GENEALOGICAL ABSTRACTS FROM REPORTED DEATHS
THE NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE 1905-1907
By Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 2002JANUARY-JUNE 1906
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January 4, 1906
Dr. WALTER B. HILL, chancellor of the University of Georgia, born 1851; graduate of this university; lawyer in Macon, Ga., 1871-1899 and in the latter year appointed chancellor died Dec. 28, 1905; active Methodist layman. [Encomium in his memory, written by W. W. Pinson, was published on pages 28-29, January 25, 1906 issue]
Rev. J. P. BARNEBY died recently; perhaps about 90 years old; joined the Kansas Methodist Conference in 1856; ordained an elder in 1858.
MYRA LEWIS WATSON youngest daughter of Rev. A. B. Watson and adopted dau. of Dr. W. C. Bates of St. Matthews, S.C.; graduate, Converse College; died Dec. 24, 1905 aged 26 years.
SALLIE STRATTON WILLIAMS wife of Wils Williams bursar, University of Texas, "a sprightly and amiable woman" died from surgical complications, Temple, Texas, Dec. 18, 1905.
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MARY ELLEN WARREN, nee Bratton, born Mercer Co., Va., September 24, 1843; at the age of 7 years moved with parents to Mt. Pleasant, Tenn.; married W. M. Warren, Dec. 8, 1866; 7 children her father, Thomas Bartton, died last year aged 96 years. She died Nov. 14, 1905.
JAMES G. SHRIVER born Feb. 17, 1826; died Oct. 19, 1905; joined Methodist Church at Mt. Moriah Church in Bedford Co., Tenn. in 1856; Confederate veteran; died of a stroke in residence of his kinsman, J. W. Holt, Oct. 18, 1905; surviving were his widow and several children.
VIRGILIA M. WHITEHEAD born Fluvanna Co., Va., Nov. 16, 1832; daughter of John H. Timberlake, a businessman in Albemarle Co., Va.; died Oct. 13, 1905; married Rev. Paul Whitehead, Dec. 8, 1857; three children, Jenet who died in 1887; Silas who died in 1898 and Mrs. Virgilia, wife of Dr. Richard H. Whitehead, professor of anatomy in the University of Virginia; her nerves "gave way" in Dec. 1903 and she entered Broad Oakes Sanitorium, Morganton, N.C.; burial in Maplewood Cemetery, Charlottesville, Va.
Mrs. MARIA LOKER died June 8, 1905 aged nearly 90 years; resident in the Rockingham, N.C. church district.
January 11, 1906
J. F. H. BARBEE son of Dr. J. D. Barbee, dec. married Mary B. Young daughter of J. W. Young, before Rev. R. V. Taylor in the Springdale Church, Memphis Methodist Conference, Dec. 28, 1905.
Rev. Z. W. MOORES, retired Methodist preacher, died in Alexandria, Tenn., Dec. 30, 1905; surviving were his widow and five "little boys."
January 18, 1906
Mrs. J. R. BELL died Morganton, N.C., Dec. 31, 1905.
Rev. J. E. BRAMLET, local preacher in Gastonia, N.C. for years, died Dec. 31, 1905.
CHARLES T. COLE prominent businessman of Nashville, Tenn. and member of Arlington Methodist Church, died near Nashville, Jan. 5, 1906; his wife, formerly a Miss Hall, died a few years ago; surviving were one son, one daughter.
Rev. J. M. CRUTCHFIELD, North Texas Methodist Conference, born Wayne Co., Ky., May 10, 1863; entered the itinerant ministry in 1888; transferred to Texas Conference in 1895 and in 1901 to No. Texas Conference; married Virginia Bolling, Dec. 14, 1887; died Dec. 31, 1905.
Rev. R. M. LEATON, retired Methodist preacher, died in Sterling City, Texas, Dec. 27, 1905.
MARY ANN EARLY died, as one who sleepeth after a day well spent, September 27, 1905. The memory of this exceptional character deserves something more than passing notice. She was of English descent through her grandfather, William Brittain (1766-1846) who migrated from North Carolina to Loudon County, Tenn., in 1800 and settled near the present site of Lenoir City. He and William Lenoir for whom the town was named, were among the largest landowners and slaveholders in that locality. Robert Brittain the son (1794-1839), who served through the War of 1812 in Captain Lowry's company, North Carolina militia, married Peggy Cain, of pure Irish blood, in 1818. Her parents lived on or near the ground where Morristown, Tenn., now stands. Mary Ann Brittain, daughter of Robert Brittain, was born February 23, 1827. In 1839 she joined the Methodist Church at the Old Muddy Creek Camp Ground, where her Brittain ancestors lie buried. She was reared on her grandfather's plantation, near Lenoir, and from there was married to George G. Early, originally from Virginia, December 29, 1846. They removed with their three children to Missouri in 1851 by the slow overland route. Their Church membership was removed to the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Mitchell's Camp Ground Mo., in 1852. This was the beginning of a long and useful life in that State. Eight Children-seven sons and a daughter-were born to them, four of whom died at or beyond maturity. The death of the father left the bereaved widow and mother alone. She then spent the greater part of her remaining years, with her sons in St. Louis. It was Mrs. Early's privilege to spend the last few summers of her life with her sister and other relatives at Lenoir City. It was there, in September last that she contracted a cold. After an illness of twelve days, with a sudden, serious turn, she passed away, dying, as her wish had been, without lingering, without pain, with entire consciousness to the end. There was no dismay. She died quietly, as she had lived, whispering the name of God as her soul was passing, and the seal of his grace and peace lay on her placid brow. There were appropriate, services at Lenoir, during, which her favorite hymns, "Never Alone" and "Rock of Ages," were sung. That which testified to her worth was the genuine sorrow of her old friends, some of whom were companions of her girlhood. Her remains were accompanied by her sons to Morrisville, Mo., where her body was laid to rest in the family cemetery.
