J. P. ARNOLD

Elder, J. P. Arnold was born in Humphreys county, Tenn., February 27, 1817, of poor parents, and remained with them there until he was six years old, and in 1823 he emigrated with them to what is now Benton county, Tenn. Here in this wilderness country, destitute, alike of church privileges and educational facilities, he was reared amid all the rowdyism always found in new countries. All the chance of obtaining an education was at a common day school, taught for a period of two or three months in the year. He went as far as exchange, in Pike's arithmetic, studied English grammar four weeks, but has been a close student all his life. He married Miss Mary Melton, in 1831, a pious member of the Baptist church, (who has been a faithful companion, a help meet and truly a minister's wife in every sense of the word), by whom he has had twelve children - six boys and six girls; seven of whom are now living - four girls and three boys. All but two are members of the Baptist church.

The subject of this sketch was frequently impressed, seriously, on the subject of religion, but was never fully awakened on the subject until July, 1842, and was in deep trouble and sorrow for five weeks and when all hope seemed to be gone, the Lord, in his infinite goodness and love, took him from the degradation and ruin of sin, and adopted him into his family, in the month of September of the above year, and he was baptized into the fellowship of Harmon's Creek church, by Elder James H. Hall, of Weakley county. He was impressed from the time that he united with the church, that it was his duty to preach. After a brief, but anxious and prayerful struggle, finally gave his consent to the great and important work of preaching the gospel of Christ Jesus. This work was commenced October 25, 1842. He had every encouragement from his church that heart could wish. In March, 1844, he was ordained to this work, by Harmon's Creek church: Elders M. S. Corbitt and George Glover constituting the presbytery. Immediately after his ordination, was organized with six others into the Beaverdam church, and grew up with it, and was its pastor for twenty years. His next pastorate was Chapel Hill Church, Middle Tennessee. In 1847 he was appointed a missionary by the Executive Board of the General Association of Middle Tennessee and North Alabama in the counties of Humphreys and Stewart, Middle Tennessee. He continued to labor for three years under its patronage, with what success eternity will disclose. Large crowds attended his appointments on Sabbaths and week days.

In 1847 he was challenged by Rev. A. A. Wilson, of the Presbyterian church, to a debate, which occurred in August, 1848, on the mode and subjects of baptism, which continued three days. In this connection it is proper to state that he has had other discussions with parties on the above subjects, and he is regarded by some (of the contrary sort) as a great lover of controversy. But the opposition might be more correctly stated, that he is a great lover of the truth. The votaries of error think that he is preaching controversy, when he is only contending "earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." His third pastorate was Spring Creek church, Henry county, Tenn., which lasted nine years. He has had the care of Union church, Henry county, about ten years; Marlborough, Carroll county, nine years; Union, Benton county; Tom's Creek, Perry county; Ramble Creek, Benton county, each one year. He is now pastor of New Hope church, Carroll county; Rushing's Creek, Benton county and Union of Henry county; at the latter he is elected for life. He has labored under the patronage of the Domestic Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for a number of years; labored two years in the town of Waverly, Humphreys county.

The first association he ever belonged to was the Western District, but the association was divided in 1843, and in July, 1844, fourteen churches were organized into the Southwestern District association. He was chosen its first clerk, which position he held for twelve years, until the brethren placed him in the moderator's chair, which position he held for a number of years, till he asked the brethren to elect others and train them in his lifetime. All the honors that body ever had to bestow upon any one, has been conferred on him; for which he feels grateful. He has labored as financial missionary in his association, under the patronage of the Executive Board of the West Tennessee Baptist Convention for 1874, with what success the record of that body and his own association will abundantly show. Also, in 1875, he labored in the same field, under the Executive Board of the association.

He has traveled and preached all over in some, and in parts of the following counties: Stewart, Humphreys, Perry, Houston and Hickman in Middle Tennessee; Benton, Decatur, Henderson and Weakly, in West Tennessee. For the last ten years he has traveled not less than two thousand miles a year, attending to pastoral work, and visiting all the churches in the association, in which he takes great pleasure. The destitute is not neglected in these annual visits. In the early part of his ministry he was very much opposed to missionary work, but careful study of the New Testament converted him thoroughly to the work in once opposed, and ever since has been a zealous advocate of the mission cause, as thousands can testify on earth, and he humbly trusts that hundreds will rejoice in heaven, in consequence of the change.

