USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 5th series, 1902-1914, with supplement > Part 18
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JAMES ALEXANDER MUNDY
churches, and are now among the most important in the State." His labors having greatly increased during these ten years of service, since he was not strong physically he resigned and accepted a call to Wilson, N. C. He remained there two years, and during that time built a neat, comfortable house for the accommodation of the growing church and increasing Sunday school. From there he went to Reidsville, N. C., where he remained four years, and during that time had good success in building up the church. He then accepted a call to Cabell Street Church, Lynchburg, Va. The church was much split up, and he, by his prudence and forbearance, suc- ceeded in uniting and leading it to great efficiency. His health failing him, he retired from the pastorate and went to the old home, near Allen's Creek, where he spent the last years of his life in the interesting family of his widowed sister-in-law, Mrs. John C. Mundy. He loved his work, and loved to tell the story of Jesus and His love. Though he had retired from the active pastorate, yet he preached for the churches at Gladstone and Mineral Spring when his health would permit. He left his impress for good upon all the churches of which he was pastor and upon the various communities in which he lived.
Dr. Mundy was richly endowed with a fine intellect, which he studiously cultivated. He had an analytical mind, and became one of our most logical and practical preachers. His sermons were made very forcible by apt illustrations from Scripture, nature, and the observations of the everyday duties of life. He understood human nature, and could adapt himself to any occasion. He was generally a quiet speaker, but when inspired by his subject he would rise in flights of oratory and eloquence, carrying his congregation with him and moving them to decisions for greater usefulness in the service of Christ.
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His sermons were so natural and logical that they would convince his hearers of the great importance of right living and activity for Christ.
He was a genial companion and a good conversation- alist. He was kind and liberal, always ready to do his part. In social life he was attractive and, at times, brilliant in conversation. He was very fond of young people, and always sought to encourage them to some- thing noble and great.
He married the daughter of Rev. Thomas N. Johnson, a Baptist minister of Buckingham County, Va. His wife, who survives him, was truly a minister's helpmeet, and his home was always pleasant and his doors were ever opened to his brethren and friends. Over fifty years he was a pastor. How wonderful that he should have accomplished so much and lived so long when he was always delicate! That prevented him from taking an active part in our Convention and Associational meet- ings. He could not stand the crowds. He must have fresh air and a good deal of it. During his life he was always bearing testimony to the love of God and the worth of religion, and needed not to say anything when he came to die. In his last days he would frequently say : "I am ready whenever the Master calls me." He died of heart failure, and could not say anything when the end came. In the midst of his loved ones he calmly and peacefully passed away from his work on earth to his home in heaven. Loving hands and sympathetic friends laid him to rest in the beautiful cemetery in Lynchburg. Rev. Oscar E. Sams, his successor in Lynchburg, made an appropriate address and closed with the benediction.
W. J. Shipman.
JOHN FRAZIER LANCASTER 1826-1910
Bedford and Floyd Counties and the Blue Ridge Association formed the district in which John Frazier Lancaster spent his life. After his birth, on December 15, 1826, in the former county, his father moved, with his family, to Floyd. The members of this family were, for a time, the only regular or missionary Baptists in the county. When the New Haven Church was organ- ized the subject of this sketch and others of his family were the charter members. In 1858 he represented his church in the organization of the Blue Ridge Associa- tion; for a season he was clerk of this body. In 1864, at the call of the Mayo Church, he was ordained to the gospel ministry, and was pastor of Blackberry and per- haps other churches. He was not only an earnest preacher of the gospel but an uncompromising advocate of "total abstinence," and Rev J. Lee Taylor, who fur- nishes some of the material for this sketch, well says that had his life been prolonged he would have rejoiced greatly "in the blessing which came to his beloved State September 22, 1914," when Virginia decided for "State- Wide Prohibition." He was married to Annie, the oldest daughter of Rev. D. G. Taylor. Of this union eight children were born, of whom five, namely: Robert, Emma, John D., George T., and Lizzie, are still living. This couple reared an interesting family, and lived to celebrate their "golden wedding." Since Mr. Lancaster was a man of good education, it is not surprising to know that much of his early life was given to teaching. He passed to his reward March 1, 1910.
