USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 5th series, 1902-1914, with supplement > Part 31
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live in the West, he had ministered, at one time or another, to these churches: Rose Union and Jonesboro, Nelson County ; Adiel, Albemarle County ; and Ebenezer, Amherst County. The Minutes of the General Asso- ciation for 1856 show that that year he attended the meeting of the body in Lynchburg, as a delegate from Ebenezer Church. His last pastorate in Virginia was at Mount Moriah.
In 1872 he moved to Missouri, where for fifteen years he labored under the State and Home Boards. He organized the Baptist Church, at Fredericktown, Mo., and during his pastorate there the first meeting-house was built and paid for. His other pastorates in Missouri were Ironton, Potosi, Greenville, Desarc, Oran, Kelso, and Pleasant Hill. The last year of his life he was missionary of the St. Francis Association, and in this capacity visited all the churches in the Association. In this year he raised enough money to pay his own salary and all the indebtedness of the Association, and reported 111 conversions and 103 baptisms. His last sermon was at the Wayne County Association, September, 1892, when his text was: "For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass." James 1:23. He passed away at Fredericktown, Mo., October 30, 1892. His wife, who survived him, died in the spring of 1915, and one of his sisters, Mrs. Sarah Settle Brown, still resides in Columbus, Ohio. Professor Joseph R. Long, of Wash- ington and Lee University, through Mr. F. V. Settle, of Amherst, Va., secured from Mrs. Brown practically all of the facts contained in this sketch.
GEORGE B. BEALER 1824-1870
At the close of the Civil War, Rev. George B. Bealer became pastor of the Freemason Street Church, Norfolk, Va., but since his lungs were weak he did not remain long in Norfolk. From Norfolk he went to the pastorate of the church at Madison, Ga. After eighteen months at this place, his health continuing to decline, he gave up work and was carried to Atlanta for treatment. There he died June 2, 1870. He was born in Graham- ville, S. C., in 1824, and just before his death he begged to be carried back to South Carolina, saying: "Bury me in the lowlands. My heart is not here. It is among the people I know and love." The body was taken back to Darlington, and buried near the church where he had had a successful ministry of thirteen years. While he was pastor in Norfolk the Episcopal minister asked to be allowed to use the pool of the Freemason Street Church to baptize a candidate. His request was granted. Just before the baptism was to take place the rector asked Mr. Bealer if he would not immerse the candidate; his answer was: "I would suffer my right arm to be removed before I would do such a thing."
Mr. Bealer was twice married. His first wife was Miss Bascot. She left one son. His second wife was Miss Emily J. Winkler, a sister of Rev. Dr. E. T. Winkler. Of this union there were four children. The two who are living are Rev. Alexander W. Bealer and Pierre Bealer.
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BALLARD PRESTON PENNINGTON 1858-1914
The Red Sulphur district of Monroe County, West Virginia, was the birthplace of Ballard Preston Penn- ington. He was the son of William and Nancy Shrews- bury Pennington, and was born August 13, 1858. After having taught school for several years he studied law and was admitted to the bar. Soon after this, while attending a protracted meeting, he was converted, and the whole plan and purpose of his life changed. He united with the Baptists ("missionary"), and, answering a call that he heard, decided to be a preacher. He was ordained, and from that time to the end "his life became a fountain of grace which has flowed in an ever-broaden- ing stream, touching and blessing literally thousands of his fellow-beings. He had the gift of oratory, a rare command of language, and the love of God and man in his heart. A physical infirmity which made him a cripple would have brought to inactivity a less earnest nature, but he was endued with dauntless energy, and was always ready to go whithersoever he was needed, and where he could speak a good word for Jesus." He served as pastor to many churches in Monroe County, and probably preached to more churches in this county than any other preacher now living. Among the churches in Monroe of which he was pastor were Oak Grove, at Gates; the Valley Church, near Zenith; Sweet Springs, Sinks Grove, and Broad Run. At these last two churches he was pastor at two different periods, and at the time of his death. Twice, for two years in 1908-09, and again, not long before his death, he was pastor of the Princeton
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Church, which church is a member of the Valley Asso- ciation and so of the General Association of Virginia. From time to time he engaged in evangelistic work, in which work he was very successful, in West Virginia and other States. In 1912 he was elected Mayor of Princeton.
