I <2/( /£/tS&**/z "jrfi Life and Times H. H. KAVANAUGH, D. D., ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. BY A. H. REDFORD, D. D. WA,SH,VI,LLE, TfiNN fin p?&i*o Copyright By A. H. REDFORD, 1884. Preface. !fo /V\rs. M- ^. K'atfapaug!?. Dear Madam, — Upon me has devolved the task of writing the life of your sainted husband. No duty has been assigned me, at any time, to the per- formance of which I have addressed myself with greater pleasure than to portray the character, and follow the varied fortunes, of one to whom I am so much indebted, through the vicissitudes of a long and eventful life, devoted, as it was, to the ameliora- tion of mankind. When he was a young preacher, and I only a child, I heard from his lips the message of life, — a message I had never heard before, under which I was impressed with the necessity of a change of heart and the duty of a Christian life. The teach- ings of "that occasion were never effaced from my mind, but followed me continually until I was led to the Cross and gave my young heart to God. Of honorable birth and parentage, favored with religious instruction in his early childhood, it is not surprising that, in the rosy morn of life, he sought and found the pearl of great price, nor that he ever afterward maintained that high eminence as a Chris- 4 PREFACE. tian, whose godly walk and conversation commanded the respect of all who knew him. The heroic days of Methodism were still fresh in the minds of the itinerant ministry when he entered the ranks as a traveling preacher. Indeed, the fields of labor he occupied in the first years of his minis- terial toil were sufficient to remind him of the sacri- fices which were met and the privations which were endured by those who had preceded him, while the vast amount of labor he performed, together with the success with which his ministry was crowned, leaves to the Church a legacy on which is written — labor and rest, warfare and victory. For more than sixty years he bore aloft the ban- ner of the Cross, thirty-one of which were spent among the mountains and plains, in the cities and villages of his own loved Kentucky, and thirty in the discharge of the duties incident to the exalted office of a bishop in the Church of God. In the vast extent of his travels he was not surpassed by any of his self-sacrificing colleagues while in the pulpit; for the constancy of his labors and the ear- nestness with which he presented the grand and en- nobling truths that had molded his own life and imparted inspiration to his hopes he had scarcely a rival. Although he lived to an advanced age, it is grat- ifying that his mental powers had shown no signs of PREFACE. 5 decay, but that to the last he exhibited, in the social circle and in the pulpit, that intellectual vigor that had distinguished him in the morn and noon of his life. If he did not close his life in the pulpit, yet in that sacred place his labors as a herald of the Cross terminated. From thence he was permitted to look through the veil upon the crown he was so soon to wear, and upon the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory in which he would share. The probabilities were that he would die away from home. Always at work, responding to the calls of his brethren, it could scarcely have been expected that death would overtake him beneath his own roof; but it is gratifying to know that friendly hands ministered to his comfort in his last moments, and that you, who, for nearly twenty years, had stood by his side, accompanying him in his extensive jour- neys, and whispering words of cheer, were with him when the final summons came calling him from labor to reward. With my best wishes and sincere prayers for your happiness in this life and in the life to come, I beg permission to dedicate this volume to you. Your brother and friend, A. H. REDFORD. Bowling Green, Ky., June 21, 1884. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLES II OF ENGLAND TO THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAMS KAVAN- AUGH. PAGK. James II 11 William, Prince of Orange 11 Louis Eugene Cavaignac 13 Philemon and Charles Kava- naugli 17 Their emigration to America . 17 Origin of the name. .?... 18 Philemon Kavanaugh 19 Williams Kavanaugh, Sr 19 Removal to Kentucky 19 Birth of Williams Kavanaugh, Jr 20 Conversion and call to the ministry 20 Becomes a traveling preacher.. 20 Green Circuit 20 Brunswick Circuit 22 Cumberland Circuit 22 Franklin and Salt River Cir- cuits 22 Dr. Thomas Hinde 22 His marriage to Mary T. Hub- bard 23 The blister-plaster 28 Dr. Hinde's conversion 29 His fervent piety 31 His death 35 Mrs. Mary Todd Hinde 36 Her conversion 37 Letter from Bishop Kavan- augh 37 Hannah Hubbard Hinde 40 Her conversion 40 Conference of 1797 41 John Kobler's letter to Will- buns Kavanaugh 42 Williams Kavanaugh's mar- riage and location 42 Invited tf> join the Protestant Episcopal Church 44 Considers the proposition fa- vorably 41 Ordained by Bishop Claggett... 45 Rector at Lexington, Louis- ville, and Henderson, Ky.... 47 His death 47 His Christian character 48 PAOC. Letter from Bishop Smith 48 Death of Mrs. Kavanaugh 51 Thomas \V. Kavanaugh 51 Leroy H. Kavanaugh 52 Mary Jane Kavanaugh. 54 Benjamin T. Kavanaugh 50 Williams B. Kavanaugh 61 CHAPTER II. FROM THE BIRTH OF HUBBARD HINDE KAVANAUGH TO HIS AD- MISSION INTO THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE. Hubbard Hinde Kavanaugh.... 63 Early life 03 Apprenticeship 63 Conversion 64 Joins the Methodist Church. .. 66 Licensed to preach.* 67 Editor of the Western Watch- man 67 Trial Sermon 67 Benjamin Lakin 69 Daniel H.Tevis 73 Win. McCommas 74 Nelson Dills 74 Daniel Black 75 Thompson J. Holliman 75 David Wright 75 Clement L Clifton 76 Richard I. Dungan, 76 George Richardson 77 Abram Long 79 John S. Barger 80 Newton G. Berryman 81 CHAPTER III. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1823 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1827. Little Sandy Circuit 85 Andrew Monroe 85 Conference in Shelbyville 92 John Tevis 94 Miss Julia A. Hieronymus 94 Science Hill 95 Newport Circuit 96 Salt River Circuit i>7 John P. Finley 100 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1827 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1831. PAGE. Lexington Circuit 106 Marriage 107 Conference in Shelby ville 108 First sermon we ever heard 109 Stationed in Russellville Ill Visits Bowling Green 112 Littleton Fowler 116 Danville and Harrodsburg 123 CHAPTER V. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1831 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1835. Mr. Kavanaugh as a preacher.. 127 Bardstown and Springfield 128 Elected to the General Confer- ence of 1832 129 Revival in Bardstown 130 Frankfort 130 Barnabas McHenry 131 Marcus Lindsey 135 Peter Akers 148 Wm.C. Stribling 152 Lexington 160 Revival in Lexington 161 Amusing incident 161 CHAPTER VI. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1835 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1839. Wm. Adams 164 General Conference of 1836 171 The slavery question 171 Louisville 173 Discouragements 173 Bardstown 175 Meeting in Mt. Washington 175 Resolution of the Kentucky Conference requesting Bish- op Roberts not to transfer Mr. Kavanaugh to Missouri. 176 John Newland Maffitt 177 Superintendent of Public In- struction 196 Augusta College 199 John P. Pinley president. 200 Peter Akers appointed agent.. 200 E. \V. Sehon and H. H. Kava- naugh agents 201 E. W. Sehon 201 CHAPTER VLL FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1«39 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1842. Re-appointed agent for Au- gusta College 206 PAGE. J. S. Tomlinson 206 H. B. Bascom 213 Maysville 240 Jonathan Stamper 241 Augusta College 264 Transylvania University 265 Returns to Maysville 270 CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1842 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1848. Brook Street Church 271 Richard Corwine 271 Revival in Louisville 274 James S. Lithgow 274 Re-appointed to Brook Street... 278 General Conference of 1844 285 Kentucky Conference at Bowl- ing Green 286 Bishop Janes 287 Sermon by Mr. Kavanaugh 288 Shelby ville 291 Mr. Kavanaugh's speech before the convention of 1845 294 B. T. Crouch 295 Geo. C. Light 309 Presiding elder 315 Lexington 317 T. N. Ralston 318 Wm. H. Anderson 326 CHAPTER IX. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1848 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1850. Border war 331 Expositor and True Issue 331 Corresponding editor 332 Soule Chapel 332 Delegate to General Confer- ence 333 Burr H. McCown 333 John H. Linn 335 G. W. Brush 347 CHAPTER X. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1850 TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1854. Death of Bishop Bascom 359 Second year in Covington 360 G. W. Merritt 360 Edward Stevenson 364 Winchester and Ebenezer 379 Versailles 379 Second year in Versailles 381 Delegate to the General Con- ference of 1854 381 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1851 TO THE GENERAL CON- FERENCE OF 1858. PAGK. General Conference of 1854 382 Interchange of Bentiments be- tween delegates 383 Spoken of for bishop 383 Failure in the pulpit 384 Elected bishop go4 Bishop Pierce *f Bishop Early 391 Bishop Kavanaugh o9j> First conference M] Conference in Jefferson City. .. 398 At Riley's Chapel 398 Wachita Conference 39° Mrs. Kavanaugh 398 Conferences in 1855 :] w First visit to California -100 Arkansas Conference 401 East Texas 401 CHAPTER XII. FROM THE GENERAL, CONFERENCE OF 1858 TO THE GENERAL CON- FERENCE OF 1S70. General Conference of 1858 407 Bishop Kavanaugh's sermon .. 407 Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia Conferences 408 Sick in 1859 409 Missouri, St. Louis, Kansas Mission, Arkansas, and In- dian Mission Conferences in 18(J0 409 The civil war 409 Fall of Fort Sumter 410 Kentucky invaded 410 Kentucky Conference 410 Bishop Kavanaugh in sympa- thy With the South 411 Louisville Conference 411 General Conference of 1882 412 Kentucky Conference in 1803... 412 Exciting times 412 Death of Mrs. Kavanaugh 413 Ajresl in California 414 BiS release 419 Louisville Conference 421 Second marriage 421 Conferences for 1865 421 General Conference of i860 422 Bishops elected 423 A]. pointed to California 423 Death'of Bishop Boule 425 Feeble health 428 Annual meeting of the bishops 428 Episcopal field for 1868 428 Conferences for 1869 430 Gentle reprimand 431 CHAPTER XIII. FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1870 TO THE ANNUAL MEET- ING OF THE BISHOPS IN 1875. PAGK. General Conference in Mem- phis 432 J. C. Keener elected bishop 432 Bishop Kavanaugh's work 432 Bishops Doggett and Kavan- augh in Nashville 434 Confined at home. 437 Death of Bishop Andrew 438 Bishops' meeting in 1871 438 His episcopal district 438 At the conferences 439 Death of David Thornton 442 Semi-centennial sermon at Lexington 444 At Russellville 446 In Texas 447 General Conference in Louis- ville, 1874 449 Arkansas, White River, and Little Rock Conferences 449 CHAPTER XIV. FROM THE MEETING OF THE BISH- OPS IN MAY, 1875, TO THE GEN- ERAL CONFERENCE OF 1878. Bishop Kavanaugh in Califor- nia 451 Kavanaugh Camp-ground 451 Sketch of the bishop by Mrs. Emma Hardacre 454 In Oregon 461 His conferences 462 St. Joseph, Mo 462 Paroquet te Camp-meeting 463 Falls in the pulpit, in Nicho- lasville, Ky 464 At the conferences .'. 464 At Lebanon, Ky 465 In Nashville, Tenn 465 At the conferences 465 Death of Bishop Marvin 466 CHAPTER XV. FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1878 TO THE DEATH OF BISHOP KAVANAUGH. General Conference of 1S78 467 At Vanderbilt University 467 District conferences 467 Camp-meeting 468 Hoision Conference 468 Alabama Conference 469 At home. February, 1879 469 District Conferences 469 Kavanaugh Camp-meeting 469 Kentucky Conference 470 10 CONTENTS. PAGB. Cavcrna, Ky 470 Memphis Conference 470 Greenville, Miss 470 Mississippi conference 470 District conferences 470 Commencement sermon at Whitworth Female College. 471 Illinois, Indiana, and Louis- ville Conferences 471 In California 471 Death of Bishop Doggett "... 471 At home 474 Death of Mrs. Charlotte Thorn- ton 474 Death of Bishop Wightman 476 General Conference of 1882 477 Bishop Kavanaugh's district... 477 Battle Monument. 478 Death of Bishop Paine 479 South Georgia and Florida Conferences 479 Annual meeting of bishops 479 Immense labor 479 Camp-meeting 480 Last visit to Versailles, Ky 480 Visit to Bowling Green, Ky 480 His last tour 481 Conference in New Orleans 483 Pleasing incidents 484 His last sermon 485 At Ocean Springs 488 Last attempt to preach 488 His death 489 Letter from Rev. J. H. Scruggs 489 His remains en route for Ken- tucky 495 Funeral services in Louisville. 495 Funeral sermon by Bishop Mc- Tyeire 496 His burial 501 CHAPTER XVI. TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF BISHOP KAVANAUGH. Memorial service in Nashville, Tenn 503 Address by Bishop Pierce 503 Preachers' Meeting in Louis- ville 511 Christian Advocate 512 New Orleans Advocate 514 Raleigh Advocate 515 Central Methodist 515 Wilmington Star 516 Wesleyan Christian Advocate. 517 Episcopal Methodist 518 Richmond Advocate 518 Southern Christian Advocate.. 519 Colorado Methodist 519 Pacific Methodist 520 Bishop Keener 520 C. G. Andrews, D. D 521 T. N. Ralston, D. D.. 526 Rev. W. M. Grubbs 532 W. H. Anderson, D. D 535 Lines, Joseph us Anderson, D.D. 542 Bishop Kavanaugh's tribute to Methodism 544 " Our Last Trip," by Mrs. Kav- anaugh 545 Centennial Address, Dr. Mes- sick 552 LIFE AND TIMES OF Bishop Kavanaugh CHAPTER I. FROM THE BE A TH OF CHARLES II OF ENGLAND TO THE BE A TH OF REV. WILLIAMS KA VAN A UGH ON the death of Charles II, February 6, 1685, James II succeeded to the throne of England. While in exile he became a Roman Catholic, but did not avow his faith until the death of the duchess of York in 1671. From the time he ascended the throne his oppo- sition to Protestantism was marked, not only in the adoption of such measures as were calculated to pro- mote the Catholic faith, but likewise to suppress every thing that might advance Protestant Christianity. From the very commencement of his reign he arrayed against his administration the opposition of Parlia- ment, as well as that of the Puritans. Such was his tyranny that before two years had elapsed he had estranged from him every class of his Protestant subjects. As a leader in behalf of Protestantism, William, prince of Orange, who had married the daughter of 12 LIFE AND TIMES OF the duke of York (afterwards James II), became the head of a league formed among the Protestant princes of Germany, the kings of Spain, Sweden, and others, having for its object to curb the power of Louis XI V. The treaty by which the alliance was constituted was signed at Augsburg in July, 1686. The popu- larity of William turned the eyes of Protestant Eng- land towards him as their only hope. On the 27th of April, 1688, James published the famous declaration of Indulgence, which he ordered to be read in all the churches in the kingdom. The order, however, was generally disobeyed by the clergy, while seven of the bishops ventured on a written re- monstrance, for which they were committed to the Tower on a charge of seditious libel. They were, however, acquitted of the charge on the 29th of June, 1688. On the night of the same day seven of the English leading politicians dispatched to William, prince of Orange, to come over to England and as- sume the throne. On the 5th of November he landed at Torbay with fifteen thousand men. Soon the whole country was at his side. Seeing no safety for himself in Eng- land, James fled to France, where he was received by Louis XIV, who assigned him a large pension, and the Palace of St. Germain as a residence. In 1689 he went to Ireland, where he was received with acclamation. In an effort to regain his throne, the superior genius of William of Orange, displayed at the battle of Boyne, July 1, 1690, broke the current of his success, while the battle of La Houge, fought May 10, 1692, in which the united Dutch and English BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 13 fleets, under Admiral Russell, defeated the French •naval force, under Tourville, blighted his last hope. Upon his return to France quite a number of Irish families, among them a portion of the Kavanaugh family, who were adherents to the Roman Catholic religion, accompanied him.* From that period the name of Kavanaugh in France has not been an ob- scure one. The reader of French history will not fail to remember Louis Eugene Cavaignac (Kav- anaugh), who was so prominent in the affairs of state in the time of Louis Philippe. He was born in Paris, October 15, 1802.f He was the son of Jean Baptiste Cavaignac, who was one of the deputies of the conven- tion during the revolution of 1793. After having taken his degree at the College of Saint Barba, one * In a family Bible now in possession of the family there is the following record, in the handwriting of Williams Kavan- augh, the father of the bishop: "My grandfather in the pater- nal line was named Philemon. He was descended from an ancient Irish family (I have understood) much devoted to the Stuart interest. About A. D. 1705 he and one other brother came to Virginia, and first settled in Essex County, though my grandfather's final settlement was in Culpepper. He was twice married. His last wife's maiden name was Williams. She was from Wales. My grandfather had several children by each marriage. My father was (by the last marriage) a posthumous child, and was called by his mother's maiden name. My grand- father in the maternal line (whose name was Harrison) was born, I believe, in England, though he came from New England to Virginia. He and two brothers, who came with him, all lived to very great ages. His wife's maiden name was John- son, or Johnston, of a Scotch family. My father and mother were both born in February, 1744, Old Style. When they were married I do not know." t General Cavaignac and Bishop Kavanaugh were born the same year. 14 LIFE AND TIMES OF of the highest schools in Paris, he was received at the Polytechnic School. He then went to the School of Application at Metz, with the title of sub-lieutenant of Genae, and entered, in 1824, the second regiment of that title. He graduated afterward as second lieu- tenant on the 1st of October, 1826, as first lieutenant on the 12th of January, 1827, and served in the Morea (Grecia) in 1828. In 1829 he was made captain in the same regiment. He was then only twenty-seven years of age. Returned from Grecia, Captain Cavaignac was in 1831 in garrison at Metz. The project of a " National Association," which he signed, and which was consid- ered by Louis Philippe as an act of opposition, brought him under the displeasure of that monarch, and re- sulted in his withdrawal from active service. His genius, however, as a military officer was too impor- tant to France to slumber. In 1832 he was recalled to the service, and sent to Algeria. There he exhib- ited a rare energy and a great intellect in regard to that country and Avar. He had the command of the weak garrison of Tlemecen, amid the most hostile and bravest tribes of Kabyles. In such a difficult and dangerous position he displayed the greatest talent of strategy, united to unequaled intrepidity and firmness. Notwithstanding it was only on the 4th of April, 1837, that he obtained the rank of chief of battalion, yet on the 21st of June, 1840, he was made colonel of the Zouaves Regiment, and on the 19th of April, 1841, he received the command of the division of the Tlem- ecen, with the rank of marshal of camp. After the BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 15 revolution of February, 1848, he was made general of division, and called to the government of Algeria. Having been elected representant of the National Assembly, he accepted the ministry of war, which he had previously refused. On his election to the Na- tional Assembly he returned to Paris, arriving there on the 17th of May, and finding the capital in an ex- tremely critical state. The events of June elevated him to that eminent and unequaled position in which the cause of order became his debtor for so many em- inent services. "A formidable insurrection had been organized, and it remained only for the National As- sembly to assert its authority by force of arms. Cav- aignac, first as minister of war, and then as dictator, was called to the task of suppressing the revolt. It was no light work, as the national guard was doubt- ful, regular troops were not at hand in sufficient num- bers, and the insurgents had abundant time to prepare themselves. Variously estimated at from thirty thou- sand to sixty thousand men, well armed and well or- ganized, they occupied the north-eastern portion of the city, their front line stretching from the Pantheon on the south of the Seine by the Port St. Michel to the Portes St. Martin and St. Denis. Resting on the Faubourg St. Antoine as a central point, and threat- ening the Hotel de Ville, they had entrenched them- selves at every step behind formidable barricades, and were ready to avail themselves of every advantage that ferocity and despair could suggest to them. Cav- aignac, knowing the work he had before him, remained inactive, notwithstanding the urgent representations of the civil members of government, till a sufficient 16 LIFE AND TIMES OF regular force had been collected. At last, by a strong combined movement on the two flanks and against the center of the insurgent forces, he attempted to drive them from their barricades — with doubtful suc- cess for some time, as every inch of ground was dis- puted, and the government troops were frequently repulsed, till, fresh regiments arriving, he forced his way to the Place de la Bastille, and crushed the in- surrection in its head-quarters." France may justly boast of many of her great men, but no man of the present century has enjoyed a prouder distinction than General Cavaignac. He re- ceived a million and a half votes for the presidency of the Republic. He died in 1857. That General Cavaignac descended from one of the Kavanaugh families that went to France with James the Second there can be no doubt. At the time when a portion of the family followed the prostrate fortunes of James into France, one of the name sought refuge in Prussia. In the history of Napoleon mention is made of a very obstinate and troublesome member of the Prussian court by the name of Kavanaugh, who probably belonged to that branch of the family to whom reference is here made as having sought an asylum in that portion of Germany. In Ireland, however, the name first appears, and is of frequent occurrence. In the province of Ulster there is a county bearing the name of Cavan, or Ka- van, and in it is a church and school of the same name, the signification of which is charity or benev- oleyice. At this church, Kilkavan, Daniel Kavanaugh BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 17 was educated, and was the first to bear the surname — the suffix- "augh" meaning "of." The name, which so often occurs in Ireland, sometimes begins with the letter C, but more frequently with the letter K; but wherever found, whether in France, in Prussia, in Ireland, or in America, it is the synonym of firmness of purpose and integrity of character. In the latter part of the seventeenth century his- tory records but little in reference to Ireland, beyond the turbulent condition of the country and the con- flicts between the religious sects. To escape the per- secutions incident to the illiberal spirit of the times, in 1705 two brothers, Philemon and Charles Kavan- augh turned away from their native land, and sailed for America. They first settled in Virginia, in Essex County. Philemon Kavanaugh, however, at a later period removed to Culpepper County, where he made a permanent settlement. Charles Kavanaugh left Virginia for New England, where he was lost sight of.* There is no task more difficult to the historian of the present time than to trace without authentic records the genealogy of a family through the centu- ries that have passed. Although surnames were introduced previous to the Christian era, and were adopted by our Lord dur- ing his public ministry, yet they were not in common * There is a family tradition that three brothers left Ireland together— that one of them stopped in England, and the other two came to America. General Kavanaugh, in command of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's troops in India, has a similar family tradition, his paternal ancestor having settled in England, while two other brothers went to America. lie undoubtedly belongs to the same original stock. 2 18 LIFE AND TIMES OF use until the latter part of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. Beskles the contests for power and the numerous conflicts in which petty princes were prominent actors, drenching the land in blood and blotting out entire families, together with the fact that the art of printing was not introduced until about the year 1450, rendered it difficult to pre- serve with accuracy the family lineage. The Kavanaugh family, however, dates far back of the period to which we may trace it without diffi- culty. " The Irish nation [according to Connellan's ' Tribal History of Ireland '] was originally made up of four distinct tribes, one of which came from Greece in the second century of the Christian era, under the leadership of a line of petty princes. They continued to preserve their organization as a tribe until about the eleventh century, up to which time surnames were not used. Very early in the eleventh century the ruling prince, whose name was Dermot, had a son whose name was Daniel, who was educated at Kilka- van, and hence was called a Kavan-augh, when sur- names were first introduced." At the time when Philemon and Charles Kavan- augh left Ireland and came to America, it required no little courage to turn away from native land and seek a home on a foreign shore. Some, prompted by the desire to enjoy freedom of thought, others by the hope of gain, resolved to seek their fortunes in the New World. Influenced by whatever motive, it was not the unambitious and the timid, but the brave and chivalrous, who were willing to encounter the dangers of the ocean and the privations of the virgin forest. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 19 Virginia was settled by a noble people. Whether from England, Ireland, Scotland, or from France, it was not from the lower grades of society that the col- ony of Virginia was settled. Many families of fortune and of gentle birth were among the early settlers, while others with brawny arms and stont hearts made it their home, and the home of their children. We have already seen that more than gentle blood flowed in the veins of the Kavanaugh family, and that they were the patrons of learning. Philemon Kavan- augh was twice married, but whether his first mar- riage occurred before he left the Emerald Isle the record does not show. His second wife was Miss Williams, a lady with fine intellectual endowments. She was from Wales. By each marriage there were several children. Among the children by the second marriage were two sons, Charles and Williams. Williams was the younger son and the youngest child, being a posthu- mous child. He was born in February, 1744, Old Style. Williams Kavanaugh was born in Virginia, and came to Kentucky in 1775, and settled in Madison County, on the waters of Muddy Creek, ten miles north-east of Boonsboro. The body of emigrants in whose company Williams Kavanaugh and family emi- grated to Kentucky was among the first who came to try their fortunes in the Western wilderness. They were guarded by an armed escort of the able-bodied men of their number. On their way the family of Mr. Kavanaugh was detained for months on account of the illness of his wife. The settlement he made, 20 LIFE AND TIMES OF was under the immediate protection of Col. Estill, who had charge of 'Estill Station. Williams Kavanaugh, son of Williams Kavan- augh, was born near the dividing line between Vir- ginia and Tennessee, August 3, 1775, while his parents were moving to the District of Kentucky from Vir- ginia. Brought up by parents whose lives were con- secrated to Christ, when only a child he became con- vinced of the necessity of religion, and sought and found the pearl of great price. Impressed with the conviction that he ought to preach the Gospel, he " conferred not with flesh and blood," but resolved to enter upon the work. In 1794 the Conference for the West was held in Jessamine County, Kentucky. At that session his name was placed upon the conference roll. Several names, distinguished in the history of Methodism in America, entered the itinerant ranks the same year as Williams Kavanangh ; among whom were Lewis Gar- rett and Nicholas Snethen. In Kentucky there were only six circuits, ten preachers, with a white member- ship of two thousand and eighty-two, and a colored of one hundred and thirty-six. His first appointment was to Green Circuit in East Tennessee, with Lewis Garrett as his colleague, and the zealous John Kobler as his presiding elder. Mr. Kavanaugh was only nineteen years old when he en- tered upon the labors and duties of a traveling preacher. Mr. Garrett writes : " Williams Kavan- augh and myself proceeded to Green Circuit. This circuit was a frontier circuit. It lay along the Hol- ston and French Broad Rivers. There were few set- BISHOP KAVANAUGH. . 21 tiers south of French Broad, and what there were either lived in forts, cooped up in dread, or lived in strongly built houses, with puncheon doors, barred up strongly when night approached. The Cherokee In- dians, who were their near neighbors, were in a state of hostility. We visited those forts and scattered set- tlers in quest of perishing souls." To reach this re- mote field he had to pass " through the wilderness, which was both difficult and dangerous." In com- pany with " about sixty men, six of whom were trav- eling preachers " — among them John Ray and Lewis Garrett — he left the Crab Orchard, the place where the company met, and set out upon his journey. The first night he encamped in the vicinity of a fort in the woods, with no covering but the clear blue sky. Around their camp-fires they worshiped God, "the intrepid, fearless, zealous Kay" leading in the de- votions. The next day the company " passed the gloomy spot where, a short time before," several persons " had been massacred by the Indians, two of whom were Baptist preachers," and again at night they slept in the woods. The third day they " crossed the Cum- berland Mountains, and reached the settlement on Clinch River, where" they "rested until the next day." * That such a field of labor as this was sufficient to test the fidelity and courage of so young a preacher will not be questioned. Although only a youth, ho was not insensible to the responsibilities of the holy office to which he had been called. With a commend- *" Recollections of the West." 22 LIFE AND TIMES OF able zeal he prosecuted the duties assigned him, win- ning souls to Christ, and a warm place in the confi- dence and affections not only of the people he served, but of his colleague, Mr. Garrett, by whom he was always kindly remembered. In 1795 he was sent to the Brunswick Circuit, with the gifted Ira Ellis as his presiding elder, and in 1796 to the Cumberland, both lying in the State of Virginia. In the Minutes of 1797 his name ap- pears in connection with two circuits — the Franklin, in Virginia, and the Salt River, in Kentucky. It is probable that he spent the first six months on the Franklin Circuit, and the latter on Salt River. Among the names that were prominent in the early history of Methodism in Kentucky that of Dr. Thomas Hinde deserves to be held in remembrance. His great opposition to the religion of the Nazarene; his power- ful awakening; his sound conversion; his Christian life, shedding a luster over the community in which he lived ; his peaceful death, resembling an Autumn sunset, all beautiful and cloudless, ought not to be forgotten. He " was born in Oxfordshire, England, in July, 1734. He studied regularly both branches of his profession — surgery and medicine — in London, under the direction of the celebrated Dr. Thomas Brookes, who superintended St. Thomas's Hospital. At the age of twenty, Dr. Brookes, from personal friendship to his pupil, and from an assurance that his indefatigable industry had qualified him for the ex- amination, presented him before the doctors' commons (a board of physicians and surgeons), and would have him to pass an examination at an earlier period of BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 23 life by one year than was usual on such occasions. He soon after obtained for him a commission as sur- geon's mate in the British navy. Dr. Hinde having entered the service of the government of his native country, he was ordered into foreign service, and the fleet to which he was attached arrived at New York on the 14th of June, 1757. He was with the squadron at Louisburg the same year, and 1757-58 wintered at Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1758 he was at the reduc- tion of Louisburg, under Amherst. In 1759 he was at the reduction of Quebec, under that distinguished general, AVolfe, and dressed the wounds of General Wolfe when he fell on that memorable occasion. He belonged to the vessel which Wolfe left to go on shore to contend with Montcalm for the palm of victory on the plains of Abraham. Soon after the fall of Que- bec lie returned to England. He was at the reduction of Bellisle, and afterward was promoted to surgeon. After peace was concluded with France in 1763, hav- ing formed an intimate acquaintance with a young Virginian who was his fellow-student under Dr. Brookes, he was induced through his young friend, who had returned home, and Dr. Brookes, to accept the invitation of an aged practicing physician in Es- sex County, Virginia, to assist him in practice, and about 17G5 settled himself near a place called Hobb's Hole, in Essex County, Virginia. He afterward re- moved to King and Queen County, and settled at a place called Newtown, where he purchased, and com- menced the practice of surgery and medicine with great success. "In 1767, September 24th, Dr. Hinde married 24 LIFE AND TIMES OF Mary T. Hubbard, daughter of his countryman, Mr. Benjamin Hubbard, an English merchant; and some time after, disposing of his possessions at Newtown, removed to Hanover County, and settled in the neigh- borhood of that distinguished orator, statesman, and patriot, Patrick Henry, and became his family phy- sician." Dr. Hinde was the friend of Lord Dunniore, as well as of Patrick Henry. Warmly espousing the American cause, he was appointed by the governor of Virginia a surgeon in the army, in which position he served throughout the Revolutionary War. At the close of the war, having drawn no part of his salary, and from his great skill as a surgeon hav- ing endeared himself to the Virginians, in settling up his accounts he was presented with a land-warrant, to be located in lands to be selected in Kentucky, leav- ing a blank within the warrant for the number of acres granted to be filled by Dr. Hinde himself. The blank was filled with twenty thousand, and placed in the hands of Patrick Henry to select and locate the lands. Mr. Henry failed to accomplish it as anticipated, securing but one-half the number of acres. Dr. Hinde then employed his nephew, Hubbard Taylor, to pro- ceed to Kentucky and eonqxlete the location, offering him one-half for his services. These lands were located between Winchester and Lexington, chiefly in Clarke County. a Tn 1788 or 1789 the Methodists began to preach in the neighborhood. An elderly gentleman, a High- churchman, who resided four or five miles from the BISHOP KAY AN AUG H. 25 doctor's, possessed a very fine cherry-orchard. It was usual with the old gentleman to give annually to the youth of both sexes a cherry-feast. Indeed, feasting and amusements constituted the grand round of em- ployment with the youth of that day. He never failed, on such occasions, to have some of the doc- tor's family to attend. His eldest daughter had mar- ried and moved away; his second was then just grown up, and about this time she attended. Old Mr. Da- vid Richardson (the High -church man) was a great opposer of the Methodists : two of his sons had at- tended their meeting, contrary to his express orders, and both of them had returned under serious awak- enings. They were young and inexperienced, and did not know what to do or where to go, but they dreaded their father's wrath ; however, they returned home, and the old man, having learned that they had attended one of those meetings, seized the oldest by the collar, and while he was dealing out his blows with his staff in a most unmerciful manner, his son professed to get converted, and praised the Lord. The father soon after was seized with remorse of con- science, and in order to make some atonement for what he had done, caused his large barn to be re- moved to a beautiful grove, near an excellent spring of water, and fitted it up for a Methodist chapel. And although this old gentleman for a long time contin- ued to be an opposer to vital piety, yet at his death, I am informed, he sought the Lord and found mercy. His eldest son at that early day was so filled with love and zeal in the good cause of the blessed Redeemer that he turned upon the doctor's daughter. He ad- 3 26 LIFE AND TIMES OF monished her of the error of her ways, her sinful state by nature, of the necessity of a change of heart, and of the awful consequences of dying unprepared to meet God. It made a deep, and ultimately a lasting, im- pression upon her mind; and through the day, while she was reflecting on the subject, very serious convic- tions reached her heart. In the evening she threw herself upon the bed, and in great agony began to pray to the Lord to have mercy upon her soul. But O, how gloomy was her situation ! She began not only to reflect upon her own case, but saw the situa- tion in which her parents were also. She was induced afterward to attend a meeting, but it was a Methodist meeting! and now, how could she meet her parents? Her father a confirmed deist, her mother cheerful and lively, she herself brought, up in the gayest circle of society — she could find no person with whom she could take counsel, the whole settlement being com- posed of a gay and fashionable people. The tempter pleaded hard with her, and argued that if she did now seek the Lord, and would go to hear these people, that although she had the most tender and affection- ate parents, they would disown her, and turn her out- of-doors; that she would bring a reproach upon them, and be forsaken by her companions. But however desperate her case might be made to appear her reso- lution was fixed, and she w T as determined to abide the consequences. "The awakening of the daughter made a deep im- pression upon her mother's mind. The doctor at length, through some channel, learning the result of the visit, and seeing the visible change in his daugh- BISHOP K AY AN AUG H. 27 ter's appearance, all of a sudden on this occasion was at once roused to the highest pitch of desperation. The threatened storm began now to gather round this new subject of awakening grace. He called for a ser- vant, directed him to prepare a horse and chaise to take his daughter to her aunt's (Mrs. Harrison), a widow then living in Caroline County, forty miles distant; and with the most vehement protestations, that unless his daughter relinquished her purpose, never to see his face again. How feeble are the ef- forts of man without grace ! When Heaven designs to do the work, what is a human being's puny arm to resist, or to be raised to oppose it? How providential was this singular event : her aunt, unknown to the doctor, had gone to hear these strange people, had embraced religion and joined society, and opened her house for preaching. He could not have sent her to a more convenient and suitable place. But to the doctor's great annoyance, his wife became more and more sensibly affected ; her awakenings were deep, and she desired to go and hear the Methodists for her- self. In this the old doctor opposed her. A quar- terly-meeting was to be held at Richardson's Chapel (called the Barn), to which she desired to go. Al- though on all occasions the doctor perhaps was not excelled as a husband or parent for tenderness and affection for his family — indeed, he carried his indul- gence to an extreme — on this occasion it was strange, it was really astonishing, to see how his feelings were wrought upon ; they were aroused beyond control. He most positively denied his wife the privilege of going to this meeting: he became persuaded in his 28 LIFE AND TIMES OF own mind that these people had set those persons thus affected crazy, and thus concluded that his wife and daughter were really deranged, and that, without a proper remedy being immediately applied, the conse- quences would become very serious." * Opposed to Christianity, he availed himself of ev- ery opportunity to arrest the tide of religious emotion, that had swelled the hearts of his wife and daughter, until at length his madness culminated in the applica- tion of a blister to the neck of his wife to bring her to her senses. "We are indebted for the following sketch to Bishop Kavanaugh : " After the blister-plaster was put on, she and her daughter went on to the meeting again. The next day, the doctor asked how her blister was coming on. ' Did the plaster draw well?' She said, 'I know nothing about the plaster/ He exclaimed, ' What ! did you not take it off? ? She answered, ' No.' Of course he knew that it was in a bad condition. He stood astounded, until, she told me, he looked as if he were petrified, and doubted if he had the use of himself. She said she arose from her seat and pur- posely brushed by him, when he staggered and caught, showing the want of self-control, from the intensity of his feelings ; for though he had thus treated his wife, he loved her with a warm devotion. Reflecting on this transaction, conviction seized on his mind, and troubled him for his sins. He dressed the blis- ter as best he could, and taking a seat by his wife, he said, ' I expect if you were to join these people you * Thomas S. Hinde in Methodist Magazine, vol. x, pp. 260, 261, 263, 309, 310. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 29 would feel better.' With animation she exclaimed, * Thank you, blister-plaster ! thank you, blister-plas- ter!' believing that her blister had accomplished that much for her. " She and her daughter now went to Church much elated. They thought their victory so grand they in- vited the preacher home with them. This was rather too fast for the doctor; but, as a matter of civility, he politely entertained the preacher, and asked him to have prayers at night. The preacher prayed with such mighty power that one or two of the girls fell pros- trate on the floor, and looked as though they were dead. The. doctor quietly crawled on his hands and knees to them, and felt their pulse, said he was satis- fied that they could not die with that pulse, and so crawled back to his chair again. " The meeting went on, and the doctor would make it convenient, in visiting his patients, to go by the meeting and hear the sermon — would sit at the door and hear as much of the class-meeting as he could. He was very serious, and soon gave him self to prayer, and was converted to God. His particular exercises of mind at the time of his conversion I do not re- member to have heard detailed. This I regret. In detailing tin; circumstances that brought him to God, and the knowledge of his salvation, he often adverted to the blister-plaster. I once heard him say (I think it was in a love-feast), ' I put a blister-plaster on my wife to bring her to her senses, and lo and behold, it brought me to my senses ! , On one occasion, going to love-feast, his wife remarked to him, i Doctor, if you should have occasion to speak this morning, you 30 LIFE AND TIMES OF need not say any thing about the blister-plaster, for every body knows that/ I suppose he thought he would not, until he began to speak, and when he came to the part that brought in the plaster he paused a moment, and looking over to his wife, said, ' Honey, I can 't get along without that blister-plaster/ He then gave an account of it, and passed on. " Few, I suppose, ever took more pleasure in the habit of prayer than did Dr. Hinde, or practiced de- votions more frequently. On the place which he cul- tivated in Kentucky you might often see little houses built of sticks of wood, and covered, most usually, with bark, with a door for entrance. His grandchildren (myself among the number), who were accustomed to joyous gambols over his grounds, were rather per- plexed as to the use of these singular structures. At length the old doctor was overheard at his private prayers in one of these houses. After that we all called them 'grandpa's prayer-houses.' He aimed to conceal his person, but did not pray very silently — he could often be heard a considerable distance. On one occa- sion, he went into what we termed there a ' sink-hole ' to pray. This was near the road. He became very much engaged, struggling for the blessing of God upon him. One of his neighbors, by the name of Lion, was passing by, and hearing the voice of prayer, but not seeing from whence it came, looked about to see if he could find its source. It seemed to him to be in the direction of the sink-hole. He approached it softly, and looking down into it, he saw the doctor on his knees, who, just at that time, received his blessing, and, in a very earnest manner, gave glory to God, and BISHOP KAVANAUGB. 31 shouted hosannas to his name. Lion passed on, awe- struck with the scene that came under his notice, hav- ing, as he told me himself, this train of reflections : 1 Well, there was a man who could not be a hypo- crite ; lie was alone and concealed, engaged in private prayer with God for a blessing on his soul. He wres- tled with God, and prevailed. Without a conscious- ness that any eye was jupon him but that of God, he was happy under his blessing — a proof this that Chris- tianity is founded in the truth, and has a claim on every man/ His reflections fastened conviction on his soul, and he never rested until he too sought the God of all grace, and realized peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. "In his family devotions, the doctor was very fervid and full of feeling. He would often pause in reading a chapter, with an expression of admiration, a word of exposition or application, sometimes ex- claiming, i This is a blessed chapter!* " In his later days he lived with his daughter, Mrs. Mary McKinney, of Newport, Kentucky, who had a little son to whom he was greatly attached. He taught him, at the conclusion of prayer in the family, to say ( Amen.' The sound of the little boy's voice on that word would thrill him with peculiar pleasure. On rising from his knees he would cry out, ' Where is he?' would run to him, and embrace and caress him very fondly. "At his own table he would require his grand- children to come around the table, whether they could get seats or not, and hold their hands over the table until he would ask a blessing, when every little voice 32 LIFE AND TIMES OF would say, ' Amen.' This afforded him a high sense of pleasure. " His piety was not morose — any thing but a sour godliness. It was a religion of love, joy, and peace. His reverence and affection for ministers of the Gos- pel were very great. On their arrival at his house he would run out to meet them, saying, ' Come in, thou blessed of the Lord, come in ! ' and he would embrace them in his arms, He esteemed them very highly for their work's sake. "As might well be supposed, he had a high ap- preciation of class-meetings. "Where he was well ac- quainted, and a preacher who was less acquainted might be leading the class, he would sometimes get before the preacher, and when he would come to a good case he would say, ' Here, brother, here is an humble soul, whom God blesses.' Again, i Here is a prayerful soul, and zealous for the Lord.' Bat when he had not so much confidence, he would merely an- nounce his name, and after the leader had finished talking to him he would stoop down and say to him, ' You must pray more.' On one of these occasions he was conducting a preacher round the class, and came to his wife, and said, in an animated tone of voice, ' Here is my wife, my sister, and my mother,' allud- ing to the fact that his wife had been the instrument of his conversion, and was, therefore, his mother. The preacher paused, reflected awhile, and then pro- ceeded. " A prominent trait in the doctor's character was a carelessness of worldly goods. This was carried, perhaps, farther than might be commended. He had BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 33 very little appreciation of them. I do not know that he ever called upon any persons for money they owed him ; and if any one paid him money, it was likely that he would throw it into the lap of the first female member he passed in reaching home, and pass on. It was understood that he gave it to them. "After giving up the practice of medicine, at the solicitation of his daughter (then Mrs. Mary Taylor), the old doctor and his wife lived with her until each one of them died. During this period he gave him- self up to reading, meditation, and prayer, and ap- peared utterly dead to all worldly cares and interests. " The subject of religion seemed always present to his mind. In illustration of this, several charac- teristic anecdotes of him are told. " He was one day standing on the bank of the Ohio River, when a salt-boat came floating by, and a man on the boat hailed him, and asked, ' How is salt selling ? ' The doctor replied, ' I know nothing about salt; I know that grace is free/ "At another time he was taking a morning walk, and met Gen. James Taylor, a relative by marriage, who said, ' Good-morning, docto"r j where are you go- ing?' ' I am going to heaven ; where are you going, general ?* The general, at that time, had some doubts whether his road led to the same country, and made no reply; but it is hoped he found the way to ever- lasting life before he left the world. " One of his grandsons, Wm. W. Southgate, was running for Congress, and the race was a close one. Some of the family urged the old doctor to help out his relative with a vote, explaining the matter to him 34 LIFE AND TIMES OF to his satisfaction, and he promised to go and vote. So he started off to the court-house. His memory was very frail at this time, and the court-house was the place at which he was accustomed to worship. He walked on slowly, humming a tune, and got quite in the spirit of devotion by the time he reached the court- house. He walked in, and the judges of the election, seeing so aged a man coming to the polls, cried out, ' Clear the way, gentlemen, and let Dr. Hinde vote. Whom do you vote for, doctor ? y The election had gone out of his mind entirely. He looked up with an air of surprise, and said, '"Whom do I vote for? Why, for the Lord Jesus Christ, for ever ! ' The judges said, 'That is the best vote cast here to-day, but we do not know that he is a candidate for the position now in question/ Meanwhile one of his grandsons said to him, ' Grandpa, you have not come to meeting, but to the election.' ' O, yes/ he said, ' I understand it now/ He then voted as he had pur- posed. He returned home full of holy thoughts and mellow feelings, and, it is said, some one asked him where he had been. He said, ' I have been to meet- ing. We had a glorious time/ " Particularly in relation to recent events his mem- ory was very treacherous. I was once in his presence, in the second year of my itinerancy, when he looked at me with an inquiring look, and said, ' Brother Kav- anaugh, where did you come from? Did you come from Virginia ?' I told him, 'No; I am a native Kentuckian, but my ancestors were all from Virginia. My grandfather, Dr. Thomas Hinde, was an early im- migrant to Kentucky, and settled in Clarke County/ BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 35 ' What ! ' said he, i Hannah's son ? ' ' Yes, sir/ He rose from his chair, and, seizing me round the neck, exclaimed, ' Whom the Lord calls, he qualifies. Be faithful to your calling.' And yet, in this same inter- view, he told me when he was examined on his stud- ies as a student of medicine the questions that were asked him, and the answers he gave. In allusion to this failure of memory in his advanced age he was •once heard to say, 'I have forgotten my dear friends and my children ; but, glory to God, I have never forgotten my Savior/ " Of the last days and dying exercises of my grand- father I have never been particularly informed. The only item that I now distinctly remember being re- ferred to was his desire that his wife, with whom he had spent so happy a life, should die with him. One of the last things he did was to feel her pulse, when he said, i Honey, you can not go.' It is strange to myself that I am not better informed as to his dying exercises; but I have no anxiety as to the death of a man who, while living rejoiced evermore, prayed with- out ceasing, and in all things gave thanks. His end must be peace. He died at the age of ninety-two years, and passed away to the country ' where there is no more death.' " This sketch of Dr. Hinde will show our readers the character of one of the most remarkable men in Methodist history. The soul of honor in the ordi- nary walks of life, and as a Christian blameless and pure. From the time Dr. Hinde became a member of the Methodist Church until his death, his life was an exemplification of the truth of the religion he pro- 36 LIFE AND TIMES OF fessed. He carried his Christianity into all the walks of life — into the homes of his patients, to the couch of the sick and the dying, as well as into the family circle. "With the same zeal that had distinguished his opposition to Christ previous to his conversion he prosecuted the duties of Christian life, exhibiting to all the genuineness of his conversion, and his abiding trust in the atoning merits of the Son of God. He loved the Church with a pure heart fervently. He lived to a ripe old age, and when his memory became oblivious to every thing else, religion to him was fresh and green ; and when unable to converse upon any other subject, religion, that amid life's vicissitudes had so often cheered his heart and animated his hopes, afforded him a theme of which he never grew weary. Mrs. Mary Todd Hinde was an extraordinary woman, and in the early history of Methodism in Ken- tucky bore a prominent part. She was the daughter of Benjamin Hubbard, an English merchant. On the 24th of September, 1767, she was married to Dr. Thomas Hinde. Descended from an excellent family, favored with the best educational advantages of her times, her mind well cultivated, easy and graceful in her manners, charitable in her views of the words and deeds of others, and occupying a high social po- sitionj she imparted happiness to the society in whose circle she moved. For many years after her marriage she lived with- out the comforts of religion. The great aversion of her husband to Christianity was a hindrance to the cultivation of any religious emotions that may have impressed her heart. BISITOr KAVANAUGIL 37 Hannah Hubbard, one of her daughters, became impressed upon the subject of religion, and in an in- terview with her mother, the latter also became awak- ened. A short time afterward, preaching was intro- duced into the neighborhood in which she resided by Methodist preachers, and, under their preaching, she was more fully instructed in the way of salvation, and was converted to God. In her early efforts to become religious, she was met by the opposition of her husband. Refusing to furnish her with a horse to ride to Church, she walked regularly to the house of God. Unwilling to yield her purpose to become a Christian, no argument could induce her to abandon it. Declaring his belief that his wife was losing her mind, he applied a blister to her neck — as already stated — to bring her to her senses. In this condition she went to the place of prayer. The sufferings she bore, together with the patience she evinced under them, had an effect contrary to the ex- pectations of her husband. It terminated in his awak- ening, but not in the curing of his wife. "We copy the following from a letter we received from her grandson, Bishop H. H. Kavanaugh, dated Lexington, Kentucky, April 14, 18G8 : "Faith in the promises of God, and the efficacy of the blood of the atoning Lamb, was much more efficient to the removal of her distracting grief and burdened soul. How long she was seeking the par- don of her sins until she obtained peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, I am not informed; but having obtained the pearl of great price, she beau- tifully illustrated its value by a godly conversation — 38 LIFE AND TIMES OF walking ' worthy of the vocation wherewith she was called/ " After Mrs. Hinde and her husband were fully enlisted in the service of the Captain of their salva- tion, they removed to Kentucky, and settled in Clarke County. Here she became instrumental in the organ- ization of a class, afterward known as the Ebenezer Church. In this neighborhood the purity of her life, the sweetness of her spirit, together with the clearness of her mind, were all elements of usefulness. " Under the influence of the French infidelity of the day, there was at that time a good deal of that form of skepticism which was styled deism. Its ad- herents admitted the existence of one God, denied the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the inspiration of the Scriptures. One of her neighbors, Major John Martin, who was an adherent of this doctrine, was indulging in a little pleasant raillery, ridiculing her religion as being untrue, irra- tional, and not worthy of belief. In a kind and gen- tle tone of voice she said to him, ' Major Martin, the Christian religion may be true/ The expression fas- tened strongly upon the major. He said afterward that, on his way home, the thought was constantly re- volving in his mind, The Christian religion may be true. The manner of the major was rather blunt and pointed ; so he said to himself, ' If the Christian religion is true, it is an awful truth to me.' And as he pondered the great facts of religion, before he reached his home he said to himself, ' The Christian religion is true, and I am a sinner, and on the way to hell.' He hastened home, called for the Testament, and betook himself BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 39 to prayer, in which he persisted nntil he had the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. From that time he was an uncompromising soldier of the cross and follower of the; Lamb, until lie closed his life in peace. " Mrs. Hinde had a singularly clear and distinct memory of the events of her life and observation. Un- like the doctor, her memory never failed her. When in advanced age she became apprehensive that she should lose her eye-sight, as her eyes were weak and failing, she thought that one of the most gloomy fea- tures of that calamity would be the deprivation of the pleasure and profit of reading the good books that had so often cheered her heart and edified her mind. " To relieve, in some measure, the calamity she saw coming upon her, she committed to memory a large portion of Baxter's 'Saints' Rest/ and an as- tonishing amount of the practical remarks of Scott's Commentary, some of the sermons of Wesley most admired by her, and some other authors that I can not now remember, and forty hymns. I have held the book and heard her recite for an hour at a time, and she but rarely miscalled a word ; and those she would miss were a mere substitution of the little con- nective forms of speech that did not much affect the sense. The satisfaction she realized in this, she said, well rewarded her for the labor of committing. Even in her blindness she was cheerful, devoted to her Christian duties, and resigned to the will of God. "I do not remember any detail of her dying ex- ercises which I may have heard. Bui her race is ended, the battle is fought, and the long anticipated crown 40 LIFE AND TIMES OF has been bestowed. How glorious it is to think that her grand attainments through grace are hers for- ever ! " Dr. Hinde and his wife had seven children, all of whom were distinguished for probity of character and for fine intellectual endowments. Among them, how- ever, was one of eclipsing superiority, who, in the hands of God, was the honored instrument in bring- ing the entire family to Christ. Hannah Hubbard Hind e was born in Hanover County, Virginia, March 6, 1777. In her early child- hood she evinced those qualities of candor and firm- ness which, at a later period, gave her an influence for good that extended throughout the large circle of her acquaintance. When only a child she attended Methodist preaching, and became awakened to a sense of her condition before God as a sinner. Although her mother was not religious, yet the daughter com- municated to her the religious impressions she felt. The mother too became awakened, and soon both were converted to God, the daughter preceding the mother into the kingdom of grace. At the time of her conversion Hannah was only twelve years of age. The fact that she had made a profession of religion aroused the wrath of her hitherto indulgent father, and induced an opposition that tested the faith of one so young. All efforts on his part to persuade her to abandon the profession she had made only contributed to her fidelity to the Church, which in time exerted a salutary influence on the life of her father, which, added to the bright Christian example of her mother, led him to Christ. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 41 In 1797 Dr. Hinde removed to Kentucky, and settled in Clarke County, a beautiful and cultured portion of the State. His daughter was just twenty years of age, combining the remarkable gifts of her father with the charms and graces of her excellent mother. In person she was attractive, her social qual- ities scarcely equaled, while in conversation she ex- celled, with an entire exemption from all the frivolities so incident to the young. In addition to all these, her piety was uniform, deep, and abiding. The conference of 1797 was held May 1st, at Bethel School, in Jessamine County, adjoining the county to which Dr. Hinde had removed. The session was held within the bounds of the Lexington Circuit, in which was the home of the doctor. Having just arrived in Kentucky, it is more than probable that he and his wife and daughter were visitors on the occasion, as in that early day another opportunity might not soon oc- cur for the enjoyment of such a privilege. If so, it was at this conference that Williams Kavanaugh first met Hannah Hubbard Hinde. He was less than two years her senior, and the most gifted young preacher in the West. As we have already seen, he was this year appointed to Franklin Circuit, in Virginia, and to Salt River, in Kentucky, spending six months on each, as was often the custom in that day. While in Virginia prosecuting his work, his thoughts ofttimes reverted to the home of Dr. Hinde. He returned to Kentucky about the first of Novem- ber, and entered upon his duties on the Salt River Circuit, with the good Henry Smith in charge. His presiding elder -was John Kobler. 4 42 LIFE AND TIMES OF If Mr. Kavanaugh had not asked the hand of Miss Hinde before he went to Virginia he did not long delay this question after his return to Kentucky. He writes to his presiding elder, consulting him, as most young preachers do, after his own mind had fully decided, and all his arrangements were completed. AYe have before us the reply of Mr. Kobler. He writes : " Very Dear Brother, — Last Sunday I received your letter, in which you inform me of your intention to enter a new untried station of life. Of this every man is the most competent judge for himself. After long observation, I am of opinion it is a situation cal- culated to render a man the most completely happy, or miserable, of any other on the present stage of existence. It ought to be -entered into with tardy steps and much prayer to God. I think it would have been better for you to have traveled longer, as the circuits have but a partial supply. I feel most ten- derly for the interest of our cause, and am jealous at every appearance that might operate against it. Be cautious in your engagement, and strive to act with that prudence becoming the minister and Christian. I remain your affectionate brother, " J. Kobler. "February 28tf<." On the 29th of March, 1798, he was married to Miss Hannah H., daughter of Dr. Thomas Hinde; and at the ensuing conference he asked for and ob- tained a location. To the preacher who married at that period, when the allowance of a traveling preacher, whether mar- BISHOP KAYANAUGH. 43 ried or single, was only sixty-four dollars a year, loca- tion was a necessity. While we deeply regret that a minister who prom- ised so much usefulness to the Church as did Mr. Kavanaugh should have retired from the itinerant field, yet we can not be insensible to the reasons that decided him in this purpose. The vast extent of ter- ritory embraced in a single circuit, separating a min- ister from his family nearly all the time, together with the difficulty of obtaining the most meager support, influenced him to this step.* In his local relation, hoAvcvcr, he was not idle. His name stands recorded as one of the eight persons who formed the first class at Ebenezer,f in Clarke County. Spending the principal portion of the week in teaching school, he devoted his Sabbaths to the work of the ministry, in which he had already at- tained eminence. His mind, however, had no rest. He was then an ordained deacon. He felt* the incon- gruity of such an office in the Church without a pas- toral relation, and the more he pondered the duties devolving upon a minister of the Gospel the more un- pleasant he felt to hold the office without an oppor- tunity to discharge the duties involved. Pie was not willing to be what was but a little more than a nom- inal minister of the Gospel, and this gave him much :: Among the preachers who were traveling in this division of the work, Messrs. Burke and Page were the only married men who had heen able to continue in the itinerancy. t Bishop Kavanaugh writes us from Lexington, Kentucky, March 11. 1868: "I learn from my mother that he gave the church the name it bears, or rather has borne, in the various edifices which the society there has erected." 44 LIFE AND TIMES OF disquietude of mind. Some gentlemen of the bar urged him to study law and enter upon the practice, stating that his talents — analytical and strongly discrimina- tive — eminently fitted him for that profession j but his convictions were that it was his duty to preach the Gospel of the grace of God, and that he dare not com- promise this duty. AYhile in this state of mind, Dr. Warfield, a dis- tinguished citizen of Lexington — a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal Church of that city, the rector- ship of which was then vacant — made his acquaint- ance, and placing a high estimate on his character and ability as a minister, proposed to him that if he would take orders in the Episcopal Church they would be glad to employ him as their minister. He requested Dr. Warfield to allow him a little time to reflect on the subject, and said, " If I can do so without a violation of principle, and preach the doc- trines I believe to be true and Scriptural, I may ac- cept your offer. " After an examination of the Thirty-nine Articles, and looking into the usages and customs of the Epis- copal Church, he believed that he was not necessarily compelled to adopt the Calvinistic doctrines, and that there would be no violation of principle in taking the proposed step, and that by accepting the offer he would be enabled to give all his time and labors to his call- ing as a minister of Christ. He gave to Dr. AYarfield an affirmative answer to his proposition.* The vestry of the Episcopal Church in Lexington * The above facts were related to his son, Rev. B. T. Kav- anaugh, D. D., by Dr. Warfield in 1823. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 45 immediately drew up and signed an address to Bishop Claggett, then residing in Baltimore, requesting him that, after proper examination, he would ordain and send to their Church Mr. Kavanaugh as their rector. After reaching Baltimore, and delivering his letters to the bishop, he was invited to take tea with him, when a number of the Episcopal clergy would be present. At the appointed time Mr. Kavanaugh met the bishop and clergymen, as he supposed, to spend a social hour. During the interview Bishop Claggett proposed sev- eral points of doctrine as topics of discussion, on which each expressed his views freely, Mr. Kavanaugh among the rest. At the close of the interview the invited clergymen all arose, and expressed their satisfaction with Xhe result. The bishop, in reply, in a very cor- dial manner, said, "I too am perfectly satisfied;" and added, in a pleasant manner, " I believe Mr. Kavan- augh is the best theologian among us." Mr. Kav- anaugh now discovered for the first time that he had been passing an examination. We have before us the parchments of Mr. Kavan- augh, signed by Bishop Claggett, of which the follow- ing are copies : " Thomas John Claggett, D. D., and Bishop of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church in the Slate of Maryland, to my beloved in Christ, the Rev d . Williams Kavanaugh, sendeth greeting: " I do hereby give, and grant unto you, the said Williams Kavanaugh, of whose fidelity, learning, sound doctrine, and diligence T fully confide, my license; and authority (to continue only during my pleasure) 46 LIFE AND TIMES OF to perform y e office of a priest in the State of Ken- tucky in preaching the Word of God, ministering his holy sacraments, reading y e book of common prayer lately set forth by authority of the General Conven- tion of y e Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, according to y e form prescribed, and not otherwise, or in any other manner ; and also all other functions appertaining to y e said office, you having first been by me regularly and canonically or- dained a deacon and priest in the said Church, and having in my presence subscribed y e declaration re- quired by y e seventh canon of y e General Convention, and solemnly promised a strict conformity to y e doc- trines and worship of y e said Protestant Episcopal Church. " In testimony of all which, I have subscribed my name, and caused my seal to be hereunto affixed, this twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred. " Thomas Jn°. Claggett." "Know all men by these presents, That I, Thomas John Claggett, D. D., by divine permission bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Maryland, holding by the assistance of Almighty God a general ordination on the feast of Trinity, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, in Christ Church, in the city of Baltimore, did admit my be- loved in Christ, \Vileiams Kavanatjgh, of whose virtuous and pious life and conversation, and compe- tent learning and knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, I was well assured, into holy order of deacons, ac- BISHOP K A VAN AUG II. 47 cording to the manner and form prescribed and used by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America ; and him, the said Williams Kav- anaugh, did then and there rightly and eanonieally or- dain a deacon, he having first in my presence made the subscription required in the seventh article of our General Constitution. "In testimony whereof t X have hereunto affixed my episcopal seal, the day and year above written, and my consecration the eighth. " Thomas Jn°. Claggett." After entering the Protestant Episcopal Church, and remaining for awhile in Lexington, he was called to Louisville, serving in connection with a Church in that city; one also in Shelby County. At a later period, under the influence of General Hopkins, he was induced to accept a call to Hender- son, where, after a few years of useful labor, he died in peace, October 16, 1806. Reared under Methodist influences, blessed with the example and the instruction of pious parents from his childhood, converted, and having entered the min- istry when only a youth, during the entire period of his connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church, his piety shone with resplendent luster. As a preacher "he was not boisterous, but fluent, ready, and his ser- mons smoothly delivered ; his style perspicuous, and every word expressive of the idea intended." However much we may regret that he was influ- enced to make any change in his Church-relations, it is gratifying to know that he carried into the com- 48 LIFE AND TIMES OF m union which he entered the deep piety and devotion to the work of the ministry that distinguished him as an evangelist in the Church of his father. Judge Scott savs : " He sustained an excellent character until he died." We close this sketch with the following letter, re- ceived by us from the Rev. B. B. Smith, D. D., the senior bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States : " Some years after I entered upon the office of the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of Kentucky, it occurred to me that it might become a matter of some interest to those who should come after me if I were at som^ pains to collect such fragmentary notices as I could obtain of those early clergy who accompanied the first colonies which came to Kentucky, chiefly from Virginia. Some of these notices were not at all creditable to the characters of some of the colonial clergy. For example : Dr. Cham- bers, of Nelson County, fell in a duel with the cele- brated Judge Rowan ; and the distinguished Judge Sebastian, who escaped impeachment by resigning — on the accusation, which proved susceptible of a favor- able interpretation, of receiving a pension from the Spanish governor of Louisiana. The letters of orders of both these, and of that amiable and blameless Swe- denborgian, Dr. Gant, of Louisville, by bishops in Eng- land, were submitted to my inspection. " The most favorable impression made by any of them upon my mind, was made, by all that I could learn, by the Rev. Williams Kavanaugh, of Hender- son, who, however, was not ordained in England, but BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 49 either by Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, or by Bishop Madison, of Virginia, if I remember aright." * AW' pause to reflect for a moment on the mysteri- ous ways of Divine Providence. Mr. Kavanaugh when he died was in the morning of a life that promised great usefulness to the cause of Christ. He was only thirty-one years of age, blessed with a happy home, where words of cheer were constantly spoken. AVe are already familiar with the motives that led Mr. Kavanaugh to change his Church relations ; it is, however, gratifying to be able to record that, while his wife exerted every effort within her power to pro- mote both his happiness and usefulness in the com- munion into which he had entered, yet she adhered with unfaltering devotion to the Church through whose influence she had been brought to Christ. She was left a widow with six children, and with limited means. In the darkest hours of her widowhood she enjoyed unwavering confidence in the promises of God, for herself and her children. At proper ages she placed her sons where they might learn useful trades, and bo trained to habits of industry. After the death of her- first husband in 1806, she remained a widow for six years, mostly at the old homestead of her father, then occupied by her eldest brother, John W. Hinde, in Clarke County. In 1812 she was married to Mr. William Taylor, a native of Ireland, but who was brought np and trained to business in England. By this marriage she had two sons, AVilliam and Edmund Todd. AVilliam died before he was grown, and Ed- mund remained with her at home, full of attention :;: As we have seen, he was ordained by Bishop Claggett. 