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January 25, 1906
Bishop JOHN CHRISTIAN KEENER died in New Orleans, La., Jan. 19, 1906; he would have been 87 years old on February 7, 1906; elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1870; retired in 1898; "a shrewd and resolute administrator." Photograph of him on page 1. [Account of his funeral, page 7, Feb. 1, 1906 issue. Another tribute to his memory on pages 9-10, March 8, 1906 issue]
Photograph of Rev. C. E. DOWMAN, First Methodist Church, Atlanta, Ga., on page 17.
HISTORY CORRECTED.
Robert Strawbridge immigrated to the colony of Maryland in 1760, with letters of introduction to John England, a planter on Sam's, Creek, then Frederick (now Carroll) County, Md., in whose house, in 1761, he organized the first Methodist class meeting, and soon thereafter began the building of a house of worship on the ground of John England, not on his own land, as claimed by Bishop McTyeire and other eminent writers, as he did not own a foot of ground until March 2, 1773, at which date he purchased fifty acres of said England, being the northwest corner of the original grant to England of one thousand acres called "Brothers' Inheritance" and "England's Choice." This fifty acres was situated on the north side of the road, three-fourths of a mile from where Strawbridge built his meetinghouse and one-eighth of a mile from the residence of John England, while the residence of Strawbridge was three-fourths of a mile northwest from the meetinghouse. (Liber P., folio 589, Frederick County, Md., Records.) In 1884 the writer had an official copy made of the original survey to England with the three houses laid down by distances; also the papers of the England family, from which the above facts were deduced.
Bishop Simpson, in his "Cyclopedia on Methodism," does not properly value the labor of Strawbridge. On page 836 of that work he says: "This building, though sometimes spoken of as the first Methodist church in Maryland, was never deeded to the Church and never finished." The latter statement is contrary to the facts, as it was used a house of worship. Later the Bishop claims that the old John Street Church of New York City was the first one built because it was the first one deeded. Now it is a fact there was no law in 1763-65 to require such a deed. It being the only Methodist organization in America, Strawbridge being the representative head, there were no occasions for deeds. Can it be possible the good Bishop was so ill-advised as to the simple views of John and Charles Wesley-viz., that the church was where the class met to worship?
Robert Strawbridge came to America in 1760. He built his meetinghouse In 1763-64. Philip Embury came to America in 1760. He organized his first class in New York in 1766, under the influence of Barbara Heck, his cousin, who came in 1765. The old John Street Church in New York was built in 1768, five years after the building of the meetinghouse on Sam's Creek, Frederick County, Maryland, by Robert Strawbridge.
If a building deeded to the Church society constitutes the church, then old John Street Church was the first Methodist church in America; but if an organized class meeting and a house of worship constitute a Church, then Strawbridge's meetinghouse, Sam's Creek, in Frederick County, Md., was the first Methodist Church organized in America. William F. Boogher, in Baltimore Methodist.
Rev. GEORGE JACKSON born Holywell, Huntingdonshire, England, August 9, 1824; landed in New Orleans, La. on Good Friday in his 28th year of age; licensed to preach in Methodist Church in Brandon, Miss., 1852; labored in the Mississippi and Louisiana church conferences until his retirement a few years ago. Still living.
Rev. S. MILTON FROST, DD, native of North Carolina, died in Weatherly, Pa., Jan. 6, 1906.
Major E. R. HAYS, Bamberg, S.C. died Jan. 10, 1906.
WILLIAM DARDEN, Red River Circuit, Tenn. died Jan. 8, 1906.
Photograph of Dr. H. N. SNYDER, president of Wofford College, S.C.; page 19.
EMMA C. PASCHELL born Spring Hill, Tenn., Aug. 1, 1846; married Rev. R. R. Jones, May 3, 1870; died Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 24, 1905.
F. M. GILLILAND born Mt. Pleasant, Tenn., Jan. 1, 1823; married Leah Norfleet, Aug. 19, 1856; joined Methodist Church, 1860; died Collierville, Tenn., Oct. 9, 1905.
KITTIE ELLIS SPAIN daughter of Rev. T. J. Taylor born Mar. 4, 1874; married Lee Spain, Booneville, Miss., Jan. 17, 1898; died Nov. 17, 1905.
JOHN SCOTT MORRISON born Bedford Co., Tenn., Feb. 2, 1830; married Frances Waite, 1849; 5 daus.; died. Nov. 11, 1905.
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SALLIE EWING WHELES born White's Creek, Dec. 31, 1835; daughter of William B. Ewing; died Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 12, 1905; married James Wheles, Oct. 2, 1855; 6 children.
LUCY HOLLAND HUGHES died near Eagleville, Tenn., Nov. 12, 1905 aged 36 years; married Henning Hughes, Nov. 25, 1900; 4 children.
Mrs. MARY ANN THOMPSON died Culleoka, Tenn., Oct. 29, 1905 aged 84 years; sister of Rev. Geo. W. Winn, dec.
WILLIAM F. SALE son of Rev. Alexander Sale, died Searcy, Ark., Dec. 22, 1905 in the 81st year of his age.
February 1, 1906
Rev. TRANQUILINO DE VALLE, pastor of Methodist Church in Mexico City died Dec. 30, 1905 aged 46 years.
