*/! 
 
 L LI I 
 
 
 
 - ', L 
 
 : 
 

 
 X 
 
 D.D.
 
 (LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 H. H. KAVANAUGH, D. D., 
 
 ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 
 
 BY A. H. REDFORD, D. 13. 
 
 NASHVIL^LE, TENN, 
 1884.
 
 Copyright 
 
 By A. H. REDFORD, 
 1884.
 
 !fo ^\rs. |V\. li, 
 
 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. 
 BOWUNO 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. 
 
 MM, 
 
 James II 11 
 
 William, Prince of Orange 11 
 
 Louis Eugene Cavaignac 13 
 
 Philemon and Charles Kava- 
 naugh 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 Hindo 22 
 
 His marriage to Mary T. Hub- 
 bard 23 
 
 The blister-plaster 28 
 
 Dr. Hindc'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- 
 
 iiiins Kavanaugh 42 
 
 William* Kaviinaugh's mar- 
 riage and location, 42 
 
 Invited to join the Protestant 
 
 Episcopal Church 44 
 
 Considers the proposition fa- 
 vorably 44 
 
 Ordained by Bishop Claggett... 45 
 Rector at Lexington, Louis- 
 ville, and Henderson, Ky.... 47 
 
 His death 47 
 
 His Christian character 48 
 
 PiOI. 
 
 Letter from Bishop Smith 48 
 
 Death of Mrs. Kavanaugh 51 
 
 Thomas W. Kavanaugh 51 
 
 Leroy H. Kavanaugh 52 
 
 Mary Jane Kavanaugh. 54. 
 
 Benjamin T. Kavanaugh 56 
 
 Williams B. Kavanaugh 61 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM THE BIRTH OP HUBBARD 
 HINDE KAVANAUGH TO HIS AD- 
 MISSION INTO THE KENTUCKY 
 CONFERENCE. 
 
 Hubbard Hinde Kavanaugh.... 63 
 
 Early life 63 
 
 Apprenticeship 63 
 
 Conversion 64 
 
 Joins the Methodist Church. .. 66 
 
 Licensed to preach 67 
 
 Editor of the Western Watch- 
 man 67 
 
 Trial Sermon 67 
 
 Benjamin Lakiu 69 
 
 Daniel H.Tevis 73 
 
 Win. McCommas 74 
 
 Nelson Dills 74 
 
 Daniel Black 75 
 
 Thompson J. Hollimaii 75 
 
 David Wright 75 
 
 Clement L. Clifton 76 
 
 Richard I. Duiigan, 76 
 
 George Richardson 77 
 
 Abram Long 79 
 
 John . Bargcr 80 
 
 Newtoii G. Berryman 81 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- 
 TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1823 TO 
 THE CONFERENCE OF 1827. 
 
 Little Handy Circuit 85 
 
 Andrew Monroe 85 
 
 Conference in Shelbyville 92 
 
 John Tevis 94 
 
 Miss Julia A. Hierouymus 94 
 
 Science Hill 95 
 
 Newport Circuit 98 
 
 Salt River Circuit !I7 
 
 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 
 
 Con fi-rence in Shelby ville 108 
 
 First sermon we ever heard 109 
 
 Stationed in Russellville Ill 
 
 Visits Howling 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 Liiidsey 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 Alaffitt 177 
 
 Superintendent of Public In- 
 struction 196 
 
 Augusta College 199 
 
 John P. Finley president 200 
 
 Peter Akers appointed agent.. 200 
 E. W. Sehon and H. H. Kava- 
 naugh agents 201 
 
 E. W. Sehon 201 
 
 CHAFfER VII. 
 
 FROM THE SESSION OF THE KEN- 
 TUCKY CONFERENCE OF 1839 TO 
 THE CONFERENCE OF 1842. 
 
 Re-appointed agent for Au- 
 gusta College 200 
 
 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. Kavauaugh 288 
 
 Shelbyville 291 
 
 Mr. Kavarmugh'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 T>~ue 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 iiiCovington 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 1864 381
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM THE GENKKAL CONFERENCE 
 OK 1854 TO THE GENERAL CON 
 FERENCE OF 1858. 
 
 General Conference of 1854 382 
 
 Interchange of sentiments be- 
 tween delegates 38S 
 
 Spoken of for bishop 38S 
 
 Failure in the pulpit 384 
 
 Elected bishop 384 
 
 Ilishop Pierce 384 
 
 Bishop Early 391 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh 39i 
 
 First conference 
 
 Conference in Jefferson City. .. 39S 
 
 At Riley's Chapel 398 
 
 Wachita Conference 398 
 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh 
 
 Conferences in 18.V) 399 
 
 First visit to California 400 
 
 Arkansas Conference 401 
 
 East Texas 404 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE 
 Of 1858 TO THE GENERAL, CON- 
 FKRENCE OF 1870. 
 
 General Conferenceof 1858 407 
 
 l!i-hop Kavanaugh's sermon .. 407 
 Kentucky, West Virginia, and 
 
 Virginia Conferences 408 
 
 Sick in 1 409 
 
 Missouri, St. Louis, Kansas 
 Mission, Arkansas, and In- 
 dian Mission Conferences in 
 
 1800 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 
 
 (eneral Conferenceof IXtfJ 412 
 
 Kentucky Conference in 180;;... 112 
 
 Exciting times 112 
 
 l)e:i(li of Mrs. Kavanaugh 413 
 
 A.rrc st in California 414 
 
 Jlis release 419 
 
 Louisville Conference 421 
 
 S.-cond marriage 421 
 
 < oiifciviices forlSOT. 421 
 
 <.c-n--r:il ( i.nfi-n-nc-.- of 18CO 422 
 
 Bishops i-l.-i-ti-d 423 
 
 Appointed to California 423 
 
 Iic-Mlfof Bishop Houlf 425 
 
 Feeble health 428 
 
 Annual meet ing of the bishops 428 
 
 Episcopal Held for 1S<;* li's 
 
 Conferences for 1HO!) .):) 
 
 Gentle reprimand 431 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE 
 OF 1870 TO THE ANNUAL MEET- 
 ING OF THE BISHOPS IN 1875. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 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 C;. inn-ground 451 
 
 Sketch of the bisnop by Mrs. 
 
 Emma Hardacrc.: 454 
 
 In Oregon 461 
 
 His conferences 462 
 
 St. Joseph, Mo 462 
 
 Paroquette Camp-meeting 403 
 
 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 
 OK 1K7N TO THE DEATH OF BISHOP 
 KAVANAUGH. 
 
 Jeneral Conferenceof 1878.... 4C7 
 
 \t Vanderbilt University 467 
 
 "istrict conferences 467 
 
 "amp-mei-ting 468 
 
 lolston Conference 468 
 
 Mahama Conference 469 
 
 \i home. February, 1879 469 
 
 listrict Conferences 469 
 
 Cavanaugh Camp-meeting 469 
 
 Kentucky Conference 470
 
 10 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PiGI. 
 
 Caverna, 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 THK MEMOKY 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, Josephus Anderson, D.D. 542 
 Bishop Kavanaugh's tribute to 
 
 Methodism 544 
 
 " Our Last Trip," by Mrs. Kav- 
 
 anaugh 5-15 
 
 Centennial Address, Dr. Mes- 
 sick 552
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 
 
 FROM THE DEA TH OF CHARLES II OF ENGLAND TO THE 
 DEA 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 XIV. 
 
 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 eifort 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 Kavauaugh 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 war. 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 Avhom 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- 
 olence. 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. He undoubtedly belongs 
 to the biime original stock. 
 
 2
 
 18 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 use until the latter part of the tenth or the beginning 
 of the eleventh century. Besides 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 stout 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, 1Y44, 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 Kavanaugh ; 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 Ray" 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, he 
 was not insensible to the responsibilities of the holy 
 office to which he had been called. With a common d- 
 
 * " 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 175758 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, Wolfe, and dressed the wounds of General 
 AVolfe 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 he returned to England. He was at the reduction 
 of Bellislc, 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 1765 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 
 success. 
 In 1767, September 24th, Dr. Hiude 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. Hiude was the friend of Lord Dunmore, 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 complete the location, offering 
 him one-half for his services. 
 
 These lands were located between Winchester and 
 Lexington, chiefly in Clarke County. 
 
 "In 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 KAVANAUGH. 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-churchman) 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 stuff in a most unmerciful manner, his son 
 professed to got 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-
 
 26 LIFE AND TIMES t)F 
 
 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 was 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 KAVANAUGH. 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. 200, 
 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 rnind at the time of his conversion I do not re- 
 member to have heard detailed. This I regret. In 
 detailing the 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, ' 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 appi-oached 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 fo God, and
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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 ; he 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 upon 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, '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 l 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, t 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 w6uld 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, ' Here is a 
 prayerful soul, and zealous for the Lord.' But 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, 
 1 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, l Good-morning, doctor ; 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, \Vm. W. Southgate, was 
 running for Congress, and the race was a close one. 
 Some of the family urged th 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 ? ' The election had 
 gone out of his min,d 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, ' Hannah's son ? > < Yes, sir/ He 
 rose from his chair, and, seizing me round the neck, 
 exclaimed, f 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, 1 1 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, ' 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- 
 sition, 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.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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, 1868 : 
 
 " 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 w'ith 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 ay being untrue, irra- 
 tional, and not worthy of belief. In a kind and gen- 
 tle tone of voice she said to him, l 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 KAVANAUGH. 39 
 
 to prayer, in which he persisted until 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 he 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. lint 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 Hinde 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 awakejied, 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. We 
 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 28th." 
 
 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 KAVANAUGH. 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, however, 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. He 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 been 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 ; 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. 
 
 While 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. Warfield 
 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, Avhen 
 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 the 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 Churdi in the Slate of Maryland, to my 
 beloved in Christ, the REV". WILLIAMS KAVANAUGH, 
 sendeth greeting: 
 
 " I do hereby give, and grant unto you, the said 
 WILLIAMS KAVANAUGH, of whose fidelity, learning, 
 sound doctrine, and diligence I 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, WILLIAMS KAVANAUGH, 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 canonically 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, I 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 
 
 muniou 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 
 says : " 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 some 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 Xelson 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 
 
 cither by Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, or by Bishop 
 Madison, of Virginia, if I remember aright." * 
 
 We 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. 
 
 We 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 be 
 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 up and trained to business in England. By 
 this marriage she had two sons, William and Edmund 
 Todd. William 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 
 husband having 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 Kavanaugh, 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 KAVANAUGH. 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, 
 ho\v 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 bee*h 
 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, 
 and her children had been now all faithfully discharged, 
 and she was ready to die. On the llth 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 wife, and 
 justly so. Leroy Cole, Captain Richardson, and Ed- 
 mund Taylor had all married daughters of Dr. Hinde. 
 On one occasion he said to Lcroy 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 AND 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 affected 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 was 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 
 peer 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 16, 
 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 the 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 Campbellite 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 Ebenezer, 
 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, 
 '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- 
 IK--S 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 m.is- 
 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 
 he was appointed to Independence, where he labored 
 for two years with unabated success. 
 
 In 1861 he was reappointed to Lexington, and soon 
 after 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 Chappell 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 tjie same in- 
 stitution. In 1867 the yellow fever visited Chappell 
 Hill, taking off one-fourth of the population, among 
 them his son, Dr. Thomas Hinde 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 tp 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 Avife 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, ' Electricity the 
 Motor Power of the Solar System,' published in serial 
 form in Wilford's Microcosm, 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 AND TIMES OF 
 
 make an exception. When very young she placet! 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 
 
 II. 
 
 FROM THE BIRTH OF HUBBARD HINDE KAVANAUGH 
 TO HIS ADMISSION INTO THE 'KEN- 
 TUCKY CONFERENCE. 
 
 TJUBBARD HIXDE KAVANAUGH was the 
 .L-L 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.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 65 
 
 Kavanaugh should join the Presbyterian Church and 
 enter the ministry. He 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- 
 Jion, 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 that he could not surrender. 
 
 6
 
 66 LIFE AND 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 adapte'd 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 Avork 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. 67 
 
 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. While 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 town. 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 Prov. 
 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. 69 
 
 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 Akers, Marcus Lindsay, 
 Andrew Monroe, William Adams, Charles Holliday, 
 Peter Cartwright, George "W. 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 Mrs. Lakin removed with her family to Penn- 
 sylvania, and settled near the Redstone 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 What- 
 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 work 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. 
 t Finley's " Sketches of Western Methodism," p. 180.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 71 
 
 and Union Circuits all lying beyond the Ohio River. 
 In 1814 he 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. Day and night he was upon the watch-tower; 
 
 * Mr. Lakin received into \}\c. Church, among others, the 
 l!cv. John P. Durbin, I). I)., :m<l Bishop K;iv;m;uigh.
 
 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 effective 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 MeCommns, Daniel H. Tevis, Richard I. Dungan, 
 Nelson Dills, Tiumip.J.Holliman, David Wright, Dan- 
 iel Black, Clement Clifton, Newton G. Berry man, 
 John S. Barger, George Richardson, Abram Long, 
 and HUBBARD HIXDE 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 KAVANAUOH. 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, 
 Red 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 1.826 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- 
 alSly 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," 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 Avas 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 KAVANAVGH. 77 
 
 The talents of Mr. Dungan were not of a brilliant 
 character, yet 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 he 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 wide 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 
 \\ith stalwart arm he vindicated his right to remain 
 by proving himself master of the situation. A second 
 :it tempt, 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 
 Hymn-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. Firsi 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 we're 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 happificd 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. When 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, " Not 
 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
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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. Berry man was the son of James and 
 Martha Berrymau, and was born in King George 
 County, Virginia, August 25, 1805. His parents 
 removed to Kentucky, and settled in Fayctte County, 
 when he was about six years of age. lie was 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 
 yc&rs' 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 1865 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 lie 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 tilled 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 hud 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 Maysrille, 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 KAVANAVGH. 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 H. 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. 
 Ivavanaugh marked the wrong rees. 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 undergraduates, 
 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 AVinter 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. Stam-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 93 
 
 per, distinguished no less for his wonderful gifts than 
 for his eloquence, determined to take up the gauntlet 
 and hear 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 KAVANAUGH. 95 
 
 than a year, she went to Washington County to be- 
 come 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 world. 
 
 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 
 yanks 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. Kavanuugli, 
 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. Atterbufy 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. AVesleyan. 
 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'sjove 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 Chnrch. The white membership was almost
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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 elder'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. Finley, Martin Flint, 
 AVilliam Young, John R. Roach, Daniel Black, Oba- 
 diah Harbor, 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 I" 
 
 John P. Finley was born in North Carolina, June 
 13, 1783. His excellent father was a Pennsylvauian 
 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 KAVANAUGH. 101 
 
 was long 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 i*eached 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- 
 defiled 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 
 was 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 KAVANAUGII. 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 tinder his gracious and reviving 
 ministrations. 
 
 " He was cut down 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 livcth/ 
 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 seC the place where 
 they have .laid him."* 
 
 Western Christian Advocate, of August 1, 1834.
 
 106 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER. IV. 
 
 FROM THE 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 fvventy-six preaching places, 
 and included Xicholasville, 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 tiling 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 Jeifersou. 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. 
 Ivavanaugh preach. He reached Shelby ville on Sat- 
 urday 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. Ho 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, Avhither 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 Shelbyville nearly fifty years 
 ago."
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. Ill 
 
 Russellville, where 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 Sou 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," 
 a-nd 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." It 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 KAVANAUGH. 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. Kavanaugh 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. Kavanaugh, 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 
 Methodi-i-. 
 
 * The New York store now occupies the ground.
 
 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 Avere 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 1806.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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 fo 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 Maysville. In 
 all these charges success crowned his labors. While 
 in the Maysville 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 Hon. Judge Fowler.
 
 118 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was transferred to the Tennessee Conference, and sta- 
 tioned at Tuscumbia. 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 KAVANAUGH. 119 
 
 ference of 1844, 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 vast-ness 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 Gospel in Texas during 
 these few years. At the conference succeeding his
 
 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 eye 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, 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, ydu 
 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 unworthiness ; 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 
 
 meaner which everywhere and always characterize 
 alike the gentleman and the Christian. . . . 
 
 "His last sermon was preached in the village of 
 Douglass, in Nacogdoches County, from Rom. i, 16: 
 ' 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 Russell ville, 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 ten 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. Smedley, 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 KAVANAUGH. 127 
 
 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 KAVANAUGH. 129 
 
 favorable, the membership not being equal to that iii 
 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 progress; 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 LTFE 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. "VV. Taylor, Richard 
 Tydings, 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 in'timate 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 
 1826 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, while 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 KAVANAUCH. 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, won 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 u was liorn December 10, 1707, 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 llth 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 
 
 actcr 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 foliag<*. 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 McHeury to the Cum- 
 berland Circuit in 1788, he did not take charge of 
 this work until 1791. This year he leaves Kentucky, 
 to cultivate " Immanuel's 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, New 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 KAVANAUGE. 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; 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 who 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 keen 
 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 with 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 flattering 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 were 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 KAVANAUGIL 137 
 
 but "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people 
 of God, because 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 Blackman 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 eat 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 ' 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 proaHi the 
 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 was 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 Avildest 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 Saudusky. 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. He was a good interpreter. With this
 
 142 LIFE AND TIAfES 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- 
 laud District. 
 
 Possessed of indomitable energy and untiring zeal, 
 his mission divine, and his heart and herculean fac- 
 
 t Finley's "Sketches," pp. 388-392.
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 1 43 
 
 nltios 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 
 quarterly 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 " wore mighty in pulling down the strongholds 
 of error." 
 
 The errors of Calvinism, as well as the exclusive 
 views held by the immersiouists in regard to the
 
 144 LIFE AND 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 sinners 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. A UTHOK.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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 weeping 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," arid 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 \vas 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 VAN A UGH. 147 
 
 If Mr. Lindsey, iu view of his presentiments, had 
 been cautious when danger was afar off, now it was 
 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 Liudsey 
 was no more ! 
 
 Worn down by his unremitting attentions to others, 
 he lived but a short time after he 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 : 
 
 Samfc 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 THE REV. MARCUS LINDSEY, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL OHtTRCH. 
 
 HE I I I.I.I. li THAT OFFICE 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 had 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 Flemingsburg, 
 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 KAVANAUGH. 151 
 
 I must soon die, but I am not now afraid of death; 
 Jesus h:\s 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. When 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 'country from whose 
 bourn no traveler returns/ she forced from her quiv- 
 ering lips these precious and consolatory words: 
 ' 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 
 
 *Mtthodisl Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 465.
 
 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, Russellville, 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. 
 
 " 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 till 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, Avhen the fathers especially in the West made 
 the listening crowds feel 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 bookworm, 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. Stribliug 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, ' 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 THfES OF 
 
 aside, either to the right or left, you will be left." 
 Therefore, poor \V. 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 ! \V. 
 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 KAVANAUGH. 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. Wm. 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. 
 McKcndree 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 'em 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. E. Stribling 
 McElfresh.
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 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 who he thought Avas 
 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 ;" 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. 
 
 r \ A HE death of William Adams, which occurred 
 .I 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 Gate 
 (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 so"n 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 place 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. 562.
 
 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. Basconi 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 was 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 affectionate 
 friend ; as a dignified and affable gentleman, and as a
 
 El SHOP 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 presence he realized : ' Stop ! wait just a 
 moment, and I will go ! Now I am ready !' 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- 
 ville, 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 arc 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 don't know but we will get 
 
 * Letter to the author from Mrs. Julia A. Tevis, of Shelby- 
 ville, Kentucky.
 
 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 
 Louisville. The membership was 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 Burdstown, he 
 entered upon the work in the spirit of his Divine 
 Master, and preached with the Holy Ghost sent dowa 
 from heaven. He 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 KAVANAUGH. 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- 
 lic, 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 AND 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 T 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 !" 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 Ouseley, 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 hei? 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 Methodist, a religious weekly 
 paper, which from that period has continued under 
 various names, as the South-western Christian Advo- 
 cate, Nashville Christian Advocate, Nashville and Louis- 
 ville Christian Advocate, and is at present the Christian 
 Advocate, the central organ of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, South.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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 
 won 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 1836 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 KAVANAUGII. 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 -ZEolus, and we have 
 sat beneath his ministry when like thunderbolts it 
 fell upon the ear. 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-western 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 he 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 world for gain or ease. 
 