Born of poor parents, who were unable to aid him any, in a pecuniary sense; hence he has been compelled to labor daily, when at home, to support and educate his large family. He is now in his sixty-first year. But, few men are able at his age to do more horse-back or pulpit labor. May he yet be able to win many precious souls to Christ in his old age.

ANECDOTE - The above named minister with whom he had the debate some years ago, having urgent business at Camden, on returning home was in a heavy rain, and meeting two Methodist preachers, one the circuit rider, remarked laughingly, that he was almost his brother. In answer he replied, that he could complete the joke, handsomely. A few days after this, in a public crowd, in Camden, he charged him with intruding of his territory. When asked in what way, said that he (alluding to Elder Arnold) was taking water by pouring.

Elder Arnold replied by saying, that Baptist preachers, were some time like Methodist babies, had to take water contrary to their choice! This ended the amusement on his part.

ELDER ELIJAH AUTRY

The subject of the following sketch was born in Montgomery county, North Carolina, August 15, 1813, and was married to Miss Mary Parish, November 14, 1832, and died September 22, 1858. The circumstances connected with his death were sad and painful to his family and numerous friends. He had been holding a protracted meeting at Oak Grove church a week before his death. When he returned home from the meeting he learned through a neighbor that cattle were destroying his crop. He immediately started to turn them out, and was persuaded by his nephew to take a small derringer pistol to scare the cattle with. But he positively refused to do so. His nephew slipped it into his pocket without his knowledge. After awhile he felt something in his pocket, and in trying to get it out, the breech being down, and in pulling it out, drew the hammer back and caused it to fire and lodged the contents in his side, under the ribs; from the effects of which he died the next day, in the full triumph of a living faith, about twenty-four hours after the accident occurred.

Elder Autry had only a common English education, such as could be procured in the common district school in his day. Yet, by untiring energy and industry, he acquired a very fair knowledge of the Scriptures, and was a sound Bible teacher, and successful preacher.

Elder Autry professed faith in Christ and joined the Hopewell Baptist Church, Henderson county, Tenn., in the year of our Lord, 1836, and was baptized by Elder Clark Martin, in July, 1838. E. Autry, in connection with other brothers and sisters, were organized into the church at Mt. Comfort, Carroll county, Tenn., being seven or eight miles northeast of Hopewell church.

Elder Autry was ordained in May, 1840. Clark Martin and James Senter, acting as presbytery. He was pastor at Mt. Comfort church for a number of years; beginning his labors with said church in December, 1840. Elder Autry was pastor of the following churches at different times during his life: Union church, in Benton county; Prospect church, Carroll county; Oak Grove, Hopewell, Pleasant Hill, New Prospect, Holly Springs, Mt. Pisgah and Chalk Hill. At his death he was pastor of Mt. Comfort, Oak Grove and Concord. These churches, together with others and their ministers, originally belonged to the Western District association.

At the annual session of said body in 1844, some sixteen or eighteen churches were dismissed by letter to form the need copies of 22, 23, 24, 25

BENJAMIN ASKEW

Elder Benjamin Askew, the subject of this sketch, was born in Pitt county, N. C., March 22, 1805; was married to Lucinda J. Blackwell, of Limestone county, Ala., on 22d of November, 1827.

He removed from the State of North Carolina to Jackson, Tenn., in the year, 1830, where he lived one year; from there he moved to Fayette county, Tenn., where he settled and remained until his death, which occurred on the 12th of October, 1871.

He made a profession of religion in the year 1837, and was immersed by Elder Lumpkin, of Georgia, and commenced preaching the same year, and continued zealously to perform his duties as a minister of the gospel, and accomplished all the good he could, up to the time of his sudden death, caused by congestion of the lungs. He died in about one hour from the time he was taken ill. His suffering was intense, but borne with the greatest Christian fortitude. He called his loved ones around his bedside, and told them he was going to die; that he loved them dearly, but his Savior more; bade them farewell, and told them to meet him in heaven; prayed a long and fervent prayer; repeated a favorite hymn, and peacefully breathed his last.

An eye-witness says: "For the most wicked unbeliever to have witnessed the dying moments of this good man, could but acknowledge that religion is all comforting and consoling in a dying hours."

The author would add that Elder Askew was hospitable and kind, delighted much in discussing religious topics with his brethren. When preaching his cheeks were often suffused with tears.