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ROBERT DANIEL HAYMORE 1840-1910
Although Robert Daniel Haymore died in North Carolina, and although some years of his ministry were given to other States, he was a Virginian, and a con- siderable part of his life work was in his native State. When, on June 6, 1910, he passed away, he had reached the age of some threescore and ten years, and had been a preacher about half a century. His work in Virginia was given to churches in the Roanoke and Blue Ridge Associations and to the church, then known as Goodson, in Bristol. A part of his time in Virginia he was a missionary of the State Mission Board, and one year the report of this Board, when speaking of the Blue Ridge Association, his territory, described it, saying : "Nearly every mile of which is missionary ground." In the Roanoke Association he was pastor of Harmony Church, and in the Blue Ridge, first and last, of these churches : Bethlehem, True Vine, Starry Creek, New Haven, Taylorsville, Beulah, and Rocky Mount. After his pas- torate at Bristol, which lasted some six or seven years, he accepted a call to the Central Church, Chattanooga, Tenn. Of this pastorate Dr. J. J. Taylor says: "The church was in the formative period of its history and needed the guiding hand of a master. Brother Haymore was just the man for the hour. By his serene spirit, his wise oversight, his friendly bearing, he brought unifica- tion, hopefulness, courage, and laid the foundation of the prosperity that has ensued." After some six or seven years in Chattanooga he resigned the care of the large city church and returned to the section where he had been brought up, and took charge of the Mount Airy Church.
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Here he erected a beautiful residence and bought a good farm a mile out of the town. So, with his church and large response to evangelistic calls, his life ran to its close. At the close of one year, writing to the Herald concerning meetings he had held, he said: "More than two hundred have been added to the Baptist churches, many of them heads of families and persons of wealth and influence. Among them, two young men have been licensed to preach, both holding college diplomas. We greatly desired a greater measure of visible results, but we did all we could."
While his early life may not have had the oppor- tunities for the largest educational preparation, still he was in no mean sense an educated man. "He had some knowledge of Greek, and his library was rich in English classics, with which he had an extensive acquaintance. In his public ministrations he showed a comprehensive grasp of any subject he undertook to discuss, and he never lacked in appropriate expression. Indeed, in stature, voice, grace of manner, perspicuity of thought, and facility of expression he impressed himself upon his hearers as one of the foremost preachers of his day." As a young man he was handsome, being "square built, erect, beardless, swarthy, keen of eye and alert of mind." In these early days he met one of the most accomplished young women of his section of country, Miss Charlotte A. Reid, and she became his wife. Of this union four sons were born, namely: Nathan, Robert, Jerman, and Nicholas. All of these sons, save Robert, are still living. She was the daughter of Dr. Robert Reid, a distinguished physician, though she had been adopted by her childless uncle, Major Nathan Reid, whose home was a beautiful country residence.
In evidence of the fact that Mr. Haymore was ever charitable towards the faults and foibles of others,
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Dr. J. J. Taylor, from whom the larger part of the material for this sketch has been secured, tells the follow- ing incident : "Some years ago, when Hugh Smith was pastor in Martinsville, several visiting preachers were guests in the pastor's home, Haymore among them. The tide of ministerial fellowship ran high, and, incidentally, but with no sort of malice or mischief, the odd doings of some of the brethren came under review. Later the hour of prayer before slumber came on, and Haymore, as the elder, was asked to lead the devotions. Without pre- meditation he turned to the seventh chapter of Matthew, and, with that modulation and emphasis which so inter- prets the printed page, he began reading: 'Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again.' In the midst of the reading he paused, and in one of those explosions of emotion which sometimes seized him, he said, with tears : 'I feel rebuked!' Though if there were sin, he was the least sinner of us all. In even a tenderer tone he finished the lesson, and then in a prayer as simple as a child's he led us into the secret place of the Most High and laid our faults and failures and sins at the Master's feet."
MADISON E. PARRISH -- 1910
Although a native of Virginia and a son of Richmond College ( where he was a student, 1882-88, and where he took his M. A. degree), the only pastorate Rev. Madison E. Parrish ever held in Virginia was the brief one of a year and eight months at South Street Baptist Church, Portsmouth. This was the close of his earthly service. After a severe illness with pneumonia he passed away on June 11, 1910, leaving a widow and a son, Madison E. Parrish, Jr., nine years old. Upon his death, a citizen of Portsmouth said: "His place can never be filled; all denominations loved him alike." Some few weeks before his death he was assisted in a protracted meeting in his church by the Rev. Carter Ashton Jenkins, now of Richmond. During the progress of the meeting Mr. Parrish worked day and night. One day he talked from morning till night with twenty unconverted persons in their respective places of business. That evening, with tears on his thin, pale face, he said to the brother who was assisting him: "I have been fighting the devil to- day, but we will get one soul to-night." He was right; that night one man was converted, and, before the series of meetings ended, more than fifty persons had accepted Christ.