After an illness of six weeks he passed away Tuesday morning, October 20, 1914. His wife, who was before her marriage Miss Mary Elizabeth White, and these children survive him: Mr. S. R. Pennington, Grace, Beecher, Mary, Virgil, and Jewel. The funeral, that took place at the Methodist Church, Princeton, was con- ducted by the pastors of the various churches of Prince- ton, the burial being in the Princeton Cemetery. This sketch is based on information furnished by Dr. Zed E. Bee and an article in Monroe (W. Va.) Watchman.
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ISAAC V. LUKE 1787 (?)-1879
At the time of his death, which took place September 17, 1879, Rev. Isaac V. Luke was the oldest Baptist minister in the State. He had reached the great age of ninety-two. He was born in Nansemond County. He was a Baptist minister for over fifty years. He served through the War of 1812, and two days before his death received his last pension. He was called "Uncle Luke," and was a great favorite with all who knew him. "He bore but few marks of the decrepitude of age, and preserved wonderful freshness in appear- ance, while his mental faculties were unimpaired. His was a long and useful life. His ministerial career was blessed to the good of thousands of souls." He was ordained from the Western Branch Church, Portsmouth Association, the Association in whose bounds his life seems to have been spent. For many years he lived at Suffolk. One of the churches that he served was Bethesda. His son, Rev. J. M. C. Luke, as his father, was ordained from the Western Branch Church, and was for a time pastor of the Lake Drummond and Deep Creek Churches, and later of the Elizabeth City (N. C.) Church. On September 19, 1879, a large crowd gathered for the funeral; the service was conducted by Rev. Dr. O. F. Flippo, who spoke from the text: "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." Genesis 49:18. Almost all of this sketch is taken from a letter of Dr. Flippo, in the Religious Herald for December 4, 1879.
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THOMAS TREADWELL EATON 1845-1907
The Western Recorder for August 12, 1915, contained an editorial with this heading: "T. T. Eaton." This article said: "We are now getting far enough away from the grave of this giant of grace and truth to form an impartial estimate of his life and character. That he was a very remarkable man, all admit, and that he filled a place all his own, none will deny. In our time we have known many great men and ministers, yet, all in all, we are disposed to regard T. T. Eaton as the most versatile genius it has ever been our good fortune to know. He seemed to know much about many things, and something about everything.
With him thought was an instant conclusion rather than a tedious process." This same number of the Recorder contained an article of his reprinted, by urgent request, from an issue of 1909, entitled : "Call to Moral Men." The Recorder carries on its front page, from week to week, the motto selected by Dr. Eaton, with the Greek for the first two words: "Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."
Thomas Treadwell Eaton was born at Murfreesboro, Tenn., November 16, 1845, his parents being Dr. Joseph H. Eaton and Esther M. Treadwell. At this time Dr. Eaton was professor in the College in Murfreesboro, the institution that in 1847 became Union University, with him as its president. This Dr. Eaton, when a child, during a severe illness, was pronounced by the physicians to be dead. The mother, however, despite all appear- ances and the verdict of the doctor, maintained that the
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child was not dead, because he was the child of too many prayers to die so young. Young Eaton, after attending Union University, went to Madison University, Hamil- ton, N. Y., where his uncle, George W. Eaton, was president. When the Civil War broke out he returned home to enter the Confederate Army. His service as a Confederate soldier was "the thing in his life of which he was most proud." He was one of Forrest's men, and, though only a youth, was made a "headquarter scout" by Gen. Stonewall Jackson. After the War he entered Washington College, now Washington and Lee Univer- sity, being there under General Lee. Before his gradu- ation he was tutor, and had been offered the place of assistant professor; at his graduation Commencement he took the orator's medal, and made two of the four speeches delivered by students. During his college life he accepted Christ, and was baptized by Rev. John William Jones.
From 1867 to 1872 he was professor in Union Uni- versity, and his first pastorate was at Lebanon, Tenn. From this place he went to take charge of the First Baptist Church, Chattanooga. At Petersburg, his next field, he remained some five years. Next came his last and his longest pastorate, namely, at Walnut Street Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky. Here he remained some twenty-seven years. During these years the meeting- house on the corner of Walnut and Fourth Streets was sold and the present meeting-house on Third and St. Catherine Streets built. Before this period Dr. Eaton had been editor of the Christian Herald, of Tennessee, and a contributor to the Religious Herald and other religious papers. For a large part of his life he was editor of the Western Recorder. Before the end of his life he had written a number of books, namely, "Talks to Children," "Talks on Getting Married," "Angels,"
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and the "Cruise of the Kaiserin." He had many popular lectures, two of these lectures having these titles: "Poor Kin," "Woman."
