USA > Virginia > Virginia Baptist ministers. 5th series, 1902-1914, with supplement > Part 5
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R. ATWELL TUCKER 1857-1903
On Sunday, July 21, 1901, at Lawrenceville, Bruns- wick County, Virginia, a new meeting-house was dedi- cated, Rev. Dr. W. E. Hatcher preaching the sermon. The next issue of the Religious Herald presented pic- tures of the new church, a building seating 250 persons and costing about $3,000, and of the pastor, Rev. R. Atwell Tucker. Less than two years later the little Brunswick town and church took part in a service con- ducted by Rev. Mr. Boggs, of the Methodist Church; it was the funeral of Mr. Tucker, who died on May 13, 1903, from an attack of pneumonia. In his forty-sixth year, and probably in his most successful pastorate, he was called to his eternal reward. Besides Lawrenceville, the field (which was helped by the State Mission Board ) included the James' Square and Reedy Creek Churches. In the early part of the year Mr. Tucker had been absent from his work for some six weeks ministering to his father and mother, who were both dangerously ill. In Amherst County, where he was born September 24, 1857, Mr. Tucker labored in his early ministry, being pastor of Prospect Church. After his conversion, in 1875, and his baptism, Rev. S. P. Massie administering the ordinance, he attended Richmond College, and, after he had commenced his work as a minister, he went for a session to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was warm hearted and genial, enjoying greatly the companionship of his brethren in the ministry. While pastor at Clifton Forge and Sharon Churches (Augusta Association), in a letter to the Herald, just after he had
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a visit from his college mate, Rev. W. C. Tyree, and Rev. Mr. Chapman, he wrote: "I often meet with ministers of other denominations, but rarely ever see a Baptist preacher." In the summer of 1891, at his Natural Bridge Church, he was assisted by Rev. P. G. Elson in a meeting which resulted in the addition, by baptism, of 20 to the church. During the meeting Rev. A. E. Dickinson, Rev. J. T. Carpenter, Rev. J. H. Harris, and Prof. F. A. Byerly were present at one or more of the services, and Col. E. G. Peyton hospitably entertained without charge, some two weeks, the preachers at the Natural Bridge Hotel during the progress of the meeting. Besides the churches already named, the fol- lowing should be set down as among those to which Mr. Tucker ministered: Springwood (Valley Associa- tion), Flint Hill, Washington, and Sperryville (Shiloh Association ). "As a man he was modest, unassuming
and chaste. As a Christian his daily task was to walk with God. As a pastor he was atten- tive, sympathetic, and vigilant."
ALEXANDER EUBANK 1826-1903
In Scotland preachers have always held high rank as scholars, and not unfrequently the records show how they took in hand the training of ambitious youths. Likewise in Virginia many a preacher has been a teacher ; this has been true of the Baptist ministers. Preaching and teaching have gone together. This was the case in the career of Rev. Alexander Eubank. While he has a long record as pastor and preacher, perhaps he will be best remembered for his work in the Sunnyside Academy, a boarding-school for boys, that he established and carried on for some forty years at his own home in Bedford County. As a teacher he worked also for two years at Big Island, and for four at Charlottesville. Thus he trained "for high and useful pursuits hundreds of youths and young men." In many cases he helped students financially, sometimes being afterwards re- couped and sometimes not. For this work of the school- room he had been excellently prepared. He studied at Richmond College the five sessions from 1847 to 1852, in this last year taking his Bachelor of Arts degree. He spent the session of 1853 to 1854 at the University of Virginia, taking the classes of Natural Philosophy and Moral Philosophy. Sunnyside Academy was organized about 1867, and had from twenty to forty pupils through- out its career. For a part of the time Mr. Eubank's son was associated with him in this school. Mr. Eubank was an excellent teacher and won the affection and esteem of his students.
When still quite a young man he was ordained to the ministry, his first church, which he served from 1855 for
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eight years, being Liberty, at Bedford. Among the other churches of the Strawberry Association of which he was pastor were these: Mt. Olivet, Hunting Creek, Suck Spring, Quakers, Pleasant View, Burton's Creek, Halesford, Flint Hill, Diamond Hill, Morgan's, Wolf Hill, Bethlehem, and Difficult Creek. He was pastor for a time of Hebron, Appomattox Association. He was a leader in the Strawberry Association, and his appoint- ment to read an essay at the Ministers' and Deacons' Meeting in November, 1884, on the Bible Teaching as to Man's Total Depravity, was doubtless only one of many such duties that fell to his hands.
