Moses Drury Hoge. 'Jyi^'y^S^oM. (/ <--"iM/^^ 'Sr/trpL. '/ Moses Drury Hoge Life and Letters. By his Nephew, PEYTON HARRISON HOGE. K^ LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY RICHMOND, VA.: Presbyterian Committee of Publication. Copyrighted, 1899, JAS. K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication. Printed by Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond, Va. Bound by Weymouth, Meister & Smethie, Richmond, Va. TO THE €ongreaation of m Secona PresDytcrian Cburcb, Ricbtttond, \}n„ WHICH FOR FIFTY-FOUR YEARS, WITH EVER CHANGING MEMBERSHIP, BUT WITH UNCHANGING DEVOTION, SHARED THE LABORS AND REWARDS OF THIS EVENTFUL MINISTRY. PREFACE. There was a very general impression after Dr. Hoge's death, and the statement was frequently made in the public press, that he had left in manuscript a volume of reminiscences which only needed editing to be given to the public. Unfor- tunately such was not the case. While he had frequently been importuned to prepare such a volume, and had fully purposed to do so, in the pressure of other duties he had never even commenced it, and left not a line of autobiography or personal reminiscence except his published Memorial Address. It was necessary, therefore, to gather up the mate- rials of this biography from family letters and records, from his own correspondence, extending through over sixty years, from contemporary newspaper reports and church records, and from the personal knowledge of his family and friends. Fortunately some of those to whom he wrote most freely, recognizing the value of his letters, had carefully preserved them, while it was the custom of some of his friends, and later of his daughter, to preserve newspaper notices of his work. From this mass of material I have endeavored to select what would best illustrate the life I sought to present, and the times in which that life was lived; endeavoring to keep in mind — however imperfectly I have succeeded — the words of Emerson, that "all public facts are to be indi- vidualized, and all private facts are to be generalized. Thus, at once. History becomes fluid and true, and Biography deep and sublime." ■ In discussing Dr. Hoge's part in the civil war and the related controversies, fidelity to my subject required that I should present as correctly and adequately as possible the point of view of that time; while the same fidelity to his vi Preface. whole subsequent course required that in so doing I should avoid awakening past animosities, and should study the things that make for peace. Besides the members of Dr. Hoge's immediate family, who have given me the heartiest cooperation in my work, I de- sire to make my acknowledgments to Governor J. Hoge Tyler and Major Thomas C. Hoge for important genealogi- cal data ; to my honored preceptor. Dr. W. Gordon McCabe, for directing my attention to the valuable work on the Haigs of Bemerside; to the editors of the Richmond Dispatch, Richmond ^imes and Central Presbyterian for access to their files, and for other courtesies; to the Stated Clerks of the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina, the Secretaries of the Presbyterian Historical Society and of Hampden-Sidney College, and the Librarian of Union Theological Seminary, for use of, and information from, the records in their hands. Special mention is due to my brother. Professor Addison Hogue, for his painstaking care in reading the proof-sheets and for many valuable suggestions. It is with peculiarly tender and grateful emotions that I refer, in completing this work, to him with whom it was first commenced — the late William Sterling Lacy. Nearly ten years ago we planned it together, and the lines on which it was then projected have been practically followed in its execution. It was then proposed to prepare it jointly, and when this was found impracticable I hoped that I would at least have the benefit of his exquisite taste and rare literary skill before giving it to the public. But even this was ren- dered impossible by his failing health, and just when its last pages were given to the printers he finished his course, and his tender, gracious spirit went to meet his God. It only remains to add that I have no pecuniary interest in the book, but that it has been throughout a labor of love. Louisville, Ky., Nov. 20, iSgg. P- H. H. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page. Ancestry, ' CHAPTER II. Birth and Boyhood, . . ... . . * . 21 CHAPTER III. Student Days, 38 CHAPTER IV. Preparation for the Ministry, . . . .61 CHAPTER V. Early Ministry, 76 CHAPTER VI. In Full Service, 103 CHAPTER VII. At the Confederate Capital, . . . . -134 CHAPTER VIII. Mission to England, ....... 168 CHAPTER IX. William James Hoge, 198 CHAPTER X. The Valley of the Shadow, 230 CHAPTER XI. Broader Fields, 260 viii Contents. CHAPTER XII. Page. In Labors more Abundant, ..... 301 CHAPTER XIII. The Anniversaries, ....... 331 CHAPTER XIV. Closing Years, 367 CHAPTER XV. Character and Work 398 APPENDIX. I. Oration. — At the Unveiling of the Statue of Stonewall Jack- son, in the Capitol Square, Richmond, Va., October 26, 1876, 425 II. Address. — At the Mass-Meeting in the Capitol Square, Rich- mond, Va., after the Assassination of President Garfield, July 5, 1S81, 448 III. Family Religion. — An Address Before the Evangelical Alli- ance, in Copenhagen, 452 IV. The Private Soldier. — An Address before the Mass-Meeting held in the Interest of the Monument on Libby Hill, Rich- mond, Va., November 30, 1892, 456 V. Address. — In the Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Va., December 11, 1889, the day appointed by the Governor for the Commemoration of the Death of Hon. Jefferson Davis, 463 VI. Memorial Address. — On his Fiftieth Anniversary, in the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Va., February 27, iSgs, 471 PRAYERS. At the Memorial Mass-meeting in the Capitol Square after the " Capitol Disaster," April 29, 1870, 492 At the Re-interment of Confederate Soldiers in Hollywood, May 29, 1S73 494 At the Unveiling of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Libby Hill, May 30, 1894, 495 Contents. ix Page. At the Re-interment of President Davis, May 30. 