Dr. Eaton was a man of tireless energy both of mind and of body. It seemed as if his hunger for knowledge and his love of work would make it im- possible and unnecessary for him to sleep. He used to say that he had learned to be in two places at one time and that he had hopes of learning to be in three at the same time. His capacity and versatility were often im- posed on. He told how in one of his pastorates a member sent for him posthaste all the way across the city on a midsummer day. When he arrived at the house, very hot and out of breath, the good woman said she wanted him to help her get a cook. While he was pastor in Louisville a countryman once shipped to him a carload of mules, asking him to sell them and remit the money. Yet another countryman asked him to look into the character of a certain clerk who was asking for the hand of the farmer's daughter.
He was a leader among Kentucky and Southern Baptists, and a debater of great ability. In appearance he was tall, with a head and face in which the marks of intellectual strength were very clear. His face as it appears in the excellent steel engraving, in the Minutes of the Southern Baptist Convention of 1908, shows to great advantage and with great accuracy his high brow, his clear-cut nose and mouth, his strong, bright eyes. It is the face of the thinker, of the man of action.
Suddenly on his way to a Chautauqua, at Blue Moun- tain, Miss., June 27, 1907, where he was to lecture, he was stricken with apoplexy, at Grand Junction, Tenn., and was soon dead. A great crowd attended the funeral at the Walnut Street Church, Louisville. There were some one hundred and fifty ministers present. Addresses
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were made by Drs. T. T. Martin, W. P. Harvey, P. T. Hale, Lansing Burrows, and C. M. Thompson. The sermon was preached by Dr. J. M. Weaver. His wife, who before her marriage was Miss Alice Roberts, died some two years after her husband. Their two children, Joseph H. and Maria (Mrs. E. C. Farmer), are still living. Dr. Eaton was one of three children who lived to man's estate.
TRAVIS BUTHY THAMES 1854-1914
While Dr. Thames was pastor of the First Baptist Church, of Danville, a Virginia Baptist preacher was helping in a protracted meeting at one of the other Baptist churches of the city. He was the guest of Dr. Thames one Saturday night and for breakfast the next morning. At this meal mushrooms were served, with delicious beefsteak. The visitor expressed some surprise that so rare and choice a thing as mushrooms could be found in the Danville market. Dr. Thames answered that he and his wife got them often on their bicycle rides, for they were plentiful in the fields. While Dr. Thames was in Danville he was one of the founders of the Book Club, and was often called on for addresses by the Wednesday Afternoon (Literary) Club, an organization among the women of the city, and by the Daughters of the American Revolution. One winter, probably when he was pastor in Elizabeth, he spoke every week for the public schools of New York City. When the Baptist General Association met in Petersburg, in 1895, Dr. Thames presented the minority report of a committee appointed a year before to consider and report on the consolidation of the State Mission and the Sunday- School Boards. The minority report favored the con- tinuance of the two Boards. Feeling was tense. There was decided difference of opinion. Dr. Thames, through all the discussion, was cool, good-natured, patient, genial, calm. A difficult crisis was passed. A good judge who was present said that Dr. Thames had done much to save the situation. The following year, when the Association met with the Grace Street Church (in the temporary
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tabernacle on West Grace), Dr. Thames was the preacher of the introductory sermon, his text being II Timothy 4 :7: "I have kept the faith." He was a preacher of unusual charm and power. His sermons were carefully thought out, couched in choice language, and most im- pressively delivered. Dr. W. R. L. Smith speaks of his voice as "that soft, flute-like voice," and says that an elocution teacher once said to Dr. Thames: "Sir, your voice is worth a fortune." Dr. Smith calls him "a genuine orator." As a companion he was genial, sunny, and, upon occasion, full of fun and humor. To quote again from Dr. Smith: "Those were fine qualities that fitted him to win success and popularity in each of his fields, North and South. He blessed every community he touched. Nature and grace joined to fashion a rare gentleman. He was a social prince. The charm of him was an inheritance from a noble Alabama family.
He could be gracious without condescension, dignified without stiffness, and sympathetic without affectation. Never dogmatic or intolerant he cultivated large hospitality to all truth. In Christian sympathy he was broad, and in all human interests he was generous. The center of his soul was poised on the changeless conviction that Christ is the Lord of life. He saw God in the Nazarene, whom he adored as the divine-human model of moral and spiritual perfection. Here was the lodestar of his ministry, recon- ciliation to the Father, and resemblance to the Son."