5 50 LIFE AND TIMES OF and kindness, until her third marriage; her second husbandjiaving died in 1814. She remained a widow for two or three years, and was again married, to Mr. Valentine Martin, by which marriage she had two daughters, Martha and Ann Southgate. Ann lived to be grown and married, but died soon after. Her sec- ond husband was a religious, good man ; and his sur- viving son, Edmund, occupies a high position in public confidence and esteem. Her third husband was a near neighbor before marriage, and though not religious at the time, yet under the influence of his pious wife he became so, and made for her a kind and devoted hus- band. Under the influence and example of this ex- cellent woman each of her children, as they arrived at the age of discretion, one by one joined the Church of their mother, and ever maintained a Christian char- acter. Her son, Bishop Ivavanaugh, in speaking of her, says : " The leading characteristics that marked the life of my mother were those of patience, forti- tude, a trust in God, and a steady hope in his provi- dence ; a general affection for all good people, and a "generous concern for the bad ; a deep and abiding sympathy for the poor and the unfortunate ; a strong attachment to the cause of God, his Church, and the ministry. She had been paralyzed by a stroke of palsy for several years previous to her death that gradually robbed her of her action until she could not walk at all. In this condition she gave herself to much med- itation and singing, or humming, the tunes in which she had been accustomed to praise God." Her last moments were full of triumph. None of her sons were present except Hubbard. When he found she BISHOP KAYANAUGH. 51 was near her end, lie asked her if she was aware of the fact that she was now dying. She simply replied, "Yes, I know it." He asked again, "Well, mother, how do you feel in reference to your departure?" Her only reply was, " Ready ! " O, how expressive ! What a depth of fullness and perfection in this laconic and all-expressive word, "Ready!" A long life had been spent in the strictest care and untiring labors — to be able at last to say, " Ready " — ready to depart in peace — ready to enter upon an eternal rest, and the reward of the faithful! Her duties to God, the world, aud her children had been now all faithfully discharged, and she was ready to die. On the 11th of January, 1852, at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. John Stevens, in Madison County, she passed away. Mr. Kavanaugh was very proud of his Avifc, and justly so. Leroy Cole , Captain Richardson , and Ed- mund Tayjor had all married daughters of Dr. Hinde. On one occasion he said to Leroy Cole, "You three gentlemen had the first chances in selecting wives from Dr. Hinde's family, but you failed to secure the flower of the flock. She was left for me." Thomas Williams Kavanaugh was their first^ child. He was born January 5, 1799, in Clarke County, Ken- tucky. At the age of fifteen he was employed as dep- uty in the clerk's office of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, at Frankfort. He agreed to serve for six years under the guardianship of Achilles Snead, an old friend of his father's, and soon gained a good reputa- tion for his efficiency and skill. At the age of twenty-one, on visiting the United States arsenal at Newport, Kentucky, he was induced 52 LIFE AN3 TIMES OF by the officers there to apply under their recommen- dation for a commission in the United States army, which was granted, and he was commissioned first lieutenant, and assigned to duty under Colonel John- son, who was just about to embark for Yellow Stone, on the Missouri River, where he rendered three years' service. His health failing, he was given a furlough to return to his home in Kentucky. He reached Frankfort, but was unable to proceed further. He sent a message to his mother and his brother Hub- bard, who immediately went to see him. He lived but a few days. The hope was entertained that he died in peace. His death occurred May 29, 1823. The second son, Leroy Harrison, was born in Clarke County, Kentucky, May 29, 1800. When in his fif- teenth year, while reading Baxter's " Call to the Un- converted," he was awakened to a sense of his condi- tion as a sinner. In the Autumn of 1815 he and his sister Mary attended a camp-meeting near Cynthiana, where both brother and sister were happily converted. Deeply pious and remarkably zealous, yet his useful- ness seemed to be greatly impaired by an impediment in his speech, which aifected him in conversation, yet was no embarrassment in singing. His step-father, Mr. Taylor, was a fuller or cloth dresser, and to this business Leroy was brought up. In the nineteenth year of his age he married Miss Rachel Martin, and in course of time removed to Illi- nois and settled at Mount Carmel, where he lived until his death, which occurred in November, 1864. But few men exerted a wider influence in the com- munity in which he lived than Leroy Kavanaugh. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 53 When In 1836 William McMurtry was appointed to the circuit in which Mr. Kavanaugh lived, not being aware that he stammered, after concluding his sermon he invited him to exhort. Without any hesitation he arose, and without the slightest impediment in his speech delivered an exhortation of great power, and then sung and prayed. The Church was taken by sur- prise, and after the close of the service gathered around him, and with one voice exclaimed, " Brother Kavan- augh, we never before knew that you could talk with- out stammering. You must have license to preach." After going through the prescribed forms of the Church he received authority to preach the Gospel, and became one of the most eloquent preachers in all that country. His services were in demand as far as he w r as known, and under his earnest appeals and by the influence of his godly life hundreds were brought to Christ — the impression prevailing that he was the jjeer of either of his gifted brothers. His character was marked by inflexible integrity, while his bright Christian example recommended the religion he professed. His death, so full of triumph, cast a shadow over other homes than his own. He was buried in the Odd Fellows' cemetery, where, by the side of his wife, he will sleep quietly until the resurrection of the just. A letter from his brother, Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, says: " On visiting the old home of my brother in the Winter of 1878 and 1879, I was taken by a delight- ful surprise to find a beautiful monument to the mem- ory of my brother, whose Christian life and character was all that I could have wished. When I told Hub- 54 LIFE AND , TIMES OF bard that I had found a monument, large and grace- ful, marking the spot where the remains of Leroy lay, an honor bestowed by the community where he lived and died, he exclaimed : ' Why, is it possible ? I was really afraid to ask/ " Their fourth child was a daughter. Mary Jane was born in Clarke County, Kentucky, November 1 6, 1803, and when twelve years of age, at the same time and place with her brother Leroy, embraced religion. A considerable portion of her girlhood was spent with her aunt, the wife of Rev. Leroy Cole, where her educa- tional advantages were superior to those generally en- joyed at that period. From the time of her conver- sion she exhibited in her godly walk the doctrines of the Gospel she professed, and zealously labored for the salvation of her associates. She was instrumental in influencing many young people to Christ, among them her brother Benjamin, whom she led by the hand to the altar at a camp-meeting held at Ebenezer, where he was converted. April 18, 1822, she became the wife of John Challen, of Lexington, a young man of excellent family, who although irreligious at the time of their marriage, yet very soon afterward, through her instrumentality, was brought to Christ. At the camp-meetings of that period in the exer- cises of the altar she was remarkably active, instruct- ing the penitent in the way of life and salvation. Dif- fident and modest, yet such was her consistent Christian life and burning zeal for Christ that she never lost an opportunity to persuade a sinner to seek him ; and such were the radiance and sunshine upon her face when under any religious excitement that she looked BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 55 as though she belonged to another and a happier sphere. The camp-meetings in the earlier days of the Church and commonwealth were occasions of great interest and of great religious awakening. Retiring as she was, yet in tlu! private circles assembled in the tents she would talk to those around her in strains of pathos and power that strong men would draw near and look upon her sunlit face, and catch the words of meekness, wisdom, and truth that flowed from her lips. At a camp-meeting held near Millersburg in 1826, Mr. Samuel Rankin, a gentleman of culture, took a seat near her, while she was talking on the subject of religion, " desirous to learn whether there was any truth in the religion of Christ, which he had not be- lieved," became deeply affected. A gentleman present watched him closely. " He grew pale as he listened, and tears unconsciously flowed down his face," and as she talked of the love of Jesus " he was overcome," and retiring declared that " nothing less than the spirit and power of God could inspire such heavenly elo- quence." He resolved upon a better life. In 1830 her husband removed to Illinois and set- tled in Waverly, where several of their children yet live. Some trouble between him and a member of the Church resulted in his withdrawal from the commu- nion ; after which he entered the Campbellitc Church, and became a preacher in that denomination. On one occasion, after her husband had preached, quite a number of the members of his Church, together with one of the preachers, accompanied him home, and were extravagant in their laudations of the sermon, 56 LIFE AND TIMES OF and congratulated Mrs. Challen on being the wife of such a light in the Church. She calmly replied, " Yes, I suppose that Mr. Challen shines very brightly in your dark room, but when his light was much brighter than now, among other bright lights with which he was associated, his taper did not excel. The difference is, the shadow under which it is now exhibited. I have no doubt it shines very brightly among you." At a later period, for the peace and harmony of her family, she made the sacrifice of her preferences, and joined the Church with her husband, her views of evangelical godliness remaining unchanged. She died April 18, 1863, after having been a widow several years. Benjamin Taylor Kavanaugh, the fourth son and fifth child, was born in Jefferson County, near Louis- ville, April 23, 1805. Mrs. Kavanaugh had often expressed the opinion that it was wrong to raise sons to manhood without giving them some trade or avocation by which they might make an independent living. She adhered to this policy in reference to the chil- dren that had been intrusted to her care. When in the tenth year of his age Benjamin was apprenticed to Rev. John Lyle to learn book-binding, where he remained two years. While living with Mr. Lyle he, with his brother Hubbard, joined a company of eight boys, who formed themselves into a club that met once a week in the evening, for the purpose of reading the Bible and prayer. At the time of the formation of this society BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 57 of boys neither of them had joined any Church, yet each grew up to manhood with well formed religious characters, and members of some evangelical branch of the Church of Christ. Mr. Lyle having suspended his book-bindery in 1817, Benjamin was transferred to Lexington, and apprenticed to the same business under Stephen P. Norton. Unwilling to remain with his new employer for reasons which he deemed satisfactory, he gave him notice after a short service that he would leave him, to which Mr. Norton consented, on the condition that he would substitute his place with another boy. The terms were complied with, and Benjamin returned to his mother, she approving his conduct. He was ap- prenticed to the tanning and currying business with the Messrs. Barr, to whom he was bound for seven years. At a camp-meeting, July 24, 1819, near Ebcnezer, in Clarke County, near midnight, he was powerfully converted to God. In speaking of this event, he says: "This miracle of grace was so vivid and powerful that I can not better describe it than with Ezekiel to say, 1 The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.' I had been seeking for this blessing ever since I left Paris two years previous. When found, it was truly the pearl of great price." After working at the tanning and currying busi- ness for nearly six years of the time for which he was bound, he bought the remaining portion of the seven years at full price, and entered into the tobacco trade between Louisville and New Orleans, and plied it with 58 LIFE AND TIMES OF great success for three years, making enough to start him in business. He was married in Winchester, Kentucky, April 3, 1827, to Miss Margaret Lingenfelter ; was licensed to exhort in 1828, and to preach at Mount Carmel, Illinois, in September, 1829; commissioned as mis- sionary for the American Sunday-school Union for Illinois in 1830, which employed his time for four years; in 1835 joined the Illinois Conference, and acted as agent for McKendree College for four years, realizing for the college seventy-five thousand dollars by establishing a land agency in its interest; in 1839 was transferred to the Rock River Conference, and appointed superintendent of the Indian Mission Dis- trict of Sioux and Chippewas at the head of the Mis- sissippi River, where he remained three years; in 1842 he was presiding elder on Plattville District, which he served three years; in 1845 he was appointed agent for the American Colonization Society for the States of Indiana and Wisconsin, which position he held four years. While in this agency he studied medicine, and graduated at Indiana Asbury University. He located in 1849 and settled in St. Louis, where he practiced medicine for six years and a half. Dur- ing this time the publication of the St. Louis Chris- tian Advocate was commenced, and for five months Dr. Kavanaugh was its editor. While he resided in St. Louis he was elected to, and filled, the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the medical department of the University of Missouri. In 1857 he was readmitted into the St. Louis Con- ference, and stationed at Lexington, Missouri, where BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 59 he had a successful ministry for two years. In 1859 lie was appointed to Independence, where he labored for two vears with unabated success. In 1861 he was reappointed to Lexington, and soon alter the conference, December 14th, he joined the Southern army under General Price, and was appointed chaplain for two years ; then with Enoch M. Marvin (afterwards bishop) he was appointed missionary for the army by Bishop Paine, and in that capacity served to the close of the war. While in the army he served as surgeon and physician in field and hospital as oc- casion required, and laboring by the side of the gifted Marvin, contributed his labors to the revival which swept every thing before it, resulting in more than five hundred conversions, more than one-half of which were of soldiers. In 1865 he was transferred to the Texas Confer- ence, and stationed at Chappcll Hill, and the year fol- lowing was returned and elected professor of intellectual and moral science in Soule University, his son, Thomas H., being professor of natural sciences in the same in- stitution. In 1867 the yellow fever visited Chappcll Hill, taking off one-fourth of the population, among them his son, Dr. Thomas Ilinde Kavanaugh, in his thirty-fifth year, and his daughter, Julia, in her twenty- fourth, one dying on the 8th and the other on the 9th of October. In 1867 he was appointed to Houston, where he remained four years, during which time the member- ship of the Church in that city increased from ninety- five to two hundred and thirty-six. From 1871 to 1880 he received nominal appoint- 60 LIFE AND TIMES OF ments in the vicinity of Houston, as his family could not be moved, performing missionary work in desti- tute places, in which his labors were greatly blessed. In 1880 he removed to Hockley, where his wife died October 12th, in glorious triumph. He returned to Kentucky May 11, 1881, and set- tled in Mount Sterling, and June 16th the same year married Mrs. Sue Stith Barre, daughter of Richard Marcus Stith, formerly of Big Spring, Kentucky. He was transferred to Kentucky Conference, and in 1881 was appointed to Owingsville Circuit, the first charge he filled in his native State. In 1882 he was appointed to Mount Zion, Bethel, and Old Fort Cir- cuit, in Clarke and Montgomery Counties, where he is now laboring the second year. From the great strain upon his eyes in reading and writing, especially while editing the " Family Visitor" and the " Masonic Mirror/' while living in Houston, he contracted a dark shadow upon the retina of the eye that so obscured his vision that he is unable to see either to read or write. In a letter from him dated April 12, 1884, he says : " But fortunately for me, in the good providence of God, my wife is skilled in these arts ; with a mind stored with knowledge from twenty-five years of teach- ing, she more than supplies my lack of vision, so that by her aid I have not only been able to accomplish my Church-work, but at my dictation she has written and prepared for the press matter sufficient for two whole volumes of scientific works. First, i Electricity the Motor Power of the Solar System/ published in serial form in WilfonVs il/icrocosm, in New York, last year, BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 61 and a new work entitled, ' The Great Central Valley of North America Considered with Reference to its Geography, Topography, Hydrology, and Mineralogy, and other Prominent Features of the Valley.' This latter work is taken by the Smithsonian Institute, and will be published under the auspices of the gov- ernment. " In addition to these arduous labors, she has re- viewed and prepared for the press a larger work, already in manuscript, entitled, ' Notes of a Western Rambler; or, The Observation and Experience of Pi- oneer Life in the West for Sixty Years.' "Although on the 28th of April, 1884, I complete my seventy-ninth year, I am not conscious that I have lost either mental or physical vigor so far as ability to work is concerned, my health and strength remain- ing firm and vigorous. I still have plans in view for the future that may, if I am able to accomplish them, still contribute in some degree to advance the moral and religious interests of the public. Not the least among my labors is to assist you, as I have been do- ing, in gathering up the fragments of history pertain- ing to the life and times of my beloved and honored brother — your life-long friend — Bishop Kavanaugh." Williams Barbour, the youngest child, was born in Clarke County, Kentucky, February 17, 1807, a few months after the death of his father. In July, 1819, when twelve years of age, he joined the Methodist Church as a seeker of religion, and in September following was happily converted. As with her other sons whom Mrs. Kavanaugh had bound out to trades, so in the case of her youngest; she did not 62 LIFE AXD TIMES OF make an exception. When very young she placed him with the same gentlemen where his brother Benjamin was apprenticed to learn the tanning and currying business. In 1831, on the 16th of November, he was mar- ried to Miss Susan Ann Evans, of Clarke County, and in 1837 was admitted on trial into the Kentucky Con- ference, and appointed to Jefferson Circuit. After re- maining in Kentucky three years he was transferred to the Rock River Conference, and appointed mis- sionary to the Sioux Indians. He returned to Ken- tucky in 1843, and traveled until 1849, when he located. In 1856 he was readmitted, and continued a member of this conference until 1876, spending six years of the time in charge of districts, presiding over the Covington District four years, and the Maysville two years. In 1876 he was transferred to Los Angeles Con- ference, and was appointed to the Los Angeles Dis- trict, where he remained four years. He was then appointed to the San Luis Obispo District, but fam- ily affliction induced his return to Kentucky Confer- ence, where he is now (1884) traveling Lawrenceburg Circuit. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 63 CHAPTER II. FROM THE BIRTH OF HUBBARD HTXDE KAVANAUGH TO HIS ADMISSION INTO THE KEN- TUCKY CONFERENCE. HUBBARD HINDE KAVANAUGH was the third son of Williams and Hannah Hubbard Kavanaugh. He was born in Clarke County, Ken- tucky, January 14, 1802, and was named for his great-grandfather Hubbard and for his grandfather Hinde. Left an orphan by the death of his father when in the fifth year of his age, the responsibility of his early training devolved exclusively on his widowed mother, to whom, in all things, he was obe- dient, her law being the rule of his early life. In his declining years he was often heard to say, that in all his life he had never disobeyed his mother nor been unmindful of her wishes. His childhood had nothing about it peculiar, only that he was distin- guished for sterling integrity and invincible courage. Anxious to place within the reach of her son the means of support, and desirous to protect his morals, when thirteen years of age she bound him as an ap- prentice to the Rev. John Lyle, of Paris, Kentucky, to learn the art of printing. Mr. Lyle was a pious and able minister of the Presbyterian Church. The steady and industrious habits, together with his probity of character, so impressed the mind of the preacher that young Kavanaugh at once won a warm 64 LIFE AND TIMES OF place in his affections and a high place in his confi- dence. His educational advantages had been quite meager, but in his new position he availed himself of every opportunity to improve his mind and store it with useful knowledge. Such, indeed, was the interest taken in the ap- prentice by his employer, that he often took him with him to his Sunday appointments, giving him the ad- vantage of his conversation, his companionship, and his sermons. The pious instructions of Mr. Lyle, added to the advice and prayers and godly life of his Christian mother, could scarcely fail to impress the young heart of her son. He gave thought to the subject of relig- ion, until he became powerfully awakened, and on the 3d of November, 1817, while traveling with Mr. Lyle, he was happily converted to God. His con- version was clear and powerful, leaving no doubt in his mind as to his acceptance with God. He was happy, inexpressibly happy, and shouted aloud the praises of Him who had taken "his feet from the miry clay and the horrible pit and set them upon the Rock." In speaking of his conversion we have often heard him say, " I could not be a bigot ; for my father was a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, my mother a Methodist, I was awakened under a ser- mon preached by a Baptist preacher, and converted while traveling with a Presbyterian preacher. So I owe something to all the Churches, and could not be a bigot, if I were to try." Having made a profession of religion, we are not surprised that it was the wish of Mr. Lyle that Mr. BIS1WP KAVANAUGH. 65 Kavanaugh should join the Presbyterian Church and enter the ministry. lie saw in the young man the buddings of promise that indicated great usefulness in the future ; nor are we astonished at the prompt refusal of the generous proffer of a classical educa- tion, on the condition that he would enter that com- munion. Here the mother was felt, who had said, " I want him first a Christian, and second a Method- ist, and to me they mean the same thing. If God has called Hubbard to preach he has called him to preach a free salvation." With Mr. Lyle he had frequent conversations on the questions of Predestination and Free Grace, the last one of which occurred one even- ing in Mr. Lyle's parlor. After spending more than two hours, if not convinced himself of the error of Calvinism, he was satisfied that his pupil believed Ar- minianism to be true. He said to him, " Well, Hub- bard, we will have to agree to disagree. You are certainly the best posted young man I have ever known." His excellent mother had adhered to the struggling fortunes of Methodism in the infancy of the Church, and when her husband had entered an- other communion, she still regarded it " the more excellent way." The rehearsal to her children of the difficulties that confronted her in her early religious life, the opposition with which she met in becoming a Methodist, her unfaltering devotion to the Church, and the sacrifices made by the itinerant preachers to extend the borders of Zion, had not failed to impress their hearts. Mr. Kavanaugh would have yielded any thing but principle to enjoy the advantages of a liberal education ; but tiiat he could not surrender. 6 66 LIFE AXD TIMES OF He believed the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church to be consonant with the teachings of the Bible, and the itinerant system of preaching the Gospel as the best adapted to carry out the great commission, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature;" and if he preached he would preach nothing less than a salvation pro- vided for all mankind, through the sufferings, death, and mediation of Jesus Christ. In the month of January succeeding his conver- sion Mr. Kavanaugh joined the Methodist Church under the ministry of Benjamin Lakin. Fully con- vinced that God had called him to the work of the Christian ministry, he was anxious to avail himself of every advantage within his reach to prepare for the responsible position. The kindness of Mr. Lyle to him was unabated. His apprenticeship was to continue for seven years from the time he had entered upon it ; but when five years had passed his generous friend released him from all obligation to remain. A severe trial, however, soon awaited him. On leav- ing Paris he returned to his mother's, who still resided in Clarke County, for the purpose of prosecuting his studies. A severe affection of his eyes, which lasted for several years, compelled him to surrender his course of study just at a time when he deemed it essential to his success to apply himself unremittingly to his books. In 1822, early in September, before he had reached his majority, he was recommended by the quarterly conference of the Mount Sterling Circuit, held at the Grassy Lick Church, in Montgomery County, to the BISHOP KAVANAUGH. G7 District Conference held at Pleasant Green, in Bour- bon County, as a suitable person to be licensed to preach the Gospel. The District Conference granted him authority to exercise his gifts as a preacher. His license was signed by Marcus Lindsey. A short time afterward he removed to Augusta, where he was employed by James Armstrong to edit and publish the Western Watchman, a paper remarkably spicy and popular under his editorial management. John P. Finley, at that time was residing in Augusta, and was the president of Augusta College. He was not only in private life, but also in the pulpit, remarkably popular. AVhile Mr. Finley preached frequently in the town, Mr. Kavanaugh confined his ministry to the country. Rumors of his success reached the vil- lage, but the members of the Church regarded all they heard as an exaggeration, and declined to have him invited to preach in toini. Mr. Finley, however, heard him, and was equally laudatory with his country parishioners. Unwilling to risk too much, a plan was arranged of which Mr. Kavanaugh had no knowl- edge, by which he might preach a trial sermon, and if thought advisable afterward, he might be invited into the pulpit. James Armstrong was devoted to the Methodist Church, of which he was a pious and influential member. In the rear of his store he had a private room, and to this retired place he invited several members of the Church, among them the young preacher, and solicited him to preach, to which he consented with reluctance. His text was Pro v. viii, 6: "Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. " 68 LIFE AND TIMES OF Not aware that he was preaching a trial sermon, and being, as he supposed, among friends, he threw off all restraint, and delivered his message with great lib- erty. The effect of the sermon was powerful and overwhelming. On the following day he was met by Mrs. Armstrong, the mother of the gentleman who had invited him to preach, a lady of ardent piety, who, in her own Irish brogue, said to him, " Och, man ! sure, and we kape no Jonah here/' From this time the pulpit in Augusta was always open to him. On the 24th of September, 1823, the Kentucky Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church met in the city of Maysville. Bishops George and Roberts were both in attendance, and presided alternately. Just forty years before, Francis Clarke, a local preacher, who had emigrated from Virginia and set- tled in Mercer County, had organized the first class of Methodists in Kentucky; while in 1786 James Haw and Benjamin Ogden, the first itinerant preach- ers, had entered the district. During these forty years the Church had grown from a small class to a membership of twenty-one thousand six hundred and sixty-two, of which eight- een thousand seven hundred and thirty-five were whites, and two thousand nine hundred and twenty- seven colored, carrying its influence into every town and every community in the commonwealth. Instead of a solitary circuit and two traveling preachers, at the close of forty years we find six presiding elders' districts, with forty-three separate charges occupied by seventy-four preachers, in addi- tion to which the Kanawha District, lying in Western BISHOP KAVANAUGH. G9 Virginia, with seven charges and twelve preachers, were included in the Kentucky Conference. No conference in the connection at this period was blessed with a ministry of a higher order of tal- ents than the Kentucky. Indeed, such a constellation of names has but seldom appeared in any of the walks of life. Thomas A. Morris, Peter Akcrs, Marcus Lindsey, Andrew Monroe, William Adams, Charles Holliday, Piter Cartwright, George AV. Taylor, John Brown, George C. Light, John Ray, Benjamin T. Crouch, John Johnson, Edward Stevenson, Jonathan Stamper, and Benjamin Lakin are names that will never die. The communities favored with the ministry of these men were blessed indeed. They have all crossed over the last river and entered upon eternal life, but their impress left upon the Church and upon the people of Kentucky will never be effaced. Mr. Kavanaugh had a great affection for Benja- min Lakin, who had taken him into the Church. He was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, August 23, 1767. The family from which he descended were originally from England. Left an orphan at nine years of age by the death of his father, his moral and religious training was confided to the care of his only surviving parent. Soon after the death of her hus- band Airs. Lakin removed with her family to Penn- sylvania, and settled near the Bedstone Fort, in a region of country greatly infested by the Indians. About the year 1793 she emigrated with her family to Kentucky, and settled on Bracken Creek, within or near the limits of Mason County. 70 LIFE AND TIMES OF Under the preaching of the Rev. Richard W hat- coat, in 1791 , and before the removal of the family to the West, during a season of religious interest, Mr. Lakin was awakened and converted to God.* Feel- ing divinely called to the work of the ministry he became an itinerant preacher on the Hinkstone Cir- cuit in 1794, under the direction of Francis Poythress, the presiding elder. In 1795 he joined the confer- ence, and was appointed to the Green Circuit, in East Tennessee. In 1796 he returned to Kentucky, and traveled on the Danville, and in 1797 on the Lexing- ton Circuit. During this year he married, and, finding it im- possible to support his family in the itinerancy, he located at the close of the year. "Such was the preju- dice that existed in the Church, at that day, against married preachers, that it was almost out of the ques- tion for any man to continue in the w r ork if he had a wife." f He continued in a local sphere for only a few years, when, in 1801, he was readmitted into the conference, and appointed to the Limestone Circuit. The two fol- lowing years the field of his ministerial labor was on the Scioto and Miami Circuit, including all of South- ern Ohio. In 1803 he was returned to Kentucky, where he remained for three years, and traveled suc- cessively the Salt River, Danville, and Shelby Cir- cuits. In 1806 and 1807 he was again appointed to the Miami Circuit, and then traveled successively on the Deer Creek, Hockhocking, Cincinnati, White Oak, *Sprague's " Annals of American Methodist Pulpit," p. 268. tFinley's "Sketches of Western Methodism," p. 180. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 71 and Union Circuits — all lying beyond the Ohio River. In 1814 lie again returned to Kentucky, where he preached and labored as long as he was able to be effective. His last appointment was to the Hinkstone Circuit, where he continued for two years.* At the conference of 1818 he was placed on the list of supernumerary preachers; but the following year on the superannuated roll, which relation he sus- tained until his death. For a few years after the failure of his health, he remained in Kentucky; but at a later period he re- moved to Ohio, and settled in Clermont County, near Felicity. Although unable to perform the work of an efficient preacher in the position he occupied, he never spent an idle Sabbath when it could be pre- vented. Having regular appointments at accessible points, when no longer able to perform the arduous labors that had characterized him in the strength of his manhood, even down to the grave, he determined to " make full proof of his ministry " by contributing his wasting life to the proclamation of the truths of the Gospel. In the morning of his life "he was one of those ministers who stood side by side, and guided the Church through that most remarkable revival of religion that swept like a tornado over the Western world. In the greatest excitement the clear and pen- etrating voice of Lakin might be heard amid the din and roar of the Lord's battle, directing the wounded to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. Lay and night he was upon the watch-tower; •Mr. Lakin received into the Church, among others, the Rev. John P. Durbin, 1>. 1>., and Bishop Kavanaugh. 72 LIFE AND TIMES OF and in the class and praying circles his place was never empty— leading the blind by the right way, carrying the lambs in his bosom, urging on the lag- gard professor, and warning sinners, in tones of thunder, to ' flee from the wrath to come/"* From the time he joined the itinerant ranks until his name disappears from the eifective roll " he was abundant in labors, and never hesitated to tax a robust consti- tution to the extent of its ability." f In those relig- ious controversies in Kentucky, which, in early times, not only disturbed the peace, but threatened for awhile the very existence of the Church, he stood amongst the foremost in vindication of the truth, repelling with gigantic power the attacks of all opponents. Always fluent in speech, and often truly eloquent — not only a bold, but an able defender of the Church ; sacrific- ing the pleasures of home to bear the tidings of a Savior's love — Benjamin Lakin held as warm a place in the affections of the Methodists of Kentucky of the past generation as did any one of the noble men who were his associates in labor. On the 28th of January, 1849, he preached his last sermon to a congregation in McKendree Chapel, Brown County, Ohio. He returned to his home at Point Pleasant on the following Tuesday, complain- ing of indisposition. He, however, started on the succeeding Friday, on horseback, to a quarterly-meet- ing at Felicity, Ohio. He rode about six miles, when he reached the house of his niece, Mrs. Richards, in usual health, and enjoying a very happy frame of *" Sketches of Western Methodism," p. 183. tRev. Jonathan Stamper, in Home Circle, vol. iii, p. 211. BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 73 mind.* "About 12 o'clock that night he was at- tacked with a chill and nausea. On Saturday and Sabbath he continued quite unwell. On Monday he was much better; and, after eating his supper in the evening, he sat some time by the fire, and conversed sweetly with the family. At about 7 o'clock he arose, looked at his watch, and walked out of the room to- ward the front door. A noise being heard in the entry, the family followed, and found he had fallen to the floor. The first supposition was that he had fainted, and they made an effort to revive him ; but it was the paralyzing touch of death — his spirit had fled." f At this session of the conference thirteen young men were admitted on trial. Their names were, Will- iam McCommas, Daniel H. Tevis, Richard I. Dungan, kelson Dills, Thomp. J. Holliman, David Wright, Dan- iel Black, Clement Clifton, Newton G. Berryman, John S. Barger, George Richardson, Abram Long, and Hubbard Hinde Kavanaugh. Daniel H. Tevis had entered the conference in 1821, and was appointed to the Little Sandy Circuit, in the Kanawha District. Finding his strength un- equal to the toils and sacrifices of an itinerant preach- er's life, at the close of the year he retired from the field. A year's rest had partially restored his health, and at the conference of 1823 he again applied for admis- sion and was received. His field of labor was the *" Sketches of Western Methodism," pp. 183, 184. t General Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. iv, p. 385. 