1S93, . . . 496 At the Dedication of the Confederate Museum, February 22, iSq6, 498 Memorial Day, Hollywood, May 30, 1S9S, 499 On Opening the State Democratic Convention, iSSg, . . . 501 On Opening the Session of the House of Delegates, December 4, 1891 502 At the Inauguration of Governor J. Hoge Tyler, January i, 1898, 502 On the Opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Greeting the Arrival of the First Through Freight from the Ohio to the James, February 13, 1S73, 504 At the Dedication of the Chamber of Commerce Building. Decem- ber 28, 1S93 505 At the Dedication of the New City Hall, February 16, 1894, . . 5of> At the Commencemen-t of the University College of Medicine, May 26, 1898, 507 At the Administration of the Bread at the last Joint Communion Service of the Presbyterian Churches of 'Richmond During his Life, January 2, 1898, . 508 Index, ......... 511 "Among the great gifts that God has given to men is the gift of men ; and among all the gifts with which God has enriched His church, one of the greatest has been the gift of consecrated men, for they are the instrumentalities by which the church has been moulded and guided and prospered in all the generations of the world."— Moses Drury HoGE, Sermon on the death of Dr. Broadus. Moses drury Hoge. CHAPTER I. Ancestry. "A tree is known by its fruits; and a noble house by a noble man." — Arabic Proverb. THERE is a pride of ancestry as foolish as it is false. When a noble name is borne by an ignoble man it only serves to make its owner contemptible. But there is a pride of ancestry that awakens responsibility ; that stimulates en- deavor; that purifies motive and shapes the life to noble ends. Consciousness of whence we are may largely de- termine what we are. But apart from conscious influence, is not the Whence a true cause of the What? Great men often arise from very obscure origin. But the historian and biographer are never satisfied until they have traced back the extraordinary qualities of their hero to a source that is none the less real because it is obscure. It takes many streams to make the river, and the virtues of many lowly men and women struck together in happy combination "to give the world assurance of a man." When the streams are on the surface, and the same qualities can be traced for generations, our task is plainer and our reward surer. And when natural virtues are exalted by divine grace, we can rejoice not only in the fixedness of Nature's laws, but — what is far better — the sureness of the covenant promises of God. The oldest reference to the name of Hoge with which we have met is in 1425, when "Patrick Hoge and Gilbert Hoge, Squiris," are named among the gentlemen who "devydit the 2 Moses Drury Hoge. Marches betwixt Ridbeth and Bemersyde." Sir Andrew Haig, the Laird of Bemersyde, preceding the Laird in whose time this division was made, had been the first to drop the spelhng de Haga for the spelHng Haig, which is still in use. Etymologically the names are the same, and the finding of them in the same neighborhood suggests the probability that Hoge is only another variant of Haga or Hage, and that the Hoges as well as the Haigs are descended from Petrus de Haga, who came from Normandy about 1150. This Peter of the Dyke — probably from Cape de la Hague in Normandy — founded an honorable family, early associated with the cause of liberty and patriotism. For — " When Wallace came to Gladswood cross, Haig of Bemersyde met him with many good horse." And before the battle of Stirling the Laird of Bemersyde was reassured by his friend "Thomas the Rhymer" with the prophecy which still holds good — " Tyde what may betyde, Haig shall be Haig of Bemersyde." Or, as Sir Walter puts it — who derived his right to be buried in Dryburgh Abbey from his descent from the Haigs — " Tide, betide, whate'er betide, Haig shall be Haig of Bemersyde." The Humes, with whom we shall later find the Hoges associated, were also a Berwickshire family, and much as- sociated with the Haigs of Bemersyde. A beautifully engrossed book, containing the family his- tory and coat-of-arms, remained in possession of the Penn- sylvania branch of the Hoge family in this country within the memory of those still living, but cannot now be found. In the absence of the written evidence, we will not give the interesting details that are recalled by some who were more or less familiar with its contents, but will confine ourselves to the well-established story of the founder of the family in this country. Ancestry. 3 About the close of the seventeenth century a young man named WilHam Hoge — evidently in good circumstances — came to America on account of the religious persecutions under the Stuarts. In the same ship was a family named Hume — father, mother and daughter, Barbara by name. Hume was one of two brothers, men of wealth and standing, who differed on the great question of the day. One of the brothers "conformed" ; the other was true to the Kirk and covenant. He was imprisoned and most of his property con- fiscated, but through the influence of his brother was released on condition of his emigrating to America. During the long voyage a pestilence broke out in the overcrowded ship, and Mr. and Mrs. Hume were among the victims. Barbara was left alone, and William Hoge became her protector. He delivered her and her property into the hands of an uncle — a physician named Johnson — who was already in New York, while he went to Perth- Amboy to make himself a home. But it was not a final farewell. An attachment had sprung up between them, and in due time he returned to make her his wife. William Hoge removed from Perth-Amboy to Delaware, and then to the Cumberland Valley, in Pennsylvania. Here his eldest son John remained, founding the village of Hoge- town. In the church founded by him in 1734, there still exist an old