 " He expressed cheerfulness and joy under suffer- 
 ing. ' We are troubled/ says he, f 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.' 
 
 "He was gloriously successful to the end of his course,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 185 
 
 because the hand of the Lord was 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 hody bound, 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 yineyard, 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 he advanced, 
 
 the temples of the gods were forsaken, the walls of 
 
 10
 
 .186 LIFE AND 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 pontific 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. "With 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. Maffitt 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-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 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- 
 pi ring 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 KAVANAUGE. 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. Maffitt, 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 
 w T hich 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. Al 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 in
 
 BISHOP 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, New 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 which 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. 
 Ball's 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. While lying there, Mrs. 
 
 W said to him, " Your enemies will outdo you." 
 
 He replied, " They will," and prayed, " 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 KAVANAUGH. 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 28, 1850, at 
 fifteen minutes past two, A. M., saying, " They have 
 broken my heart I" He was buried in Magnolia 
 Cemetery, where he still sleeps. No marble marks 
 the spot. His grave is simply bricked over. 
 
 It might be thought that after the death of Mr. 
 Maffitt the tongue of slander would be hushed. But 
 no! more busy than before, it continued to follow him, 
 charging that he had died by his own hand that 
 poison had caused his death. This suspicion, which 
 nothing but the most malignant hate could have sug- 
 gested, soon found its way into the press, and spread 
 throughout the country. It was due the reputation 
 of the distinguished dead, and it was due the cause of 
 the Master he had so faithfully served, that this slan- 
 der should be arrested. After consulting with his 
 sister, Mrs. Ball, Dr. Jefferson Hamilton and the Rev. 
 W. H. Milburn, stationed preachers in the city of 
 Mobilej determined that a post mortem examination 
 should be had, under the ablest medical supervision. 
 This examination silenced at once and forever the 
 heartless calumny. It revealed a broken heart. On 
 one side of it there were three holes ; the other side 
 had literally burst.* They had broken his heart. Noble 
 man ! He has entered into the rest that "remaineth to 
 the people of God," and to-day shares its bliss with 
 
 *Dr. Ndtt, who took out the heart, kept it for several 
 weeks, and then sent it to the medical faculty in New Or- 
 leans for examination. It was returned and deposited in the 
 grave.
 
 196 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the many thousands who were brought to Christ 
 through his ministry. " Sleep on, and take thy rest." 
 In thine own beautiful language : " The sorrowful 
 bosom heaves no more, the tears are dried up in their 
 fountain, the aching head is at rest, and the stormy 
 waves of earthly tribulation roll unheeded over the 
 place of graves. The voice of thunders shall not 
 awake thee: the loud cry of the elements, the winds, 
 the waves, nor even the giant tread of the earthquake 
 shall be able to cause an inquietude in the chambers 
 where thou dost sleep." God watches thy dust, and 
 will at last gather it unto himself. 
 
 Mr. Kavanaugh was returned to Bardstown, and 
 in the Summer of 1838 Mr. Maffitt made him a visit, 
 and occupied his pulpit for nearly a month, day and 
 night. Under their joint ministry tjie Church was 
 greatly revived, and about fifty souls were converted 
 to God. 
 
 In February, 1837, he had received from Gov- 
 ernor Clark the appointment as superintendent of 
 public instruction, in the early morn of the great 
 movement of that day which has resulted in the com- 
 mon school system of the State. 
 
 Having entered the Kentucky Conference in 1837, 
 the acquaintance we had previously formed with Mr. 
 Kavanaugh became more intimate, and then ripened 
 into a warm friendship, and upon our part into rev- 
 erence. A member of the same conference with him 
 for many years, we had every facility that association 
 could offer for knowing him well. 
 
 The early history of the Methodist Church in 
 Kentucky is replete with interest. On the question
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 197 
 
 of education, even previous to the admission of Ken- 
 tucky as a State into the Union, the Methodist Church 
 was seen in the van of other Christian denominations 
 in originating measures for the education of the youth. 
 The erection of the Bethel Academy, and the noble 
 efforts of our fathers to sustain it although they 
 failed to do so is a monument to their enlightened 
 Christianity that no changes of time can destroy. 
 Their failure, however, instead of disheartening their 
 sons in the Gospel, only added strength to their pur- 
 poses and efforts in the future. 
 
 The great want of a literary institution of a high 
 order in the State, under the patronage of the Church, 
 was too apparent to admit of argument. From 1812 
 to 1820 the Ohio and Tennessee Conferences had 
 each embraced about one-half of Kentucky, so that 
 no community of interest was likely to be felt in an 
 enterprise of this kind. The formation of the Ken- 
 tucky Conference placed the Church in a position to 
 look after their resources, and to come up to the 
 measure of their duty. 
 
 The Ohio Conference for this year met twelve 
 days in advance of the Kentucky. Previous to the 
 conference, the question of "getting up an institu- 
 tion of learning among the Methodists in the West" 
 had been submitted by Mr. George S. Houston, an 
 intelligent and pious layman residing in Dayton, O., 
 to James B. Finley, at that time the presiding elder 
 on the Lebanon District. The subject was first can- 
 vassed in Mr. Finley's district, and then brought be- 
 fore the Ohio Conference. 
 
 Unwilling to attempt the enterprise alone, the
 
 198 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 : 
 
 Ohio Conference appointed a committee to attend the 
 Kentucky Conference, and propose that the two con- 
 ferences "unite in the establishment of a college un- 
 der their joint patronage." 
 
 The Kentucky Conference made the following 
 response : 
 
 " The committee appointed to confer with the 
 committee from the Ohio Conference on the subject 
 of erecting a seminary reported as follows : 
 
 "'The committee to whom was referred the sub- 
 ject of a seminary having, as far as time would per- 
 mit, attended to the duty assigned them, beg leave 
 to report : 
 
 " ' 1. That the establishment of a seminary within 
 the bounds of this conference is expedient and nec- 
 essary. 
 
 " ' 2. The place where we have a prospect of the 
 most ample funds for the purpose is in the town of 
 Augusta, on the Ohio River. 
 
 " 1 3. Inasmuch as the Ohio Annual Conference 
 have adopted measures toward a union with this con- 
 ference in the establishment of a seminary at that 
 place, it is our opinion that a union of the two con- 
 ferences is expedient. 
 
 " 1 4. That it is expedient for this conference to 
 appoint a committee, whose duty it shall be to confer 
 with the committee of the Ohio Conference, and to 
 take such measures in favor of the contemplated es- 
 tablishment as they may think advisable; provided 
 they do not place themselves or this conference liable 
 to expense. 
 
 " ' 5. It shall be the duty of this conference, in
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 199 
 
 case of success in such establishment, to take the most 
 prudent measures in their power, in conjunction with 
 the committee of the Ohio Conference, to secure the 
 influence and government of the institution to the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church.'"* 
 
 The commissioners appointed by the Ohio Con- 
 ference were John Collins and Martin Ruter, while 
 George C. Light and Marcus Lindsey represented the 
 Kentucky Conference. 
 
 On the 15th of the following December the com- 
 missioners visited Augusta, Ky., and held a confer- 
 ence with the trustees of Bracken Academy, " and laid 
 before them the object of their appointment, and also 
 informed them that, after visiting many other places, 
 they had determined to locate said institution at Au- 
 gusta, provided a little assistance could be obtained 
 from the trustees of the academy and the citizens in 
 building a college edifice and giving the institution a 
 start, until the conferences could sufficiently command 
 their resources, when they would amply endow the 
 same as an institution worthy the people for whose 
 benefit they were laboring. The trustees of Bracken 
 Academy agreed to give them the proceeds of the fund 
 in their hands, and all the principal over and above 
 the sum of $10,000." 
 
 "Several individuals, now no more, entered with 
 laudable zeal on this work. Among them was Brother 
 James Armstrong, the distinguished benefactor of the 
 institution, who deeded to the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church the plat of ground on which the beautiful 
 college edifice now stands, to be held in trust for col- 
 
 *MS. Journal, Kentucky Conference, 1821, pp. 15, 16.
 
 200 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 lege purposes by them forever. He also erected the 
 buildings, and was looked upon as the distinguished 
 friend of the college during his life." * 
 
 The college was properly chartered by the Legis- 
 lature of Kentucky, December 22, 1822. 
 
 This institution was soon in successful operation. 
 At the conference of 1822 John P. Finley was ap- 
 pointed president. 
 
 To properly endow an institution of learning re- 
 quires effort, energy, perseverance. In endeavoring 
 to accomplish this task, the conferences met with 
 much to discourage them. Under all the embarrass- 
 ments to which such enterprises are exposed, the vast 
 amount of good that resulted to the Church and the 
 country from Augusta College can never be estimated. 
 Over its fortunes some of the noblest intellects have 
 presided ; its faculty was always composed of men 
 of piety, of genius, and of learning; and in all the 
 learned professions, in almost every Western and 
 Southern State, its alumni may yet be found. It 
 gave to the medical profession, to the bar, and to the 
 pulpit many of their brightest lights. 
 
 In 1831 Peter Akers had been appointed "con- 
 ference agent" for Augusta College, but the small 
 returns scarcely justified his continuance in the field. 
 
 In 1838 the Ohio and the Kentucky Conferences 
 both became awakened to the importance of more active 
 efforts in behalf of this enterprise, and each placed an 
 energetic and gifted man in the field. 
 
 * Extract from a communication by the Kev. James B. 
 Finley, published in the Western Christian Advocate of July 
 11, 1834.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 201 
 
 Edmund W. Sehon, at that time a member of the 
 Ohio Conference, was chosen by that body for this 
 important work, while a similar trust was committed 
 to H. H. Kavanaugh by the Kentucky, each to work 
 within the bounds of his own conference. No two 
 men better adapted to such a task could have been 
 chosen; and if there was any rivalry between them 
 it was only such as an earnest wish to accomplish 
 good would warrant. 
 
 For several years, before he came to Kentucky, 
 Edmund W. Sehon had been prominent before the 
 Church and the country as a preacher of the Gospel. 
 He was born in Moorefield, Virginia, April 14, 1808, 
 and was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church September 20, 1824, at a camp-meeting near 
 Clarksburg, Virginia. He was licensed to preach 
 October 10, 1827, by William Stephens. 
 
 In 1828 he offered himself to the Pittsburg Con- 
 ference, which included in its territory that portion 
 of Virginia in which he was born and brought up, 
 and was accepted. Belonging to one of the best fam- 
 ilies in the State of Virginia, of fine personal appear- 
 ance, with a mind highly cultivated, his manners 
 polished, and distinguished for his eloquence, his 
 burning zeal, his fervent piety, and his devotion to 
 the cause of Christ, he promised great usefulness in 
 the Church. 
 
 At the time he entered the Pittsburg Conference 
 Dr. Bascom was president of Madison College, an in- 
 stitution of learning in. the bounds of that conference. 
 A strong attachment on the part of Dr. Bascom was 
 formed for the young itinerant, which, on the part of
 
 202 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Mr. Sehou, was fully reciprocated, and which grew 
 into the warmest friendship in the hearts of both. 
 
 Mr. Sehon was appointed to Youngstown Circuit 
 as the colleague of Billings O. Plimpton, and with 
 Ira Eddy as his presiding elder traveled on the 
 Lewis Circuit, having traveled on the Redstone Cir- 
 cuit the previous year under the presiding elder. 
 His next appointment was to the Monongahela 
 Circuit as junior preacher. In 1831 he was trans- 
 ferred to the Ohio Conference and appointed to the 
 city of Cincinnati, where he remained two years. At 
 the conference of 1832 he was appointed agent for the 
 Colonization Society, in which position he remained 
 but one year. In 1833 he was transferred to the 
 Missouri Conference and stationed in the city of St. 
 Louis, but at the close of the year returned to Ohio, 
 and was stationed in the city of Columbus, where he 
 remained for two years. In 1836 we again find him 
 in Cincinnati, in the Western Charge, with Cyrus 
 Brooks as his colleague, and the following year, with 
 David Warnock, he preaches to the same congrega- 
 tion. In 1838 he was agent for Augusta College, and 
 in 1839 was returned to Cincinnati, and appointed to 
 the Eastern Charge, where he remained two years. 
 
 At the session of the Ohio Conference of 1841 
 he received the appointment of general agent of the 
 American Bible Society for the West, in which he 
 continued for several years. He was a member of the 
 famous General Conference of 1844, and amid the ex- 
 citing scenes of that occasion he voted with the South- 
 ern delegates. 
 
 While he was not favorable to slavery, having
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 203 
 
 liberated several slaves that he inherited, yet he did 
 not think that slavery was a sin per se and regarded 
 the action of the General Conference in the case of 
 Bishop Andrew as a violation of the compromise law 
 of the Church. 
 
 Finding no longer any sympathy in the Ohio Con- 
 ference, and unwilling to yield his convictions, he 
 availed himself of the plan of separation, and identi- 
 fied his fortunes with Kentucky Conference of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In the city of 
 Cincinnati there were many members of the Church 
 who desired to adhere to the Church South, and hence 
 his appointment to Soule Chapel in that city in 1846. 
 
 Dr. Sehon was no stranger in Kentucky. He 
 had been present at several of the annual conferences, 
 and in the pulpit and on the platform had captivated 
 the hearts of the people. His adherence to the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, South, was gratifying to that 
 branch of Methodism, while the Kentucky Conference 
 received him most cordially. 
 
 In 1847 he was transferred to the Louisville Con- 
 ference, and stationed at Fourth Street, in the city of 
 Louisville. A great revival of religion crowned his 
 ministry that year, in which more than one hundred 
 persons were converted and added to the Church. 
 The following year his labors in the same charge were 
 equally blessed. Unwilling to be deprived of his serv- 
 ices, as the law of the Church would not permit his 
 appointment for the third year, a portion of the mem- 
 bers resolved upon the formation of a new charge, to 
 be known as Third Street, to which he was appointed, 
 where he remained two years.
 
 204 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 III 1850 he was elected by the General Conference 
 missionary secretary, which office he continued to fill 
 until 1868, when he returned to the pastoral work. 
 He was then stationed at Shelby Street, in the city of 
 Louisville, three years, and then on the Louisville 
 District four years. 
 
 In 1875 he was sent to the Bowling Green Dis- 
 trict, but died June 7, 1876, in full hope of eternal 
 life. Dr. Sehon was a man of commanding presence, 
 fine address, and polished manners. Remarkably 
 gifted as a preacher, and taking high rank as an orator, 
 and as a platform speaker with scarcely a peer, he 
 wielded an influence for good during the long period 
 of his ministry, laboring with uncompromising zeal 
 and success. Whether he bore the banner of the 
 cross, stained with Immanuel's blood, along the waters 
 of the Monongahela, or proclaimed its hallowed story 
 on the banks of the Mississippi, or in the Queen City 
 of the "West, or whether throughout our Southern 
 land he invited sinners to Christ, hundreds sought 
 repose and safety beneath its crimsoned folds. 
 
 The fields he was to occupy were new. He had 
 before him the entire State as the theater of his labors. 
 He had shown himself an able polemic, and the peo- 
 ple were familiar with him as a preacher of command- 
 ing talents, but as a platform speaker he was yet 
 untried. He entered upon the duties he had accepted 
 with the same zeal that had hitherto distinguished 
 him, traversing the commonwealth, reaching almost 
 every county, delivering addresses in the morning to 
 vast assemblies, and preaching to immense audiences 
 in the evening, until his name became a household
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUQH. 205 
 
 
 
 word, and his life the synonym of all that is noble 
 and pure. His theme on the platform the education 
 of the young laudable in itself, became more com- 
 manding when it received the touch of his Herculean 
 mind and brilliant oratory; while his genuine Irish 
 wit and pleasant humor won for him a place in the 
 popular heart from which he would never be displaced. 
 With what success either Mr. Sehon or Mr. Kav- 
 anaugh met in collecting funds for the endowment of 
 Augusta College we are not advised ; but they crowded 
 its halls with young men who wished to prepare for 
 the stern duties of life. Never before had the roll of 
 students been so large as during their agency, while 
 Mr. Kavanaugh filled so well the office of superin- 
 tendent of public instruction, that he was asked to 
 continue it by Governor Wickliffe in the following 
 administration.
 
 206 LIFE AND TIMES' OF 
 
 vii. 
 
 FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE 
 OF 1839 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1842. 
 
 IN 1839 Mr. Kavanaugh desired to return to the 
 pastoral work, but the -interest of Augusta College 
 demanded his continuance in the agency he had filled 
 the previous year with so great advantage to that in- 
 stitution. 
 
 Dr. Joseph S. Tomlinson was the president of 
 Augusta College, and Henry B. Bascora professor of 
 moral science and Belles-lettres, at the time he was the 
 agent, and between these eminent preachers and him 
 the warmest friendship existed. 
 
 " Joseph S. Tomlinson was born in Georgetown, 
 Kentucky, March 15, 1802. His parents were re- 
 spectable, but in limited circumstances. His father 
 dying while he was a child, he was apprenticed to the 
 saddlery business, in which he soon became a profi- 
 cient. He entered Transylvania University an orphan 
 boy, dependent principally upon his trade, to which 
 he laboriously devoted his spare hours, for his sup- 
 port. Anxious to complete his course as soon as pos- 
 sible, he applied himself with indefatigable diligence, 
 and in due time graduated with honor. In early 
 youth he was converted to God, and joined the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church ; and some time before he 
 graduated was licensed to preach. From his first ef-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 207 
 
 forts as a public speaker he was hailed as a youth of 
 extraordinary promise to the Church. 
 
 "At the time of his graduation at Lexington, the 
 friends of our infant college at Augusta, at that time 
 the only institution of its grade under the patronage 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and then strug- 
 gling for existence, were in want of a competent pro- 
 fessor, and Tomlinson, young as he was, was selected 
 for the place, and accepted the important trust. He 
 immediately hastened to the field of his future labors, 
 where for nearly thirty years, with the exception of 
 a few brief intervals, on account of declining health, 
 he faithfully toiled at his post. Here he severely 
 taxed all the energies of his powerful intellect and 
 feeble body in advancing the cause of learning and 
 the interests of religion. That his labors Avere abun- 
 dant here will appear from the fact that, in consequence 
 of the frequent vacancies in the faculty, it became 
 necessary that at different periods he should occupy 
 different chairs. At one period he was professor of 
 languages, at another of mathematics, then of natural 
 science, then of moral philosophy and Belles-lettres, 
 In every department of instruction he determined to 
 be a master ; and so he" was. But to accomplish this 
 required intense study and indefatigable application, 
 which seriously impaired his health. Indeed, he was 
 long a confirmed dyspeptic, and the morbid sensitive- 
 ness of the dyspeptic invalid is matter of general no- 
 toriety. 
 