74 LIFE AND TIMES OF Hinkstone Circuit, as the colleague of John Ray. With uncompromising zeal he entered upon his work, only to discover that he could not become an effective trav- eling preacher. Once more his physical powers were compelled to yield, and, although anxious to prosecute the duties of an itinerant he soon found himself unable to remain in the ranks. At the ensuing conference he was discontinued at his own request. William McCommas was the next to retire. He traveled only three years. His fields of labor were the Big Kanawha and the Little Sandy Circuits, preaching in the latter two years. Nelson Dills, after traveling the Shelby, the Madi- son, and Franklin Circuits, died on the 23d of March, 1827. He was born in Harrison County, Kentucky, in 1796. His parents, David Dills and his wife, were members of the Methodist Church and deeply pious. They were of German descent, and were brought up in Pennsylvania, but came to Kentucky at an early day and settled in Harrison County. In the Autumn of 1816, at a camp-meeting held at White's Camp- ground, near Cynthiana, to which Mr. Dills had gone for sport, he was awakened to a sense of his condition as a sinner and happily converted to God, joining the Church at the same time. Believing that he was di- vinely called to preach the Gospel of Christ, previous to his entrance upon the ministry, he was remarkably zealous and useful. He appointed prayer-meetings whenever convenient, and excelled in the class-room as a leader. In exhortation he had but few equals, and as a singer he had scarcely a peer among his brethren. In entering the ministry he exhibited in the pros- BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 75 edition of his work a zeal worthy the apostolic age of the Church. He was not, however, permitted to con- tinue long in the field. His career was brief, though brilliant. It was his privilege to terminate his labors in the same charge in which he had commenced his work as an itinerant. On the Franklin Circuit he had won his earliest trophies, and on that same field he gathered his latest laurels. In the several charges he filled a succession of revivals crowned his ministry, and hundreds were converted and added to the Church. His last moments were peaceful and happy. Daniel Black died the same year, after traveling the Henderson, Cumberland, Logan, and Barren Cir- cuits. In the ministry he was useful, in his life exem- plary, in afflictions patient, and in death triumphant. He was born in South Carolina, November 27, 1795; embraced religion July 24, 1821; and was licensed to preach August 18, 1823. He left to the Kentucky Conference a small legacy to be equally divided among the members. Thompson J. Holliman traveled the Breckinridge, Bed River, and Somerset Circuits. These fields of labor were large, and the work to be performed more than equal to the strength of Mr. Holliman. Unable longer to bear the fatigue of the campaign in 1826 he was placed on the list of superannuates, where he remained until his death, which occurred previous to the session of the conference in 1828. During his ministry he accomplished much good, and died peace- ful and happy. David Wright traveled the Dover, Hartford, Bacon 76 LIFE AND TIMES OF Creek, John's Creek, Barren, and Bowling Green Cir- cuits. He located in 1829. Clement L. Clifton employed the first year of his ministry on the Green River Circuit, where he was very successful in the accomplishment of good. He subsequently traveled the Somerset, Livingston (two years), Henderson (two years), and the Christian Cir- cuit. Worn down by the arduous labors to which he had been subjected, in 1832 he sought repose in a superannuated relation, in which he remained until 1835, when he asked and received a location. He was well spoken of wherever he labored, and was remark- ably useful. The name of Richard I. Dungan is familiar to the Church in Kentucky. Of his early life we have no record. When a youth he was apprenticed to the tanning business, and during the period of his appren- ticeship was converted to God. His first appointment was to the John's Creek Circuit, where he traveled one year, and was then transferred to the Missouri Confer- ence. After spending two years in Missouri he returned to Kentucky, where he continued to travel and preach until the Autumn of 1835, when, "from feeble health and family circumstances/ 7 he felt it his duty to locate. In 1839 he re-entered the itinerant ranks, where he labored faithfully until the Fall of 1846, when he again located. In 1855 his name again appears on the conference roll, but his career was destined to be brief. He was only coming home to die "with har- ness on." He was appointed to the Newcastle Circuit, where, on the 1st day of December, he was taken ill, and died on the 9th of February, 1856. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 77 The talents of Mr. Dungan were not of a brilliant character, vet he was eminently useful as a preacher of the Gospel. In his preaching there was an ear- nestness and a pathos that sent the truths ho delivered home to the hearts of his hearers and led them to Christ. His death was calm and serene. Often tri- umphant during his last illness, he quietly passed away as sinks the sun to its evening rest. George Richardson was born in Cumberland County, Kentucky, April 30, 1804. When fifteen years of age he was happily converted and joined the Methodist Church. Previous to his admission on trial into the confer- ence he traveled the Cumberland mission for several months under the supervision of Peter Cartwright as presiding elder. In this Avide and unpromising field he had been assailed by a band of ruffians, who had resolved that the standard of the Cross should not be planted amid their mountain homes. They but little understood the spirit of the preacher, or the unflinching nerve that he possessed. Attacking him, they tried to drive him from the field, as they had done his predecessor, when with stalwart arm he vindicated his right to remain by proving himself master of the situation. A second attempt, in another portion of the mission, resulted somewhat differently. They consented to allow him to preach, but notified him that they would whip him at the close of the sermon. Five men had engaged to perform this difficult task. With the Bible and Ilymn-book in his hand, he stood in the door of an humble cabin and delivered his message to the assem- 78 LIFE AND TIMES OF bled crowd. First a stillness, like the hush of death, came over the assembly ; but as he proceeded — now presenting the terrors of the law, and then the melt- ing scenes of the Cross, inviting them to flee the wrath to come — cries for mercy fell from smitten hearts and rent the air of heaven. The sermon closed, and yet the preacher pleaded his Master's cause. On his knees he passed through the house and yard, exhorting sin- ners to turn to God. "When the services closed the stars were shining in the heavens, and many had found peace in believing. Among those who were converted on this occasion was one who had volunteered to whip the preacher. On the same day he organized a Church in that community. In the Autumn following he entered the confer- ence, and after traveling the Greenville, Henderson, Livingston, and Little River Circuits, he retired to the superannuated roll, where he remained for three years. In 1830 he returned to the effective ranks, and was appointed to the Logan Circuit, but having mis- taken his strength, at the close of the year he was again placed on the list of superannuates, where he remained until 1835, when he located, his health be- ing too feeble for him to perform the duties of an itinerant preacher. As a local preacher he labored to the full measure of his strength, devoting his talents and energies, as far as possible, to the accomplishment of good. Thor- oughly versed in the Scriptures, he was among the ablest defenders of the doctrines of the Church. He was familiar with the peculiar tenets and institutions BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 79 of his own denomination, and presented them with a boldness and ability that silenced opposition. A de- vout Christian, his life and deportment gave a luster in the community in which he resided to the religion he professed. Successful in winning souls to Christ while an itinerant, hundreds were also converted through his ministry in later years. His last illness was protracted and severe, but his sufferings were borne without a murmur. With his pastor and his family he conversed freely in reference to his hope beyond the grave. He called to his bed- side his wife and children, and addressing them one by one, he requested them to meet him in heaven. He said, " I shall soon be there. I long to lay down this mortal body that I may put on immortality." To his wife he said, " Weep not for me, nor think of me when I am gone as one reposing in the cold clay, but as a happified spirit, at home with God." He died in Logan County, Kentucky, May 26, 1860, and was buried in the family grave-yard. Abram Long began his itinerant career on the Christian Circuit. From the conference of 1823 un- til his death, which occurred June 16, 1867, he re- ceived twenty-six appointments. He was local one year, and seventeen years his name appears on the roll of superannuated preachers. He was born in Nel- son County, Kentucky, April 25, 1796. Of the date of his conversion we are not advised. When he en- tered the ministry he was in the prime of manhood, and to the duties to which it called him none of his contemporaries were more faithful than he. While his talents were not of a high order, yet as a preacher he 80 LIFE AND TIMES OF was always acceptable, and filled with credit to him- self and with blessing to the Church many of the most important charges in Kentucky. Courteous in his manners and exemplary in his piety, distin- guished for his native kindness, and earnest in his exhortations, he was a favorite with all who knew him. The greater portion of his ministry was spent in the Green River country, where he was instru- mental in doing much good, and where he was greatly beloved. He did not marry until in his sixty-third year. He died of cancer in the face. His sufferings for some time before his death were very great, but he bore them with the fortitude of a Christian hero. ^Vhen unable to speak, he turned to the Bible and pointed to the language, " All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." He was joyful to the last. He wrote, " Xot a doubt is on my mind." He died at the residence of Major Medley, in Christian County, Kentucky. John S. Barger, who entered the conference the same year with Mr. Kavanaugh, was a young man of considerable promise. His first circuit was the Bowl- ing Green. He subsequently traveled the Logan, Clarke's River, Hopkinsville, Jefferson, Logan, Henry, and Limestone Circuits. While traveling the Logan Circuit, he fell in love with Miss Sarah L. Baker, a young lady of fervent piety, and well calculated for the position of a preach- er's wife. On the Sabbath before the marriage was to take place Mr. Barger preached in the neighbor- hood in which Miss Baker resided. His text was Matthew xviii, 3. Just as he announced his text the BISnOP KAVANAUGII. 81 young lady entered the church, when the discomfited preacher said, " My text is the eighteenth chapter and third verse of Sally Baker." The lady blushed, the audience smiled, and the sermon was remark- ably brief. During the eight years he spent in Kentucky he stood abreast with the most gifted young men in the conference, and witnessed everywhere he labored the awakening and conversion of the people. In 1831 he was transferred to the Missouri Con- ference and stationed in St. Louis. At the session of the Missouri Conference, in 1832, he was transferred to the Illinois Conference, where for nearly fifty years he faithfully and successfully preached the Gospel in the principal cities and towns of the State, occupying the most commanding positions, ofttimes a leader in the ranks, in charge of the most important districts. After a long life of labor and toil, and with his work well done, a few years ago he entered upon rest. Newton G. Berryman was the son of James and Martha Berryman, and was born in King George County, Virginia, August 25, 1805. His parents removed to Kentucky, and settled in Fayette County, when he was about six years of age. He w^as left an orphan by the death of his father when only seven years old, and hence the responsibility of his early training devolved entirely on his mother, who, though an excellent lady, was not then a professor of religion. Impressed with the importance of saving grace in early childhood, yet having no one to instruct him, he permitted his convictions to pass away. When about fourteen years of age, at a two days' meeting 82 LIFE AND TIMES OF held in Scott County, he made a profession of relig- ion and joined the Church, under the ministry of Benjamin Lakin. Faithful to the profession he had made, he became the honored instrument in the hands of God in the conversion of his mother and other members of the family. Believing it to be his duty to preach the Gospel, he was first licensed to exhort, and afterward to preach; and at the conference en- suing he was admitted on trial. His first appoint- ment was to the Mount Sterling Circuit, the second to the Christian, and the third to Fountain Head. On these several charges his labors were blessed in the conversion of many souls. Unable longer to perform the labor incident to the life of a traveling preacher, in the Autumn of 1826 he asked for a loca- tion. In this relation to the Church we find him actively engaged in preaching the Gospel on every Sabbath and teaching school during the week. Three years' rest from circuit life so restores his health that he re-enters the traveling connection in the Tennessee Conference, in 1829, and is appointed to the Clarks- ville Circuit. The labors of the year prostrated him, and at the next conference he again locates, but re- mains at Clarksville in charge of an academy. In the Autumn of 1832 we find him once more a mem- ber of the Kentucky Conference, and traveling the Christian Circuit — one of his former fields of labor — with John Redman as his colleague. Under their . united labors several hundred were brought to Christ. From here we follow him to the Bowling Green Sta- tion, where he remained two years, and where about fifty members were added to the Church. BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 83 Having decided to remove to Illinois, he located at the following conference, and was employed by John Sinclair, the presiding elder of Sangamon Dis- trict, Illinois Conference, to fill the Peoria Station, which had been left vacant. Mr. Berryman remained in Illinois until after the memorable General Confer- ence of 1844, of which he was a member. On the great question which resulted in the division of the Church, he voted with the Southern delegates, which rendered his further connection with the Illinois Con- ference unpleasant. Leaving Illinois, his name is enrolled in the Minutes of the Missouri Conference, and he is appointed to the St. Louis Circuit. He continued a member of this conference until Septem- ber, 1849, when once more severe family affliction induced him to retire to the local ranks. In 1854 he again enters the field, travels the St. Charles District for two years, and then fills the Glasgow Station the two following years. His next charge is the St. Joseph Station, and then the St. Joseph District, which not only embraced a large portion of bleak, prairie country, but extended to the Iowa line. From this district he went to Palmyra, where, in conse- quence of the unsettled state of the country during our civil war, he continued three years. The Hanni- bal District was the last field he occupied in Mis- souri, on which he traveled eighteen months. In 18G5 he was transferred to the Kentucky Con- ference and appointed to the Lexington District. ' After serving the Lexington District one year he was stationed in Carrollton, to which he was returned the second year. In 1868 he was sent to Harrodsburg, 84 LIFE AND TIMES OF where he remained for two years. In 1870 he was transferred to St. Louis Conference. Here he re- mained but a brief period, until God called him home. An injury received from a horse resulted in his death, at Glasgow, Missouri, December 18, 1871. He was thrice married. His first wife was Miss Slaughter, of Kentucky; his second wife was Miss Loring; his third wife was Miss Hassinger, of Missouri. In the various charges he filled, whether on cir- cuits, stations, or districts, he faithfully performed the duties assigned him, enjoying the love and confidence of his brethren in the ministry and the Church he so earnestly served. An examination of the printed minutes will show that, among those who entered the conference with Mr. Kavanaugh, no one was appointed to a field where so many sacrifices were to be met, nor where the labors were so arduous. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 85 CHAPTER III. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1823 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1827. THE first appointment of Mr. Kavanaugh was to the Little Sandy Circuit as the colleague of Luke P. Allen. Andrew Monroe was Mr. Kavanaugh \s first presid- ing elder, and between the superintendent of the Augusta District and the junior preacher on the Little Sandy Circuit the most cordial relations existed. Indeed, every young preacher knows the strong attach- ment he formed for his presiding elder, and the anx- iety with which he looked for the return of the quarterly-meeting. Mr. Monroe entered the Ohio Conference in 1815, and spent the first nine years of his ministry in Ken- tucky. In 1824 he was transferred to the Missouri Conference, where he fell asleep after fifty-seven years in the itinerant ministry, forty-eight of which were spent in Missouri. At the Missouri Conference of 1872 the Committee on Memoirs presented the following report: "Andrew Monroe, as a prince among his brethren, held high rank, and now, that he has gone to his cloudless home, his memory will refresh us at our annual gathering. It is not within the scope of this sketch to enter into any exhaustive analysis of a life 86 LIFE AND TIMES OF so protracted, aims so single and sublime, purposes so pertinaciously adhered to through a long, eventful course. Abundant data exists for such a portraiture of this honored man, which will be wrought into an enduring form. The name and influence of this good man is interwoven into the warp of Methodism as it is to-day upon the American continent. His name is historic. Scarcely a book of Methodistic annals has appeared within a half century past that does not con- tain it. He impressed himself upon two generations. "Andrew Monroe was born on Nobly Mountain, in Hampshire County, Virginia, October 29, 1792. He was the youngest of a family of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. Four of the broth- ers became Methodist ministers. He was converted when a youth, and joined the Methodist Church in Hampshire City. In March, 1815, he was licensed to preach by David Young, presiding elder, and sent to labor with Charles Waddell, on the Fairfield Cir- cuit. The following Autumn he was admitted on trial into the Ohio Conference, and was sent by Bishop As- bury to Cumberland Circuit, Kentucky." At the time of his transfer to Missouri, the Missouri Conference " embraced the States of Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, and Indiana." After serving two years in the city of St. Louis " he was placed on the St. Louis District, embracing the entire State, which he penetrated in every direction, swimming swollen streams, braving the storms of Winter, and enduring the fevers of Sum- mer, that he might proclaim the cross of Christ to the pioneers. . . . Brother Monroe was a member of eleven General Conferences, and his voice was always BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 87 heard with respect in that body. He was also a mem- ber of the Louisville Convention which decided our present ecclesiastical position. In the absence of a bishop he was almost invariably chosen the president of the annual conference. He filled every important office in the ministry of the Church but that of bishop." He died at home in the bosom of his family a short time before the meeting of the Missouri Confer- ence, 1872. He left the legacy of a good name to his family and the Church. Before entering upon his work Mr. Kavanaugh returned to take leave of his mother, a mother whom we have often heard him declare he had never disobeyed. She had dedicated him to God in infancy in holy baptism, had watched over him in childhood, had followed him with her prayers amid the perils of youth, and now, in his early manhood, she realized the consummation of her wishes. God had called him to preach ; of that she had no doubt ; and he had pledged himself to obedience. He could not go to his circuit without being folded once more in her lov- ing arms and resting his head upon that breast where it had so often been pillowed. She gave him her blessing; it was the blessing of a mother: it was more; it was the blessing of a saint who walked and com- muned with God. His outfit was such as preachers of that day generally had — a good horse, saddle, and bridle, a comfortable suit of clothes, a warm overcoat, a pair of saddle-bags filled, one pocket with a change of underwear, and the other with standard Methodist books, including a small Bible and hymn-book. He 88 LIFE AND TIMES OF wore a drab hat, and his coat was round-breasted, the style worn by the preachers of that period. The hour for parting arrived. He took leave first of the rest of the family, and last of his mother. Her words were few. " Be faithful, my son, and true, and God will bless you and make you useful." The tears coursed their way down his face. He mounted his horse and was soon out of sight. In all his lifetime he had never felt so lonely as on that day. As he journeyed along he thought of his mother; or perhaps thoughts of his sainted father, that father of whom he had no recollection, flitted across his mind, of his leaving home a mere youth, on a similar mission. He thought, too, of the responsi- bilities of a minister of Christ, and more than once he turned aside into the forest and alighted and knelt, and prayed for courage and for wisdom that he might be able to perform the duties that lay before him acceptably to God and with blessing to the people he would serve. The distance from Clarke County to the Little Sandy Circuit was about one hundred and fifty miles, and the country through which Mr. Kavanaugh would pass after the first day's travel was inclined to be mount- ainous, with only an occasional settlement. Sixty years ago there was no turnpike between Lexington and Maysville, and the primeval forest was almost untouched. Mr. Kavanaugh reached his work in due time. The circuit was large, extending from the mouth of the Big Sandy River into Pike, Lawrence, Boyd, and Greenup Counties, and along the Little Sandy, taking in Carter, Elliott, Morgan, Johnson, BISHOP KAVANAVG8. 89 and Floyd Counties, with twenty-four preaching places. The country, too, was mountainous ; the appoint- ments to be filled by each preacher every four weeks. Mr. Allen, the senior preacher, made the first round, and announced at each place where he preached an appointment two weeks later for his young col- league. Mr. Kavanaugh met with a kind, if not a cordial, reception. Remarkably neat in his personal appearance, some thought he dressed too fine. His excellent social qualities, his cheerful manners, and his fervent zeal, however, soon won upon the hearts of the people, so that they felt willing to bear with him. There were in this field of labor but few houses of worship. The preaching places were either small log school houses or the private dwellings of the peo- ple. The distance ofttimes between appointments ren- dered it necessary to travel in the afternoon so as to be within reach of the appointment the next morning. Accommodations were frequently uncomfortable, but were cheerfully bestowed by the settlers of that rugged region, and received by the preachers with grateful hearts. He finished the first round, hearing every- where laudations of the "preacher in charge/' in which he heartily joined, for no young preacher ever loved his senior more than Hubbard IT. Kavanaugh loved Luke P. Allen. The equipments of a preacher of that period were not complete without a marking iron, a small, sharp- pointed rod about six inches long, whose use was to mark a tree at the fork of the road, so that there would be no difficulty in finding the way on subse- quent rounds. This, however, often produced trouble. 8 90 LIFE AND TIMES OF In making his first round, in several instances, Mr. Kavanaugh marked the wrong trees. On the second round a guide accompanied him, making different marks. For the remainder of the year he frequently found it difficult to decide which mark to follow. Having to preach almost every day, and frequently at night where he stopped for rest, he found but little time for study. In addition his eyes had not yet fully recovered their strength. Anxious to pursue the course of study devised for the nndergrad nates, in Winter he availed himself of pine knot lights at night, often reading after the family had retired, while in the Summer he read and studied on horseback while pursuing his lonely journey. The question has often been asked, How did the early preachers acquire such a store of knowledge? The answer is, By recognizing the requirements of the Discipline to " never be unemployed, never be triflingly employed." That they were better theolo- gians than the majority of the preachers of the pres- ent day will scarcely be denied. It is true they were not so familiar with the discoveries of modern science as are many of their sons in the Gospel ; but they knew the Scriptures, and presented and defended the doctrines of Christianity with an ability that has never been surpassed. During the Winter but little occurred on the cir- cuit of special interest. There were some awakenings and a few conversions, while the class-meetings were seasons of spiritual profit. To say that the junior preacher was always cheer- ful would, be an injustice to his sensitive nature. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 91 The roads were bad, the traveling difficult, and some- times ungenerous criticism from unexpected sources depressed him; but had he not been divinely called to this work, and had he not turned his back upon all besides, and would not God sustain him if faithful to the trust? The Winter of 1824 lingered long in the lap of Spring, but at length the ice and snow disappeared, and earth once more wore its vernal beauty. The forests were clothed in green, and wild flowers adorned the mountain sides, throwing their fragrance on the balmy air. Nature was donned in its most lovely attire. A brief visit to his mother enlivened his spirits. They had knelt and prayed together. She encouraged him in his work. On his return he held meetings of several days' continuance when showers of grace fell upon the Church and upon the assembly. The circuit on which a preacher travels his first year is invested with an interest to him in after life that belongs to no other field he may occupy. Notwith- standing the privations endured by Mr. Kavanaugh on the Little Sandy Circuit, yet during his entire ministry he held the people of that charge in grateful recollection, and looked back to the year he spent among them with feelings of indescribable pleasure. A richer experience far to him, and one more beneficial in its results, than if he had been stationed in one of the cultivated and refined villages of the State, was his ministry among the people in that rural district. There he learned that a preacher's life was not one of ease, but of endurance; and that the blessings of 92 LIFE AND TIMES OF the Gospel were not confined to the rich, but that " the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." He learned, too, a lesson of sympathy, so essential to the proper exercise of the functions of the high office to which he was afterwards elevated. On his way to the conference of 1824 he visited his mother, and detailed to her an account of his year's labor. " You are not tired, then, my son, of the work ?" inquired his mother. " Not at all," replied her son. " I sometimes get tired in it, but never tired of it. I have enlisted for life." Such was the language and such the feelings of the young itinerant. The conference was held in Shelbyville, one of the most beautiful villages in the State. The session was opened September 23d, by Bishop Roberts. Bishop Soule was also present, and Bishop McKen- dree put in his appearance a few days later. In Shelbyville the Methodist Church occupied a very influential position. It, however, had not reached the proud summit on which it stood without a struggle. At every advance step it had met with opposition, sometimes with doubtful results. Jona- than Stamper had been presiding elder of the Salt River District, extending from the Cumberland Mountains to the city of Louisville and embracing Shelbyville. The Baptist and Presbyterian Churches were both favored with gifted and able preachers. In the former Messrs. Toncray and Waller, and in the latter Archibald Cameron. Their attacks upon Meth- odism were so unwarranted and severe that Mr. Stain- BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 93 per, distinguished no less for his wonderful gifts than for his eloquence, determined to take up the gauntlet and bear aloft the banner of Methodism. Mr. .Stam- per was aggressive. Messrs. Toncray and Waller were driven to the wall. In defense of Calvinism Mr. Cameron came to their rescue, only to share the fate that had befallen the heroes of a lost cause. Methodism was in the front. The establishment of " Science Hill Female Acad- emy " in Shelby ville this year was destined to prove a blessing to Methodism, not only in that community but throughout the West and the South. No institu- tion of learning, of high grade, for young ladies had been founded in Kentucky, except the Roman Cath- olic School near Bardstown ; and, indeed, there were only two west of the mountains. Kentucky was growing in population, in influence, and in wealth. The education of her daughters was a question of vital importance. It was impossible then, as now, for Protestant, and especially for Methodist parents, who regard the religious as well as the intellectual culture of their daughters, to place them in Romish institu- tions of learning, under the guardianship of priests and of nuns. But few instances, comparatively, have occurred in which young ladies of- Protestant parents have been educated in Roman Catholic schools, who have not abjured the religion of their father and mother and embraced the fearful heresy of Romanism ; nor will it be denied that the system of instruction adopted in these schools is far inferior to that pursued in institutions under the supervision of evangelical Churches. 94 LIFE AND TIMES OF John Tevis, after traveling four years in Ken- tucky, had been transferred to the Tennessee Confer- ence, and appointed to the Holston District. While traveling that district he made the acquaintance of Miss Julia A. Hieronymus, who was converted and joined the Church under his ministry, and whom he afterward married. Miss Hieronymus was a Ken- tuckian by birth. Her father had resided in Clarke County, Kentucky, where his daughter was born De- cember 5, 1799. Anxious to educate his children, and Kentucky at that period offering but few facilities, in 1807 Mr. Hieronymus removed to Virginia in search of a favorable location for this purpose. After a lapse of years he settled in Winchester, Virginia, which then afforded the best male and female schools. There Miss Hieronymus received such an education as se- cured to her a firm foundation on which to build a more extensive superstructure. From Winchester her father removed to Washington City, where she com- pleted her course of study. It was neither the design of the excellent father in bestowing the means of education, nor the purpose of his gifted daughter in improving the advantages with which she was favored, that she should devote her life to the instruction of others. He was only preparing her for society, of which he expected her to be an ornament, and little dreamed of the brilliant career of usefulness that lay before her. A reverse in the affairs of her father induced her to engage in teaching. In 1820 she made her first attempt in this responsible vocation at Wythe Court- house, Virginia. After remaining there for more BISHOP KAVANAUGII. 95 than a year, she went to Washington County to he- mine the instructress of an only daughter of a gen- tleman who resided in that county, near Abingdon. Immediately after their marriage in 1824, Mr. Tevis, with his wife, returned to Kentucky, and settled in Shelbyville. At the session of the con- ference after his return to his early home he was ap- pointed to the Louisville Station, leaving his family in Shelbyville; and in the month of March, 1825, Science Hill Female Academy was founded. The first session there were only thirty-five students, six of whom were boarders. It, however, rapidly ac- quired reputation, and soon its fame was spread, not only throughout Kentucky, but the whole country, until its pupils " were brought from afar," and its rooms were crowded with young ladies preparing for the stern duties of life. To estimate the good that has been accomplished by Science Hill is impossible. Of such eclipsing superiority over Roman Catholic schools, hundreds sought its halls who but for its existence might have been taught to bow to the Virgin and to kiss the cru- cifix ; hundreds more have been converted to God while receiving their education there, and have re- turned to the parental roof " twice blest," to enter upon life's great battle. For fifty-nine years this in- stitution has been on its mission of good. Kentucky and the West have sustained it nobly, and the South has been its special patron and friend. When pros- perity and peace reigned supreme in their sunny homes, and before the dark cloud of war was seen upon the horizon, Southern parents poured their wealth into its 96 LIFE AND TIMES OF lap, and received in return their daughters with all the accomplishments that a Christian education can bestow. All over the West and South, in every ham- let, village, and city, home and society are blessed by Christian wives and mothers, distinguished for all the excellences that ennoble woman, who look back with pride to Science Hill as their Alma Mater. If grate- ful recollections are cherished of the benefactors of a country, if deeds of heroism are not forgotten, and if a life devoted to the permanent prosperity of the Church merit a warm place in the affections of its members, then the name of Mrs. Julia A. Tevis will be remembered for ages to come. The noble woman who for more than fifty years conducted this institution with so much success has entered upon eternal life, but Science Hill, under the supervision of Dr. Poynter, still blesses the Church and the Avorld. The Newport Circuit, to which Mr. Kavanaugh was sent this year, was scarcely less in its territorial limits than the one he had previously traveled. It, however, embraced an older section of the State, in- cluding the promising town of Covington. Jonathan Stamper was his presiding elder, and the sweet-spirited William H. Askins his colleague. The appointment, too, placed him among relatives and the friends of his noble grandfather, and opened before him a still wider field for usefulness. Mr. Kavanaugh was beginning to attract attention as a preacher, while Mr. Askins was a young man of more than ordinary promise. There had been exten- sive revivals throughout the circuit; not only the BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 97 previous year, but for several years preceding, the labors of the preachers were crowned with success. Messrs. Kavanaugh and Askins entered upon their work with energy and zeal, and soon, not only in New- port, but all around the circuit, sinners were awak- ened and penitents converted to God. In 1825 his field of labor was the Salt River Cir- cuit, as the colleague of Thomas Atterbury. This circuit included Springfield (the last his father had traveled before his marriage), Bloomfield, Chaplin, Bardstown, Taylorsville, Shepherdsville, and West Point, and reached out many miles on either side. The talented Marcus Lindsey presided over the Salt River District with marked ability and eminent suc- cess. Before his wonderful preaching error paled, and Calvinism hid its head; and after one or two debates with the Baptist Church on the subjects and mode of baptism there could be found no champion in their ranks who was sufficiently incautious to risk a passage- at-arms with this knight of the Cross. Mr. Kavanaugh was the junior preacher on the circuit, and was beginning to occupy a large space in public thought. He had gradually advanced from the commencement of his ministry until, a writer says, "he was peculiarly attractive by his eloquent preaching." Bardstown was a difficult place for Protestant Christianity. It was the stronghold of the Roman Catholic Church in Kentucky, and for that denom- ination it was the seat of learning in the West. St. Joseph's College was there, and Nazareth, their pride and their boast, was only two miles away. For sev- 9 98 LIFE AND TIMES OF eral years attempts had been made to plant Method- ism upon its soil, but without effect. Mr. Kavanaugh, however, drew large houses. Catholics and Protest- ants came to hear him, and under his powerful ap- peals many were won to Christ. In the early part of the year he organized a society in Bardstown, and received, among others, into the Church, Burr H. McCown, who afterwards became a distinguished preacher. In Springfield, too, his ministry was a glorious suc- cess; indeed, all through the circuit he found way to the hearts of the people. It was but seldom that a preacher then served a charge more than one year, but Mr. Attcrbury and Mr. Kavanaugh were both returned the following year to the Salt River Circuit. Such men as Judge Rowan, Charles A. Wickliffe and Hon. Ben. Hardin, men of national fame, called in person on Mr. Lindsey, and solicited his reappointment. Like a flame of fire he passed through the country, preaching almost every day, and exhorting sinners to repentance. Wesleyan, or rather Pauline, in his theology, he knew no com- promise where it was assailed, but with due respect to the opinions of others he defended his own views with .marked ability, while his life everywhere shed a luster upon the doctrines he taught. There was not a community in which he proclaimed the tidings of a Redeemer's love where success was not achieved. Xot only at Bardstown and Springfield were there revi- vals, but at Chaplin, at Shepherdsville, and through- out the circuit, hundreds accepted Christ and joined the Church. The white membership was almost BISHOP KAVANATJGH. 