GENEALOGICAL ABSTRACTS FROM REPORTED DEATHS
THE NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE 1908-1910
By Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 2002JULY-DECEMBER 1910
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July 1, 1910
No obituaries appeared in this issue.
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July 8, 1910
Rev. M. B. CHAPMAN, DD, died St. Joseph, MO, July 1, 1910. [See, July 22, 1910 issue.]
Reverend STONEWALL ANDERSON, DDD, appointed secretary of education for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, upon resignation of Reverend Dickey, was born in Phillips Co., Ark., 1864; graduate, Hendrix College; long a Methodist preacher, he was appointed to his new duties June 23, 1910.
July 15, 1910
JEWELL EMBREE JERNIGAN son of Reverend Frank P. and Ella Jernigan, born Smithville, Ark., June 26, 1903; died Wellborn, Fla., May 29, 1910. Burial in Corning, Ark.
Reverend JAMES E. JONES born Marshall Co., Miss., Sept. 28, 1845; married Joanna A. Shelton; surviving children, Mrs. J. F. Stone, Mrs. D. B. Hokett, J. R., Joseph M. and Miss Ella. Licensed to preach in Methodist Church, 1880; local preacher for years; moved to Denton Co., Texas in 1884 where he died June 27, 1910.
Dr. EDWARD JEROME PAGE born Greeneville, Tenn., Oct. 21, 1850; died Oakland, Oregon, July 1, 1910; graduate, Louisville Medical College, 1874; in 1871 he moved to Oakland and practiced medicine until he went to study at Jefferson Medical College where he graduated in 1883; took post-graduate studies over the years; husband and father (Mrs. A. N. Orcult, Edward Jenner, Caroline and Wallace).
TALLULAH HARRIS LIPSCOMB born Columbus, Miss., June 10, 1862; married Rev. B. W. Waters, Feb. 28, 1890; shared missionary labors (Japan) with her husband for many years; died June 21, 1910, pellagra; 3 sons.
July 22, 1910
Reverend MARK BOATNER CHAPMAN born Clinton, La., Oct. 22, 1846; licensed to preach, as the "boy preacher," three weeks after his fourteenth birthday; Confederate veteran; graduate, Southern University, N.C., 1869 and moved to St. Joseph, MO; married Maggie Harris, May 13, 1869; besides preaching he was a newspaper editor and real estate agent at time; died July 2, 1910.
JOHN P. BRANNOCK born near Cynthiana, Ky., September 4, 1837; died Lexington, Tenn., Oct. 25, 1909; graduated, Central College, MO; married Lydia White, Oct. 21, 1858; Confederate veteran. Children, Mrs. Eva Grooms, J. A., H. W., J. N. and Mrs. O. L. Jewell.
July 29 1910
PATRICK HENRY BASS born Giles Co., Tenn., Jan. 19, 1845; died Lauderdale Co., Tenn., April 18, 1910; second son of General Stephen Hicks Bass whose grandfather, Benjamin Bass, moved from Brunswick Co., Va. to near Nashville, Tenn.; his mother, Eliza Crook, was a daughter of David Crook. He served in Confederate army; married Fredonia Frances Abernathy. Surviving children, Noble, Mrs. Annie Wiley, Sterling H.; moved to Lauderdale Co., Tenn. in 1872.
Photograph of J. W. BEESON, president of Meridian (Miss.) Woman's College, page 30.
Captain JOHN HAMPTON JARNAGIN born Cleveland, Tenn., Sept. 18, 1843; only son of Judge Byron Jarnagin and Amelia Harle, daughter of Baldwin and Isabella Miller Harle; family was established in east Tennessee by Captain Thomas Jarnagin, Virginian, of Huguenot ancestry, who had moved to the Franklin District [Tennessee] in 1782; his son, Chesley Jarnagin (who married Martha Barton) was the grandfather of Captain J. H. Jarnagin. He served in the Confederate army from 1861 until 1865; cotton planter, Baldwin Co., Miss., he moved to Memphis, Tenn., Feb. 1889; married Mattie daughter of Rev. Elias and Harriet Paten, Oct. 26, 1865; no children; died Memphis, June 18, 1910. (His grand uncle, Spencer Jarnagin, was a U. S. Senator from Tennessee.)
August 5, 1910
Major T. P. WEAKLEY, member, Tulip Street Methodist Church, Nashville, Tenn., died July 25, 1910; active Methodist layman.
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August 12, 1910
No obituaries appeared in this issue.
August 19, 1910
Mrs. FRANCES M. HOGAN died LaGrange, Illinois, August 7, 1910.
J. W. GRAVES born N.C., August 23, 1841; died Moscow, Ky., July 13, 1910; husband and father (Charlie, Mrs. Ida Sanders, Mrs. Ella Morris).
