McElroy, Isaac Stuart. 
 
 Some pioneer Presbyterian 
 preachers of the Piedmont North 
 Carolina 
 
 Div.Sch. 
 
 BX 
 
 8947 
 
 .N8 
 M3 
 1928 
 
DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GZ^t o& 
 
 The Stuart C. Henry 
 Collection of American 
 Christianity 
 
Pioneer Presbyterian 
 Preachers 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PIEDMONT NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 jyj 
 
 rev. i. s. Mcelroy, d. d. 
 

 
SOME 
 
 Pioneer Presbyterian 
 Preachers 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Piedmont North Carolina 
 
 REV. I. S. McELROY, D. D. 
 
LOFTIN a CO.. Printers 
 Gastonia. N. C. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The Presbytery of Kings Mountain, realizing the impor- 
 tance of securing and preserving the history of the beginnings 
 of churches and church movements, and also the danger that 
 facts may be forgotten and historic material lost with the pass- 
 ing o{ the years, did include among the permanent committees 
 provided for in its Manual, adopted October 29, 1924, a Com- 
 mittee on History. 
 
 This committee, through its chairman, Rev. J. K. Hall, 
 prepared a program for the celebration of the twenty-fifth an- 
 niversary of the organization of Kings Mountain Presbytery, 
 which was approved, and the program, including a historic ad- 
 dress by the Rev. I. S. McElroy, D. D., was carried out at the 
 September meeting of the Presbytery in the First Presbyterian 
 Church of Lincolnton, where the organization had been effect- 
 ed twenty-five years before. 
 
 The following action was taken by the Presbytery: 
 
 A special committee, consisting of Rev. T. G. Tate, 
 Rev. J. K. Hall, J. H. Kennedy and A. C. Jones, was appointed 
 to arrange for the financing and publication of the paper of 
 Rev. I. S. McElroy. 
 
 At a call meeting of the Presbytery, March 12, 1928, in 
 the First Presbyterian Church, Gastonia, N. C, for the pur- 
 pose of receiving and taking action on the report of this com- 
 mittee, the Presbytery unanimously ordered the printing of the 
 address of Dr. McElroy. 
 
 T. G. TATE 
 J. K. HALL 
 J. H. KENNEDY 
 A. C. JONES 
 
 Committee 
 
Some Pioneer Presbyterian Preachers 
 
 of {he 
 
 Piedmont North Carolina 
 
 The task assigned to me by Presbytery is alarmingly large even 
 with its limitations. It is limited geographically to the five coun- 
 ties known as Gaston, Cleveland, Lincoln, Rutherford and Polk, 
 North Carolina. It is limited in time, chiefly, to the 19th century, 
 with a few years of overlap at each extremity of this boundary. 
 
 To be exact it begins with August, 1768, when the Rev. Daniel 
 Thacher organized the church of "Little Brittain" in connection 
 with the Presbytery of Hanover and which claims to be the second 
 Presbyterian church organized in the territory now included in the 
 state of North Carolina, and it ends with November 18, 1902, when 
 at Lincolnton, N. C, the Presbytery of Kings Mountain was or- 
 ganized and included all the ministers and churches within the 
 above named five counties. 
 
 It is limited also to some, or rather to a few of the Pioneer Pres- 
 byterian preachers of this part of the Piedmont, and this limitation 
 has been determined solely by my inability to secure information 
 about other noble men whom we hold in highest honor and whose 
 memories we would celebrate. 
 
 The only other limitation is in the patience of my audience. It 
 would be a titanic task to realize the conditions under which these 
 faithful servants of our Lord labored so diligently and laid so 
 securely the foundations for the present prosperity of Kings Moun- 
 tain Presbytery, and yet in order that we may appreciate their 
 courage, consecration and self-sacrificing devotion, we must recall in 
 some small measure these conditions as they prevailed in these 
 parts during the nineteenth century. 
 
 PIONEER CONDITIONS 
 
 There were no towns and only a few villages at long intervals; 
 no communication by radio, or telephone, or telegraph, or by letter 
 
6 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 oftener than once a week; no railroad nor highway, but footpaths 
 and bridlepaths and roads with dust for summer and mud for win- 
 ter and gulleys every season and almost all the way. When the 
 stage coach was first introduced and the hill proved too steep and 
 the mud too deep for the strength of the horses, it was the rule of 
 the road announced by the driver, "First class set still, second class 
 out and walk, third class out and push." All travel at the first was 
 by foot or horseback, and then by wagon and later came the 
 buggy and the coach. 
 
 There were no lumber yards and few saw mills at long intervals 
 but the houses were made of hewed logs and wooden nails, and 
 lighted not, by electricity or by oil lamps or sperm candles but by 
 pine knots and later by tallow dips. 
 
 Church buildings were made of hewed logs generally 30 by 24 
 feet with a shed at the other end from the pulpit where the slaves 
 could sit and through an opening made in the wall by the removal 
 of two or three logs they could see and hear the preacher. The 
 precentor would stand just below and in front of the pulpit and 
 read two lines of the hymn and start the singing for the congre- 
 gation to follow, and then another two lines until the whole hymn 
 had been sung, sometimes ten verses. 
 
 Books and papers were exceedingly rare and the schools were 
 few and of a very inferior order. The public school system did 
 not get a start in these parts until after the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century and when that century closed they had made no 
 great improvements. 
 
 The moral and religious conditions were not altogether out of 
 harmony with the other conditions of life in this section of the 
 country at that time. Drunkenness and duelling and personal and 
 political quarreling and fighting were all too common among the 
 men, and especially at log rollings, and corn huskings, and muster 
 gatherings and elections. Their indifference to the claims of God, 
 His worship and work, the salvation of their own souls and of their 
 fellowmen was lamentable, and the sorest of all the trials of our 
 pioneer preachers. 
 
 I have been unable to get material for more than ten of these 
 men. 
 
 THE SCOTCH-IRISH 
 
 Forasmuch as these pioneer preachers are almost without ex- 
 ception of Scotch-Irish lineage it may be well to refresh our mem- 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 7 
 
 ories as to the meaning of that hyphenated word. It does not 
 mean, as many seem to think, a people whose peculiarities are due 
 to the intermarriage of their ancestors, a cross of Scotch with the 
 Irish. There is no Irish blood in the Scotch-Irish people. 
 
 They are pure Scots who were induced by James the First to 
 emigrate from the Stathclyde to North Ireland after a series of re- 
 bellions had been put down, and the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrcon- 
 nell had been conquered and fled and their estates escheated to the 
 English crown. 
 
 These Scotch emigrants did not intermarry with their Irish 
 neighbors but between these two peoples there was and is today, 
 due to several causes, an attitude of antagonism that makes inter- 
 marriage, with rare exceptions, an impossibility. 
 
 Their peculiar environment and experiences, as alien emigrants 
 in a conquered and confiscated country, with hostile natives watch- 
 ing for opportunity to do them harm; a war wasted, desolated and 
 largely deserted land, as uninviting as a desert, that had to be con- 
 verted from deep tangled wildwoods, and malarial marshes, and 
 rocky hillsides, and thorngrown valleys into fertile fields of flax, 
 and grain, and rich pasture lands; — these furnished some of the in- 
 fluences that developed those fine traits of character so prominent 
 in the Scotch-Irish people. 
 
 Small colonies of English Puritans and French Huguenots that 
 King James had settled among these Scotch emigrants doubtless 
 contributed something over there and much more over here toward 
 making and developing the Scotch-Irish character, but these con- 
 tributions were exceedingly small in comparison with the influences 
 of their peculiar environment and experiences. By these they 
 were Providentially prepared for the important part thy were to 
 perform in the settlement and development of this continent. To 
 no other class of early settlers are we more indebted for our great 
 Republic than to these Scotch-Irish folks who came in so large 
 numbers from North Ireland to America during the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 They are related to the Scotch of Scotland somewhat as the im- 
 proved breed is related to the original stock. 
 
Rev* Robert Archibald 
 
 We have no historic or traditional information as to the parent- 
 age or place of birth of the Rev. Robert Archibald. His first ap- 
 pearance is in the graduation class of Princeton College, June, 
 1772. He studied medicine but did not practice. He was granted 
 license to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Orange in the 
 fall of 1775 and three years later, October 7th, 1778, he was or- 
 dained and installed pastor of the Rocky River Church, succeeding 
 the Rev. Hezekiah Balch. 
 
 He seems to have been the second pastor of this ancient and fa- 
 mous church. Between the years of his licensure and his ordina- 
 tion he lived about a mile west from Belmont and preached at 
 Goshen and possibly at other points. He was the first or more 
 probably the second resident Presbyterian minister in the territory 
 now included in the Kings Mountain Presbytery. 
 
 About the same time that he was ordained and installed pastor 
 of Rocky River Church he became pastor also of the Poplar Tent 
 Church. This church was located eight miles from Concord as you 
 go toward Davidson. It received its name from the presence of 
 several splendid poplar trees under which was erected a pulpit 
 platform — called a "Tent" — and from which the gospel was 
 preached in the open air until a house was built for the worship of 
 God. 
 
 While pastor here Mr. Archibald conducted a classical school 
 that was largely attended and that did good service for the church 
 and the state. Some of the prominent men of the first half of the 
 19th century, including the Rev. Humphrey Hunter, could say: "I 
 went to school there." 
 
 Mr. Archibald was a scholar and a man of gifts, but lacking in 
 clearness of conviction and fixedness of purpose. He first thought 
 of practicing medicine, then he entered the ministry as a Calvin- 
 ist, then drifted into Arminianism and finally became a Universal- 
 ist or rather a Restorationist. 
 
 And yet he could be persistent and even stubborn in carrying out 
 his own wishes. While pastor at Poplar Tent he wanted the 
 
OF THE PIEDMONT NORTH CAROLINA 9 
 
 church to use Watts Psalms instead of "The Psalms of David in 
 Metre," which had been in use for years in spite of poor rhyme 
 and worse metre. The congregation was divided, but the larger 
 part were against the change proposed by the preacher. 
 
 Mrs. Alexander says: "When Mr. Archibald saw there was no 
 hope of getting Watts Psalms introduced into public worship peace- 
 fully, he went up into the pulpit and told them he was determined 
 to have them (Watts Version of the Psalms) made use of for all 
 time to come; and he did so. And at times when these psalms 
 were sung; some would go out of hearing, and some others left the 
 Tent (the church) and went and joined other churches that de- 
 spised Watts Psalms." 
 
 This discussion about psalmody was not confined to Poplar Tent, 
 nor was it as short in its life and as weak in its influence as its 
 small importance would lead one to expect. It resulted in a sepa- 
 ration that remains unsettled to this day. Those who favored 
 Watts version of the Psalms held their connection with the Synod 
 of Philadelphia that later grew into the General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church of America. The other party organized 
 themselves into a presbytery and were called Associates or Seced- 
 ers. The only difference then and now is this question of Psalmody, 
 not what version of the Psalms should be used, but should the ser- 
 vice of song be confined to the Psalms. 
 
 October, 1794, the Synod ordered the Presbytery of Orange to 
 proceed to deal with the Rev. Robert Archibald for his heretical 
 doctrines. This they did and Mr. Archibald was suspended from 
 the ministry and all churches were warned against him and his 
 false and dangerous teachings. What these were will appear from 
 a short conversation he is said to have had with a lady in South 
 Carolina shortly after his suspension. She said: "D'ya think some 
 folk will gae to hell for a time and then come out again." "Yes, 
 that's what I think." "And do ya expect to gae there yerself ? 
 "Yes. "And how long do ya expect to stay there," "About fif- 
 teen years. "Ya'd be a pretty singed devil to come out, after being 
 in so long." 
 