Besides the Portsmouth pastorate, with which this life, cut off in its prime, ended, Mr. Parrish had served churches at Clovesport, Ky., Johnston, S. C., Salisbury and Shelby, N. C. From this last town, where he was pastor in 1908, the town from which Rev. Dr. A. C. Dixon and his two brothers came, he wrote thus to the
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Religious Herald: "I have the finest corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, fat chickens, all fresh and homemade, and I am feeding the flesh. I will send you some news matter when the frost comes." Upon this letter the editor of the Herald said, among other things: "Com- mend us to the minister who has a fine kitchen, garden and poultry yard. You may depend that he has a whole- some personality, likes to see things grow, knows himself what a hoe handle is for, has no dyspepsia, and does not see the world through yellow glasses." In these words Rev. Carter Ashton Jenkins describes Mr. Parrish: "If purity of life, sweetness of disposition, unprecedented humility, profound and lucid holdings of doctrine, broad learning, comprehensive acquaintance with history, unusual pulpit magnetism, together with refined manners and unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, constitute a great man, then Madison E. Parrish is the man of whom you are thinking."
JACOB SALLADE 1871-1910
Lives of ministers are not without mysterious tragedy, and still the promise holds: "He will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways." The same Herald that announced the name of Jacob Sallade as the Chairman of the Preaching Bureau Committee for the Baptist World Alliance, in Philadelphia, gave an account of his sudden death. On Monday, July 11, 1910, as he was hastening to take a train at Tioga Sta- tion, Philadelphia, he stepped in front of a southbound train, was hurled in front of another train, northbound, and instantly killed. He was born in Williamsport, Pa., September 19, 1871, and reared in Fredericksburg. He attended Bowling Green Academy, and then was at Rich- mond College the sessions of 1892, 1893, and 1894 as a ministerial student. On January 9, 1896, he was ordained at the Broadus Memorial Church, Richmond, of which church he was the first pastor, having been elected pastor October 28, 1895. He resigned September 7, 1896. Be- fore this time he had served Mt. Hermon and Providence Churches in the Rappahannock Association, and the Con- cord Church in the Dover. While a student at Crozer he was pastor at Milton, Pa .; this place being 165 miles from the Seminary, he had a long trip every Saturday and Monday. He graduated at Crozer in the Class of 1898. While in Philadelphia he wrote to the Herald: "The Old Dominion may forget some of her boys, but it is hard work for the boys to forget the Old Dominion." In 1901 he became pastor of the First Baptist Church, New Castle, Pa. He left this field to become assistant
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pastor of Dr. Russell H. Conwell, Grace Baptist Temple, Philadelphia. From the Temple he went, in 1905, to the pastorate of the Tioga Baptist Church. In 1908 he became District Secretary of the Home Mission Society. In May, 1910, he became co-pastor to Dr. Conwell, the position he was filling at the time of his death. What is well-known to-day in church circles as the "Duplex Envelope" is the result of much study and work, but Mr. Sallade was the first "to apply the idea of a two-pocket envelope to church collection uses." His envelope, which was called a twin envelope, was patented August 27, 1901, it being No. 681,659. His envelope in a modified form was again patented February 18, 1902, the number of this patent being 693,624.
His funeral, attended by three thousand friends, including two hundred ministers, was held in the Grace Baptist Temple, and was conducted by these ministers : J. M. Wilbur, Russell H. Conwell, John Gordon, T. H. Sprague, and J. M. T. Childrey. The body was laid to rest at Williamsport. Rev. Dr. John Love contributed to the Baptist Commonwealth a poem in honor of the memory of Dr. Sallade, entitled "An Appreciation." In this poem this stanza occurred :
"To him no warning came until the hour That marked the tyrant's dread, resistless power ; One moment gazed he on the scenes of time, The next on views of Paradise sublime."
In 1902 he was married at Milton, Pa., to Miss Mabel Hatfield; she and their daughter Ruth survived him. In 1908 the degree of D. D. was given him by the Temple University.