communion service of hammered pewter and a pulpit Bible — the gifts of members of his family. From him is sprung a branch of the family scattered from New York to California, but chiefly found in Pennsylvania ; men of sub- stance and character ; bankers, lawyers, judges, members of Congress, with now and then a minister of the gospel; leaders in church and state. ^ * He married a Welsh heiress, Gwenthelen Bowen Davis. His son, David, through a treaty with the Indian Chief Catfish, purchased ahnost the whole of what is now Washington county, and with his nephew, David Redick, afterwards vice-president of Pennsylvania, laid off the town of Catfish, now Washington. His sons, John and WilHam, were 4 Moses Drury Hoge. But William Hoge found not here his resting place. About 1735, though advanced in years, he removed to Fred- erick county, Va., on the Opequon branch of the Potomac. Here he made his home. Here he gave land for church and school and burying ground — the old Opequon Church — the first place of worship in the Valley of Virginia. Its first regular minister was his grandson, the Rev. John Hoge, son of his oldest son John. He came fresh from Nassau Hall, where he graduated in the first class sent out by that venerable institution. After a useful ministry in Virginia, he returned to Pennsylvania. While pastor at Opequon he received a visit from the Rev. Hugh McAden, on his way to his pioneer mission in North Carolina, where now ^ a great-great-great-grandson of William Hoge preaches to the great-great-grandchildren of Hugh McAden. There are still some things fixed in this changing world, and more changeful land. William Hoge lived full ninety years. He saw his children and grandchildren serving God and their generation; the honest. God-fearing makers of a new world. God made him forget all his toil and all his father's house. He sleeps in the old Opequon church-yard. The old church lived on for generations. Three succes- sive buildings arose on the spot, and its sons and daughters went forth into many States, though many sleep around it. At length it was outgrown, and in time superseded, by the daughter church of Winchester. But recently the crumbling stones have been built anew ; a memorial of the worthy dead. both members of Congress. Another son, David, was the first receiver of the United States Land Office, w^ith headquarters at Steubenville, Ohio. Justice Shiras, of the United States Supreme Court, is a de- scendant of one of his daughters. William and Thomas Scott Hoge, of the long-closed banking house of William Hoge and Company, New York, were sons of David Hoge, of Steubenville. These are but a few representative names. ' Written before his recent removal. Ancestry. 5 John was the only one of WilHam Hoge's sons who set- tled in Pennsylvania. The others moved with their father to Virginia; William, who married a Quakeress and joined the sect, leaving many descendants ; George, who removed to the South; James, of whom we shall have more to say; and Alexander, who was a member of the First Con- gress of the United States, and of the Virginia convention that ratified the Constitution. Our concern is with the fourth son, James ; and of him we know more ; a man of robust intellect and a self-taught the- ologian. Dr. Archibald Alexander, when a young licen- tiate, visited him, and was impressed with the vigor of his mind and the clearness of his views even in old age. In early life he satisfied himself of the scripturalness of every state- ment of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and when the "Synod of New York and Philadelphia" introduced certain changes, he withdrew from its communion and united with the Scotch secession. Twice a year he went to a church in Pennsylvania to participate in the communion. Late in life his scruples were removed, through the instru- mentality of his son. He died June 2, 1795, at an advanced age. James Hoge was twice married, and had many children. We need name but two, James and Moses. James, a son of his first wife, Agnes, left home in search of his brother John, who was supposed to have joined Brad- dock's army and to have been killed at Fort DuQuesne. He did not find his brother, but he found a home and a wife, and settled in Pulaski county. His homestead is now the home of his great-grandson, the Honorable J. Hoge Tyler, the present Governor of Virginia. His son was General James Hoge,^ a man of fine intellect and one of the handsomest men in the State. His son, Daniel Hoge, was elected to Congress ^ This branch of the family seems to have been the fighting stock. Brigadier-General Funston, who has distinguished himself in the Philip- pines, is a great-grandson of General Hoge. 6 Moses Drury Hoge. in 1865, and was a brilliant and popular speaker. The de- scendants of James Hoge, of Pulaski, have not only been prominent in the State, but many of them have been influ- ential as ruling- elders in the councils of the church. They have kept in close intimacy with the descendants of the other son of James Hoge, of Frederick, of whom we must speak at more length. Moses Hoge was the ninth son of his father, and the fourth son of his mother, Nancy Griffiths. He was born at Cedar Grove — his father's home in Frederick — February 15, 1752. His mother is described as of "respectable understand- ing and sincere piety," but his remarkable endowments seem to have come from his father. Saint, scholar and preacher, it is difficult to say whether gifts or graces were most pre- eminent. His intellect grasped the Calvinistic system in its entirety before he had even an academic education ; his heart was so tender that he wept — so his students said — over the fate of the devils, to whom no mercy was offered. Of his own experience he said that he had never known the time when he had not loved the Lord; yet he never knew the time when he thought he loved him as he ought. His piety was of that old-fashioned Brainerd type, that wept in secret over imperfections that no one else discovered, and