USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 5th series, 1902-1914, with supplement > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
431
432
VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS
was spared us. All classes will miss him. I shall miss him, oh, so much. We were like David and Jonathan. We were true yokefellows. We walked together, we preached together, we prayed together, and in all of our close and intimate associations there was never a jar. He was a Baptist loyal and true to every tenet of his faith, yet withal void of a sectarian spirit." He was, in build, about the average height, straight, and deep chested. His forehead was high and broad, the face clean shaven, the mouth well shaped and strong. His countenance was genial and his appearance inviting.
His wife, to whom he was married July 17, 1895, sur- vives him. Before her marriage she was Miss Cora Adamire Gragg. From their earliest childhood they had known each other. Of this marriage six daughters, Blanche, Mattie, Annie, Edna, Marion, and Pearl, and one son, William Broadus, were born.
JOSEPH WASHINGTON HART 1843-1914
In 1861 a young man nineteen years old, named Joseph Washington Hart, went forth from King and Queen County, Virginia, to join the Confederate Army. He enlisted in the 26th Virginia Infantry, "where he ren- dered faithful service and led an irreproachable moral life. His comrades in the army testify that he was a soldier who could be depended on to do his duty." He was licensed to preach in 1864, and, after having studied at Richmond College the session of 1867-68, and at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1869, at the call of the Mattaponi Church was ordained to the gospel ministry. In the summer of 1865, in a protracted meeting held at Howerton's Church, Essex County, Virginia, the pastor of the church, Rev. Isaac Diggs, was helped by a young man, a licentiate. This young man was Hart. Many were converted, and to one of this number, at least, this was the greatest meeting he had ever known. The one who looks back to this series of meetings at Hower- ton's with such tender emotion is Rev. Dr. W. T. Derieux, now a leading Baptist pastor in South Carolina. Upon Mr. Hart's death Dr. Derieux, in an article about him in the Herald, said : "Through the critical years of my youth he never failed me, and his gentle and Christly spirit helped to guide me into the ministry. My first preaching was done for him, and on it he set his blessings.
He was my pastor at Hebron, King William County, where I entered the ministry. More than any other man he led my steps. . Humble, faithful, honest, courageous, upright soul was his."
His work as a minister was given to churches in the Dover, Rappahannock, and Portsmouth Associations.
433
28
434
VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS
From about 1871 to 1913 he labored faithfully. At two churches he continued as pastor for more than a decade. In the Dover Association he had charge of the Hebron and Mt. Horeb Churches. He was next in the Rappa- hannock Association, where his churches were Hower- ton's, Providence (Caroline), and Mt. Hermon. From 1885 to 1904 he labored in the Portsmouth Association, ministering to these churches: Newville, Waverly, Old Shop (which, since 1896, has been known as Oakland), Elam, and Readsville. From this section he moved back to the Rappahannock Association, where his last field was composed of the Lower King and Queen and Mat- taponi Churches. He died on August 11, 1914, and was buried in the Mattaponi churchyard.
He was married three times. His first wife was Miss Columbia Derieux, of Essex County, Virginia, daughter of A. G. and Virginia F. Derieux. The children of this marriage are Mrs. Emma Roger, Seattle, Wash .; Dr. Arthur Hart, of Mecklenburg County, Virginia; and Rev. Joseph L. Hart, missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention to Argentina. His second wife was Miss S. Terrell. His last wife, who, with one daughter, Miss Mary Lelia, survives him, was, before her marriage, Miss Mary L. Wright.
The Religious Herald, in noticing Mr. Hart's death, called him "one of the most modest and excellent of our country pastors," and said: "He has been pastor of various Virginia fields, and the sweet savour of a godly and earnest life abides in every community in which he has lived and labored." Rev. Dr. G. W. Beale, in his obituary of Mr. Hart, said: "Brother Hart, in the pro- found experiences of his soul, felt that the gospel had been the power of God unto his own salvation, and it was his delight to recommend it with all his ability to the hearts and consciences of others, and his sympathies for the lost were as wide as the world."