MARY E. GOWER daughter of L. D. and Nancy L. Gower born Davidson Co., Tenn., Nov. 24, 1828; married Henry P. Robertson of the U. S. Navy, 1849, but he died two years later, leaving her with a child; she died June 28, 1910; burial Gower Cemetery.
MOLLIE DOUGLASS LAFFERTY wife of Will T. Lafferty, Nashville, Tenn., died June 13, 1910; burial in Mt. Olivet Cemetery; daughter of Robert Bruce and Delia Ann Douglass; no children.
The publication of ADDRESSES OF J. H. CARLISLE, edited by J. H. Carlisle, Jr., Columbus, S.C., 1910, provided an article about Carlisle (1829-1909), an 1844 graduate of South Carolina College and his distinguished career as professor of math (21 years) and president (27 years) of Wofford College, S.C.; served in the legislature of the latter state, 1863-1864; renowned for his clever oratorical remarks.
August 26, 1910
Mrs. H. W. LEDBETTER died Colfax, La., August 13, 1910.
MARGARET JOHNSON GARDNER born eight miles north of Nashville, Tenn., 1836; died in that city, July 10, 1910; married Henry C. Gardner, 1866; no children.
BENTON AKIN born New Madrid Co., MO, May 29, 1831; married (1) Catherine Emery, Sept. 2, 1850; (2) Louise Lee, June 25, 1860; (3) Bettie Emery, July 13, 1865; four children with first wife, all deceased; two children with second wife, both deceased; four children with third wife, those surviving, Mrs. Ola Shellenbarger and Mrs. Mira Barnard. He died July 2, 1910.
SARAH LUTEN wife of Rev. James Luten, died Union City, Tenn., July 25, 1910, typhoid fever.
EVELINE SIMPSON born Bedford Co., Tenn., April 24, 1818; died July 26, 1910; married Samuel Simpson, 1841; 9 children.
Reverend JOHN BORING, Holston Methodist Conference, died August 5, 1910.
September 2, 1910
Pages 25-26:
REV. W. L. C. HUNNICUTT. D.D.
BY W. T. J. SULLIVAN.
It gives me pain to have to tell the readers of the ADVOCATE that the gentle and beloved brother, W. L. C. Hunnicutt, D.D., has passed away from the field of his earthly labors to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn in heaven. No doubt many have already heard the sad news, but the report here renewed will doubtless deepen the sorrowful fact in every heart who cherished a tender, reverent, regard for one so true and brotherly in his sympathy with the afflicted and so apt and ready to give instruction and comfort to all with whom he conversed. So natural was he, so artless, so unaffected that one meeting him would impulsively say, "'There is an Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no guile."
William Lyttleton Clark Hunnicutt was a native of Coweta County, Ga., born May 26, 1834. His father was Dr. J. E. P. Hunnicutt, a practicing physician and a descendant from a Quaker family; his mother was Martha Lundie Atkinson, whose grandfather was a clergyman in the Church of England. Both parents were natives of Virginia. The Coweta County boy was reared on a Georgia farm, accustomed to the tasks and diversions of agricultural life. He took a lively interest in all he had to do, and in the systematic order observed in every part of the place. He was a free, happy boy in his growing up under the strict though loving discipline of a careful father and mother. In those days so far back in the nineteenth century the itinerant preacher had to take weekdays for his services. When the day for preaching came, all hands on Dr. Hunnicutt's farm stopped work and went to church. Religion was put first in the daily life of the family. When William was of right age and was well-grounded in preparatory studies, he entered the sophomore class of Emory College, Georgia, under the presidency of that great master, George F. Pearce, and in the course took his degree of A. B. from that institution. The young alumnus was at first inclined to follow his father's profession, and with this view he spent one year in the Medical College of Atlanta, Ga.; during that year his mind underwent a change and he adopted teaching as his pursuit. He took a school for boys in Atlanta, which he taught for two years. Professor Hunnicutt was called to the Chair of Ancient Languages in that college in 1858. In August of the next year he was married to Miss Eliza, daughter of Maj. John H. and Eliza Magruder, of