agonized in prayer over the souls committed to his charge; all of which we may see from his journal. From devotions like these he went into his pulpit, and men trembled and prayed and believed at his word. There might be more of such praying and such preaching now; to the advantage of our times. Nobody reads now his "Strictures on a Pamphlet by the Rev. Jeremiah Walker Entitled the Fourfold Foundation of Calvinism Examined and Shaken;" but it is the testi- mony of no less an authority than the late Dr. Dabney, that it was he who impressed upon the Virginia ministry that moderate type of evangelical Calvinism that has ever since distinguished it ; and Archibald Alexander was in his youth o^o'd^ ^(sgx. Ancestry, 7 indebted to him for correcter views of divine grace in regen- eration f^ thus Princeton felt his impress, and his Hne went out into all the earth. His Sophist Unmasked, a reply to Payne, no longer meets the attacks of infidelity; but his preaching, and his teaching, and his life, did much to stem the tide of Atheism and of "French infidelity" in his day. Five years of missionary work in Hampshire county; twenty years laboring for souls in Shepherdstown, whose church he founded; thirteen years preaching and teaching and pre- paring men for the ministry at Hampden-Sidney— this was the brief measure of his life-work. For he lived not long, and he began late. Pie succeeded Archibald Alexander as president of Hampden-Sidney— a much younger man ; but at the age when Archibald Alexander entered upon those duties, INToses Hoge had not even entered an academy. Whither he might never have gone, had not two strangers been so im- pressed with his self-taught acquirements as to persuade his father to give him a liberal education — no easy thing in those times. Started on this, he stopped for a year to vol- unteer in the revolutionary army. Then three years under Dr. Graham in academic training at Liberty Hall, and two years more of divinity under the same teacher ; such was his preparation. It was not the age of specialists, but solid and well-rounded scholars turned out scholars as solid and well-rounded as themselves. While the histories of Union Theological Seminary have never ignored the preliminary work of Dr. Hoge, it has generally been assumed that its distinct organic life began with Dr. Rice. This seems hardly true to history; nor does it at all detract from the "mart of the large honors" well earned by Dr. Rice by his great labors in enlarging and endowing it. No more are his labors set aside by the ' Dr. Alexander's biographer refers this to his father, James Hoge. But Dr. Alexander's own statement, which is quoted, has been misunder- stood. Life of Dr. Alexander, p. 120. The reference on page 91 is to .the father. 8 Moses Drury Hoge. men of our own time in giving it a fitter location and a more splendid equipment. The Theological School under Dr. Hoge was not a mere department of the college, but a separate and distinct institution, founded by the Synod of Virginia, who elected Dr. Hoge its professor in the same year that the General Assembly called Dr. Alexander to Princeton. In that year ( 1812), and not in 1823, the history of our Theological Seminary begins.^ Dr. Hoge was faithful to the college, but he spent himself and his substance for the Theological Seminary. And as long as he was willing to do this the Synod was content to let him do it ; only when he was gone was it roused to the necessity of a more liberal provision;, and but for Dr. Rice it is questionable whether anything ^ On what ground can the present seminary be considered a different institution? Because Dr. Hoge had no distinct building? Dr. Rice- taught his first classes in President Cushing's kitchen. Because- Dr. Hoge was also president of the college? The seminary has always permitted her professors to hold other positions; as, for in- stance, to be pastors of churches. Because of the change of control? During Dr. Rice's time, Hanover Presbytery handed it over to the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina, as, after Dr. Hoge's death, the Synod of Virginia had handed it over to the Presbytery. Because of the change of name? The present name was not adopted until the joint control was established. Because it had no board of Trustees?' Their names are recorded in the manuscript Life of Dr. Hoge, and their reports were regularly called for in the Synod (see Minutes). Because it had no charter? A charter was applied for by petition of the board, and refused on the same ground that it was refused down to- 1868, and in 1816 the Synod appointed "John H. Rice, William Wirt, LL. D., and Benjamin Harrison to draw up a memorial, stating the dis- advantages under which the Synod lies from the refusal of the Legisla- ture to grant a charter to the trustees of the Theological Seminary." (Dr. Rice's connection with this matter has probably led to the idea that it was during his administration.) Because it had no endowment?' The salary of the professor and aid to students were paid from its funds, and the Synod turned over to the Presbytery eight thousand seven hun- dred and fifty-six dollars and four cents— the nucleus of the present endowment of the Seminary. Because its exercises were suspended upon- Dr. Hoge's death? But the continuity was preserved by the guar- dianship of its funds by the Synod and Presbytery. During .he civil' war the exercises were again practically suspended. Ancestry. 