CHARLES WELDON COLLIER 1861-1914
On May 19, 1861, just a few weeks after Virginia had seceded, in Petersburg, where so many tragic scenes of the War took place later, Charles Weldon Collier was born, his parents being James L. and Sue Dicson Collier. While working as a printer in Petersburg he and his wife, who before her marriage, which took place Novem- ber 24, 1882, was Miss Ella V. Browne, the daughter of George I. and Mary Goodwin Browne, were baptized into the fellowship of the West End Baptist Church by Rev. M. L. Wood. He at once became active in church effort, and before long took up Y. M. C. A. work. From this service he passed into the gospel ministry, being ordained at his mother church December 29, 1892. He went to Crozer Theological Seminary, where he gradu- ated in 1894. At his ordination, which took place at the West End Church, Petersburg, December 29, 1892, the presbytery was composed of these ministers: J. C. Hiden, J. M. Pilcher, and H. W. Battle. After his first pastorate, which was at Wilmington, Del., he came back to his native State and accepted the care of churches in the Shiloh Association. During all the years of his service in the Shiloh Association he was pastor of Mt. Carmel and Woodville, and, for a large part of this period, of Mt. Lebanon. For a portion of the decade he spent in the Shiloh he was in charge of one or more of these churches: Slate Mills, New Salem, Shiloh, Beth Car, F. T., and Flint Hill. In 1905 he moved to the Strawberry Association, becoming pastor of the Bedford City Church. During the larger part of this pastorate
435
436
VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS
he ministered also to the Timber Ridge Church. While he was at Bedford City he led his people to the erection of a modern Sunday-school room and to securing a parsonage. After some eight years here his health began to give away, and he was called on to pass through months of languishing and suffering. His earthly life closed August 12, 1914, at Culpeper, Va. Mr. Collier was tall, of fair complexion, dark hair and moustache, and brown eyes. He had a bright, happy disposition, loved his home, books, his many pets, and horses. He was fond of flowers and music, and played the organ.
FREDERICK WILLIAM CLAYBROOK 1844-1914
In the Northern Neck of Virginia, at Heathsville, Northumberland County, Frederick William Claybrook was born August 3, 1844, his parents being Richard A. Claybrook and Charlotte T. Brown. For the first twenty years of his life his father's house, near Lotsburg, in his native county, was his home. When this residence was burned by the Union Army in 1864, the family moved to Westmoreland County. Private tutors cared for the training of the boy until he was old enough to enter the Northumberland Academy. From this institution he passed to the school of Mr. Hillary Jones, in Hanover County, and from there to the Virginia Military Insti- tute, Lexington, where he graduated in 1864. The story of the Virginia Military Institute cadets who went to the War and to the battle of New Market, May 15, 1864, is famous in the annals of Virginia and the South. Young Claybrook was one of this noble band, whose names are enrolled on the stone monument-"Virginia Mourning Her Dead" -- in front of the Institute. He was Second Lieutenant, D Company. He continued with the Con- federate Army around Richmond until early in 1865, when he joined Mosby's Battalion, with which command he remained till the end of the War. After the War, living at his home, "Afton," near The Hague, Westmore- land County, he studied and practiced law for a few years. In 1871 he made a profession of religion, and later, it seems in 1873, was baptized into the fellowship of the Machodoc Baptist Church, Westmoreland County. The same year he entered the Southern Baptist Theo-
437
438
VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS
logical Seminary, Greenville, S. C., and was there until the death of his father made it necessary for him to return home so as to be able to care for his mother and sister. He was ordained to the gospel ministry at his mother church, Machodoc, on June 20, 1875, his ordina- tion having been asked for by the Pope's Creek Church, of which flock he took charge that same year. In his ministry of some forty years he was to do good service in the organization of churches and the building of meeting-houses, and he here exercised his hand first at this kind of work, organizing the Oak Grove Church, and then first built and later improved their house of worship. At Oak Grove and Pope's Creek he was "very popular and successful." Farnham, Richmond County, and Lebanon, Lancaster County, formed his next field; here he remained several years, having "a successful and popular ministry and endearing himself greatly to the churches." In 1885, accepting a call of the Morattico Church, Lancaster County, he began what was his long- est and most fruitful pastorate. Upon his going to this field, Irvington and White Stone were missions of the Morattico Church; but, largely because of his energy and zeal, they soon became separate organizations. He estab- lished preaching stations near Wicomoco and Weems Churches, and for several years maintained such work at Bluff Point. All this meant that two Sundays every month he rode thirty-six miles, preaching three times. In order to make this circuit, when the days were short, he was obliged to eat a lunch on the road and to feed his horse while he was preaching. At three points on this field he saw erected houses of worship, and in a large measure these churches: Oak Grove, Irvington, Clay- brook (named after him), and Wicomoco, which "owe their existence to his fine judgment, consecrated energy, and the unwearying purpose of his soul to make his life
439
FREDERICK WILLIAM CLAYBROOK
count for his Master's service and glory." The new meeting-house at Kilmarnock "is also a monument to his pious zeal and practical sagacity." He was always on time at his appointments, his work always gave him joy, and he never worried. It was while he was at Morattico that he organized the Wharton Grove Camp-Meeting, a gathering over which he presided as long as his strength would allow.