JOSEPH LEONARD 1855-1910
Quite regularly, for a long number of years, the name of Joseph Leonard appears in the list of Baptist pastors, as given in the Minutes of the General Association of Virginia, and much less regularly, in the same series of Minutes, is his name found as one of the pastors of the Lebanon Association. In this Association he was pastor, first and last, of the following churches: Walnut Grove, Gum Hill, Willow Branch, Lime Hill, Valley View, and North Fork. Several of these churches are in Washing- ton County, Virginia, the county in which he was born and where his life was spent. Because the sphere of his life was narrow and the churches to which he min- istered were small, it must not be decided that his service was not faithful and effective. The people among whom his ministry of some thirty-five years was spent had confidence in him, hence the secret of the success that fol- lowed his labors. Besides his work as a pastor he was for six years a colporteur and for twenty-six years a school-teacher. The span of his life was from 1855 to July, 1910.
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ROBERT WILLIAMSON 1828-1910
At the sixty-seventh session of the Accomac Associa- tion, held in 1876 with the Lower Northampton Church, a resolution was passed appointing Rev. Robert William- son and Rev. F. R. Boston to prepare a history of the Association from its organization. As Mr. Boston, soon after this time, left the Association, the work fell upon
Mr. Williamson. In 1878 Mr. Williamson's "Brief History of the Origin and Progress of the Baptists on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Embracing an Account of the Accomack Association and Sketches of the Churches" appeared, being a pamphlet of one hundred pages and selling for thirty cents. Of the Accomac Association he was moderator in 1874 and in 1875, and in 1875 the preacher of the introductory sermon. While in this Association he was pastor of these churches: Lower Northampton, Red Bank, Beulah, Union, and Chinco- teague, living on Chincoteague Island. Before coming into the Accomac he had his home within the bounds of the Rappahannock Association, and after leaving the Accomac he returned to the region of the Rappahannock Association. For a season he was pastor of the Farnham and Jerusalem Churches, members of this body. For many years, however, of his sojourn at Farnham he was not a pastor. It is said that he baptized no less than five hundred persons during his residence in the Northern Neck. His preference was for the quiet life of the teacher, and so he gave much of his attention to this form of service, being principal of several academies in differ- ent parts of the State. In his obituary, in the Minutes
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of the General Association of Virginia, are these words concerning him : "His life was that of an earnest servant of God, and, dying, he left no stain to dim the precious- ness of his ministry." Princess Anne County was where, in 1828, he first saw the light. His ordination to the gospel ministry took place at Menokin Church, Richmond County, in 1856; he was one of the seven graduates that Richmond College sent forth in 1854, and on October 10, 1910, in Richmond County, he passed to his eternal reward.
CHARLES EDWIN STUART 1872-1910
As the delegates were on their way to the General Association, which met at Roanoke, November 18, 1910, they heard of the death of Charles Edwin Stuart, which took place November 16th. While for some months before his death he had not been well, since in all his ministry he had been so strong, and since he was in the very heyday of manhood, it seemed hard to associate death with him. Many of the delegates doubtless thought of another meeting of the Association at which Mr. Stuart had spoken with a fire and eloquence that had stirred the great audience. It was at the meeting at Grace Street Church, Richmond, in 1901. The work of State Missions was under discussion, and Mr. Stuart had as his subject his work and the religious condition of things in the Powell's River Association and in all that general section of the State. At this period he lived at Pennington Gap, and besides this point had Deep Springs, Jonesville, Dryden, and some other places as his preach- ing appointments. In these years he seemed to be activity personified, as if his motto had been :
"We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, We have hard work to do and loads to lift. Shun not the struggle; face it. 'Tis God's gift."
For some four or five years this was his field, a part of the work of the State Mission Board. One year he reported that he had preached 247 sermons and baptized 62 persons; another year the record was 141 sermons and 52 baptisms. On April 30, 1905, Mr. Stuart preached the dedication of the Corinth Meeting-House and raised a collection of $143.47, and doubtless had large share in the effort that resulted in the erection of three other meeting-houses about the same time in the
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same section. Besides his regular appointments and much work in protracted meetings, he was greatly inter- ested in education. A school which he established, enrolled, the first year, 325 pupils. So marked was his success as to call forth from the Methodist presiding elder of the district the following testimony: "It may not have come to notice yet, but two other denominations are working this territory and will in the future contest every inch of it with the Methodists. Their strength and strenuous efforts make them a force that we do not lightly regard. Who shall hold this territory and be the instructors and guides of the people? The danger that threatens Methodism is their repose in conscious strength, while the persons referred to are almost fanatically loyal. The church which does the educational work for the young people of this valley will be the dominant church of the next generation."