Rev. J. F. CARR, retired Methodist preacher, Little Rock Methodist Conference, died Jan. 20, 1906 aged 71 years; joined that conference in 1853.
MARTHA WILSON WERT born Moulton, Ala., Nov. 18, 1840; married Rev. William Pitts Owen, July 7, 1865; 10 children; died Jan. 7, 1906.
JULIA W. WIGGINS widow of James R. Wiggins born Oct. 17, 1838; died Dec. 3, 1905; daughter of John A. Wray.
TINSLEY FIZER CONNELL born Springfield, Tenn., Mar. 5, 1875; married Lillie Frazier, Centerville, Tenn., Dec. 11, 1895; died July 11, 1905; 2 children.
MARTHA HILL MORGAN wife of Rev. E. J. Morgan born Lebanon, Tenn., 1828; died in Arlington, Tenn. Dec. 28, 1905; daughter of Colonel J. T. Stone; married in 1852.
Mrs. W. S. BRADLEY died Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 20, 1905 aged 54 years.
REBECCA N. CAGE, nee Moody, born Nov. 13, 1814; died near Carnel, Tenn., Dec. 26, 1905; of her 4 children, one survived her, Dr. James E. Cage with whom she lived. Her husband, Dr. Alva D. Cage, died 25 years ago. Montgomery Co., Tenn.
February 8, 1906
CHRISTIAN IX, King of Denmark, died January 29, 1906 [aged 87 years].
FLORENCE L. BROWN wife of Rev. L. M. Brown, Western North Carolina Methodist Conference, died at Rutherford College, Jan. 15, 1906.
Mrs. W. ANDREW DAVIS died Waxahachie, Texas, Jan. 19, 1906.
Rev. J. POWELL GARLAND, DD, died New Kent, Va., Jan. 13, 1906.
Mrs. NANNIE L. VAUGHT died near Point Pleasant, W. Va., Jan. 6, 1906; widow of Rev. Stephen K. Vaught; one son, W. H. Vaught.
February 15, 1906
MARGARET RANKIN BARBEE born Marion Co., Tenn., Oct. 21, 1837; died Memphis, Tenn., July 21, 1905; daughter of David Rankin of Scots "blood" and Zilpah Robertson Rankin; married Rev. J. D. Barbee, July 18, 1866; 8 children, two died in infancy and Mary and Ormond died young. Those surviving her were J. D. Barbee, Jr., David Rankin Barbee, Robert W. Barbee and John F. H. Barbee.
MARY J. STOUT oldest daughter of Allen (died 1884) and Sarah (died 1883) Stout, Washington Co., Tenn., born April 25, 1828; died Limestone, Tenn., Sept. 12, 1905; granddaughter of John Stout, a prosperous farmer; her mother was a native of Augusta Co., Va.
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SLAVERY AS I REMEMBER IT.
BY LOVICK PIERCE WINTER.
The memory is much like the camera. It is faithful to nature in what it retains, but it softens into harmonious proportions its pictures of the past. Unlike the camera, it reproduces many of the colors of life, yet has withal an artistic trick of making these tints pleasing to the mind and heart. Whatever defect may be found in the reminiscences herein contained must be charged to the fact that they are the recollections of childhood recalled after the lapse of nearly half a century.
The popular idea of slavery associates the institution with large plantations, cruel overseers, and large numbers of negroes living together in the "negro quarter; " whereas the majority of slave owners were men of moderate means, who owned from one to twenty negroes. These men often worked in the field with their slaves, who got their meals in the kitchen, the wife and mistress frequently doing the cooking for the entire household, black and white an order of things reminding one of the days of the patriarchs. My father owned fifteen negroes at the close of the Civil War. Their names and personnel are vividly remembered, though, for reasons I shall explain later, I have not seen one of them in more than a third of a century.
"Uncle" Adam was the oldest of these negroes. He was a kind-hearted old darky, though a bit choleric at times, being known to pass at once from a devout hymn to very undevout profanity under sudden provocation. He was master of transportation on the farm, and I feel a keen sense of obligation to him unto this day for the rides he used to give me behind his slow-moving ox team. His wife lived two counties away, but he had a standing "pass" to go and see her at stated times.
"Uncle" Ben was a most reliable man, well along in years, and much respected by everybody on the place. To me he was an oracle on many of the phenomena of nature. It was a privilege to go and sit with him of nights and hear him tell how the moon and stars affected the weather, and about the habits of lizards and snakes and birds and rabbits, and, anon, about those weird, ghostly beings that have always inhabited the negro's world. And be it said to the credit of this old man, who, I suppose, has been in his grave these many years, he never put into my child mind a thought or suggestion that was not clean and wholesome. His wife lived twenty miles away; but he visited her regularly, his visits taking in a Sunday, a part of Christmas, and several days at a time in the summer, when "crops were laid by," when there was a general suspension of work on the place.
Billy and Welborn were strong, able-bodied men who did much of the hard work of the farm. Billy, while always sensible and capable, was not always scrupulous as to the rights of property. He was known on at least one occasion to appropriate to his own use a hog to which he did not have even the shadow of a title. He grew very religious about the time this appropriation was discovered, and it was never been known unto this day whether he received any castigation at the hands of his master or not. Welborn had the credit of being thoroughly honest; but I suspect from certain remarks that reached my childhood ears that he had a royal fondness for many wives.