MANLY ANDREWS

Elder Manly Andrews was born in Orange county, N. C., October 25, 1823; was married to Martha J. Cheek, August 25, 1853, and was ordained to the ministry of the gospel in 1859. As a minister of the gospel, Elder Andrews has for several years done valuable service in West Tennessee, Lauderdale county. He was a sound and unwavering Baptist, and proclaimed the "faith once delivered to the saints" most fearlessly -- "Landmarker," if you please. He died (as he lived) a Christian, near Durhamville, Tenn., March 11, 1876. He is at rest. After his decease, appropriate resolutions were passed by the Elim church, of which he was a member at the time of his death. He died suddenly of pneumonia.

G. W. ALLEN

Elder George Washington Allen was born in Davidson county, Tenn., March 12, 1827; made a profession of religion the sixth day of May, 1844; was baptized by Elder John Rushing, and united with the Rock Spring church, Rutherford county, Tenn., on the fourth Sabbath in the same month; was ordained by the same church, in December, 1855; Elders L. H. Bethel and Wm. A. Whitsitt constituting the presbytery.

He has preached as pastor to the following churches: County Line, one year; Quincy, five years; Providence, four years; Liberty Grove, seven years; Pleasant Hill, four years; Spring Creek, four years and six months; Walnut Hill, three years; Gadsden, three years; Chapel Hill, one year; Bethel, one year.

He was married December 24, 1846, to Miss. L. J. Pearson, daughter of J. A. Pearson; has now nine children living -- one dead. He is five feet eleven inches high; weighs one hundred and sixty pounds; hair black; eyes grey, and of dark complexion. As to his education, his early advantages were rather limited, and what education he received was obtained in the common, or "old-field schools" of the country. When he clearly saw that it was his duty to preach, "he read by fire-light, and in the field of work, until the back of his head had to be cupped, by a physician, to get his eyes open."

Elder Allen has been long and favorably known among our churches as an earnest and zealous minister of the New Testament; faithful and unswerving where duty called: making cheerful sacrifices of time, money, and comforts of family and home, that he might preach the "good news of Jesus to the perishing." He has ever been a staunch "Landmarker." He has never yielded his principles of duty to Christ for the smiles of approving errorists. He is courageous and positive in his declarations of what he conceives to be the truth; ready to "beard the lion in his den, or the Douglas in his halls." He is now in his prime, and if he should live to a reasonable old age will doubtless accomplish much for the Master.

W. J. F. ALLEN

Elder Allen was born January 11, 1836, in Davidson county, Tennessee, and professed religion in 1849, and was baptized into the fellowship of Rock Spring church the same year by Elder L. H. Bethel, and was licensed to preach in 1854, and was ordained to the work of the ministry in 1856: presbytery consisting of Elders James Rogers, J. B. Canada and J. L. Cross, at the call of the Shiloh church, Collierville, Tennessee. His first pastorate was with the Philadelphia church, and that of Collierville; the former in Fayette, the latter in Shelby county. In the year 1861 he moved to Gibson county and in connection with the ministry, he catered the school room. In a short time thereafter, he joined the Confederate army. Leaving the army he settled at Camden, preaching for the church and teaching school. In 1868 he settled in Bartlett, Shelby county, taking charge of the school at that place. The year following, he accepted the pastorate of the church; having also charge of the Egypt New Hope and Mt. Pisgah churches. In 1874 he removed to Galloway; taking charge of the church and school at that place. Elder Allen was educated at Union University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, under Dr. Joseph H. Eaton. He is regarded as a good scholar; thoroughly sound, and decided as a Baptist. His labor has been blessed of the Lord, as a minister. He is one of the rising men of the denomination.

Elder Allen is a man of strong, positive character, and as such draws his friends to him. He is of good, personal appearance, about the medium size; has a quick, discerning eye; of quick perception, and speaks with fluency; never at a loss for ideas or language. He is a man of the nervous order. Don't get in his way! At the same time, he is affable and pleasant. He will doubtless make a lasting mark.

A "Pen Sketcher" in The Baptist, after the meeting of the Big Hatchie association, at Bartlett, in 1870, after sketching others, holds the following in reference to him: "W.J.F. Allen, the pastor of the church at Bartlett, though a much younger man, yet is following in their wake in usefulness and intellectual strength. He has already made his mark in maintaining the strongholds, which had been assailed. May God sustain him, and guide him in the right.

REV. ISAAC W. ARGO

Was baptized into the fellowship of Republican Grove church in April, 1869, and was ordained to the work of the ministry in the autumn of 1873, by a presbytery consisting of Elders J. W. White, S. P. Jones, W. C. Gilbert and P. W. Cook. Departed this life February, 1875.