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Madison County, resident near Sharon. His habits of accuracy and thoroughness in teaching soon gave him marked credit as a man of superior fitness to train the young for the great work of adult life. In 1860 he was elected to the presidency of Sharon Female College. Gradually his mind and heart were opened to a call to the gospel ministry as his life work. On February 23, 1861, he was licensed to preach by the Quarterly Conference of Sharon charge. At the session of the Mississippi Annual Conference the same year, at Canton, he was admitted on trial into the itinerant ministry. He was ordained deacon by Bishop James O. Andrew, November 8, 1863. He was appointed to missionary work in the Confederate Army, and became chaplain to General Walthall's Brigade. In November he was ordained elder by Bishop Robert Paine at Crystal Springs. When the army was disbanded he returned to his home, in Madison County, and shortly after came to Jackson, Miss., and engaged in a private school with Prof. H. W. Pearce. At the session of the Conference in 1865 he was appointed to Jackson Station. This charge he served during 1866 and 1867, continuing his schoolwork for a while. But In 1867 he was chosen President of Madison College and also of Sharon Female College and took charge of both schools. Charles B. Galloway, then recently graduated from the University of Mississippi, assisted in the instruction in Madison College. Both schools continued to do valuable work for a few years, till it became impossible to maintain their organization and both of these preachers served the adjacent Churches as they could while teaching the schools. In 1870 Dr. Hunnicutt served Sharon Circuit while still President of Sharon Female College. In 1871 he was sent to Yazoo City, and served part of 1872 in charge of Canton Station to fill a vacancy. At the Conference of 1872 he was sent to Natchez Station, where he remained four years in charge. During 1877 and 1878 he served Brookhaven District; 1879, Vicksburg District; 1880 to 1883, Jackson District; 1884, Port Gibson Station: 1885 to 1888, Vicksburg District. In 1889 he was chosen President of Centenary College, Jackson, La., and in 1890 had charge of that station also. He remained President there till the summer of 1894. During 1895 he was in charge of East End Church, Meridian. The next year he was in charge of Capital Street, Jackson, Miss. From 1897 to 1900 be served Natchez District. The following three years he served in charge of Woodville Station. In 1904 he took the supernumerary relation and from that time until his death he and his wife made their home with the writer, locating in Jackson, Miss., in 1907. During 1909 he supplied an unexpired year at Edwards. At the Conference of 1909 Dr. Hunnicutt was restored to the effective list. At this Conference he was appointed without salary, by his own request, to raise funds to help meet Mrs. Sage's offer to the American Bible Society. He was so deeply interested in this work that even after the required sum was raised to secure her donation he continued to work for the cause.
Dr. C. B. HANSON, San Antonio, Texas, died August 10, 1910; seven years in charge of Monterey, Mexico hospital; husband and father (5 children). [A tribute to his memory by D. H. Hotchkiss, Sept. 9, 1910 issue, page 23]
September 9, 1910
Reverend EDWARD MADISON MERRITT born Greenville Co., S.C., Mar. 31, 1846; from 1879-1890 a local Methodist preacher; then for ten years he labored as an itinerant preacher; died Landrum, S.C., August 30, 1910.
September 16, 1910
SARAH P. THOMAS widow of Rev. T. P. Thomas died Baltimore, Maryland, Sept. 6, 1910 aged about 77 years; burial in Knoxville, Tenn.
Reverend Dr. JAMES L. HUMPHREY born 1829; missionary to Indian in 1857; returned to America in 1900; died Little Falls, New York, Sept. 5, 1910.
HUGH BOGLE son of William O. Bogle, grandson of Rev. L. C. Bryan, dec., died April 1, 1910 aged ten years.
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ISAAC R. COOK born Columbus, Ky., Dec. 23, 1849; died August 15, 1910; married (1) Nellie Vance Gray (children, William M., Mrs. Nellie Agnew, Miss Ella); (2) Kate Evans.
WILLIAM H. AVEY born Memphis, Sept. 21, 1839; moved to Columbus, Ky. in 1858; married (1) Eliza O'Neal; 6 children; (2) Sallie Hough; 4 daus., 4 sons; died July 21, 1910.
September 23, 1910
ROSALIE DOVE ENGLISH wife of G. O. English; daughter of P. J. Bernard, Union Hall, Virginia; died Cass, W. Va., August 24, 1910 from burn injuries; her infant daughter, EASTER ZILLAH, aged 1 year, 4 months old, died of like injuries, August 22, 1910; both buried in North Field cemetery, Union Hall, Va.
SOLOMON FLETCHER BRANSFORD born Smith Co., Tenn., April 18, 1830; died July 24, 1910; burial in Dixon Springs Cemetery.
Mrs. JAMES B. CHAFFIN died in residence of her grandson, P. D. Ewell, LaGrange, Tenn., recently; was born Mary Jane daughter of Thomas Vaughan, near Charleston, S.C., Dec. 11, 1823; moved with family to Somerville, Tenn.; surviving children, Leonidas; Dr. Thomas S.; Mrs. Ellen Burford.
JOSEPH JOHN ARMBRESTER son of Marshall and Sarah C. Armbrester born Talladega Co., Ala., Aug. 13, 1836; died July 7, 1910; moved to Texas in 1859; Confederate veteran; married Mary E. Griffith, Nov. 22, 1866; 1 dau., 3 sons.