 " In 1825 he was admitted into the traveling con- 
 nection, and regularly graduated to the offices of dea- 
 con and elder. At a comparatively early period of
 
 208 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 his career, and when literary institutions bestowed 
 their honors with less profusion than at present, he 
 was deemed worthy to receive, and had conferred upon 
 him, the degree of D. D., which honor he wore with 
 dignified modesty. For a number of years Dr. Tom- 
 linson was president of Augusta College, in which po- 
 sition he remained until it was broken down by the 
 withdrawal of the patronage of the Kentucky Confer- 
 ence, and the repeal of its charter by the Legislature 
 of that State. Subsequently the doctor was elected to 
 a professorship in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at 
 Delaware, but did not accept, though he acted for 
 two years as agent for that institution. He was next 
 elected to a professorship in the Ohio University, at 
 Athens. This appointment, with much persuasion, he 
 accepted, and served one year, at the expiration of 
 which he was elected president of that institution. 
 This appointment he declined because of ill health 
 and almost entire mental^ prostration, produced by 
 what he deemed the greatest calamity of his life the 
 sudden and melancholy death of a favorite son by 
 cholera. The doctor inherited a strong predisposition 
 to mental derangement, as is proven by well-known 
 facts in the history of his family ; and from the sud- 
 den death of his son, which fell upon him like a pa- 
 ralysis, combining with other causes, his mind began 
 to waver. The bold and fearless man became the 
 irresolute and timid child. His energies were pros- 
 trated, and soon his friends saw with alarm that he 
 was rapidly becoming the victim of a most melan- 
 choly form of mental derangement. He was, how- 
 ever, subsequently twice elected to responsible posi-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 209 
 
 tions to the Springfield High-school, and the State 
 University of Indiana both of which he declined, for 
 the reasons above stated. Although for a number of 
 the last months of his life he had momentary lucid 
 intervals of apparent sunshine, yet the darkening clouds 
 gradually condensed around and above him, until, as 
 he repeatedly declared to the writer, his agony became 
 insupportable, and he incapable of resistance or self- 
 control ; and yet when drawn out, the charms of his 
 conversation, the perspicuity and power of his ser- 
 mons, and the unction of his prayers, partially con- 
 cealed the deep and hidden tendency to mental alien- 
 ation. He, however, repeatedly stated that domestic 
 difficulties had no agency in the matter that he had 
 one of the most agreeable families in the world. This 
 state of things continued until Saturday, June 4, 1853, 
 when the tragical event of his death occurred. We 
 would gladly draw the veil of oblivion over the scene, 
 but the fact has gone abroad he fell by his own hand. 
 " Dr. Tomlinson possessed a mild and amiable dis- 
 position, cultivated the social principle, and enjoyed 
 society in a high degree. He was an accomplished 
 gentleman. As a husband, he was kind and affection- 
 ate ; as a parent, tenderly indulgent. He was endowed 
 by nature with a rich and vigorous intellect, which 
 was thoroughly cultivated. He was a ripe scholar. 
 As a teacher and governor, he was skillful, prudent, 
 and faithful ; as a preacher, he was considered a model 
 argumentative, persuasive, pathetic. He was pro- 
 nounced by a competent judge, though no personal 
 friend, ' the ablest debater in America.' As a Chris- 
 tian, he was exemplary and uniform in the discharge 
 
 18
 
 210 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of religious duty; and while he was almost constantly 
 reproaching himself, he never spoke unkindly of a fel- 
 low-being. That the life of such a man should have 
 such a termination is matter of painful reflection, but 
 to which it is a duty to submit, as to other inscruta- 
 ble permissions of Him ' whose ways are perfect.' " * 
 
 When we were admitted on trial in the Kentucky 
 Conference, in the Autumn of 1837, Dr. Tomlinson 
 was the president of Augusta College, and was re- 
 garded not only as one of the most gifted members 
 of the conference, but as one of the most remarkable 
 men of American Methodism. Whether as a debater 
 upon the floor of the conference, or as a preacher of 
 the Gospel of Christ, he not only commanded the re- 
 spect, but claimed the admiration of all who knew 
 him. Coming up from the ranks of humble life, and 
 having to grapple with poverty in childhood and 
 youth, yet by his own indomitable energy acquiring 
 a thorough classical education, he not only demon- 
 strated his aptitude for the elevated position in which 
 he had been placed by his brethren, but he stood a 
 living example to young men in the ministry of how 
 much might be accomplished by untiring industry and 
 perseverance. Amiable in his manners and mild in 
 his disposition, he was a universal favorite. 
 
 In 1832 he was a member of the General Confer- 
 ence the first that was held after he was eligible 
 and in 1840 his name stands first in the list of the 
 delegates from Kentucky. 
 
 Our acquaintance with Dr. Tomlinson until 1843 
 was only such as might exist between two preachers 
 
 * General Minutes, vol. v., pp. 295, 296.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 211 
 
 the difference in whose ages separated them widely, 
 and who only met once a year at an annual confer- 
 ence. This year we were appointed to the Minerva 
 Circuit, embracing Augusta, where he resided. From 
 the time we entered upon our labors on that circuit 
 until our term of service expired, we knew him in- 
 timately. The General Conference of 1844 met dur- 
 ing our pastorate in that charge, and although it was 
 evident that the action of that body in the case of 
 Bishop Andrew would result in the division of the 
 Church, yet we had no disturbance in our field of 
 labor until after the session of the Kentucky Confer- 
 ence subsequent to the adjournment of the General 
 Conference. At the annual conference of 1844, we 
 were reappointed to the same charge. The previous 
 year had been one of marked prosperity to the Church 
 in that circuit. Between five and six hundred souls 
 had been converted and joined the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church. 
 
 The second year opened with indications of greater 
 prosperity than the first. While the tide of religious 
 emotion was sweeping over that portion of the State, 
 and the ranks of our Zion were being rapidly swelled, 
 Dr. Tomlinson, who had taken his position with the 
 majority in the General Conference of 1844, resolved 
 to carry, by his magic influence, the Minerva Circuit 
 with the Northern division of the Church. The 
 General Conference had adopted the two following 
 resolutions : 
 
 " 1. That, should the annual conferences in the 
 slave-holding States find it necessary to unite in a 
 distinct ecclesiastical connection, the following rule
 
 212 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 shall be observed with regard to the northern bound- 
 ary of such connection : All the societies, stations, 
 and conferences adhering to the Church in the South 
 by a vote of a majority of the members of said soci- 
 eties, stations, and conferences, shall remain under 
 the unmolested pastoral care of the Southern Church ; 
 and the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 shall in no wise attempt to organize Churches or so- 
 cieties within the limits of the Church South, nor 
 shall they attempt to exercise any pastoral oversight 
 therein ; it being understood that the ministry of the 
 South reciprocally observe the same rule in relation 
 to stations, societies, and conferences, adhering, by 
 vote of a majority, to the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church; provided, also, that this rule shall apply 
 only to societies, stations, and conferences bordering 
 on the line of division, and not to interior charges, 
 which shall, in all cases, be left to the care of that 
 Church within whose territory they are situated. 
 
 "2. That ministers, local and traveling, of every 
 grade and office in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 may, as they prefer, remain in that Church, or, with- 
 out blame, attach themselves to the Church South."* 
 
 The Minerva Circuit was an appointment on the 
 border, and came under the provisions of the above 
 resolutions. While the privilege of voting an adher- 
 ence, North or South, was not extended to interior 
 charges, yet a line of circuits reaching far into the 
 State believing that the charge in which Dr. Tom- 
 linson resided would adhere North, and by this means 
 place them on the border had, one after another, 
 
 * History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, p. 91.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 213 
 
 already cast their vote of adherence to the Northern 
 division of the Church. It was this consideration 
 that quickened the zeal of Dr. Tomlinson and his 
 friends, and this, too, invested the decision of that 
 circuit in favor of the Southern branch of the Church 
 with a commanding importance. The struggle was 
 severe ; the controversy, however, resulted in every 
 society adhering to the Church South, except the 
 Church in Augusta. 
 
 It was during the discussion of the questions in- 
 volved in this controversy, that the conviction was 
 forced upon us that Dr. Tomlinson was deranged. 
 We had labored side by side with him in the pulpit; 
 we had associated with him in the family circle; and 
 now and then we had feared, and expressed the ap- 
 prehension to friends, that he was occasionally insane ; 
 but when we watched him closely through the long 
 and anxious months during the discussion of the great 
 principles which divided the Church, our impressions 
 became fully confirmed, that the empire of reason 
 was tottering to its fall, and that his majestic inteHect 
 would become a fearful wreck. That he was a good 
 man we have no doubt. 
 
 Methodism in Kentucky, in 1816, was distin- 
 guished for the appearance in its pulpit of a young 
 man who had not only taken rank with the ablest 
 ministers of the Church, but was attracting more 
 than ordinary attention in the public mind. The sun- 
 shine of fortune had not smiled on his early years, 
 nor had he been blessed with the advantages that ed- 
 ucation bestows. Converted in childhood, he enters 
 the ministry when only a youth. Grappling with dif-
 
 214 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ficulties, before he became a preacher, that seemed 
 almost insurmountable, he holds them in abeyance to 
 his wishes. Not conforming to certain notions then 
 prevalent, his entrance into the ministry met with 
 opposition, while in the prosecution of his work, per- 
 secutions bitter and relentless pursued him at every 
 step. Without the sympathy of the Church, to the 
 welfare of which he was devoting his strength, and 
 opposed by many of his seniors in the ministry, of 
 whom he expected encouragement yet courted by 
 other communions, he spurns their propositions, and 
 remains alike unmoved by the chilling words of cen- 
 sure or the warm breath of praise. Such was Henry 
 Bidleman Bascom. 
 
 He was the son of Alpheus and Hannah Bascom, 
 and was born on the 27th of May, 1796, in the town 
 of Hancock, Delaware County, New York. On the 
 18th of August, 1810, he embraced religion, and in 
 the Spring of 1811 he joined the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, under the ministry of Loring Grant. 
 His father emigrated to the West in 1812, and set- 
 tled in or near Maysville, Kentucky. He remained 
 here but a short time, when he removed to Ohio, 
 about five miles from Maysville, in the direction of 
 Ripley, where he located permanently. 
 
 The poverty of the family, which was large, made 
 it necessary for Henry to labor constantly for their 
 support at a period when he should have enjoyed the 
 advantages of a school.* Willing to perform any 
 kind of labor that would render lighter the heavy 
 
 *He never went to school after he was twelve years of 
 age. Ifenkle's Life of Bascom, p. 18.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 215 
 
 burden that rested upon his father, we find him at 
 one time engaged in the humble pursuit of driving 
 u dray. 
 
 Impressed with the conviction that he ought to 
 preach the Gospel, and unable to see the path of duty 
 in another profession or pursuit, at fifteen years of 
 age he is exercising his gifts as an exhorter. In the 
 month of February, 1813, he was licensed to preach 
 by James Quinn, and was immediately appointed by 
 Mr. Quinn to the Brush Creek Circuit, as colleague 
 of Robert W. Finley. Both in his sphere as an ex- 
 horter and in his first efforts to preach, he attracted 
 no inconsiderable attention. His deep piety, no less 
 than his commanding talents, and his zeal for the 
 cause of the Redeemer, made an impression upon the 
 community wherever he labored. 
 
 He was admitted on trial in the Ohio Conference 
 in 1813, and appointed to the Deer Creek Circuit, 
 and the following year to the Guyandotte Circuit 
 the latter in the State of Virginia. 
 
 Highly appreciated as Mr. Bascom was in the 
 fields of labor which he had served, and faithfully as 
 he had discharged his duties, the prejudice that ex- 
 isted in the conference against him, growing out of 
 his fine personal appearance and his ornate style in 
 the pulpit, prevented his admission into full connec- 
 tion and his election to deacon's orders. No objection 
 was brought against his piety, or his attention to the 
 several duties that devolved on a traveling preacher; 
 but he did " not either dress or look like a Method- 
 ist preacher." And this was sufficient to place him 
 under distrust. He was continued on trial, with con-
 
 216 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 siderable opposition, and appointed to the Mad River 
 Circuit, " extending from the frontier settlements west 
 of the Great Miami, eastward on to the Scioto, and 
 northward into the Indian country." This was one 
 of the most laborious and difficult fields in the West. 
 He entered upon his work immediately upon the close 
 of the conference, and labored with all the energy of 
 which he was capable. On the Guyandotte Circuit 
 he had received but twelve dollars and ten cents for his 
 year's services; but still he murmured not. Long 
 and dreary rides, poor fare, and poor pay, difficulties 
 and privations confronted him at every step ; yet he 
 faltered not. He closed his year's labor, and feeling 
 that he was entitled to the confidence of his brethren, 
 and that it would not be longer withheld, he attended 
 the conference. But trials again awaited him. The 
 men who had before passed judgment upon him were 
 unwilling to reverse their unjust verdict ; and al- 
 though their predictions that he would leave the 
 ministry had not been realized, yet the style of his 
 clothes was " too fashionable for a preacher," and they 
 determined to subject his fealty to the Church to fur- 
 ther tests, by withholding from him the orders to 
 which he was entitled. It was at this conference that 
 Bishop McKendree* said, "Give me that boy; I 
 will be responsible for him." 
 
 The history of the Church scarcely presents an 
 example of persecutions so groundless, and at the 
 same time so relentless, on the part of older preach- 
 ers, of a young man in the ministry, as those endured 
 
 *It was not Bishop Asbnry, as has generally been thought, 
 who made this request, aa he was then dead.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 217 
 
 by Henry B. Bascom. At an age when temptations 
 are more difficult to resist than perhaps any other, 
 how was it possible for him to breast such a storm, 
 while he could no longer hope that its fury would be 
 spent? True, he commanded an influence over the 
 people not claimed by any of his contemporaries ; and 
 in the conference the best and ablest men among 
 whom William McMahon was prominent were his 
 advocates. Such friendships as he enjoyed, while 
 they softened the sorrows and lightened the burdens 
 of his heart, were not sufficient to support him under 
 such trials. As we have contemplated Dr. Bascom as 
 the most popular pulpit orator in America, there has 
 been too much disposition to lose sight of his relig- 
 ious character. A reference to his diary, kept during 
 the early periods of his ministry, presents to us the 
 source to which he looked for aid. " Felt very low 
 in spirits ; resorted to the woods and prayed." " Spent 
 the evening in prayer and meditation, and felt sens- 
 ible manifestations at the time of the evening sacri- 
 fice." " Rose before sunrise, prayed with the family ; 
 retired to the woods, where I found the Lord pre- 
 cious." " Rose pretty early, fed my horse, attended 
 to secret prayer, returned to the house and prayed 
 with the family." " Rose very early, fled to the 
 woods and prayed." " Feel calmness of soul, but not 
 so much engaged as I wish to be. Lord, breathe thy 
 Holy Spirit on me !" " Wrestled in prayer at my 
 bedside, then went to the woods and prayed." 
 
 With such passages his diary abounds, and in them 
 we find the secret of his fortitude and forbearance. 
 
 At the conference of 1816 he was transferred to 
 19
 
 218 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the Tennessee Conference and appointed to the Dan- 
 ville Circuit in Kentucky, and the following year to 
 the Danville and Madison, with William Adams. At 
 the conference of 1818 Mr. Bascom was appointed to 
 Louisville, where he remained for two years, as the 
 first preacher ever stationed in the city. His popu- 
 larity here was so great with all classes that a petition 
 for his return the third year, signed by a large num- 
 ber of gentlemen not connected with the Methodist 
 Church, and not familiar with the law of the Church 
 governing the pastoral term, was sent to the bishop 
 presiding at the ensuing conference. 
 
 At the conference of 1820 Mr. Bascom was ap- 
 pointed to the Madison Circuit as junior preacher, 
 with William Martin in charge who had at this 
 session of the conference been admitted on trial and 
 the following year, as third man, on the Hinkstone, 
 with two other preachers. 
 
 Already sensitive in view of the treatment he had 
 previously received, he regarded his position on these 
 circuits on the first, being placed under a minister 
 who was only a probationer, and on the second, as 
 assigned the third place on the circuit, and at the 
 time when he was courted by the most influential men 
 in the State as evidences of opposition to him in the 
 conference, and hence, in 1822, he was transferred, at 
 his own request, to the Ohio Conference, and appointed 
 to the Brush Creek Circuit. The following year, 
 through the influence of the Hon. Henry Clay, he was 
 elected chaplain to the Lower House of Congress, 
 being at the time of his election stationed at Steuben- 
 ville, Ohio. At the close of the session of Congress
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 219 
 
 he spends several mouths preaching through the coun- 
 try, and in several of the Eastern cities, to admiring 
 thousands. In Annapolis and in Baltimore he attained 
 to an eminence never before reached by any preacher 
 in America, and was regarded as the first pulpit ora- 
 tor of the world. 
 
 He attended several camp-meetings, where, before 
 the potent weapons of truth, as wielded by him, hun- 
 dreds were awakened and converted to God. In 
 Harrisburg and Philadelphia, attracted by his fame, 
 thousands waited upon his ministry and heard the 
 Gospel from his lips. 
 
 In 1824 he was transferred to the Pittsburg Con- 
 ference, and stationed in the city of Pittsburg; and 
 the following year he received the appointment of 
 conference missionary. In Pittsburg he sustained 
 the reputation he had won, and placed the Church in 
 a position far more elevated than it had previously 
 enjoyed. In his new appointment as conference mis- 
 sionary he had a field for his mighty talents that 
 would bring more glory to God than any he had 
 occupied before. He was received with enthusiasm 
 everywhere. 
 
 In 1826 he was stationed in Uniontown, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and in 1827 and 1828 he was president of 
 Madison College, located in Uuiontown, Pennsylvania. 
 The inaugural address which he delivered on his for- 
 mal installation into office as president abounds in 
 beauty and strength. From this address we give a 
 few extracts : 
 
 "As a solitary or social being man must be par- 
 tially wretched if devoid of proper instruction ; but if
 
 220 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 possessed of the advantages of education nothing but 
 an evil, an upbraiding conscience, can make him mis- 
 erable. In the city or the desert, in a palace or a 
 cottage, in robes or in rags, standing on land or roll- 
 ing on the ocean, buried amid the snows of Iceland 
 or burning beneath the fervors of the torrid zone, he 
 has resources of which he can be deprived only by 
 the Power that conferred them. Beggared by misfor- 
 tune, exiled by friends, abjured by society, and de- 
 prived of its solace, the interior of the intellectual 
 structure continues unaffected and underanged amid 
 the accumulating wretchedness without, and the tem- 
 ple of the soul is still sacred to the cherished recol- 
 lections of ( Nature and Nature's God.' . . . 
 
 "Let memory, for a moment, sketch the desolate 
 map of Greece. Where now are the walks of Genius 
 and the retreats of the Muses, upon the banks of the 
 Ilissus, and the Agora of Athens? Where is the 
 grove of Plato, the Lyceum of Aristotle, and the 
 Porch of Zeuo? We have to repeat, Alas! Greece is 
 no longer the theater of learning, and Athens is en- 
 deared to us only as the Alma Mater of the literary 
 world ! 
 
 "Visit the classic but profaned ruins of Athens 
 and Rome, and ask. the genius of the place, or the 
 page of history, where is the freedom immortalized 
 by the philippics of Demosthenes and the orations of 
 Cicero, and the one and the other will answer, Knowl- 
 edge departed and liberty was exiled ! Polished 
 Greece, therefore, and imperial Rome owed their dis- 
 tinction to letters. And what is it knowledge can 
 not achieve? It has transformed the ocean into the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 221 
 
 highway of nations. Steam, fire, wind, and wave, all 
 minister to the comforts and elegancies of life. The 
 cold and insensible marble speaks and breathes. The 
 pencil of Raphael gives body and soul to color, light, 
 and shade. The magnet, the mysterious polarity of 
 the loadstone, conducts man over the bosom of the 
 deep to the islands of the sea, while the glass intro- 
 duces him to the heavens and kindles his devotion 
 amid the grandeur of a thousand worlds ! . . . 
 