9 would have been done even then ; all of which may be read more amply told in Foote. Dr. Hoge's first wife — and the mother of all his chil- dren— was Elizabeth Poage, a member of that remarkable family of the Valley of Virginia that has given to the church about two hundred ministers, ministers' wives and mission- aries. A saintly and lovable person she seems to have been, and he lavished on her all the tenderness of his affectionate nature. Yet when she died he had the extraordinary firm- ness to stand by her open grave and preach with a pathos that melted every heart in the astonished assembly, on the text, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." There were strong men in those days, and eternal things were very real. Personal grief must be crushed down that souls might be saved. His second wife, and the companion of his labors at Hampden-Sidney, was Mrs. Susan Hunt, mentioned as- Susan Watkins, in the Life of Doctor Alexander, with grati- tude for her conversation during the "great revival" ; a noble and helpful wife, sharing his sacrifices and spending her substance, as he spent his, to help needy students. Her son, brought up by Dr. Hoge, was the well-known Thomas P. Hunt, celebrated in his day as a temperance lecturer. Death came to Dr. Hoge in Philadelphia, where he had gone to attend the General Assembly. "Translated," as his epitaph says, "from the General Assembly on earth to the general assembly and church of the firstborn." He died July 5, 1820, aged sixty-eight years, and is buried near his old friend, John Blair Smith. He had just visited the grave- yard at Princeton with Dr. Alexander, where he too has long lain, and enjoyed delightful intercourse with his friend; doubtless long ago renewed above. There are many delightful stories afloat of Dr. Hoge's saintly character, especially of his unworldliness ; one of his quiet courage may be told, because authenticated. During lo Moses Drury Hoge. the "Western insurrection" he was anxious for the Synod of Virginia to make a dehverance against lawlessness. The measure failed, as savoring of politics, and the Vir- ginia troops quartered at Harrisonburg (where the Synod was meeting) on their way to the scene of the insurrection, were much incensed; the talk was of tar and feathers for some of the dignitaries ; but Dr. Hoge worked his way to the midst of them, and not only dissuaded them from their purpose, but made such an impression upon them that they asked him to preach ; and the mob was turned into a congre- gation. The story justifies John Randolph's opinion that there were only two men who could bring quiet to a certain court-green on court day — "Patrick Henry by his eloquence, and Dr. Hoge by simply passing through." This same keen-eyed Randolph has given the best picture of the man. Cowper drew the portrait, Randolph made the application. The poet says : *' I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose Hfe, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the sacred cause. To such I render more than mere respect. Whose actions say that they respect themselves." And farther on : " Would I describe a preacher such as Paul, Were he on earth, would hear, approve and own — Paul should himself direct me. I would trace His master strokes and draw from his design. I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt ; in language plain, And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture ; much impressed Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; aflfectionate in look. And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men." By each of these passages, in a copy of Cowper purchased from Randolph's library, is written in his hand, "Mr. Hoge." y^ ■x^Lgk-^z^^ *-» M- •c* — ^ — -fl .. •^ Ancestry. ii But now of him no more, though on such a hfe the pen delights to hnger. He bequeathed to his descendants Httle of this world's goods. But he left them a name that they treasure as above great riches. The venerable Dr. Plumer once said, on seeing one of the younger descendants, "He has the Hoge jerk." One may be glad to be marked as the descendant of such a man, even by an ungraceful gesture. Four of Dr. Hoge's sons grew to manhood; three be- came ministers of the gospel in his life-time ; the fourth was a beloved physician and an honored ruling elder in the ■church. James Hoge, the eldest, was the pioneer Presbyterian mis- sionary of Ohio. His parish extended to the Mississippi, but he settled in Columbus, Ohio, where he built the first house, and which he saw grow up around him. He organ- ized the First Presbyterian Church, and celebrated his jubi- lee as its pastor. His experience differed from that of his nephew — to be hereafter related — in that it was not his only charge, and that he had retired from active service two years before. He was the founder of many of the great charitable institutions of the State. When President Hayes and his Cabinet visited Richmond, Va., in 1877, and met his nephew, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Sherman told him that they could not remember the time when they had not learned to revere the name of Hoge. We shall hear of him again in these pages. Dr. James Hoge had one son in the ministry, the late Rev. Dr. Moses A. Hoge, and one daughter, Elizabeth, who was married to the well-known evangelist of Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Robert Nail, and was the mother of the Rev. Dr. James Hoge Nail, of New Orleans, and the Rev. Dr. Robert H. Nail, of Greenwood, S. C. John Blair Hoge was the most gifted of the sons. He began to study for the law, but early felt the divine call, and gave himself to the gospel ministry. He inherited the feeble 12 Moses Drury Hoge. constitution of his mother, and in the autumn of 1814 went to the south of France for the recovery of his health, running- in the night the British blockade of New York. "On the eighth day we fell in with the British seventy-four gun ship Bellerophon,^ Captain Hawkes. We were of course brought to, and boarded by some of the officers. They examined our papers and endorsed them as being under Swedish colors. They inquired if there were any Americans on board. Had he asked me I should not have hesitated to say, 'Yes' ; but the captain, of whom the inquiry was made, answered in the negative. We were, therefore, without further examination, suffered to proceed. Had it been known that our whole establishment was an imposition — that the vessel was Amer- ican and had been captured from the British, and that there were six Americans aboard — perhaps we might