VIRGINIA BAPTIST MINISTERS George Braxton Taylor FOURTH SERIES 2-. I . "i \V^ PRINCETON, N. J. '^ Purchased by the Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund. BX 6248 .V8 T39 1913 Taylor, George Braxton, 186( -1942. Virginia Baptist ministers V-, Virginia Baptist Ministers FOURTH SERIES GEORGE BRAXTON TAYLOR Professor and Resident Chaplain Hollins College, Pastor of the " Hollins Field," and author of ' Life and Letters of Rev. George Boardman Taylor, D. D.;" "Virginia Baptist Ministers, Third Series." WITH A FOREWORD BY Rev. Edgar Young Mullins, D.D., LL.D. President Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 1913 J. P. BELL COMPANY, Inc. LYNCHBURG, VA. Copyright, 1913 By George Braxton Taylor To John Roberts Moffett FOREWORD In the multiplication of books on all sorts of subjects, in our day, biography has, to a considerable extent, lost its position of influence and power. Fortunately, there are not wanting signs of the return of modern readers to an appreciation of this form of literature. No books which have ever been written have been more dynamic in a moral and spiritual sense than the biographies of faithful and great men. Human character is the best possible commentary upon great principles. The lives which, in a consistent manner, embody the moral and spiritual ideals of the race are among our choicest assets. The humble and quiet preachers of the gospel are among the most potent forces of our civilization. Devoid of craving for notoriety, free from the taint of worldly ambition and the greed of gold, with single-hearted devotion pursuing their quiet calling, these are the true nation builders, unknown by the great, busy world, and unheralded in the public prints. I have read the pages of this new series of sketches of Virginia Baptist ministers with absorbing interest. Here is recounted in a felicitous manner the deeds and exploits of a large number of as fine men as God has ever given to America. Some of the names are known throughout the nation and the world. The majority of them are little known, perhaps, save within the limits of their own State, but the narratives of all of them will richly repay the reader who has a faculty for appreciat- ing the real constructive forces of modern civilization. Dr. Taylor has done his work surpassingly well. Again and again, I have been struck with his good judg- ment and taste in the selection and grouping of facts, FOREWORD 5 with a view to bringing into clear outline the portrait he is painting, or rather the life whose story he is tell- ing. His task was an unusually difficult one because the number of sketches was so great, and many of them were necessarily very brief. In such an undertaking everything depends upon the ability of the author to seize the salient points and state them effectively. The graphic and pictorial element in the narrative of these lives adds greatly to the interest. A little touch here and there makes the character stand out in relief. The contributors to the volume, apart from the author, have also done excellent work. I venture the prediction that Virginia Baptists, and, indeed, all Baptists, will receive with pleasure this valuable contribution to the religious history of Virginia and the South. It will be the means of perpetuating the influence of these fine men through the coming years. E. Y. MULLINS. Louisville, Ky., September i6, 1913. PREFACE In 1837 the "Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers" appeared, the author being Rev. James B. Taylor. The first edition contained "biographies of nearly one hundred ministers." The second edition had "nearly forty additional memoirs," but omitted the sketch of Lott Carey and that of Abner W. Clopton, since each of these sketches, by that time, had appeared "in a separate edition." The first edition opens with a sketch of Shubael Stearns, who was born in 1706, and comes down to about 1837. In 1859 there appeared the third edition of the "Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers," which, by that time, had grown into two volumes. The sketches of the first volume (or "series") had been revised, and, in some cases, enlarged. The "second series" contained memoirs of men who had passed away after the publica- tion of the first edition. These volumes, like the first, were the work of Rev. James B. Taylor. No further volume, in this series, appeared until the fall of 1912. At the General Association in Charlottes- ville, in November, 1905, Rev. Alfred Bagby offered a resolution which called attention to the need of a Third Series. No further action in the matter was taken by the General Association until the meeting in