September 30, 1910
ELIZA ANN KIESER, nee Williams, born Memphis, Tenn., Nov. 21, 1841; died in residence of her son, James F. Kieser near Rogers, Ark., August 30, 1910; married (1) W. L. Hannah (died 1865); 1 child, (2) F. W. Kieser (died 1900), Jan. 29, 1868; 6 children; she moved to Little Rock, Ark. in 1901.
ROLAND L. AMBERG born Hickman, Ky., April 22, 1884; died there, Aug. 26, 1910; had taught school and been a law student.
EFFIE MAY WARE daughter of B. T. Ware born April 4, 1877; died Mingo, W. Va., Aug. 3, 1910; married David Ware, 1896. Children, Lucy, aged 12 years; George, aged 9 years; Busa, aged 7 years.
October 7, 1910
Dr. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN DIXON, local Methodist preacher, died Raleigh, N.C., Sept. 26, 1910; former superintendent of the Oxford, N.C. orphanage.
MARGARET JANE CAMAK born Green, now Hale, Co., Ala., July 22, 1842; daughter of David and Elmira Camak; married Shelby Wayne Chadwick (died Nov. 1, 1897), Dec. 20, 1865. Surviving children: Mamie, Ellis, Mrs. John Radney, Mrs. George Stoves, John S., Robert E.; a son, Francis P., died in 1897 and another, David, died in infancy. She died Roanoke, Ala., September 11, 1910.
S. V. COPELAND, native of Blountville, Ala., died in 1910, Birmingham, Alabama.
THOMAS JEFFERSON MANLY son of Rev. J. Addison and Mary Manly, formerly of Petersburg, Va., born near Somerville, Tenn., August 1838; married Mrs. Mary Jackson and had a daughter, Wenonia, who married and had one child; died in the residence of her nephew, Henry Folsom, Brinkley, Ark., August 12, 1910.
THOMAS EDWARD FANNING son of Thomas Edward Fanning born Isle of Wight Co., Va., Dec. 25, 1818; his mother was Elizabeth Jordan of Quaker heritage; his parents died when he was 6 years old; he married Mary Elizabeth Pugh, 1852; moved from the eastern shore to Brownsville, Tenn. in 1868; 1 son; 2 daus., including Mrs. S. F. Thomas. He died in Brownsville, August 31, 1910.
THOMAS BENARD PIRTLE son of William George and Sarah Ann Pirtle, born Graves Co., Ky., May 18, 1871; died June 18, 1910; married Dotha Stokes (died Mar. 30, 1906), Nov. 30, 1887; 2 daus., 2 sons, one of each gender had died, leaving Ruth and Raymon.
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October 14, 1910
Miss TAWSIE MAI HALL born Nov. 12, 1888; died Mayfield, Ky., Sept. 5, 1910.
ALICE MITCHEL GARRETT daughter of W. W. and Mattie Garrett born Oct. 5, 1888; died August 17, 1910. Sunday School teacher.
October 21, 1910
D. H. ABERNATHY, 23 years a Sunday School superintendent, Pittsburg, Texas, Methodist Church, died Oct. 9, 1910.
Rev. H. F. CHREITZBERG born Feb. 24, 1850; joined S.C. Methodist Conference, 1872; transferred to Western N.C. Methodist Conference in 1893; died Monroe, N.C., Oct. 10, 1910, typhoid fever.
GRANVILLE COLEMAN son of James L. and Kate Lester Coleman born Jan. 14, 1860; died Sept. 21, 1910; graduated from University of Alabama at the age of 17 years; bookkeeper.
THOMAS M. BRODIE born Fayetteville, Ark., Nov. 19, 143; died Christian Co., Ky., Feb. 11, 1910; his grandfather, Dr. John Brodie, was born in Edinburg, Scotland, Oct. 18, 1753 and graduated in medicine and came to N.C., where he married Mary Tyler. His son, Lodonic Brodie, father of T. M. Brodie, born in N.C., 1800, married Amanda daughter of William Banks Anthony, Sumner Co., Tenn. Orphaned at the age of 11 years he and a brother and three sisters went to live in Montgomery Co., Tenn. with James Brodie; an uncle. At the age of 18 years he enlisted in the Confederate army; married Pollie Phillips, 1865 and moved from Montgomery Co. to Christian Co., Ky. in 188l where he died.
JANE P. CLAYTON widow of William Clayton born Marshall Co., Tenn. more than 90 years ago; died Oct. 17, 1910.
OLLIE V. FAISON born near Bridgeport, Ala., 1879; married C. H. Faison, Dec. 27, 1908; 1 children, 9 months old when its mother died September 15, 1910.
