|
ELDER J. M. BILLINGSLEY
Elder J.M. Billingsley, son of
John and Mary Billingsley, was born
in Warren County, KY., September 17,
1825: died at his home in Ewing,
Ill., March 21, 1912, in his eighty-
seventh year. He was one of ten
children in a devout and staunch old
Presbyterian family. Becoming a
Christian in his early life, he an-
answered a call to the ministry and
was licensed to preach in 1848 and
was ordained in 1851 bye the old
Union church of Warren county, Ky.,
the sainted O. H. Morrow being it's
pastor at the time and for a period
of thirty-eight years. In 1848 he was
married to Allie M. Lambert.
Four children were born to this
union; only one survives. This wife
dying in 1885, he was married to
Sue Green in 1890, who survives
him. In his ministerial career he
preached in Warren, Allen, Barren,
Simpson, and Butler Counties, KY.,
some in Tennessee, and in the after
part of his life throughout many
counties in Southern and Central
Illinois, removing from Bowling
Green, Ky., to Salem, IL., in 1869.
His pastorates were successful. He
was a pupil, in a sense of Graves,
Pendleton, Morrow, and Ford, and
the companion of Ham (Mordicai),
Witherspoon, and others. His early
associations were of the best. He
was alike, doctrinal, and evangelistic
in his preaching, exalting always
the work and the Spirit. He was a
civilian and patriot. He held a com-
mission as Captain in the federal regi-
ment of mounted infantry during the
Civil War, resigning his churches for
the service, when it seemed no long-
er safe to remain at home. In the
decease of Elder Billingsley the
world loses a good man, the church
a hero in service, and his friends a
comrade and counsellor on whom
they could ever rely with assurance.
The funeral sermon was preached at
his home in Ewing by his nephew,
Rev. W. Sanford Gee of Chillicothe,
MO., assisted by Elders W. E. Wise
of Greenville and J. C. Harriss of
Du Quoin.---W. S. G.
|
