EEV. WILLIAM S. WHITE, D. D., And His Times. [1800—1873.] ^n ^utoblograpfig. EDITED BY HIS SON, Eev. h. m. white, d. d., PaSTOE or THE LoTJDOUN-StREET PkESBYTEBIAN ChUBCH, WiNCHESTEB, ViBGlNTA. KICH:\rOND, YA.: Pkesbyteeian Co^nnxTEE of Publication. 18 9 1. COPYBIGHT, 1891, BY JAMES K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication. Fbtsted by Whtttet & Sheppeesok. RiCHMONT* Va, Electrotypee by L. Lewis, RiCHMOKD, Va. ^/^y0^£^ ; PREFACE. OUR father wrote a memoir of liis son Hugli, who fell in battle, Angust 30, 1862 ; and we undertake to prepare one of him. These are two proverbially difficult tasks. The one is liable to error through ex- cessive complacency, and the other through excessive reverence. His was the more difficult task, because of the time and circumstances. His eyes were yet wet with tears the gi-ass had not grown on his son's grave ; the war, in which his young life had been quenched, was still raging. Yet he succeeded. The love of the father does not color the thoughts of the biographer. There- fore we are encouraged to undertake our task, yet not without misgiving. We do it from a sense of duty. During his last days, after he had been laid aside from regular work, he ^\Tote out some "Notes" on his life. His reason " for so doing is thus given by his own hands : It oc- curs to me that a portion of the leisure I now enjoy may be wisely spent in recording, for the good of my children, and especially for my sons who are ministers of the gospel, a few of the incidents of my earlier min- isterial life. It may throw some httle light upon their paths, and, if not their's, upon those of my grand- 3 ; 4 Preface. sons, many of whom, I trust, are to be heralds of the cross." The fniii; of such a labor of love cannot be allowed to moulder in the grave. Our hearts would never bear it. Moreover, we believe our father did a great work for God ; that he was a man for his time, and therefore a man for all times ; and that the study of the life of such a man ^dll do good, not only to his children, but to all others. His personal acquaintance with many of the most distinguished men of his time, both in church and state his active participation in some of the most stirring events of the church; and his peculiarly close rela- tions to the most prominent institutions of learning, secular and religious, in our commonwealth, give to his memoir a historical significance of singular interest and importance. He was partly induced to write by the urgent en- treaty of one of his sons, whose cliief object was to get his mind employed upon daily work, and thus retard that decay of mental faculties which comes on so rap- idly when an energetic life is suddenly exchanged for one of inactivity. The work grew on his hands until it became a book, which filial honesty must put in print. These "Notes," together with other papers, were j^laced in the hands of a friend and ministerial brother, who had known him long and intimately, and who ex- pressed a warm desire to write his memoir; but this friend was prevented by insuperable difficulties from executing his cherished purpose. After twelve years the papers have been returned to our hands, and at — Preface. 5 this late day we undertake tlie work, under many dis- advantages. In a little volume, entitled The Old Bachelor, by Mr. William Wirt, a picture is strikingly described. Writ- ing of tlie influence mothers may exert over their chil- " dren he says : I cannot better explain myself than by describing a picture which I saw some years ago, in the parlor of a gentleman with whom I was invited to dine. It was a plate—a colored engraving, executed in the highest style of that art—which represents a mother as reciting to her son the martial exploits of his ancestors. The mother herself had not lost the beauty of youth, and was an elegant and noble figure. She was sitting in a large arm-chair, her face and her arm extended aloft, and her countenance exalted and impassioned with her subject. Her little boy, a fine-looking fellow, apparently about fourteen years of age, was kneeling before her, his hands clasped in her lap, and stooping towards her. His bright eyes were fixed upon her, and swimming with tears of admiration and rapture. Such, said I to myself, is the impulse which a mother can give to the opening character of her child; and such is the way in which a hero may be formed."^ If we can set before the descendants of our honored father a delineation of his character and life true to nature, though without any of "the finish" of this prize picture of Alfred the Great, it will be such as we desire and all that we can attain unto. Believing as we do, that when the materials at hand are sufficient, every biography should be an autobio- ' This picture now hangs in the parlor of a Virginia gentleman Frederick Johnston, Esq. , of lioanoke County. 