet, Pisgah, and Spring Creek churches. He served the James River Associa- tion five years as missionary. He was a successful laborer in protracted meetings, and had much talent and love for that work. He led many to Christ and baptized a large number of converts. He was popular as a pastor and was greatly beloved by all the churches he served.
Brother Atkins was twice married. His first wife was Miss Rebecca G. Anderson, of Cumberland County,
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by whom he had two children. His second wife was Mrs. Appia Moseby, by whom he had five children, all of whom are living save one, and are faithful Christians. In his home he was a model of kindness and affection. In this particular his children copy him. In the social circle he was easy in manner and as accessible as a child. In the homes of the rich and cultured, as among the poor and ignorant, he was a welcome visitor-wel- comed by the young people and children, as well as by the more mature. He was genial and pleasant and a good conversationalist. He possessed in an extraordi- nary degree the faculty of knowing people. He not only knew the names and faces, but their families, relation- ships, and localities. Wherever he went he found people whose family connections he could in some way trace.
In April, 1890, he was paralyzed, but lingered until the 25th of June, when he quietly and peacefully passed to his heavenly home. Religious services were held by the pastor-Rev. J. W. Wildman-and Rev. W. F. Kone, of Farmville, and he was laid to rest in the cemetery of the Pisgah Baptist Church, of which he had twice been pastor. A beautiful monument marks his resting place, erected by a faithful, loving, appre- ciative people.
W. J. Shipman.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER HILL
William Alexander Hill was born in Culpeper County, November 22, 1817, his father being Captain Ambrose Powell Hill and his mother Frances Twyman. High so- cial position and the comforts of life were among his as- sets from his very birth and in due time the best educa- tional advantages were his. After a course of study at the Virginia Baptist Seminary, now Richmond College, he received, in 1839, his degree of M. D. at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. He at once took up the practice, in his native county, of his chosen profession, and in 1840 was most happily married to Miss Judith Frances Booten, of Madison County. One of the interesting notes in Mr. Hill's life is the fact that he worked along so many different lines, and of him it may be said, as it was of Goldsmith, that he touched nothing which he did not adorn. In 1843 he moved to Greene County and while residing there was appointed to the county bench, where he "most worthily wore the ermine." In 1847 he purchased a fine estate in Madison County, where he erected a handsome residence, which was his home to the day of his death. Here was one of the most attractive and hospitable homes in all the State, and its master a courtly gentleman, dispensed an almost royal cheer. Pic- tures of roaring wood fires, creature comforts on the board, many guests, laughter, gladness and the conver- sation of friends must peep out between these lines, else this sketch is not true to life. Again we see Mr. Hill in a new line of work, for he was the first superintendent of public schools for Madison and Greene counties. He did his work "with eminent fidelity and ability." In his report for 1880 he wrote: "Improvement marked. The appreciation of an education has grown with each suc- ceeding year. As a general thing there is a greater de- gree of morality and virtue; this applies no less to the colored population than to the white." In this same re- port, in answer to the question: "Are the children of the
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more ignorant classes likely to surpass their parents in respect to intelligence, good morals and industry?" he answered : "They are." He continued in this office until removed by a political revolution "which turned every man out of office simply because he was in office."
In early life Dr. Hill had made a profession of religion and been baptized by Elder James Garnett, who for many years was pastor of Bethel, Cedar Run, and Crooked Run churches of the Shiloh Association. From the time of his baptism he was an active Christian and came to be prominent in the Shiloh Association, of which body he was moderator for many years, and well known in the General Association. As time went on the brethren were more and more convinced that he ought to preach, and about 1860 he was licensed for this work by the Mount Zion Church. With characteristic modesty "he rather shrank from assuming the full work of the min- istry," but finally yielded to the call of Liberty Church, and in 1864 was ordained. Of this church he was pastor fourteen years. He was also pastor of two churches in the Goshen Association, Antioch and Mount Pisgah, for a number of years, and of Cedar Run for three years. Strong devotion and love bound him and his churches to each other. As his years advanced and his health be- gan to fail it required the utmost efforts of his family to dissuade him from taking the long journeys which were necessary to fill his appointments, but which his loved ones thought were too much for his strength. Dr. Hill was greatly blessed in his family. "His sons and daugh- ters grew up worthy of the virtues and graces of their honored parents and his household was a model of piety and affectionateness." Not long before his end the death of a loved daughter brought tenderness as well as sadness into the home circle. When his departure was at hand he testified that it was well with his soul, and on Novem- ber 21, 1890, he fell on sleep at his country seat, "Glen- dalough."