99 doubled, while in the colored membership the in- crease was large. Mr. Kavanaugh had closed his fourth year in the conference, and had been ordained both deacon and elder. From the time he became a traveling preacher he was a close student; and notwithstanding the diffi- culties that confronted him, he had not only read, but mastered the entire course of study required previous to the reception of cider's orders. The Church too had steadily progressed. The printed Minutes show an increase in four years of two thousand four hundred and eighteen in the white membership, and in the colored of five hundred and nineteen. The increase, however, was much larger. The Kanawha District, with two thousand eight hun- dred and seventeen white, and two hundred and twenty-four colored, members, formed a part of the membership in 1823, but had since been transferred to the Ohio Conference, which, if added to the mem- bership in the Kentucky Conference in 1827, makes the increase during the first four years of Mr. Kav- anaugh's ministry jive thousand two hundred and sev- enteen white, and seven hundred and forty-three colored. No denomination, perhaps, in Kentucky had increased in the same ratio during these four years. The increase in the number of preachers was equally gratifying. Instead of seventy-four we have ninety-four to proclaim the tidings of salvation. George Brown, John P. Finlcy, Martin Flint, "William Young, John R. Keach, Daniel Black, Oba- diah ITarber, and Nelson Dills had crossed over the last river and entered upon eternal life. 100 LIFE AND TIMES OF John P. Finley was the intimate friend of Mr. Kavanaugh, and during the period of the latter's resi- dence in Augusta, previous to his entrance into the ministry, his daily companion. His death, which oc- curred in May, 1825, was deeply mourned by the Kentucky Conference ; but no one felt the bereave- ment more than did young Kavanaugh. John P. Finley was never employed in the regular pastoral work. He was the son of the Rev. Robert W. Finley, and the younger brother of the Rev. Jas. B. Finley, who for nearly fifty years was a useful and faithful traveling preacher, and who died on the 6th of September, 1857, a member of the Cincinnati Con- ference, and who uttered, while dying, as his last connected sentence, " I have been blessed with great peace, wonderful peace ! I do n't know that I ever had such peace in all my life !" John P. Finley was born in North Carolina, June 13, 1783. His excellent father was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and was born in Bucks County, in that State, on the 9th of June, 1750. At the age of sev- enteen he experienced religion, and soon after entered Princeton College, then under the presidency of the celebrated Dr. Witherspoon. In that institution he spent several years in reference to the ministry, after going through with his collegiate course. In 1774 he was licensed to preach the Gospel of Christ as a minister in the Presbyterian Church, and was sent as a missionary to Georgia and the Carolinas. The dark cloud of war was then spreading over the political sky, and a struggle between Great Britain and the American Colonies was imminent — a struggle that BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 101 was loner and bloody. To his country's call his patri- otic heart responded, and following the flag and the fortunes of the gallant Marion, Mr. Finley, by his example and his valor, rendered valuable service in the contest. After the close of the war, in 1784, he, with a few others, set out to explore the District of Kentucky. In this journey they encountered, for months together, many perils and sufferings, and finding he could not move through the wilderness with his family, he removed to Virginia and settled in Hampshire County, where he faithfully preached the Gospel to the destitute inhabitants. He subse- quently crossed the mountains, and reached the Mo- nongahela, and in the Autumn of 1788 descended the river in a flat-boat, and reaching Kentucky, settled near Stockton's Station, now Flemingsburg. Remain- ing here but a short time from apprehension of the Indians, he removed to Bourbon County and settled on Cane Ridge. At this place he not only preached to the people, but he opened an institution of learn- ing of high grade, literary in its character, but with a special department for the benefit of young men who were preparing for the ministry and desired a theological training. Among those who entered as students in divinity were Joseph and John Haw, William and Samuel Robinson, Archibald Steel, Richard McNamar, John Dunlavey, John Thompson, and James Welch, all of whom became ministers in the Presbyterian Church. Messrs. Trimble, Mills, and Campbell, and many others who became distin- guished as members of the bar, commenced their sci- entific studies with Mr. Finley. Before the close of 102 LIFE AND TIMES OF the century he emigrated from Kentucky, and settled in the State of Ohio, below Chillicothe, and was one of the first white men that raised corn in the Scioto Valley. We are not advised as to the influences that were brought to bear upon his mind, that led him, when nearly sixty years of age, to change his Church rela- tions. In 1808 his two sons, James and John, had professed religion, and joined the Methodist Church, and in the same year Mr. Finley also became a Meth- odist preacher. In 1811, then sixty-one years of age, he offered himself to the Western Conference, and was accepted, and for many years labored in the itinerant field with great success. But few men of his age preached so frequently, labored with so much zeal, or so ably defended the doctrines of the Church as he; and none surpassed him in the instruction of the chil- dren and youth in his pastoral charges ; and under his ministry hundreds were added to the Church. When near eighty years of age, although he was placed on the superannuated list, he did not regard his work as done, but frail and feeble as he was, he mounted his horse, with his books and clothes, and setting off* north, devoted himself as a missionary in the regions of St. Marie, and formed a circuit, and appointed a camp-meeting on the very frontiers of Methodism. Holiness was his great theme. To the end of his noble life his mind was calm and peaceful. He died December 8, 1840, in the ninety-first year of his age.* Such was the father of John P. Finley. Brought * Rev. George W. Maley, in the Western Christian Advocate, 1841. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 103 up under such influences, soundly converted, his intel- lect highly cultivated and richly stored with Bible truth, the Church looked to his entrance into the ministry with much anxiety and interest. The im- pressions he had received at the Cane Ridge camp- meeting in 1801 had worn away, but were renewed in 1808, under a sermon preached by John Collins, in which year he professed religion and joined the Methodist Church. In September, 1810, he was licensed to preach. It is to be regretted that he did not at once enter the itinerant ranks and devote him- self exclusively to the work of the ministry. His power to accomplish good ought not to have been confined to a local sphere ; yet, as a local preacher, from the time he was licensed until 1822, when he became a member of the Kentucky Conference, he labored in Ohio with untiring zeal and with great success. His time, however, was divided between the work of the ministry and the education of the youth. From the period when he entered the conference until his death, which occurred in May, 1825, he presided over the fortunes of Augusta College. "Such was his popularity as a citizen of the new State of Ohio, that the people elected him twice as a member of the Lower House, and once of the Senate of their State Legislature. He was a man of more than ordinary talent — natural and acquired ; but his great popularity was owing to his amiable disposition, gentle manners, and many personal excellences. After this he was called to take charge of Augusta College at its first organization, and became the principal of this institution, which is the oldest Methodist college 104 LIFE AND TIMES OF in the "Western country. He continued that relation until it was dissolved by death. "It was after his removal to Kentucky, and while engaged as teacher in the college at Augusta, that I became acquainted with him. From personal knowl- edge I could say much in his favor as an instructor of youth, a citizen, a preacher of the Gospel, and a devoted Christian. Religion, cheerfulness, edifying conversation and engaging manners made him a highly acceptable guest in the circles where he was wont to move. He was a classical scholar, a good citizen, a kind husband, an affectionate father, a warm and constant friend. His religion was pure and un- dented before God and the Father, for it led him to visit the fatherless and the widows in their afflictions, and enabled him to keep himself unspotted from the world. Very often, indeed, was he seen at the cham- ber of the sick and the house of mourning, and few could equal him in imparting consolation and encour- agement amid scenes of distress. In the pulpit he *vas zealous, plain, practical, searching, and powerful. His voice was delightful to the ear, and his action natural and pleasing. By him, indeed, the violated law poured forth its thunders; yet even then it was manifest that his warnings were prompted by love to God and man. He delighted to proclaim the unsearch- able riches of Christ in strains of promise, hope, and mercy. The sinner's hard heart melted under his burning eloquence, and the despairing penitent trusted in the Redeemer when Brother Finley represented him as able and willing to save. He was deeply ex- perienced in the religion of the Bible. God had been BISHOP KAYANAUGIL 105 his sun and shield, his stronghold in the day of trou- ble; hence, he was prepared to be a son of consola- tion, and such he truly was. The weak and tempted believer hung with rapture on his lips, and became wiser and happier under his gracious and reviving ministrations. "He was cut clown not far from the summit-level of human life, in the midst of his usefulness, and the tears of his wife, children, relations, and friends. To them it had the aspect of a dark and mysterious prov- idence; yet, 'just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints/ As he approached the end of his career he gave ample satisfaction that for him 'to die was gain.' His last mortal struggle was severe, yet the soul was calm and triumphant amid the convulsions of death; and as the mantling shadows of night were shrouding the earth it fled from family and friends to the para- dise of God. His funeral sermon was preached by his esteemed friend, the Rev. P. Akers, from the well- known passage, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth/ etc. His mortal remains are decently interred at the rear of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Augusta, Kentucky; and should any of the numerous friends that his piety and worth drew around him visit that beautiful village, they may go and see the place Avhcre they have laid him."* Western Christian Advocate, of August 1, 1834. 106 LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTER IV. FROM TEE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1827 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1831. IN the Autumn of 1827 Mr. Kavanaugh was ap- pointed to the Lexington Circuit, with Richard Corwine in charge, and William Adams, distinguished for his zeal, as his presiding elder. The Lexington was the most inviting circuit in the State, and spread over a beautiful section of country. It contained twenty-six preaching places, and included Nicholasville, Versailles, and George- town. The mother of Mr. Kavanaugh resided in the bounds of this circuit, which gave to her ' son the privilege of visiting her frequently. He had but two rest days in the twenty-eight, and he usually spent them at her home. The four years that Mr. Kavanaugh had spent in the conference, while success crowned his ministry in every field, had greatly improved him as a preacher. It is true he had not yet taken rank with Crouch, with Stevenson, with Stamper, with Morris, and with Lindsey — intellectual giants — yet among the young men in the conference he occupied a commanding eminence. His freedom from ostentation, his un- feigned humility, the unction with which he delivered his message, his warm, impassioned oratory, together BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 107 with his catholic spirit, had attracted to him more than ordinary attention. Between the two preachers there was a striking contrast. While Mr. Corwine did not take rank in the pulpit as one of the first preachers in the confer- ence, yet his talents were above mediocrity, and he was always acceptable to the Church as a minister of the Gospel. He never preached what the world styles great sermons, but he never failed to interest and in- struct. His was not the flood of impassioned elo- quence that overleaps its banks and carries every thing before it ; but it was the gentle stream that rolled smoothly on within the limits assigned it, equally sure to reach its destination, bearing upon its placid bosom the hopes of the world. Mr. Kavanaugh was different. He was more like a majestic river overleaping its banks, and carrying every thing before it. Besides, Mr. Corwine had traveled the Lexington Circuit before, and was well known to the people. The junior preacher made the first round of ap- pointments, but during the Fall and Winter did noth- ing beyond filling his regular work, and performing such pastoral duties as so large a field would permit. Early in the Spring the signs indicated a revival of religion at several points in the circuit. The in- terest gradually increased until there were awakenings and conversions at every preaching place. The in- crease in the membership on the circuit showed how faithfully the preachers had labored. It was during this year that Mr. Kavanaugh was married. He met Mrs. Margaret C. Green, of Wood- 108 LIFE AND TIMES OF ford County, a lady of deep piety and of rare accom- plishments. She was the daughter of Charles Railey, Esq., one of the most prominent and influential gen- tlemen in Kentucky. Mr. Railey was born October 26, 1766, in Powhatan County, Virginia, though prin- cipally brought up in Chesterfield. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Railey, and was the first cousin of Thomas Jefferson. Attracted no less by her per- sonal charms and cultured intellect than by her devo- tion to the Church and her zeal for the cause of Christ, he sought her hand, and on the 24th of July, 1828, she became his wife. No marriage could have been more happy. He loved her with all the affection of his great warm heart, and her devotion to her hus- band was beautiful. The conference of 1828 met in Shelby ville, and it was on this occasion that we first saw and heard Mr. Kavanaugh preach. He reached Shelby ville on Sat- urdav afternoon before the session opened, and on Sunday was to occupy the pulpit, both morning and evening. We were living in the family of an uncle, S. "W. Topping, and were indebted to his kindness for a home, and for the promise of an education. He was, unfortunately, a follower of Tom Paine, and had never permitted us to attend Church, although he occasion- ally went himself. Learning that a distinguished preacher would occupy the pulpit on Sunday morning, he concluded to go and hear him. The subject on which Mr. Kavanaugh preached embraced the respon- sibility of parents and guardians. Attracted by the simplicity with which the preacher uttered divine BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 109 truths, and by his eloquence, he listened with patience. He at length reached that portion of the subject in- volving the question of parental responsibility, charg- ing that God would hold men to strict accountability for the conduct and final salvation of children in- trusted to their training. On his return home Mr. Topping was serious, and, although but little inclined to converse, spoke kindly of the preacher. He thought him sincere, whether his religion was a reality or a myth. Later in the afternoon he said, " Albert, you can go to Church this evening if you wish, and hear this great preacher." We had never heard a sermon, and felt no inclination to go; but when we declined, he said, " But you will go, for I am going, and will take you with me." The church stood on the brow of the hill, and was crowded when we entered it. A convenient seat was offered us, for, although a deist, he was much beloved by the people for his great charity and kindness of heart. The place was new. The preacher arose and read his hymn. He was low, only five feet and four inches in height, and yet of heavy build. He prayed. It seemed that he was talking with God. Another hymn was sung and then he announced his text — we could never forget it — Hebrews xii, 1, 2: "Where- fore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our 110 LIFE AND TIMES OF faith ; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The sermon was grand from the commencement to the close. For an hour and a half he held spell- bound that vast assembly. His peroration thrilled every heart. As he contemplated Christ as he passed away from earth, whither he had come to redeem fallen man, and entering heaven to share with the Father the glory he had in the long past, shouts of Alleluia broke upon the evening air. The preacher's voice rose above the noise as he exclaimed: "Yes, there to intercede for the millions purchased with his blood."* We may have been too young to form a proper estimate at that time of the gifts of the preacher, but from that hour to this he has been our beau ideal of a Gospel minister. In childhood, in youth, in early and in mature manhood, and in declining years, we have heard the ablest preachers among all denomina- tions of Christians, but never have we heard his equal. Nor was it simply the impression made upon the mind of a child that induces this conception of his wonderful pulpit powers, but not a year has passed since then, unless during his absence on the Pacific Coast, when we have not listened to the words of life as they fell from his lips, and still our opinion has undergone no revision. From the Lexington Circuit we follow him to :: We wrote a few years ago a full sketch of this sermon and asked Bishop Kavanaugh if he ever heard it before. He re- plied: "Yes, I preached that in Shelby ville nearly fifty years ago." BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 111 Russellville, whore he succeeded Simon Peter. A small society of Methodists was organized in Russell- ville as early as 1808, but in 1821 numbered only twelve persons. In 1823 Edward Stevenson, the Apollos of the Kentucky Conference, was stationed in Bowling Green and Russellville, and was returned the following year to Russellville, which had been separated from Bowl- ing Green. His ministry was greatly blessed. An extraordinary revival crowned his labors the first year, from which he reported at the ensuing confer- ence seventy-nine white and fourteen colored mem- bers, and at the close of the second year eighty-nine white and twenty-four colored members. The tal- ented Peter Akers succeeded Mr. Stevenson, and re- ported at the close of the year one hundred white and twenty-five colored members. In 1826 Mr. Akers was returned, and had the pleasure of witnessing a great revival under his ministry, leaving at the close of his second year one hundred and thirty-four white and twenty-eight colored members. In 1827, under the ministry of Mr. Peter, the report of numbers made the previous year is unchanged.* The appointment of Mr. Kavanaugh to that charge in 1828 gave great satisfaction. While during the year there was no general revival, yet a good religious sentiment prevailed under his pastorate. The con- gregations were large and serious, and the Church was greatly edified. *Mr. Peter, in all probability, failed to make any report, and the secretary took the figures of the former year as ap- proximately correct. 112 LIFE AND TIMES OF Littleton Fowler, his Intimate friend, was stationed in Bowling Green. He held a meeting in February in which Mr. Kavanaugh assisted him and accom- plished much good. From the commencement of the meeting public thought was arrested, and a spirit of awakening permeated the community. On Sunday, at eleven o'clock, he preached on the general judgment, and such was the impression made upon the audience that many arose from their seats and cried for mercy. The scenes of that day were so vividly brought before the minds of those who heard him that they could almost behold God in grandeur, the world on fire, the descending Judge, and the universe assembled before him, and catch the final sentence as it fell irrevocably from the lips of the Son of Man. "But when shall these things occur?" The anx- iety of the world as to when the judgment will take place is not peculiar to the age in which we live. The disciples sought to learn from Christ when they asked : " Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world." The Savior advises them that it should be preceded by signs in the heavens and on the earth. Its appearance shall be sudden. " For as the light- ning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be." " The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and there shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 113 clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels, with a great sound of a trum- pet, and they shall gather together his elect from one end of heaven to the other." " But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." No man knoweth the day. Day is here used for season. It may be in Springtime, when Nature is donned in its loveliest attire; when earth wears its vernal beauty, and, freed from the snows and storms of Win- ter, invites the toil of the husbandman; when the forests, clothed in foliage of green and enlivened with " the lulling strains the feathered warblers woo/' and roses throw their fragrance on the balmy air. Or it may be in Summer, when the golden harvest bends beneath the reaper's sickle, and plants and flowers adorn hill and vale; or it may be when the frosts of Autumn touch the ripened crop, and men are wondering where they may store their harvest; or it may be amid Winter's chilling blast, when all Nature wears its mantle, whose robes in gorgeous splendor hang in icy folds over land and sea, that the last loud trump may sound. "No man knoweth the hour." The day may open like other days that have preceded it. The sun may be shining with his accustomed splendor, or the moon, donned in her silvery robes, may be walking like a queen through the heavens, or the stars may be keeping time to the world's clock, when the com- mencement day of the final examination begins. "No man knoweth the hour." ll may be in 10 114 LIFE AND TIMES OF early morn, when the sun first gilds the eastern hori- zon, that a sound, loud and shrill, to which the ear had never before been used, may fall on earth and sea; or at noon, when the king of day is driving his fiery chariot through the heavens, when the last, loud note of time may send its deafening peals through the valleys and up the rock-ribbed mountain sides, proclaiming the funeral of the world; or it may be just as the monarch of the sky, after pouring his radiant beams on hill and vale, gladdening the hearts of millions, is hiding his face behind the hills of the west, that the funeral dirge of time may be sung ; or at midnight the world may be startled from its sleep by the fearful cry, " Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment." But whether at morn, or noon, or night, every ear shall hear the summons, and every eye shall behold the Son of Man as he comes in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with him. The effect of this sermon was wonderful, while many resolved upon a better life, and kept their vows. The following year we find Mr. Kavanaugh in Louisville, with Littleton Fowler as his colleague. The first Methodist Society in Louisville was or- ganized in 1805, the village then being embraced in the Salt River and Shelby Circuit. Previous to 1809 the little congregation worshiped in a log school- house, which occupied the ground near where the court-house now stands. In the erection of a house of worship in Louis- ville, the Methodists led in the van of the Churches. In 1809 a lot was procured on the north side of Mar- ket Street, between Seventh and Eighth Streets, where BISHOP KAYANAUGH. 115 a small church, the first in the village, was erected. In 1816 the first church was sold, and a lot procured on Fourth Street, between Market and Jefferson, on which a more commodious church edifice was built.* At the time Methodism made its first appearance in Louisville, the Salt River and Shelby Circuit in- cluded all that portion of Kentucky. The following year it was detached from the Salt River and trans- ferred to the Shelby, in which it was continued until the formation of the Jefferson Circuit, in 1811, when it became a preaching place in that charge. It re- mained in the Jefferson Circuit until 1818, when it was formed into a station, and Henry B. Bascom ap- pointed the pastor. When, in 1829, Messrs. Ivavanaugh and Fowler were appointed to Louisville, the population amounted to ten thousand persons, with a membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church of four hundred and twenty-six, one hundred and fifty-seven being colored. The labors of these earnest preachers of the Gospel were greatly blessed. A revival of religion, com- mencing soon after the close of the conference, in which hundreds were converted, continued during the Winter to bless the Church. The health of the junior preacher was feeble, which imposed the greater portion of the labor on Mr. Ivavanaugh, who seemed capable of any amount of endurance. At the close of the year there were reported six hundred and thirteen, three hundred and eighty of whom were white; about one-seventeenth of the population, being Methodists. The New York Btore now occupies the grotihd. 116 LIFE AND TIMES OF One of the sweetest spirits that ever belonged to the Methodist ministry in the West was Littleton Fowler. He was the son of Godfrey and Clora Fowler, and was born September 12, 1802, in Smith County, Tennessee. In 1806 he emigrated to Cald- well County, Kentucky.* At a camp-meeting held at Bethlehem, in Caldwell County, in June, 1819, by the Cumberland Presbyterians, he was converted to God, and soon afterward joined the Methodist Episco- pal Church. The facilities for obtaining an education in the portion of Kentucky in which his father re- sided were by no means favorable. His opportunities for doing so were confined to the instructions he re- ceived from the itinerant schoolmaster, who taught for only short terms, according to the custom of the country. From early youth he manifested unusual integ- rity of character, was reliable in all his statements, and ready and willing to resent any insinuation de- rogatory to his honor or the correctness of his pur- pose. In his business plans he was persevering, attentive, and industrious. As he grew up he be- came impressed with the importance of cultivating and adopting a pleasing manner in his social inter- course, and availed himself of all the means in his power to effect it. In 1817 or 1818 he had a fall from his horse, sustaining an injury thereby from which he never fully recovered ; and from that time his health was •The General Minutes state that his father removed to Kentucky in 1811, but a letter to the author from the Hon. Judge Fowler, of Smithland, Ky., a brother of the Rev- L. Fowler, fixes the date at 1800. BISHOP KAYANAUGII. 117 imperfect, and he was very frequently subject to long and painful confinements. These afflictions were drawbacks on his labors and usefulness, and very de- pressing to his spirits.* " In stature he was a little more than six feet high, yet inclined to leanness. His forehead was high, expansive, and commanding. His eye dark, brilliant, and deeply set. The features of his face, though well defined, were regular." In 1820 he was licensed to exhort, and September 30th, in the same year, to preach the Gospel, and en- tered the Kentucky Conference the next month. In entering the ministry, Mr. Fowler was influ- enced only by the obligations that rested upon him and his love for the souls of men ; and during the twenty years he spent as an evangelist, none of his contemporaries labored more faithfully to promote the cause of the Redeemer than he. His first appoint- ment was to the Red River Circuit, as the colleague of Richard Corwine. Of a frail constitution, his health became so impaired by the labors of the year, that, at the conference of 1827, he was left "without an appointment in consequence of affliction." In 1828 we find him in charge of the Church in Bowl- ing Green, and in 1829 at Louisville, as the colleague of Hubbard H. Kavanaugh. We next meet him in the Cynthiana Station, and in 1831 at Maysvillc. In all these charges success crowned his labors. While in the Maysvillc Station his health became so much impaired that he was able to perform the duties of the pastorate for only a portion of the year ; but at the subsequent conference it so far improved that he Letter to the author from the Hun. Judge Fowler. 118 LIFE AND TIMES OF was transferred to the Tennessee Conference, and sta- tioned at Tnscumbia. At the conference of 1833 he was appointed the agent of La Grange College, which position he filled for four years. The republic of Texas had just come out of a fierce and bloody war. In her efforts to become an independent nation she had the sympathy of the peo- ple of the United States, and received timely assist- ance from many of her sons, who bore arms in her defense. The country, although comparatively a wil- derness, was receiving a large accession to its popula- tion from the United States. To the Church Texas opened up a field for usefulness vast in extent, with its fields already white unto harvest. In the early an- nals of Methodism in Texas, the name of Littleton Fowler will forever be conspicuous. On the 22d of August, 1837, he received the appointment as mis- sionary to Texas, and preached his first sermon in Nacogdoches on the 16th of October. He attended the next session of the Tennessee Conference, held at Huntsville, Alabama, and the same year returned to Texas as superintendent of the Texas Mission, which embraced the entire territory of the republic. In 1839 the work was divided into two districts, and he was placed in charge of the eastern division, called San Augustine District. At the organization of the Texas Conference in 1840, he was continued on the San Augustine District. In 1841, he was appointed agent for Rutersville College, and in 1842 he traveled the Lake Soda District, on which he was continued the following year. The Texas Conference for 1843 was held in December previous to the General Con- BISHOP KA VAX A UGH. 119 ference of 1S44, when the work in Texas was divided into two conferences, called Texas and East Texas Conferences. The East Texas Conference, of which Mr. Fowler was a member, convened on the 8th of January, 1845, at which time he was appointed to the Sabine District, on which he closed his labors. Even a cursory glance at the appointments he filled impresses us at once with the vastness of his labors. The districts he traveled spread over a territory more than equal in extent to that embraced in many of the annual conferences. His quarterly-meetings were often separated by a journey of several days, " which had to be traveled alone, without reference to weather or accommodation. " The ground was frequently the bed on which he slept, with no covering but the broad, blue sky. He often had to leave the trails, and con- ceal " himself behind some friendly covert, to elude the glance of the treacherous Indian." Texas society was then in its rude state, and to perform the duties of a missionary subjected the faithful preacher to pri- vations and want at every step. Littleton Fowler, however, had counted the cost before accepting this sacred trust; and in the prosecution of his duties no danger daunted him, no sacrifice turned him from the path of duty. How well he and his noble compeers accomplished their work the success that followed their ministry must decide. Mr. Fowler entered Texas in October, 1837, and died January 19, 1846. He had spent less than nine years in that field. The records of missionary labors scarcely present results equal to the spread of the Gospe] in Texas during these few years. At the conference succeeding his 120 LIFE AND TIMES OF death there were in Texas two annual conferences, with six districts, forty-three separate charges, fifty- nine effective and two superannuated preachers, sixty preachers in the local ranks, and a membership of five thousand four hundred and thirty-eight white, and eleven hundred and ninety-five colored. " The intellectual powers of Littleton Fowler were of a very high order. His views of every subject were liberal and comprehensive. Though his early educa- tion was defective, he compensated that by close and untiring application after he was admitted to the min- istry. During the whole of his life he was a student. He had an excellent memory, which retained with remarkable tenacity the knowledge of whatever he studied. . . . His style of speaking, both in the pulpit and in ordinary conversation, was rigidly cor- rect, so that I was surprised to learn from his own lips that he had never enjoyed the benefits of scholastic training, but that his attainments were almost entirely self-acquired. He reasoned accurately and logically, and seldom failed to convince his auditors of the truth of any position he assumed. He was always inclined to address the judgments of men first, and when they were convinced, or when he conceived that he had said enough to effect that object, he would follow with an appeal to their emotions and sympathies, which rarely failed of its effect. He was interesting as a speaker, because he always led his hearers to his con- clusions by the same process of reasoning which had brought his own mind to them. I have often heard him commence his sermon in the mildest manner. He would continue for some time as if in conversation BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 121 with his audience, or as if demonstrating a proposi- tion in mathematics; then warming with his subject, his fine eve would kindle with enthusiasm, his words would enchain every ear, and his sincerity would pen- etrate every heart. If to be able to instruct, to in- terest, to hold in breathless silence an assembly, be an orator y then he was an orator. The love of God, the love of man, the eternal happiness of heaven, were his favorite themes; and if you heard him discuss them when his mind and soul were fully aroused, you almost felt the arms of divine mercy encircling you ; you could forgive him whom you thought your direst enemy; you could see the benignant faces of saints and angels round 'the throne of Him that liveth for- ever and ever.' He seldom spoke of the threatenings of God ; but when he did, the sinner who heard him was awe-stricken and overpowered with a sense of his own un worthiness; and he who could not be 'persuaded to do the will of God by his love and promises, was terrified into submission by fear of his righteous judg- ments. . . . "On the 21st of June, 1839, not long after his arrival in Texas, Mr. Fowler was married to Mrs. Missouri M. Porter, then of Nacogdoches, a lady whose mind, disposition, and accomplishments ren- dered her fully worthy of his love and confidence. She made him ever a faithful, affectionate, and de- voted wife. After his marriage he settled in Sabine County, where he established a home which was his while he lived, and is that of his family still. As the head of his family, he was distinguished for that hos- pitality, generosity, courtesy, and open-hearted de- ll ' 122 LIFE AND TIMES OF meanor which everywhere and always characterize alike the gentleman and the Christian. . . . "His last sermon was preached in the village of Douglass, in Xacogdoches County, from Rom. i, 16: 1 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.' It is said to have been equal to any of his best efforts. He died on the 19th of January, 1846. He was taken sick early in that month and declined rapidly. From the commencement of his illness he seemed impressed with the belief that he should not recover. I visited him several times and found him always patient under