USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 5th series, 1902-1914, with supplement > Part 3
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1242431 HENRY ALLEN TUPPER
How changed all of life! October 12th, at 2 A. M., the noblest woman of earth went into sleep. A world with the world's best treasure gone. My earthly light-alas, alas! My earthly joy is to honor the memory of this noblest of women, truest of wives, most devoted of mothers, and most consecrated of Chris- tians. Alas, alas! my dear friend and brother, James Boyce, is gone. A prince has fallen in Israel. The present state of our finances would be alarming but for two things-the Commission and the Divine Promises. Attended the Maryland Union. . The address at Baltimore was almost extemporaneous after roaming for an hour over streets in agony of prayer. I committed myself entirely to the will of the Spirit, and could no more report what I said than I could fly. Unveiling of Lee's statue. A
day never to be forgotten. One hundred thousand do honor to the great chieftain. Met a bevy of children and tried to teach them what the wisest might say every night :
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
"September 26, 1893. With the close of the last fiscal year of the Foreign Mission Board, the un- precedented sum of $150,000 having been raised in com- memoration of the Centenary of the Revival of Foreign Missions, I felt it my duty to retire from the Secretary- ship of the Board. The action of the Board was most liberal and fraternal and the separation most loving. I recalled that I had given away about one-half of the monetary income of my life. Elected President of the Board of Trustees of the Woman's Col- lege. . I am giving myself to the work of languages : Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish,
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German, Italian. In order to revise my Hebrew I am preparing a primer in that language. . . About 8 or 10 hours a day I devote to these languages.
The prime object I have in view is a more perfect knowl- edge of the Scriptures. The trustees want me to work for the college as I have done in years gone by. To-day have closed my appeals before the churches in behalf of the Woman's College . having spoken on a single Sunday to as many as five churches between 9 A. M. and 9 P. M. Notes to 133 persons. I agree to go to Baltimore Octo- ber 1st. In addition to my teaching I shall have oppor- tunity of preaching. Received telegram: 'You are invited to accept Bible Chair in Richmond College.' If the Lord will make his servant meet for this service, one of the greatest hopes of his life will be real- ized. It seems but yesterday I began my Bible work in Richmond College, and now it is done for the session. There remains, however, the examinations. I shall put up six blocks with sixty questions.
Since February 8th I have lectured, I believe, 150 times. This has been one of the most delightful duties of my life. Richmond, September 25, 1899.
Began work to-day with satisfaction of hav- ing 1,473 pages of lectures prepared during the vacation at Casco Bay for my college classes this session.
September 17, 1900, The Knob, Casco Bay. Alas, how time flies! We have had varied and delightful experi- ences. The season has been seasoned by a great storm. The only stay to mind and heart is clinging to a personal God. The loftiest wisdom is John's concluding words of Revelation: 'Come, Lord Jesus.' Afton, Va., July 11, 1901. Another session in
my Bible work at Richmond College. The duty has been delightful to the teacher. This
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Afton is one of the most picturesque spots on our Conti- nent; has the purest air and dryest climate I know. September 21, 1901. At home again. Happy as the 'outing' of 99 days was, it is good to be at home once more, grateful to God for all of his favors in the past and trusting him to the end for grace."
This is the last entry in the diary and record of his life. On March 27, 1902, the spirit of Henry Allen Tupper passed from earth to be with God.
CHARLES FENTON JAMES 1844-1902
In October, 1859, John Brown made his famous attack of Harper's Ferry. Hon. J. Taylor Ellyson writes that in the "John Brown Raid" there was a young man serv- ing in a volunteer cavalry company whose name was Charles Fenton James. He was fifteen years old, having been born in August, 1844. His parents were Robert and Winifred James, and Loudoun County, Virginia, was his birthplace. In 1861 he helped to organize one of the companies that formed the 8th Virginia Regiment. This regiment was commanded by Colonel Eppa Hunton, and young James, starting as one of the noncommissioned officers of his company, before the War was over, after successive promotions, had become the captain of his command. In the winter of 1864, while in the trenches near Petersburg, he made profession of his faith in Christ, and was baptized by Rev. R. W. Cridlin. Before the War he was a student at an academy near Alexan- dria, and in September, 1865, he entered Columbian Col- lege, Washington. The next year he entered Richmond College, being the first student on the ground after the War. He is said to have been the originator of the "mess-hall" system that has been a blessing so many years to so many. In 1870 he took his Bachelor of Arts degree. He next studied at the Southern Baptist Theo- logical Seminary at Greenville, S. C. Rev. C. A. Wood- son, who was a student at Greenville with James, says of him: "I was struck, at our first meeting, with his fine face, manly form, and his quiet dignity. He was dis- tinguished for his painstaking investigation of anything
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that claimed his attention; had a wonderful power of analysis and a rare faculty of weighing testimony."