"Aunt" Adeline was the cook for the entire household, all of us, black and white, getting our meals out of the great dinner pot that hung in the wide kitchen chimney and ovens and skillets that answered her purpose on the broad stone hearth, over all of which she presided with an authority that was second only to that of her mistress. And good, wholesome meals they were, too, seasoned as they were with the zest of childish appetites and the heartiness and good cheer with which she served them. But she was more than a cook: she was a second mother to us. She had a pet name for every child in the family she called me "Tub" for reasons best known to herself-and none of us ever received aught but kindness at her hands. Before I could do much more than spell myself, I began to teach her, and we spent many hours together over Webster's old blue-back spelling book. "Aunt" Adeline had a history that illustrated one of the saddest features of slavery. Aaron, her husband, belonged to the Gilham family, who, moving to Louisiana a few years before the war, separated husband and wife. She did not marry again, and there was a feeling in the family that she carried a secret sorrow in her heart, and we honored her all the more for her fidelity to her far-away husband.
A note for $1,000 was given for Camilla. The holder of this note declined to accept Confederate currency for it, and some ten years after emancipation this note was paid, after litigation, a procedure which impressed me then, as it does now, as one of the paradoxes of the law. Camilla was a quiet, industrious young woman, who received much sympathy from the entire family in consequence of the fact that her only child was accidentally burned to death. Death did not come at once, and during the few weeks that intervened the poor little sufferer was kept in my mother's room and nursed with tender care. There was a death in the family that same year that impressed me peculiarly, as it was the first time I ever saw a human being in the great struggle. Andrew was the only negro of the household that indulged in that dernier ressort of the slave running away. When things were not to his liking, or when he grew tired of work and wanted a little rest, he would decamp without leave or license and remain away until hunger or homesickness drove him to his master's house. About the severest punishment he received for this grave offense was the unmerciful ridicule from his fellow-servants that greeted him on his return from his wanderings. The runaway negro was a veritable bete noir to Southern white children. He was supposed to live in caves and dens, to subsist on what he could steal, and to be ready for all sorts of wickedness. As a matter of fact, however, I believe I never knew of one of them doing anything beyond sundry petty depredations that were prompted more by hunger than by viciousness. Poor Andrew had many ailments, some of which were no doubt aggravated by his numerous wanderings, and finally succumbed to dropsy. In his sickness he had the best medical attention and the best nursing, in which my mother took her part; and when he died, at sunrise on a bright spring morning, there was sorrow in the home. The night
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after he died the negroes spent the lonely hours of watching in song and prayer, and the next day he was buried with tearful solemnity. The negro is not given to long continued grief, but he is always responsive to suffering, and to religious sentiment.
Mary Ann was nurse to the older children, and when she grew to womanhood and was sought in marriage by a fine young fellow on an adjoining place, her mistress gave her a wedding supper, and her master, who was a justice of the peace, discharged the important function of making them man and wife. The marriage was not a happy one, and was followed in the course of a few months by an unceremonious separation.
Besides the adults already mentioned, there were several children ranging from babyhood up to thirteen or fourteen. With two of these Tom and I played with a freedom that knew no restraint on account of race color or servitude.
Besides the slaves that belonged to my father, there were several usually that were hired by the year, as the home force was not quite sufficient to cultivate the farm. To care for all these negroes, to see that they were well clothed, housed, and fed, to so direct their labor that it might be profitable, to care for them in sickness, and, finally, to make some provision for their moral and spiritual well-being, imposed a heavy task upon the head and hands and heart of master and mistress. The clothes for the household, white and black, were made under the supervision of my mother and largely by her own hands; and I am sure she was the hardest worker on the place. When the war burst upon the South and the blockade was established, the question of materials for clothes and shoes for more than a score of people, old and young, became an urgent one. Fortunately, the mother and mistress was skilled in the use of the loom and spinning wheel, and her knowledge of these adjuncts of the primitive household stood her in good stead when Southern housewives were reduced to many expedients to meet the needs of their families. The wool and cotton raised on the farm, of the last of which there was an abundance, and the leather tanned from the hides taken from the cattle slaughtered for home consumption, sufficed to keep us comfortable. In those days every home was a factory.
The negroes lived in houses built of logs (much like the one in which I spent six years of my own happy childhood), and there was no stint of food or fuel, nor of anything that was necessary to their health and bodily welfare. Two miles from our home lived Dr. Thomas D. Hutcheson, a competent physician, who was always called in when any member of the household was seriously sick and as quickly to see one of the negroes as one of the whites. My father never employed an overseer, strictly speaking, but for several years he hired a young white man, who acted as foreman and did the work of a full hand besides. The lash was never used on my father's premises except as punishment for the gravest offenses, such as gross dishonesty or gross disobedience.
A merry, rattling jingle and melody that fastened itself in my childish memory had a retrain that ran something like this:"Run, nigger, run; patroller catch you;
Run, nigger, run, It's almost day."And the tune to which these inspiring, though certainly not very poetic, words were sung was as lively music as a negro's feet ever kept time to. The "patrollers" referred to in this jingle were the mounted police who were deputed by the authorities to patrol the plantations on the Sabbath and at night to see that no negro left his master's premises without a written pass. The very uncertainty of the visits of this patrol made it a terror to wandering negroes and likewise imparted a spice of adventure to their nocturnal rovings, besides giving many a fleet-footed darky a chance to show his heels to a pursuing white man. Of course many a slave was punished with unjustifiable severity when caught away from home, or when guilty of some grave breach of discipline; but the negro had one over-present safeguard against cruel treatment; he was his master's property, and his time and strength had a money value. More terrible to the negro than the overseer, the patrol, or even the most cruel master, was the "negro trader." A threat to sell him to one of these dealers, whose business was regarded with a feeling close akin to contempt by the whites themselves, would generally bring the most refractory slave to good behavior. Drunkenness was practically unknown among the slaves. None of them were arraigned before the courts for any crime less than a felony, and imprisonment, branding, nor the gallows was ever brought into requisition except for offenses of too great criminality to receive merciful extenuation. One tragic memory of slavery lingers with me with ghastly distinctness. A negro in another part of the county in which we lived assaulted his master with a knife and stabbed him to death. Several hundred men gathered at the place, held an impromptu court, and burned the negro at the stake. The knowledge of this awful affair haunted me for days and days afterwards.