 Mr. Archibald preached where he could get a hearing and it may 
 be that the little Universalist church in Fairfield county, South 
 Carolina, was the result of his ministry. 
 
Rev, Humphrey Hunter 
 
 1755-1827 
 
 The Rev. Humphrey Hunter was born in Ulster Ireland near 
 Londerry on the 14th day of May, 1755. His paternal grandmother 
 was a Scotch lassie from Glasgow, and his maternal grandmother 
 was a Huguenot girl from Erest in France. His father died when 
 he was less than four years of age and his widowed mother a few 
 months later took passage with her four year old son on the Helena 
 bound for the Port at Charleston, S. C, where they arrived August 
 27th, 1759, safe and sound, after sailing the Atlantic for three and 
 a half months. Why so long is not explained. 
 
 Their journey by land from Charleston to the congregation of 
 the Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church, N. C, was much shorter 
 and more satisfactory. Here the widow Hunter purchased a farm 
 on which she spent the remaining years of her life, and reared her 
 son after the good old Scotch-Irish fashion. 
 
 There is no record of the sayings and doings of Humphrey Hun- 
 ter until that memorable meeting in Charlotte on the 20th day of 
 May, 1775. He was present as spectator and heard and saw most of 
 the most important things that were said and done in that great 
 Convention. He carried home with him a copy of the Mecklenburg 
 Declaration, and preserved it religiously through the years. 
 
 When he was 23 years of age he decided to leave the farm and 
 secure a classical education. With this purpose he entered the 
 Clio Nursery under the Rev. James Hall, October, 1789, and re- 
 mained one year. While here "he was admitted to the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper in the Bethany congregation." 
 
 After a short expedition as Lieut, under Capt. Robert Mayhem 
 against the Cherokee Indians he entered Queens Museum in Char- 
 lotte, but his stay here was only for a few months, for in the sum- 
 mer of 1780 the school that had taken the name of Liberty Hall 
 Academy was broken up by the Fall of Charleston and the march 
 of Lord Cornwallis toward Charlotte. 
 
 Young Hunter entered the army as Lieut, under Capt. Thomas 
 Givens, witnessed the slaughter of Gates army and the death of 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 11 
 
 Baron De Kalb at Camden, was a prisoner at Orange, S. C, es- 
 caped by night and returned home with a good name for character 
 and courage, and in time to celebrate the surrender of Cornwallis 
 at Yorktown. 
 
 The following four years were spent under the instruction of 
 the Rev. Robert Archibald in his school at Poplar Tent, and then 
 two years in Mt. Zion College, at Winsborough, S. C, from which 
 he graduated July, 1787. Then followed two years of theological 
 study under the Presbytery of S. C. by which Presbytery he was 
 granted license to preach the gospel, October 15th, 1789. 
 
 His first charge was as pastor of the Hopewell and the Aimwell 
 churches in S. C. The salary was fixed at $533.33 1-3 for all his 
 time. He served them for six years. In the fall of 1795 he re- 
 moved to Lincoln County N. C. and accepted a pastoral call to the 
 Goshen and the Unity churches, without any apparent increase in 
 salary. These two congregations embraced all the county on the 
 west side from the Catawba river above Beattie's Ford to the 
 South Carolina line, and west from the river to the large congre- 
 gation of the Olney Church, which was at that time flourishing 
 and extending over a large section of country south west from the 
 court house. He remained in charge of this field for nine years, 
 until 1804. 
 
 In 1805 Mr. Hunter accepted a call to the Steele Creek Church 
 and also served the Hopewell church. This was his last and long- 
 est charge, continuing from 1805 to 1827. He fell on sleep Au- 
 gust 21, 1827, and his monument may be found at the head of his 
 grave near the session room in the burial ground of the Steele 
 Creek Presbyterian Church. The monument was erected by the 
 people of this church. On it they say of Mr. Hunter: "For nearly 
 38 years he labored as a faithful and assiduous Ambassador of 
 Christ, strenuously enforcing the necessity of repentance, and 
 pointing out the terms of Salvation. As a Parent he was kind and 
 affectionate, as a friend warm and sincere; and as a minister per- 
 suasive and convincing." 
 
 This testimony is doubtless true and without any exaggeration. 
 Mr. Hunter was gifted with a strong, well balanced mind which he 
 trained by diligent study. "In his advanced years his infirmities 
 very much contracted his active labors but without impairing the 
 vigor and discrimination of his mental powers or the fervency and 
 faithfulness of his preaching." 
 
 He possessed in a high degree a talent for refined sarcasm, a 
 powerful but dangerous gift, and his answer to triflers was an 
 
12 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 arrow that pierced to the marrow. But such was his kindness of 
 heart, his tact, his sense of the proprieties and his desire to win 
 a friend for Christ rather than to humiliate an opponent that this 
 dangerous gift was used only for the glory of his Lord and Maker. 
 
 He was a close observer of men and things, logical and practical 
 in his reasoning processes, diligent and prayerful in the prepara- 
 tion of his sermons and faithful in the oversight of his flock who 
 were thoroughly instructed in sound doctrine. 
 
 He was above six feet in height, of stalwart structure and im- 
 posing bearing. His eyes were bright and piercing, sometimes 
 even stern and subduing, always revealing the character of a 
 strong, tender and consecrated minister of Christ. 
 
 He was simple in his manners without the least affectation; sin- 
 cere in his friendships, frank and generous in his dealings with 
 men; "while the evil feared him, good men loved him, and as they 
 knew him better they only loved him the more." 
 
Rev- Robert Hall Morrison, D, D, 
 
 1798-1889 
 
 Robert Hall Morrison was the son of William Morrison, a soldier 
 in the Revolutionary War, a farmer and a miller in the Rocky River 
 District of Mecklenburg County. He was a grandson of the Robert 
 Morrison who with his brothers John and James came to America 
 from Scotland in 1750. His mother was Abigail McEwen. He was 
 born in the Rocky River Congregation September 8, 1798, and died 
 on his farm in Lincoln County, N. C, May 13, 1889, in the 91st 
 year of a most active and useful life. When 19 years of age he 
 graduated from the University of N. C, dividing honors with 
 James K. Polk, afterward President of the United States. 
 
 He studied Theology under the Rev. Dr. John Robinson, and then 
 took a course in Princeton Theological Seminary, the nearest in- 
 stitution of that kind within his reach. As there were no rail- 
 roads, nor other public conveyance by which he could travel to 
 Princeton, he put his wardrobe and his library in his saddle pockets 
 and rode horseback to his destination. There he sold his horse 
 and used the money received to defray his expenses while pursuing 
 his studies. 
 
 He was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by the Presbytery of 
 Concord in 1820 and installed pastor of the Providence Church, in 
 Mecklenburg County. After two years of successful ministry in 
 his first charge and five years as pastor of the Fayetteville Church 
 he accepted the call from the Sugar Creek congregation and re- 
 mained with them until he accepted the call to the Presidency of 
 Davidson College. During this period he organized the First 
 Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, with 38 members, and for six 
 years served it one-third of his time and until the congregation 
 wanted a full time pastor. 
 
 Dr. Morrison's most notable work was in connection with the 
 founding of Davidson College. The University of N. C. was es- 
 tablished January, 1795. The Western College was launched in 
 1820 near Lincolnton, and after a precarious existence of a few 
 years was dissolved. It had its origin in the desire for a college 
 
14 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 nearer than Chapel Hill and also for one that would be more 
 useful in supplying the church with young men for the ministry. 
 This idea of a college to promote Christian education and prepare 
 young men for the ministry and that should be under the control 
 of the Church was deeply rooted in the minds and hearts of the 
 members of Concord Presbytery and especially of Dr. Morrison. 
 
 It was at the meeting of Concord Presbytery at Prospect Church 
 March, 1825, that Dr. Morrison introduced a resolution that was 
 adopted by a unanimous vote committing the Presbytery to the 
 establishment of a "Manual Labor School" for the "education of 
 young men preparatory to the Gospel ministry." 
 
 Dr. Morrison was elected chairman of the committee of eight to 
 select a site for the proposed school. He and Rev. P. J. Sparrow 
 were appointed agents to secure funds for the school, which they 
 did to the amount of $30,390.00. As chairman of the committee ap- 
 pointed for the purpose, Dr. Morrison presented to Presbytery the 
 following "Statement of principles to regulate the contemplated 
 school": 
 
 "The Institution shall be under the direction and control of 
 Concord Presbytery. The great and leading object shall be the 
 education of young men for the gospel ministry and the extending 
 of the means of education more generally among all classes of the 
 community. 
 
 "Its privileges shall be accessible to persons of all denomina- 
 tions of good moral character. 
 
 "The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments shall contain 
 the supreme rule of control in the regulation of this institution. 
 
 "For the promotion of health and to diminish the expenses of 
 education, all the students of this institution shall be required to 
 perform manual labor, agricultural or mechanical, in the manner 
 and to the extent deemed proper and necessary by its directors. 
 
 "This institution is designed to afford the competent means for 
 the acquisition of an accomplished classical education." 
 
 DAVIDSON COLLEGE 
 
 Davidson College was opened for students March 1, 1837, with 
 three professors, including Dr. Morrison, the first President. The 
 roll of students contained the names of 75 young men. The salary 
 of the President was $1200 and a house, the same house in which 
 President Martin now lives. The tuitions were for the languages 
 $15. per session and for English $10. Board was $6 per month. 
 The site was on a tract of 469 acres of land purchased from Wil- 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 15 
 
 liam Lee Davidson at a cost of $1521. The school was named 
 Davidson College "as a tribute to the memory of that distinguished 
 and excellent man, General William Davidson, who in ardor of 
 patriotism, fearlessly contending for the liberty of his country, fell 
 (universally lamented) in the battle of Cowand Ford." 
 
 After three years of efficient and successful labors as President 
 of Davidson College Dr. Morrison resigned on account of his health 
 and his resignation was accepted with great reluctance and only 
 because his health made it necessary. He removed his family to 
 his farm in Lincoln County in 1840 where for 49 years his life and 
 labors and influence were spent to the glory of God and the up- 
 building of his kingdom in what is now a part of the territory of 
 Kings Mountain Presbytery. For 30 years he preached to the 
 Unity Church and during that time the church of Castanea Grove, 
 and the Church of Macphelah were organized. They were served by 
 him until the weight of the years made the work of the pastorate a 
 burden too great for his strength. Although he was now an old 
 man he ceased not his labors for the Lord but was busy in the 
 distribution of tracts and good books and especially of 'Bibles. He 
 loved the Bible devotedly and left a legacy to the American Bible 
 Society after he had made his children life members. He was a 
 life director. 
 
 Dr. Morrison did a great work for the church not only in the 
 pastorate and in promoting education under church control, but 
 also in the rearing and training of a Christian family from which 
 have gone out streams of influence that make glad the City of our 
 God. He was married to Miss Mary Graham, on the 27th day of 
 April, 1824, at Vesuvius Furnace, Lincoln County, in the ancestral 
 home of her father, General Joseph Graham of Revolutionary 
 fame. Mrs. Morrison seems to have possessed in a marked degree 
 those virtues that King Lemuel saw in his mother and of which 
 he has sung so sweetly, in the last chapter of Proverbs. 
 