His first pastorate, which began in 1873, was at Buchanan, Va. While he was their pastor the Buchanan Church built the substantial brick meeting-house in which they are still worshiping. Besides his work in the town of Buchanan, he had, during these ten years, as part of his field, these churches: Jennings Creek, Natural Bridge, North Prospect (Bedford County). In 1883 he left Buchanan to become pastor of the church at Cul- peper. The Baptist Church in Culpeper is on the spot where the old jail stood in which James Ireland was imprisoned. So it was not strange that Mr. James, with his capacity for patient investigation, and with the spirit of a general, should have been led into a discussion as to the part of Virginia Baptists in the struggle for religious liberty. The articles which he wrote in this debate led to his writing his "Documentary History of the Struggle for Religious Liberty in Virginia." It is probable that this discussion in the Herald and this book will perpetu- ate his name longer than anything else he did.
This discussion came about on this wise. In March, 1886, he preached to his church three sermons on "The Mission of the Baptists." In one of these sermons he said that "at the date of the Revolution the Baptists were the only denomination of Christians which, as such, held to the idea of religious liberty, and that, of the political leaders of that day, James Madison and Thomas Jeffer- son were chiefly instrumental in establishing that princi- ple in the laws of our land." On May 29, 1886, he repeated this sermon at Flint Hill at a Ministers' and Deacons' Meeting. In the Herald, of June 24, 1886, there appeared a report of an address delivered by the Hon. Wm. Wirt Henry before the American Historical Asso- ciation. In this address Mr. Henry told of Virginia's
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leadership in bringing in religious liberty, but made no allusion to the Baptists, and said it was "under the leadership of Patrick Henry that religious liberty has been established as a part of the fundamental law of our land." As no one else took issue with this address, and as its statements were just the opposite of those made in his sermons, Mr. James decided to challenge Mr. Henry's assertions. A lengthy discussion in the columns of the Herald, between Mr. James and Mr. Henry, followed. In the course of this discussion Mr. James searched for and examined for himself "all available sources of information concerning the struggle for religious liberty in Virginia." He went "back of Howell's 'Early Bap- tists of Virginia' to the sources from which he and others had drawn their information-to the Journal of the Vir- ginia House of Burgesses, or General Assembly, and to the writings of those who participated in the struggle." The discussion in the Herald might have continued longer than it did, but the editors decided that it must close. The investigations begun by Dr. James (he re- ceived the degree of D. D. while he was in Culpeper) in this controversy were continued by him during his whole residence in Culpeper, his proximity to the Congressional Library and the State Library in Richmond making these researches the more easy. He copied all that he could find bearing on the question in hand, setting down the book and the page. After more than ten years the documentary evidence as to this struggle for religious liberty and the share of the Baptists in it was presented to the world by Dr. James in the book already mentioned. In Dr. James' opinion this book was "not a history in the usual sense of the word, but rather a compilation-a grouping together of evidence and authorities, so that the reader may see and judge for himself." The book is intended to furnish "the careful and painstaking student
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of history a reliable text-book for the study of one of the most important of the great battles that have been fought for human rights and have marked the progress of the human race."
ยท From Culpeper Dr. James moved to Roanoke to become the principal of Alleghany Institute, an academy for boys. The session of 1888-89 was his first in Roan- oke, and that of 1891-92 marked the beginning of his work as the president of Roanoke Institute, Danville. Here he remained till death called him hence. In the face of great difficulties he set the school on its feet as an institution of high grade. With his college work he linked his service for country churches in reach of Dan- ville. He loved the country churches and to work with and for them. During these years he preached to Mill Creek, Ringgold, and Mt. Zion Churches, all in the Roan- oke Association. In this Association he exerted a most blessed influence, being the moderator of the body at the time of his death.