The negro in slavery, as I remember him, was contented, light-hearted, and full of boisterous good humor. He sang at his work, danced away his leisure hours, and took life as philosophically as "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch." What need had he for care? His master and mistress stood between him and want; and while he must work, it is not work but worry that takes the pleasure out of life. I recall with exquisite tenderness the image of "Uncle" Isaac, who belonged to a neighbor of ours-how, too old to work, he used to sit under the trees in front of his cabin, white-haired and serene, and read aloud in the good old Book that has cheered so many pilgrims of every age and race to the good country where all God's people are forever free. I never knew or heard of a slave who was left in old age without a home or allowed to suffer from neglect, or who died without a kindly hand to close his eyes and give him decent sepulture.
The negro has always been religious; and while there has been more of the emotional than the ethical in his religion, the gospel has been the great force that has uplifted him from the barbarism of his native land and brought him nearer to full civilization in the South than he has ever attained to in all the many lands of his exile and slavery. In the churches that I attended in my boyhood, services were held for the negroes at stated times,
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and certain seats were set apart for them at the services for the whites. And I recall with peculiar pleasure the fact that my father used to gather his negroes together on the Sabbath sometimes, read to them a chapter out of the Bible, "line out" a hymn, which they would sing as only negroes can sing, and kneel and pray with them.
The great Civil War grew more terrible as the dark, bloody years dragged wearily along. At last the conscript law carried every male from sixteen to sixty to the front, thus, as it was said at the time, "robbing the cradle and the grave." Under this call, my father went to the army. My oldest brother had already gone, and for a time my mother and six children were left on the farm without a white protector except a lad of fourteen. As in thousands of similar cases, we experienced no molestation and felt no tear. None of us who remember those dark days of separation and dread suspense when the booming of cannon could be heard many miles from where active hostilities were going on, and when day by day we expected to hear of the death of some loved one, and when helpless women and children were at the mercy of the negroes and when no hurt was done to any of them can ever forget them. The guarantee of our safety was the affection of the slaves for their masters an affection which does credit to both races and marks the brightest chapter in the history of Southern slavery.
The close of the war and the emancipation of the negroes brought no great change at once to our household. Some of the negroes brought their wives and children to my father's place, and the next year the number of negroes was largely increased by the employment of a greater force of hands to cultivate the farm. But the change came soon enough. All over the South the year 1866 was one of the most disastrous ever known in this part of the country, and its effects were felt for many years afterwards. It seemed for a time as though famine would follow close upon the footsteps of war. From April till late in August no rain fell, and corn and cotton withered and almost died In the fields. The effect of this drought on the negroes, who had only this year entered upon the full responsibilities of freedom, was utterly disheartening. For the first time they were confronted with debts which they could not pay arid the urgent, need of clothes and food that they were not able to buy, and their old master was not in a condition to give them much more than sympathy. In this emergency an immigration agent, rakish-looking and as profuse in promises as he was in profanity, came our way and offered all sorts of inducements to the negroes if they would but go with him to Arkansas. Traveling expenses, board while en route, and the highest wages after reaching this land of promise and plenty were the inducements held out to the poor creatures whose very wants urged them away from the old home and master. And so, one bright morning late in the fall, every negro on my father's place, and many besides, started, men and women and children, bag and baggage, in a freight car, to seek their fortune beyond the "Father of Waters." The good-bys were sad and tearful, and my heart aches even now as I think of the going away, never to return, of Aunt Adeline, Mary Ann, and the rest.
A word or two will tell their after history, as far as we ever knew it. Most of them soon sickened and died in the swamps of Arkansas, and a letter from a postmaster in that State, written in reply to one of inquiry to my brother, told us that poor Mary Ann had lost her mind, and was wandering over the country begging to be sent back to her old master in Georgia. Subsequently we heard that the demented wanderer was drowned in an effort to cross a river trying to get home again. Her old friends wept when they heard of her sad fate; for had she died among them, she would have found a grave under another "oak of weeping " and not in the dark waters of a far-away Western river.
Cumming, Ga.
MOLLIE DOBSON died near College Grove, Tenn., Oct. 21, 1905 in the 41st year of her age; surviving her were her widower and four children.
SARAH ANN BOND born near Richmond, Va., Feb. 27, 1831; moved with parents to Fayette Co., Tenn. in 1838; died Brunswick, Tenn., Sept. 26, 1905; married (2) W. H. Bond, 1879; moved to Shelby Co., Tenn. in 1853 and joined the Pleasant Ridge Methodist Church. [The name of her first husband is not provided.]
JOHN WILLIAM JONES son of William and Anna Jones born Williamson Co., Tenn., Sept. 6, 1852; married Prudence J. Crenshaw, Feb. 15, 1876; moved to Tarrant Co., Texas in 1879 and to Rockwell Co., Texas in 1885 and later still to Kaufman Co., Texas; died Jan. 27, 1906.