6 Peeface. graplij, onr i^art iu tliis work lias been mainly to re- produce liis own work in sncli an order as will give to it xmitj. A man's writings delineate himself more ac- curately than he can be delineated by another. This self-revelation, unconsciously made in correspondence, diaries, anecdotes and narrations, is the true, the ex- press and only reliable portrayal of personal mind and soul that can be made. Through it we can see the heart beating, the blood flowing, and the wonder- working mind performing its subtlest and most vital functions. No likeness was ever taken of our father that caught the true expression of his countenance, "\\nien at restj a look of sternness always settled upon it, that melted away as soon as he began to speak in public or con- verse in private, or even Avhen reading. Then his large browTi eyes would glow with a strong light, and his warm feehngs spread themselves in a smile of ani- mated joy over his large and strongly marked face. This drew to him strangers wherever he went, and made him friends as long as he lived. The Hkeness prefixed to this Memoir, with this exception, is very good. — CONTENTS. Page, CHAPTER I. 1800. Place or Bikth axd Ancestkt. Hanover Cotinty, Famous in tlie Annals of Ctuircli and State. Patrick Henr3^^—Henry Clay. —Samuel Davies. —First Formal Movement for Keligious Liberty. —Drs. B. M. Smith, Theo- dorick Pryor, and W. S. Plnmer, on Dr. White's Life and Work. —The Residence of the White Family. —His Ancestry, 13 CHAPTER 11. 1800-1822. Paternal Grandmother. —Learning the Alphabet. —Washington- Henry Academy. — "Parson Hughs."—A Leader among Boys. —His Father. — His Mother. —Various Schoolmasters. —First Attempt at Teaching. —Enters Hampden-Sidney College. Room-mates. —How Awakened.—Wrestling in Prayer in the Woods. —(Eev.) Daniel A. Penick. —Students' Prayer Meet- ing. —Received into the College Church 22 CHAPTER III. 1820-1824. Teaching in his Father's Family. —A Profitable Prayer Meeting. Gilljert Tennent Snowden. —Death of his Father. —Seeing his Way into the Ministry^ —Dr. John H. Rice. —Mrs. John H. Rice. —Their Home. — Anecdotes about Dr. Rice. —Dr. Rice's Death. —Re-enters College. —How he Gets through College . _ 32 .CHAPTER lY. 1822-1827. Graduates. —Teaches School in Farmville.— Taken imder Care of Presbytery. —Opening of Union Theological Seminary. —Stud- 7 —); 8 Contents. ies there while Teaching in Farmville. —Anecdote of Dr. B. H. Kice. —Licensed, April 30, 1827. —Anecdote of Dr. Eice; or, How to Treat Other Denominations. —Goes as Home Mission- ary to Nottoway. —Letter of Encouragement from Dr. B. H. Eice. —Sketches and Anecdotes of the Two Kices, and of Dr. William S. Keid .._ _ 43 CHAPTER y. 1827-1832. SMoh ^Church Built. —Fruits of Five Years' Work in Nottoway, Lunenburg, Amelia and Dinwiddle. —Jeter's Bace-track. —Dr. Eice's Wise Counsel to him in Despondency. —Baptists and Methodists, —Marriage. —Generosity of Dr. James Jones. Uncle Jack, "The African Preacher."—Anecdotes of him. The Dying Lifidel. —Encomium by Dr. Pryor 54 CHAPTER yi. Pastoeal Sketches. — * " Infidelity in Prospect of Death. ' Caught with Guile. —Interested Hearers. —Anti-Presbyterianism Cured. — "The Devil Threw him Down and Tore him. "—Early Conversion : E. F. P. E. W. W.; A. E. ; A. H. ; E. S. ; A.\\. B. 69 CHAPTER yiL 1832-1836. Leaves Nottoway for Scottsville, Va. —Mr. (afterwards Eev. Dr. Peyton Harrison Builds a Parsonage for him at his own Charges. —Eevival. —Eev. Daniel Baker. —Accepts Agency for American Tract Society. —Observations on his Agency and Similar Enterprises Auxiliary to the Church 90 CHAPTER yill. 1836-1838. His Field in and about Charlottesville. —Abandons South Plains and Bethel.—Eev. Joseph F. Baxter Called to them. —Con- fines his Work to Charlottesville. —Opens a School for Young Ladies.—The School a Nursery to the Church. —Declines En- tertaining a Call to a Valley Church 97 — Contents. 9 CHAPTEE IX. 1836-1848. Universitj' of Virginia. —Mr. Jefferson Sees his Mistake. —Popular Demand for Religious lustructiou. — Denominational llotation in the Chaplaincy. —Himself Chaplain in 1840. —Health Breaks down. —Professor Davis Shot by a Student. —His Death. Funeral. —Note on the Sermon, by Rev. Dr. Dabney.— New Era in the Religious History of the University. —Anecdote about Dr. Speece. — Chaplain a Second Time (1844). —Rev. D. B. Ewing Secured as Assistant. —Health Fails again.