He was a man of unflinching moral and physical courage. "What a great soldier he would have made ! He would not have been the tactician, but the strategist, who plans his movements on a large scale. He belonged to the same general type as Lee, Grant, Von Moltke. He did his thinking in blocks. His life moved upon straight lines of candor, openness, and courage. He had genuine and thorough culture. His friendship was stalwart and loyal. His powers of debate, his able contributions to the papers, his works as author and educator, made his a commanding figure in our Baptist ranks."
He was married on October 28, 1873, to Miss Mary Alice Chamblin, of Loudoun County, Virginia. She sur- vived him, living until September 8, 1912. Their chil- dren are: Mayo C. James, Mrs. Julian Jordan, Charles Edward James, Mrs. N. A. Lavender, John W. James,
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and Robert L. James. His death was sudden. Prof. Geo. Swann was called in to see him Wednesday afternoon, December 3; he complained of having a strange sensa- tion. He never rallied, dying about three o'clock on the morning of the 5th of December, 1902. The funeral was conducted by Dr. T. B. Thames, assisted by Dr. W. E. Hatcher and Rev. Wm. Hedley. On June 8, 1903, a tablet in his honor was unveiled in the Roanoke Institute chapel. The inscription contained these words: "Ardent patriot, brave soldier, loyal friend, devout Christian, diligent student, able minister, skilful educator, true in all the relations of life."
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER RICE 1824-1902
Archibald Alexander Rice was born in Petersburg, Va., July 7, 1824. His father was Rev. Dr. Benjamin Holt Rice, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman. His mother was Martha Alexander, a daughter of Wm. Alexander and a sister of Dr. Archibald Alexander (who was president of Hampden-Sidney College and professor at Princeton), and an aunt of James Waddel Alexander and Joseph Addison Alexander (both professors at Princeton). His father being for many years the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Princeton, he spent his boyhood and student days in the classic shades of this venerable seat of learning, graduating first in the college, on August 14, 1842, and four years later in the Theo- logical Seminary. Here also he was licensed to the ministry, but after some eight years of missionary work in Southampton County, Virginia, becoming convinced that he was not called to preach, the study of medicine was taken up and pursued until a diploma from the Jef- ferson Medical College, Philadelphia, was won. He became professor in the Kentucky School of Medicine, which position he held until 1861.
While Dr. Rice preached more or less up to the very end of his life, he was never a pastor of any church, and his life work was that of the physician. During the War, as a surgeon in the Confederate Army, he held various positions of trust and had many exciting and not a few amusing experiences. Once he made a very nar- row escape from arrest by Federal officers in a hospital in Kentucky; once he was virtually in control of the
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whole city of Chattanooga for something like twenty- four hours. This experience in Chattanooga was in the spring of 1862. Johnson's army was retreating through Tennessee; affairs in Chattanooga were in a demoralized state; Dr. Rice, acting on his own responsibility, took charge; he went to work in an improvised hospital, issued orders for food to be cooked by private citizens, took wood and other necessary things, and gave orders on the government for the pay. After the War, he was connected with a medical school in Kentucky, and then settled in the Bruington neighborhood, King and Queen County, where he practiced his profession for a long series of years. About 1880 he moved to Appomattox County and settled near the Hebron Baptist Church. Here he came to be the "beloved physician," because the people counted him a past master in his profession, because they believed in the man, and because, notwith- standing his age, calls from far and near, whatever the weather might be, were answered. One horse, an excel- lent animal, served him these last twelve years and was led, with the empty buggy, just behind the corpse in the funeral procession.
"And after him lead his masterless steed."
A young physician, now in the United States Navy, having met Dr. Rice and talked with him about profes- sional matters, remarked to a friend: "I would let that man do anything to me." During the early months of 1897, the Hebron pastor being in Europe, Dr. Rice filled the pulpit, greatly delighting the people by his sermons, some of which were talked about in the neighborhood for months. He was kind to brother preachers, and they and others were warmly welcomed and entertained in his home, which was one of the most hospitable.