He was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, in 1826, and his death took place at his home, "Sunnyside," near Bedford City, on Saturday, July 18, 1903; he had been ill about a month. He was married in early life to Miss Emma Dickinson, of Charlottesville, Va .; she and five children survived him.
OSCAR FARISH FLIPPO 1835-1903
That interesting section of Virginia, known as the Northern Neck, which has given birth to so many of the State's greatest men, was where Oscar Farish Flippo first saw the light. He was born at Lebanon, Lancaster County, January 1, 1835. His parents, James P. and Frances Carter Flippo, were both members of the Morattico Baptist Church. Unfortunately he had small opportunity to know his mother, for when he was not yet three years old she died of a cancer, after having been for many months a great sufferer. From her early life she was a professor of religion, and during her many days and months of intense pain her resignation to the will of God was a lesson and example to all. Her cheerful and affectionate disposition seems to have de- scended to her son, whom this sketch describes. Little is known of his youth, and this is the more to be regretted, as the energy and enthusiasm which marked his manhood years suggest that his earlier days were not devoid of adventure and thrilling incidents. Save that he was educated at Kilmarnock Academy a veil is over his life until we find him, in 1855, teaching at Quantico, Wicomico County, Maryland. Here he met and was charmed by Miss Roxie Collier, a young lady, almost two years his junior, of an Episcopal family, and herself a member of that church from her early childhood. She was gentle, modest, unobtrusive, "beautiful of form, of face, and mien," of pure heart and sweet temper. He sought her acquaintance, loved her because he "could not help it," and on January 3, 1856, she became his bride. Their first-born child lived only some ten months.
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He was licensed to preach in 1857 and ordained to the gospel ministry at Salisbury, Md., his first pastorate, July 26, 1859. The "charge" delivered upon this occa- sion by Rev. John Berg, of Baltimore, was printed. Mr. Berg based his remarks upon Paul's exhortation to Timothy : "Preach the word," and called upon the young preacher to consider : "What you are to preach; how you are to preach; and what must be observed by you in order to succeed." Maryland has seemed to be not a very favorable soil for Baptists, and in his two years at Salisbury Mr. Flippo had many trials, but his fraternal spirit and tact helped him toward success. Sermons were preached in all the other churches against immer- sion. The other pastors did the preaching on this subject while he did the baptizing. He encountered opposition from the old-school Baptists. Subsequently, however, the pastor of this church was converted, and wrote to Mr. Flippo that "God had delivered him from bigotry and Bebeeism." It seems strange that any one could object to a preacher's passing through his field in order to baptize, yet such a man lived at Salisbury, though his name is withheld, as the following gives evidence :
"Received of Rev. O. F. Flippo the balance in full of Five Dollars due me for the privilege of passing through my lot three times to the water to baptize. =
"Teste: J. D. Johnson.
While he was in Salisbury the Baptists bought the old frame Presbyterian Church and moved it to Division Street. With the other pastors of the town, Mr. Waite (Presbyterian), Mr. Wallace and Mr. Morgan (Metho- dist), and Mr. Augustus White (Episcopalian), Mr. Flippo sustained pleasant relations. When the Episcopal Church was burned this congregation was offered and accepted the use of the Baptist meeting-house.
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One cold Christmas Eve in Salisbury Mr. Flippo found on the streets two boys whose poverty and rags put them in painful contrast to other boys, who had bright visions of the good things and many presents of the next day. The preacher invited them to come to his house the following morning. They came, and received toys, candy, nuts, and some articles of clothes for them- selves and their little sister. Comment is unnecessary.