October 28, 1910
Pages 12-13:
CHIEF BLACKFISH AND HIS WHITE CAPTIVE.
BY REV. J. SPENCER.
Late in the eighteenth century Blackfish, a Shawnee chief then living in Kentucky, lost his only son in a fight with the whites. To make up the loss, as far as possible, he ordered two of his braves, according to history, to capture a white boy to take the place of his dead son. We give the story that follows as told by Mrs. Stinson, a granddaughter of the stolen boy, in her own artless way:
"When the boy was brought to the chief, Blackfish showed the boy the arrows and other things that had belonged to his son, the lost Indian boy, and the father told him that these were his. He was to be brought up as a brave chief, as his own little boy would have been. So my grandfather lived and grew up with the Indians. But he was always called by the name of Lewis Rogers.
"In course of time this Rogers married the chief's daughter, with whom he had been brought up as brother and sister. When the young man proposed to marry the girl, she still thought he was her own brother, and she felt insulted and told her mother of the strange talk of her brother. Her mother sent her to her father, who told her how it was and how the conduct of her brother was all right; that the young man was not her brother, and he advised her to marry him. She said she could not. She loved him as her brother, but could do no more than this. But her father persuaded her that she ought to marry the young man. She said she could not then consent; she must take time to think about it. So after a year she consented, and they were married.
"Rogers had three children by the chief's daughter. Then his brothers came to him from Virginia. They told him that his mother wanted him to return to her; that she was old and wanted to see her lost son before she died. So he went with his brothers to visit his mother. He was received with great rejoicing. A great many guests were invited to a grand celebration. He was treated with the utmost kindness and had given him everything for his enjoyment. They asked him to lay aside his Indian garb and again to take up his home with his kindred. His mother, who treated him with all the endearment of affection, told him that he must never go back to the Indian country. But he continued to wear his Indian garments, and could not be induced to discard them. He told them he was an Indian now; he had become a son of the chief; he was married to the chief's daughter, whom he loved; and he had three little boys, whom he loved with all the affection of human nature. 'Mother, I came just to visit you because I love you, and have not lost my affection for my brothers. But I have come just on a visit. My wife and children, whom I love more than all else; are still in the forest awaiting my return. I love my wife. We grew up together in the grand old forests. I love my three little boys. If you have invited me here to induce me to remain and live with you, I cannot do as you wish. I must return to my wife and children.'
"He arose early the next morning and called his servants to prepare his horse for a journey. The slave said: 'Massa Lewis, yo' ain' a-going away. Yo' is a-going stay heah.' Father Rogers was a wealthy slaveholder in Virginia, not long come from the mother country, England.
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"Lewis had been three months with his mother. His Indian wife's people told her that her husband would never come back, 'O no,' she said, 'he will come.' So one evening she heard his whoop. She called her children and said: 'I believe I hear your father. ' And then another whoop was heard, and he appeared in sight riding swiftly into the settlement. It had taken him three days to come from Virginia on horseback. Then the mother and children rushed to greet him. He jumped from his horse and embraced his wife and children, exclaiming: 'O Parlie, I will never leave you again!'
"Lewis Rogers, Jr., died in Fayette, Howard County, Mo. One of his sons, Henry Lewis, was educated in Kentucky. He brought about the establishment of the Methodist Mission, of which Thomas Johnson became the superintendent. He loaned Thomas Johnson $4, 000 to go on with the mission. The Rogerses of the Shawnee tribe were sons or descendants of Henry Rogers.
"My mother was a Rogers; Betsy Rogers was her name. She married Mackinac Beauchmie. He was born at Mackinac Strait. He belonged to the American Fur Company. In trapping and hunting among the Indians he traveled down the Ohio River. There he found my mother among the Shawnees and married her. He then continued to live with the Shawnees but he was for several years with the trappers in the Missouri River country toward the mountains. Then he came back and joined the Shawnees in Kansas, about the time they came to Kansas, about 1832. He then joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and never went back to the Fur Company. He learned to speak good English with the Fur Company, and he became the interpreter for Rev. Thomas Johnson at the mission. He became very useful to Mr. Johnson. At one time he traveled with him on one of his journeys to procure money to build up and maintain the mission. After the Shawnee Mission had become established, Mr. Johnson had my father go among the Pottawattomies to start the mission. He preached to the Pottawattomies and did missionary work among them. The mission was close to Ossawatomie, down on the Marias de Cygne, or on the Pottawattomi Creek. My father died at the mission about 1846 or 1847.
"I was at Fayette, Mo., at the time going to school. I went down on the steamboat on the river at the time some soldiers were going to the Mexican War. They went around by St. Louis and New Orleans."