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Dr. Rice was a Presbyterian until after he went to live in King and Queen County. Once when Rev. Dr. A. E. Dickinson urged him to take the Herald and said: "Some day you will be a Baptist," Dr. Rice replied : "No, sir, every bone in me would cry out against me." When, however, his daughter Nellie was born, there being no Presbyterian Church near at hand where he could have her sprinkled, he was led to examine the Scriptures on the question of baptism, with the result that he became a Baptist. He was baptized in 1872 by Rev. Dr. Chas. H. Ryland, becoming a member of the Bruington Church, and on November 18, 1877, was ordained at this church.
Dr. Rice was married twice, his first wife being Miss Eleanor W. Nash, and his second, who, with one daughter, Lizzie, survived him, Miss Mary C. Haynes. He died December 19, 1902, and was buried in the Hebron Church graveyard.
NOAH CALTON BALDWIN 1817-1903
For nearly six decades this man of God preached the gospel, as pastor and evangelist, throughout the counties of Washington and Smyth, reaching at times into Wythe. Originally this was the territory of the old Washington Association that was anti-missionary heart and soul. Finally, in 1845, some of the churches of this body withdrew, as they no longer held these narrow missionary views, and organized the Lebanon Associa- tion; in this movement Mr. Baldwin was the leader. When this separation took place the anti-missionary sec- tion numbered 1,100 and the seceders 500; to-day the old Washington Association has fewer churches with a much smaller membership than at the time of the division, while the Lebanon Association has 43 churches with about 4,000 members, and after its organization it dis- missed about half its churches to form the New Lebanon Association. His leadership cost him no little persecu- tion. Concerning this period of his life he says in his diary : "I considered it my duty to disseminate all the information I could on the subject of missions, and to urge the churches, and the association to which they belonged, to united action in regard to those benevolent enterprises which have distinguished the Baptists throughout the world. For doing this I was much perse- cuted, called a money hunter and divider of churches. Finally I was dismissed, rather withdrew, from the pastorate of St. Clair's Bottoms Church on account of its hostility to the missionary cause."
He was born September 30, 1817, in Piney Creek Valley, then in Ashe County (but now in Alleghany County), North Carolina. His father was Enoch Baldwin, the son of Rev. Elisha Baldwin, and his mother
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Esther Baker, whose uncle, Rev. Andrew Baker, was a preacher of considerable notoriety in North Carolina. Although Enoch Baldwin and his wife were not able to give their children large educational advantages, three months a year being about all the schooling they received, the religious impressions they made upon their children were good, and two of the sons became ministers. After having "turned a deaf ear to the requisitions of the gospel," in May, 1838, young Baldwin's "sleepy soul was awakened in a most powerful manner to a sense of its danger." It was not, however, until he had decided to preach that he really rejoiced in Jesus. On his twenty- first birthday, at Mt. Zion, Ashe County, he preached his first sermon. Not long after his ministry began he left the Methodist Church and became a Baptist, since he could not bring himself to sprinkle or pour water and call it baptism, nor could he administer the ordinance to infants. On December 25, 1838, he was married to Miss Nancy McMillen, daughter of John and Narcessey McMillen, of Ashe County, North Carolina. On the first Saturday in October, 1840, he was ordained, the presbytery being composed of Elders D. Senter and N. M. Senter. The same fall he moved to Smyth County, Virginia. In this section he spent the rest of his life.