Portsmouth, in 1909, when, upon motion of Rev. Alfred Bagby, a committee was appointed to "secure the services of some brother competent by reason of age and intellectual gifts" to prepare a Third Series. At the meeting of the Association in Roanoke in 1910, this committee was con- tinued. At the meeting of the Association in Norfolk in 1911, the committee reported, through its chairman. Rev. W. F. Dunaway, that the manuscript of the desired volume, prepared at their request by Rev. George Brax- ton Taylor, was ready, and that the J. P. Bell Co., of Lynchburg, agreed to publish the book, assuming the financial responsibility, if they should receive five : PREFACE 7 hundred subscriptions. Practically this number of sub- scriptions was at once obtained. At the meeting of the Association, in 1912, at Petersburg, the committee reported that an edition of 1,000 volumes of the 'Third Series" had been published. They also reported that it had been impossible to include in the Third Series sketches beyond the year 1886, and recommended that a Fourth Series be prepared. This volume is now pre- sented. In view of the limits, as to size, set by the publishers, it has been impossible for this volume to reach down to the present year. So it comes about that the Third Series covers the period from 1860 to 1886, while the present volume contains sketches of ministers who died between the end of 1885 and of 1902. The attempt has been made, both in this volume and the Third Series, to give sketches of all Virginia Bap- tist ministers who died in the two periods indicated, but doubtless the list is incomplete. Not a few of these sketches will call attention to lives that otherwise had not been known. So recent has been the death of many whose record is in this volume, that doubtless many, as they read, will exclaim, remembering those whom they have loved and with whom they have labored "But, oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still." It is devoutly hoped that, by this volume, these good and useful lives may become a help and a blessing to many who never saw these servants of God in the flesh. May it be that we, following the path they trod, "Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled Are close upon the shining tablelands To which our God Himself is moon and sun." George Braxton Taylor. "The Hill," Hollins, Virginia, August i6, 19 13- CONTENTS PAGE Atkins, Samuel Johnson 76 Austin, Isaac T 168 Bagby, George Franklin 364 Banks, Harrison H 109 Baptist, Edward Granville _ 290 Baylor, R. H S3 Baynham, Wm. a 31 Betts, Charles Nelms 412 BiLLINGSLEY, JoSEPH AsCHAM 187 Bitting, Charles Carroll 328 Booker, Richard Edward _ 373 Boston, Solomon Charles 29 Broaddus, Andrew 367 Broadus, John A 231 Brown, Pleasant 93 Brown, James D _ 81 Buckner, R. H. W 261 Burrows, John Lansing 170 Butler, J. M 114 Carroll, John Lemuel 285 Chancellor, Melzi S 259 Chaplin, George H 297 Clarke, F. C 46 Corey, Charles H _ 323 CouLLiNG, David _ 27 Creath, Thomas B 165 Crowder, Hosea 37 Davidson, A. F 372 Dillard, Edward Farmer 327 Dillard, James M 192 Doll, John A 292 Dooley, Thomas William 408 Dulin, Burr P 274 Ferguson, Henry Grady 375 Fisher, William 318 Fox, Richard Andrew 376 Fry, Cyrus Franklin 152 Fuller, Samuel Thomas 106 Glass, John S 358 Gleason, R. E 413 Goggin, Thomas Clarke 277 8 CONTENTS PAGE Gray, Gabriel 410 Greer, Thomas W 360 Grimsley, Aldridge Madison 194 Grimsley, Milton Robert 357 Hall, Ferdinand H 162 Hall, William Cauthorn 169 Hardy, Allen Forrest _ 158 Hardy, Leslie T 157 Harris, Henry Herbert 298 Harris, John W 156 Harris, Samuel 95 Harris, William Francis 325 Harrison, Joseph R 402 Hatcheu, Hilary E 159 Haynes, James Anthony 416 Hill, William Alexander 79 Huff, Samuel Poindexter 286 Jessie, John „ 116 Johnson, Thomas Nicholas 256 Johnston, Peter Butler 23 Jolly, W. T 316 Jones, Tiberius Gracchus 280 Jones, Reuben „ _ 11 Jones, W. T 359 Kent, James M., Sr 52 Kerfoot, Franklin Howard 397 Little, A 359 Long, John Cralle „ 202 Luck, George P 110 Macfee, W. V 51 Manly, Basil, Jr 139 Mansfield, Joseph A 360 Martin, James Daniel 154 Martin, William 26 Massey, John E 380 Mason, John S 163 Mason, Samuel Griffin _ _ 57 McManaway, Alexander Gilmer 361 McLaughlin, J. T 415 Meadows, Joel W 380 Merryman, Charles Gorsuch 221 Moffett, John Roberts 83 MoNcuRE, W. R. D 372 Moses, Charles Reed 413 10 CONTENTS PAGE Owen, Reuben R 101 Pedigo, William B 108 Perkins, Jesse Clopton _ 18 Perry, William S 161 Powers, John A 21 Raymond, Charles A 409 Raymond, J. E 262 Reamy, Robert N _ 227 Richardson, John A 362 Rittenhouse, David C 356 RoDGERS, William M 193 RouTH, Asa _ _ 346 Ryland, Robert 348 Sanderson, T.