Travis Buthy Thames was born at Claiborne, Ala., August 18, 1854, his parents being Mary McCollum and Cornelius Ellis Thames. After his college course he was at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, three sessions and parts of two others, in all from 1874 to 1879, becoming an "English Graduate." His several pastorates were: Shelbyville, Ky. (five years) ; La Salle
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Avenue Church, Chicago (five years) ; First Church, Danville, Va. (thirteen years) ; First Church, Elizabeth, N. J. (eight years) ; and Newnan, Ga. (two years). He passed away Wednesday evening, February 25, 1914, at Newnan. During the funeral services held in Newnan, which were conducted by Dr. J. S. Hardaway (who was assisted by Pastor Edmondson of the Methodist Church, Pastor Hannah of the Presbyterian Church, and Drs. J. F. Purser and B. D. Gray), the business houses of the city were closed, and a great audience taxed the capacity of the church. Saturday morning, February 28th, services were held in the Danville Baptist Church, conducted by the pastor, Dr. J. E. Hicks, and Dr. W. R. L. Smith. The burial took place in Green Hill, Danville's city of the dead. Dr. Thames's wife, who was, before her marriage (which occurred December 23, 1880), Miss Sallie Long, survives him, and these children: Mamie Lyon (Mrs. R. R. Patterson), John Long Thames, Sarah Curd Thames; one daughter, Lydia Long Thames, is dead.
EDWARD KINGSFORD 1788 (?)-1859
It is supposed that the American city of Boston re- ceived its name through compliment to Mr. Isaac Johnson, "one of the foremost in the enterprise" of the establishment of the town; he was from Boston, in Lincolnshire, England. This English town was the birth- place of Edward Kingsford. He first saw the light, probably in 1788. While an officer in Hindustan, in the employ of the East India Company, he was converted. He resigned his commission and gave himself at once to the work of the ministry. Once in his earlier ministry he was at a conference of the Baptist ministers of London. They met in a large room in a tavern. Down the center of the room there was a table and along the middle of the table a row of candles. "At each side of the table were seats for the ministers, and in front of each seat there was a glass of grog. Each preacher held a pipe in his hand, and alternately sipped his grog and puffed at his pipe." Years afterwards when Dr. Kingsford described the scene he said that "as he stood at the door and looked down this room, it . looked more like the mouth of hell than any place he had ever seen." This scene may have had something to do with the strong aversion that later in life he is known to have had towards the use of strong drink and tobacco. Once at the Rappahannock Association the report on temperance described liquor dealers as "doing the work of the devil." Rev. Thomas B. Evans objected to the language since it cast an aspersion on some respectable men who were engaged in the traffic. Dr. Kingsford arose and said that he "fully agreed with
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Brother Evans that the language of the report was un- justifiable." Here he paused, and then added, "with a sardonic smile and great emphasis: ‘It is a slander on the Devil! No respectable devil would be caught in a grog shop!'"
When pastor of Grace Street, Richmond, Dr. Kings- ford succeeded, "in a large measure, in making his church a total abstinence body." Dr. Jeter was less extreme in his temperance views, and the result, in his pastorate at Grace Street, was that a number withdrew from the church and organized what was known as a "test church." "He and Dr. Kingsford had a sharp news- paper controversy on the ecclesiastical aspects of the tem- perance question."
From May 1, 1834, to February 1, 1836, Dr. Kings- ford was pastor of the Second Baptist Church (now the Tabernacle Church), of Utica, N. Y. During this pastorate forty-four members were received by letter and twenty-three by baptism.
Dr. Kingsford began his pastorate in Harrisburg, in November, 1837, and offered his resignation December 31, 1839. This was a stormy pastorate and closed by Dr. Kingsford's dissolving the church, because he felt that the debt, the lack of male members, and the attitude of the members towards each other and towards him rendered it "impossible to maintain a scriptural visibility." These are the facts as they appear on the church record, though it may be that the account is a prejudiced one.
He became pastor of the Baptist church in Alex- andria, June 1, 1841. At this time there were probably less than one hundred white Baptists in Alexandria, and "these were almost entirely of the plainest and poorest people. Worse than that they had quarreled on the subject of missions and separated into two parties." Both sides claimed the meeting-house.