 There were twelve children in this family and every one was a 
 praise to their parents and a blessing to the church and the country. 
 Two were carried to the Father's House in the early morning of 
 childhood after they had fulfilled a blessed ministry. Of the other 
 ten I am sorely tempted to speak in particular as a reminder of 
 the possibilities for service parents possess in the rearing of their 
 children in the fear and love of the Lord — but time forbids. For 
 the most of my hearers nothing more is needed than the mention 
 of their names: Isabella, who married General Daniel H. Hill, C.S. 
 A.; Mary Anne, who married General Thomas J. Jackson (Stone- 
 
16 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 wall) C.S.A.; Eugenia, who married General Rufus Barringer, C.S. 
 A.; Susan, who married Major Alphonso Avery, C.S. A.; Harriet, 
 who married Mr. James P. Irwin; Major William M. Morrison, 
 C.S. A.; Joseph Graham Morrison, Aid to "Stonewall" Jackson, C.S. 
 A.; Robert Hall Morrison, aid to General D. H. Hill, C.S. A. 
 
 Rev. Alfred James Morrison, "the Benjamin of the family, a 
 gifted youth, on whom the mantle of his honored father seemed 
 to fall, and rest, being called of God into the ministry of Jesus 
 Christ, proclaimed the Gospel with a power, a fervor and a suc- 
 cess that seemed but an earnest of still greater blessings to the 
 church" when after a short and very fruitful ministry at Franklin, 
 N. C.| and Selma, Ala., he was called to his Eternal Reward. 
 
 This sketch would be unpardonably incomplete if I did not call 
 attention to the service rendered to the Machpelah Church by 
 Joseph Graham Morrison, the eighth son of Dr. Morrison, so long 
 the pastor of this church. I quote from a tribute by his pastor 
 who said: "Surely a life has been spent in a great mission, when it 
 can be said of one, that at all times he considered the claims of his 
 fellow men upon him. When we consider the little church of Mach- 
 pelah, so long served by his honored father, Rev. Robert Hall Mor- 
 rison, her loss is well nigh irreparable. About five years ago an 
 effort was made to reorganize this little old church, and Captain 
 Morrison and his family came to the rescue, moving their mem- 
 bership from Castanea Grove Church. Here he found a wide 
 sphere of usefulness, serving the church as elder, and taking the 
 lead in all matters of interest to the group of four churches. He 
 was a most valuable and loyal friend to those called to minister to 
 the church over which he had been an overseer." 
 
 Those who knew intimately the Rev. Robert Hall Morrison, are 
 unanimous in according to him a place in the front rank of those 
 truly great men, whose services to the Church of God and to our 
 Commonwealth, entitle them to be held in everlasting and grateful 
 remembrance. 
 
 "He is remembered as a genuine pulpit orator. His style was 
 easy, animated, earnest and pathetic." "He was a pleasant, im- 
 pressive, and successful teacher." "His ministry was a ministry 
 of Power." "His fine native gifts, dignified manners, strong, 
 practical mind united to form a magnetic personality." "His 
 scholarly attainments, his chaste and elegant diction, his dignified 
 mein, his impressive delivery, his heart on fire with the love of 
 soul, captivated his hearers and made his ministry a ministry of 
 power." 
 
 He rests from his labors but his works do follow him. 
 
Rev, John Joseph Kennedy 
 
 1838-4912 
 
 The Rev. John Joseph Kennedy was born of Scotch-Irish parents 
 in the bounds of the Sharon Church in the county of Mecklenburg, 
 N. C, March 3, 1838. His childhood was spent mid the blessings 
 of a pious home with the peculiar privileges and experiences of a 
 North Carolina farmer boy, until he was sent to Davidson College 
 where he graduated in 1859. 
 
 He was taken under the care of the Presbytery of Mecklenburg 
 as a candidate for the Gospel Ministry and sent to the Columbia, 
 S. C, Theological Seminary, from which institution he was grad- 
 uated in the spring of 1864. 
 
 These were the times that tried men's hearts in our Southland. 
 Mr. Kennedy served irregularly as chaplain for the Confederate 
 forces as occasion would permit and as supply for the Olney church 
 until 1868, when he accepted a call to become the pastor of the 
 New Hope and Long Creek churches. He was ordained and in- 
 stalled pastor of these two churches by a commission of Mecklen- 
 burg Presbytery, June 13, 1868. This was a most pleasant and 
 profitable pastorate of 14 years for New Hope and of 17 years for 
 Long Creek. During this pastorate Mr. Kennedy was a real home 
 mission evangelist, at his own charges, giving his sabbath after- 
 noons and evenings to preaching the gospel to mission points and 
 to weak churches like Goshen, Dallas, and Mallard Creek. 
 
 This was a hard work that taxed his loyalty to the Christ and his 
 powers of endurance, for the rides on horseback were long and 
 through all kinds of weather and over mud roads that were some- 
 times almost impassible, but he stood the test, for he loved his 
 Lord and his work. The last three years of his pastorate of the 
 Long Creek church Mr. Kennedy supplied the young church of 
 Gastonia which was organized about this time, and to which he 
 evidently gave a "good send off," considering the progress it af- 
 terward made and the splendid proportions to which it has now 
 attained. 
 
 In 1884 he was called back to Olney church and served them for 
 
18 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 a second series of years until 1889, when he resigned to become 
 the pastor of the Paw Creek Church which he served for three 
 years. 
 
 In 1892 he took charge of a group of Churches consisting of 
 Machpelah, Unity, and Castanea. He served this people with the 
 same fidelity and success that had marked his previous ministry 
 until his health failed and he was forced to live a more quiet and 
 less active life. 
 
 With his failing health he suffered from a serious impairment 
 of his eyesight due to glaucoma brought on by a severe attack of 
 la grippe which settled in his eyes. 
 
 In 1898 he gave up this group, his last regular work, and re- 
 moved to Gastonia, where he resided until his departure to be with 
 Christ, which was on the sixteenth day of July, 1912. On account 
 of the frail condition of his health he gave up regular pastoral 
 work, but as he himself expressed it, he always stood ready to 
 serve where Providence directed. During this time his services 
 were always in demand as preacher wherever there was an 
 empty pulpit. And up until the time when his physical condition 
 forbade Mr. Kennedy always responded to the call for service. To 
 the ministers of Gastonia of every denomination Mr. Kennedy was 
 always extremely dear and his memory will always be held in 
 reverence. 
 
 The hardships endured by Mr. Kennedy during the early years 
 of his long and useful ministry were largely responsible for the 
 suffering that marked his last years. He rode horseback through 
 inclement weather over roads often almost impassible and carried 
 his wardrobe and his library in his saddle pockets. Overcoats were 
 not common in those days nor cheap and so Mr. Kennedy used in- 
 stead a large long wool blanket, like those of which we have heard 
 our fathers speak. When the weather was unusually rough he 
 probably also wore "leggins" made of tough soft cloth two by 
 three feet and wrapped around each leg from the ankle up and 
 fastened to the trousers with large pins, and a broad string. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the difficulties and disadvantages, Mr. Ken- 
 nedy was never known to miss an appointment, nor to begin a 
 service later than the appointed hour. If nobody was present but 
 himself and the sexton he would begin on time even if he himself 
 was the sexton. 
 
 In February, 1912, Mr. Kennedy was stricken with sciatica in 
 the leg brought on by a malignant tumor above his hip joint. 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 19 
 
 During all the following months he suffered intensely but never a 
 murmur or complaint escaped his lips. With that humble forti- 
 tude and strength of character and faith in the goodness of the 
 Lord so characteristic of him he endured the pain and waited the 
 approaching end with great satisfaction. 
 
 His beloved wife, Nancy Jane Holland, had been called into the 
 Higher Service eight years before, as had also four of their six 
 children, but a devoted son and daughter and the grand children 
 and a host of friends ministered tenderly to his wants and re- 
 lieved as far as possible his acute sufferings. 
 
 Appropriate funeral services were held in the First Presbyterian 
 Church of Gastonia, conducted by the Rev. W. E. Mcllwaine, as- 
 sisted by Revs. R. C. Anderson, R. A. Miller, G. A. Sparrow, G. L. 
 Cook, W. R. Minter, and J. C. Galloway. Revs. G. A. Sparrow and 
 R. A. Miller, who knew the deceased most intimately, had lived and 
 labored with him in the same church and Presbytery for twenty 
 years or more, spoke touchingly of Mr. Kennedy's life and char- 
 acter and ministry. They both laid emphasis on the fact that Mr. 
 Kennedy preached the gospel not so much from a sense of duty as 
 from pure love of his Lord and his work. 
 
 "Life is divine when duty is a joy." 
 
Rev. Robert Zenas Johnston 
 
 1834-1908 
 
 Robert Zenas Johnston was of Scotch-Irish lineage, as were al- 
 most all of the best of the people who settled Western Pennsyl- 
 vania, the Valley of Virginia and the Piedmont of the Carolinas. 
 
 He was born near what is now the town of Woodleaf in Rowan 
 County, North Carolina, on the fourteenth day of December, 1834. 
 
 His parents, Rufus D. and Alcy Graham Johnston, were faithful 
 and highly esteemed members of the Third Creek Presbyterian 
 Church. They commanded their children and their household after 
 them to keep the ways of the Lord. 
 
 Robert was at an early age "admitted to the sealing ordinance 
 of the Lord's Supper" in the church of his parents, and of which 
 he was a minor member from his birth. 
 
 He spent his childhood and youth on the farm of his father until 
 he was seventeen years of age, when he had a clear and deep con- 
 viction of duty to serve God in the ministry of the Gospel. This 
 information gave great joy to his father and was in answer to the 
 dying prayer of his mother, although he knew nothing of that 
 prayer until he had been several years in the ministry. 
 
 After two years spent in an excellent preparatory school near 
 the Bethany Church in Iredell County, N. C, he entered Davidson 
 College in the fall of 1854, and was graduated from that institu- 
 tion in 1858. He was a member of the Eumemean Society, a good 
 student who never failed to answer to his name at the Roll Call 
 at Chapel Prayers, except one morning when he was attending the 
 funeral of his sister, and to him was given the deserved honor to 
 deliver the Salutatory Oration in Latin. 
 
 The year 1861 was memorable for many things in the minds of 
 many people. Mr. Johnston was licensed to preach the gospel 
 April 13, 1861, was graduated from the Columbia Theological 
 Seminary May, 1861, was married to Miss Catherine Caldwell May 
 15, 1861, was ordained by Concord Presbytery and installed pastor 
 of the Sharon and Providence churches November 17, 1861. 
 
 He spent eleven happy and useful years in this first charge and 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 21 
 
 his labors were owned and blessed of God until the day he accepted 
 the call to the Lincolnton Church. This second charge was his last 
 and it extended from January, 1872, to April 24, 1908, when he 
 entered into his Eternal Rest. Thirty-six memorable years of ser- 
 vice true for God and fellow man. 
 