his sufferings and submissive to the will of God. He seemed to have no regret at dying, except the thought of leaving his family. He would frequently allude to his two small children, the older then being but six years of age, in the most touching manner, but would invariably recall himself to his Christian frame of mind by saying, ( God will take care of them. He has promised to be a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless.' There never was any per- manent improvement in his condition from the first moment of his attack. The ablest physicians of the country endeavored to arrest his disease, but without effect. Death had marked him for his own, and of this he constantly and confidently assured his friends. He was triumphant in death." The conference of 1830, held in Russellville, was a pleasant one to Mr. Kavanaugh. It afforded him the opportunity of visiting a people with whom he "had taken sweet counsel," and to whom he had broken the bread of life. It is true that only one year had elapsed since he had left that delightful BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 123 charge, but the privilege of mingling once more in the home circle of a people he loved so well must be enjoyed to be appreciated. From this conference he was sent to Danville and Harrodsburg. These towns were ton miles apart, and were located not only in a beautiful section of the State, but in that portion that was settled at an early date. The first Methodist society in the district of Ken- tucky was organized in 1783 by Francis Clarke, a local preacher, who emigrated from Virginia to Ken- tucky that year. He settled in Mercer County and organized a class about six miles west from the town of Danville. The Danville Circuit appears in the Minutes as early as 1788, yet many years elapsed after this period before Methodism was established in that beautiful and prosperous village, or even before a society was formed. In 1813 there was a Methodist family in Danville by the name of Walker. They were deeply pious, and the only representatives of Methodism in that place. The village had been visited by Methodist preachers at an early day, but no society was organ- ized until 1823, when a small class was formed by Henry McDaniel. From this period until the conference of 1825 the court-house was occupied by the Methodists as a place of worship, and here a congregation of about seven persons waited upon the ministry of the preacher. At the conference of 1825, Lewis Parker and Evan Stevenson were appointed to the Danville Cir- cuit. Mr. Parker was one of the ablest members of 124 LIFE AND TIMES OF the conference, while Mr. Stevenson was a youth of more than ordinary promise, and distinguished for his energy and zeal. Under the warm and earnest preaching of these devoted men the community were so fully awakened that the court-house became too small to contain the congregations, and they had to repair to the market-house. Notwithstanding the deep impressions made by the ministry of Parker and Stevenson, under their labors there was no material increase in the membership of the Church. Many persons, however, had been awakened, and many hearts had been divinely impressed. Parker and Stevenson were followed by William Holman and Henry S. Duke, who entered upon their work with spirit and energy. The class was small, consisting of Mrs. Fleece — who was the first to join it — Mrs. Crutchfield, Miss Crutchfield, Miss Wheeler, and two colored members, Rachel Mcllvoy and Sarah Carter. The impressions that had been made on the popu- lar mind had not passed away when Holman and Duke appeared in Danville. Very soon, under their ministry, many souls were converted to God, and a number of persons connected with the best families became members of the Methodist Church. At no place in Kentucky have stronger prejudices existed against Methodism than in Danville. As the Methodist Church has predominated in many portions of the State, so has the Presbyterian Church, from the commencement of the present century, been stronger in Danville than any other. The Central College, chartered in 1819, is located there, and is under the BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 125 'patronage of that denomination. However gratifying it may have been to the members of the Presbyterian Church to witness the displays of Divine power under the ministry of Holman and Duke, yet that persons who might desire to enter the Methodist communion should meet with opposition from their friends ex- cites no surprise. From this period the Methodist Church has occu- pied an elevated position in this place, numbering among its members some of the most influential fam- ilies in the State. At the conference of 1827 William Holman was appointed to Danville and Harrodsburg, a station just formed. The success that had attended his ministry in Danville the previous year had so strengthened the Church at that place as to require almost entirely the services of a preacher ; and the popularity and influ- ence of Mr. Holman in that community rendered his reappointment an imperative necessity. At Harrods- burg we had no Church organization, nor had Chris- tianity, under any other denominational influences, made much impression on the people. The ministry of Mr. Holman in Harrodsburg, dur- ing the Autumn and 'Winter, was highly acceptable to the people, but no society was formed until the Spring of 1828, when Christopher Chinn, Sarah W. S. Chinn, John L. Smedlcy, Nancy Brown, Elias Passmore, Eliza- beth Passmore, and Margaret Tadlock joined the Church, and constituted the first class. At the time when Mr. Kavanaugh was appointed to this charge there was a membership of two hun- dred and twenty-eight white, and seventy colored, but 126 LIFE AND TIMES OF whether the larger membership was in Danville or Harrodsburg we have no means of ascertaining. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that the Church in Danville was the stronger, as it was planted earlier on that soil than at Harrodsburg. If the success that had attended his ministry in other fields was not seen in the results of his labors here, yet under his pastoral care the Church was greatly blessed and prospered. The revival that had occurred under the faithful work of Mr. Holman left to his successor the watch-care and nursing of the young members, and for this department of a preach- er's work Mr. Kavanaugh was well adapted, and to this task he addressed himself with assiduity and zeal. The surrounding country, too, was favored with his preaching. He visited the neighboring towns and country places, and assisted the preachers in their work, revivals crowning his labors. Although only eight years had elapsed since he entered the confer- ence he now stood on a commanding eminence. His progress had been rapid, and his ministry sought by the most popular towns in the State. He worked by the side of the most distinguished preachers in the conference as their peer, while his pulpit labors were characterized with a zeal that was scarcely equaled by his co-laborers, and certainly not excelled. BISHOP KAVANAUG1L 127 CHAPTER V. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1831 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1835. WE alluded in the previous chapter to the high rank that Mr. Kavanaugh had taken as a preacher. His subjects were always well chosen, and his ser- mons the result of intense thought and close study. It was not so much the text that he mastered as the doctrines it contained, and yet he never traveled out- side the Scripture which he announced as the found- ation of his thoughts. The great cardinal truths of Christianity were perfectly familiar to him, and he never failed to pursue such as the text suggested with signal ability. The doctrines of the fall of man and the depravity consequent upon it, not as taught by some modern theologians, but as set forth in the Bible — the atonement, justification by faith, the wit- ness of the Spirit, and Christian perfection — were prominent in his sermons, while he often dwelt on the loss of the soul and the reward of the blessed. We have seen him ofttimes in the deepest study, seemingly oblivious to every thing around him, pre- vious to entering the pulpit, but never saw him write a line preparatory to the task before him ; and never, upon any occasion, have we heard him preach with either manuscript or note in sight. He seemed to 128 LIFE AND TIMES OF trust to his familiarity with the questions to be dis- cussed and to the inspiration the occasion might impart. In presenting the doctrines of Christianity, as taught by Mr. Wesley, he had scarcely an equal anywhere, and in defending them no one surpassed him. He but seldom in the pulpit confined himself within the limits of an hour, and often preached nearly twice that time. His language was well chosen, always chaste, sometimes beautiful. Com- mencing at the mountain's base, he would linger for a while amid the lowlands, and then begin the ascent, pausing along its rock-ribbed sides, and then climb- ing to its loftiest heights, he would for a moment rest his wing and then soar upwards until he seemed to push ajar the gates of heaven. He would look upon the fadeless glories and glittering splendors of the beautiful city, and then return to tell of its songs of triumph, of its shouts of praise, and of the millions who walk over its burnished plains. With a match- less voice, his enunciation clear and distinct, he but seldom failed to carry his audience with him to the transcendent heights where he loved to linger. In 1831 he was stationed in Bardstown and Springfield, where he had preached in 1825 and 1826, at which time they were included in the Salt River Circuit. The society in Bardstown, as we have already seen, was organized by him. During the four years he had been absent the Church had acquired but little additional numerical strength. There was a member- ship of only twenty-five white and thirty-five colored members. At Springfield the outlook was no more BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 129 favorable, the membership* not being equal to that in Bardstown. The overshadowing influence of Romanism in both these communities was well calculated to impair the energy and to dampen the zeal of a preacher less ear- nest in his work than he who had been chosen to the task of establishing the truth in these fortresses of error. His ministry among the people, while travel- ing the Salt River Circuit, had greatly endeared him to them, and hence he entered upon the discharge of his duties under favorable circumstances. During the period of his absence his improvement in the pulpit was very apparent. Instead of the timid youth, they beheld the firm, yet modest, man grappling with the most difficult theological questions, and showing him- self the master of every situation. Roman Catholi- cism, bold and defiant, the growth of centuries, pro- tected by her institutions of learning and her crafty priesthood, failing to daunt his noble spirit, felt the shock of his strong arm. Studying the birth and growth of that system of error, he unmasked it and held it up in all its hideousness, both in Bardstown and Springfield, excusing nothing, showing the enor- mities that had followed in its path, until he checked it in its j)rogress ; and, although feeling the stunning blows he wielded, such was the suavity of his manners that even the priests respected the hand that dealt them. At the session ot the conference he had been elected as a representative of that body to the Gen- eral Conference, a distinction but seldom conferred on so young a man. The General Conference was held 130 LIFE AND TIMES OF in Philadelphia, commencing May 1st. His duties as a delegate to that body encroached somewhat upon his work as a pastor, as it rendered necessary an ab- sence of several weeks. His colleagues in the dele- gation from Kentucky were Peter Akers, Martin Ruter, Jonathan Stamper, Benjamin T. Crouch, "Will- iam Adams, Marcus Lindsey, G. W. Taylor, Richard Ty dings, Henry B. Bascom, Joseph S. Tomlinson, John Tevis, George McNelly. No question was brought before the body to call out the commanding powers of Mr. Kavanaugh on the floor of the conference, but in the pulpit he shone with resplendent luster. Before 'leaving for the General Conference, he held a meeting in Bardstown, which considerably increased the membership of the Church. Immedi- ately after his return he commenced a meeting in Springfield, which was protracted through several weeks, resulting in many conversions and additions to the Church. At both these meetings he had the assistance of his intimate friend, Marcus Lindsey. From Bardstown we go with him to Frankfort, the capital of the State. The Church in that city was organized by Richard Corwine, in 1822, and was included for several years in the Shelby Circuit. In 182G it was detached from that charge and associated with the village of Newcastle, and served by Benja- min T. Crouch. Since 1827 it had been a separate charge, Avhile the preachers who had occupied the pulpit were among the most gifted in the conference — Stevenson, Light, Dyche, Crouch, and Duke had suc- cessively served that Church. BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 131 Frankfort offered a favorable opportunity for be- coming better known throughout the commonwealth than Mr. Kavanaugh had previously enjoyed. The meeting of the State Legislature brought to the city not only the members of that body, but politicians and distinguished gentlemen from every portion of Kentucky usually came to Frankfort during the ses- sion. In attending public worship they generally sought the Church where the pulpit was filled by the ablest preacher. The Methodist Church, of course, was the center of attraction. The witchery of his elo- quence, the charms of his oratory, the grand truths he presented, and the zeal with which he pleaded with men to be saved, Avon the hearts of the people. Crowded audiences waited upon his ministry, while many caught the words of life from his lips. No previous year had the Church enjoyed such prosper- ity, nor had Methodism attained to a position so commanding. Kentucky Conference this year sustained a heavy loss in the death of Barnabas McHenry, and of Mar- cus Lindsey. Barnabas McHenry, the son of John McHenry, was born December 6, 1767, in the State of North Carolina.* When Barnabas was about eight years of age his father removed to Washington County, Vir- ginia. He made a profession of religion when only * Dr. Abel Stevens says, in the third volume of his " History of the Methodist Episcopal Church " (p. 293), that Barnabas Mc- Henry " was horn December 10, 1767, in Eastern Virginia." The time and place above given of his birth is on the authority of a letter to the author from his grandson, Hon. John H. McHenry, of Owensboro, Kentucky, who copied for us. 132 LIFE AND TIMES OF fifteen years old and joined the Methodist Church, and in the twentieth year of his age entered on his itin- erant career. His first appointment was to the Yadkin Circuit, in North Carolina. He spent the subsequent year in Kentucky, probably in the Lexington Circuit, to which Peter Massie had been appointed, though his name appears in connection with the Cumberland. In a letter to one of the pioneer preachers, Mr. McHenry says : " Soon after I reached the Kentucky settlement — which was on the 11th of June, 1788 — Brother Haw formed the design of placing me on Cum- berland Circuit, to which he then intended to accom- pany me, and make a short stay; but, before he had executed his purpose, he was superseded by Brother Poythress. The consequence was that brothers Haw and Massie went to Cumberland, and I continued in Kentucky that year, according to the original inten- tion of that appointment. Brother Haw, it would seem, communicated his arrangements previous to the printing of the Minutes, which occasioned my name to be inserted as appointed to the Cumberland Circuit." The next year (1789) he was appointed to Danville Circuit, with Peter Massie for his colleague. The personal appearance of Mr. McHenry was com- manding, his manners attractive, his intellect of the highest order, and his voice strong and well-trained. Soundly'converted in early life, he consecrated him- self to the work of the ministry. Regarding Method- ism as the best exponent of Christianity, he devoted his noble life to the vindication of its heavenly truths. With Kentucky Methodism he was destined to become intimately identified, and in the formation of its char- BISHOP KAVANAUGII. 133 actor to take a conspicuous part. By the probity of his life, his sterling integrity, his invincible purpose to make every thing subservient to his religious obli- gations, as well as by the power he displayed in the pulpit, he wielded an influence for the cause of truth that is now deeply engraven in the hearts of the Church, though he has passed away. His contemporaries speak of him in terms of highest praise. Rev. Jacob Young, in his "Autobiography," in speaking of meeting, on one occasion, with several Kentucky gentlemen of dis- tinction, says : " The most distinguished man I met was Barnabas McHenry. I may truly say he was a man by himself." Rev. Lewis Garrett,* referring to his death, says : " In him the Church lost a tried and able minister, and the cause of Christianity an efficient and firm advocate;" and, in later years, Dr. Bascom,f who never bestowed undue praise on either the living or the dead, said : " His preaching was mainly expos- itory and didactic. The whole style of his preaching denoted the confidence of history and experience. All seemed to be real and personal to him. The perfect simplicity, and yet clear, discriminating accuracy of his manner and language, made the impression that he was speaking only of what he knew to be true. He spoke of every thing as of a natural scene before him. There was an intensity of conception, a sustained sen- timent of personal interest, which gave one a feeling of wonder and awe in listening to him. You could not doubt his right to guide and teach. One felt how safe and proper it was to follow such leading. His * " Biographical Sketches," p. 30- T Quarterly Review, vol. iii, pp. 421, 422. 134 LIFE AND TIMES OF style was exceedingly rich, without being showy. There was no effervescence. It was not the garden and land- scape in bloom, but in early bud, giving quiet but sure indication of fruit and foliage. His language was al- ways accurate, well chosen, strong, and clear. All his sermons, as delivered, were in this respect fit for the press — not only remarkably free from error on the score of thought, but from defect and fault of style and language. His whole manner, too, was natural, dignified, and becoming. Good taste and sound judg- ment were his main mental characteristics. Of im- agination proper he had but little, and still less of fancy. Reason, fitness, and beauty were the percep- tions by which he was influenced. The intrinsic value of things alone attracted him. The outward show of things made little or no impression upon him under any circumstances. The inner man — the hidden things of the heart — controlled him in all his judgments and preferences." Although the General Minutes announce the ap- pointment of the Rev. Barnabas McHenry to the Cum- berland Circuit in 1788, he did not take charge of this work until 1791. This year he leaves Kentucky, to cultivate " ImmanueFs lands " elsewhere. During the three years of his absence from Ken- tucky his labors were abundant. The first was spent on the Cumberland Circuit; the second as presiding elder over the Holston, Green, Xew River, and Rus- sell Circuits, spreading over a vast extent of territory in Virginia and Tennessee ; the third as the presiding elder over the Bedford, Botetourt, Greenbrier, and Cow Pasture Circuits, in Western Virginia. In 1794 BISHOP KAVANAUGB. 135 he returns to Kentucky, and is appointed to the Salt River Circuit — the most laborious in the conference. During this year he was married to Miss Sarah Har- din, daughter of Colonel John Hardin j and, at the close of the year, located, and, in that sphere, for many years rendered valuable service to the Church. In 1819 he was readmitted into the traveling con- nection, but after two years in the effective ranks he was placed on the list of superannuated preachers, where he remained until called to his reward. Among the noble men w r ho battled for the cause of God in the West, no one had borne himself more gallantly than did Barnabas McHenry. Panoplied with the truth as it is in Jesus, familiar with the doc- trines of which he was a fearless and able advocate, his sword gleamed in the sunlight on almost every hill-top and in every valley in Central Kentucky. The days of his active service, however, had been numbered; yet, unwilling to repose amid the trophies he had won, or the laurels he had gathered on so many hard -fought fields, we find him contributing his re- maining energies to the advancement and progress of the cause which had been the cherished object of his life. His conduct was a comment on the religion he professed. He enjoyed the blessing of sanctification, and died of cholera, in triumph, on the 16th of June, 1833. Among the names that were prominent in the Methodist ministry in Kentucky whom we can first remember, that of Marcus Lindsey ranked high. He was born in Ireland, December 26, 1787, but came to America with his parents when about ten years of 136 LIFE AND TIMES OF age.* His father settled in Kentucky, on Licking River, near Leach's Station, where he remained until the Indians disappeared from the State, when he re- moved to a farm on the road from Newport to Fal- mouth, about seven miles from the former place. The mother of Marcus Lindsey was a member of the Bap- tist Church, and was endowed w T ith a superior intel- lect; her mind was richly stored with knowledge, and she was distinguished for her enlarged and liberal views in reference to other Christian communions. Favored with educational facilities enjoyed by but few young men of his day, and blessed with a great mind, it had been his own purpose — added to the wishes of his family — to prepare for the bar. His legal attainments were sufficient for him to have en- tered upon the practice of law, with nattering pros- pects of success before him. About the time he had completed his studies he was awakened, under the Methodist ministry, to a sense of his condition as a sinner, and sought and obtained mercy. He soon became impressed that the path of duty invited him 'to a higher and nobler work — the preaching of the Gospel. Brought up in the lap of plenty, he entered the conference when he knew that sacrifices and suf- fering would confront him at every step. Listening only to the voice of duty, he faltered not. On one hand, there w r ere spread out before him the evergreen fields of wealth, of honor, of ease ; on the other, a life of toil, of privation, of want, presented itself to his view; but "he conferred not with flesh and blood," * Letter to the author from Hon. T. W. Lindsey, of Frank- fort, Ky. BISHOP KAVANAVCII. 137 but "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, bccau.se he had respect to the recompense of the reward." At the conference of 1810 he became an itinerant and was appointed to the Hartford Circuit, with the sweet-spirited Blackmail for his presiding elder. In 1811 he was sent to preach the Gospel of Christ to the hardy settlers along the waters of Sandy River. In 1812 he was appointed to the Little Sandy, when he formed that circuit. The hardships endured by the missionary in that mountain region, seventy years ago, can scarcely now be conceived of by us. Mr. Lindsey murmured not. If he swam the swollen streams, amid the piercing winds of Winter, or slept on the snow-carpeted earth — as he often did — he uttered no complaint. He had put his hand to the plow and dared not look back. A dispensation of the Gospel had been committed to him, and whether his mission led him to the homes of want or the mansions of wealth, he faithfully discharged his duty. At the conference of 1813 he was appointed to the Union Circuit, in the State of Ohio, and the following year to the Marietta, where he remained for two years. In these fields of labor his ministry was greatly blessed; hundreds were added to the Church. Among the many brought to Christ through his instrumental- ity, while traveling the Marietta Circuit, was John Stewart, a colored man, "who went out as the first missionary among the Wyandotte Indians. Stewart had been a very dissipated man, and, in one of his drunken fits of delirium tremens, he had started to the Ohio River to drown himself. On his way he had 12 138 LIFE AND TIMES OF to pass by the place where Lindsey was holding meet- ing. Being attracted by the sound — for Methodist preachers generally cry aloud and spare not — he drew up and stood by the door, where he could distinctly hear all that was said. The preacher was describing the lost sinner's condition, his exposedness to death and hell; and then he presented the offers of mercy, showing that Jesus died for all, and the worst of sin- ners might repent and find pardon. It was a message of mercy to that poor, forlorn, and ruined soul. It turned his feet from the way of death to the path of life. He returned to his place, and falling upon his knees he cried for mercy. God heard the poor Ethi- opian's prayer. While piteously he pleaded for mercy, salvation came to his heart. At the next meeting he was found at the church, sitting in the back corner, but clothed, and in his right mind. When the invi- tation was given to persons to join the Church he went forward, and the preacher received him, and in- structed him more perfectly in the way of the Lord. He had received some education and was enabled to read and write. Like most of his brethren of the African race, he was an admirable singer, possessing a voice of unusual sweetness and power, and he took great delight in singing the hymns and spiritual songs of the Church. Some time after his conversion he became greatly exercised on the subject of preaching. So intense and all-absorbing became his thoughts on the subject, that he could neither cat nor sleep. He was continually engaged in reading the Bible and in prayer for weeks. His long fasting and almost cease- less vigils were broken by a vision which he told us BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 139 came to him one night. Whether awake or asleep he could not say, but in the transition he heard a voice distinctly saying, ' You must go in a north-westerly direction, to the Indian Nation, and tell the savage tribes of Christ, your Savior/ He had this vision for three successive nights. "It is said that dreams indicate the mind's anxi- eties, and it is highly probable that the things which engross the mind by day continue to occupy it by night — at least so far as to give a bent and coloring to the thoughts when the outward senses are locked up in sleep. This being the case, then, from the fact that Stewart was greatly exercised on the subject of preaching, we may be led to infer that his vision or dream was but a part of his call to preach the Gospel. The only thing wonderful and extraordinary in the dream, is the specific nature of the call, designating, as Paul's vision of the man of Macedonia, the very place to which he should go. Now that revelation is exhausted, and the Bible is to be regarded as a finality on all subjects pertaining to belief and duty, we have; but little faith in dreams or i spiritual communications ' so-called, as constituting any part of the rule of faith or practice. The sure ' word of prophecy / which God has given us, will, if understood and followed, guide us into all the ways of truth and righteousness. "Stewart was poor and destitute of friends, with the exception of the Methodists, who received and treated him as a brother; but, even among his breth- ren, who could he get, by any possibility, to believe that he was called to go on a mission to preach (he Gospel to the Indians? Firmly impressed, however, 140 LIFE AND TIMES OF with the belief that the dispensation of the Gospel had been committed to him, he made all the prepara- tion his circumstances would allow, and, with his Bible and hymn-book, started out, not knowing whither he Avas going, save that the vision directed him to the north-west. Abraham, when called from Ur of the Chaldees, had, doubtless, much greater faith when he entered upon his journey than this sable son of Ham, but there was not less uncertainty in regard to the unknown destination. Stewart con- tinued his travels ; and hearing of the Delaware In- dians on the Muskingum, he directed his course thitherward. When he arrived among them, he com- menced singing and praying, and exhorting, but it was in an unknown tongue. The peaceful Indians gazed upon the dark stranger with silent wonder, but were not moved by his tears and entreaties. Being impressed that this was not the tribe to which he was called, he hurried on. After a fatiguing journey, he arrived at Pipetown, on the Sandusky River, where he found a large concourse of Indians engaged in feasting and dancing. They were in the very midst of their wildest mirth and revelry when he appeared among them. Being a dark mulatto, he attracted their attention, and they gathered around him, and asked him to drink of their fire-water; but he too well knew the fatal effects of the deadly draught to allow it to pass his lips. At this refusal the Indians became angry, and were beginning to manifest signs of hostility ; but he commenced, in a clear, melodious voice, singing one of the songs of Zion. Its strains rose above the din and uproar of the multitude. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 141 They were strangely enchanting, and, like the voice of Jesus on stormy Galilee, they calmed the tumult of passion which threatened his destruction. The war-dance and song ceased ; the multitude gathered around him, and hung upon his lips in breathless silence, as if enchanted by the sound. When he ceased, he fell upon his knees, and poured out his heart to God in prayer for their salvation. There stood by him an old chief who understood his lan- guage, and, as word after word escaped his lips, he interpreted it to the listening hundreds. When his prayer was ended, he arose and exhorted them to turn away from their drunken revelry and Indian cere- monies, to the worship of the true and living God, assuring them that if they continued in this course they would be forever lost. As the earnest entreaties of the colored preacher were communicated by the old chief, many were deeply impressed with the truths which he uttered, and the work of God might have then and there at once commenced, but for the inter- ference of Captain Pipe, the head chief, who became violently enraged, and, brandishing his tomahawk, swore if he did not cease he would kill him on the spot. John ceased his exhortation, and turned with a sorrowful heart away. Being ordered to leave im- mediately, on pain of death, he again started out upon his journey, and, guided by an invisible hand, he went to Upper Sandusky. Here he found another band of Indians, and among them a black man named Jonathan Painter, who had been taken prisoner by them at the mouth of the Big Kanawha, in Virginia, when a boy. Ik- was a good interpreter. With this 142 LIFE AND TIMES OF man he .soon became intimate, and procuring his serv- ices, he went with him to attend a great Indian festi- val. When he arrived, he begged permission to speak to the assembled multitude, but they paid little atten- tion to his request. He still pleaded for the privi- lege, for his heart burned to tell the wandering sav- age of Jesus and his love. After' much entreaty, through his interpreter, they agreed to let him speak to them the next day. The time and place of meet- ing were fixed, and when Stewart, with his interpre- ter, appeared, how was his heart chilled and discour- aged only to find one old Indian, by the name of Big Tree, and an old Indian woman, called Mary ! To these, however, he preached Christ and the resurrec- tion. God attended his word ; and though small and feeble was the beginning, yet the labors of Stewart were blessed. He continued to hold forth, as oppor- tunity favored, the word of life to the Wyandottes, and as the product of so feeble an instrumentality, the mission to the Wyandottes was established by the Church." * After an absence of three years, Mr. Lindsey re- turned to Kentucky, and was elevated to the respon- sible position of presiding elder, in which he remained until the last year of his life. He spent, at different times, five years on the Salt River District, three years on the Green River, four years on the Ken- tucky, one on the Ohio, and three on the Cumber- land District. Possessed of indomitable energy and untiring zeal, his mission divine, and his heart and herculean fac- tFinley's "Sketches," pp. 388-392. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 143 ulties consecrated to the service of God, his entrance upon the work of the ministry was welcomed by the Church, and his career was destined to be brilliant. Early morn found him in his study investigating the great truths of the Gospel, and in a few years he be- came eminent among his brethren. His person com- manding, his manners prepossessing, his voice strong, full, and musical, and familiar with all the doctrines of the Word of God, he wielded a mighty influence for good wherever he went, and he went almost everywhere throughout Kentucky. The labors of his noble life were spent principally on large and ex- tensive districts, for which he was well qualified. Thoroughly acquainted with the government of the Church, an executive officer of high rank, with pulpit abilities scarcely equaled — with a zeal that was almost boundless, a fine singer, powerful in exhortation and prayer, and devoted to the exercises of the altar, his quarterlv meetings were at once invested with the highest importance. Mr* Lindsey was styled a doctrinal preacher. No man was more familiar with the doctrines of the Church than he, and all who knew him ranked him among the ablest polemics of the day. In contro- versy, he indulged not in those asperities which so often dishonor the pulpit when opposing the views of others; but, "with thoughts that breathe and words that burn," the weapons of truth wielded by him " were mighty in pulling down the strongholds of error." The errors of Calvinism, as well as the exclusive views held by the immersionists in regard to the 144 LIFE AXD TIMES OF subjects, the mode, and the design of baptism, dis- turbed the quiet of the Church in Mr. Lindsey's day; but before the potent weapons of truth, as wielded by him, they melted away as melts the snow before the rising sun. He laid his premises, marshaled his proofs, and drew his conclusions, and the sea of con- troversy was calm. He was also an excellent practi- cal preacher; in fact, he excelled in every department of ministerial work. Beneath the rich and pathetic appeals that fell from his lips sinaers saw "the ex- ceeding sinfulness of sin," and turned to God. In the Autumn of 1832 he was appointed to the Shelby ville* and Brick Chapel Station. The appear- ance of the Asiatic cholera in the Old World awakened fearful apprehensions in the minds of many in this country; and as its march shortened the distance be- tween it and the United States, the stories of its fearful ravages blanched many a countenance with terror. From the time that Mr. Lindsey first heard of this fearful scourge, he entertained the thought that he would be numbered among its victims. In September of 1832 it made its appearance in the city of Louisville. At the conference held in Harrods- burg, in October, 1832, the presiding bishop proposed to appoint him to Louisville. The long and valuable *It was during his pastoral oversight of the Church in that lovely village that I first made his acquaintance. I was then a child. During a protracted illness of my father his visits were frequent to our house. His pious counsels, and earnest prayers in behalf of my father, not then converted, as well as the kind admonitions he gave to me, greatly endeared him to our family, and made a lasting impression on my young heart. — Author. BISHOP KA YANA UGH 145 services of Mr. Lindsey to the Church made it proper that he should be consulted in reference to his ap- pointment. Willing as he had always been to accept any position assigned him, while he offered no serious resistance to the appointment that had been suggested, he expressed a preference for Shelbyville, and offered as the reason that he had strange apprehensions in reference to the cholera, and that Shelbyville had not been and would not probably be visited by it. He entered upon his work at Shelbyville with a zeal seldom equaled, and never surpassed. Immense crowds flocked to his ministry, and received the Gos- pel from his lips. If he vindicated the doctrines of Christianity, error paled and trembled before the power of truth ; if infidelity met his withering glance, it stood speechless, and offered no resistance; if he made his appeals to the ungodly, and told them of their doom, Sinai trembled to its base, while we al- most heard the thunder of Jehovah's anger, or saw the lightning's vivid flash, and the home of the lost. If he dwelt on the rewards of the blessed, the crown of immortality appeared in view. In his pastoral labors he visited the homes of wealth, and sought out the places of poverty, affliction, and sorrow; while he did not neglect the rich, yet among the poor of his charge he was constantly found, ministering to their comfort, kneeling around their humble altars, and offering to them the sweet consolations of the cross. The whole community admired, honored, loved Mar- cus Lindsey. The family of Mr. Lindsey did not remove with him to Shelbyville, but remained on his farm in Wash- 13 146 LIFE AND TIMES OF ington County, about fifty miles from his charge. The Summer of 1833 will long be remembered in Ken- tucky. The fearful cholera had come, "and the angel of death had spread his wings on the blast," and from city, village, and hamlet went up the melancholy wail of sorrow ; many hearts were burdened, and many tears bedewed the cheeks of Aveeping ones bereft of those they loved. The impression that he would fall by the scourge was so fastened upon his mind that nothing could efface it. In the month of February, before his death, he wrote on one of the inside doors of his family room, in a bold, strong hand, which can yet be read, " I shall die with cholera in the Summer or Fall of 1833," and then signed his name.