 "The exceptionable parts of the works of these 
 celebrated models of taste and composition (particu- 
 larly Greek and Latin authors) will be carefully 
 excluded; but you will find much to admire and 
 much that is worthy of imitation. Even here you 
 may wander with Homer upon the banks of the 
 Simois and the Scamander. You may gaze on the 
 beautiful Helen and the enraged Achilles. The chiefs 
 of Greece and Troy will engage in mortal combat 
 before you, and you will dissolve in tears at the 
 meeting of Hector and Andromache. Herodotus will 
 introduce to you the millions of barbarians following 
 the standard of Xerxes. The brave Leonidas and his 
 Spartan band will dispute the passage of Thermopylae 
 before your eyes. Victory will disgrace Persia, and 
 defeat bring glory to Greece. Horace and Virgil 
 will introduce you to the palatine and capitolitim of 
 Rome; they will conduct you along the banks of the 
 Po, adorned on either side by the meadows of Man- 
 tua; and you shall regale and delight yourselves amid 
 the enchanting groves of Umbria. Go on, then, 
 young gentlemen, and seek a deserved and well-mer- 
 ited celebrity ; and if you can not reach the summit
 
 222 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of Parnassus, linger at its foot, and imbibe the streams 
 of knowledge and science as they gurgle by."* 
 
 Bishop Andrew, in a sermon preached before the 
 Louisville Conference, at Greensburg, Kentucky, 
 September 21, 1850, on the occasion of his death, 
 says: 
 
 " In an unfortunate hour, as we think, the Church 
 called him away from the active labors of the pulpit 
 to serve in her literary institutions. Not that he 
 lacked any requisite qualification for the chair of in- 
 struction ; but it has seemed to us both a pity and a 
 wrong thus to -have fettered and caged this soaring 
 eagle. Methinks he should have been left free to 
 sweep through the world a blazing meteor, and to 
 make full proof of his ministry in a field better 
 adapted to his unequaled powers. The pulpit, doubt- 
 less, should have been his only battle-ground; for the 
 pulpit he was specially designed and supereminently 
 qualified by the great Head of the Church. If those 
 twenty years of comparative seclusion in college-halls 
 had been given to the active duties and labors of the 
 ministry, we can not refrain from the thought that a 
 far richer harvest had been reaped of glory to God, 
 good to man, and enduring fame to the preacher 
 
 himself."t 
 
 In 1829 he was appointed agent for the American 
 Colonization Society, which position he held for two 
 years. In 1831 he is transferred to the Kentucky 
 Conference and fills the chair of Moral Science and 
 Belles-lettres, in Augusta College, to which he had 
 
 * Henkle's Life of Bascom, pp. 186-188. 
 t Cross of Christ, pp. 139, 140.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 223 
 
 been elected. He remained in Augusta until after 
 the conference of 1841. 
 
 " Soon after tins he was elected president of Louis- 
 iana College, but declined acceptance. He had also 
 the presidency of the Missouri University tendered to 
 him, which he also declined. 
 
 " He was elected president pro tern, of Transylva- 
 nia University, which had, by the trustees thereof, 
 been oifered to the Kentucky Conference, and through 
 them to the General Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. The Kentucky Conference ap- 
 pointed commissioners to act in behalf of the confer- 
 ence and accept the proposition of the trustees. The 
 commissioners did so, and nominated Dr. Bascom for 
 the presidency of the college, but he declined. He 
 afterward consented to act as president pro tern, until 
 a more permanent organization could take place ; but 
 the difficulties in the Church between the North and 
 the South delayed the arrangement anticipated, and 
 Dr. Bascom was elected permanently the president of 
 the university. Under the auspices of his presidency 
 the university rose to decided prosperity. 
 
 "About the year 1840 and 1841 the honorary 
 title of D. D. was conferred upon him; and his biog- 
 rapher states that ' within a short period the same 
 honor was conferred by two colleges and two univer- 
 sities.' In 1845 he also received the title of LL. D. 
 from the La Grange College, Ala. 
 
 " Dr. Bascom was elected a delegate to the Gen- 
 eral Conference of 1844, as indeed he always had 
 been since the General Conference of 1828 ; but at 
 this time was elected from the Kentucky Conference,
 
 224 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 getting all the votes of the conference except, I think, 
 only three. The extensive and valuable service ren- 
 dered by him in that trying crisis of the Church is 
 a matter of history. He was the author of the pro- 
 test offered by the Southern delegates against the 
 action of that conference in the cases of Harding, 
 of the Baltimore Conference, and of Bishop An- 
 drew, and of other documents bearing on the same 
 questions. 
 
 " In 1845 the convention of delegates of the sev- 
 eral annual conferences in the South met in the city 
 of Louisville, Ky. ; and it being ascertained that the 
 people of the South, or rather the Southern members 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, were in favor of 
 a Southern organization of the Methodist Church by 
 a ratio of six to one, it was determined to take the 
 necessary measures to eifect the organization de- 
 manded, and Dr. Bascom was called on to write the 
 report of the committee on that subject. That doc- 
 ument was worthy of the ability of the distinguished 
 author, and of the able body of ministers which 
 adopted it. 
 
 "In 1846 Dr. Bascom, who was a member of the 
 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South, Avhich met at Petersburg, Va., pre- 
 sented to that body the proposition of the trustees of 
 Transylvania University, making a tender of the uni- 
 versity to that conference, and, on its acceptance, 
 presented his resignation as the president, and also 
 the resignation of all the faculty of the university, 
 that it might be officered again by the nomination of 
 the General Conference; whereupon the conference
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 225 
 
 placed Dr. Bascom in nomination again to the trustees 
 as president of the university. 
 
 " The same conference also established a Quar- 
 terly Review, under the patronage of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, and elected Dr. Bascom the 
 editor. He was also appointed by the same General 
 Conference the chairman of the board of commis- 
 sioners of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to 
 settle the controversy between the Methodist Churches, 
 North and South. He was now oppressed with busi- 
 ness, all of which was of a heavy and responsible 
 character, and he sustained himself well in all these 
 departments. 
 
 " In the year 1849 Dr. Bascom prepared a volume 
 of sermons for publication. This was an object gen- 
 erally and greatly desired. The volume was issued 
 early in the year 1850, in the city of Louisville. It 
 met, as might well have been expected, with a very 
 rapid and extensive sale." * 
 
 " He seldom made speeches, and never long ones, 
 in annual or general conferences. But his interest 
 was always awake, his judgment was always sound 
 and to be relied on ; and when an emergency required 
 it, the force of his superior intellect was always put 
 under contribution. He had the far-seeing views of 
 a statesman, and a nerve, energy, and address in 
 keeping. He was at the farthest possible remove 
 from the mere dreamy sentimentalist, or the 'fussy* 
 man of talk. The versatility of his powers and the 
 practical bent of his genius are illustrated by a ref- 
 
 * Bishop Kavanauph, in General Minutes of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, p. 813.
 
 226 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 erence to the prominent part he took in the most 
 important transition known to American Methodism, 
 the division of the Church. It is not saying too 
 much to affirm that his adhesion to the Southern 
 cause was the crisis of a great movement which, un- 
 der the blessing of God, has given peace and the 
 promise of an uninterrupted progress in prosperity to 
 the Southern annual conferences. He had attended 
 the meetings of the Southern delegates, at which the 
 solemn question of separation from the North was 
 anxiously debated. With keen eye, but closed lip, he 
 had watched the progress of the debate. 
 
 " ' Deep on his front engraved, 
 Deliberation sat, and public care.' 
 
 " When the moment for action was come, he rose 
 and walked to the chairman's seat, and announced 
 that he was prepared to peril all upon the righteous- 
 ness of the movement, and to give his full adhesion 
 and support to the Southern cause. The effect was 
 electrical. The Western delegations immediately came 
 forward, and to a man committed themselves fully to 
 the same cause. The battle was won. By acclama- 
 tion, Dr. Bascom was requested to draw up a protest 
 against the offensive action of the majority of the 
 General Conference. The masterly paper which he 
 produced in a short time exhibited his vast power of 
 original and searching analysis, and his familiar ac- 
 quaintance with the principles of constitutional law. 
 Its chain of argumentation is so cogent and luminous 
 that Dr. Dixon, a representative of the British Wes- 
 leyan Church, pronounced it ( one of the most power-
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 227 
 
 ful and eloquent state documents ever put into the 
 hands of the reader.' The part taken by Dr. Bascom 
 in this affair cost him the loss of many a Northern 
 friend, and exposed him to many assaults on the part 
 of the Northern Methodist press; but it establishes a 
 claim to the gratitude and aifectiou of Southern hearts 
 which no lapse of" time can weaken." * 
 
 We give the following notice of Mr. Bascom from 
 the pen of the Rev. John Newland Maffitt, himself, 
 at the time he writes, one of the finest orators of the 
 country : 
 
 " I consider Mr. Bascom one of the most extraor- 
 dinary men of the age. As a pulpit orator, he is an 
 original, and is unrivaled in the Union, for none are 
 like him. His path is emphatically his own, denying 
 the possibility of comparison with that of others. 
 His shining, therefore, dims no other light. He is 
 the solitary star that fills with a flood of effulgence 
 the skies of his own creation, and gilds with loveli- 
 ness the forms which have arisen at the call of his 
 genius. His manner is like that of no living preacher. 
 If you seek to find the model on which he fashions 
 his sermons, it can not be found in the libraries of 
 the Old or Ne^vv World. If you would know the 
 secret of his strength, you must fathom the depths of 
 an intellect rich with rare and peculiar treasures ; 
 you must add to this the intensity of emotion Avith 
 which he regards every subject that comes within the 
 grasp of his mind. His baptism by the Holy Spirit 
 was with the tongue of flame. His mind, like the 
 
 * W. M. Wightman, D. D., in Biographical Sketches, pp. 
 Ill, 112.
 
 228 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Olympic wrestlers, struggles for mastery wherever it 
 grapples. Let him encounter " the gnarled and un- 
 wedgeable oak ' of error in its century-hallowed form, 
 and the contact is like that of the electric fluid, rend- 
 ing and illuminating at once, but not, like the fabled 
 bolt of Jove, rendering 'sacred what it scarred/ 
 The fortification which he demolishes is ever after 
 contemptible and untenable. . The votary of error 
 under any banner which Bascom may stoop to assail 
 ever afterward will disown his flag, and be ashamed 
 of his former inconsistency. 
 
 " It belongs only to a kindred mind, partaking of 
 his own magnificence, to analyze Bascom. I shall 
 have little to say, except in general descriptions. 
 But were one to ask me what is the secret of his in- 
 fluence how does he fill to the roof every church in 
 which he speaks, and send away the admiring thou- 
 sands of country, town, or city, filled with astonish- 
 ment and rapture or shame, repentance or praise, at 
 his will I should answer, negatively, not by his ora- 
 torical action, for of this he has but little. You only 
 see that he is in earnest by the bowing of his head, 
 even when he is engaged in holding direct converse 
 either with God or man. It is not iy the power or 
 intonations of his voice. For oratorical display his 
 voice would be considered a bad one, although it is 
 fearfully distinct even in its husky whispers, and as 
 rapidly strikes through his terse and keenly polished 
 periods as that brightest and swiftest of created ele- 
 ments, to which the coruscations of his genius may 
 be most aptly likened, does through the folds of a 
 thunder-cloud. The audiences, who sit open-mouthed
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 229 
 
 and breathless before him, are able to say little of his 
 manner when they go away. The subject only, and 
 with an omnipotence of power, has stood before 
 them either as an angel of light or a fearful demon ; 
 the one to sing, ' Peace on earth, good will to men/ 
 the other to forestall doom, and threaten an eternity 
 of woe. 
 
 " Reared in that great school of impassioned ora- 
 tory, the West, he has also gained the concise and 
 logical ratiocination of the East. Let the inflated 
 individual who has, in his boasted researches into 
 philosophy, never gained sight of the shore of the 
 great ocean of truth, where the child-like Newton 
 stood and only picked up pebbles in his own estima- 
 tion let this vain boaster but come within the action 
 of Bascom's intellectual battery, and a faint smoke, or 
 the mere ashes of a consumed fabric, will only be left 
 to tell where once he stood. Every argument silenced 
 and destroyed, every link in the chain of error bro- 
 ken, every false refuge of lies exploded, every dark hid- 
 ing-place of sin searched as with that streaming light 
 which unhorsed the persecutor Saul, how often has 
 the infidel found himself in a short hour bereaved of 
 his all on earth, his all for heaven ! Then might he 
 seek Christ, when his gods had been demolished be- 
 fore his eyes, and their power scattered to the winds. 
 
 " Let Mr. Bascom but rebuke an ignorant, a sloth- 
 ful, or inefficient ministry, as he sometimes does in 
 his sermons, and truly they may then say that the 
 scorching flame of judgment has first begun at the 
 house of God where shall the ungodly and the 
 wicked appear? The pulpit, in his view, is the holy
 
 230 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of holies of the new dispensation. The call of God 
 to his ministering servants, in his view, is the awful 
 commission before which kings should stand dumb ; 
 and the man who bears this commission ignorantly, 
 or unworthily, or sleeping, or selfishly, may dread 
 that the fires of the angel-guarded Shekinah will 
 consume him. 
 
 " Yet Mr. Bascom does not wear a chilling, de- 
 mure look. He would have been ejected from the 
 ancient and honorable sect of Pharisees, both on ac- 
 count of his short prayers and unelongated physi- 
 ognomy. His thoughts are solemn as the dawn of 
 eternity; yet his countenance is calm in purity of 
 purpose, and earnest only in benevolence, while it 
 overflows with the expression of goodness and 
 amenity. 
 
 " To say that every subject which he touches, he 
 ornaments, is not expressive enough. He does, in- 
 deed, ornament, but not as other men do, by studied 
 phrase and sounding epithets; he ornaments his sub- 
 ject by linking it to some grand and classical associ- 
 ation. For this purpose he holds at command the 
 treasured lore of each country; he has the sublime 
 imagery which he has gleaned from earth, air, and 
 ocean ; he has the key of the past ; he reads from the 
 roll of prophecy the revealings of the future. Images 
 of immortal beauty cluster in his argument; at his 
 bidding, damnation echoes back from its blackest 
 deeps the howling thunder of his warning, to flee 
 from the, wrath to come. 
 
 " Let him, as he often does, plead the cause of 
 Africa, and you will see the ancient cities stir with
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 231 
 
 life beneath the desert sands. You will see her 
 ancient kings, statesmen, philosophers, coming up 
 through the marble ruins of once proud palaces, to 
 utter their voiceless, because unspeakable, charge 
 against debased Christendom, for enslaving, soul and 
 body, the relics of a noble antiquity. His satire is 
 keen, and will be remembered, although the polished 
 arrow may wound so skillfully and with such exquis- 
 ite science as to make the pain almost a pleasure to 
 the sufferer. 
 
 " But, as an honor to the Methodist communion, 
 in which he has long faithfully labored ; as a bless- 
 ing to the world, a leading star in the constellation 
 of American literature, eloquence; and above all, as 
 a faithful and successful preacher, the thousands of 
 whose seals in the ministry I see around me : if I 
 can not describe him or emulate his powers, I can yet 
 pray that his valuable life may be continued long on 
 earth, as a rich and peculiar blessing." * 
 
 At the General Conference in the city of St. 
 Louis, in 1850, he was elevated to the episcopal 
 office. On the occasion of his consecration, he 
 preached an able and eloquent sermon from Galatians 
 vi, 14, from which we give the following extract: 
 
 " Many and great have been the triumphs of the 
 cross; but much remains to be accomplished. Take 
 the earth, with its ten hundred millions of children, 
 and let every day be a Pentecost, with its three thou- 
 sand, converts; and even at this millennial rate, more 
 than three hundred years would be required for the 
 world's conversion. Are we ready for our share of 
 
 * Rev. J. N. Maffitt, in Western Methodist, Nov. 6, 1833.
 
 232 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the work ? Ministers of Christ : Where are your 
 tongues of fire and words of flame? By intention of 
 their appointment, Christian ministers are eminently 
 men of one work, and they should keep to it. What 
 that work is, we have seen, and would to God we felt 
 it, too! All is change and vicissitude about; the 
 world's drama is unfolding; the games of life go on; 
 passion and interest enslave their millions ; but there 
 stands the cross. In deep and high allegiance to its 
 claims, let its creed of love to God and charity in 
 need be ours ! Our position should always be deter- 
 mined by that of the cross. Calling to one world, 
 and pointing to another an eminence commanding a 
 view of both the foot of the cross should be our 
 only point of survey, in all the applications of influ- 
 ence and office. God forbid that we should glory 
 save in the cross ! Preach it, then, messengers of 
 God ! preach it not as the mystic monogram of the 
 Rosicrucian ; not as it streamed in the folds of the 
 imperial Labarum ; not -as shrouded in the dead sanc- 
 tities of ages, or shrined in the Pantheon of thought 
 or letters ; but * the wisdom of God, and the power 
 of God.' Let its ministers preach it as the symbol 
 of a living, not a vanished creed. Let them preach 
 it as achieving for all what no man can achieve for 
 himself or confer upon another. In this sign, and in 
 no other, we conquer; nor can we doubt the issue, if 
 faithful to our trust. Rob us not, then, of earth or 
 heaven ; rob us not of a single foe : be it our glory 
 to conquer all ! The cross is still shedding light on 
 path and goal, just as it did when first pointed to by 
 Paul ; and to the ministry of the cross we would say,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 233 
 
 Give to it the strength of youth and the honor of age. 
 It will inspire you with the courage of true goodness, 
 as nothing else can. Specially charged with the main- 
 tenance of this high trust, blench not from the conse- 
 cration and purpose of your work. With the shadow 
 of the cross upon the dial of your hopes, and await- 
 ing the close of the struggle, to hang your shield 
 upon it, and leave there the inscription, 'All bless- 
 ing, and by all blest/ what more have you to hope 
 or to fear? 
 
 " The cross has moved in advance of the triumphs 
 of mind for fifty generations, and yet upon every trial 
 is exhibiting new and hidden powers. No craft can 
 circumvent, no ignorance surprise, no failure betray, 
 or emergence perplex nothing can thwart its pur- 
 poses or defeat its final efficacy. Do your duty, and 
 whatever else may happen, ' conquering and to con- 
 quer' shall mark the progress of the conflict and be 
 the record of its close. Assured of the past and of 
 the present, we can not doubt as to the future. More 
 than two hundred languages are embarked in its ad- 
 vocacy. Nations heed its lessons and walk in its 
 light. In this light and from these lessons they learn 
 their duty and their mission. What interests, issues, 
 or memories will compare with those storied about 
 and in relation to the cross? Who can trace the 
 deep descending lines of its influence? In its light, 
 truth and example will travel on until the triumph is 
 complete, and the lofty fellowship and grand enroll- 
 ment, the celestial wonders and temple inhabitation 
 of the heavenly world, with all the room and verge 
 of ever-unfolding progress, .shall be seen to connect 
 
 20
 
 234 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 with the cross, as did the virtues they reward. Our 
 planet and its races do not limit the glory of the 
 cross : other orders and relations of the universe must 
 be taken into the account. From the cross may be 
 borne lessons of instruction to beings of whom we 
 have no record. Thence light may be thrown upon 
 distant centers of existence of which we have never 
 heard. Where is the far-off' world, whose intelligence 
 and virtue may not receive instruction and warning 
 from the story of the cross ?" * 
 
 From the time he entered the ministry, " to the 
 Church to the highest interests of what he con- 
 ceived to be the cause of Christ in the world Dr. 
 Bascorn devoted his enthusiasm, his energies, and ac- 
 tivities. He did this without reserve, without pause, 
 and not without strong temptations from the highest 
 worldly inducements in an opposite direction. ' Poor 
 and embarrassed as I am/ he wrote to a brother min- 
 ister, who, under the stress of narrow circumstances, 
 was looking to the profession of the law, 'I am re- 
 solved to have no client but Him who at first em- 
 ployed me to plead the great cause of human salva- 
 tion ; and I know my fee will be certain aud large/ 
 What things were gain to him, those he counted loss 
 for Christ. Faithfully, bravely, and to the end, 
 he stood by his early convictions as a Methodist 
 minister." f 
 
 " In the distribution of episcopal labor between 
 the bishops, among other conferences the St. Louis 
 
 * " Cross of Christ," pp. 44-47. 
 
 tW. M. Wightman, D. D., in "Biographical Sketches," 
 p. 110.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 235 
 
 Conference was assigned to Bishop Basconi. The 
 time of the meeting of this conference was July 10, 
 1850. The low state of the waters made the naviga- 
 tion so difficult that he did not arrive at the seat of 
 the conference until Saturday, the fourth day of the 
 session ; but this brought him there in time to preach 
 on the Sabbath, and ordain the preachers elected to 
 deacons' and elders' orders. He is represented as 
 having preached exceedingly well on the Sabbath-day 
 in the woods to an audience of about three thousand 
 persons. 
 