From 1861, for some seven years, Mr. Flippo was pastor of Newton, Pitts Creek, Rehoboth and Chinco- teague Churches. During this period he baptized two hundred persons. In 1863 he and his wife passed through a most trying ordeal. Their home was attacked by the dreaded disease, smallpox. One night, when these parents were nursing their daughter Sallie, looking for her death and thinking how, by themselves, they would have to shroud and bury her, Mrs. Flippo announced to her husband her purpose to be baptized and unite with his church. In the eight years of their married life he had never urged her to take this step; she had come to this decision by herself. Years before her marriage, while on a visit to Baltimore, she had seen Dr. Richard Fuller baptize at the Seventh Church, and the deep impression made then had never been effaced. Her bap- tism took place on a cold day, but she chose the river rather than the baptistery, and was buried with Christ in baptism at Cedar Hall, in the Pocomoke River, when "the wind was high and the waves were beating on the shore with furious rage." On one occasion, in Newtown, the colored Methodist pastor asked Mr. Flippo to preach to his people on baptism. He did so, and, as a result of the sermon, he baptized the pastor and ten of the members; the pastor himself baptized the rest. Echoes of various threats made to keep Mr. Flippo from preach- ing, as, for example, that his horse would be killed, come
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down to us, but none of these things moved him, and kindness suffered long and conquered.
In March, 1868, Mr. Flippo became pastor of the Bap- tist Church at Dover, Del. Upon his arrival things were in a deplorable condition. The church doors had been closed and no baptisms had taken place for almost two years. During his pastorate of over two years nearly one hundred persons were baptized. On November 8, 1869, he began a campaign for funds with which to pur- chase the Wyoming Institute, his pulpit during his absence being filled by Rev. George Bradford. The cam- paign was successful, and not only was the Institute pur- chased, but a Baptist Church, in the village of Wyoming (three miles south of Dover), was established several years later, largely the result of a meeting Mr. Flippo had held. While pastor at Dover Mr. Flippo was chap- lain for one session of the State Legislature. On Sep- tember 15, 1870, Mr. Flippo resigned at Dover to become General Missionary in Delaware of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society. During his years in Dela- ware, both as pastor and as missionary, he did much to quicken the life of the Baptist cause in the State. He declared : "It pays to cultivate Delaware." As editor and publisher of The Baptist Visitor, he accomplished great good and did much to bring the history, work, and principles of the Baptists before the people. While working as General Missionary he was invited, by a congregation of Methodist Protestants at Vernon, Kent County, to preach for them. In December, 1870, he complied with this request. He was asked to come back and hold a protracted meeting. This he did. In the midst of the meeting the people requested him to preach a series of sermons on the "Principles and Practices of Baptists." This he agreed to do provided they would follow him through "with the New Testament in hand
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and not get mad." Before he completed this series of sermons the pastor, Rev. Richard H. Merrikin, and all the members asked to be baptized. They were baptized on a stormy day, March 12, 1871, and on the last Lord's Day of the following month a Baptist Church, known as Zion, was organized and Mr. Merrikin ordained as a Baptist minister and pastor of the church. The follow- ing November the church dedicated a beautiful Gothic meeting-house, Mr. Flippo preaching the sermon. In a somewhat similar manner the preaching of Baptist principles by Mr. Flippo at the village of Magnolia led to the establishment of a Baptist Church there and the erection of a meeting-house.
Mr. Flippo became pastor of the Waverly Baptist Church, Baltimore, Md., in 1873. One of the objects of his removal from Delaware to Maryland was not obtained. It had been hoped that "the higher land and purer air of this beautiful village overlooking Baltimore" would restrain disease and lengthen out the life of Mrs. Flippo. It was not to be so. After months of pain and weariness she departed this life May 1, 1874. Mr. Flippo was pastor in Waverly some five years, and during this time was elected Moderator of the Maryland Baptist Union Association. On November 25, 1877, hc became a Virginia pastor, taking charge of the field com- posed of the Suffolk, Great Fork, and Boykins Churches. On this field he worked as the missionary of the State Mission Board of the Virginia Baptist General Associa- tion. The Suffolk Church to-day has 460 members ; then it had only 53, while the number at Boykins was 67, and at Great Fork 209. On January 1, 1878, Mr. Flippo was married to Miss Mollie E. Emmert, of Washington County, Maryland, Rev. A. E. Rogers officiating. Mr. Flippo left the Suffolk field to become pastor in Alex- andria in 1881. His pastorate here was a prosperous
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one, and there was general regret on the part of his church and the community when he resigned to become pastor in Roanoke, Va. His pastorate in Roanoke began October 6, 1886. According to the plan agreed upon, every fourth Sunday morning he preached for Hebron Church at the village of Bonsacks, some seven miles from Roanoke. These services were held in the Metho- dist Church until, through his leadership, a Baptist meeting-house at Bonsacks was dedicated in the spring of 1889. During that same spring steps were taken for the erection of a new and handsome church house in Roan- oke. On April 21st a subscription of $8,000 toward the new house was taken. On July 26, 1891, the spacious brick structure standing alongside the old frame meeting-house was dedicated. To-day a marble tablet in memory of O. F. Flippo adorns the walls of the main audience room. The Sunday school, as well as the church, grew rapidly under his administration. Take, for example, these figures: January 1, 1891, the Sunday school numbered 245, and on January 1, 1892, the figures were 394. In 1886 the church had 116 members, and in 1893, the year when Mr. Flippo resigned, the figures were 559. Nor was his work confined to his own church. During his pastorate the church at Vinton, a suburb of Roanoke, was established, and also a mission Sunday school in East Roanoke, which has since developed into the Belmont Church. That Mr. Flippo was popular with those outside his own church, as well as with his own . members, is proved by the fact that one day he was the recipient of a handsome buggy, the gift of Mr. N. T. Nininger. The whip and lap robe that accompanied the buggy were a present from Mr. M. H. Eurman. Neither of these gentlemen was a member of his church. This fortunate pastor had no need to own a horse for his new
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buggy, as, at the stable of Horton & Roberts, one was always at his disposal free of cost.