JAMES D. BROWN*
James D. Brown, son of james and Mary Brown, was born in Greenesville County, Virginia, October 17, 1846. His father was a thrifty farmer and gave his children good educational advantages. He went to Washington and Lee University in 1866, '67, '68, while General R. E. Lee was president. General Lee gave him his picture with his autograph. The picture had its place in his room and seemed to cry : "Be earnest ; do not trifle ; time flies ; serve your generation and your God." While at Wash- ington and Lee University, in his own room, he made a profession of religion, and in June, 1869, was baptized by Rev. Dr. A. E. Owen into the fellowship of High Hills Baptist Church, Jarratt, Va. In the fall of 1868 he went to the University of Virginia to study law.
March 10, 1869, he was married to Miss Lucy, daugh- ter of Mr. Jesse Jarratt, Rev. Dr. Owen officiating. The next ten years were spent in a quiet and uneventful way on his farm. During this period he was convinced that he ought to preach the gospel, but in his extreme mod- esty he shrank from this work. Yet he could not rid himself of his convictions, and in the fall of 1880, as a preparation for the practical work of the ministry, he accepted the office of General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association of Petersburg. He served the Association about a year and then was appointed as colporteur of the Sunday school and Bible Board for Petersburg and the suburbs ; but he shrank from the hard service that might appal a sturdy nature, and after a few days he resigned and returned to his home in
*The facts for this sketch were furnished by Dr. Hugh C. Smith.
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Greenesville. In February, 1882, at High Hills Church, he was ordained, the presbytery consisting of Revs. A. E. Owen, D. D .; E. C. Dargan, D. D .; Charles H. Nash. and Hugh C. Smith. He took charge at once of Antioch and Shiloh churches, Portsmouth Association, serving them faithfully until his death.
He was an invalid for nearly two years, having nasal and throat troubles. He finally resigned the care of his churches, but they refused to accept his resignation, re- taining him as their pastor and securing an assistant.
The funeral services at High Hills Church were con- ducted by Hugh C. Smith and J. T. Eubank. His churches held memorial services and each placed a life- size picture on the wall. Shiloh Church erected a beau- tiful monument, near the church, to his memory, and High Hills, his mother church, has a marble tablet on her wall.
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JOHN ROBERTS MOFFETT
John Roberts Moffett was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, October 16, 1858. He came of Scotch-Irish stock. Henry Moffett, the emigrant, a scion of the Scotch family, was born in 1705. He located in the val- ley of Carter's Run, Fauquier County, and was the father of Rev. Anderson Moffett and Daniel Moffett. Rev. Anderson Moffett was for more than fifty years the pas- tor of Smith's Creek Baptist Church, Shenandoah County, Virginia. He was imprisoned in the Culpeper jail for preaching as a Baptist and, while there, was almost suffocated by the fumes of burning red pepper and sul- phur. Daniel Moffett was married twice; of his three sons who reached manhood, one emigrated to Alabama ; the second, Horatio G., was for years a lawyer in Rap- pahannock County, being commonwealth's attorney and a member of the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 ; the third, John, was the father of the subject of this sketch. John Moffett was married twice, his second wife being Miss Sarah William Brown, a woman of indomit- able energy and rare piety. Her forebears were the Browns, the Ficklens, the Robertses, who at an early date had located in the "Little Fork" and its vicinity in Cul- peper County. To John Moffett and his wife, Sarah, four children, William Walter, Sallie F., Daniel Ander- son, and John Roberts, were born. The home of this family, a comfortable and typical Virginia country man- sion, some ten miles from Culpeper, is still standing. Such an ancestry, such a mother, and such a county as a birthplace, were fine assets with which to set out in life. Let us pursue the story of the boy who had this good
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