 " At this, the only conference he ever attended as 
 bishop, he performed his various duties so generally 
 to the satisfaction of the conference that the follow- 
 ing commendatory resolution was passed by the con- 
 ference : 
 
 "'Resolved, By the St. Louis Annual Conference 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that we 
 take great pleasure in bearing testimony to the ability, 
 impartiality, and urbanity with which Bishop Basconi 
 has presided over the deliberations of this conference, 
 and to the dignified and affectionate intercourse which 
 he has maintained with its members, endearing him to 
 us as one of our chief ministers. While we record 
 with peculiar satisfaction that ours is the first confer- 
 ence over which he has presided since his election to 
 the office of bishop in the Church of God, we con- 
 gratulate the whole Southern Church on this acquisi- 
 tion to the general superintendency, and confidently 
 predict that the distinguished ability which has char- 
 acterized his services in the several spheres of labor 
 heretofore assigned him by the Church, will be eiiii-
 
 236 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 nently displayed in the new and higher one to which 
 she has now called him.' 
 
 "After the adjournment of the conference the 
 bishop visited the Indian Manual Labor School, at 
 Fort Leaven worth, 'with which/ his biographer says, 
 'he was greatly pleased.' He also visited and preached 
 on his tour at Weston, Booneville, Lexington, and St. 
 Louis. His last discourse was preached in St. Louis, 
 in the afternoon of the last Sabbath in July, 1850. 
 It was an effort of great power, and of two hours' 
 continuance. His text was Heb. i, 1. 
 
 " He is reported as arriving at Louisville on the 
 2d of August, much debilitated from sickness, and 
 from traveling and toil, but apparently pleasantly ex- 
 cited in meeting his brethren at the Book-room, where 
 he remained nearly all day, declining his dinner for 
 the want of an appetite. Having entered his passage 
 for his home at Lexington in the stage for the next 
 day, on invitation he lodged with his old friend, the 
 Rev. Dr. Stevenson. He attempted to take his sup- 
 per, but for want of appetite had to decline it. He 
 retired to bed, hoping to be better by morning, and 
 be enabled to reach his home. Dr. Stevenson and 
 wife, deeply sympathizing with him, gave him all pos- 
 sible attention, affectionately remonstrating against his 
 attempt to go home ; but deep solicitude urged him 
 to make the trial. At 3 o'clock the next morning 
 he entered the stage-coach, but ere he had passed the 
 city limits he was so sick as to be convinced that he 
 could not succeed in his attempt to reach home. His 
 sickness so affected his stomach as to induce vomiting, 
 which much alarmed some of the passengers, who sup-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 237 
 
 posed it a case of cholera, and believing it contagious, 
 were very anxious that he should get out of the coach 
 and let it proceed. The driver's attention being called 
 to the case, he was asked what he would do. He 
 averred that at the risk of his life he would return 
 Bishop Bascora to his lodgings whence he had taken 
 him. This was promptly done. So that in an hour 
 after he had left his friend he was again at the door. 
 Being kindly received and restored to his bed, Dr. 
 Stevenson consulted him as to what physician he would 
 have, and he authorized him to call in Drs. Bright 
 and Pirtle, his personal friends and brethren. Late 
 in the evening of that day, feeling much better, he 
 proposed starting home on the next day, but his phy- 
 sicians objecting, he said no more in regard to it. 
 
 "After being confined about a week, he asked Dr. 
 Stevenson to be seated by him, affirming that he was 
 no better that the remedies had not touched the dis- 
 ease that the symptoms were as before. He remarked 
 to Dr. Stevenson, l The truth is, I have been strangely 
 brought to believe that I must die! My temporal 
 matters are not as I could wish, though I will try to 
 be resigned to the will of Providence.' At the sug- 
 gestion of Dr. Stevenson, two other eminent physi- 
 cians, Drs. Bell and Rogers, were called in. All of 
 his physicians manifested a deep interest in his case. 
 His numerous friends watched with eagerness and 
 deep solicitude over him. In regard to them, Dr. 
 Stevenson informs us in his notice of his afflictions 
 and death, he exclaimed, 'My friends, O my friends! 
 if they could but cure me by kindness, I should soon 
 be well ; but they can not do it.' Dr. Stevenson in-
 
 238 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 forms us of several instances of his expressing his 
 impressions that he would die. On one of these oc- 
 casions he replied to him, 'Do you really think so?' 
 He answered, l Yes, I have thought so all the while 
 when able to think for myself.' And says the doctor, 
 * He spoke with much confidence in relation to his 
 future happiness, and professed the most satisfactory 
 assurance of his acceptance with God.' On another 
 occasion he remarked to Dr. Stevenson, ' On the near 
 approach to death, as in all my past life, I can dis- 
 cover no rock of hope on which to rest my weary 
 spirit but Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel ; and 
 should I ever be so happy as to obtain some humble 
 seat in heaven, it will never cease to be true of me 
 that I am but a sinner saved by grace.' A solemn 
 pause ensued, after which he said, ( True, true ; how 
 true it is that all our help and hope is of God, through 
 the infinite merits of Jesus Christ ! ' Dr. Stevenson 
 announced to the bishop that he was writing to Bishop 
 Andrew, and asked him ' if he had any communica- 
 tions that he wished made to the bishop. He looked 
 at me with much earnestness, and said, Yes; say to 
 Bishop Andrew that I am utterly prostrate, with but 
 little, if any, hope of recovery ; that I am wholly in- 
 capable of thinking or acting correctly on any subject; 
 but tell him from me that my whole trust and confi- 
 dence is in almighty goodness, as revealed in tJie cross 
 of Christ.' 
 
 " When all hope of his recovery was relinquished, 
 it was proposed that Dr. Bright, who was his oldest 
 physician, and a local minister, should announce to 
 the bishop that his end was nigh, and learn from him
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGll. 239 
 
 an expression of his prospects. The doctor asked him 
 directly ' if his confidence in God his Savior was still 
 strong and unshaken?' To which he promptly re- 
 plied, with great earnestness and self-possession, ' Yes, 
 yes, yes!' 
 
 " With this strong affirmation of his final hope in 
 a single word, thrice repeated, in an earnest and em- 
 phatic manner, did this eminent man and minister 
 close his communications with the world. 
 
 " Dr. Stevenson says : ' He was evidently in .the 
 full possession of all his mental faculties. Never did 
 his noble brow and full-orbed eye evince a higher de- 
 gree of intellectual strength. There was a sublimity 
 and loftiness of bearing in the whole contour of his 
 face. An indescribable brightness gleamed out in 
 every expression of his countenance. The scene was 
 overwhelming.' 
 
 " ' Perceiving,' says Dr. Stevenson, ' that the mo- 
 mentous crisis had come, as if moved by some invisi- 
 ble power, we all at once bowed around his dying bed, 
 and while we were thus engaged in silent, solemn 
 prayer to Almighty God, without a struggle or a groan 
 he sweetly breathed his last.'"* 
 
 The death of no preacher of the Gospel in Amer- 
 ica ever produced such a thrill of sorrow throughout 
 the country as that of Bishop Bascom. The press ev- 
 erywhere teemed with tributes of respect to his mem- 
 ory; but the Church of which he had so long been an 
 ornament was clad in deepest mourning. Our ac- 
 quaintance with him commenced in the Autumn of 
 
 * Bishop Kavanaugh, in General Minutes of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, pp. Si:-815.
 
 240 
 
 1837, just at the period when he was at the height of 
 his fame. In his personal appearance he was fault- 
 less. " His hair was black, and rather thin ; his eye 
 was also black, and beamed keen with sentiment. His 
 forehead resembled that of Daniel Webster in lofty 
 expansion; it seemed the very throne of intellect. 
 The lips were thin, and, in connection with the chin, 
 indicated great firmness and decision of character. 
 The general cast of his countenance approached a calm 
 sternness; but when unbent in familiar conversation, 
 his features became touchingly fine. His voice of late 
 years, after the affection of his throat, was somewhat 
 husky, but it left sharp and distinct upon the ear the 
 rapid words which clothed his ideas. At its best, it 
 must have possessed an untold power of impression, 
 and sounded with the ring of a ' clear, uplifted trum- 
 pet.' One of his hearers spoke of it as ' articulate 
 thunder.' His gesticulation was natural, evidently 
 unstudied, and prompted by the emotion of the mo- 
 ment. It was none the less telling on that account. 
 Obviously, it was his wont to throw himself upon the 
 rushing stream of passion, without thinking at all of 
 gesture, voice, or manner." 
 
 He died on Sabbath, September 8, 1850. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. Kavanaugh returned to the pastoral 
 work and was stationed in the city of Maysville. He 
 had been but little in this part of the State; only dur- 
 ing the time of his agency for Augusta College. 
 
 In this charge he succeeded John H. Linn, who 
 was rapidly attaining to eminence in the conference. 
 He found the Church in good condition, the labors 
 of his predecessor having been greatly blessed. From
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 241 
 
 his entrance upon his work he had every thing to 
 encourage him large attendance upon the prayer 
 and class meetings, and crowded audiences at public 
 worship. Early in the year there was quite an awak- 
 ening among the people on the subject of religion, 
 which continued to increase until about the first of 
 January, when the flame broke out in a general revi- 
 val. The meeting was protracted through several 
 weeks, and resulted in the conversion of many persons. 
 
 Never was Mr. Kavanaugh more at home than in 
 the exercises of the altar, and no one was more suc- 
 cessful than he in pointing the penitent sinner to a 
 loving Christ. We have known him to tarry for 
 hours upon his knees by the side of the earnest seeker 
 of religion pleading for forgiveness, whispering words 
 of cheer to the disconsolate heart. 
 
 The ensuing session of the conference was held in 
 Maysville. Bishop Andrew, who was expected to 
 preside, was- detained at home by the illness of his 
 wife, and Jonathan Stamper was elected president of 
 the conference. There could have been no better 
 choice. 
 
 But few men in Kentucky ever held so warm a 
 place in the affections of the Church as Jonathan 
 Stamper. The bare mention of his name awakens 
 memories of the past and carries us back to scenes we 
 would never forget. He was the son of Joshua and 
 Jane Stamper, and was born in Madison County, 
 Kentucky, April 27, 1791. He says: 
 
 " When I was nineteen years of age a camp-meet- 
 ing was appointed to be held about eight miles 
 from my father's residence. A number of young peo- 
 
 21
 
 pie, mostly females, of the society in the neighbor- 
 hood, expressed a great desire to attend it. Among 
 these was my sister, who had embraced religion when 
 quite a small girl. I had the most unbounded confi- 
 dence in her piety, and always strove to gratify her 
 wishes by accompanying her .to Church, whether far 
 or near. She asked me if there could be any Avay 
 devised for them to get to the meeting. I replied 
 that there was one way, and it was quite an easy one; 
 if they would promise to pray for me I would take 
 them in the wagon. They pledged themselves to do 
 so, and I prepared the wagon, in which we all rode 
 to the camp-ground, where we erected our tent. 
 
 " It was a time of great power. The people of 
 God were revived, and many sinners awakened and 
 converted. I listened with attention to the word, 
 and, ere I was aware, found my cheeks suffused with 
 tears. I left the ground, and retiring to the woods, 
 wiped my eyes, braced myself up to the extent of my 
 power, put on as cheerful an air as possible, and 
 walked back to the camp. Determined to hide my 
 feelings, I said to the girls on entering the tent, 'I 
 am afraid you have forgotten your promise to pray 
 for me, because the Bible says that the prayer of faith 
 shall be answered, and you see that I am not yet con- 
 verted/ This remark was, of course, only meant for 
 a mask. AVith a sad heart and guilty conscience, and 
 seeking the most solitary spot that could be found, I 
 gave vent to my feelings in the bitter tears of repent- 
 ance. When the trumpet sounded for preaching I 
 arose, and making my way back to the encampment, 
 joined the congregation. It seemed to me that the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 243 
 
 preacher was reading the secrets of ray heart and ex- 
 posing to the assembled multitude all its wickedness. 
 The prophet said to me, 'Thou art the man!' and 
 soon, losing all self-control, I cried aloud for mercy. 
 When the invitation was given I was the first one at 
 the place of prayer, and faithfully availed myself of 
 that blessed privilege whenever it was offered during 
 the continuance of the meeting. Many were converted 
 on my right hand and on my left, but there seemed 
 to be no mercy for me. Before we left the ground I 
 joined the Church as a seeker of religion, persuaded 
 that by so doing I should place a barrier between 
 myself and the world, and more effectually loosen the 
 ties which bound me to my gay companions. This 
 proved to be a correct view of the matter, and I would 
 urge it upon all seekers of religion who really intend 
 to persevere until they obtain the blessing. A mem- 
 bership in the Church of Christ is a wall of defense 
 around them ; they are thrown into the society and 
 possess the confidence of those who care for their 
 souls, and such associations have a tendency to stim- 
 ulate them to greater and more constant religious 
 efforts. 
 
 "At the close of the meeting we returned home, 
 and while the greater portion of the company 'went 
 on their way rejoicing/ I was disappointed and sor- 
 rowful. The burden of sin rested heavily on my 
 spirit, and I feared the allurements and probable op- 
 position of a giddy world. My father and mother 
 met us with tears of joy, and assured me that I would, 
 in due time, realize the blessing of pardoning mercy 
 if I persevered in seeking it. I uniformly attended
 
 244 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the meetings held in the neighborhood, and spent 
 much time in prayer, but fell into the common mis- 
 take of looking too much to the deeds of the law for 
 justification, and failing to obtain it began to regard 
 myself as too great a sinner to hope for the mercy of 
 God. I became discouraged; my heart grew hard, 
 and Satan tempted me to give up the effort and seek 
 relief for my wounded spirit in the pleasures of the 
 world. But having felt the exceeding sinfulness of 
 sin, I was afraid to do this, and so the struggle went 
 on until I reached the end of my own strength and 
 was made conscious of my utter helplessness and 
 dependence upon the mercy of God through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 "At the end of three months another camp-meet- 
 ing was held, to which I had looked forward Avith 
 absorbing interest, as the time and place when I might 
 find the blessing so long and so ardently desired. 
 While there no opportunity was neglected. The first 
 on my knees at the altar of prayer, I waited hour 
 after hour and day after day, but could find no relief. 
 As on the former occasion, the work progressed with 
 great power, and souls were awakened and converted 
 at every coming together. The impression took hold 
 upon me that I was doomed to be lost ; and, no longer 
 able to weep, I retired to the woods to mourn over 
 my dreadful condition. I looked up, and the silent 
 heaven seemed to frown upon me. I looked down, 
 and the earth beneath had a voice to condemn ; the 
 trees, the grass, and every object in nature stood forth 
 as witnesses against me; the soft evening breeze, as 
 it fanned my cheek, seemed to whisper the curses of
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 245 
 
 God against the sinner; and, overwhelmed with men- 
 tal darkness, almost despair, I threw myself upon the 
 ground, and groaned aloud in anguish that words 
 could not speak. 
 
 "I left the place of my bitter lamentation and re- 
 turned to the encampment. A preacher was inviting 
 mourners to the altar. I paused and inquired of my- 
 self, 'Am I a mourner, such as are invited to come 
 forward for the prayers of the Church ?' Then this 
 thought came : Surely there is no being in the uni- 
 verse who needs intercession more than I do; it will 
 make my condition no worse to go, and it may be 
 that God will yet pity and forgive. The very thought 
 presented to my view the goodness of God in an 
 enlarged and affecting light; hope 'sprang up; my 
 heart melted into tenderness, and my eyes overflowed 
 with tears. I did not wait to walk I ran. I fell 
 prostrate on my face, a-nd cried, ' Lord, if it be possible 
 to save a wretch like me, O save me for the sake of 
 Jesus !' In a moment I apprehended the fullness of 
 the atonement in Christ; I saw how God could be 
 just, and yet the justifier of them that believe in 
 Jesus; and claiming an interest in the sinner's Friend, 
 instantly felt the renewing power of the Holy Ghost. 
 My burden was removed, my guilt absolved, my sor- 
 row turned into joy, and my lamentations into praise. 
 
 "If my anguish was excessive before, my joy was 
 inexpressible now. I could give vent to my feelings 
 only by shouting aloud the praises of God. Every 
 object I looked upon seemed to be praising him; the 
 leafy branches of the grove in which we worshiped 
 seemed laughing with joy in the silvery moonbeams;
 
 246 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the stars in their silent beauty seemed to speak forth 
 the Savior's praises; every face glowed with rapture; 
 the whole creation wore a new and lovelier aspect, 
 and all seemed to unite in one universal anthem of 
 praise to God and to the Lamb. Love, love to God 
 and man, filled my soul to overflowing. I talked to 
 all I met about the love of God in Christ Jesus, and 
 exhorted them to seek the Lord. I saw such a full- 
 ness in the atonement, and such freedom of access 
 through its merits that I was astonished at myself for 
 not having comprehended it sooner. So clear and 
 powerful were my views that it seemed to me I could 
 convince the most unbelieving, and felt deeply im- 
 pressed that it was my duty to invite them to this 
 fountain for sin and uncleanness."* 
 
 In the Autumn of 1810 he entered upon a life 
 of usefulness to the Church as a preacher of the Gos- 
 pel. A vacancy had been reserved on the Fleming 
 Circuit, to which he was appointed by the presiding 
 elder. He remained on the circuit about six months, 
 meeting with the discouragements that so frequently 
 fall to the lot of the young preacher, when, in conse- 
 quence of the failure in the health of Eli Truitt, on 
 the Lexington Circuit, he was removed to that field 
 of labor. Reluctant to leave a people whose indul- 
 gence and kindness he had shared so largely, he 
 nevertheless yielded to the wishes of his brethren, 
 and entered upon the labors of his new work. The 
 kindness of Charles Holliday, the senior preacher, 
 added to the forbearance of the Church, and, above 
 
 * Jonathan Stamper, in Home Circle, Vol. I, pp. 109, 110, 
 111.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 247 
 
 all, the success that attended his ministry encouraged 
 him in his work, and at the following conference he 
 offered himself, was admitted on trial, and returned 
 to the Lexington Circuit. In portions of this charge 
 there were seasons of refreshing. Two camp-meetings 
 were held, the first in Jessamine County, in the month 
 of May, and the second in August, at Robertson's 
 Camp-ground, in Bourbon County. Thirty persons 
 professed religion at the former, and forty at the 
 latter. The unquiet condition of the country, how- 
 ever, during this conference year, greatly impeded the 
 progress of the Church. In June, 1812, the Amer- 
 ican Congress declared war against Great Britain, 
 while the Indians had commenced hostilities on our 
 northern frontiers. " The treachery of the British 
 Government and the cruelties of the savages were 
 themes of conversation in all circles, producing an 
 excitement among the people which tended greatly 
 to destroy all religious influences, and create a sad 
 state of morals throughout the country." 
 
 On the 7th of the previous November, the mem- 
 orable battle of Tippecanoe had been fought, in which 
 the gallant and eloquent Colonel Jo. Hamilton Da- 
 viess, and other distinguished Kentuckians, had fallen. 
 News, too, had reached Kentucky that Fort Harri- 
 son, on the Wabash River, had been attacked by an 
 overwhelming force of Indians, and the massacres of 
 white families by the Indians, previous to the treaty 
 made by General Wayne, were too fresh in the mem- 
 ory of the people of Kentucky for them to be idle 
 spectators at a time like this. " The popular passion 
 for war blazed with such fury that scarcely any oppo-
 
 248 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sition was perceptible." The young men in every 
 portion of the State were offering themselves for the 
 campaign. Born at a period when families lived in 
 block-houses, and familiar, not only with the stories, 
 but a participant in the sufferings incident to frontier 
 life, young Stamper joined the expedition. They ren- 
 dezvoused at Lexington, and took up their line of 
 march from that city on the 1st of September, 1812. 
 Occupying the position of a chaplain, he acquitted 
 himself while in the army as became a minister of 
 Jesus Christ, preaching whenever an opportunity af- 
 forded, and leaving " upon hundreds of minds an 
 impression in favor of religion." 
 