After his trouble with the anti-missionary brethren, he became a missionary of the State Mission Board of Vir- ginia, working in the general section covered to-day by the Lebanon and New Lebanon Associations. In 1852 his report to the General Association of his work in Washington, Smyth, and Wythe Counties showed that he had baptized 51 during the year, and that the churches he had served had become sufficiently strong to need no longer the help of the Board. In the course of his long ministry he was pastor of the following churches : Middle Fork, Friendship, Marion, Sugar Grove, South Fork, Greenfield, Glade Spring, Mountain View, Maiden's
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Spring, Abingdon, St. Clair's Bottoms, his service for the first-named church extending over almost thirty-three years. Four of these churches, namely, Marion, Glade Spring, Friendship, and Greenfield, were largely the result of his work, and were organized by him. In many ways he was a leader; for example, with Rev. J. T. Kin- cannon, in 1867, he consummated plans for the publica- tion of a paper known as The Landmark Banner. In evangelistic work he was successful, going far and wide, and leading many to Christ. As a debater he was logical and fair, being willing to examine fully and frankly the position of his opponent. His mind was vigorous. In the presentation of his views he was clear and convinc- ing. His address was frank and impressive. His presence was commanding, his physique being very fine. He was seldom sick. His devotion to his calling as a minister of the gospel knew no bounds. As a pastor of churches he rarely ever missed an appointment. Frank- ness and candor marked his intercourse with the people he served. He was of the stuff of which martyrs are made; he would have gone down under persecution rather than yield one inch in his contention for the "faith once delivered to the saints." One gets quite a picture of the man and of the days of his great activity upon hearing that in 1846 he rode on horseback from Marion to Richmond, a distance of three hundred miles, to attend the General Association and the second meeting of the . Southern Baptist Convention. He was married four times, but no one of these unions was blessed with chil- dren. He died, on January 14, 1903, from a tumor on his lip, and his body was buried, by his request, beside his second wife, in the Anderson Cemetery, Adwolfe, Smyth County, Virginia. Some time after his burial, on August 16, his funeral sermon was preached, accord- ing to his wish, by Rev. J. T. Kincannon, at Friendship Church, Washington County, from the text, II Tim. 4:7-8.
JOSEPH FRANKLIN DEANS 1839-1903
The counties of Norfolk, Nansemond, Isle of Wight, and Southampton, all in Tidewater Virginia, formed the arena where Joseph Franklin Deans passed his life and did his work. Near Churchland, in the first-named county, he was born, of "respectable and well-to-do parents," March 20, 1839. During the days of his youth at Churchland he attended school, Mr. Josiah Ryland being his teacher, went to Sunday school and church, was converted, and baptized. When he set out for college he was making his first journey away from home and out into the world. Columbian College gave him, in 1859, his Bachelor of Arts diploma, and seven years later the Master of Arts degree. Richmond Col- lege gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. While a student at Columbian he was licensed to preach, and in 1862 he became a chaplain in the Confederate Army. After his ordination, in 1865, the War being over, he was pastor, for a brief season, at Weldon, N. C. In 1866 he became pastor of Northwest, Norfolk County, and at the meeting of the Portsmouth Association that year, at Beaver Dam, he preached the introductory sermon. Later he was clerk of this body, and for five sessions its moderator. In 1869 his three years' pastor- ate of the Bainbridge Street Church, Manchester, began. On October 3, 1872, he was married to Miss Bettie Lightfoot Poindexter, and the following spring he went as a supply to the Staunton Church while the pastor. Dr. Geo. Boardman Taylor, was engaged in the "Memo- rial Year" work. Dr. Taylor alluded to this event in his Jubilee sermon at Staunton, in 1903, saying: "The Rev.
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J. F. Deans, a brother combining in a rare degree sweet- ness with dignity and force of character, bringing his young bride, came here as my supply."
After Manchester and Staunton he returned to the section which was, as already suggested, the field of his life work. During the thirty years that followed he was pastor, first and last, of the following churches : Berkley Avenue, Smithfield, South Quay, Great Fork, Western Branch, Black Creek. Whitehead's Grove, Tucker Swamp, Windsor, Ivor. One of these churches, White- head's Grove, he served for twenty-seven years, and at the end of the twenty-fifth year the church did honor to their pastor by a day of fellowship and of congratula- tions, ministers of other denominations and from a dis- tance being among the speakers.
In 1878 Mr. A. H. Ashburn invited Mr. Deans to open an academy at Windsor, a village on the Norfolk and Western Railway between Petersburg and Norfolk. This invitation, which was accepted, led to a new sphere of influence and power. The academy, for young men and young women, was established, Mr. Ashburn fur- nishing the necessary financial support. When Thomas Arnold was a candidate for the head-mastership of Rugby, one testimonial to the trustees said that if he were elected "he would change the face of education all through the public schools of England." It is, perhaps, not going too far to say that the influence for good of Windsor Academy and its head was felt all through that section of the State. The words of Rev. J. Theodore Bowden, a Windsor Academy "boy," show, in part, the work of the school and the spirit of its principal. In a tribute to Dr. Deans, in the Religious Herald of March 5. 1903, Mr. Bowden wrote: "I want to speak a few words about Dr. J. F. Deans as the young man's friend. There was nothing that gave him greater
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