Mr. Stuart was born in Hanover County, July, 1872. His educational preparation for life was secured in Pulaski, Va., at Richmond College ( where he was a stu- dent, 1892-97, and where he took his B. A.), and at Crozer Theological Seminary. He was ordained at Keysville, August 22, 1895, and his first field was at Keysville and Chase City, with Shiloh as one of his churches. After a brief season on this field he became pastor at Ashland, Va., and from there he went next, as pastor, to Wytheville, preaching also for Carmi Church. From the work at Pennington Gap, to which place he moved upon leaving Wytheville-which work has been described above-he came to Richmond, and, the first Sunday in February, 1906, took charge of the Venable Street Church. This was his last pastorate, the closing months of his service being given to work as one of the representatives of the Anti-Saloon League of Virginia. His wife (to whom he was married August 7, 1906, and who was, before her marriage, Miss Fannie B. Cox), survives him, with one son.
THOMAS P. PEARSON
No information concerning the life of Rev. Thomas P. Pearson, beyond that given in the obituary in the Minutes of the General Association, has been secured. He was a native of Franklin County, Virginia, where his life was spent. He was a constituent member of the Blue Ridge Association. He was ordained at Providence Church, and in the course of his ministry served Mill Creek, Trinity, Shady Grove, and Providence Churches. His was an unostentatious life.
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JAMES FOLEY KEMPER 1846-1913
Although almost all of his work as a minister was given to Missouri, still Rev. James Foley Kemper was a Virginian, and for two brief seasons a pastor in his native State. Woodville, Rappahannock County, was his birthplace, and, after so many years spent in the West, he was again in this little village when the summons came to him for the "long journey." His life reached from May 20, 1846, to April 5, 1913. His parents were Dr. Charles Rodham Kemper and Mary Virginia ( Jones) Kemper. In his twenty-first year, on November 28, 1866, he was married, but it seems that at this time he was not a member of the church; indeed, his baptism did not take place till the autumn of 1870. His educa- tional outfit for life's work was secured at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va., and at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, then located at Greenville, S. C. Before he had decided to become a minister of the gospel he practiced law for some months at the Rappa- hannock County Court, and before he became a regular pastor he was a supply, first for Dr. W. R. L. Smith at the First Baptist Church, Lynchburg, and then in Dan- ville. While in Lynchburg he attended, May 29, 1879, at Portsmouth, the General Association as the delegate of the First Church. As a missionary of the State Mis- sion Board he took charge of the church in Harrison- burg, Va., in 1879, remaining there some two years. About 1883 he turned his face towards the State that was to be his home and his field of labor for almost thirty years. While in Missouri he was pastor of these
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churches: Glasgow, Louisiana, Maryville, Marshall, Carthage, Boonville. His longest pastorate seems to have been at Marshall, where he labored from 1893 to 1902. There is full evidence of the esteem in which he was held by Missouri Baptists. When they met in their annual gathering at Lexington, October 22, 1907, he was elected moderator of the body, and before this, more than once, he had been elected vice-moderator of this convention. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from William Jewell College, and soon after his death these words about his worth and work appeared in the Word and Way: "During his connection with the Baptist work in this State no [other] minister was more generally loved and revered. He was not only an able preacher, but his consecrated, godly life was an influence for good wherever he was known." In 1908 he was once more in Virginia, and as pastor of the Washington, Piedmont, and Oakley Churches, in the Shiloh Association, he labored for a few years, but the "call of the West" must have been in his heart, for in 1910 he was once again in charge of a church in Missouri. Rev. Dr. E. W. Winfrey, in the obituary he prepared of Dr. Kemper for the Minutes of the General Association, says that "he was dignified, but gracious and winsome in bearing as a man, forceful and fresh as a preacher, and his patience in suffering seemed impres- sively Christian," and that he was "manly, gentlemanly, amiable, brave, scholarly, consecrated, Christly." His wife, who before her marriage was Miss Laura Frances Miller, survives him.
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