 The conference of 1812 was held during his ab- 
 sence, and he was appointed to the Big Sandy Cir- 
 cuit. On the 1st of December he started for his field 
 of labor. In summing up the results of this year's 
 work, he says : " My labors on this circuit were hard 
 and attended with various success. There were often 
 times of great excitement, and what would usually be 
 called revivals of religion; but so volatile and un- 
 stable were the subjects of these excitements, that no 
 lasting effects were produced. Often, in the short 
 space of three weeks, many that professed religion, 
 and shouted as if they were in the suburbs of heaven, 
 went back into their former profligacy. I was led to 
 fear that no permanent good could be effected among 
 these people ; but time has proved the contrary. 
 Through the blessing of God upon the persevering 
 efforts of the early preachers, the Church is now 
 prospering in most parts of that mountain region. 
 The Gospel took effect upon the rising generation,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 249 
 
 many of whom have become substantial members of 
 the Church." * 
 
 In 1813 he was appointed to the Licking, and in 
 1814 to the Limestone, Circuit, on both of which 
 God blessed his ministry.' At the conference of 1815 
 he located. He re-entered the conference in 1817, 
 having traveled the previous year on the Lexington 
 Circuit, under the presiding elder. Revivals of re- 
 ligion distinguished his labors all around the circuit. 
 " At a camp-meeting at White's Meeting-house, in 
 Harrison County," there was a great revival. " The 
 town of Cynthiana had long withstood the Gospel. 
 Although repeated efforts had been made by all de- 
 nominations of Christians, no one of them had ever 
 been able to gain a foothold in the place, which at 
 this time was given up to pleasure and dissipation. 
 The people felt themselves secure in their sins, and, 
 like Gallic of old, ' cared for none of these things/ 
 
 " On the Saturday night of the camp-meeting, 
 there was an immense concourse of people present, 
 and the altar became so crowded that the mourners 
 were like to be trampled upon. Brother Thomas 
 Hinde was there, and assisted very much in carrying 
 on the meeting. He said to me : ' If you will go up 
 on the green above the seats, fix benches for the 
 mourners, and form a ring of old members to guard 
 them from the crowd, I will take them up from the 
 stand. 5 The arrangement was made, and, when I gave 
 him the signal, he came with the mourners, some fifty 
 in number. As they entered the ring the power of 
 God fell upon the assembly in a most extraordinary 
 
 * Jonathan Stamper, in Home Circle, Vol. I, p. 502.
 
 250 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 manner. Just at this moment, a band of thirty young 
 men, who had come from town with the avowed pur- 
 pose of breaking up the meeting, made their appear- 
 ance. They marched in rank and file, their captain 
 1}eing armed with a bottle of whisky. As they ad- 
 vanced to the mourners' circle, the power of the Holy 
 Spirit met them, and they fell like men in battle; 
 some in their tracks, others after running a little dis- 
 tance; but not one escaped. In twenty minutes the 
 work had become so general over the encampment 
 that it was impossible to tell where the most good 
 was being done. 
 
 " I have never before or since witnessed so great 
 a display of divine power. It saemed as if there was 
 almost a visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit ; and 
 the most reckless sinners turned pale and trembled 
 while they felt its awful presence. The work contin- 
 ued all night without abatement. Scores were con- 
 verted ; and not less than two hundred persons were 
 seen crying for mercy. The camp broke up on Tues- 
 day; but the people carried the sacred fire which had 
 been kindled there into their respective neighbor- 
 hoods. A meeting was commenced immediately in 
 Cynthiana, under the direction of Father Cole, which 
 continued until largely over one hundred were added 
 to the Church in that hitherto wicked place. 
 
 "This revival pervaded the neighborhoods of 
 Mount Gerizim, Ruddle's Mills, Pleasant Green, 
 Millersburg, Whitaker's Settlement, and many other 
 places. In the space of six weeks not less than 
 twelve hundred persons professed religion. The work 
 was deep and genuine, comparatively few falling back.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH, 251 
 
 Hundreds who are now in heaven were converted at 
 that time, and a dozen ministers were brought out 
 among the fruits of this mighty visitation."* 
 
 We next find Mr. Stamper on the Hinkstone Cir- 
 cuit, and then on the Brush Creek, in the State of 
 Ohio, in both of which revivals crowned his labors. 
 
 In 1819 he was appointed presiding elder over 
 the Muskiugum District, which " extended from the 
 mouth of the Little Scioto to within a few miles of 
 Wheeling, embracing both sides of the Ohio River." 
 We also find him a prominent member of the General 
 Conference of 1820. He had attained to eminence in 
 the Church, and henceforward he will appear as a 
 leader in the ranks. 
 
 In 1820 he is placed in charge of the Salt River 
 District, extending from the Cumberland Mountains 
 to the city of Louisville. Here he remained for two 
 years. Leaving his wife and children at his father- 
 in-law's, he entered upon his work at once. The 
 following Spring he removed his family to Shelby- 
 ville, Richard Corwine being in charge of the circuit. 
 In referring to Shelby ville, he says : 
 
 " After becoming acquainted with the state of 
 things in this vicinity, I determined to preach a 
 series of sermons on the points of difference between 
 Methodists and Calvinists. The cause of my deter- 
 mination was simply this: the Methodists had been 
 completely down-trodden by Calvinistic preachers, 
 who made a point of assailing our doctrines and 
 usages in almost every sermon. Our people had be- 
 come disheartened, and were rather disposed to bow 
 
 * Jonathan Stamper, in Home Circle, Vol. II, p. 168.
 
 252 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 down and submit to this petty tyranny without re- 
 sistance or defense. Such a state of things did not 
 at all comport with my ideas of justice or duty. One 
 Presbyterian and two Baptist preachers, all famed for 
 talent, had occupied the ground. These three men 
 seemed to have arrived at the conclusion that the 
 Methodists would tamely submit to be mauled and 
 ridiculed at their pleasure. 
 
 " I commenced my series, and crowds came to 
 hear. The above-mentioned ministers attended, to 
 take notes and make large threats ; but I continued 
 my course, regardless of all that was said. At the 
 close of one of my sermons, the following notice was 
 handed me : 
 
 " ' Mr. Stamper, Please publish to your congre- 
 gation that, on this day four weeks, Rev. Silas Ton- 
 cray will preach in the Baptist church, in reply to the 
 discourses delivered by you against the doctrines of 
 grace, commonly called Calvinism.' 
 
 " I announced the notice, with the following re- 
 marks : ' I do not consider this the best or fairest 
 way of conducting this matter. Mr. Toncray and 
 Mr. Waller have heard my arguments. Those argu- 
 ments are now fresh in the minds of the people, and 
 if a reply is intended this is the time for it. Mr. 
 Toncray is welcome to the use of my pulpit, and I 
 am the more anxious to hear him this evening, be- 
 cause it will be out of my power to attend at the time 
 specified in the notice. I claim it as a right that I 
 shall be present to defend myself/ 
 
 "'We feel disposed,' said Mr. Waller, 'to make 
 our own arrangements in our own way.'
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 253 
 
 " ' I hope, then/ replied I, ' that you will have 
 candor enough to make the appointment at a time 
 when I can be there.' 
 
 " l That/ said he, ' is your own lookout. We shall 
 not hinder you from being present.' 
 
 "'Still/ I insisted, 'as you say you will not hin- 
 der me, I hope you will so arrange the time that I 
 can be with you.' 
 
 " The answer was : ' We feel disposed to follow our 
 own course in this matter; and it is our opinion that 
 no one has a right to dictate either when or where 
 the reply shall be made.' 
 
 " I rejoined that I did not dispute their right or 
 power to do so, but hoped that the congregation would 
 claim the right to look upon them as cowards, seek- 
 ing to skulk from a fair investigation of the points 
 under discussion. 
 
 " To this Mr. Toncray very quickly replied that 
 he was not afraid to meet me anywhere upon those 
 points. 
 
 "'Then/ said I, 'act like a man, and give me a 
 chance to defend myself.' 
 
 " This brought them to a stand ; and seeing that 
 if they did not agree to meet me fairly their cause 
 would suffer, they, after counseling together a moment, 
 begged to be excused on that evening, adding that 
 they would be ready at any other time. 
 
 "'Will to-morrow at ten o'clock do?' I asked. 
 
 " The answer was affirmative, and I then announced 
 to the people that Mr. Toncray would reply to my dis- 
 courses in that house at the hour agreed upon. 
 
 "The appointment flew as if on the wings of the
 
 254 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 wind. As early as nine o'clock in the morning the 
 people were seen coming in every direction, anxious 
 to witness the contest. Toncray and Waller were a 
 little late; but when they came I met and conducted 
 them to the pulpit with all the politeness at my com- 
 mand. When we were seated, Mr. Toncray turned 
 to me, and asked : 
 
 "'What course are you going to pursue?' 
 
 " ' I think that is clear from what passed yester- 
 day. I understand that you are to answer my dis- 
 courses, confuting my arguments if you can, and that 
 I have the liberty of replying when you are done.' 
 
 " ' I do not understand it so. My understanding 
 is that the matter will end with my remarks. I object 
 to your replying, and you shall not do it.' 
 
 " ' But I will.' 
 
 "< You- shall not/ 
 
 " < I will.' 
 
 "'You shall not; and if you persist I will not say 
 one word.' 
 
 " ' You can do as you please. If you will not 
 preach, I will. This congregation shall not be dis- 
 appointed; and, just as certainly as you occupy the 
 pulpit, I claim the right of replying.' 
 
 "Brother Corwine, who was sitting in the stand 
 with us, turned to me and said : 
 
 " ' Stick to it, Brother Stamper ; it is your right, 
 and you must not relinquish it under any circum- 
 stances.' 
 
 "After a few moments' pause, Mr. Waller said to 
 his discomfited friend : 
 
 " ' Do n't back out ; you can prevent his replying.'
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 255 
 
 "'How?' 
 
 " ' Do you take the stand, and occupy it all day ; 
 you can keep him out in that way, if in no other.' 
 
 " Toncray took his advice, refrained from begin- 
 ning as long as he could, and then talked five hours 
 and a half! 
 
 " I felt insulted by this attempting to take advan- 
 tage of me, and, when he got through, arose and told 
 the congregation the whole affair from beginning to 
 end. There was not time for me to say much; but I 
 noticed a few of the gentleman's arguments then, and 
 pledged myself for a full answer subsequently. I as- 
 sured Mr. Toncray that he should be duly notified of 
 time and place, and furthermore promised that I 
 would not treat him as he had treated me on this 
 occasion. 
 
 " One of his strong points, which I noticed, was 
 the case of Judas Iscariot. Toncray affirmed that 
 this man was a devil from the beginning, being ap- 
 pointed by our Lord in view of the part he should 
 act. In connection with this, he remarked that the 
 eternal purposes of God in the redemption of the 
 world could never have been accomplished without a 
 traitor; that Judas was predestinated to that part, 
 and did what God had determined he should do. In 
 answer to this, I said : 
 
 " ' If Judas fulfilled the commission assigned him 
 by the Almighty, he was a good and faithful servant, 
 and was certainly approved of his Master for his obe- 
 dience. It would be a reflection upon the divine in- 
 tegrity to suppose that he would be assigned a special 
 work, and then sent to hell for doing it. Further-
 
 256 LIFE AtfD TIMES OF 
 
 more, if one traitor was necessary in making up the 
 twelve apostles in the commencement of the Gospel 
 ministry, it is not unreasonable to conclude that God 
 yet has need of traitors in the same ratio; if they 
 were necessary in carrying out the Gospel ministry 
 in the apostolic age, they are equally so in carrying 
 out that ministry in all ages. If the clergy has to 
 lie under this censure, I do not see why this commu- 
 nity has not a right to say that Mr. Toncray is a 
 Judas, as well as to say it of any other minister. If 
 they should charge him with this, he would have no 
 right to complain, but should content himself to be 
 hanged, and go to his own place, seeing that he had 
 accomplished the end for which he was born. Judas 
 and Mr. Toncray would have one thing in common 
 to console them in hell, if the doctrine you have 
 heard to-day be true; and that is, that they were 
 both damned, not for doing their own will, but for 
 doing the will of God !' 
 
 " It was between five and six o'clock when the 
 services closed, after my announcement that on the 
 next Sunday week I would reply more fully to Mr. 
 Toncray. 
 
 " The ball was now fairly in motion. The people 
 were waked up, and began to think and read for 
 themselves. Methodism from this hour held up its 
 head in that region, its advocates being greatly in- 
 creased and emboldened. Our Calvinistic friends felt 
 somewhat disconcerted, and complained that we should 
 have the impudence to attack the doctrines of the 
 Reformation, as taught by Calvin, Beza, and others; 
 but we held on our course steadily, saying but
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGIL 257 
 
 little, and hoping and praying for the triumph of 
 truth. 
 
 " Mr. Cameron, the pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church, was a Scotchman by birth and education 
 a generous-hearted man, but uncommonly impulsive 
 in his temper, over which neither he nor his friends 
 had any control. Being a strong Calvinist, of the old 
 school, he felt a concern for the safety of his favorite 
 scheme, and thought it incumbent on him to come to 
 the help of his Baptist brethren. When the day came 
 for my reply, Mr. Cameron dismissed the congrega- 
 tion at what was called the Mud Meeting-house, a 
 few miles in the country, came to town under whip 
 and spur, and reached the church just as I arose to 
 commence. He pressed through the crowd, took a 
 seat, and prepared to take notes. 
 
 " I took up the subject that day in regular order, 
 from the doctrine of decrees down to the final and 
 unconditional perseverance of the saints, and occupied 
 about three hours in its investigation, during which 
 a death-like silence reigned throughout the assembly. 
 After getting through the arguments against Calvin- 
 ism, I proceeded to lay down the plain articles of 
 Calvinism and Methodism in their undress, side by 
 side, telling the congregation that they might inspect 
 them at their leisure, and make what comparisons and 
 deductions they chose. 
 
 " I read the first two articles agreed to by the 
 Synod of Dort. My old friend Cameron could con- 
 tain himself no longer, and, rising to his feet, shouted 
 out, in his broad Scotch dialect : 
 
 "'Stop, Mr. Stumper! Stop, Mr. Stumper! I do 
 22
 
 258 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 not want this large congregation to go away and 
 believe we hold such damnable doctrines. Mr. 
 Stomper has dressed Calvinism in rags, and set the 
 dogs after it!' 
 
 "At this Philip Taylor, who was a magistrate as 
 well as a local preacher, arose and commanded order, 
 telling Mr. Cameron that he was disturbing the peace 
 of the congregation. I ' urged Mr. Taylor to sit 
 down, and, turning to Mr. Cameron, assured him that 
 he should have full liberty to say what he chose, 
 without fear of being considered a disturber. This 
 softened him into kindly thanking me for the courtesy 
 shown, and I immediately asked him whether I had 
 read the articles aright. 
 
 " ' Yes/ he answered ; ' but they need explanation, 
 and that you have not given.' 
 
 " ' I think an article of religion which has been 
 signed by a grave synod ought to be so definite as 
 to render explanation -unnecessary/ 
 
 " ' Well, Mr. Stomper, after all you have said, we 
 do not differ so widely. You tell us what we must be- 
 lieve in order to justification, and I tell you that he that 
 believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.' 
 
 " ' Yes, Mr. Cameron, but your doctrines carry 
 some horrible consequences after them, from which 
 ours are happily freed.' 
 
 "'None that I can conceive,' was his reply. 
 
 "'Will you permit me,' I said, 'to ask you two 
 or three plain questions?' 
 
 " ' Yes, sir ; and I will answer them. If I had a 
 glass of water, and my Bible, I wowld show beyond 
 contradiction that Mr. Stomper is wrong.'
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 259 
 
 "Some one handed him a glass of water; and after 
 he had drunk, I asked the following question : 
 
 " ' Do you believe that God has made it possible 
 for all men to be saved?' 
 
 " ' Certainly I do.' 
 
 " ' Do you believe that Jesus Christ purchased re- 
 demption for all men?' 
 
 " ' No ; I do not believe any such thing.' 
 
 " t Will you please to tell me, and this congrega- 
 tion, how those may be saved for whom Christ did 
 not die, and for whom he procured no redemption?' 
 
 " The old gentleman, at once seeing the dilemma 
 into which he had fallen, flew into a perfect rage, and 
 declared that he was not bound to answer any such 
 question. His Presbyterian brethren ran to him and 
 begged him for God's sake to be silent, or he would 
 injure the cause, and ruin himself. But he cried out 
 at the top of his voice, * Let me alone ! I will say 
 what I please!' and so he made his way to the door, 
 followed by his beseeching brethren, while the con- 
 gregation was in a paroxysm of laughter at his vio- 
 lence. Hundreds followed him from the church to 
 the public square, where he lectured half an hour be- 
 fore his friends could quiet him. 
 
 " I finished the reading of the articles, and called 
 on Messrs. Toncray and Waller for a reply, but they 
 declined making any. 
 
 " Mr. Cameron published that he would answer 
 my sermon on the ensuing Sabbath in the Presbyte- 
 rian Church. I wrote him a note, requesting the 
 privilege of being there to defend the doctrines of 
 Methodism; but he said to the messenger, 'Tell Mr.
 
 260 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Stomper I consider him a gentleman he treated me 
 as one ; but tell him I have such a devilish temper I 
 can 't bear it, and he must excuse me for not granting 
 his request/ 
 
 " It was circulated about that I had been denied 
 the privilege of hearing him, and the leading mem- 
 bers of the Presbyterian Church determined to stay 
 away, so that he had only about twenty persons in 
 the house. Thus the controversy ended between Mr. 
 Cameron and myself. We were upon the most friendly 
 terms to the day of his death, and I always respected 
 him for his honesty and simplicity of character. His 
 impulsiveness almost amounted to a disease, but he 
 was perfectly ingenuous and without malice; so that 
 if he flew into a pet with me it was soon over, and he 
 was kind as ever; 
 
 " ' One that bore anger as a flint bears fire : 
 When much inflamed, it shows a hasty spark, 
 And straight is cold again.' 
 
 "Perhaps one cause of his great irascibility was 
 his being a bachelor. A want of the softening and 
 winning influences of a wife often causes men to be- 
 come soured with the world, and fancy themselves un- 
 dervalued and neglected. The old gentleman long 
 since bade adieu to earth, and I hope is resting in 
 Abraham's bosom." * 
 
 In 1822 he traveled the Augusta District; in 1823 
 is appointed agent for Augusta College, and in 1824 
 is again appointed to the Augusta District, on which 
 he remains for four years. Following him in his la- 
 bors, we find him in charge of the Cumberland and 
 
 * Jonathan Stamper, in Home, Circle, vol. ii, pp. 523-526.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 261 
 
 the Kentucky Districts; then filling the Shelby ville, 
 Louisville, Danville, and Harrodsburg Stations ; then 
 in charge of the Augusta, Greensburg, and Shelby ville 
 Districts. 
 
 At the session of the conference of 1841 he was 
 transferred to the Illinois Conference, and was sta- 
 tioned at Springfield, where he remained for two years; 
 the following two years he is the pastor of the Church 
 in Quincy. 
 
 As a member of the General Conference of 1844, 
 in the controversy that led to the division of the 
 Church, he took his position with the Southern dele- 
 gates. This rendering him unacceptable to the Illi- 
 nois Conference, he asked to be retransferred to Ken- 
 tucky, where he met with a most cordial reception. 
 
 After his return to Kentucky, his first appoint- 
 ment was to the agency of Transylvania University. 
 He next served the Maysville District for two years 
 as presiding elder. In 1848 he was transferred to the 
 St. Louis Conference, and stationed in Jefferson City; 
 but his health failing him, he was placed on the su- 
 perannuated list at the following conference. In that 
 relation, in 1850, he was again transferred to the Ken- 
 tucky Conference, and continued on the superannuated 
 roll until the Autumn of 1858. 
 