* Although more than fifty years have elapsed, we remember his last sermon to the Church in Shelby- ville. The cholera had reached the neighborhood in which his family resided — his neighbors were dying, and he could not stay away. The parting scene was a sad one. " Duty and affection call me to my home," said he. " My neighbors are dying, with none to of- fer them the consolations of religion, or to speak words of comfort to the bereaved and sorrowing. I may see you no more, and think I will not; but I commend you to God, and bid you farewell." His words were few — the entire audience was in tears. On his arrival at home all he had heard was fully realized ; the scourge was passing through the neigh- borhood, and the rude foot-prints of death were to be seen all around — and yet there was no abatement. * Letter to the author from Mr. Lindsey's daughter, Mrs. Catherine H. Wilson, of Lebanon, Ky. BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 147 If Mr. Lindscy, in view of his presentiments, had been cautious when clanger was afar off, now it Mas at hand he threw off all reserve, and met each oft- recurring peril with a calm and fearless intrepidity. As an angel of mercy, he passed through the com- munity by day and by night, visiting the sick, pray- ing with the dying, and pointing their fading eyes to the "land afar off." Many families mourned their loved and lost. His family, too, put on their deepest weeds of mourning. The strong arm on which they had leaned was palsied in death. Marcus Lindsey was no more ! Worn down by his unremitting attentions to others, he lived but a short time after lie was attacked by cholera; but those few hours were crowded with joy and triumph to the dying saint. Looking upon the little group around him, he turned to his weeping wife, and said : " I had hoped to live to help you with these little ones, but God has called me home." To a little daughter he said, "My child, meet me in heaven." These were his last words. He is buried in a beautiful grove near Thomas's Meeting-house, where his family worshiped at the time, about six miles from Lebanon. On the stone at the head of his grave is the following inscription : TO THE JIKMORY OF THE REV. MARCUS LIXDSEY, MINISTER OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. HE FILMED THAT OFFICK TWENTY-THREE YEARS WITH DIGNITY. HE DIED A MOST TRIUMPHANT DEATH JULY 27, 1833, AGED 45 YEARS, 7 MONTHS, 1 DAY. 148 LIFE AND TIMES OF On the first day of the following September a ser- mon was preached on the occasion of his death in Shelbyville to a large audience by his intimate friend and fellow-laborer, the Rev. Jonathan Stamper. The loss of Mr. Lindsey was deeply felt by the Church in Kentucky; for a great man had fallen in Israel, in the prime of his life, and in the midst of his usefulness. He " was deformed in both hands from his birth. His right arm and thumb were perfect, the hand small, but well shaped, with only two fing- ers, one large, the other small, grown together and bent from the knuckles; his left arm was deformed from the elbow; it was flat, and two or three inches shorter than the other. His left hand was rather smaller than the right, with only a thumb and one finger, both exactly alike; they were about two and a half inches long, and bent at the knuckles without nails."* His personal appearance was commanding ; in height fully six feet, of herculean frame, and weigh- ing over two hundred pounds. His hair was black, his complexion dark, with a high forehead and brill- iant black eyes. His nose was large and his mouth delicately formed. He was a member of every Gen- eral Conference from the time of his eligibility until his death. Another name, that of Peter Akers, between whom and Mr. Kavanaugh the most intimate relations ex- isted, properly belongs to this chapter, as his labors as a preacher in Kentucky close with the conference of 1832. * Letter to the author from his daughter, Mrs. Catherine H. Wilson. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 149 Previous to his conversion he bad studied law. and entering upon the practice of his profession he promised to attain to great eminence at the bar. He had located, as a lawyer, in FlemingsbuTg, Kentucky. Shortly afterward, on the 12th of March 1818, he was married to Miss Eliza S. Faris, a young lady of fine intelligence and of excellent family, but averse to religion. While attending court in Pres- tonsburg a quarterly meeting was held in the court house, where considerable interest was manifested upon the subject of religion. Among the lawyers who were present was a Mr. Bright, who had once been a preacher or exhorter in the Baptist Church. At the close of the meeting, on Sunday at noon, he proposed, jocularly, to Mr. Akers, that they should protract it, and have service that evening, and that Mr. Akers should preach, and he, Bright, should exhort. The challenge was accepted, but the exhorter becoming alarmed mounted his horse in the afternoon and left the village, while Akers, holding his ground, assured any who inquired that he would meet his engagement. The court house was crowded at an early hour, and the greatest excitement prevailed. It was well known that the gifted young lawyer had made no pretensions to religion, and it was difficult to believe that he would venture an attempt to preach the' Gospel. Entering the room he walked with steady step to the stand, on which lay a hymn book and Bible. He read a hymn, and after singing prayed most fervently, and then announced his text, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the 150 LIFE AND TIMES OF sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars."* For fifteen minutes he discussed the text with marked ingenuity and great composure, and then suddenly pausing, his face suffused with tears, said : " I am a sinner and need a Savior. If there be any person present who has any influence at the throne of grace I want them in their prayers to remember poor Peter Akers." At a later period, while attending the Floyd Cir- cuit Court, he was present at a camp-meeting, and a report — though incorrect — had preceded him to Flem- ingsburg, that he had professed religion. Mrs. Akers had cherished the hope that, in the practice of his profession, her husband would soon become " rich and independent;" and apprehending that if he obtained religion and became a member of the Church, the path of duty might lead him into a calling less lucra- tive, she derived no satisfaction from the intelligence she had received. Her mind, however, soon under- went a change on this subject, and she became solicit- ous, not only for her own salvation, but also for that of her husband. From the time she became serious on the subject of religion she not only sought her own pardon, but endeavored to impress upon his mind "the propriety of their both returning to God." On the 22d of May, 1821, she departed this life. Her death was full of triumph. She died of consumption. Her affliction had been long and severe, but no mur- mur escaped her. She had sought religion with ear- nestness, and obtained its sweet consolations. "I know * Revelation xii, 1. BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 151 I must soon die, but I am not now afraid of death; Jesus has washed away all my sins; I am going home to Jesus." To her father, " I want you to meet me in heaven." These were among the expressions she uttered. AVhen her strength was gone, "and death was fast sealing her mortal lips in eternal silence, a cold stiffness was fast pervading all the avenues of life; while she lay calm and undismayed in the awful storm of dissolving nature ; while her happy soul was thus suspended for a moment between time and eter- nity, as if having a view of both worlds, and flutter- ing to be on the wing for that l country from whose bourn no traveler returns/ she forced from her quiv- ering lips these precious and consolatory words : 1 Glory! this is the best time I have had yet!' and yielded up her spirit without a struggle or a groan."* It was during her sickness that Mr. Akers agreed with her to spend the remnant of his life in the serv- ice of God. On the night of the 21st of March, 1821, he and she had family prayer by themselves for the first time. In referring to this event, Mr. Akers says : " It was truly an affecting time ; we had been helping each other for three years in the concerns of this life, and were now in the prospect of a speedy separation, uniting our ardent cries and petitions at the throne of grace for pardon, sanctification, and redemption." On the 25th of the same month a ser- mon was preached in Mr. Akers's house by the Rev. Dr. Houston, from the text, " How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." It was the holy '^Methodist Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 4G5. 152 LIFE AND TIMES OF Sabbath. At the close of the sermon the invitation was given to any who might wish to join the Church, " When," says Mr. Akers, " I gave him my hand, and God my heart, and my wife reached hers from the bed." He had just passed his probation in the Church, when he entered the itinerant ranks in 1821, and has continued in the service of the Church in the various duties assigned him until the present time. The first eleven years of his ministry were devoted to the Church in Kentucky. He filled the most important stations in the State — Lexington, Russellyille, Louis- ville, Danville, and Harrodsburg were among the fields he occupied. In 1832 he was transferred to the Illinois Conference — of which he is still a member — and soon became one of the most prominent members in that body. He is, at this distant period (1884) remembered in Kentucky with affectionate regard. His labors as a minister of Christ, while a member of the Kentucky Conference, were distinguished by an uncompromising devotion to the cause he had espoused. In the pulpit he was exceedingly popular, and defended the doc- trines and the polity of the Church with an ability that claimed the respect, and commanded the confidence, of his audiences ; and success crowned his labors. William C. Stribling is a name prominent at this period in the history of Methodism in Kentucky. " He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, March 18, 1795. He was the oldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Stribling, who were citizens of Virginia. They emigrated to Kentucky, and settled near Lex- BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 153 ington in 1825. Soon after, he moved to a farm which he had previously purchased in Logan County, where he resided till his death in 1827. His wife re- mained upon the farm for several years, and thence moved with her son Benjamin to Cass County, Illi- nois. She died near Virginia, in the above county, in June, 1834. Thomas Stribling and his wife were members of the Methodist Church, and died in the triumphs of Christian faith. " William C. Stribling received his early education in the common schools of Virginia, with one term at a grammar school. He obtained the grace of conver- sion October 12, 1810. He received license to exhort in 1812, and was first licensed to preach January 24, 1813. His first field of labor was in Virginia, under the direction of the presiding elder for a few months. He was received upon trial in the regular itinerancy in the Tennessee Conference, October, 1813; was or- dained deacon, October 22, 1815, by Francis Asbury; and elder, November 6, 1817, by Robert R. Roberts. He received a certificate of location, September 27, 1823, from Enoch George. He was readmitted into the regular work and traveled for a few years, and again took a certificate of location from Joshua Soule, dated Versailles, Kentucky, October 15, 1827. u His experience in the itinerant ranks embraced some fourteen years, mostly in Tennessee and Ken- tucky Conferences. For a short time he extended his labors into the Missouri Conference. "He was married October 2, 1821, to Miss Ma- hala, only daughter of Jonathan and Lourana Becraft, of Bourbon County, Kentucky. In 1832 he, in com- 154 LIFE AND TIMES OF pany with his father-in-law, moved to Illinois, and settled in Morgan County, near the town of Jackson- ville. By this marriage there were born to him two children — namely, Mary Elizabeth and Joanna. The younger died at the age of sixteen ; the elder married Mr. James H. Lurton, one of the prominent citizens of Morgan County, who at present resides upon the old homestead farm. His widow still lives, and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Lurton. Her faith is unshaken in the God of her fathers, and she antici- pates, before a great while, a happy reunion with her departed husband. " Mr. Stribling, a few months before his death, moved into the city of Jacksonville, and occupied his splendid home tin the hour of his death, which oc- curred, after a brief sickness, December 18, 1872. His funeral discourse was preached by Rev. Peter Akers, D. D., from the words, ' Therefore be ye also ready ; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.' (Matt, xxiv, 44.) "Mr. Stribling was a prodigy, a wonderful char- acter. In his make-up he was unlike any one else. He is exceedingly hard to illustrate through pen-por- traiture. To read the man correctly one must have known him personally. " He has passed from us, leaving comparatively little material for the historian to arrange and set in order that the intelligent reader may be interested in the study of one of the brighter lights of the early Western leaders of American Methodism. In his min- isterial abilities he stood in comparison favorably with Durbin, Bascom, Tidings, Stamper, Light, Latta, and BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 155 others. He appeared before the Church in the early time, when the fathers — especially in the West — made the listening crowds feci the force of their eloquence as natural orators, with none of the trammels that often burden the pulpit of the present day. " We have no written sermons from Mr. Stribling to aid in writing up the make of this more than ordi- nary man. He was peculiarly gifted. His memory was wonderful. He often remarked, ' I never have occasion to use the word, I forgot/ He was a man of books, a veritable boohvorm, and a close and te- nacious thinker. When reading, if any thought or idea advanced by the author caught his special atten- tion, he noting it, could use not only the idea, but the exact language, if he so desired. " Hundreds, if not thousands, of the early wor- shipers of the Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri Conferences have listened to the earnest appeals of Mr. Stribling. When in his best days he stood in the front ranks, leading and molding character, the fruits of which are at work to-day permeating a large territory where American Methodism at present is a national power. "His manner was quaint, and had a tendency to attract attention, yet he possessed the power to im- press upon his audience the gravity of his theme in the most solemn and serious style. While it may truthfully be said of Mr. Stribling that he was pecul- iarly an attractive preacher, there were certain sub- jects upon which he excelled. His most remarkable efforts were generally upon the Sufferings of Christ, the Resurrection, and the General Judgment. At 156 LIFE AND TIMES OF times he was possessed of deep and profound emotion. The magnetism of his own nature would occasionally arouse his audience; and generally, on those occa- sions, he carried the multitude with him. " There were but few men who could impress the solemnity and sacredness of the sacrament of the Lord's-supper as he. He was marvelous in the use of language. He had strong tendencies in the line of poetry. He was an ardent and devout student of Milton, Young, and Pollok, and took a deep interest in committing and communicating from these authors. " Mr. Stribling early formed the habit — probably it was natural for him — to make use of stilted or ex- travagant language. Many years ago an amusing episode occurred between him and Rev. John T. Mitchell, formerly book agent at Cincinnati. It was while Mr. Mitchell was stationed in Jacksonville, 111. Mr. Mitchell took a deep interest in Mr. Strib- ling. Meeting him on the street upon a certain occasion, Mitchell addressed Stribling in a very high-flown manner. Stribling at once accepted the challenge, one broadside following in quick succession from these assailants. Mitchell soon found, to his discomfiture, that his stock in trade was all used up. Significantly looking into the face of Stribling, he quizzically replied, l Brother Stribling, as far as I understand this case, I am ahead. Good morning/ " All such incidents tended to quicken the appetite of Mr. Stribling, and at once Webster's Dictionary opened before him. "As an illustration of the peculiar style of this peculiar man, I send you his reproof upon the use of BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 157 tobacco : ' Sir, the deleterious effluvia emanating from your tobacconistic reservoir so obfuscates my ocular optics, and so distributes its infectious particles with the atmospheric fluidity surrounding me, that my respirable" apparatus must shortly be obtunded, unless, through the abundant suavity of your pre-eminent politeness, you will disembogue that luminous tube from the pungent, stimulating, and sternutatory in- gredient which replenishes the rotundity of the vast- ness of its concavity/ The above grew out of a young man smoking in the presence of Mr. Stribling. He whiffed the smoke in his face, and caught this remarkable chiding for his want of good manners. " There lies before me a letter written by Mr. Stribling to his wife while he was filling a pulpit in Chicago, made vacant by the death of Rev. John Clark, of the Rock River Conference. I will dupli- cate the letter just as he wrote it: '"Chicago, Illinois, August 19, 1854. " ' Now it came to pass in the days of troublous times, poor "W. [meaning himself] said in heart, Go to now, behold, I will set in order, and write words to her whom my soul loveth. " ' O, thou fairest among women, know and un- derstand that thy servant reached the city of Spring- field according as he purposed in his heart. And he entered into the house of her who is supposed by men to have soothing entertainment. And behold, she gave unto him morsels designed to refresh the heart of man. Then, behold, when they had been swallowed up quickly, she whispered in the ear, " If thou turn 158 LIFE AND TIMES OF aside, either to the right or left, you will be left." Therefore, poor W. made speed to get along as thou knowest he is wont to do when greatly hurried. " ' Thus he got on before the last moment was fled, and he arrived here after the sun had gone down and the hour of ten had fully come. " ' Now, lo, the high-priest is gone forth, so that poor "W. hath not seen him, albeit it is said, he wrote a second epistle to poor W. Peradventure thine eyes have seen it. " ' The stranger hath not known where to go, but after finding room in an inn, till the shadows of the night had fled away, he sought diligently, and found a brother, surnamed Nolen, who abode in the village nigh unto thee, and wrought as silvermith in the days of old time ; and behold, they also have given morsels to poor W., and their damsel hath given paper and ink unto thy servant, that he may write unto thee. Mine host saith that health prevaileth in the city. " ' He who writeth this epistle can not tell how things will go with him till the return of the disciple whom Jesus loveth. So W. hath gone into where many books and papers are prepared for the sons and daughters of men, and behold ! and behold ! W. looked on and desired many of these books, but whether he will reach forth his hand and partake thereof he saith not. "'The writer of this epistle is not able to say when thou shalt look him in the face. Now let it come to pass, when thou lookest upon this epistle, say in thy heart, Lo, I will place myself hard by the writer's ink-horn, and write many words, and send BISHOP KAVANATJGH. 159 them to poor W., a stranger and sojourner now in the city of Chicago, 111. "'The man, far from handsomeness/ " * " In a conversation which I had with Bishop Kav- anaugh, in Quincy, 111., he spoke in terms of enthusi- astic admiration of the late Rev. Win. C. Stribling, saying that in his semi-centennial sermon before the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he had paid Stribling the tribute of being the most remarkable preacher he had ever known, and then related an incident illustrating his extraor- dinary power in the pulpit, and that genuine surprise that people usually experienced on first hearing him. "He said that some time after Stribling located he met him at a camp-meeting in Kentucky, which was largely attended, and where there were preachers enough to make a good-sized conference, some of them quite celebrated. But when a preacher was selected for the most important hour on Sunday, Stribling was the man. Being a farmer at that time, he was very plainly clad in a cheap suit of blue cotton, considera- bly faded and worn, so that his appearance was very unclerical. The crowd was great, the occasion was great, and the expectation was great ; and great was the mortification, not to say disgust, when the home- spun stranger took the stand. Why should he be put up when there was such a galaxy of illustrious stars ready to dazzle them with their superior glory? "'He announced his text,' said the bishop, 'and *This sketch of Wm. C. Stribling was furnished by Rev. McKendree McElfresh, of Illinois Conference. 160 LIFE AND TIMES OF preached on the resurrection such a sermon as I never heard from any other man, before or since. The vast crowd was captured and held in almost breathless surprise and interest till the close. After the services were over an old farmer walked up to him, and, gaz- ing at him as if in wonder, said : " See here, stranger. If you have a worse suit of clothes than that at home, I wish you would put them on, and come down into my neighborhood and preach to the people. I just want to see 'era surprised." * "The above is substantially the bishop's remarks, as I remember them."* Mr. Kavanaugh was next stationed in Lexington, where he remained for two years, the same success crowning his labors as in the fields he had previously occupied. The zealous John James preceded him in that city. From the first Sabbath after conference, when Mr. Kavanaugh entered upon his new charge, there were indications of a prosperous year. The zeal of the Church was quickened, class-meetings were more animating, prayer-meetings more largely attended — while at public worship the house was not sufficiently large to seat the congregation. The preaching, too, was distinguished with an earnestness that could not but result favorably to the cause of Christ. Although the membership was large, yet the pas- tor carefully visited and prayed with each family during the first quarter. On the 5th of January, 1834, Mr. Kavanaugh *The above interesting letter is from G. R. Stribling McElfresh. BISHOP KA VA NAUGH. 161 commenced a meeting under unfavorable auspices. The weather was exceedingly cold, and for a few days the attendance was small ; but, encouraged by the example and zeal of the preacher, the congregations increased, and the house was soon filled both morning and evening. The interest became intense. Awak- enings were numerous, and the cries of penitents fell upon the ear, while many passed from death unto life. Day after day, and night after night, the voice of the preacher was heard proclaiming the tidings of mercy, and urging sinners to escape the damnation of hell. Through long weeks he protracted his labors without any abatement, never seeming to grow weary, working in both pulpit and altar, until more than two hundred persons were happily converted, and one hundred and eighty-one joined the Methodist Church. From this meeting the fire spread throughout the Lexington Circuit, and more than three hundred per- sons in addition sought Christ, and were added to the Church. It was in Lexington that Mr. Kavanaugh admin- istered a reproof to a man avIio he thought was treating with contempt the message he was deliver- ing, that worried him no little. He was preaching, apparently with good effect, when a man in the con- gregation, near the center of the house, laughed aloud. The preacher reproved him, but he laughed again; the reproof was repeated, and so was the laughter. He found it difficult to proceed ; when a brother stepped to the pulpit and said, " Brother Kavanaugh, that man is an idiot." The preacher's embarrassment was not relieved. 14 162 LIFE AND TIMES OF At a subsequent time, while preaching at Brook Street, in the city of Louisville, a young gentleman and lady, occupying a conspicuous place in the church, engaged in conversation and laughed, to the annoy- ance of both preacher and audience. After bearing with them as long as was proper, Mr. Kavanaugh called the attention of the congregation to their con- duct, and said : " You see that young man and young woman in that pew, talking and laughing. I would reprove them but for one thing : I once reproved a man in Lexington for laughing, and you will imagine my mortification when I was told that he was an idiot. I have reproved no one for laughing since, lest I might make the same mistake." It was when returning from the session of the conference held in Mt. Sterling, in 1834, at which he was reappointed to Lexington, that Richard Holding was lamenting the difficult field to which he was sent, the Cumberland Mission. Mr. Kavanaugh attempted to console him. " Yours," said Mr. Kavanaugh, "is not a hard lot, and remember, we ought to esteem it a privilege to preach anywhere f adding, " I always go cheer- fully to whatever place I am sent." " Yes," replied Holding, " I reckon you do ; for you are sent to the best appointments, and when you are changed, it is from glory to glory." During his pastorate in Lexington his popularity never waned. He continued to attract to his church the largest audiences, from all classes of society, and when, at the close of his term, he preached his vale- BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 163 dictory, an audience more densely crowded than on any previous occasion was before him, every one regretting that the law of the Church limited the pastoral term to two years. 164 LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTER VI. FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1835 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1839. THE death of William Adams, which occurred August 5, 1835, left a vacuum in the Kentucky- Conference that might not be easily filled. He had sustained to Mr. Kavanaugh the endearing relation of presiding elder, and the warmest friendship existed between them. He was the "son of Simon and Cate (Wren) Adams, and was born in Fairfax County, Vir- ginia, June 29, 1785. He was a nephew of William Watters, the first native American traveling preacher. His father was a member of the Church of England, but his mother was a Methodist. His father migrated to Kentucky in 1786 or 1787, and settled in the neigh- borhood of Lexington ; and when Benjamin Ogden came to Kentucky as a missionary he made the house of Simon Adams one of his preaching-places, having become acquainted with him while they were both performing military service in the Revolution. The father of William had been well educated, and was a member of the Territorial Legislature; and he gave his son such advantages as the neighborhood fur- nished, though they secured to him nothing beyond a good English education, upon which, however, he en- grafted much more extensive attainments in after-life. " William Adams was converted in the fourteenth BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 1G5 or fifteenth year of his age, about the time of the memorable revival which took plaee in Kentucky, near the commencement of the present century."* In 1814, he became a traveling preacher, and never turned aside from the work until released by death. His first appointment was the Salt River Cir- cuit. In 1815 and 1816 he traveled on the Jefferson; in 1817 the Danville and Madison; in 1818 the Franklin; 1819, the Shelby; 1820, he was returned to the Jefferson, and in 1821, he traveled the Lex- ington. At the Conference of 1822 he was appointed to the office of presiding elder, and placed on the Salt River District, on which he remained for three years, when he was changed to the Kentucky District, where he labored for four years. In 1829 he was appointed to the Ohio District, which extended from Franklin County to the lowest extremity of Ohio and Daviess Counties. In 1831 he was relieved from the arduous duties of the presiding eldership and stationed in Lexington, but at the following conference we find him on the Harrodsburg District, where he remains two years. In 1834 he received his last appointment, which was to the Lexington District. His " whole ministry was marked by great labor and self-denial. His first circuit was more than four hundred miles around ; but he traveled it once in six weeks, preaching at some thirty places, and not unfre- quently preaching twice or three times each day for weeks together. And this was but a fitting introduc- tion to the twenty or more laborious years that fol- *Rev. J. W. Gunn, in Sprague's Annuls, p. 502. 166 LIFE AND TIMES OF lowed. The country was then new and rough, and the wants of himself and his family were very inad- equately provided for; but nothing could damp the ardor of his resolution, so long as he was privileged to see the work of the Lord prospering in his hands, and this blessing seems rarely to have been withheld from him. Dr. Bascom said of him : " He had naturally a strong mind, and it was well stored with valuable information. To no mean pre- tensions of scholarship, especially as it regards English literature, he added an admirable store of theological attainments; and few men have appeared upon the same theater whose every-day performances through- out the year ranked higher than those of William Adams. Although seldom overpowering in the pul- pit, he was always lucid, strong, and convincing. His manner was singularly suasive and impressive. His moral and religious worth was universally known and appreciated among those who enjoyed his acquaint- ance. Grave and serious in manner, he was at the same time cheerful and amiable. Studious and labo- rious in his habits, he w T as always social and accessible. He lived beloved, and died regretted by all who knew him well, and especially by those who knew his value as a member, and for many years the secretary of the Kentucky Annual Conference." "As an unexceptionable and faithful Gospel min- ister; as a prudent, safe, and wise ecclesiastical coun- selor; as a judicious, circumspect, and model presiding elder; as a disinterested, faithful, and aifectionate friend ; as a dignified and affable gentleman, and as a BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 167 modest, humble, and devoted Christian, the Kentucky Conference has never had the superior to William Adams. He died, I think, in 1835, in the neighbor- hood of Shelby ville, Kentucky. A few minutes before his death he laid his hands upon the heads of his little grandchildren and invoked upon them his patri- archal blessing. ' Now raise my head higher upon the pillow,' he said. Then, as if conscious his last work on earth was done, he lifted his eyes upward toward heaven, and spoke as if addressing ministering angels, whose prcseuce he realized: 'Stop! wait just a moment, and I will go ! Now I am ready V These were his last words. In a moment the spirit had fled, and with the heavenly convoy was soaring upward to its home on high. O what a void was in the confer- ence when it met a few weeks afterward in Shelby- villc, and William Adams, its long-tried and much- loved secretary, was not in his chair! I could scarcely realize that he was not there ; and when Dr. Bascom arose with deep emotion and said, 'I pray that his mantle may fall on me !' every throbbing heart said Amen !"* " William Adams was a faithful preacher, laboring successfully in the vineyard of the Lord about fifty years ago. There are yet some living witnesses of the success of this excellent preacher of righteousness, who wept in secret over his congregation, but wreathed no flowers about the sword of the Spirit, to dull its edge — a man whose clear intellect pierced through the sub- * Rev. T. N. Ralston, D.D., in Christian Advocate, January 3, 1867. 168 LIFE AND TIMES OF tleties and dispelled the shadows in which others wrapped themselves to evade the perception of right. Called, commissioned, qualified, and sent forth by the Lord, he hesitated not to enter the field with men self-banished from the domestic circle for days, weeks, and often months at a time, seeking the lost sheep of the house of Israel. His heart yearned in pity over the world of sinners, and he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. He was a man of striking individ- uality and energy of character, self-possessed and dig- nified, with those solid virtues which admirably fitted him for the presiding eldership — then a very impor- tant office in the Church. " The manner of Brother Adams, and his peculiarly deep, rich, flexible voice, that seemed to clothe each thought in a fitting garment, compelled the attention of his listeners. He possessed that magnetism whereby some characters control and influence even those with whom they have little sympathy. This model gentle- man and model Christian was not at all demonstrative in manner ; yet he possessed a soul of fire that would have formed a Christian of the strongest type in the early ages, and who would have suffered martyrdom to sustain his principles. I never heard him laugh or indulge in jesting of any kind ; though, when his face was lighted with a smile, it shone all the sunnier be- cause its sedate seriousness was not often disturbed. The earnestness of his ministerial labors left him but little time for simpering small talk or idle ceremony; yet he was never surprised into an uncourteous or an BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 169 unchristian word, nor did he ever forget or undervalue the beautiful amenities of life. "That he did not rush into the ministry uncalled by the voice of God, is well attested by a fact of his own stating. After preaching some years, he thought he must locate, that he might give more attention to his family affairs ; but so restless, uneasy, and anxious was he in reference to the work he believed himself called to perform, that like Christmas Evans, the old Welsh preacher of world-wide notoriety, he could give neither sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids until, the providence of God seeming to open the way, he returned to the itinerancy, and sowed the good seed broadcast and with an unsparing hand throughout the length and breadth of Kentucky, the fruits of which will tell for good in eternity. If God calls a man to preach, his family will be provided for. The promises to that effect hang thick as clustering grapes through- out the Scriptures. Brother Adams's family was provided for. His wife, eminently fitted to be the companion of such a man, faithfully performed the home-duties, and the two children were reared to be a blessing to their parents in time, and doubtless a crown of rejoicing in eternity. " Such a man as Brother Adams secures for him- self an immortality more beautiful and grand than that of poet or statesman. He lives not merely in the sacred though fading associations of a single spot, but the light of his spirit will continue to shine in every one of the multiplied souls which his faithful ministerial labors have from year to year called from the death of sin and quickened into newness of life. 15 170 LIFE AND TIMES OF He died old and full of years, because his life had been crowned with action and with thought. " ' We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; In feelings, not in figures on a dial.' " * He died in. Shelby County, at the residence of his son-in-law, the Rev. William Gunn, August 5, 1835, of typhus fever. On Sunday night, before his death, he said to Mr. Gunn : " Something seems to say, I am fast shaking hands with time ; I think I shall soon be gone. I see nothing here worth living for, unless it is to do a little good in the Church. If it be better to depart and be with Christ ; I want to go and see him." To his wife he said, " We must soon part. You have done a great deal to sustain the Gospel. Around and underneath you be the everlasting arms. Every day and every hour lean upon the Lord." He requested his friends to come together and sing and pray with him, and joined in the singing ; and after prayer he shouted aloud, " Glory ! glory to God ! God is love ! " Soon after which he said, " It is a very easy death." He then sung: " With ease our souls through death shall glide, Into their paradise, And thence on wings of angels ride Triumphant through the skies." He further said to Mr. Gunn, " Tell the preachers to live to God — to live to God alone." After a few min- utes, he added, " It is a perfect calm," and turning his eyes upward, said, " I do n't know but we will get * Letter to the author from Mrs. Julia A. Tevis, of Shelby- ville, Ken t nek v. BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 171 to Zion together; there is a mighty rush." A few minutes before his departure he looked up and said, " Wait a few minutes and I will be ready — just one minute" — and then his spirit fled. No member of the conference felt the bereavement more deeply than did Mr. Kavanaugh. They had labored side by side in the earlier years of his minis- try, and won trophies for Christ upon the same fields, and now he could only, while he bowed in submission to his sovereign will, kiss the rod that smote. The General Conference for 1836 was to meet in the city of Cincinnati. Indications looked to a warm contest on the questions of slavery and abolition. The Kentucky Conference, anticipating the agitation of these questions, appointed an able committee — of which Mr. Kavanaugh was a member — which, after mature consideration, presented the following report, which was unanimously adopted : " 1. Resolved, by the Kentucky Annual Conference, That we strictly adhere to the principles of our Church on the subject of slavery, and that it is our purpose to persevere in the course hitherto pursued, without any alliance whatever with men or measures whose object may be an interference with the question of slavery, uncalled for by the common good, and pro- ductive of mischievous rather than beneficial results. " 2. Resolved, That, in the judgment of this con- ference, the interference of abolitionists and anti- slavery associations, in the North and elsewhere, by which the peace and quiet of a large portion of the nation are disturbed, and their common interest, laws, and safety placed in jeopardy, should be looked upon 172 LIFE AND TIMES OF as an unwarrantable assumption of claim and an abuse of the rights of citizenship. " 3. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this confer- ence, whenever such interference with the rights of American citizens is attempted by foreign emissaries, whether as lecturers, ecclesiastics, or otherwise, all lawful means should be promptly resorted to, to ar- rest at once the mischievous tendency of their sedi- tious intermeddling and officious insolence. "4. Resolved, That, without presuming to decide, we would respectfully suggest that it is a dangerous maxim to be adopted by American citizens in the present crisis, that we may appreciate as pure and correct the motives of men whose measures and move- ments tend directly to subvert the Constitution and dissolve the government. " 5. Resolved, That it is not considered by this body allowable for any minister or member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, within the limits of this conference, or, as we conceive, elsewhere, to resort to any extra-judicial means whatever for the purpose of interfering with the question of slavery. " 6. Resolved, That we continue to repose entire confidence in the rectitude, policy, and operations of the American Colonization Society, and that we com- mend it to all who are likely to regard our opinions as any way worthy their approval and patronage." The Kentucky Conference plainly foresaw the Results of the policy of abolitionists upon the Church, as well as the State, and deemed it proper to place themselves right before the people of Ken- tucky and before the nation. BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 173 In the election of delegates to the General Conference, the Kentucky Conference chose men who would stand abreast with the ablest ministers in the Church. Of course Mr. Kavanaugh was among them. Previous to this session of the conference there had been but one Methodist Church in the city of Lojiisville. The membership w T as large and scattered throughout the city. To meet the demands of the rapidly increasing population, it became necessary to divide the congregation into several societies, and locate their places of worship at convenient points. Hence the appearance this year in the Minutes of Upper Station (afterward Brook Street), Fourth Street (now Fifth and Walnut), and Eighth Street (now Chestnut). Mr. Kavanaugh was appointed to Fourth Street, which was the central Church. On his return to Louisville, after an absence of five years, he was warmly welcomed, and entered upon his labors with a commendable zeal. A preacher is not always a proper judge of his success. Notwithstanding his unsurpassed fame, his uncompromising energy, and his assiduous labors, he saw but little, if any, fruit from all his toil. For the first time since he had entered the ministry, he became discouraged, and thought of retiring from the field. He communicated his feelings to his wife, who whispered words of cheer, and did all she could to hold up his hands, while "the waves and billows" of temptation were "passing over him." "Perhaps I am mistaken in thinking that I am called to the work of the ministry," he said to this noble woman one day when they were alone. 174 LIFE AND TIMES OF " That is impossible/' she quickly replied, " for look at the success that has crowned your ministry everywhere you have preached the Gospel." " If that argument holds good/' he answered, " then why such barrenness here ?" " It is not always harvest-time. You must sow before you reap. Besides, one sows and another reaps. Have you not sometimes thought that you entered upon the labors of those who preceded you, and reaped a harvest from their toils? This year may be seed-time for your Church, and the harvest may come hereafter. On our itinerant system such results must frequently occur." He arose and left the room, the tears streaming from his eyes. He retired to his place of secret prayer and knelt before God. The struggle was long and severe, but God heard him. He returned to the family room. The eyes of his wife caught the smile that rested upon his face as he repeated the impres- sive and beautiful hymn, commencing with, — " Away my unbelieving fear, Fear shall in me no more have place ; My Savior doth not yet appear, He hides the brightness of his face. But shall I therefore let him go, And basely to the tempter yield? No ! in the strength of Jesus, No, I never will give up my shield. " Although the vine its fruit deny, Although the olive yield no oil, The withering fig-trees droop and die, The fields elude the tiller's toil; The empty stall no herd afford, And perish all the bleating race, BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 175 Yet will I triumph in the Lord, — The God of my salvation praise." Mrs. Kavanaugh was correct. He had sown good seed, and the year following the harvest was abundant. In the Autumn of 1832 he had left Bardstown. Four years had elapsed when he returned again to that charge. After the temptation of the previous year, to which he had well-nigh yielded, it was im- portant, perhaps, to his future ministry that the pres- ent year should be marked with prosperity. The months of Autumn and of Winter passed away with- out any special indications of divine power, but with the earliest buddings of Spring the congregations began to increase, and the Church exhibited greater signs of life. March had not disappeared until, under the preaching of the pastor, a gracious revival began, and continued sweeping through the community, like a flame of fire, until it pervaded every class, and reach- ing the Presbyterian Church, which was equally blessed with his own. Seventy persons professed re- ligion, thirty-five of whom joined the Methodist Church, and the same number the Presbyterian. The May following a meeting, at which we were present, was held in Mt. Washington, then included in the Taylorsville Circuit, of which Richard D. Neale had charge. Mr. Kavanaugh was invited to assist him. Fresh from the revival in Bardstown, he entered upon the work in the spirit of his Divine Master, and preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Ho spent about ten days at the meet- 176 LIFE AND TIMES OF ing, preaching morning and evening, witnessing the richest displays of Almighty goodness. Nor was his fame confined to his own Kentucky. Beyond the Mississippi his services were eagerly sought after. The conference for several years had suffered from the loss of many of its ablest preachers, not only by death, but by transfer to other conferences. Within a few years McHenry, Lindsey, Powers, Vance, Mc- Knight, Ogden, Landrum, Harrison, Outten, Adams, Cosby, Duke, and Littlejohn had died, and within the same time McCown, Young, Wallace, Light, Bird, Holliday, Evans, and Frazee had been transferred to other conferences. It would be difficult for any con- ference to sustain itself under such a draught upon its members. It was proposed, however, to make a further invasion upon its ranks by the transfer of Hubbard H. Kavanaugh to the Missouri Conference, for the purpose of stationing him in the city of St. Louis. Unwilling to interfere with the episcopal pre- rogative, the conference, nevertheless, deemed it not improper to request the bishop not to transfer Mr. Kavanaugh. The following resolution was offered by Benjamin T. Crouch and Henry B. Bascom : " Whereas, it has been represented to many mem- bers of this conference that some steps have been taken to remove Brother Hubbard H. Kavanaugh from the ranks of this conference by transfer; and, " Whereas, this conference is already very much impoverished in the older portion of its membership, by removals, deaths, and otherwise ; therefore, " Resolved, That we respectfully request Bishop BISHOP KAY AX AUG II. 177 Roberts to give Brother Kavanaugh an appointment in this conference." The removal of Mr. Kavanaugh from Kentucky at this period would have been a serious misfortune to the Church in the State. No preacher in the con- ference more fully enjoyed the confidence of the pub- lie, or held a warmer place in the affections of the Church than did Mr. Kavanaugh. For many years he had occupied the most important fields, and his ministry was sought everywhere throughout the com- monwealth. Endowed with an intellect of a high order, with powers of oratory rarely equaled, and with zeal and devotion to the Church that no one could chal- lenge, he exerted an influence that was felt not only in the walks of Methodism, but in other communions. He was no common man, and the Kentucky Confer- ence felt that if his ministry was needed elsewhere, for the very same reason it was required in Ken- tucky ; besides, he had grown up among them. He had entered the Kentucky Conference in early man- hood, and for fourteen years their fortunes and his had been one, and they felt unwilling that a separa- tion between him and them should occur. Their pe- tition to the bishop was respectful. Mr. Kavanaugh was not transferred. About this time a remarkable man appeared in Kentucky. He was an Irishman by birth. John Newland Maffitt was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, December 28, 1794. His father was a mem- ber of the Methodist Society, and endeavored to im- press upon his son the principles of true religion. Death, however, deprived him of his paternal parent, 178 LIFE AXD TIMES OF leaving him in childhood to the sole guidance of his mother, who was a member of another communion. Frivolous and gay, he passed through his youth for- getful of the instructions of his sainted father and the oft-given advice of his mother, engaging in every species of amusement where God and heaven are forgotten. At the age of nineteen he was arrested by the Holy Spirit, was powerfully awakened to a sense of his condition as a sinner before God, and, deeply pen- itent, pleaded for mercy, poising between hope and despair. The struggle was severe, and was protracted through several days and nights ; but the joy that succeeded was " unspeakable and full of glory." From his early childhood he had entertained the impression that he would be a preacher ; yet after his conversion we see him reluctant to yield to the conviction of his heart, or to listen to the voice which appealed to his conscience : " Wo is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel!' 7 Only a few weeks elapse, however, until we find him praying in public, exhorting sinners to repent, and making an appointment to preach , but he failed in the attempt, Discouraged and depressed, he resolved to abandon all thought of the pulpit, when a revival in the city of Dublin, under the ministry of a soldier-preacher, opened the way for him to ex- ercise his gifts; and we soon behold him offering hope to the despairing, salvation to the lost, and life to the dead. From time to time, without official au- thority from the Church, he continued to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. His earnest appeals arrested the ungodly, aroused the Church, and brought BISHOP KA VANA UGH 179 much fruitage to his Master. Ungenerous criticism and opposition determined him again to decline a work to which he believed himself to be divinely called, when Arthur Noble, the friend and colleague of Gideon Ouscley, the famous Irish missionary, in- vited him to meet him in Ballymena, and travel with him on his missionary route. Handsome in person, graceful in his manners, tender in his address, and endowed with a powerful and persuasive eloquence, he soon occupied a place in the popular thought that could be claimed, perhaps, by no man of his age in the Emerald Isle. Early in life he was married to a young and very beautiful girl, who joined her influence with that of his mother to dissuade him from being a preacher. Added to this, pecuniary misfortunes overtook him, and determined him to emigrate to America. On the 21st of April, 1819, he landed in the city of New York, being in the twenty-fifth year of his age. In 1822 he offered himself as an itinerant preacher to the New England Conference, and was admitted on trial. His first appointment was with the cele- brated George Pickering, as a conference missionary. In 1823 he was appointed to Fairhaven and New Bedford, and the following year he was the junior preacher on the Barnstable Circuit. In 1825 he was stationed in Dover, and in 1826 in Dover and Som- ersworth. At the conference of 1827 he was sent to the city of Boston, and in 1828 to Portsmouth, where he continued for two years. In 1830 he was returned to the city of Boston, and the following year was left without an appointment, to give him the opportunity 180 LIFE AND TIMES OF of settling his temporal affairs, which had become somewhat embarrassed. In 1832 he located. During the ten years that Mr. Maffitt traveled as a preacher he performed the duties of an itinerant with energy and zeal, and in the several fields he oc- cupied success crowned his labors. Whether as a missionary, carrying the tidings of a Redeemer's love to the poor and the humble throughout the New England Conference, or lifting the standard of the cross in the rural districts, or unfurling its crimsoned banner in the capital of Massachusetts, we find him not only faithful, but beloved by the people he served, and everywhere gathering stars to deck the crown of his rejoicing in the hereafter. It is to be regretted that Mr. Maffitt turned away from the itinerant work, to which he was so well adapted; yet it is cause for gratitude that, in retiring to the local ranks, he lost none of the fire that had so often flashed from his eye as he presented the glo- ries of the cross, nor the zeal that had distinguished him as an itinerant preacher, nor an iota of the pur- pose he had formed to devote his energies and his life to the service of the Church. In 1833, in connection with Lewis Garrett, he issued, in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, the first number of the Western 3Iethodist, a religious weekly paper, which from that period has continued under various names, as the South-western Christ km Advo- cate, Nashville Christian Advocate, Nashville and Louis- ville Christian Advocate, and is at present the Cliristian Advocate, the central organ of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South. BISHOP KAVANAUGII. 181 His fame had preceded him to the West, and wherever he preached vast assemblies thronged to hear him, eager to catch the words of life as they fell from his lips. As an orator he had taken rank with the first preachers of the age, and in the horizon of public esteem occupied a commanding eminence. It was not merely the fire that lit his eye, nor the flashes of genius that sparkled through every portion of his mighty appeals, nor his lofty flights of oratory, that Avon for him a reputation and a name scarcely equaled in the history of the pulpit. It was the burning zeal that was consuming him; it was his fervent piety; and, above all, it was the brilliant success, which threw its full-orbed light along his path. Thousands came to hear him, and thousands, through his instru- mentality, were converted to God and added to the Church. In the Autumn of 1833 he entered the Tennessee Conference, and, with Littleton Fowler as his col- league, was appointed agent for La Grange College, of which Robert Paine was president. In 1834 he was elected to the chair of elocution in that college, where he continued for two years. At the Tennessee Conference of 18^6_he requested and obtained a loca- tion, and never afterward entered the itinerant field. His mode of warfare in the ministry was that of a guerrilla — outside the regular method employed by the itinerant preachers. Mr. Maffitt had visited Kentucky in the Winter of 1833, and spent a brief period in the city of Lou- isville, where his ministry was greatly blessed. In the Spring of 1837 he again appeared in the State, 182 LIFE AND TIMES OF and in the village of Glasgow won his earliest trophies. Passing on to Lexington, which he pronounces "one of the most beautiful cities west of the mountains/' he entered at once upon the great business of his life. Edward Stevenson was the pastor. Mr. Maffitt re- mained in Lexington upward of two months, during which time he preached almost every day and night. On his first appearance in the pulpit in that city every pew in the church was filled, the aisles were crowded to their utmost capacity, and the occasion was distinguished by a quickened religious interest in the popular mind. On the corners of the streets, in the marts of trade, in places of business, the fame of the preacher was on every lip, while many were anxiously inquiring the way of life and salvation. The city press teemed with his praise, and the entire community listened to his earnest sermons, coming from his great, warm, Irish heart. From the very commencement the interest increased, and during his protracted stay in the city there was no abatement. Bishop Morris was present, and preached a few ser- mons; but the public eye was turned to Mr. Maffitt, who had won so largely upon the hearts of the peo- ple. In the Western Christian Advocate, of August 18th, Mr. Stevenson writes: "Eighty-four persons have been converted, and our meeting is still in progress" At a later period Mr. Maffitt writes to Mr. String- field, editor of the South-western Christian Advocate: "About one hundred and sixty, as nearly as I can re- member, were the fruits of the revival in Lexington, and over one hundred and thirty became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church — most of whom, if BISHOP KAYANAUGIL 183 not all, were, in the judgment of charity, soundly converted to God. May we all be so happy as to meet one another around the burning throne, to dwell with God and the holy angels, in sweet companion- ship, forever!" * The preaching of Mr. Maffit was peculiar and diffi- cult to describe. We have heard ministers who were more profound in research and more logical in argu- ment than he was; but we have seldom, indeed, listened to any one who excelled in so many depart- ments of ministerial work as did John Newland Maffitt. We have heard him when his voice was persuasive and soft as the harp of iEolus, and we have sat beneath his ministry when like thunderbolts it fell upon the car. His prototype was the great apos- tle of the Gentiles, whose life and character he loved to portray. Of St. Paul he presented the following beautiful portrait: "As he had received his commission direct from heaven, he counted all worldly honor but dross when compared to the excellency of the sacred treasure given him by the Lord Jesus. The glittering charms of time and sense he despised, rejecting, like holy Moses, the splendid trophies of aspiring fame. It was the excellency of the religion of Jesus, disclosed to his mind by the power of the Holy Ghost, that won his great soul and spurred him on to victory and conquest. "He therefore laid aside every weight and hinder- ance that might encumber him in his arduous work, suffered himself to be stripped for the race and * South-ivesteim Christian Advocate, January 25, 1838. 184 LIFE AND TIMES OF harnessed for the battle, and, girding up his loins, resolved, in the strength of Israel's God, to tread in the footsteps of that same Jesus lie once persecuted to death in the person of his followers. Throwing him- self on the resources of his own mind, buoyed up by the spirit of the holy prophets, which had fallen on him at his first introduction to the holy office, he moved forward through danger and suffering, not anxious to avoid either if in the path of duty, tam- pering not with sin, nor trimming between God and the w r orld for gain or ease. " He expressed cheerfulness and joy under suffer- ing. ' AYe are troubled/ says he, i on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed/ 'I take pleasure in infirmities, in re- proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.' His language at Ephesus, on tak- ing leave of his brethren, was expressive of the ele- vated state of his mind: 'And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.' And when pass- ing through Cesarea he appeared in the same inter- esting light. ' What mean ye,' says he, ' to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.' u He was gloriously successful to the end of his course, BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 185 because the hand of the Lord ivas with him. This is evident from the repeated assurances which God gave of almighty strength, support, and guidance. In vis- ions of the night angels appeared to strengthen his mind against the assaults of every enemy, bidding him be of good cheer. The divine agency rendered him invincible, as well as patient and resigned, under suffering, strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner man. What or whom should he fear? " 'For he had wings that neither sickness, pain, Nor penury could cripple or confine ; No nook so narrow but he spread them there With ease and was at large. The oppressor held His body hound, but knew not what a range His spirit took, unconscious of a chain, And that to bind him was a vain attempt, Whom Heaven approved.' "He was gloriously successful to the end of his course. The arm of God was stretched out in his behalf, and signs and wonders were wrought by his word. For upward of thirty years he had labored incessantly in the Lord's vineyard, extending the savor of divine love to every spot he visited, or to which he sent his writings — encompassing sea and land, traveling over a vast portion of the then known world, and extending the Redeemer's kingdom from the east to the utter- most bounds of the west. He marched forth into the thickest ranks of the enemy, vexing them with his incursions. Equipped with armor of divine proof, his only weapon the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, he rushed on his most puissant foes, assault- ing them in all their strongholds. As h«' advanced, the temples of the gods were forsaken, the walls of 186 LIFE A XV TIMES OF superstition tottered, and the spreading glories of the cross illumined the palaces of kings. His weapon prevailed against the potentates of the earth, the wis- dom of the greatest philosophers, and on the ruins of barbaric pride and pontine luxury he placed the sim- ple majesty of the religion of the Galilean peasant. " Behold this champion of the cross after he had fought a good fight ! See him coming in at the close of the glorious warfare. AVith what calmness and grandeur he looks down upon suffering and death ! Truly, they move him not. The cross glitters on his bosom; his hand firmly grasps the sword of the Lord; a halo of glory encircles his brow ; the sunshine of eternity gleams upon his countenance. " Happy Paul ! thy sun is going down in bright- ness, growing larger as it sinks, like that luminary, throwing its golden splendors far and wide over dis- tant lands when itself is no longer visible to the eye. Thus departed this prince of apostles from the field of missionary enterprise, crowned with the laurels of victory and glory, to reap an eternal reward in the Church triumphant above. " If Mr. Maffkt spoke of the temptation in Para- dise, you would imagine yourself in the garden of Eden, surrounded with all its charms, or reposing amid its flowers, where all was joy and innocence and love, listening to strains of gratitude and praise break- ing forth from hearts pure and holy; you would see the tempter insidiously entering this delightful retreat, and hear his siren voice as he reasoned with the woman, guileless and beautiful, and fresh from the creative touch of the almighty hand ; you would feel the in- BISHOJ ' KA VA X. 1 1 OH. 187 creasing danger to which she was exposed, as the coils of the serpent were gradually fastening upon her, un- til the triumph of the enemy was complete, and all was lost. If the redemption of the world was his theme, he would carry you to the lofty mount of prophecy, and then bid you accompany him down the corridors of time, leaving generations behind you, to the period when angels announced to the astonished shepherds on Bethlehem's star-lit plains the birth of the Son of God ; with Simeon, you would take the Babe in your arms, and watch the Nazarene as he passed from infancy to youth, and from youth to man- hood ; the entrance of Christ upon his public minis- try would take place in your presence, and you would see him at his baptism, when the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove descended and abode upon him ; you would follow him, while here and there he gath- ered a solitary disciple, and be entranced by the strange doctrines he preached in his Sermon on the Mount; you would mingle with the astonished multitudes while the blind were being restored to sight, the deaf to hearing, the dumb to speech, and would see the leper, scorned and hated, and exiled from society, cleansed, and again received into its bosom ; in your presence the lame man would throw away his crutch, and leap for joy; and the tear would be wiped from the cheek of sorrow as Jairus received his daughter again to life, as the son of the widow of Nain was restored to his mother, and as Lazarus returned from the grave where he had been buried to his sisters at Bethany. If he describes the crucifixion, you stand by the cross, and see the nails as they pierce his hands and feet ; 188 LIFE AND TIMES OF you are touched with the compassion that floats in the dim and languid eyes of the illustrious Sufferer, and are startled as the words of agony, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" fall from his ex- piring lips ; the heavens are shrouded in blackness, fierce lightnings leap from cloud to cloud, and thunders peal their notes of sorrow, as the God-man cries, " It is finished ! " If the resurrection of Christ is the topic on which he preaches, the descending angel, the alarmed chivalry of the Roman army, the risen Lord, stand out with prominence ; and if the subject is the ascen- sion of the Redeemer, your eye follows the falling cloud until it rests on the side of Olivet; you behold the Savior as he steps upon it, and then you watch it as it ascends higher -and higher, until it is lost to sight in the immeasurable distance, and still your eye lingers in that direction until you hear the joyous acclaim, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in." Then a hush like the stillness of the sep- ulcher passes over the audience, lasting but for a mo- ment, when once more from the celestial parapets a voice is heard, "Who is this King of glory?" The reply rolls back to heaven, " The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." Then he passes through the portals. We have heard him describe the horrors of the damned until we almost gazed upon the burning flame, and seemed to listen to the rattling of the chains of the lost, and hear their groans of anguish, and see BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 189 them as they writhed in their agony and woe. We have listened to him as he spoke of heaven and por- trayed its joys, until the jeweled gates rolled back, and walls of jasper and streets of burnished gold met our vision, and an innumerable multitude, with palms and crowns, were reposing beneath the boughs of the tree of life, or wandering along the banks of the beau- tiful river that makes glad the city of God ; and we seemed to hear their songs of victory and shouts of triumph as they exclaimed, " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever." We heard him once as he talked of the judgment, and the scenes of the last day appeared full in view; the heavens, black with angry clouds, canopied the world; the lightnings flashed along the sky; thunders pealed forth in every direction, till distant worlds re- echoed the direful clangor of the last agonies of dis- solving nature. Then he cried, " Behold a rising world, and see demons and spirits damned coming up from realms of blackest night, and see the Judge com- ing down the vaulted sky, attended by all the hosts of heaven, and all the redeemed from earth who had entered upon eternal life. See him, as he comes/" The vast assembly that sat before him with one ac- cord rose from their seats and looked upward, expect- ing to behold Him who would judge the world, with all his shining retinue surrounding him. We repeat, we have heard preachers who in some respects excelled Mr. Maflitt, but we have never met 190 LIFE AND TIMES OF with one who exercised such power over an audience as he did. From Lexington we follow him to Danville, where, about the 1st of September, he commenced a series of meetings. As in Lexington, he preached to crowded audiences, day and night, for several weeks. Under his ministry the Church was revived, backsliders were reclaimed, and sinners awakened and converted to God. The Gospel preached by him was mighty, through God, to the "pulling down of strongholds;" it was the " power of God unto salvation." Day after day eager throngs came to the house of God to be in- structed in the way of life, and night after night the altar was crowded with sincere penitents, inquiring, "What must we do to be saved?" In the pulpit, in the altar, in the social circle, on the street, he pleaded the cause of his Divine Master, and never seemed to be weary. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" was the feeling which animated and inspired him in the grand and noble work to which he had consecrated his energies and his life. The labors of Mr. Maffitt in Kentucky, extended through more than two years, and had been most sig- nally blessed. The last meeting at which he was pres- ent in the State was held in Mount Sterling, com- mencing August 1, 1840. Here, as everywhere else he had labored, sinners were awakened, penitents con- verted, and the Church revived. At the close of the meeting ninety-two persons had witnessed a good con- fession. A camp-meeting was held at Poynter's Camp- ground, immediately after the close of the meeting iii Ill SHOP KAVANAUGH. 191 Mount Sterling, at which William Gunn, Carlisle Bab- bitt, and Thomas Demoss were present. Here thirty- two persons professed to find "the peace which passeth all understanding." The question has often been asked, Why was it that the labors of John Newland Maffitt were so blessed that everywhere he preached the Gospel the work of God was revived? Mr. Maffitt was a man of one work. The glory of God and the salvation of sinners occupied all his thoughts and controlled all his actions. He seemed to think of nothing else. We have very frequently known him, after preaching in the morning, to devote the afternoon to religious conversation with seekers of religion, and then preach again in the evening, and afterward spend hours at the altar, and then re- tire late — not yet to sleep, but to think of the best method of achieving success. We have known him to rise frequently during the night, to pen a thought that had occurred to his mind, or to kneel in prayer before God. His responsibilities to God and his duty to man absorbed every thought. Wherever he labored he not only expected, but resolved, to succeed, and his boldness and zeal inspired the confidence of the members of the Church whom he expected and required to co-operate with him. He labored, too, with an energy that never flagged. He appeared never to grow weary. As long as a penitent sinner would remain at the altar Mr. Maffitt was willing to stay with him, and sing, and pray, and instruct him. He was no respecter of persons. Whether sin was to be found in high or in low places, in the most scath- 192 LIFE AND TIMES OF ing manner he rebuked it. He divested it of all its covering, and exposed it in all its hideousness. He was faithful to God, and earnest in saving the souls of his fellow-men. It does not come within the scope of the present volume to follow the career of Mr. Maffitt farther; yet it will not be improper to trace his history to the close of his life. In 1841 he was elected chaplain of the lower house of Congress. He discharged the duties of this position with great credit to himself and with benefit to his hearers. In the capital of the nation he lost none of the reputation he had won in the West. After the close of the term for which he was elected, he left Washington City and visited Rich- mond, Virginia, and other cities in the North and East, where the same success crowned his ministry as in Lexington, Louisville, and other cities in Ken- tucky. His residence was mainly in the Atlantic cit- ies until 1847. About this period he was married to Miss Pierce, of Brooklyn, Xew York, his first wife having died in Galveston, Texas. As some com- plaints were made against him, and his Church rela- tions falling into an informal state, he was considered as having withdrawn his membership from the Church in New York. Retiring to Arkansas, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was licensed to preach de novo. He remained in Ar- kansas about two years, when he left that State for the Gulf cities. In the Spring of 1850 we find him carrying on a religious meeting in a small chapel of a suburban vil- BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 193 lage of Mobile, Alabama. This was the last meeting he conducted. No man in the American ministry, so far as we have known, has ever been so relentlessly perse- cuted as John Newland Maffitt. We are not sur- prised at this. The Divine Master was persecuted before him. The bold and fearless attacks made on vice by Mr. Maffitt, if they failed to persuade the ungodly to abandon their evil habits, were well calcu- lated to embitter and array them against him. His success, too, in the great work that occupied his life had a tendency to provoke the wrath of the enemies of the Church. Every thing that hate, and envy, and malice could invent, to impair his influence and to break his power, was said and done ; yet, through more than thirty years, in which he preached the Gospel of Christ, he maintained an unsullied rep- utation as a Christian, not a single stain ever fasten- ing itself on his escutcheon. Confiding too easily in pretended friendships, we are not surprised that he was often betrayed ; yet no betrayal ever cast a blight on his fair name. Malignant, and bitter, and busy as was the tongue of calumny, he cherished no malice against his enemies, but to all their charges his reply was, " God forgive them !" Guileless in heart, and conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, he ought to have borne up under the heartless persecutions that were leveled against him to the last. No man knew the human heart, its depravity and corruption, better than he did, and he ought not to have allowed his spirit to be broken by the continued assaults of his persecutors. The attacks upon his reputation cul- 17 194 LIFE AND TIMES OF minated in an article wjiich appeared on Thursday before his death in a paper published in Mobile, copied from the Police Gazette of New York. He had borne much, but his sensitive nature could bear no more. From the appearance of this article he was greatly disturbed, and never slept. His sister — Mrs. Ellen Ball, the wife of Dr. Ball, whom he was visiting — was boarding with Mrs. Ballasette, where Mr. Maffitt spent his time. Walking the floor of Mrs. BalPs room, he frequently pressed his heart, exclaim- ing, " O Ellen, they have broken my heart !" and again, "My poor heart is breaking !" Upon the appearance of the article already re- ferred to, Mr. Maffitt was advised to avenge himself. To this advice he replied that " such an act would be inconsistent with Christian life," and quoted, "Venge- ance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord." On Monday morning he went to Toulminville, a suburban village of Mobile, to the house of Major Reuben Chamberlain. " Napoleon's Grave " was his favorite piece of music. Between six and seven o'clock, P. M., while Miss Chamberlain was playing this piece, Mr. Maffitt left the parlor and went out on the gallery, groaning heavily. He, however, immediately re- turned to the hall, and fell prostrate. He was lifted up and carried to a sofa. AVhile lying there, Mrs. W said to him, " Your enemies will outdo you." He replied, " They will," and praye;!, " Lord, have mercy on them, and forgive them !" Mrs. W asked him if he could forgive them. He replied, " Yes, from the bottom of my heart ; for if I forgive not, how can # I expect forgiveness?" Medical atten- BISHOP KAYANAUGIL 195 tion was procured without delay. Dr. E. P. Gaines administered an opiate, and forbade his talking. He spoke but little afterward, and died, May 2