Henry Rogers, as stated above, was a most excellent man, and, as Mrs. Stinson states, a warm and true friend of the Shawnee Methodist Mission. Her father became a very useful preacher, and was a member of the Indian Mission Conference when he died and an ordained deacon.
Of him Bishop Andrew, in a letter written in 1848 while on a tour among the Indian missions of Kansas, says: "During the past year one who was probably the greatest and best of the Pottawattomies was summoned from earth, Rev. Mackinaw Beauchmie, a man of rare gifts and address and constant piety."
While a missionary to the Shawnees, I heard Brother Johnson tell of his trip East with Beauchmie and how greatly the people were interested in his addresses everywhere they went.
Graham Rogers, a cousin of Mrs. Stinson, was one of my stewards, a most exemplary Christian and in every way a worthy man.
November 4, 1910
Dr. JAMES A. REAGAN, local Methodist preacher, died Weaverville, N.C., Oct. 24, 1910 aged 86 years.
MARY NEAL DOWDELL wife of David Merrick Dowdell, oldest daughter of C. H. and S. A. Davis, died Manatee, Fla., Aug. 28, 1910; married in 1890.
NANCY ANN WILSON born Lincoln Co., Tenn., Aug. 24, 1830; died Oct. 2, 1910; moved with her parents, Matthew and Frances Caruthers, to Obion Co., Tenn. in 1850; married W. M. Wilson, May 24, 1853. Children, William, James, Otis, Alphonso, E. W., T. C., Mrs. Ella Morris, Mrs. Tranquilla Sharp.
November 11, 1910
MARTHA GWYNN WATSON born Jasper Co., Ga., Sept. 22, 1832; moved with parents to DeSoto Co. Miss.; she married Edwin O. Watson, Sept. 22, 1852; 6 children; died Capleville, Tenn., Sept. 9 1910.
GERALDINE MARTIN, nee Hearon, born Clark Co., Ala., Jan. 26, 1847; married J. A. Martin, Sept. 19, 1867; 1 dau., 9 sons; died Oct. 5, 1910; had moved to Texas in 1877.
November 18, 1910
ADDIE LEGGETT GALE wife of Rev. R. G. Gale, McHenry, Miss., died Nov. 3, 19l0.
ALMIDA LUCY FLY daughter of Rev. T. L. and Lucy Fant Beard, born Marshall Co., Miss., Jan. 25, 1842; when she was 11 years old her mother died and she went to live with an uncle, Col. J. B. Fant near Holly Springs, Miss.; educated in female schools; married Rev. M. D. Fly, Jan. l6, 186l; [death date not provided].
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ALICE PETWAY ABERNATHY wife of Liles E. Abernathy, Pulaski, Tenn., died Sept. 4, 1910.
November 25, 1910
Pages 10-11:
Graves of the McKendrees
BY H. M. DU BOSE, D.D.
Of the triumvirate of great Methodist bishops — Asbury, McKendree, and Soule — the soil of the South holds the dust of two, while the grave of the other is on the border line, thus giving it to the care and veneration of the Methodists of both the North and the South. It is an interesting fact that the present sepulture of each of these leaders of early American Methodism is not his original resting place. Bishop Asbury was first buried in the soil of Virginia, but later he found a tomb in Baltimore, the city of his love. Bishop McKendree was first laid to rest in the quiet burying ground of his family in a rural township of Sumner County, Tenn., and Bishop Soule was given at first a grave in the old city cemetery at Nashville. In 1876 both his and McKendree's dust was deposited in the earth under the splendid memorial of South Carolina granite which stands in the shadow of Wesley Hall on the campus of Vanderbilt University. The disinterment of Bishop Asbury's remains occurred a few weeks after his death, while the body of Bishop Soule was exhumed after a lapse of ten years. In neither case had such a mingling of the elements taken place as to destroy the identity of any parts of those once noble frames, but the case was different with the body of their illustrious compeer. The grave in which McKendree was first laid to rest was opened after a lapse of more than forty-one years. The walnut coffin, yielding to decay, had fallen in, and the mold of nearly half a century had embraced the dead. Earth had returned to earth; ashes to ashes. A measure of holy dust must therefore have been left in the place where the hands of weeping kindred and faithful sons in the gospel laid him at first. This fact was fully appreciated at the time of the disinterment, and the grave was accordingly refilled, and the heavy marble slab which had so long marked it was left to do the office of a cenotaph. But a distressful chapter follows and must be written.