 From Lincolnton as a center his labors were extended to the 
 surrounding country in different directions and for long distances. 
 After preaching in his own pulpit at the morning hour of worship 
 he would ride horseback and then in a buggy over rough and 
 trying roads to preach for some mission point, or to supply some 
 small church at the afternoon or evening service. Among the 
 smaller churches thus served by him were Goshen, Mt. Holly, 
 Stanley Creek, Dallas, Shelby, Waco, Cherryville, Hephzibah and 
 Ironton. In all these and other places where he ministered in love 
 to the people his memory is revered and loved. 
 
 He was for twenty-five years the stated clerk of Mecklenburg 
 Presbytery, and the Moderator of the Synod of North Carolina in 
 1887. While pastor of the Lincolnton Church, he and his church 
 were members of three different Presbyteries. The first was 
 Mecklenburg, which was formed from Concord in 1869, and then 
 in 1896 Asheville Presbytery was formed from Mecklenburg, and 
 then again in 1902 Kings Mountain Presbytery was formed from 
 Asheville. 
 
 Mr. Johnston was always greatly interested in education. He 
 served for several terms as Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 of Lincoln County, as Chairman of the Board of Education, as 
 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Lincolnton Female 
 Academy, and as Trustee of Davidson College. 
 
 Mr. Johnston was abundant in labors, preaching three times 
 each sabbath, and often during the week, giving catchetical in- 
 struction to classes after the fashion of Baxters Reformed Pastor, 
 riding through rain and sleet and storms, and never failing to 
 meet his appointment, and at the same time giving of his time and 
 energy and influence for every good enterprise in the community. 
 He took a lively interest in the meetings of Presbytery and Synod 
 and was never absent save once from each. 
 
 In the matter of salary I suppose Mr. Johnston fared as the 
 average of those pioneer preachers who laid the foundations of our 
 church with great labor and self-sacrifice and heroic devotion. 
 The salary from Goshen Church consisted of a load of corn deliv- 
 ered in the late fall every year, and from Ironton it was a milk 
 
22 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 cow every spring. The combined salary from all the churches 
 sometimes reached a maximum of five hundred dollars, and paid 
 not in monthly installments, but "a little now and a little then 
 and the balance at the end of the year." The family thought they 
 were making decided progress when the church treasurer would 
 come around the first monday of the month to bring a small part 
 of the salary and explain why that was all he could do at that 
 time. 
 
 As there were nine in this family it would seem that the full 
 monthly part of this small salary would be necessary to keep things 
 going, and yet somehow they kept going. With the help of the 
 cows and the chickens, the fruits and vegetables, and the economic 
 skill and financial ability of Mr. and Mrs. Johnston all debts 
 were paid when due, and there was no lack in the family. When 
 the time came for the children to go away to school, somehow the 
 money was available, and all the children who grew to maturity 
 received a college education. This was a financial achievement of 
 no small proportions and could scarcely be duplicated at the present 
 time. 
 
 Miss Catherine Caldwell, to whom Mr. Johnston was married 
 in 1861, was the daughter of Mr. R. P. Caldwell, a large planter 
 in Chester and Fairfield Counties, S. C. and also an elder in the 
 "Old Catholic (Presbyterian) Church." She was a lovely 
 Christian character, a wife worthy of her husband, and a mother 
 whose praise is the children she reared. She finished her work on 
 earth and on the twenty-ninth day of September, 1901, she passed 
 into the presence of her Lord in heaven. There are living today 
 59 descendants of Rev. and Mrs. Johnston, including two sons, 
 Joseph B., the efficient Manager of the Barium Springs Orphans 
 Home, and Rufus Zenas, captain of the battleship Arkansas; also 
 three grandchildren who are missionaries in China, Rev. R. J. 
 McMullen, Miss Nettie McMullen, and Mrs. Kittie McMullen 
 Farrior. Of this home Dr. Minter said: "It was a fit picture of 
 the home in heaven, distilling the sweet fragrance of Christ's 
 presence." 
 
 Mr. Johnston was of a bright, cheerful disposition, who im- 
 pressed all who knew him with the truth that he cast all his 
 care on the Lord and worried about nothing. But there was one 
 thing he did not want. He did not want to be set aside. He 
 wanted and prayed earnestly that he might be permitted to con- 
 tinue in the Lords work down here until the call should come for 
 him to come up higher. His prayer was heard and most gracious- 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 23 
 
 ly answered. At the close of his sermon Sabbath night, being the 
 second sermon for that day, he was taken sick in the pulpit at 
 Dallas and carried home and on the following Friday he bade his 
 sorrowing friends farewell and passed through the portals eternal 
 of the city not made with hands. 
 
 Appropriate funeral services were conducted by the Rev. W. R. 
 Minter, recently elected pastor of the Lincolnton Church, assisted 
 by nine ministers from other churches, and the body of the Rev. 
 Robert Zenas Johnston was laid to rest in the cemetery beside the 
 graves of his beloved wife and two of their children. The immense 
 congregation that filled the Presbyterian church, built under his 
 ministry, and that overflowed to almost the capacity of the 
 church yard; and the tributes of appreciation from the Lincolnton 
 Church, the Lincolnton Ministers Conference, the Lincolnton 
 Female Acadaemy, the Presbytery of Kings Mountain, the Synod 
 of North Carolina, and other tributes also, testify to the high 
 esteem in which this man was held as "the First Citizen of Lincoln 
 County," as a preacher, a pastor and a man of God, "who being 
 dead yet speaketh." 
 
 "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea 
 saith the Spirit, they rest from their labors and their works do 
 follow them." 
 
Rev. Wm. E. Mcllwaine, D. D. 
 
 The Rev. Wm. E. Mcllwaine was born in Union County, North 
 Carolina, February 19, 1945. He united with the Six Mile Creek 
 Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, South Carolina, 1862. He was 
 taken under the care of Mecklenburg Presbytery as a candidate 
 for the ministry at the Sugaw Creek Church, April, 1873; was 
 licensed to preach, or rather "to try his gifts," at a meeting of the 
 same Presbytery in the First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, 
 May 1874. and was ordained to the full work of the ministry of 
 Mecklenburg Presbytery in the Hopewell Presbyterian Church, 
 May, 1875. 
 
 This church was Mr. Mcllwaine's first charge from 1875 to 1884. 
 During this time the First Church of Gastonia was organized — 
 July 16, 1882 — with 26 members from the Olney and Union 
 Churches with a few from Long Creek and Bethel in S. C. For 
 two years the Gastonia Church was served by several "supplies." 
 Mr. Mcllwaine was the first pastor. When he took charge in 1884 
 there were 50 members and it was the only church in a town of 
 500 people. 
 
 Of his ministry here I quote from Dr. Mcllwaine's letter to me 
 of May 26th: "There was constant growth in the town and espec- 
 ially in our church. I gave one-half of my time to this church 
 and the other half to New Hope. After six years the Gastonia 
 Church had grown to 130 members and called me for all my time 
 at a salary of $800.00. During these six years the Gastonia 
 Church built the first manse in the county for one of our ministers. 
 Up to this time our ministers generally owned their own homes 
 and lived in the country. 
 
 "There were great developments within the Hopewell Church 
 where I gave one-half of my time. I soon began preaching at 
 Lowell on the Railroad, sabbath evenings after preaching at New 
 Hope Church in the mornings. These evening services resulted in 
 the building of the present church house of worship at Lowell and 
 the organization of the Lowell Church. 
 
 "At alternate sabbath evenings I preached at Belmont and these 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 25 
 
 evening services resulted in the building of the first house of 
 worship at Belmont and the organization of the Belmont Church 
 (November 15, 1890). 
 
 "These two buildings were erected with very little help from the 
 Presbytery of Mecklenburg, if any help at all. And besides these 
 two buildings we erected what was then known as McLean's 
 Chapel, near the home of Mr. John McLean. 
 
 "After my resignation of the New Hope part of my work, the 
 New Hope, Lowell and Belmont Churches called Rev. R. A. Miller 
 for the whole of his time and became responsible for his salary 
 without help from Presbytery. 
 
 "To sum up: In five or six years two churches grew into four 
 church organizations with five church buildings, all paid for, and 
 employing and supporting two ministers instead of one. Does 
 the history of Mecklenburg Presbytery, or Kings Mountain Presby- 
 tery reveal larger or better results in the same length of time?" 
 
 Having with the divine blessing placed this fine work in such 
 good shape he felt that he could pass it on to other hands. 
 
 He then became one of the evangelists of the Synod of North 
 Carolina and continued to live within the bounds of the Mecklen- 
 burg Presbytery, and served as chairman of its committee of Home 
 Missions by the earnest request of the Presbytery. From this 
 work he went to Alabama and served for three years as superin- 
 tendent of Home Missions in that Synod. 
 
 "As I look back over a long and busy ministry of more than 50 
 years I have the happiest recollections of my labors of love among 
 the Presbyterians of Gaston County. After more than 50 years 
 of continuous service I am so thankful to say that I am in perfect 
 health and still at work for Christ and His kingdom on earth. As 
 head of our Home Mission work in Florida Presbytery, I recently 
 held the opening service in the new church of Havana, Florida, and 
 on next Sabbath (the 5th Sabbath of May, 1927) I will hold a 
 similar service in our new church at Ponce de Leon, Florida." 
 
 In his historic address at the Semi-Centennial of the Mecklen- 
 burg Presbytery held in the Steele Creek Church, September, 1919, 
 Dr. Mcllwaine made a few statements to which I shall call atten- 
 tion of this Presbytery. He said that when the Presbytery of 
 Mecklenburg was organized in 1869 there was not a church of 
 the Presbytery that had a manse for the pastor. There were 20 
 country churches at that time and not one had been dissolved, but 
 they were stronger after 50 years than they were when the Pres- 
 
26 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 bytery was set off from the Presbytery of Concord in 1869. These 
 20 country churches included the famous seven — Sugaw Creek, 
 Steele Creek, Providence, Hopewell, Rocky River, Poplar Tent and 
 Center — from which came the men who gave to the world the 
 first American Declaration of Independence. The first standing 
 rule adopted by the Presbytery of Mecklenburg was that the fall 
 meetings of the Presbytery should be held in the mountain portion 
 of its territory. This rule was strictly observed for many years 
 and at no little discomfort oft times to the brethren, on account 
 of distances and roads. The first committee appointed by the 
 Presbytery was a committee to secure a Presbyterial evangelist 
 immediately. 
 
 This brief sketch will conclude with a quotation from the pen 
 of Dr. W. W. Moore, referring to the North Carolina Synodical 
 evangelistic work which was fully organized in 1888: "The thing 
 that deserves emphasis is that Dr. Mcllwaine, Mecklenburg's chair- 
 man of Home Missions at that time, was one of the prime movers 
 in this epoch-making action, as indeed he was in almost every other 
 forward movement of the Church. At that same meeting of the 
 Synod, for instance, he introduced a resolution in answer to a me- 
 morial from the Presbyterian Lady Managers of the "Home and 
 Hospital" in Charlotte, appointing a commission to establish the 
 Orphans Home, now at Barium Springs, one of the most important 
 steps taken by the Synod. 
 
 "In every way he was a leader and a creative worker of wide 
 visions of bold initiative, of sound judgment, of unflagging zeal, and 
 it was one of the chief felicities of the semi-centennial celebra- 
 tion that he was selected to tell the stirring story of those first 
 fifty years. Happy the Presbytery with such a historian. Happy 
 the historian of such a Presbytery." 
 