EUGENE SUSAN BACHMAN wife of Rev. G. W. Bachman, No. Miss. Methodist Conference, born DeSoto Co., Miss., Nov. 18, 1841; married Nov. 1, 1866; died Winona, Miss., Jan. 10, 1906.
February 22, 1906
JAMES DAVIS died near Nashville, Tenn., on the old homestead where he had been born and spent his life, December 30, 1905 in the 75th year of his age.
OCIE BELL McADAMS WOOD born Sept. 17, 1880; died Feb. 20, 1905; married A. E. Wood, Columbia, Tenn., April 15, 1903.
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MARY JANE CASON daughter of George F. and Sarah (Gleaves) Hamilton, born near Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 28, 1840; reared by her grandmother, Katie Gleaves until the age of 14 years when she joined her father in Madison Co., Tenn.; married W. C. Cason, June 27, 1860; died Oct 25, 1905; 10 children, 6 surviving her, including Frank and Joe.
March 1, 1906
Photograph of Rev. L. Y. RAMSEY, Little Rock, Arkansas; page 16.
Rev. JOHN M. DOUGLASS, Little Rock Methodist Conference, died Bearden, Ark., Feb. 12, 1906.
Rev. NATHAN LUCAS WIGGINS pastor of St. Paul's Methodist Church, Greenville, S.C., died Feb. 17, 1906; born Sumter Co., Fla., July 28, 1871; graduate, Emory College, Oxford, Ga., June 14, 1893; married Mrs. Julia Wayne Bethea, Jan. 28, 1894; labored in the Florida Conference.
SAMUEL ROGERS born Nov. 25, 1825; married Nancy R. Miller, Nov. 11, 1852; 3 children; died near Buford, Tenn., June 12, 1905.
JARRETT CURL FRAZIER born Jan. 27, 1838; married Sarah Josephine Jones, Feb. 28, 1860; died near Vernon, Tenn., Jan. 19, 1906; served in the 48th Tenn. Inf. Reg., CSA; 3 sons, 2 daus. (one the wife of H. B. Reams, a presiding elder in Methodist Church.)
JANNIE COVEY born Feb. 12, 1847; died Jan. 17, 1906; married James Brown Covey, Oct. 18, 1866; 3 daus., 2 sons and one died "along the way."
THOMAS B. MILLER born Henry Co., Tenn., 1832; in early life moved to Miss.; married Bettie, daughter of Dr. Louis Green, Florence, Ala., May 26, 1864; served in 26th Miss. Inf. Reg., CSA; died Jan. 27, 1906.
March 8, 1906
Rev. SYLVANUS TOWNSEND, member of Baltimore Methodist Conference since 1859, died Cecil Co., Md., Feb. 1, 1906.
Miss LUCY RUSHTON died Newbern, N.C., Feb. 18, 1906.
J. W. STEPHENS died Colleton Co., S.C., Feb. 18, 1906.
J. P. DAVIS died Marion, S.C., Feb. 23, 1906.
Rev. WILLIAM D. CHERRY son of Rev. John M. and Sarah H. Cherry born Limestone Co., Ala., Dec. 5, 1837; entered the Tenn. Methodist Conference in Oct. 1858; married Mrs. Sallie Newsom about 38 years ago; 5 children, 2 surviving him, Mrs. Lizzie Dunbar and Mrs. Willie Strayhorn; died Oct. 26, 1905, Davidson Co., Tenn.
JOSEPH K. BRUNNER born Strawberry Plains, Tenn., Sept. 15, 1855; died Colorado. Springs, Col., Feb. 16, 1906; son of Rev. J. H. Brunner, DD; graduate, Hiwasse College; surviving were his widow, 2 daus., 3 sons.
ZACHARY WINFIELD MOORE born July 25, 1849; licensed to preach in Methodist Church, Sept. 17, 1872; ordained deacon, Oct. 7, 1877; ordained elder, Oct. 12, 1879; married twice, the second time to Callie Taylor; was kicked by a horse, Oct. 1905; died from pneumonia, Dec. 31, 1905; burial in Alexandria, Tenn. cemetery. His son, LOUIS EDWARD MOORE died January 8, 1906 aged 3 years.
March 15, 1906
Photograph of Professor W. L. CLIFTON, president of Grenada College, Miss.; page 20.
March 22, 1906
Captain JOHN L. DAY, Lumber City, Miss., died Mar. 9, 1906; "a broad-minded, big-hearted layman" of the Methodist Church.
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Mrs. GEORGE R. BELL daughter of Rev. C. M. Campbell died Charlotte, N.C., Feb. 24, 1906.
Rev. PETER CLAY died Parkersburg, W. Va., Feb. 15, 1906.
ROBERTA PORTER, nee Rogers, born Itawamba Co., Miss., June 23, 1861; died Fulton, Miss., Nov. 28, 1905; married Charles A. Porter, Dec. 16, 1881; one daughter, Mrs. Carrie Davis.
WILLIAM C. UNDERWOOD son of Dr. Alfred M. and Martha A. Underwood born Jane, MO, July 26, 1879; died Cylcone, MO, Feb. 21, 1906; surviving were his mother and several siblings.
EMMA SHAPARD TRAWICK wife of Rev. A. M. Trawick, Tennessee Methodist Conference, born August 29, 1879; died Dec. 29, 1905; married Sept. 27, 1898; one daughter, 6 years old.
Mrs. J. S. CORLEY daughter of F. S. and L. J. Fitch, born Griffin, Ga., April 14, 1870; died Feb. 12, 1906; married J. S. Corley, Jan. 30, 1889; several sons.