not have escaped with so much facility. The deception was not then generally known to the passengers." They landed at St. Martin's, Isle de Re, on the thirty-first day. The pile of old faded letters, from the first of which we have quoted, lies before us. The next (January 22, 1815) speaks of the rum.or of peace with Great Britain; the next (March 4th) of Napoleon's return from Elba; the next, of his tri- umphant, unimpeded progress to Paris. Another says : "I was in Paris when Napoleon returned after losing the battle of Waterloo, and when he abdicated. I was present when Louis XVHI. made his triumphal entrance into hiS' capital. Notwithstanding the clamors of the multitude, it was a poor triumph, when the way to the hearts of his subjects — over which a monarch ought to rule — was opened and cleared by more than two hundred thousand foreign bayonets." ^ This was a trip to Europe that one cannot have every day ; but its history cannot be followed further. Mr. Hoge re- ^ Which afterwards took Napoleon to Saint Helena. ^ Recalling a witticism of that day, that you can do almost anything with bayonets — except sit on them; as Louis soon found. Ancestry. 13 mained abroad about two years. His letters reveal an ele- gant, scholarly mind, cultivated by the best literature, and intent on extending its attainments. He returned somewhat improved in health and much enriched in mind, with deeper views of life and a profounder impression of the value of religion from seeing the state of countries that had all things else and lacked that. His ministry was much sought after when he began to preach — a boy of twenty. He was only twenty-six now; but for the ten years of life that remained to him, though much interrupted by ill health, he was pro- bably the most brilliant preacher in Virginia. The impres- sion of his oratory upon his contemporaries was of a force overmastering, almost magical. It was so in the rural con- gregations of Tuscarora and Falling Waters. It was yet more so after he removed to Richmond,^ and the most bril- liant professional men of Virginia sought his ministry. One of the eminent men of the present day tells how his father used to describe one of his sermons as surpassing in the flight of its oratory anything he had ever heard; when he had risen from climax to climax of appeal, he suddenly turned from the congregation and apostrophized the record- ing angel, praying him to stay his hand and not seal up the doom of the impenitent until once more he presented to them the offer of mercy. He had not completed his thirty-sixth year when he finished his labors, March 31, 1826. He left a manuscript life of his father. The publisher's copy was destroyed by a fire in the publishing house, and the previous death of the author prevented its preparation again for publication.^ Samuel Davies Hoge was the third of Dr. Hoge's sons to reach manhood. He was born in Shepherdstown pro- ^ In 1822, as the successor to the Rev. John D. Biair, of the "Church ■on Shockoe Hill" — now "Grace Street." ' A copy of the MS. is in the library of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va., presented by his son, the late Judge John Blair Hoge, of Martinsburg, W. Va. 14 Moses Drury Hoge. bably ^ on April i6, 1792, when we find the following entry in his father's journal : Another young immortal is committed to my care. I thank thee, O Lord, for all thy goodness to me and to my dear wife. Continue thy goodness with us and bless our ofifspring. Bless, I humbly pray thee, this infant. May he see many days, if it be thy holy will, and may he do much for thy glory. To thee, O Lord, do I solemnly devote him. May he be thy child and an heir of glory everlasting. Davies, as he was called, received his early education from his father, and from the young men studying for the min- istry with his father. Later he attended a classical school taught by his brother James in Augusta county, before his removal to Ohio. He was early a subject of divine grace, and in his youth made a public confession of his faith. His sensitive and delicate organization rendered him peculiarly susceptible to the strange physical and mental influences that accompanied the revivals of those days. When about nine years old he accompanied his parents on a trip to the South, undertaken for the sake of his mother's health, and, attending one of these meetings, "he became a subject of powerful excite- ment, and prayed, and exhorted the crowd which gathered around him with astonishing fervor and effect." While with his brother in Augusta he was a subject of the mysterious "falling exercise," in which men suddenly fell perfectly rigid under the powerful warnings of the pulpit. He reported afterwards that he was perfectly conscious and his thoughts were engaged on the subject of religion. These excitements passed away, and ever afterward the current of his religious life flowed calm and clear. ^ Mr. Hoge's age as given on his tomb would place his birth in i793- If this is correct, the infant referred to above died in infancy. In any case, the record illustrates Dr. Hoge's custom, and accounts for the blessing that has rested on his offspring to the third and fourth gen- eration. Ancestry. 