In the general work of the denomination, both in his Association, the Rappahannock, and in the State, he was deeply interested. He was a member of the State Mis- sion Board and the Orphanage Board, and was regular in his attendance at the Sunday School Convention, the Ministers' Institute, and the Association, and in these gatherings was a "prudent counselor and a clear and forceful speaker." Dr. Beale, from whose obituary quotations have already been made, says : "As a preacher he was practical, direct, and hortatory in his style, not ornate or given to imaginative flights, but deeply in earnest, and his messages were from his heart appealing to other hearts. His ability was recognized in his call to preach an annual sermon before the General Association, as also at a Commencement of the Virginia Military Institute." Dr. Beale also says : "In his relation to his brother ministers he was genial, cordial, and affectionate in his manner, and a vein of delightful humor pervaded and enriched his conversation. Against certain popular and indiscreet amusements he inveighed in private and in the pulpit, and whatever indulgences seemed to him fraught with immoral tendencies found in him an alert and steadfast foe. In his home life, love ruled supreme, and found expression in the embrace and kiss of affection in the family circle, which in far too many homes is omitted." His habits were regular, he was an early riser, and very industrious. He was fond of reading and
440
VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS
study, and, though he did not care for hunting, loved a good horse. He gave close and strict attention to busi- ness and other work that his hands found to do. He loved children, and was manly and godly. One who knew him well for many years says: "I could write a book on his beautiful life." He was of medium size, about five feet eight inches in height, erect in his carriage, "of pleasing address, and good looking," his eyes and hair being dark.
He was married twice; first in January, 1884, to Miss Mary Franklin Dew, of King and Queen County, and in 1895 to Miss Nannie Garnett, of the same county. Five children by the first marriage survive him, namely : Frederick William, Franklin Dew, Mary Susan, Char- lotte Edmonds, and Elizabeth Simmons, and of the second marriage two children: Reuben Garnett and Lilia F., and his widow.
For several years before his death his health was declining, and finally a lingering illness kept him in bed for months. During his illness he asked Dr. M. B. Wharton, who was visiting him: "Wharton, where is heaven?" He passed away at his home at Kilmarnock, Lancaster County, August 14, 1914. The funeral, which was held on the 16th at Kilmarnock Church, was con- ducted by Rev. Wayland F. Dunaway, assisted by Rev. H. J. Goodwin, and was attended by a great concourse of people. The interment took place in the Morattico Church cemetery.
SAMUEL P. MASSIE 1835-1914
Amherst County, which lies in Piedmont Virginia, was the birthplace and, with adjoining counties, the scene of the life work of Samuel P. Massie. The year 1835, which saw Texas declare its independence, was the year of his birth. When the War broke out, in 1861, he enlisted in Company I, 19th Virginia Regiment of Infantry, Pickett's Division, and served to the end of this struggle. At the close of the War he entered Rich- mond College, where he was a student from 1866 to 1869, to prepare for the gospel ministry. During these years, when opportunity was given him to speak at Sidney Bap- tist Church (Richmond), he displayed such remarkable evangelistic gifts that he was invited to conduct a pro- tracted meeting; this meeting resulted in a revival. He was called to the pastorate of the church, and served until the end of the session, being succeeded in this office by Rev. J. M. Pilcher. The summer which followed was filled with evangelistic work, and, not returning to college, he settled among his own people. For almost thirty years he was pastor and preacher in the Albemarle Association, in which period he served these churches : Mt. Moriah, Sharon, Mt. Paran, Walnut Grove, Jonesboro, Piney River, Mt. Shiloh, Rose Union, Midway, New Prospect, Central, Adiel, Oak Hill. After his active work was over he continued to live at Lowes- ville, and here he was buried. On October 2, 1914, he passed away, leaving three children: C. G. Massie, a civil engineer, P. R. Massie, a lawyer, and Mrs. Ella M. Harvey. His wife, who died some five years before he did, was, before her marriage, Miss Lucy Cox.