Even before the disinterment, in 1876, the God's acre upon the pleasant hillside had fallen into regrettable neglect. During the War between the States the Federal soldiers, while camping near by, removed the original brick wall from the parallelogram, and thus left the grave unprotected, but recent years have enhanced the reproach. The place is now covered with a tangled mass of thorns and noxious vines. The heavy marble slab has fallen down and was broken in the fall. Some reverent soul passing that way has lifted the two parts from the ground and left them leaning against the trunk of a tree, and there they await decent and respectful attention at the hands of Methodism. In the little plat atilt on the slope, beside the body of the apostolic Bishop, were buried his father, the saintly John McKendree, the Bishop's brother, Dr. James McKendree, a sister, Dolly McKendree Harris, and her husband, the excellent Thomas Harris, who came with the family from Virginia, and Nancy McKendree, the Bishop's youngest and favorite sister. It was in the arms of this sister that the Bishop expired, in a chamber of the family home, some forty yards from the spot where he was buried. At the head of her illustrious brother, this devoted sister, who, like himself, was never married, was laid to rest, being the last of the family to die. Her story is a pathetic reminder of how much beauty and grace is hid from the world in unremembered graves.
The McKendree home, which was built just one hundred years ago, was "warmed" and dedicated by Bishop Asbury, who, riding with Bishop McKendree from the seat of the Western Conference at Shelbyville, Ky., turned aside to pay a visit to the venerable father of his colleague on November 18, 1810. The house, having fallen into decay, was abandoned and razed nearly fifty years ago, the estate having long before passed into the hands of strangers.
At its session in 1909 I asked the Tennessee Conference to appoint a committee to visit these sacred scenes, secure custody of the burying ground for the Church, and solicit funds to inclose it and set upon it a substantial and suitable marker or memorial. The Conference asked me to take a place on this committee; and the committee, after being organized, virtually left the matter to my direction. Until recently, I have been unable to find time for a visit to the somewhat inaccessible locality. In company with Brother Nackles, the retiring pastor of the Fountain Head Circuit, I visited the site of the McKendree home, and later other scenes conspicuously connected with the Bishop's sojourns and labors in this Methodistocally historic region. The twenty-ninth day of October last was cloudless. The sunshine billowed in autumn glory over dappled copses and russet cornfields as I stood on the spot where once rested the body of the first native American Methodist bishop and the first Protestant bishop to set foot upon the soil of that vast territory lying west of the Mississippi River. When love kept its walks and trained its bowers, this must have been a place to put one at peace with death. Even now its quietude is compensating. A young nut tree, sprung from the roots of a long felled forbear, has grown up over the sunken mound and is grudgingly dropping its ripened fruit upon the earth. In one of its low branches swung a linnet's nest made last spring. As I plucked away the tiny silken house and weighed its emptiness in my hands, it came to me that the mother linnet and her brood were chasing the summer with song through Southern lands. The spirit of the great Bishop long ago left here its outworn earthly house and went far away into the fellowship of light.
The inscription on the fallen stone, which I have nowhere met in print, is as follows:SACRED
To the memory of the Rev. William McKendree,
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
In the United States of America.
Born in King William County, Virginia.
Died at his brother's, Dr. James McKendree's,
In Sumner County, Tenn., March 5, 1835.
He was elected and ordained Bishop
In the city of Baltimore, May, 1808.
He labored in the ministry of the gospel 47 years
With uncommon zeal, ability, [and] usefulness,
And for near 27 years discharged the duties
Of the episcopal office with such wisdom,
Rectitude, [and] fidelity as to secure
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The confidence, respect, and esteem of the
Ministers and people of his official
Oversight in travels and labors for
The advancement of the Redeemer's
Kingdom and the salvation of the
Souls of men. He occupied an elevated
Position among the moat eminent ministers
Of Christ and has furnished an illustrious
Example for Christian pastors and Bishops.
He finished his course in peace and triumph.
Proclaiming in his last moments.
"All is well!"The MeKendree home is now included in a cultivated croft, in which is a ripened crop of Indian corn awaiting the hands of the harvesters. From a stalk growing upon what was identified as the hearth site I plucked a full ear, seeing in it a parable concerning the venerable man who so often warmed himself there and who was gathered in ripeness and fullness into the Master's granary. Near the same spot I picked up a bit of blue-bordered Delft china, such as was imported from England in colonial times. It is of a pattern that was seen upon the boards of our great-grandsires, but which disappeared from the American market generations ago. Was it part of the tableware brought in that century ago migration from Virginia to the paradise of Middle Tennessee? If so, the venerable Bishop brother sometimes ate from it his venison steak, or "helping" of lye hominy, staple dishes of the Tennessee pioneers.