Rev* Robert Newton Davis 
 
 1818-1871 
 
 The Rev. Robert Newton Davis was a brother of the Rev. Thom- 
 as E. Davis who at one time was pastor of the Rutherfordton and 
 Old Brittain churches. He was also the uncle of the Rev. Edward 
 Payson, D.D., who was the son of the Rev. Thomas E. Davis. They 
 were all descendants of Scotch-Irish parents who settled at first 
 in the Lancaster District of South Carolina, and then removed into 
 the bounds of the Rocky River Church in North Carolina. This 
 grand old church had a great drawing power for people who had 
 been cast in the mould of natures nobility. 
 
 On a farm in the Rocky River community Robert Newton Davis 
 was born August 12, 1818. His parents were devout members of 
 the Rocky River Presbyterian Church and brought up their chil- 
 dren in the love and fear of the Lord and with their memories well 
 stored with that form of sound words known as the Shorter Cate- 
 chism. 
 
 The Rocky River Church was and is a great church, with a his- 
 tory of which any church might feel a humble and grateful pride. 
 It was not in that early history nor is it now so conservative as it 
 was reported to have been during the pastorate of the Rev. J. B. 
 Mack, D.D. In one of Dr. J. I. Vance's charming little books he 
 records Dr. Mack's account of the opposition of the session of this 
 church to everything new somewhat after this fashion. Dr. Mack 
 said he had utterly failed to get his session to consent to a much 
 needed improvement and when he went home that night he had a 
 wonderful dream. He thought they were all, pastor and elders, car- 
 ried suddenly away beyond the hills and the houses, beyond the 
 clouds and the stars. The sky grew more and more resplendent- 
 ly bright and beautiful as they ascended until they stood before 
 the burnished gate of the Celestial City. From within they could 
 hear the music so sweet and soul-stirring, so uplifting and enrap- 
 turing, so full of high praise and holy joy, so far surpassing any- 
 thing that they had ever heard or conceived that one of the elders 
 asked the gatekeeper eagerly, "What is that beautiful song to 
 which we are listening." He was told "That is the New Song of 
 
28 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 Moses and the Lamb.' Startled this elder asked "what place is 
 this?" and was told "This is the New Jerusalem.' Then those 
 elders looked one upon another and said "Brethren this is no place 
 for us. Back to Rocky River." 
 
 This church may or may not have justified this dream but in 
 1832 it had an Academy taught by Mr. R. J. McDowell that was a 
 veritable fount of blessings to the community and to the church at 
 large. To that famous school Robert Davis was sent when four- 
 teen years of age to spend three years in faithful and profitable 
 study. 
 
 May, 1836, he made a public profession of his faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and was admitted to the privileges and responsibilities 
 of a communicant member in the church of his parents. 
 
 He taught school two years to secure the money he would need 
 to pay his expenses in securing a collegiate education and then, 
 when Davidson College opened its doors to students for the first 
 time and began in a humble way its splendid career of service to 
 the church and the state, he was one of the first of the young men 
 to be enrolled. 
 
 He entered Davidson College March 1, 1837, and was graduated 
 with credit to himself and his alma mater August, 1840. While a 
 college student he was diligent in his studies, irreproachable in his 
 conduct, obedient to constituted authority, kind and courteous to 
 his fellow students. 
 
 In the spring of 1843 he graduated from the Union Theological 
 Seminary of Virginia after completing a full three years course of 
 theological studies. In the fall of that same year he was licensed 
 to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Concord in session at 
 Poplar Tent Church. 
 
 In the spring of 1844 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Lex- 
 ington and installed pastor of the Warm Springs Church in Vir- 
 ginia, which he served with his accustomed fidelity six years and 
 until he accepted the call from the Lincolnton and Long Creek 
 churches in his native state. 
 
 This second charge was also his last. It extended over more 
 than 20 years from January, 1850, to the 24th day of April, 1871. 
 It was a fruitful ministry and to human sight, all too short. In 
 the fifty-second year of his life and the twenty-seventh of his min- 
 istry, in the fullness of abounding and prosperous labors for his 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 29 
 
 Lord and at the peak of his popularity he was pro- 
 moted on the field of action here to a higher service in the presence 
 of the King. 
 
 The same year that he was installed pastor of his first charge 
 (1844), he was married to Miss Elizabeth Morton of Prince Ed- 
 ward County, Va. She was a comfort to him all his days and a 
 real helpmeet in all his abounding labors as one of the pioneer 
 preachers whose memory we delight to honor. Her memory is 
 enshrined in the hearts of many who sorrowed with her in the 
 "Home Going" of her gifted and devoted and consecrated husband. 
 
 The Session of the Lincolnton Church placed on their records a 
 worthy tribute to their departed pastor, from which I quote: "To 
 our departed brother was given more than ordinary measure of 
 mental gifts and endowments, and these he had successfully and 
 zealously cultivated in a life of laborous study. To a mind thus 
 disciplined and enlarged there was, as its crown of adornment, an 
 earnest heartfelt living piety, all his gifts and acquirements being 
 consecrated to that Savior whom he loved so well. His discourses 
 were preeminently instructive and interesting. He was a Scrip- 
 tural preacher, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, able 
 rightly to divide the word of truth. He was greatly esteemed and 
 beloved not only by the members of this session and of the congre- 
 gation but also by the entire community among whom he spent the 
 greater part of his life." 
 
 This sketch will close with a few extracts from the Memorial 
 adopted by the Presbytery of Mecklenburg: "As a Christian, Mr. 
 Davis was distinguished not only for the consistent performance 
 of the relative duties of life, but also for the kind and amiable 
 manner of his social intercourse. He sought the welfare of others 
 with so much modesty, humility and benevolence as to gain their 
 goodwill. Few men have been more generally beloved by all class- 
 es of society. 
 
 "As a minister he was prudent, unassuming and faithful. He 
 preached the great doctrines of the gospel in a plain, affectionate 
 and earnest manner. The work of the ministry was to him the 
 great business of life to which he cheerfully devoted all his time 
 and talents and influence. 
 
 "As a member of the Courts of the Church he was remarkable 
 for his punctual attendance upon their meetings and for a cheerful 
 performance of all services demanded. He was frequently called 
 to record their proceedings. 
 
 "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
 ment, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for- 
 ever and ever." 
 
Rev* James Davidson Hall 
 
 1806-1892 
 
 James Davidson Hall was born near Statesville, Iredell County, 
 N. C, March 17th, 1806. He was a worthy son of a sturdy Scotch- 
 Irish ancestry. His great grandfather was one of those liberty 
 loving Presbyterians, who during the first half of the eighteenth 
 century came in so large numbers from North Ireland to America. 
 His first settlement was in Pennsylvania in the year 1720. In 
 1751 he moved to what is now Iredell County, North Carolina, 
 where he reared a large and influential family. More than sixty 
 of his direct descendants are known to have entered the Presby- 
 terian ministry. Three of these attained to the high honor of the 
 Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 
 the United States: his son, James Hall, D.D., his great, great 
 grandson, W. T. Hall, D.D., and Judge Allen G. Hall, of Nashville, 
 Tenn. 
 
 James Davidson Hall's father and mother were James Hall of 
 Iredell County, North Carolina, and his wife Rachel Johnston. 
 They were both Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and proceeded to rear 
 and teach and train their children after the accepted pattern under 
 which they themselves had been "brought up", with strong empha- 
 sis on keeping the sabbath day holy, reading the Bible reverently 
 and committing to memory the Shorter Catechism. It was the 
 good Scotch recipe for bringing up children "in the way they 
 should go." 
 
 Not only was Mr. Hall fortunate in the family from which he 
 sprang, but also in the community in which he was reared. It 
 was a God-fearing community. It had its church with school 
 nearby. In the one he learned to love the Lord, and in the other 
 he formed a taste for good literature, and was fired with a desire 
 for a finished education. 
 
 He entered the Junior Class of the University of N. C. in 1826 
 and two years later he graduated with the second highest honor. 
 After teaching two years at Washington, N. C, he entered Union 
 Theological Seminary, Va., from which institution he was grad- 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 31 
 
 uated in 1833. He was ordained evangelist by Orange Presbytery 
 March 8, 1833. Two years later he became the pastor of Thyatira 
 and Franklin churches in Rowan County, N. C. 
 
 In 1846 he removed to Gaston County where he spent the remain- 
 der of his long and useful life. His principal charge was Goshen, 
 New Hope, and Olney, but at different times he ministered also to 
 all the churches of the county; Union in its infancy, Long Creek, 
 Hephzibah and in addition he cultivated one or more mission points. 
 He preached in season and out of season, and often without money 
 and without price. For many years he was the lone watchman in 
 Gaston county, and largely because of his efforts the Presbyterian 
 Church in that county lived and grew. As a preacher he was al- 
 ways sound and strong, and at times moving. 
 
 When he came to Gaston County he found a great lack of edu- 
 cational advantages. There were no public schools, and such 
 schools as existed were of a low order. With characteristic ener- 
 gy he set about remedying this condition by erecting a classical 
 school of high order. He became himself the principal teacher. 
 To this school came boys from a large section of North Carolina 
 and from the upper part of South Carolina. Scores of young men 
 were fitted for life, who almost invariably became useful citizens 
 as preachers, doctors, lawyers, business men, and farmers. Being 
 a strong character and an unusual classical scholar he left an in- 
 delible impression upon his pupils. 
 
 He was one of the founders of Davidson College and the only one 
 present at the Semi-Centennial Anniversary when Dr. Jethro Rum- 
 ple delivered the historic address. Dr. Rumple said on that occas- 
 ion: "Quite a number of young men, full of hope and enterprise, 
 had entered the ministry of Concord Presbytery while Western 
 College was trying to live. When these young men had achieved 
 position and influence by a dozen years of experience, they de- 
 termined to reopen and reagitate the college building subject.** 
 Precious is the memory of these devout men and it is fitting that 
 they should be held in everlasting remembrance. I see one of 
 them, Rev. James D. Hall, on the platform today, and I tender 
 him the thanks of all, for his services fifty years ago and our con- 
 gratulations that God has spared him to see this happy day." 
 
 The War Between the States swept away much of his earthly 
 possessions, but like others in our Southland, he arose from the 
 
32 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 catastrophe with undaunted courage, to renew his efforts to meet 
 the needs of his family and provide for the education of his chil- 
 dren. 
 
 He was married three times. His first wife was a Miss Brandon 
 who lived only a short time after their marriage. Their son was 
 the Rev. William Thomas Hall, who graduated from Davidson Col- 
 lege and from Columbia Theological Seminary and served as pas- 
 tor at Lancaster, S. C, and at Ebenezer, S. C, and as Chaplain 
 in the Confederate army, and as pastor at Canton, Miss., (10 
 years), and at Lynchburg, Va., for twenty-one years and then for 
 the remainder of his life as Professor of Theology in the Columbia 
 Theological Seminary. He was elected the Moderator of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of 1902, at Jackson, Miss. 
 
 The second wife of James Davidson Hall was Miss Elvira Scott, 
 whose married life was short and whose only child was a son, 
 James, who died in early youth. The third wife was Miss Eliza- 
 beth Neagle, who for almost half a century lived to bless her hus- 
 band and their six children. 
 