441
JOHN WALKER HUNDLEY 1841-1914
On April 14, 1841, John Walker Hundley was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, his parents being William Clarke Hundley and Marion Street Hundley. His mother died when he was two years old, and he was reared by his grandparents. They, being people of some means, sent him to the best available schools "and indulged him to the extent of badly spoiling him." In 1858 he became a student at Richmond College, and was there until the War broke out in 1861.
"At outbreak of the War he was associated as teacher with J. Adolphus Montague in an Academy for Boys at Centerville. I will tell you of an incident which occurred while he was teaching there which in after years amused him greatly.
"In common with many young men at that time, he was thirsting for an opportunity to display great valor on the battlefield, and the great chance seemed at hand when the news reached Centerville from Richmond that the great Union man-of-war, Pawnee, was on its way up the York River, spreading death and destruction as it came.
"A council of war was called, and upon deciding that something must be done immediately, my father was posted off at 12 o'clock at night, with instructions to ride under whip and spur to King and Queen Court House, seventeen miles distant, to sound the alarm of imminent peril and desolating war. And he relates that no gallant knight ever rode forth to meet inevitable death with more alacrity and eagerness than he. He arrived
442
443
JOHN WALKER HUNDLEY
at the courthouse at 2 o'clock, and the scene after the alarm was given beggared description.
"All possible preparations were made for war, and a day was spent with the tension on heart and nerve drawn tight. Then brains cooled, and reason again held sway; the panic-stricken crowd realized the supreme ridiculousness of the United States Government sending a great man-of-war upon the obscure little village, Cen- terville, a place not known outside the county and not upon the county map."
The death of his only sister, to whom he was greatly attached, was one of the saddest afflictions of his life, and it came when he was at home, sick, on a furlough. He was Second Lieutenant of Company C, of the 26th Virginia Regiment of Infantry, Wise's Brigade, N. B. Street being Captain. He was publicly applauded for gallantry in the battle of Nottoway Bridge. This company was mustered into service at Gloucester Point, it seems, on June 12, 1861. In 1876 he graduated at the Crozer Theological Seminary, and having been licensed to preach in May, 1874, he was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry in November, 1876, at Mechanicsville Church, Virginia. He began his pastoral work on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, his churches being Modesttown and Chincoteague. While on this field, as a missionary of the State Mission Board, he organized, on July 1, 1877, with 12 members, the Atlantic Baptist Church. That year he baptized 22 into the fellowship of this new church, and, within a year or so, 57 others. During his ministry in the Accomac Asso- ciation he was pastor, for longer or shorter seasons, besides the churches already named, of these churches : Bethel, Lee Mont, Zion, Drummondtown, Pungoteague, Onancock, Broadway. In 1890 he moved to Tarboro, N. C., and, during a brief pastorate of the Baptist Church
444
VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS
in that town, built a meeting-house. He came back to Virginia and worked for several years, in the Shenandoah Association, as pastor at Martinsburg, W. Va. His next service was first at Glade Spring and then at Marion. From 1897 to 1904 he had charge of the Baptist Church at Covington, Va. He was for several years the moder- ator of the Augusta Association, to which body the Covington Church belongs, and for a part of his life at Covington he was pastor of the Healing Springs Church. In the opinion of Rev. F. P. Berkley, who is now pastor in Covington, Mr. Hundley "accomplished at Covington the greatest results of his long and earnest ministry." In 1900 the church, under his leadership, commenced the erection of a beautiful and commodious house of wor- ship, which was dedicated on April 6, 1902. Rev. Mr. Berkley says: "I am sure that no pastor has ever lived in Covington who touched the hearts of the people and gained and retained their affections and respect to the extent of our beloved brother." From Covington he went once more to the Eastern Shore, becoming now the pastor of the Cape Charles Church. His last pastorate was at Pocomoke City, Md. After leaving this place, and giving up the active service of the pastorate because of feeble health, he came back to Covington, where he was among loved ones and friends. Here he passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. A. Rinehart, October 21, 1914.
His wife, to whom he was married March 23, 1865, was Miss Virginia M. Quarles, of Louisa County. She preceded him to the grave, passing away February 29, 1912. Of this union there were born seven children, namely : Marion Lee, Henry Rhodes, Augusta, Susy Quarles, Virginia, Lois, and John Walker Hundley, Jr. Marion Lee died November 15, 1890; Lois, who was then Mrs. E. S. Porter, passed away October 15, 1903;
445
JOHN WALKER HUNDLEY
and John Walker, Jr., departed this life November 19, 1913. Susan Quarles is now the wife of Mr. R. A. McCoy, Virginia the wife of Mr. Claude Rhame, and Augusta the wife of Mr. W. A. Rinehart.