JULIA BRYAN STRANG daughter of Thomas and Martha Bryan born Mobile, Ala.; died Dec. 25, 1905.
SUSAN A. SCOTT, nee Fuller, born June 30, 1826; moved with parents to Weakley Co., Tenn.; married G. W. Scott (died 1885), 1846; one son, A. E. Scott. She died Feb. 27, 1906.
HANNAH O. McELWEE, nee Walker, born Hempstead Co., Ark., July 29, 1835; moved with parents to Tenn. in 1850; married S. S. McElwee (died Feb. 1, 1866), Madison Co., Tenn., Feb. 1, 1855; moved with children to Greene Co., Ark. where she died Feb. 26, 1906. Four of her five children survived her, Joshua; Mrs. Thorn; Mrs. Hopkins; Mrs. Pruett.
March 29, 1906
Rev. JOHN W. CRIDER, retired Methodist preacher, Virginia Conference, died Norfolk, Va., Mar. 1, 1906.
April 5, 1906
Photograph of Rev. S. M. HOSMER, president of Southern University, Greensboro, Ala.; page 15.
Mrs. ELLEN HARRELL died Hope, Ark., March 19, 1906.
April 12, 1906
Photograph of Rev. HENRY HANESWORTH, Bentonville, Ark.; page 18.
Colonel E. B. WILKINSON died Troy, Ala., March 27, 1906 aged 70 years.
Miss MARY KEEN died New Orleans, La., Mar. 15, 1906; daughter of Richard Keen, founder of Keen Chapel.
MARGARET MANEY PARK wife of Dr. John S. Park died Franklin, Tenn., April 3, 1906.
Mrs. MARY WEATHERFORD JONES died in Oak Grove, Ky., April 2, 1906; daughter of William Weatherford of Port Royal, Tenn.
Rev. D. B. COOPER, native of Mason Co., Ky., died Nicholasville, Ky., Mar. l0, 1906; photograph of him on page 27.
JOHN PORTER born near Petersburg, Tenn., Feb. 8, 1820; died at the same place, Feb. 8, 1906; married Lou Doss, April 28, 1858; 2 sons, 1 daughter.
LUCINDA A. WILSON, nee Black, wife of Rev. Robert Wilson, No. Ala. Methodist Conference, born Dec 22, 1857; married Aug. 7, 1871; 7 children; died Oct. 27, 1905.
EDWIN OLIVER WATSON born Columbia Co., Ga., Dec. 25, 1819; moved to Shelby Co.., Tenn. in 1842 where he died Jan. 19, 1906; married Martha Gwyn, DeSoto Co., Miss., Sept. 23, 1852; 6 children.
JOSEPH H. HARDY born Washington Co., Ill., Dec. 12, 1834; his father died when he was 18 years old; he never married; [death date not provided].
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April 19, 1906
Photograph of Rev. J. M. BONE, Kearney, MO; page 16.
WILLIAM R. SMITH born in Ala., April 14, 1823; moved to Alcorn Co., Miss. in early life, where he died Jan. 15, 1906; married Sarah Ann Cornelius (died 1891), April 15, 1846; 3 children, W. Ira Smith (died June 1905), Methodist preacher; Mrs. N. A. Mincy; Mrs. C. E. George.
ROSA LEE JOHNSON daughter of J. L. and A. J. Kenney born Athens, Ga., Sept. 3, 1865; moved with parents to Henry Co., Tenn. in 1871; married A. J. Johnson, April 18, 1885; died March 1, 1906; burial in Manly's Chapel Cemetery.
April 26, 1906
Rev. S. H. Whatley, of the White Castle charge, is rejoicing in the fact that his New Roads church is soon to have the historic old Carondelet Street church bell in its tower. Samuel Hugh Whatley has accomplished much difficult work, having built fifteen, chapels and five parsonages and received some hundreds into the Church during his ministry. Samson Whatley, his great-grandfather, sailed with the Wesleys and Gen. Oglethorpe in 1735 for Georgia. His grandfather, William Whatley, was the first class leader appointed by Elisha Bowman in 1806, and his father; Uriah Whatley, was licensed to preach September 25, 1830.
May 3, 1906
Photograph of Rev. W. M. HAYS, Monticello, Ark.; page 17.
Photograph of Rev. J. M. WARDLAW, Americus, Ga.; page 18.
Dr. D. D. QUILLIAN died Athens, Ga., April 17, 1906.
CATHERINE VIRGINIA McCLURE only child of Richard and. Margaret Anderson McClure born Mar. 12, 1905; died Nashville Tenn., Jan. 23, 1906 in residence of her grandfather, J. J. Anderson.
PEARL ENOCHS PAYNE oldest daughter of W. B. Enochs, formerly of Calhoun Co., Miss. but now of Hot Springs, Ark., died Mar. 23, 1906; married George Payne three years ago.
MARY WEATHERFORD JONES died Oak Grove, Ky., April 2, 1906; daughter of Major William Weatherford, Port Royal, Tenn.
May 10, 1906
Rev. J. A. B. AHRENS, DD. died April 19, 1906 aged 69 years; native of Reinhausen, Germany; came to the U. S. in boyhood.
Rev. J. C. SIMMONS, DD, died Salinas, Cal., April 21, 1906.
W. J. HOOVER born Jan. 11, 1856; died Mar. 1, 1906; married Sallie Rebecca Peacock, Bellbuckle, Tenn., June 18, 1879; 3 children.
Mrs. MELINDA HOCKER wife of Dr. R. T. Hocker born Sept. 24, 1847; died Arlington, April 13, 1906; married Dec. 3, 1873; 2 children, Richard and Mrs. J. W. Chenault.