 These were John Davidson Hall, a useful citizen residing on a 
 farm near Saluda, N. C; Matthew Neagle Hall, a successful busi- 
 ness man and farmer, who for some years was an elder in the 
 Goshen and then until death elder of the Belmont Presbyterian 
 Church; Miss Elvira Hall, who married the Rev. R. M. Hall, of 
 Plymouth, 111.; Franklin Price Hall, who after graduating from 
 Davidson College gave his life to school work, and for more than 
 twenty-five years has been at the head of the Public School Sys- 
 tem of Gaston County, N. C, and largely responsible for its re- 
 markable success. Laban Barringer Hall died unmarried; Rev. 
 Joseph Kirkland Hall, who after graduating from Davidson Col- 
 lege and Union Theological Seminary served as pastor at Ashland, 
 Va., and at McConnellsville, S. C. as Principal of the Westminster 
 School two years, and then as pastor at Lillington, N. C, and 
 Parkton, N. C. He is chairman of the Historical committee of 
 Kings Mountain Presbytery, a brother beloved and held in high 
 honor. John Quincy Hall, fifth son and sixth child in his fathers 
 family is a successful farmer and a ruling elder in the Belmont 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 When the weight of many years of service began to press heavily 
 upon the failing strength of the Rev. James Davidson Hall, he was 
 enabled of God to lay down his burdens one by one, and to find a 
 sweet satisfaction in meditating on the goodness of God, and in 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 33 
 
 the reflections of a well spent life as the father of a notable family, 
 and as one of the pioneer preachers in the Piedmont of the Caro- 
 linas. As he lingered in the gloaming and waited for the opening 
 of the gates of gold he spake often of the grace and loving kind- 
 ness of the Lord and of that communion with Him in the quiet of 
 the eventide that made the last years of his long and useful life the 
 sweetest and happiest. When the last call came on the twenty- 
 fifth day of August, 1892, he was in his eighty-seventh year, and 
 all ready to depart and be with Christ. So he fell asleep in Jesus. 
 Honor was paid to his memory by a multitude of friends and his 
 body was laid to rest in the graveyard of the old Goshen Church 
 until the resurrection morn. 
 
 "The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holi- 
 ness and do immediately pass into glory; their bodies being still 
 united to Christ do rest in their graves till the resurrection." 
 
Rev* Edward Payson Davis, D. D- 
 
 1851 
 
 There were three men in this Davis family who are entitled to 
 a place among the Pioneer Presbyterian preachers of the Piedmont 
 of North Carolina. They were the Rev. Edward Payson Davis, 
 D.D., his father, the Rev. Thomas E. Davis, one time pastor of the 
 Olney church, and of the Rutherfordton and Brittain churches, and 
 his uncle the Rev. Robert N. Davis, D.D., for twenty years pastor 
 of the Lincolnton and Long Creek churches and preacher at a num- 
 ber of mission stations in the surrounding country. 
 
 They were the descendants of Scotch-Irish emigrants who came 
 to this country from the North of Ireland during the first half of 
 the eighteenth century, as did the forebears of so many of the 
 great men of our nation. 
 
 Rev. Thomas E. Davis was born in the Lancaster district, South 
 Carolina, but was carried by his father to a farm in the bounds 
 of the Rocky River Church, North Carolina, when he was eight 
 years of age. 
 
 Working the farm was his occupation until he was twenty-one 
 years of age when he heard the call of God to preach the gospel, 
 and he was not disobedient to that heavenly voice, but after due 
 preparation in the Rocky River Academy he entered Davidson Col- 
 lege, from which institution he was graduated in 1838. He was 
 graduated from the Union Theological Seminary at Hampden-Sid- 
 ney, Virginia, in 1841. His licensure and ordination followed in 
 due time, as did also his marriage to Miss Harriet Lee Dobson. 
 
 Six children came into this family, but only two lived to be 
 grown; Robert Chalmers, who became an eminent physician in 
 New York City, and Edward Payson, who is now living in Green- 
 ville, South Carolina. 
 
 When the Rev. Thomas Davis was pastor of the Rutherfordton 
 and Brittain churches, a baby boy was born into his family at an 
 unrecorded hour of July the twelfth, 1851, and in due time was 
 christened Edward Payson. His boyhood was spent in the usual 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 35 
 
 way for a son of the manse in pioneer days, and without anything 
 that could be called prophetic or thrilling. He was prepared for 
 Davidson College by his father, who was both preacher and teacher, 
 and good at both, and graduated from that institution in June, 
 1873. 
 
 After teaching school one year at McConnellsville, South Caro- 
 lina, he entered Columbia Theological Seminary, and was grad- 
 uated from that School of the Prophets in the spring of 1877. 
 
 While a student at Davidson College he had been converted un- 
 der the able preaching of Professor Monroe Anderson, and imme- 
 diately felt the call to devote his life to the gospel ministry. 
 
 He was licensed by the Mecklenburg Presbytery at Wadesboro, 
 North Carolina, April, 1877, and dismissed to the Presbytery of 
 South Carolina that he might accept a call he had received from 
 two churches in Abbeville county of that state. 
 
 He presented his letter of transfer to the latter Presbytery in 
 session in Greenville, S. C, Sept., 1877, and after a satisfactory 
 examination a commission was appointed to ordain and install him 
 pastor of the Hopewell and Willington churches. Hopewell was 
 then not far from a hundred years old, for the deed to the church 
 land is dated 1788, and the first ruling elder was Patrick Calhoun, 
 father of the famous and greatly gifted John C. Calhoun. This 
 church once had about six hundred members and was a power in 
 the land. 
 
 Willington Church was organized in 1813 by the Rev. Moses 
 Waddell, D.D., and consisted largely of Huguenots, a splendid peo- 
 ple. It was never so large as Hopewell — having at the most pros- 
 perous period only one hundred and forty members — but Dr. Wad- 
 dell's famous school was located in this community and that gave 
 the church for some years a peculiar importance. 
 
 There was living in the Hopewell community a charming young 
 lady, an active member of the church, a graduate of the Due West 
 Female College, who had been living with her aunt in this com- 
 munity since the death of her mother when she was a child of two 
 years. This young lady, whose father, the Rev. James Alexander 
 Lowry, D. D., was held in high honor by his ministerial brethren in 
 the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of Alabama, had 
 many charms and they proved irresistible to the young pastor. 
 On the twenty-ninth day of December, 1880, Miss Mary Agnes 
 Lowry became the wife of the Rev. Edward Payson Davis and for 
 
36 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 forty-seven years she has been to him a real helpmeet and to his 
 seven children she has been such a mother as children love to rise 
 up and call blessed. 
 
 After more than six happy and prosperous years spent with 
 these two old churches the young preacher accepted a call from 
 the Home Mission Committee of Mecklenburg Presbytery to take 
 charge of the "Shelby Field" in North Carolina. This was a large 
 contract. It meant that he would live in Shelby and preach there 
 two sabbaths each month and the other sabbaths would be given 
 to Forest City, eighteen miles distant, where we had no organiza- 
 tion; Duncans Creek, 20 miles distant, where there was a Northern 
 Presbyterian church of 12 members; and Sandy Plains, which was 
 thirty miles distant, where we had a little Church of 14 members. 
 
 These distances were traveled on horseback or in a buggy and 
 over roads that were always rough and trying, and often almost 
 impassible. It was hard work as is always true of pioneer work, 
 but pioneer work pays as may be seen by a comparison of the 
 conditions of our church in that territory then and now. 
 
 These were not the only preaching places although they were 
 more than the number of sabbaths in each month, but Mr. Davis 
 preached wherever there was an opportunity whether in a house or 
 in the open air with his congregation perched on a fence or sitting 
 on stones or sprawling on the ground or just standing up. He 
 remembers the many splendid virtues of these "mountain men" 
 and he also has a vivid recollection of the ignorance, and bigotry, 
 and prejudice against paying a preacher for his services; all of 
 which has not passed with the progress of the years. 
 
 Mr. Davis writes as follows: "We arrived in Shelby, November 
 14, 1883, and were very kindly received by the people. They met 
 us cordially and gave us many handsome and useful presents. My 
 salary from the field was $800.00 and I had to rent my own house. 
 After the first year the good people of Shelby bought for a manse 
 the house I had rented and the three acres of land that went with 
 the house helped to supplement our salary. They completed their 
 house of worship, varnished the seats, calcimined the walls, and 
 put a carpet on the floor. A sabbath school was organized and a 
 small library purchased. The deacons were organized into a 
 board, the children into a juvenile missionary society and the la- 
 dies into the aid society with special reference to paying the debt 
 on the manse." 
 
 Shelby at that time had fifteen hundred people, one college, two 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 37 
 
 high schools, two newspapers, four churches, several cigar and 
 tobacco factories and a warehouse that shipped 10,000 to 12,000 
 bales of cotton annually. It was considered a strategic point. 
 
 After two years Dr. Davis continued to give Shelby two Sabbaths 
 each month and the other time to Kings Mountain, which had 
 been organized into a church of 18 members, and the Shiloh Church 
 at Grover that had 20 members. To each of these small churches 
 he gave one Sabbath each month. Shiloh had a small house of 
 worship but there was no house of worship at Kings Mountain. 
 This congregation was dependent upon the courtesy of the Metho- 
 dist and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches for the 
 use of their houses of worship when they were not in service. 
 This situation was of course not to be continued. After a few 
 months this young and feeble band bought a small wood building 
 on the west side of the railroad, on the southeast corner of Rail- 
 road and Kings Streets. This they converted into a comfortable 
 place for worship, for several years and until they secured the 
 present brick building on the corner of Piedmont and Mountain 
 Streets, in the center of the town. 
 
 Dr. Davis was the first pastor of the Shelby Church which had 
 before that time been served by supplies. He was the first Pres- 
 byterian preacher to live in a manse in that town, and the only 
 Presbyterian preacher in Cleveland county at that time. He was 
 the first regular supply of the Kings Mountain Church which was 
 organized April 5, 1884, and helped this young flock to get a house 
 of worship and well started on the way to subsequent growth and 
 prosperity. 
 
 Comparing the conditions in Cleveland County as they were 
 in 1883 with what they are in 1927 we find an increase from one 
 Presbyterian preacher to three, from two Presbyterian Churches 
 to three, from no manse to three, from no sabbath school to three, 
 from two unfinished church buildings to three, of which two have 
 .splendid sabbath school equipment, from 109 communicants to 
 560. 
 
 Remembering the hardships of his work in the presence of this 
 progress Dr. Davis writes as follows: "Expansion and not con- 
 centration is the divine policy for the upbuilding of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven on the earth. When the church ceases to grow it has 
 begun to die. The people in every community need the helpful 
 influences of the ideals and doctrines and moral standards 
 peculiar to the presence and preaching of the Presbyterian Church, 
 
38 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 and where these things are understood this Church receives a cor- 
 dial welcome. When I labored in the Shelby Field the work was 
 primitive and hard and carried on under most trying conditions, 
 but when I compare the conditions then and now (1927) I am more 
 than ever convinced of the supreme importance of aggressive 
 Home Mission work. This is a work that calls for faith and 
 patience and vision. Where the vision fails the work lags and 
 the people perish." 
 
 With the close of the year 1887 Dr. Davis closed his ministry 
 in this territory. From January, 1888, to the fall of 1892 he was 
 pastor of the First Church of Winston-Salem, succeeding the Rev. 
 F. H. Johnston, D. D., who was the first pastor of that church. 
 Here he built a new house of worship and a chapel for a mission 
 that has since grown into a self-supporting church. One young 
 man, T. W. DeVane, entered the ministry. 
 