Rev. Mr. Berkley says: "Brother Hundley was a very strong preacher, clear in the expression of his thoughts, Scriptural in his conception of truth, exceedingly tender in his disposition; as gentle and pure in speech as a woman; very modest of his own powers, and kind and affectionate in his dealings with others; a man whom it was no task to love; a friend whom one could not help trusting fully. He was a little over the average height, possibly six feet, or six feet two inches, when he was in good health. He weighed, I suppose, nearly two hundred when he was well and in active life. He was remarkably handsome, both in figure and face. He had one of the finest shaped noses I ever saw, very clearly cut, and his eyes were striking in their tenderness when that quality was necessary, and yet they could almost blaze if occasion arose for any expression of disapproval. Brother Hundley's appearance in the pulpit was easy and commanding. He possessed a charming voice and a very attractive style. His feet and hands were shapely, and he never appeared, so far as I could judge, in the slight- est degree slovenly or unkept; not even in his last sick- ness did his keen sense of cleanliness in person and in speech desert him. He was as modest as a woman." In his home, while not demonstrative and not without a degree of timidity, he was companionable, and hospitable even to the extent of going out and compelling guests to come in. He enjoyed outdoor life and sports, and was a skilled gardener, and even after he was in a measure broken by disease, loved to see a good game of baseball. He was in the habit of having family worship just before, and of reading his Bible in his room just after, breakfast.
SUPPLEMENT
Some of the sketches in the Supplement are not in the body of the book because the material necessary for their writing was re- ceived after the larger part of this volume was in type.
HENRY DUNDAS DOUGLAS STRATON
1836-1897
In the little village of Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on August 14, 1836, Henry Dundas Douglas Straton first saw the light. Since the piety and devotion to books of even the peasant homes of Scotland are proverbial, it is not surprising that although his parents were in humble circumstances, they gave their son a good common schooling and reared him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And must not the exploits of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, associated with Stirlingshire, have stirred the soul of the boy? Was it not at Bannockburn, his birthplace, that on June 24, 1314, the Scots, thirty thousand strong, under Bruce, defeated the English army, one hundred thousand strong, under Edward II? When, as a youth, sixteen years old, he went to Falkirk and became a clerk in a dry-goods store, he must have been interested in the old Roman wall that runs through that town. At one end of the county is Loch Katrine, and further south Loch Lomond, while the scenery of the rest of the shire takes its charm from the views of the valley of the Forth, with its winding river and the peaks of the Grampians in the distance. During the four years spent in the store in Falkirk the young man was led, by the pious example of a com- panion, to accept Christ, and from this time forward he
446
HENRY DUNDAS DOUGLAS STRATON 447
found pleasure in distributing tracts and in explaining and enforcing the Scriptures among the poor and igno- rant, in private homes, in the Sunday school, and else- where. After leaving Falkirk he taught school for a year in Stirling, and then, when he was twenty-one, applied for the appointment as city missionary for one of the largest Presbyterian churches in Glasgow. The test to which he was subjected, he passed successfully, and for three years he worked among the destitute classes of this city, attending, at the same time, classes in Hebrew, Latin, Moral Philosophy, Greek, and Logic, in the University of Glasgow. The year that he commenced this work was the very year that John G. Paton gave up exactly this kind of work in Glasgow to go as a missionary to the New Hebrides; whether they served the same church is not known. After satisfactory examinations at Glasgow he entered the United Presby- terian Theological Hall at Edinburgh, where he con- tinued his theological studies for three terms. His parents had emigrated to Australia, and he planned to follow them, but in some way his steps were turned towards America, and in January, 1865, he landed at Philadelphia. His purpose had been to run the blockade to Selma, Ala., but this plan having failed, at the end of the Civil War he came to Virginia, and for some time canvassed various counties as a book agent. In Cumber- land County he met Rev. Jesse Clopton Perkins, the pastor of Forks of Willis Church, and while a meeting was going on in this church, he was led, through inter- course with Mr. Perkins, to a complete change of his views as to baptism. He was baptized in James River by Mr. Perkins, and later a presbytery consisting of Elders Cornelius Tyree, Jesse Clopton Perkins, W. Hall, and W. A. Whitescarver, ordained him to the Baptist min- istry. On December 12, 1866, he was married to Miss
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.