Mr. Flippo was regular in his attendance on the meet- ings of the Southern Baptist Convention. When the Convention met in Louisville, in 1899, an amusing inci- dent took place. The city was crowded with visitors, as, besides the Convention, the races, and a tent meeting conducted by Sam Jones, were going on. One day, as Mr. Flippo was talking to a circle of friends in the gentlemen's room of the Galt House, a handsome, well- dressed stranger walked up and asked them to take a "winiwee" with him. Mr. Flippo said: "You will have to level yourself; we don't know what that means." "Well," answered the stranger, "come and take a 'nipper' with me." Mr. Flippo replied : "I don't know what you mean." The stranger then became very emphatic and profane, and said : "You need not put up a case of inno- cence. Come and take a drink with me." Mr. Flippo was disposed to chaff the man a bit farther, but another one in the circle said: "You do not know us. We are here attending the Southern Baptist Convention, and several of this crowd are clergymen." This information called forth an apology and the statement that he was a Catholic and in Louisville with a string of horses for the races. After further conversation he pulled out a roll of money and, notwithstanding earnest protest, was not satisfied until he had persuaded Mr. Flippo to accept a five-dollar bill, to be used for "some of your charities."
In July, 1893, Dr. Flippo resigned the church in Roan- oke to accept the position of District Secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society, and went to Philadelphia to live, he and his wife becoming members of the Fifth Baptist Church of that city. To this work Dr. Flippo gave twelve years. More than once before the Publication Society had sought to secure his services,
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realizing how well adapted he was for this kind of work. To present the claims of the Society and to take collec- tions, to dedicate churches and pay debts on them, were some of the forms his varied service for the Society took. With great energy, enthusiasm, and hard work he sought to do good in this wide and important field. Take some illustrations of his busy, active life. On the first Sunday of the century he was with the saints at Turtle Creek, preaching the dedication sermon of their new meeting- house, and at its close raising $2,400 to pay the debt. The next night he delivered one of his popular lectures and went home with a neat sum for the Society. At another time we see him at Flatwoods, in the Monongahela Asso- ciation, for Saturday and Sunday. A storm was raging and the mud was deep, but, nevertheless, on Saturday night the lecture went well, and Sunday, though rain and wind and mud still held sway, the people heard about the work of the Society and made a liberal contribution. Dr. Flippo's ability as a popular lecturer stood him in good stead in his service for the Society. The incidents just given explain how this was done. For many years he had been in great demand as a lecturer, not only for churches, but at "Chautauquas" and other similar gather- ings. His repertoire comprised the following lectures : "Tongue and Temper," "Difficulties," "The Defeat of Old Fogyism and the Onward March of Mind," "Anger, or the Folly of Getting Mad," "Keys to Unlock Hearts," "Ice in the Pulpit." Of all these lectures, one especially gave Dr. Flippo far-reaching reputation, was doubtless the means of much good, and will contribute no little to perpetuating his name for years to come. The title of this lecture, "Ice in the Pulpit and Who Put it There," had much to do with its popularity. With impartiality he laid the cause of coldness in the pulpit on the pastor and people alike. In this, as in his other platform
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addresses, there was not only humor and an effort to make people laugh, but thought and sober purpose to uplift and do good. With a blending of humor, pathos, satire, and homely truth, he sought to accomplish his pur- pose. Doubtless the man's personality, his robust figure, his voice, with its wide range and soft modulations, helped him to delight and help audience after audience all over the East and South. In this connection reference should be made to what might be called the by-products of his ministry. He was always fond of poetry, and loved to quote from the poets in his sermons, addresses, and articles for the newspapers. He would not have made claim that he was a poet, yet verses came easily to his tongue, and upon anniversary and other such occa- sions he often wrote lines to do honor or give pleasure to friends or comrades.