 From the fall of 1892 to July, 1900, Dr. Davis was pastor of the 
 First Church, Montgomery, Alabama, succeeding the greatly be- 
 loved Dr. T. DeWitt Burkhead. Here he built a chapel for a 
 mission that has since grown into a self-supporting church. Three 
 young men, whose names are now well known in the church, enter- 
 ed the ministry: E. L. Hill, G. D. Booth, and W. D. Burkhead, a son 
 of the former pastor. 
 
 From July, 1900, to February, 1905, he was pastor of the 
 Opelika and Auburn Churches, when an unexpected and urgent call 
 came from the Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville, South 
 Carolina, and although this was a weak and struggling band of 
 about one hundred members, he accepted the call and began work 
 with his well known energy and ability. When he resigned this 
 charge after 20 years of most delightful and successful labor the 
 the church had a commodious house of worship, a modern manse, 
 a membership of 517 with 24 officers, and was contributing about 
 $23,000 for all causes annually. It is one of the strong churches 
 of that Presbytery. 
 
 Dr. Davis has had a long and fruitful ministry with many 
 tokens of the favor of the King, "Whose he is and whom he 
 serves." He resigned from the pastorate of his church but he 
 did not resign from the active work of the ministry. His bow 
 abides in strength and his evangelistic spirit knows no abating. 
 
 One of the large contributions of Dr. and Mrs. Davis to the 
 Kingdom of God consist of their seven children, of whom six are 
 now living and working for the Master. The first born is Rev. 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 39 
 
 Lowry Davis, D. D., for 17 years a faithful missionary in China. 
 Harriett, who died in 1924, was the wife of Dr. E. P. Guerrant, 
 third son of Rev. E. O. Guerrant, D. D., of Kentucky; Mary is 
 now Mrs. E. G. Mallard, the Educational Secretary of the First 
 Presbyterian Church of Tampa, Fla.; Sallie married Judge W. M. 
 Scott, of Greenville, S. C, and when he lost his life in an auto 
 accident she was elected his successor, 1920; Mattie married Mr. 
 R. C. Babb, a merchant, of Greneville, S. C; Roberta is a news- 
 paper woman of large influence and Edward Payson, Jr., is a 
 successful busines man of Charlotte, N. C. With families such as 
 this and such as were the families of other pioneer Presbyterian 
 preachers of the Piedmont, rests the future of our church and 
 state in great security. 
 
Rev. R. P. Smith, D. D. 
 
 1851- 
 
 The pioneer Presbyterian preachers of the Piedmont were all 
 imbued with the evangelistic spirit, and when pastors of organized 
 churches gave themselves largely to preaching the gospel in out- 
 lying communities, but the outstanding man of evangelistic labors 
 was the Rev. R. P. Smith, D. D. 
 
 From the day of his ordination by Enoree Presbytery "with 
 evangelistic powers" in 1887, unto this day his chief occupation has 
 been that of an evangelist. Even when president of the Presby- 
 terian College of South Carolina at Clinton (1885-1887) he spent 
 the Saturday and the Sabbath of almost every week preaching in 
 communities where there were no organized churches. During 
 his three short and successful pastorates he abounded in evange- 
 listic labors also. The far greater part of the forty years and 
 more of his minsterial life has been spent in evangelistic work. 
 What a record is this? 
 
 Mr. Smith's forebears were of that sturdy Scotch-Irish stock 
 that did so much for this country in colonial times and also in all 
 subsequent times. His grandparents came to America during 
 the last years of the eighteenth century, and settled in the terri- 
 tory of the Carolinas. There he was born on a farm in Spartan- 
 burg County on the 24th day of March, 1851. 
 
 His father was a Ruling Elder in the old Nazereth Presbyterian 
 Church. His grandfather had filled the same high office before him. 
 
 The close of the War Between the States found the subject of 
 this sketch a poor and fatherless lad of twelve years working hard 
 to help his widowed mother in the support of the younger children 
 of the family. 
 
 Two good friends — his teacher and his Sabbath school superin- 
 tendent — saw that he was eager for an education that he might 
 preach the gospel, and they said to him that they had a sum of 
 money to invest for the Lord in paying the expenses of the educa- 
 tion of such a lad as himself. It was a partnership for the Lord 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 41 
 
 that proved quite profitable for all the parties — for the friends 
 who furnished the money and for the lad who furnished the time 
 and labor and his personality. 
 
 After two years of preparatory study in an excellent academy 
 and four years in Davidson College he was graduated from that 
 institution in a class of twenty-six young men, of whom eleven 
 entered the gospel ministry. This was the class of 1873. Then 
 came two years of teaching in the Reidville, S. C, Male Academy, 
 and one year of study in the Columbia Theological Seminary, 
 when on account of the condition of his eyes his physician forbade 
 him to engage in close and continuous study. This was a 
 real thorn in the flesh, but a thorn that proved a blessing, as 
 thorns have often done since the days of the Apostle Paul. 
 
 Shortly after leaving the Seminary he accepted the position of 
 president of the Reidsville Female Academy, where he did a most 
 excellent work for nine years and until he became the president of 
 the Presbyterian College of South Carolina at Clintonville. While 
 discharging the duties of a college president Mr. Smith also gave 
 his week-ends to evangelistic work in the needy communities of the 
 county. Both departments of his work grew so rapidly that in 
 two and a half years each demanded his whole time. To the sur- 
 prise of his friends he resigned from the presidency of the college 
 and accepted the pastoral call from the Bullocks Creek and Mt. 
 Pleasant Churches. This was his first pastorate from 1887 to 1890. 
 Under his ministry the manse and both houses of worship were 
 enlarged, the membership was increased and a creditable monu- 
 ment was erected over the the grave of the Rev. Josph Alexander, 
 D. D., one of the Fathers of Presbyterianism in the Carolinas. 
 From 1890 to 1893 Mr. Smith was pastor of the Blackstock Church, 
 where he did good service for the Master, until he became pastor 
 of the Gastonia Presbyterian Church, which was his last pastorate, 
 1893 to 1896. In each of his three pastoral charges his labors 
 were blessed and the work prospered, but his heart was the heart 
 of the evangelist and he ceased to be a pastor in order that he 
 might give himself wholly to the work of an evangelist. 
 
 The Presbytery of Asheville was set off from Mecklenburg 
 Presbytery in the year 1896 and from that time until 1924 Dr. 
 Smith was the evangelist and superintendent of Home Missions of 
 Asheville Presbytery, except when he was the Superintendent of 
 Home Missions of the Synod of North Carolina from 1905 to 1909. 
 When in 1924 Dr. Smith offered his resignation on account of his 
 eyes and his failing strength, his Presbytery elected him "Superin- 
 
42 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 tendent Emeritus and Advisor and Treasurer of the Committee 
 at the same salary.' This was a high honor and richly deserved — 
 an honor to the Presbytery no less than to Dr. Smith. 
 
 A brief summary of the results of the work in the mountains in 
 which Dr. Smith was the chief actor and director will give some 
 idea of the extent of his labors and of the willingness of the Lord 
 to bless and prosper the labors of those who are willing to endure 
 hardness for the progress of His kingdom: (1) Thirty- two Sab- 
 bath and mission day schools were organized in which two thou- 
 sand children and young people received Bible instruction with 
 their other studies. (2) Forty buildings were erected free of 
 debt — including manses, orphanages, mission school houses and 
 church buildings. (3) Fourteen churches were organized from 
 mission stations and five of them have become self-supporting. 
 (4) Several thousand precious souls have been led out of the dark- 
 ness of sin and ignorance into the love and service and fellowship 
 of our Lord and Savior. (5) The offerings of this Presbytery lor 
 benevolent causes were increased fivefold (500%) and more, and 
 for pastors salary and current church expenses more than three- 
 fold or 300%. 
 
 In securing these splendid results, and others richer far that 
 cannot be tabulated, there was an expenditure of consecrated zeal 
 and energy, of self-denial and sacrificial devotion, of Christian 
 courage and heroism that cannot be adequately expressed in words 
 that would not seem to be exaggerated, but it may be well to 
 remember that this work required 250,000 miles of travel and for 
 the most part mountain travel, over mountain miles, on mountain 
 roads, on horseback or on foot, and through all kinds of weather 
 in all seasons and under all sorts of trying circumstances that could 
 not be endured except for that inner joy of the Lord that gives 
 strength and courage and good cheer to the heart of the conse- 
 crated evangelist. 
 
 Dr. Smith was highly favored of heaven in his wife, Miss Ella 
 Reid, who thoroughly sympathized with him in his work and 
 was always a true helpmeet from the Lord. He found her in the 
 manse of her father — the Rev. R. H. Reid — who was Dr. Smith's 
 only pastor and the man who did more than any other to mould 
 the character and shape the life of this great mountain evangelist. 
 
 Ella Reid Smith was not only a helpmeet to her husband, but 
 she was also a mother of whom it can be said, "her children arise 
 up and call her blessed; and her husband also praiseth her." 
 
 Their children are three: Mrs. T. A. Walker of Charlotte, N. C. 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 43 
 
 Bernard R. Smith, M. D., of Asheville, and Julia, the wife of the 
 Rev. R. D. Bedinger, D. D., missionary to Africa. 
 
 In an article published several years ago Dr. S. L. Morris, our 
 General Assembly's Executive Secretary of Home Missions, said: 
 "In all the Presbyterial Home Mission work of the Assembly there 
 is none that excels that of Asheville Presbytery. Its record is in 
 large measure explained by the fact that it has pursued a definite 
 policy and has had its operations directed by a superintendent who, 
 in the language of the street, "is on the job." Dr. and Mrs. Smith 
 are still "on the job" and at home to their friends in Asheville, 
 N. C, 48 Dunstan Road. 
 
Shelby School 
 
 From the days of John Knox, if not earlier, our Scotch forebears 
 held that the Church and the school should go together, and so as 
 we have found there was a school in each of the older and larger 
 churches of this Piedmont section; such as Olney, Long Creek, 
 Lincolnton, Kutherfordton and Shelby. 
 
 Concerning these schools we cannot now speak particularly. 
 Reference has been made in these sketches to all except the school 
 at Shelby. For information in regard to this last I am indebted 
 to Judge R. L. Ryburn. When Shelby was a village of some eight 
 hundred people, the Rev. McNeill Turner, from Mills River, near 
 Brevard, N. C, came and opened a Boy's School in the building 
 afterward known as the Shelby Female College and now the 
 Victor Hotel. The first year of the school, which was probably 
 1870, there were 125 boys in attendance. They found board in the 
 homes of the community at from $6 to $8 per month. So soon 
 after the war a large number of parents were attracted by the 
 cheap rates for the education of their boys in a school of high 
 grade. The boys came in increasing numbers from many parts 
 of North Carolina and of South Carolina also. They were a re- 
 markably fine gathering of boys. They were advertised in the 
 North Carolina Presbyterian as "From Dan to Beersheba." The 
 school did not continue many years, because Dr. Turner was not 
 so good a financier as he was a teacher. He was a very tall, 
 distinguished looking man of striking individuality, strong men- 
 tality and bitter prejudices. He was assisted in his school by his 
 two sons and one or two other teachers. They did excellent work. 
 