 Since 1850, although a superannuated member of 
 the Kentucky Conference, he had resided at Decatur, 
 Illinois, where he owned property. Through the ear- 
 nest solicitation of prominent members of the Illinois 
 Conference, in 1858 he became a member of that con- 
 ference, and was stationed in Decatur. At the close 
 of the year his health was too feeble for him to con-
 
 262 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tinue on the effective roll, and hence he was again 
 placed on the superannuated list. Reluctant to yield 
 to the encroachments of age, and anxious to die in the 
 effective ranks, he again accepted an appointment, and 
 for two years traveled on the Mechanicsburg Circuit. 
 At the conference of 1862 he was again placed on the 
 list of superannuated preachers, on which he contin- 
 ued until the final summons called him from labor to 
 reward. 
 
 Among the last expressions that fell from his dy- 
 ing lips were, " My hope is in Jesus ; he is precious 
 to my soul ; I love him ; I will praise him. I have 
 been an unfaithful servant, and I am needy and un- 
 worthy; but there is a fullness in Jesus that diffuses 
 and spreads itself abroad, covering the entire field of 
 my wants, and in that fullness I rejoice. Glory to 
 God ! my work is done. I am almost home." He 
 died in Decatur, Illinois, on the 26th day of Febru- 
 ary, 1864. 
 
 It has been with pleasure that we have followed 
 this eminent man of God through the long period of 
 his ministry. For fifty-four years forty of which 
 were spent in Kentucky he stood in the front ranks 
 of the Church as a faithful, useful, and gifted minis- 
 ter of Jesus Christ. Jonathan Stamper was a great 
 man in all that constitutes true greatness. " He was 
 one of the finest pulpit orators of his day. God made 
 him an orator. On camp-meeting occasions, congre- 
 gated thousands have hung with rapt delight upon his 
 ever-varying strains, amazed at the richness, beauty, 
 strength, attractiveness, and glory of divine truth, or 
 swayed by his mighty reasonings, or convulsed with
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 263 
 
 fear and dread, or melted into tenderness and tears; 
 or lifted to their feet, or hurled prostrate to the 
 ground, when he discoursed to them of the judgment 
 of the last day, of the glorious appearing of the great 
 God our Savior Jesus Christ, of the lost soul, or of 
 the triumphant entrance of the soldier of the Cross 
 into his rest." * 
 
 In Kentucky no man was better known than Jon- 
 athan Stamper. He traveled and preached all over 
 the State. We heard him often. From our early 
 childhood until he took his final leave of Kentucky, 
 we many times sat beneath his ministry. We can not 
 forget him. We remember him once at a camp-meet- 
 ing near Shelbyville. Day after day had faithful men 
 dispensed the Word of Life, and many had found the 
 " peace that passeth understanding." The excitement 
 had subsided, and quiet rested on the encampment. 
 Jonathan Stamper, then in the full strength of man- 
 hood, ascended the stand. It was the quiet hour of 
 evening. All nature was calm ; scarcely a leaf of the 
 forest was rustled by the passing breeze. He opened 
 the service with singing and prayer, and then an- 
 nounced his favorite theme the final judgment. 
 
 He entered with calmness upon the investigation 
 of the subject, gradually leading his hearers from 
 point to point, until he held over them a complete 
 mastery. Showing the necessity of a general judg- 
 ment, that men may be rewarded or punished for all 
 their works, he summoned those who had lived and 
 passed away, of every generation and every clime, 
 from earth and .sea, and those living now, including 
 
 * < Jt-neral Minutes for 1864, p. 191.
 
 264 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the vast assembly to whom he was preaching, to ap- 
 pear before the Judge, to hear the final sentence. In 
 every direction, as far as human eye could reach, vast 
 crowds seemed pressing to the place of judgment. 
 Not only the living of every land, but from the gold- 
 paved streets of the city of God, and passing out 
 through its jeweled gates, myriads " whose robes had 
 been washed and made white in the blood of the 
 Lamb," coming to receive unfading crowns; while 
 from the realms of black despair, with flames of fire 
 dripping from their burning fingers, unnumbered 
 thousands approached the judgment-seat to hear their 
 final doom. A hush, like the stillness of death, per- 
 meated the congregation, as crowns were distributed, 
 or the ungodly chased away to the " blackness of 
 darkness forever." Then heightening his rich and 
 mellow voice, and throwing his whole soul into the 
 appeal, he pleaded with those who heard him who, 
 though on the precincts of hell, were yet outside to 
 turn and live. Commotion was seen in every direc- 
 tion. More than one hundred persons pressed to the 
 altar and pleaded for mercy. 
 
 "Among the people where he spent the evening 
 of his life he was cherished as a patriarch and was 
 happy in his family and Christian relations. His 
 funeral was one of the largest that ever occurred in 
 the city of Decatur. A neat marble monument, with 
 an open Bible, marks his last resting-place." 
 
 In a previous chapter we alluded to Augusta 
 College. 
 
 For many years it was a brilliant success. Its 
 halls were crowded with young men destined to occupy
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 265 
 
 a commanding eminence in the higher circles of life. 
 Some of the first intellects of the age presided over its 
 fortunes, and many of the brightest lights in the med- 
 ical profession, at the bar, and in the pulprt claimed 
 Augusta College as their alma mater. Circumstances, 
 however, for which the Kentucky Conference was not 
 responsible, and over which it had no control, broke 
 the power of this once popular institution. The agi- 
 tation of the questions of slavery and abolition exerted 
 an influence for harm upon its fortunes that no fac- 
 ulty, however learned, could counteract. The Ohio 
 Conference practically withdrew its patronage because 
 of its location in a slave-holding State, while the 
 South, from whence a large proportion of its support 
 had been received, declined to send her sons so near 
 the border or to have them educated in the same 
 school with young men who held views, and so openly 
 advocated them, adverse to ail institution that was 
 peculiarly Southern. 
 
 It was announced on the floor of the conference, 
 on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 22d, by Dr. Bas- 
 com, that propositions had been received by him from 
 a certain corporation, which he desired should be 
 referred to a special committee of three. The com- 
 mittee, as appointed by the president, was composed 
 of Henry B. Bascom, Benjamin T. Crouch, and 
 Hubbard H. Kavanaugh. Joseph S. Tomlinson and 
 Thomas N. Ralston were subsequently added to the 
 committee. 
 
 On Thursday, the 23d, the following report was 
 submitted and unanimously adopted by a rising vote: 
 
 "The trustees of Transylvania University having 
 23
 
 266 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 tendered the control and management of said uni- 
 versity to the Methodist Episcopal Church by the 
 adoption of the following resolutions, bearing date 
 September 21, 1841 : 
 
 " 'Resolved, That a tender of the control of Tran- 
 sylvania University, so far as the nomination of the 
 faculty in the college proper, the principal in the pre- 
 paratory department, together with the direction of 
 the course of studies and internal government of said 
 college is concerned, be, and the same is hereby, made 
 to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
 States, and especially to said Church in Kentucky, 
 upon such terms as shall be agreed upon between said 
 Church and this board. 
 
 "'Resolved, That S. Chipley be a committee to 
 confer with the Kentucky Conference on the subject 
 of the above institution. 
 
 " (Signed.) ' M. C. JOHNSON, 
 
 "'Chairman Board T. T. U. 
 
 "'Attest: D. S. VIGERS, Secretary Board T. T. U.' 
 
 "The special committee, to whom was referred the 
 foregoing resolutions to consider and report upon, 
 recommend the following resolutions by the Kentucky 
 Conference in conference assembled: 
 
 "Resolved, by the Kentucky Annual Conference, That, 
 in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church, we will 
 accept the proposition of the trustees of Transylvania 
 University on the following conditions: 
 
 "First. The Board of Trustees of Transylvania 
 University and the Church will unite to obtain any 
 enactment of the Legislature that may be necessary in 
 carrying out the design of the parties in the re-organ-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 267 
 
 ization of said institution as well as to give to the 
 Church, through her constituted authorities, the right 
 of electing three additional trustee's possessing the 
 same powers possessed by other trustees of Transyl- 
 vania University. 
 
 "Second. The entire faculty, as also the teachers 
 in the preparatory department, in the re-organization 
 of the university, as contemplated in the premises, 
 shall be nominated by the Church, through her con- 
 stituted authorities and confirmed by the trustees; and 
 thereafter, when any of the chairs become vacated by 
 death or otherwise, the remaining members of the 
 faculty shall nominate, and the trustees confirm, in 
 order to fill such vacancy. 
 
 "Third. The control of the collegiate and prepar- 
 atory departments, the internal regulation of the 
 college, the direction of the course of studies, the 
 management of the dormitory and boarding-house, the 
 superintendence and care of the buildings and grounds 
 belonging to the university, shall be given to the faculty. 
 
 "Fourth. The income arising from all the perma- 
 nent funds now belonging to the university, and the 
 income arising from all the college funds now belong- 
 ing to, or which may hereafter be raised by, said 
 Church in Kentucky, as also the tuition fees, shall be 
 appropriated for the support of the faculty and teach- 
 ers in the preparatory department, and for such inci- 
 dental expenses as may be necessary to sustain such 
 institution when recommended by the faculty; but 
 the capital, etc., shall remain the separate property of 
 the respective parties, each party controlling its sep- 
 arate interests.
 
 268 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 "Fifth. It is expressly understood that the Church 
 is not required to meet any of the present liabilities 
 of said university. 
 
 "Sixth. The Kentucky Annual Conference shall, 
 at each session, appoint a committee whose duty it 
 shall be to visit said institution and report to the 
 ensuing conference its condition and prosperity, which 
 report shall be disposed of by the conference in suph 
 manner as they may think will best promote the in- 
 terests of said institution by publication or otherwise. 
 
 "Seventh. The trustees shall at all times fix the 
 salaries of the professors ; provided that the salaries 
 shall not be less than is usually paid in similar insti- 
 tutions, unless at the instance of the faculty. 
 
 "Eighth. The arrangements to carry out and com- 
 plete the contemplated re-organization of- said univer- 
 sity, by the nomination and appointment of an able 
 faculty, teachers, etc., must be consummated by the 
 end of the next collegiate year of said university, 
 which will be in the Autumn of 1842. In the mean- 
 time, should any of the chairs in said institution be 
 vacated, and should it be thought necessary and be 
 required by the trustees, the Church, by her author- 
 ities, will endeavor to make suitable nominations for 
 pro tern, appointments to fill such vacancies. 
 
 Resolved, That the conference will, by a com- 
 mittee to be raised - for that purpose, endeavor, as 
 speedily as practicable, to get the Board of Commis- 
 sioners appointed by the late General Conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States 
 to take favorable action upon the subject and to report 
 the same to the next General Conference in order to
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 269 
 
 obtain, as far as possible, the influence and patronage 
 of said General Conference in favor of said university. 
 (Signed.) "H. B. BASCOM, 
 
 "B. T. CROUCH, 
 "H. H. KAVANAUGH, 
 "T. N. RALSTON." 
 
 Thomas N. Ralston presented the following reso- 
 lution, which was adopted : 
 
 " Whereas, We, as a Church, are now in negotia- 
 tion with the trustees of Transylvania University, in 
 view of effecting a reorganization of the same, and 
 having submitted the terms upon which we will ac- 
 cept the control of said institution, and inasmuch as 
 it may be necessary for the consummation of this de- 
 sirable object that farther negotiations with the trus- 
 tees be had; therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That H. B. Bascom, B. T. Crouch, and 
 H. H. Kavanaugh be, and they are hereby, appointed 
 a committee to carry out the views as expressed by 
 this conference, with power to do any other act that 
 they may think will best promote the interest of the 
 Church." 
 
 Before the proposition made by the trustees of 
 Transylvania University, the location of the college 
 at Augusta was the subject of comment in Methodist 
 circles throughout the State, and the opinion was 
 commonly expressed that a removal to some more 
 eligible point was requisite, if the Church desired to 
 sustain an institution of learning of high grade. The 
 proposition, therefore, to turn over Transylvania Uni- 
 versity to the conference could not be deemed other- 
 wise than opportune for the Church.
 
 270 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 The reappointraent of Mr. Kavanaugh to the city 
 of Maysville was agreeable no less to the preacher 
 than to the people. He always regarded his second 
 year in that charge as among the pleasant years of 
 his life. 
 
 While pastor of the Church in Maysville Mr. 
 Kavanaugh edited a temperance paper in that city. 
 The Kentucky Conference had sounded the note of 
 prohibition on that question, and he was in full ac- 
 cord with that body, wielding a pen than which there 
 was none more powerful or more vigorous in the 
 West.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 271 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE 
 OF 1842 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1848. 
 
 SINCE the session of the Kentucky Conference of 
 1836, Methodism had advanced in numbers and 
 influence each year. The increase during these six 
 years was, in the white membership, fourteen thou- 
 sand one hundred and ninety -two, and in the colored, 
 three thousand five hundred and ninety-three mak- 
 ing a total increase of seventeen thousand seven hun- 
 dred and eighty-five. 
 
 It has been but seldom that, within so short a 
 period, such success has marked the progress of Meth- 
 odism in the commonwealth. 
 
 In 1842 Mr. Kavaiuiugh was appointed to Brook 
 Street Station, in the city of Louisville. Richard 
 Corwine had charge of the district. No two preach- 
 ers differed more widely. If Mr. Corwine admired 
 the brilliant talents of the pastor of the Brook Street 
 Church, Mr. Kavanaugh had no less regard for the 
 blameless life and modest pretensions of the presid- 
 ing elder. 
 
 In 1817 Mr. Corwine entered the conference, and 
 for more than twenty-five years, by his piety and 
 labors, evinced his devotion^ to the Church. Two 
 years of this time his health was too feeble to perform 
 the duties of an itinerant preacher, and hence we find
 
 272 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 him one year on the superannuated roll and one year 
 as supernumerary. His appointments were the Hink- 
 stone, Lexington, Madison, Goose Creek, and Shelby 
 Circuits; the Louisville, and Shelby ville and Brick 
 Chapel Stations; Danville, Hopkinsville, Red River, 
 and Lexington Circuits; the Augusta District, Flem- 
 ing and Mt. Sterling Circuits, Shelbyville Station, and 
 Hopkinsville and Louisville Districts. It was dur- 
 ing his pastoral term in the Shelbyville Station, to 
 which he was appointed in 1836, that we made his 
 acquaintance, and on the 7th of March, 1837, we re- 
 ceived from him license to exhort. From this time 
 until his death we knew him intimately. While he 
 did not take rank in the pulpit as one of the first 
 preachers in the conference, 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 instruct. His was not 
 the flood of impassioned eloquence 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 destina- 
 tion, bearing upon its placid bosom the hopes of the 
 world. Loved by the Church, and respected by all 
 who knew him, Richard Corwine was a blessing to 
 every community in which he lived and labored. 
 
 "As a man and a Christian he was in all things 
 consistent; as a minister of the Gospel of Christ, 
 grave, dignified, and intelligent. His pulpit efforts 
 were always enriched by the fundamental doctrines 
 of Christianity the blood and righteousness of Christ,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 273 
 
 the agency of the Holy Spirit in man's salvation, were 
 more or less in all his sermons : they were his theme 
 to the last. Among his dying expressions were, ( I 
 glory in the blood of Christ : this is the foundation 
 of my trust/ 
 
 " His Christian experience was like a rising tide 
 to the end of life then overflowing all its banks. 
 As he approached death, he had a struggle in giving 
 up his family, but he gained the victory ; and when 
 he had committed them to the care and protection of 
 Heaven, his faith became triumphant, and he shouted 
 for joy. In reply to a wish expressed by his friends, 
 that he might again be enabled to resume his labors, 
 he said, 1 1 feel like a frail vessel that has been long 
 out at sea, and has breasted many a storm, but is now 
 safe in sight of the destined and much-desired port. 
 My friends desire that I should return again : I do 
 not desire to return, but the will of the Lord be 
 done.' Having given his family his dying charge, 
 and lifted up his voice in prayer for them for the last 
 time, he seemed composed. A friend said to him, 1 1 
 am here.' He replied, ' God is here, too.' The friend 
 said, 'The messenger has come.' ' Sweet messenger!' 
 he said, and spoke no more. He had been requested, 
 when he could not speak, if he felt the Lord was 
 with him, to raise his hand. He did so, and then 
 sunk calmly in death to rise in glory."* 
 
 He was born in Mason County, Kentucky, August 
 29, 1789. His parents were religious, and trained 
 him up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 His first religious impressions were received at the 
 
 General Minutes, Vol. Ill, p. 455.
 
 274 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 family altar. He was converted and joined the 
 Church in 1809, and was licensed to preach in 1817. 
 He died February 12, 1843, at the residence of Rev. 
 James G. Leach, in Jefferson County. This year was 
 remarkable for the success of the Church in Ken- 
 tucky, and especially in the city of Louisville. 
 
 Very early in the year the three charges exhibited 
 signs of prosperity. In the class-room were to be 
 seen the first indications of the revival that soon 
 spread through the Church and the community. In- 
 deed, before the first of January the Brook Street 
 Church was in a blaze. A meeting had been com- 
 menced, and every evening the house was crowded, 
 attracted first by the remarkable gifts of the preacher, 
 and then by the divine power that was manifested in 
 the awakening and conversion of the people. Through 
 many weeks the meeting was protracted, until more 
 than a hundred souls were brought into the fold of 
 Christ. It was at this meeting that James S. Lith- 
 gow, at the present time a distinguished layman in 
 the city, was happily converted, and became a mem- 
 ber of the Church. 
 
 James S. Lithgow was born in Pittsburg, Penn- 
 sylvania, November 29, 1812. In less than a year 
 after his birth his father died, in September, 1813. 
 After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lithgow re- 
 turned to the home of her parents, who lived but a 
 few years afterward, leaving their widowed daughter 
 alone with her fatherless child. His parents and 
 grandparents were members of the Reformed Pres- 
 byterian Church, and from these his early religious 
 instruction .was received. He remained with his
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 275 
 
 mother until he entered his twenty-first year, and 
 then in December, 1832, he removed to the city of 
 Louisville. In 1836 his mother died. 
 
 Thus alone in the world, without fortune, and 
 wholly dependent upon his own resources, Mr. Lith- 
 gow entered upon his career. How well he has 
 fought the battle of life, the honorable position he 
 has attained among his fellow-men, will testify. His 
 great energy, application to business, and thorough 
 acquaintance with those principles that command suc- 
 cess, soon placed him in possession of an ample for- 
 tune. This by disaster was lost, but he did not 
 despond. Recovering from his losses, he was again 
 independent, when a second time, by fire, his prop- 
 erty was swept away. But his indomitable energy 
 again rallied him to the work of recuperation. The 
 confidence he had inspired in business circles; the 
 ceaseless industry which did not stop to waste its 
 strength in useless repining; the persistent effort, 
 which would yield to no discouragement these again 
 declared themselves in returning prosperity. For 
 many years the name of James S. Lithgow has been 
 familiar to thousands beyond the limits of mere com- 
 mercial associations. 
 
 Mr. Kavanaugh, as already stated, was sent, in 
 1842, to Brook Street Station, in the city of Louis- 
 ville. During the revival that early in 1843 began 
 under the ministry of Mr. Kavanaugh and swept 
 through the city, Mr. Lithgow was awakened and 
 converted to God, and immediately joined the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, and from that time to the 
 present he has been closely identified, not only with.
 
 276 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the enterprises of the Church in the city of Louisville, 
 but throughout the land. 
 
 He has twice filled the office of mayor, once 
 elected to fill a vacancy, and the second time elected 
 for a regular term by an overwhelming majority of 
 the votes of his fellow-citizens, each time filling the 
 position with honor to himself and with blessing to 
 the city. He was a member of the General Confer- 
 ence of 1870, and also in 1874, and on both occa- 
 sions contributed much, by his judicious counsels, to 
 the intelligent action of that representative body of 
 the Church. 
 
 Mr. Lithgow is a man of large and liberal views. 
 No one can look upon his face and find any indica- 
 tion of narrowness or prejudice. Frank, courteous, 
 generous, warm in his friendship, princely in hospi- 
 tality, with his purse ever open to relieve the needy 
 and his heart always prepared for every good work, 
 he has gathered about him a large circle of admiring 
 friends, who bear testimony to his worth and useful- 
 ness. He is at present president of the Church Ex- 
 tension Society. 
 