Brother Argo was a promising young minister and much esteemed by the churches where he labored; pious and devoted, leaving undisputed evidence of his induction into that rest that remains for the people of God.

It may truly be said that the church has sustained a great loss, and the Masonic fraternity also; the wife of a loving companion, and the children a devoted father

E. W. BENSON

Rev. E. W. Benson was born in Robertson county, Tenn., October 5, 1823, of pious parentage, John and Jane Benson, both being members of the Baptist church. He was converted October 7, 1838, being fifteen years and two days old, at Hopewell Baptist church in Robertson county, into whose fellowship on the next day he was baptized by the Rev. Robert T. Anderson. His call to the ministry was almost simultaneous with his conversion. He was licensed by Hopewell church in the spring of 1842; feeling the great necessity of an education to rightly understand and teach the Word to others, the same year studied in Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. In 1843 he entered Union University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, J. H. Eaton, D. D., President; where he continued three years. He obtained a good knowledge of Greek and Latin, also all of the common English branches taught in colleges. Having finished his studies he married Miss G. S. A., eldest daughter of Rev. W. S. Boldry, who was for a number of years one of the most successful ministers in Middle Tennessee. Immediately after marriage the Murfreesboro Baptist Church (of which he was then a member) in September, 1846, called for his ordination. Ordaining presbytery consisted of President J. H. Eaton, Matt. Hillsman, D. D. and Rev. Bradley Kimbrough. He spent the first two years in the ministry and teaching in North Alabama with tolerable success in both. In 1850 he settled in Maury county, Tenn., where he served as pastor of Carter's Creek, Friendship and Rock Spring churches. He was the pastor of Rock Spring church nine years, and taught on the same ground eighteen successive sessions in one house. He was also clerk of the Judson association, and served as moderator of that body the last time he met with it. He removed to Western Kentucky in 1860, and settled in McCracken county, near the city of Paducah, where he still resides, being in the fifty-seventh year of his life, and in the thirty-fourth year of his ministry. Since his removal to Western Kentucky he has pastorated the greater part of his time to four churches.He served Antioch church as pastor seventeen years. He clerked for West Union association about eleven years. He is still actively engaged through the blessing of heaven, in the good work. He has kept no memorandum of his labors, cannot give figures of his success, but he rejoices to believe that through his humble labors hundreds have been converted, among whom are many talented ministers now preaching Christ to a lost world.

DAVID EWING BURNS, The Natural Orator

Our purpose in drawing the portraitures of departed preachers is, as far as we may, to make them speak some concentrated and emphatic life-word -- some embodied and illustrated life-lesson, which will be heard and heeded and felt. The record of a man's birthday or his deathday is of no point farther than it marks the boundaries of the field of his toil. How he toiled, what were his struggles, his defeats and his victories, how he influenced the age in which he lived and how far he accomplished it -- these are the biography, the life-picture of the man -- these stamp him, they dis need pages 32 to 39

W. BRIGHT BEAVER

Elder W. B. Beaver (now of Lonoke county, Ark.) was born in Lincoln county, Tenn., December 19, 1811, and came to West Tennessee in 1827.

He professed religion in the year 1842, and was baptized into the fellowship of Beaver Creek church by Elder Griffin Wright, and was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by said church in January 1844: Elders P. S. Gayle, George W. Day, Robert Pulley and Etham Parrott constituting the presbytery.

He traveled and labored as a missionary for the West Tennessee Baptist convention for two years. He was pastor of Beaver Creek church, Fayette county, Tenn., for nine years, and was also pastor of Chapel Hill, Antioch, Smyrna, and Spring Hill churches, all of Tipton county, and of Big Creek, in Shelby, and of Philadelphia, in Fayette counties.

He moved to the state of Arkansas in 1866, and has been preaching to four churches nearly ever since. Elder Beaver is a large "thickset" man, weighs perhaps one hundred and eighty to two hundred pounds, social and companionable; enjoys a good joke. He is firm and zealous in the proclamation of the truth -- an uncompromising and unyielding Baptist; hold and fearless in the defense and maintainance of the doctrines and ordinances of the church.

He has done a good work wherever he has labored. The churches were blessed in Tennessee wherever he labored with revivals and additions. Elder Beaver has not been free, however, from the foul breath of persecution and scandal. But this, perhaps, has turned to his advantage; made him more devoted to the cause of his Master and more reliant upon Him for His divine aid, since out of all the troubles He has delivered him.