On February 28, 1903, his second wife, to whom he had been married some twenty-five years, and who was greatly beloved by a wide circle of friends, passed away. About a year later failing health caused him to resign his position with the Society, though as Secretary Emeritus his connection with this organization continued up to his death. Even on his sick bed he wrote, by dictation, articles for the papers, and when so feeble that he needed assistance in dressing he got up and went to a neighboring church, where he preached, on the text "Who loved me and gave himself for me," what proved to be his last sermon. Not long before the end he gave evidence at once of his liberality and of his faith in the work to which his closing years were dedicated by con- tributing enough money to provide for a colporteur wagon for the State of Delaware, to bear his name and to carry on work that was dear to his heart amidst scenes where he had labored. On August 3, 1903, at 1006 Washington Street, Wilmington, Del., in the home of
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his daughter, Mrs. D. J. Beauchamp, he passed to his reward. Funeral services were held at Wilmington and also at Martinsburg, W. Va., where, in Greenmount Cemetery, his body was laid to rest beside that of his wife. He left five children: Messrs. E. L. and J. P. Flippo, of Roanoke City; Mrs. George Gravatt, of Hol- lins; Mrs. D. J. Beauchamp, of Wilmington, Del., and Mr. O. F. Flippo, Jr., of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
MARSHALL W. READ 1813(?)-1903
As a builder of meeting-houses and as a faithful minister of the gospel Rev. Marshall W. Read is remem- bered in the Roanoke Association. Here he labored for forty years. He built the meeting-houses at Chatham, Hollywood, Prospect, and Sharon. Possibly other houses of God were erected through his efforts; the table of work in the report of the State Mission Board year by year has more than once, opposite to his name, such a record as this: "Organized one church, in construction two, completed one." In 1873, when he was pastor to four State Mission points, he preached 149 sermons and baptized 29 persons. Mr. J. H. Hargrave, a member of the Roanoke Association, says of Read: "He organized and built more churches than any other man who ever labored in our Association." In the course of his ministry he served these churches in the Roanoke: Hollywood, Mt. Vernon, Liberty, Galveston, Shiloh, New Prospect. He was the true friend of the Roanoke Female College, having much to do with the beginning of this seat of learning. In his missionary work "he would overcome obstacles that would dampen and chill the ardor of other men. Nothing but success and victory would satisfy him in whatever he might undertake." The date of his birth has not been ascertained; his death occurred August 22, 1903, in Bedford County.
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WILLIAM HARRISON WILLIAMS* 1840-1893
On Friday, August 25, 1893, a group of Baptists were returning to their homes, by way of Alexandria, Mo., from a District Association. As they waited for the train, one of the company suggested that they should sing some hymns, and when one song was over he told of a baptism he had performed years before (of which occa- sion the hymn reminded him), when the ice had to be broken for him to perform the ceremony. In a moment his head had fallen on his breast and he was dead. Dur- ing the earlier part of the day, at the Association, he had preached and spoken, and later on in the day had written a number of letters and done other clerical work. This man, to whom death came so suddenly, was Rev. Dr. William Harrison Williams, who, from July 10, 1882, to the end, was editor of the Central Baptist, the organ of Missouri Baptists. While the last years of his life were given to Missouri, Dr. Williams was a native of Virginia, where he was educated and where he held several pastorates.
He was born in Richmond, July 18, 1840. In March, 1854, he was baptized by Rev. Dr. Basil Manly into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, and on April 25, 1858, while still a student at Richmond Col- lege, was licensed to preach. In July, 1861, he was graduated from Richmond College with the degree of M. A. While he had many qualifications for a business career and excellent opportunities in this direction, he persisted in his purpose to preach. During the Civil War, which interrupted his course at the Southern Baptist
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