GENEALOGICAL ABSTRACTS
FROM REPORTED DEATHS
THE NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE
1857-1860By Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1997Special thanks to go Mr. Smith for allowing his work to be posted on the web
and to Laurel Baty who transcribed Mr. Smith's book, thus making these web pages possible.
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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
The editors of the NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE early recognized the importance of publishing obituaries of ordinary persons as well as those well-known or preachers in their Methodist newspaper. Even persons of other denominations contributed obituaries of their deceased relatives to this newspaper occasionally. These obituaries varied considerably in content; some were replete with essential vital statistics of the deceased as well as comments about ancestry, marriages, children, migrations, church related activities and milestones and oft-surprising but frank comments about individual character. Other obituaries were brief to the point of meaninglessness; these were usually the ones long on panegyrical details, like long-winded sermons with little substance. Some were submitted by preachers for their friends or church members. Sometimes such persons would write blandly that "Brother" or "Sister" Such and Such had died with a surname offered but no given names. Then, there is the example of a grand- son who lovingly described his grandmother but without a name, date or place and only her age! Perhaps such notices filled the needs of the persons submitting them but they are irritating for the conscientious genealogist.
The extant issues of the NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE (the actual title of which varied somewhat from time to time) begin with 1846. Annie Sandifer Trickett has gleaned and published from the older issues genealogical data reflected in the title of her book, GENEALOGICAL ABSTRACTS OF MARRIAGES AND DEATHS FROM THE NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, 1846-1851 (Dallas, Texas, 1985). The present writer, with the completion of this publication offers the genealogical abstracts from reported deaths in this widely-read church newspaper, 1857-l86l; 1869-l873. There is a long absence of sets of this newspaper during the Civil War and a few years afterwards. The present writer has made a conscientious effort to glean these data accurately from the old issues, from microfilm and hopefully he will have made few errors in copying the information as given or suggested in the old death notices.
Gratitude is here extended once again to Ann Robbins Phillips, official historian and archivist of the Memphis Conference of the United Methodist Church for providing the opportunity to glean these data from microfilm copies of the church newspaper kept in the church archives in the Lambuth University Library.
Abbreviations used in this publication:
MEC=Methodist Episcopal Church (up to the year 1845)
MECS=Methodist Episcopal Church, South (from the year 1845)
d/o=daughter of
s/o=son of
w/o=wife of
md=marriedReturn to Contents