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While the matter was in the courts the anti-mission party used a ladder and got in through the galleries and held their meetings. The church was finally given to the other party, that during the law process had wor- shiped in the Lyceum, Dr. Kingsford conducting the services. The people of the town were greatly prejudiced against the Baptists, and Dr. Kingsford came in for his share of censure, but he held his ground. "Once he set the whole town in a state of excitement by preaching a sermon on the subject of baptism. The large, old-fashioned pulpit was filled almost" with the works of Pedo-baptist authors from whom he quoted. Dr. Kingsford certainly had "a difficult task." Indeed, he once declared that if it had not been for the encourage- ment his blind "preachers" gave him he would have resigned long before he did. A certain Sunday after- noon a young lady was baptized in the Potomac River, and the following Saturday afternoon her pastor, Dr. Kingsford, came and asked her to visit with him his "preachers," from whom he said he drew inspiration for his work on Sunday. Imagine her surprise when she found these "preachers" to be blind colored women over one hundred years old. Their "testimony freely given, left no room for doubt, and it was evident that God's Holy Spirit had dispelled nature's darkness from their minds." One of these "preachers" besides being blind was totally helpless. The Dorcas Society of the church, that "without officers or parliamentary rules" made "comforts, flannel undergarments, linsey-woolsey gowns, hoods, cloaks, and so on," for all the needy mem- bers, provided a colored woman to stay with this aged and helpless one. But once, when a great snowstorm prevented travel for several days, the watcher forsook her charge, and when Mrs. Daniel Cawood reached the house, she found poor Aunt Mary sitting in her chair, where she had spent the long and lonesome hours.
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On September 21, 1845, Dr. Kingsford resigned the care of the Alexandria church. His next charge was the Fourth Church, Richmond. Here he succeeded Rev. A. B. Smith. In 1849 he became pastor of Grace Street Baptist Church, his predecessor being Dr. David Shaver. Upon his resignation, in the spring of 1852, Dr. J. B. Jeter became pastor of the church. Of Dr. Kingsford and his Grace Street pastorate Dr.
Hatcher says : "He was an Englishman of generous culture and high Christian character. He was also an able preacher,
rigid and severe in his methods. He had the eye of a critic, and against that which seemed wrong in his sight he was never slow to utter his censure. With his exacting and imperious spirit it was not easy to maintain harmony with an in- stitution so intensely democratic as an American Baptist Church. It is creditable to Dr. Kingsford that when he ascertained that Dr. Jeter was to be his suc- cessor, he worked with great diligence to cleanse the church of certain disorders which then existed. In this unselfish undertaking he was eminently successful. Dr. Kingsford was a man of peculiar mould, but he was a man of lofty Christian principle and not really capable of an ignoble act." During his pastorate at Grace Street, Dr. Kingsford seems to have made a trip to Europe, and it is interesting to know that at this early period the Foreign Mission Board had thought of Southern Europe as a mission field. On October 6, 1850, the Board resolved to adopt France as a field of missionary labor, and Dr. Kingsford, who was about to visit that country, was "requested to make such inquiries as would afford necessary informa- tion to the Board."
"One morning Richmond blossomed out with big theater posters, prepared by him, representing the drama
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of the judgment day." Dr. Kingsford, although severe, had a generous nature and a warm, sympathetic heart. A lady in Richmond, deeply afflicted by the death of an almost idolized child, was greatly comforted by his tender sympathy, and "amazed at the unquestioning confidence with which he spoke of leading her child by the hand through the streets of the New Jerusalem, when he should himself enter the gates of the Golden City."
From Richmond Dr. Kingsford again made Alex- andria his home, and he and his wife were received back to the fellowship of the Alexandria church, on a letter from Grace Street, September 2, 1852. On March 23, 1853, however, they were granted a letter to unite with the Back Lick. It seems that of this church, located in Fairfax County and belonging to the Columbia Asso- ciation, Dr. Kingsford now became pastor, though he still resided in Alexandria. At the organization of the Potomac Association, in 1856, Dr. Kingsford preached the introductory sermon from the text Philippians 1 : 27, was on the committee to draft the Constitution and Rules of Decorum for the body, and was president of the "Act- ing Board." In 1857 and 1858, when his home was in Washington, he was moderator of this Association. During all his years among Virginia Baptists he was distinctly a leader. At the annual meetings of the "Gen- eral Association" he was on important committees, and took active part in the deliberations. As early as 1846, when the Education Society report came up, he suggested that the debt reported "presented an obstacle to his speak- ing." A collection was taken amounting to $200, and then he went on with his address. In 1855 he was one of those who made a pledge when the Education Board needed $1,000 to sustain their beneficiaries. In 1856 he offered a resolution providing that the return certificates required by the railroads be printed under the direction
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