In the autumn of 1801 William McKendree was appointed to the Kentucky District of the Western Conference. This subdiocese included parts of Ohio, all of Kentucky, the most of Tennessee, and the entire State of Mississippi, the "Natchez Country," however, being then the only settled portion of the last named territory. On this district he remained until he was elected to the episcopacy, in 1808. In a large sense he was the founder of the Church in these mighty commonwealths. With Bishop Asbury, he was present at the organization of the Tennessee Conference, in 1812. This historic session was held at the Fountain Head Church, a distance of three to four miles from the McKendree home. The original log chapel is gone, but a frame structure not only occupies the original site but rests upon the selfsame roughly squared stones which served its early predecessor as a foundation. It is one of the regular preaching places of the Fountain Head Circuit, of which Rev. R. M. Chenault is the present pastor. It is proposed that the Tennessee Conference hold at least one official sitting on this historic spot at its centennial session in 1912. At that time the Conference should be able to visit the early grave of our first American bishop and there dedicate a fitting monument, and thus atone for a long neglect.
I have estimated that a granite marker of appropriate size and design, together with an iron fence, will cost approximately seven hundred dollars. It seems unbelievable that this matter should be left to wait longer. It seems, too, almost belittling to the object that the money with which to do this work should be gathered piecemeal. Is there not, therefore, some patriotic Methodist somewhere who will link his memory with that of the illustrious dead in giving a sum necessary to accomplish this praiseworthy design?
From HISTORIC SUMNER COUNTY, TENNESSEE by Jay Guy Cisco, 1909, page 280:
WILLIAM M'KENDREE.
William McKendree, the famous Methodist preacher and bishop, for some years had his home — if it can be said that he had a home — in Sumner County. He was born in King William County, Virginia, July 6, 1757. He was converted at the age of 30, and soon afterwards entered the ministry, preaching in Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas. In 1801 he was appointed presiding elder of the Western Conference, embracing East and Middle Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, Kentucky and portion of Ohio. He came West in the fall of 1800, and from that time on until his death, March 5, 1835, he was probably the most prominent figure in the Methodist Church in Tennessee. He continued to hold the position of presiding elder until 1808, when he was elected Bishop. His father's family had removed to Sumner County and settled near Fountain Head, and there the bishop called his home, and there, at the house of his brother, Dr. James McKendree, he died and was buried in the family graveyard beside his father.
WILLIAM McKENDREE was the oldest child of John and Mary McKendree, born July 6, 1757; moved with family to James City Co., Va. in 1764 and six years later to Greenville County, that state; at the age of 31 years he became a Methodist preacher; ordained deacon, 1790; ordained elder, Dec. 1791; after many years laboring in his ministerial field he died March 5, 1835. "He was tall and attractive physically, with all the graces of the gentleman; he preached with a sincerity, simplicity, force of illustration and evangelistic zeal which were highly persuasive; he had business sense and skill as a parliamentarian.... he was wise and prudent. Never marrying, he had no ties to interfere with complete surrender to the cause he had espoused."
(DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, edited by Dumas Malone, N. Y., volume 17, 1931, pages 85-86)
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W. M. FLY retired Methodist preacher, No. Miss. Methodist Conference, died Byhalia, Miss., November 8, 1910.
December 2, 1910
Reverend JOHN RANDLE, oldest member of the Memphis Methodist Conference, was buried in Gibson County, Tennessee, November 20, 1910; had he lived until his January birthday he would have reached the age of 100 years.
December 9, 1910
Reverend J. W. SHOAFF, former presiding elder, Los Angeles, California District, died Nov. 27, 1910.
December 16, 1910
JAMES M. HOSS, employee of the Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, died Dec. 7, 1910.
JAMES H. HERIGES, Nashville, Tenn., only brother of Robert M. Heriges, Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, died December 7, 1910.
ELIZABETH FIKES DURHAM died Bransford, Tenn., Sept. 7, 1910 aged 70 years; wife of W. M. Durham; 4 daus., 1 son.
NETTIE L. COULTER, nee Berry, born Dyer, Tenn., Jan. 18, 1862; died there, Sept. 10, 1910; married W. S. Coulter, Dec. 22, 1882; children, Mattie Belle and Harry.
December 23, 1910
Reverend F. M. EDWARDS, Virginia Methodist Conference, died Sonty Creek, Va., Dec. 1, 1910; a member of this conference since 1863.
WALTER CRAWFORD PYRON born near Fairmount, Ga., July 7, 1869; died Collinsville, Ala., Oct. 29, 1910; married Sallie Kirby, Dec. 28, 1904; children, Walter C., Jr.; Kirby and Cowan White.
December 30, 1910
LIZZIE SHIELDS CARROLL wife of Dr. C. T. Carroll died near Morristown, Tenn., Dec. 19, 1910 wife and mother.
RACHEL BRANCH CARRIGER daughter of William and Mary Buchanan; born Washington Co., Va., Feb. 18, 1878; married Wesley C. Carriger, Emory, Va., July 4, 1907; died October 14, 1910.
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