15 When his father became president of Hampden-Sidney College, he was entered as a student, and was graduated in 1 8 10. He entered at once upon a course of theology with his father, serving meanwhile as a tutor in the college. His licensure took place at a meeting of Hanover Presbytery in Lynchburg, on May 8, 1813. His father presided on the occasion, and presented him with a Bible that had belonged to his mother, "with an appeal that filled the house with audible weeping." The brief story of his life will be told elsewhere. Thomas Hoge was the youngest of the sons. Born in 1799, he had just come of age when his father died. Choos- ing the profession of medicine, as early as 1823 he was reported to be "very popular for his skill and humanity." He was well advanced in life before he made a profession of religion. But his brother James came all the way from Ohio to make him a visit with this special burden on his heart. He was, of course, invited to preach in the neighboring church, and the sermon was blessed in bringing his brother to Christ. The origin of the Lacy family in Virginia is even more romantic than that of the Hoges. The name is an honored one in English history, occurring on the rolls of Battle Abbey and among the barons who signed Magna Charta. Mr. Hugh Blair Grigsby, the eminent authority on the history and genealogy of Virginia families, who had spent some time in the family of the Rev. Drury Lacy, believed that the Lacys of Virginia were from that noble stock. The investi- gations of Mr. Graham G. Lacy, assisted by the Countess of Chesterfield, tend to confirm that view, and to make it pro- bable that the founder of the family in America was a de- scendant of the Thornhill branch of the Lacy family in Yorkshire. However that may be, one Thomas Lacy left England about 1685, and set sail for America. The vessel was captured by the celebrated pirate Tieck, or Blackbeard, i6 Moses Drury Hoge. and all were made to walk the plank but Lacy and one other, who, Tieck said, were too fine-looking fellows not to be pirates. The vessel put into one of the inlets of North Caro- lina, and was captured by an expedition organized by the Governors of Virginia and North Carolina, under Lieuten- ant Maynard. There was a fierce fight on board, in which Lacy seized a cutlass, and rushed on deck, crying, "I am a true man and no pirate," and did such execution that he turned the tide of battle. Blackbeard was captured and hung, with all his crew, and Lacy was rewarded with the grant of a tract of land near Manikin-town, below Rich- mond, and there married one Ann Burnley. His son, William Lacy, of Chesterfield county, was a planter in comfortable circumstances, who, we are told, "was distinguished more for his hospitality than for his carefulness in the management of his estate or the education of his children." His wife was Elizabeth Rice, a woman of devoted piety. The celebrated Dr. Rice was of the same family. Their son, Drury Lacy, was born October 5, 1758. His mother died when he was about ten years old, and his father when he was sixteen. His patrimony was gone ; his education was meagre, and he had lost his left hand by the explosion of a gun, which a cowardly soldier at a county muster asked him to fire, having loaded it so deep that he was afraid to fire it himself. But it was these hard conditions that brought out the man in him. Manual pursuits being out of the question, he devoted himself to the cultivation of his mind, which was of great natural vigor. At the age of eighteen he became a teacher in the family of Mr. Daniel Allen, an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Cumberland county. The church was supplied at the time by the Rev. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden-Sidney College. Under his ministry he united with the Presbyterian Church. Meanwhile, by his ■own efforts, he was acquiring a good knowledge of mathe- matics and the English branches. He afterwards taught in Ancestry. 17 the family of Colonel Nash, of Prince Edward, the father- in-law of President Smith, where he had the privilege of Dr. Smith's instruction for an hour or two a week. In this way he acquired sufficient knowledge of Latin and Greek to be appointed tutor in the college at the age of twenty- three. He studied theology under Dr. Smith, and was licensed to preach September, 1787, and ordained the follow- ing year. To lighten the burdens of the president, he was elected vice-president of the college, and, on Dr. Smith's resignation to go to Philadelphia, he became for several years the acting president. During a part of this time he was associated with Archibald Alexander as collegiate pas- tor of a large group of churches in Charlotte, Prince Edward and Cumberland counties. On the division of the field he retired from the college in 1796, being succeeded by Dr. Alexander. He then lived on his farm, "Mount Ararat," near Hampden-Sidney, and besides supplying the neighbor- ing churches taught a classical school.^ Mr. Lacy was much sought after for special services, where his peculiar gifts were most useful. His tender, emo- tional nature and fervent piety made his preaching very effective in times of religious interest, while his voice, of great power and beauty, enabled him to speak to vast crowds out of doors as no one else could. He was called "Lacy of the silver hand ^ and the silver tongue." He was also of elegant presence and of rare social qualities. An old lady said that "he exceeded any one she ever saw at a sacrament and at a wedding." Unlike many preachers, he was a fine listener. Mrs. John H. Rice says, "I can in no way bring ' Of this school the late Hon. Hugh Blair Grigsby said, in his Historical Discourse at the Hampden-Sidney centennial : " I was one of those pupils and bear my testimony to his thorough teaching of the Latin tongue. Though sixty-one years have passed since I was under Tiis care, I feel the influence of his teachings on my mind and character at this moment and pointing the very thought I am now pressing upon you." ^ From the artificial silver hand he used to replace his lost member. i8 Moses Drury Hoge. him more plainly before me than by thinking of him as he was listening to Dr. Alexander's eloquence, and casting his deep blue eyes over the congregation, with the tears streaming down his cheeks, to notice the effect which it pro- duced." This recalls what Dr. William Hoge wrote of his son and namesake. Dr. Drury Lacy, of North Carolina : Uncle Drury is about the best hearer in the world. He leans forward and drinks in with his whole face and form and all his senses. He reflects every emotion, beaming on you if you are cheerful, and weeping if you are tender. Even then he does not hide his face with a handkerchief, but beams on, and lets the big, honest tears roll and take care