Westminster 
 
 These schools served excellent ends and not the least was the 
 inspiration they gave a small group of Presbyteian preachers of 
 Cleveland, Eutherford and Pork Counties to establish in their 
 section of the state a school of high grade where boys and girls 
 of moderate means could obtain a good education at small cost 
 and under the very best Christian influences. 
 
 This group consisted of Reverends W. R. Minter, R. C. Morrison, 
 S. L. Cathey, and T. C. Croker. Each of these ministers had 
 several churches under his charge and also more than one mission 
 point in outlying districts. They preached several times every week, 
 traveled long distances over primitive roads and through all kinds 
 of inclement weather to meet their appointments. In the vast 
 territory served by them there were only 12 Presbyterian churches 
 with a total of 648 members and most of these of very moderate 
 means. 
 
 Under these discouraging conditions these four men, already 
 overloaded with work, but with the faith that counts nothing im- 
 possible and the courage that conquers all difficulties, proceeded 
 to establish the Westminister School. It was an adventure of 
 faith possible only to men who are heroes at heart. 
 
 With the opening of the year 1902, they were busy with plans 
 and then came the erection of buildings and providing the neces- 
 sary equipment and securing a principal who would have charge 
 of the work, when the school opened in September. 
 
 Some members of the Brittain church, of which the Rev. R. C. 
 Morrison was pastor, donated the land. Early in July there was a 
 great meeting at Brittain church. Men came in large numbers 
 with their tools to clear the ground and erect the necessary build- 
 ings. The women were there with bright faces and well filled 
 baskets and words of cheer. Dr. W. J. Martin, of Davidson College, 
 was there and other speakers to arouse enthusiasm with their 
 "eloquent outpouring of words that breathe and thoughts that 
 burn." It was a great day and long remembered. 
 
 The girls dormitory, known as Knox Hall, and the dining room 
 
46 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 and the kitchen and a number of cottages for boys were soon 
 completed and ready for the formal opening of the school on the 
 morning of September 16, 1902. Mr. J. R. Sandifer, a graduate 
 of Davidson College, and later head master of Blue Ridge Academy, 
 was secured for the first principal. He served one year, was ably 
 assisted by a choice corps of teachers and did fine work. The at- 
 tendance was gratifying and the outlook very encouraging. 
 
 Mr. W. Brand, of Virginia, was secured to succeed Mr. Sandifer 
 as principal. He was a man of high character, of energy and 
 executive ability. During his two years of service the large brick 
 administration building was erected, and the popularity of the 
 school was increased. He was ably assisted by a choice corps of 
 teachers, including for his second year Mr. J. C. Rowan, now Dr. 
 Rowan, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Concord, N. C. 
 Families from other communities began to settle near the school 
 to secure for their children its splendid educational advantages. 
 Mr. Brands very successful administration was terminated by his 
 tragic death in his father's flour mill in 1904. 
 
 Rev. W. R. Minter, now Dr. Minter, pastor of the First Southern 
 Presbyterian Church of Austin, Texas, was induced to take the 
 important place of principal of the Westminster School. He was 
 one of the four men chiefly responsible for its existence, and his 
 faith in its future never faltered. He was a man of large vision, 
 of tireless energy, of executive ability, and heroic courage. Under 
 his efficient administration every department of the school was 
 advanced; many improvements were made in the equipment; a 
 large increase of students was secured. The school was every 
 way in a flourishing condition, when Mr. Minter (1906) resigned 
 to give his whole time to the pastorate. He was fortunate in hav- 
 ing for assistant principal Mr. W. B. Painter, a worthy co-worker. 
 
 In 1907 the Presbytery of Kings Mountain took over this school 
 as a Home Mission enterprise, and Rev. G. T. Pace was elected 
 principal with Mr. C. B. Collier as his assistant. Mr. Pace retired 
 after a few months of service and was succeeded by the Rev. R. 
 C. Morrison, pastor of the Brittain Church, and one of the four 
 original founders of the school. He had from the first, in addition 
 to the labors of a large pastorate, taught a course in the Bible 
 and this he continued to do until he ceased to be pastor of this 
 church. Mr. Morrison's administration was marked by great 
 energy and efficiency. He had for assistant principal Mr. R. G. 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 47 
 
 Long. Like his able predecessor, Dr. Minter, he resigned at the 
 close of the school year in 1909 to give his whole time to the 
 pastorate. 
 
 That same year (1909) the Rev. J. K. Hall, of McConnellsville, 
 S. C, was elected principal and served with great ability for two 
 years, when like his two predecessors, he resigned to give his 
 whole time to the pastorate. His administration was marked by 
 large growth and some important changes. The boarding depart- 
 ment for girls was discontinued under an agreement with Meck- 
 lenburg Presbytery that the Kings Mountain Presbytery would 
 urge girls to attend the Albemarle Institute and the Mecklenburg 
 Presbytery would urge boys to attend the Westminster School. 
 Concord Presbytery gave the Westminster school its hearty en- 
 dorsement and the Bethel Presbytery of S. C. also became very 
 much interested. At one time there were more boarding pupils 
 from Bethel than from any other Presbytery. During 1909 and 
 1910 the boarding department was utterly inadequate. Although 
 there was a large dormitory and five cottages it became necessary 
 to crowd three boys in a room. This crowded condition was re- 
 lieved by the erection of a fireproof brick dormintory with twenty- 
 four rooms, and by doubling the capacity of the dining room 
 and building a large store room. A water system was 
 installed so that water was brought to all parts of the 
 campus, and considerable land was bought to protect the school 
 from possible nuisances. During the first year of Mr. Hall's ad- 
 ministration Mr. J. W. Weathers, now Rev. J. W. Weathers, of 
 S. C, was assistant principal and athletic director. During the 
 second year Mr. J. R. Hay, now Rev. J. R. Hay, pastor of the First 
 Presbyterian Church of Hickory, was assistant principal and Mr. 
 J. R. Reid, now of Rock Hill, S. C, was professor of mathematics 
 and athletic director. The enrollment this year was the largest in 
 the history of the school up to this time. Boys came from several 
 states and from one foreign country, but the great majority were 
 from the Carolinas. 
 
 It was the idea of the founders of this school to provide first 
 class educational advantages at the lowest possible cost as is 
 evident from the school catalogues. I quote from the year 1903-1904 
 as follows: "Board per month $4.85. Tuition $1 to $3. Contin- 
 gent Fee boarding pupil 20c; day pupil 5c. Washing and lights 
 about 20c. Total per month exclusive of books and clothes $8.70." 
 This meant about $78 for nine months. Cheapness was due to low 
 prices for food articles. When prices for food were raised the 
 
48 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 cost per pupil for nine months in 1909-1910 was only $100. Dur- 
 ing these years of low cost for education all bills were paid 
 promptly and no debts incurred. 
 
 This is a remarkable record and abundantly justifies the vision 
 and faith and courage of those noble men who dared to grapple 
 with difficulties and to conquer. They have rendered fine service 
 for the Master in other places, but it may be doubted if they 
 have anywhere rendered a better service or shown more beautifully 
 the heroic spirit of the Lord of the harvest than when they launch- 
 ed and made a success of the Westminster School. 
 
 The Rev. E. T. P. Woods followed Rev. J. K. Hall as principal 
 of the school and was in charge from 1911 to 1921. For several 
 years the popularity and prosperity of the school continued, but 
 owing to economic and educational changes in the country and 
 other causes the last years of Mr. Wood's administration were 
 more trying and less satisfactory than formerly. Improvements 
 were made in the equipment and several attractions were added, 
 but the adverse conditions, especially the new developmnt of the 
 Public High School System, made seriouly against the continued 
 success of .Westminster. 
 
 Since the resignation of Mr. Woods in 1921, those in authority 
 have failed to secure a suitable principal for the school up to this 
 writing. 
 
 Whatever may be its future those who put their money and those 
 who put their hearts blood into this enterprise have abundant 
 reason for thanksgiving and praise to God in view of the great 
 good that has been accomplished through this institution. Hun- 
 dreds of boys and girls have been well fitted for life who other- 
 wise would probably never have received a Christian education. 
 Scores of splendid pupils have here received the inspiration and 
 the necessary ambition to achieve a college education and fit them- 
 selves for service in the largest fields of church and state. All 
 who were enrolled in this school were brought into contact with 
 active Christian teachers and under Christian influences that 
 drew them to the Christ and enlisted them in His service. 
 
 SOME STUDENTS 
 
 Students from Westminster School are found in many walks of 
 life and always acquitting themselves with credit to their friends 
 and their teachers. Among those who have entered the ministry 
 
SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 49 
 
 of the Gospel are the following: C. C. Beam, T. G. Tate, W. A. 
 Benfield, C. H. Rowan, J. F. Menius, N. P. Farrior, L. Cook Camp- 
 bell, E. S. Watson, W. H. Wilson, W. C. Rourk, R. E. McClure, 
 W. C. Cumming, D. H. Rhinehardt and J. M. Barber, of the Metho- 
 dist Church; Spurgeon Norville, of the Baptist Church, and others. 
 Among business men are the following: C. C. Armstrong, of 
 Gastonia; J. Clyde Ford, of Clover, S. C; Frank Oates, of Ruther- 
 fordton; W. T. Hall, of Belmont. Atwood Wherry, of Chester, S. C, 
 and many other. Among doctors are the following: the late W. C. 
 Oates, of Belmont; H. K. Morrison, and Sarah J. Long, who re- 
 cently graduated with the highest honors from the Medical Depart- 
 ment of the University of Michigan. Among teachers are the 
 following: C. T. Stewart, of Brazil; R. W. Morrison and Mrs. 
 Corel Long Morrison. Time would fail to mention all the wives 
 and mothers who have made and are making fine Christian homes 
 for the nurture of the best elements of citizenship in the State 
 and in the Kingdom of God. 
 
 TRUSTEES 
 
 Perhaps the most appropriate conclusion for this sketch of the 
 Westminster School would be a list of the names of those faithful 
 trustees who gave of their time and thought and labor and money 
 to make the school the success that it became, and without whose 
 wisdom and support the good achieved could never have been 
 attained. They each deserve a special mention, which would be 
 gladly given if the limits of this paper did not forbid. Their 
 names are as follows: Rev. R. C. Morrison, Rev. W. R. Minter, 
 Rev. S. L. Cathey, Rev. R. A. Miller, Rev. G. A. Sparrow, Rev. 
 R. C. Anderson, Rev. J. H. Henderlite, D. D, Rev. J. T. Dendy, G. 
 W. Long, of Brittain Church; H. L. Carpenter and J. F. Flack, 
 of Rutherfordton; A. C. Miller, R. L. Ryburn and L. A. Getty, of 
 Shelby. J. P. Roberts, of Grover; C. E. Neisler, of Kings Mountain; 
 J. H. Kennedy, of Gastonia. Mr. Flack was for a long time the 
 treasurer of the school board and bore the brunt of the building 
 operations. 
 
 All honor to these and such like men. May their memories 
 never perish from among the living and their spiritual offspring 
 increase while the years are going by. May they find great com- 
 fort and satisfaction in remembering that they had a part in build- 
 ing a factory "that receives the raw material from the church, 
 
50 SOME PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN PREACHERS 
 
 multiplies its value a hundred fold and returns it in a life giving 
 stream of intelligent faith, trained power, and consecrated leader- 
 ship." 
 
 They who build a Christian educational institution build for 
 eternity and reap a harvest of felicity and glory that eternity alone 
 can measure. 
 

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