SALLIE BARBEE ALEXANDER daughter of Chesley Page and Elizabeth K. Barbee born Princeton, Ark., August 26, 1857 [1851]; reared in home of her grandfather, Colonel Maurice Smith, Tulip, Ark.; married Dr. L. L. Alexander, Feb. 19, 1873; 2 daus., 7 sons. Her mother survived her as well as a sister, Mrs. Cala B. Smith, both of Malvern, Ark.; she died in Paris, Tenn., April 4, 1906; burial in Maplewood Cemetery in that town.
May 17, 1906
Rev. J. C. BERRYMAN died Caledonia, MO, May 8, 1906 aged 96 years; only surviving member of the Methodist General Conference of 1844.
JOHN HENRY SHORE son of Rev. J. H. Shore died Smithfield, N.C., April 27, 1906; diphtheria.
IRENE CRAVEN widow of Dr. Braxton Craven, founder of Trinity College, N.C., died April 27, 1906 aged 83 years.
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May 24, 1906
J. S. JOHNSON, Arcola, Miss., born Brunswick Co., Va., Mar. 1, 1823; died Mar. 17, 1906. "He had been a great singer."
Dr. EDWARD FRANK DARBY only child of Rev. O. A. Darby and Katherine Goone Darby born Pacolet S.C., Feb. 24, 1860; died Lynchburg, S.C., Feb. 9, 1906; married Johnnie Perkins; one son, Osgood A. Darby.
THOMAS C. STEVENSON born Jan. 28, 1825; married Martha Ann Bennett (died 1901), July 23, 1844; died Feb. 22, 1906; 2 daughters.
May 31, 1906
Rev. W. IRA POWERS, retired Methodist preacher, Alabama Methodist Conference, was struck by a streetcar in Birmingham, Ala. May 12 and died from the injuries, May 16, 1906.
Mrs. SARAH P. HOOK born Sumner Co., Tenn., Sept. 8, 1838; moved with father, Dr. J. A. Browning and family to St. Clair, Miss. in 1840; last years spent in San Marcos, Texas where she died April 4, 1906.
Dr. P. J. BOWERS born Gibson. Co., Tenn., Aug. 5, 1846; died near Sanger, Texas, Feb. 27, 1906; son of a local Methodist preacher who had given land for the church and cemetery known as Bowers Chapel; graduate, Medical College, Louisville, Ky., 1872 and practiced medicine in his home county until he moved to Texas in 1876, living in several places there; married Mollie Noble, 1879.
J. W. M. GOOCH son of William Jefferson and Eliza Gooch died May 9, 1906; born Sept. 10, 1834; his father was one of the early settlers of Cedar Hill, Robertson Co., Tenn.; married Alice Adams, Dec. 31, 1872; 2 daughters.
MARTHA ELEANOR SEWARD born Gibson Co., Tenn., Jan. 27, 1840; died Springfield, MO, Nov. 22, 1905; daughter of Rev. Banks M. and Elizabeth Burrows; educated at Memphis Conference Female Institute, Jackson, Tenn.; married at age 16 to Warren B. Seward, a widower with two small children; she had ten children of her own, five surviving her, B. M. Seward; Mrs. A. J. Smith; Joseph S. Seward; Aaron B. Seward; Charles E. Seward.
MARY CAPELLE daughter of Jones and Frances Barbee born Haywood Co., Tenn., Jan. 24, 1838; moved with parents to Ark. in 1849; married Rev. T. C. Capelle, Jan. 1, 1857 and moved to Comanche Co., Texas, then to Erath Co., that state where she died April 13, 1906; 11 children.
June 7, 1906
Mrs. LYDIA A. PATTERSON, mother of Rev. T. M. Patterson, died Queen City, MO, May 1, 1906.
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS DEARING born Tuscaloosa, Ala., May 15, 1835; died Tibbee, Miss., Jan. 4, 1906; moved with parents to Chickasaw Co., Miss. when he was ten years old; moved to Tibbee in 1883; graduate, Center College, Ky.; farmer and merchant; married (1) Louisa Dandridge (died 1880), Pontotoc, Miss., 1858; 6 children; (2) Mrs. C. A. Read, 1882.
GEORGE B. SPURLOCK born Morton, MO, Dec. 25, 1871; died April 20, 1906; graduate, Gem City Business College, Quincy, Ill.; married May Carter, May 1, 1894; moved to Norman, Okla. and then to Tecumseh, Oklahoma.
EDWARD J. CRITZ born Feb. 11, 1866; married Rennie Henry, Feb. 15, 1894; died near Minter City, Miss., May 13, 1906; 3 living children.
June 14, 1906
Mrs. R. H. COOPER died Fayette, MO, May 19, 1906.
June 21, 1906
T. J. ADAMS born Sept. 27, 1824; died March 4, 1906; married H. E. Lamon, 1856; 12 children
EUNICE ELIZABETH PARKER daughter of O. B. and Effie Moore Parker died late in May 1906 aged 2 years.
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Professor EDMUND LONGLEY of Emory and Henry College died recently at Glade Springs, Va., aged 87 years; born Sidney, Maine, April 1, 18l9; graduate, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., 1840; associated with the college most of his career.
LOUISA A. E. HUNT daughter of Warrington and Mary C. Hunt born Elizabethton, Tenn., May 23 1838; married A. C. Broyles, Aug. 6, 1857; died Monmouth, Ill., March 27, 1906; 9 children.
June 28, 1906
No obituaries were published in this issue.
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