of themselves. If I had a whole audience of Uncle Drurys, I should think I was the greatest orator in the world. If every face were such a mirror of emotion, the speaker who stood in the focus would be consumed. Another characteristic that he bequeathed to many of his descendants was the extraordinary beauty of his handwrit- ine- The records of Hanover Presbytery while he was stated clerk are marvels of elegance, as are his diary, letters and collection of mathematical problems. In October, 1810, Dr. Rice wrote to Dr. Alexander: Have you heard of Mr. Lacy's trip to Richmond last month, and of the effects which his preaching produced? I have understood that a number of persons since that time have determined, if possible, to get some evangelical preacher to live in the place. . . . From some commu- nications that have been made to me, I have reason to believe that they depend on me to do the work for them. This movement was stimulated by the burning of the Richmond Theatre in 181 1, when under that dispensation of sorrow Dr. Rice was so importuned by the people that he undertook the work. There had long been preaching in the Capitol by "Parson Blair" on alternate Sundays, but the con- gregations thus gathered lived on Shockoe Hill, and did not Ancestry. ig reach the mercantile and laboring classes, which were then grouped about "Rocketts." At his installation in October, 1812, Dr. Hoge presided and "gave the charge to the minister and congregation in his most moving and affecting manner." Thus Moses Hoge and Drury Lacy were both associated with the founding of that church which was the means of bringing to Richmond thirty-two years later the grandson and namesake of both. Mr. Lacy was Moderator of the General Assembly in Philadelphia in 1809. He was unable to attend the follow- ing year, and arranged for Dr. Rice to preach the opening sermon. The relation between these two men was most re- markable. They were distantly related themselves, but were much more nearly connected by marriage. Drury Lacy married Anne, the daughter of William Smith, of Powha- tan. Dr. Rice married her namesake, the daughter of her sister Mary, who was the wife of Major William Morton; a couple justly celebrated in all the histories of early Presby- terianism in Virginia. The last five years of Mr. Lacy's life his preaching underwent a marked change. Always fervent and at times great, it became now more studied and uniformly strong. He said, "I owe it all to Jack Rice." Contact with the younger man caused him to develop a more systematic and thorough style of preparation, and to display even higher mental gifts than had been attributed to him. But in all his ministry he had the joy of winning souls, both by his preaching and by his private religious conversation, in which he was peculiarly gifted. He died in Philadelphia December 6, 18 15, from the effects of a surgical operation. His letter to his wife an- nouncing the necessity of the operation was full of tender farewell and calm hope in God. But it was not needed. She was taken with fever just after he left home and died before him. He never knew it until they met on the other side. He was buried in the graveyard of the Third Presby- terian Church. 20 Moses Drury Hoge. Of the three sons of Mr. Lacy, William and Drury be- came ministers and Horace a physician — all useful and hon- ored in their generation ; all lived to venerable years. William Lacy spent his ministry in Arkansas ; Drury in North Carolina. They served the church faithfully in their youth and manhood, and in their beautiful old age they were the ornaments of their synods; their hoary heads were a crown of glory and their countenances beamed with the beauty of holiness. William became blind in his old age, but the light of another world shone so into his soul that people came from far to listen to his conversation, that flowed like a silver stream, sometimes falling into verse. When Drury finished his course, he came in from a walk, lay down for a nap, and awoke in heaven. Dr. Horace Lacy's useful and honorable life was spent in his native county of Prince Edward. Dr. William Lacy was the father of the Rev. Dr. Beverly Tucker Lacy, now of Washington, D. C, and of Major J. Horace Lacy, of Fredericksburg, whose son is the Rev. J. Horace Lacy, of Clarksville, Tenn. Dr. Drury Lacy was the father of the Rev. Dr. William S. Lacy, of Norfolk, Va. Dr. Horace Lacy was the father of the Rev. Dr. Matthew L. Lacy, of Greenbrier county, W. Va. Mr. Lacy had two daughters ; the younger, Judith, mar- ried the Rev. James Brookes, and was the mother of the late Rev. Dr. James H. Brookes, of St. Louis. The elder, Eliza- beth Rice, was married to Samuel Davies Hoge. The older ministers of Virginia used to say that a sermon composed by Moses Hoge and delivered by Drury Lacy would be the masterpiece of pulpit eloquence. Which thing was yet to be ; but not in that generation. CHAPTER II. Birth and Boyhood. "Which of the little boys now living and playing, and vexing their mothers often, will God sovereignly choose to be a Newton or a Haldane or a Brainerd?" — William James Hoge. BEFORE the days of railroads, Hampden-Sidney was on the great highway from Washington to the South, and many distinguished men passed that way. Prince Edward Court-house was only a mile away and drew to itself a bril- liant bar, at the head of which were Patrick Henry and John Randolph, surrounded by men less known to fame, but fit to adorn the highest places in the profession. You will not find in the encyclopedias of American biography the name of Samuel J. Anderson, but when he made an argument in the General Assembly it was discovered that he was the peer of the leading minds of the church. Henry E. Watkins had no national reputation, but his manners would have graced the court of St. James. When a distinguished Virginian — recently retired from the New York bench — rebuked the wrangling of two attorneys by the remark, "In this court it is as necessary to study Chesterfield as Blacl