 On the 9th of March, George "W. Brush, who was 
 stationed at Fourth Street, wrote to the Western Chris- 
 tian Advocate, " There is now a most powerful revival 
 of religion in the three stations in Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky." In that Church, under the leadership of this 
 indefatigable preacher of the Gospel, the revival was 
 signal in its power and widespread in its influence; 
 while at Eighth Street the zealous Holman won many 
 trophies to his Master. 
 
 There was scarcely during this year a charge in
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 277 
 
 the conference that did not enjoy " seasons of refresh- 
 ing." From the waters of the Big Sandy River to 
 the Tennessee line, and from the beautiful Ohio to the 
 eastern border of the State, praises of converted souls 
 fell upon the ear of the Church. 
 
 One of the most remarkable meetings was a camp- 
 meeting held a few miles from Nicholasville. 
 
 A few weeks previous to the conference the fourth 
 quarterly-meeting for the Versailles Circuit was held 
 in Nicholasville. Peter O. Meeks, the zealous pastor, 
 had fallen at his post. Benjamin T. Crouch, the pre- 
 siding elder, requested the assistance of Mr. Deering 
 and William Atherton in conducting the meeting. 
 " It was a time of great power and grace ; many young 
 men and young ladies joined the Church, and there 
 were many clear and happy conversions." The meet- 
 ing continued for more than a week, and sixty per- 
 sons were added to the Church. Encouraged by what 
 had been accomplished, the members of the Church 
 proposed to hold a camp-meeting immediately after 
 conference, and requested Mr. Deering and the other 
 brethren to be present. The session of the annual 
 conference adjourned on Friday, the 23d of Septem- 
 ber, and on Saturday Mr. Deering was on the camp- 
 ground, about four miles from Nicholasville. A large 
 number of board tents had been erected, each provided 
 with a stove, in case the weather should turn cold. 
 The meeting was one of great power. Nearly one 
 hundred persons were converted and joined the Church. 
 The entire community was aroused. Under a single 
 sermon preached by Mr. Deering, one evening, fully 
 one hundred persons came to the altar and pleaded
 
 278 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for mercy, and more than one-half of them were con- 
 verted within a few hours. 
 
 At the following session of the conference Mr. 
 Kavanaugh was returned to Brook Street, where ex- 
 traordinary success continued to crown his ministry. 
 The Upper Station, now known as Shelby Street, had 
 been formed by taking off a large membership from 
 Brook Street; yet, through the untiring labors of the 
 pastor, Brook Street continued to maintain the ele- 
 vated position it had won. 
 
 The two years spent in Louisville were years not 
 to be forgotten, not only for the great numbers con- 
 verted to God, but for the elevated position Method- 
 ism assumed during this period. Many who had 
 hitherto been strangers to its services now worshiped 
 at its altars. 
 
 The year from the conference of 1843 to 1844 will 
 long be memorable in the history of Methodism, not 
 only in Kentucky, but in the United States. The 
 General Conference was held this year in the city of 
 New York, commencing the first day of May. H. B. 
 Bascom, William Gunn, H. H. Kavanaugh, Edward 
 Stevenson, B. T. Crouch, and G. W. Brush were the 
 delegates elected to represent the Kentucky Confer- 
 ence in that body. It would have been impossible to 
 have chosen a stronger class of men from the confer- 
 ence, and, indeed, from any conference. 
 
 The Church, at no period of its history in Ken- 
 tucky, has produced a more laborious and faithful 
 minister of the Gospel than William Gunn. He was 
 the son of James Gunn, a useful local preacher of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and was born in Cas-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 279. 
 
 well County, North Carolina, on the 13th of March, 
 1797. When only a youth he embraced religion, and 
 became an active member of the Church, and at the 
 conference of 1819 entered the itinerant field. His 
 first appointment was to the Henderson Circuit, after 
 which he successively traveled the Barren, Little Ka- 
 nawha, Danville, Madison, Salt River, Shelby, Lex- 
 ington, Shelby, Shippingsport, and Shelby Circuits, 
 Kentucky District (four years), Shelby Circuit, Louis- 
 ville District (two years), Lexington District and Shel- 
 by ville District (each four years), Harrodsburg Station, 
 La Grange, Shelby, and Taylorsville Circuits (the first 
 two years), and Lexington District (three years). 
 
 In a letter to the author, dated January 3, 1870, 
 the Rev. G. W. Brush says : 
 
 "About this time (1825) there appeared, among 
 the young circuit preachers, a zealous recruit, whose 
 subsequent labors, in various portions of the State, 
 contributed no little to the progress of genuine Chris- 
 tianity. William Gunn, as he was seen on the stand 
 at a camp-meeting, near Mount Washington, Bullitt 
 County, appeared to be about twenty-six years of age. 
 He looked six feet in height, large frame, black hair, 
 brown skin, and very large mouth. His voice was 
 rich, and uncommonly strong, and had been consid- 
 erably cultivated in the art of music. In singing, his 
 articulation was accurate, but in speaking his commu- 
 nications were imperfect. Awkward in manne'r, he 
 went into company rather blunderingly. Having been 
 brought up to manual labor ' a tiller of the ground ' 
 he transferred his working habits to the vineyard of 
 his divine Master, and became a fine example of self-
 
 280 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sacrifice, toil, and success, in the itinerant ministry of 
 the Methodist Church. 
 
 " His literary attainments were meager, for good 
 schools were then rare, and means in possession of 
 the family scant; but his zealous and studious habits 
 compensated, in a good measure, for these early wants. 
 From his entrance upon the work of a traveling 
 preacher, he read, closely and perseveringly, the Sa- 
 cred Scriptures, and those authors, particularly, which 
 were designed to be a help to their understanding. 
 So anxious was he to read the Bible understand! ngly 
 that he made some progress in acquainting himself 
 with the original Hebrew and Greek of the Old and 
 New Testaments. Other studies, also, interested him. 
 Biography, history, poetry, reviews, and works of de- 
 votion, engaged his attention and heart. A rich Chris- 
 tian experience was one of the chief charms of his life. 
 He knew God 'as a sin-pardoning God.' Great revi- 
 vals of religion had swept over the land, and he had 
 taken on that type of godliness which sacrificed all 
 for the cause. A clear conversion and a consistent 
 growth in grace were the elements of his strength, 
 and the harbingers of success in the Christian minis- 
 try. This ministry he did not take up in haste, but 
 it was the settled conviction of his mind that he ought 
 to preach the Gospel. Fully aware of a lack of a 
 proper literary training, and pressed with that peculiar 
 feeling of unworthiness which true godliness and sin- 
 cere piety never fail to impart, yet he was wont, with 
 tears, to say, ' Necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is 
 unto me if I preach not the Gospel.' He honestly 
 believed that he was called of God to the work of the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 281 
 
 ministry, and this fixed conviction, which grew stronger 
 as he lived nearer to God, emboldened him in dangers 
 and strengthened him in toils. His religious convic- 
 tions, and his physical ability to endure fatigue, under 
 the blessing of God, carried him forth, for.largely over 
 thirty years, through the privations and toils of the 
 itinerant ministry. He traveled some of the hardest 
 circuits and roughest districts in the then compara- 
 tively new country. He was prompt, uniform, and 
 zealous. He had practically adopted all those whole- 
 some Methodist rules in regard to early rising, regu- 
 lar reading, and secret prayer, which never fail to 
 secure the blessing of God. 
 
 " He was largely an expository preacher. He stud- 
 ied closely the Epistles to the Hebrews and the Ro- 
 mans, and frequently selected his subjects for public 
 administration from these inspired letters and yet 
 he was a revival preacher. He believed and prac- 
 ticed the doctrine that all preachers should be good 
 exhorters; and therefore usually closed his sermons 
 with zealous and powerful exhortations to the Chris- 
 tians to press on in holiness, and to sinners to turn 
 to God. He was gifted in prayer, and sung exceed- 
 ingly well ; for he made music a study, and persever- 
 ingly cultivated the fine voice which God had given 
 him. "When his soul was happy in the love of God, 
 his songs and prayers were thrilling and delightful. 
 
 " He was a special favorite at quarterly and camp- 
 meetings, and his usefulness was noted. Late and 
 curly, in the tents, at the altar, and upon the public 
 stand, what his hand found to do he did with his 
 might to bring sinners home to God. 
 
 24
 
 282 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 " To the preachers, when on districts, he was 
 specially and uniformly kind and attentive looking 
 not only after their temporal comfort, by using his 
 influence with the people for their support, but he 
 delighted to aid young preachers in their pulpit 
 preparations. Here he Avas superior, as a guide, to 
 any ' book of sermons and sketches, to aid young 
 ministers in preparing for the pulpit.' He had a 
 sound judgment, an accurate knowledge of the way 
 of salvation, and was ' apt to teach.' As years and 
 cares and toils increased, that religious tenderness 
 grew upon him. Where he lived and labored the 
 longest, and was best known, he was most beloved 
 and esteemed. 
 
 " He continued to travel to the close of his life ; 
 yet the small salaries which he received, and the 
 meager accommodations made for the domestic com- 
 fort of the preachers, compelled him to locate his 
 family. They lived for many vears in a rural neigh- 
 borhood in the county of Shelby, where his faithful 
 wife, the daughter of that apostolic man, the Rev. 
 William Adams, watched over the little farm, and 
 took care of the children, when her husband was 
 making long tours, calling sinners to repentance, and 
 building up the Church of Christ." 
 
 It was in the Summer of 1837 when we made the 
 acquaintance of William Gunn. We had met him 
 before, but never knew him well until then. He was 
 the presiding elder on the Louisville District, and we 
 were preparing to enter the ministry. Accepting a 
 kind invitation he gave us to accompany him to his 
 quarterly-meetings on the Yellow Bunks and Hart-
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 283 
 
 ford Circuits, in the lower portion of his district, for 
 several weeks we enjoyed his society, and during our 
 long rides alone on horseback received from him 
 lessons of instruction that we never forgot. Camp- 
 meetings were connected with these quarterly occa- 
 sions, and they were seasons of extraordinary interest. 
 The meeting for the Yellow Banks Circuit was held 
 at Pleasant Grove, and for the Hartford at No Creek. 
 
 Representing the local preachers, there were pres- 
 ent John Daviess, John Pinkston, and Joe Miller 
 the first a giant in the pulpit, the second a saint on 
 earth, and the embodiment of energy and zeal in the 
 cause of Christ. There were also present at Pleasant 
 Grove several members of the Indiana Conference. 
 The sermons were extraordinary, the exhortations 
 powerful, and the singing as the music of heaven. 
 
 In this assemblage of piety and talents William 
 Gunn stood as a prince. He preached as but few 
 men could preach. His sermons were plain, practical, 
 powerful, and yet not destitute of ornament. It was 
 not, however, the adorning with which the flowers of 
 rhetoric invest a sermon, but that derived from the 
 rich fountains of living truth, clothing with the beau- 
 ties of the Bible every argument he submitted to the 
 vast assemblies that hung in rapt silence on his lips. 
 
 In exhortation he was overwhelming, and in sing- 
 ing his rich and mellow voice rose above the cries of 
 the penitent and the shouts of those converted to God. 
 The effect of such labors may be imagined. Many at 
 both meetings, through his instrumentality, were awak- 
 ened and persuaded to become religious. 
 
 A few weeks later he held his quarterly-meeting
 
 284 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for the Shelbyville and Brick Chapel Station, which 
 was also a camp-meeting, three miles east of Shelby- 
 ville, where similar results followed his labors to those 
 to which we have already referred. 
 
 At this meeting we were licensed by Mr. Gunn 
 to preach the Gospel. From this period until his 
 death we knew him well, and think we never knew 
 a better man. 
 
 His wife, to whom he was married on the 5th of 
 October, 1826, was Frances Adams, the only daugh- 
 ter of the Rev. William Adams, of whose labors we 
 gave an account in a former chapter. 
 
 "About 1830, while on a visit to his father-in-law, 
 and sitting in his house, he was struck with lightning. 
 The electric fluid, having first made rather fearful 
 havoc of the stone chimney, passed in a divided cur- 
 rent from his head to his feet, and from his shoulder 
 to the ends of the fingers of his left hand ; one part 
 of it penetrating through the floor, the other finding 
 its way out at a broken glass in the window. His 
 clothes were burnt to shreds, his boots rent, his pen- 
 knife rendered strongly magnetic, and his flesh fear- 
 fully lacerated. In his recovery from the effects of 
 this terrible shock he always recognized most grate- 
 fully the hand of Providence, not doubting that he 
 had been spared to labor for the benefit of the 
 Church ; and, with the exception of about two months 
 in which he was then taken off from his labors, the 
 whole thirty-five years of his ministry was a period 
 of unbroken active service. 
 
 " Mr. Gunn's death was in beautiful harmony 
 with his useful and honored life. His wife, observ-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 285 
 
 ing that he was restless in the night, inquired what 
 was the matter; and his reply was, 'Nothing, my 
 dear, only I am thinking of my reward/ Again ho 
 said, ' I have no anxiety, I have perfect peace/ To 
 one of his brethren in the ministry he said, ( Should 
 I not live, tell the conference that I have strong faith 
 in our holy religion. I do not regret having spent 
 my life, as I have, as an itinerant preacher. I would 
 rather travel the poorest circuit in the roughest coun- 
 try than enjoy any worldly distinction that could be 
 conferred upon me/ And he added, ' If I should 
 live, this work shall make my heart rejoice, and 
 spend the remnant of my days/ He died of typhoid 
 fever, at Lexington, Ky., on the 3d of September, 
 1853, in the fifty-seventh year of his age." * 
 
 The action of the General Conference in the cases 
 of Francis A. Harding, whose case came before that 
 body on an appeal from the Baltimore Conference, 
 and of James O. Andrew, one of the bishops in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, residing in the State of 
 Georgia, who had married a lady that was the owner 
 of slaves, resulted in the disruption of the Church, 
 and its separation into two distinct ecclesiastical ju- 
 risdictions. 
 
 Henry B. Bascom was the acknowledged leader, 
 not only in the delegation from the Kentucky Con- 
 ference, but this distinction was awarded him by all 
 the delegates from the slave-holding States. The sev- 
 eral papers protecting the rights of the Southern 
 Church emanated from his gifted pen. Under these 
 circumstances, it would have been eminently improper 
 
 * Sprague's Annals, pp. 622, 023.
 
 280 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for any member from Kentucky to have participated 
 to any great extent in the debates on the floor of the 
 conference; hence we do not find Mr. Kavanaugh 
 prominent in that assembly. No man, however, 
 among his brethren, was wiser in counsel or more 
 prompt in action than he. He was born in Ken- 
 tucky, and brought up amid the institutions of the 
 State. He believed, too, that the cases of both Mr. 
 Harding and Bishop Andrew were fully covered by 
 the compromise laws of the Church; and thinking 
 that the action of the majority might lead to disaster, 
 he resisted with a firm hand the attempted encroach- 
 ments. 
 
 The division of the Church to him was painful ; 
 but between his love for the Church as it had existed 
 and duty, he found no difficulty in deciding. He 
 stood side by side with the representatives from the 
 West and the South, and, whether for weal or woe, 
 adhered to their fortunes. 
 
 Kentucky was a border conference. Its northern 
 border extended along the Ohio River more than six 
 hundred miles, and many of the people, although not 
 indorsing the action of the majority in the General 
 Conference, yet sympathized with the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church. 
 
 In 1844 the session ot the Kentucky Conference 
 was held in Bowling Green. It was the last time 
 the conference met under the jurisdiction of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. Bishop Janes pre- 
 sided. At an early day in the session, by a resolution 
 unanimously adopted, the delegates were requested, 
 "as soon as convenient, to report to the conference
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 287 
 
 their reasons and ground of action in the entire 
 premises." 
 
 The resolution was preceded by the statement that 
 they had " united with the General Conference in the 
 adoption of measures contemplating a division of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, so as to place the same 
 under two separate jurisdictions, and united with the 
 Southern delegates in recommending a convention to 
 meet in Louisville the " following May, in reference to 
 a division of the Church. 
 
 Verbal explanations were given by Dr. Bascom, 
 in a lengthy and able address; and then a committee 
 was appointed, of which Mr. Kavanaugh was a mem- 
 ber, to take into consideration the entire question ef 
 slavery and division. 
 
 The report was an unqualified indorsement of the 
 delegates, and a recommendation that a convention be 
 held, as provided in the action of the delegates from 
 the slave-holding States, in the city of Louisville, to 
 take into consideration the division of the Church. 
 E. Stevenson, H. H. Kavanaugh, H. B. Bascom, B. T. 
 Crouch, Wm. Gunn, G. W. Taylor, G. W. Brush, J. C. 
 Harrison, B. H. McCown, James King, John James, 
 and T. N. Ralston were elected delegates to the 
 convention. 
 
 We would not, however, lose sight of Mr. Kav- 
 anaugh as a preacher. Bishop Janes occupied the 
 pulpit at the Methodist Church on Sunday at eleven 
 o'clock, and Mr. Kavanaugh in the evening. The 
 bishop had thrilled the audience. His text was, 
 " Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion : put on 
 thy beautiful garments; O Jerusalem, the holy city;
 
 288 LTFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the 
 uncircumcised and the unclean." 5 
 
 When Mr. Kavanaugh entered the pulpit the' 
 house was crowded to its utmost capacity. The 
 people of Bowling Green had known him in other 
 years as a pulpit orator of marked ability. After 
 the introductory services he arose and announced 
 his text, " Now unto him that is able to do exceed- 
 ing abundantly above all that we ask or think, accord- 
 ing to the power that worketh in us."* 
 
 The first portion of the sermon was an able argu- 
 ment on the character and the omnipotence of God. 
 " Now unto HIM who is ABLE." He appeared, how- 
 ever, to drag heavily for the first forty minutes, and 
 yet there was nothing commonplace in any sentence 
 he uttered. At length he loosed from his moorings, 
 and swung clear, then shrugging his shoulders, he 
 bounded away into a world of beauties where he 
 loved to roam and to linger. 
 
 " Exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask 
 or think." We are commanded to ask largely, that 
 our joy may be full, yet "eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the 
 things which God hath prepared for them that love 
 him." 
 
 " Eye hath not seen." The eye has seen the beau- 
 ties of creation. The earth with its mountains, its 
 hills, its gardens of eclipsing splendor, its grottoes, its 
 mighty oceans, its islands, its majestic rivers, its land- 
 scapes, variegated with ten thousand beauties, its 
 pearls, its mines of wealth, together with man's 
 
 * Isaiah Y\\,l. tEpliesians iii, 20.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 289 
 
 choicest handiwork. It has swept the heavens from 
 the horizon to the zenith, and descried every fixed 
 planet, every rolling system, and every glimmering 
 star. It has rested beneath the shceii of the silvery 
 moon, and looked upon its pale, cold, beautiful face; 
 and seen the sun in its full-orbed splendor; but has 
 not seen the things that God has prepared for them 
 that love him. 
 
 " Ear hath not heard." The ear has heard the 
 hoarse voice of the approaching storm, and listened 
 to the ocean's roar. It has heard the gentle notes of 
 early morn chasing away the gloom of night, and lis- 
 tened to the soft whispers of the evening breeze. 
 The music of the spheres has charmed the soul with 
 sounds of sweetest melody, and the lullabies, accom- 
 panied with a mother's gentle tones, have driven care 
 and sorrow from the heart of infancy and childhood. 
 The songs of angels, too, have fallen on mortal ears, 
 proclaiming the Redeemer's birth, and the story of 
 the cross has for ages entranced the children of men. 
 The ear has heard hymns of praise to God, expres- 
 sions of joy to the new-born soul, and shouts of tri- 
 umph falling from the lips of the dying Christian as 
 he catches a glimpse of the celestial city; but it has 
 not heard the things that God has prepared for them 
 that love him. 
 
 " Neither have it entered into the heart of man." 
 The heart of man has conceived more than the eye 
 has seen or the ear has heard. It has not only sur- 
 veyed the earth, the sea, the sky, and taken in all 
 their beauties at a glance, and felt the thrill of rap- 
 ture as music akin to heaven has kindled upon the 
 
 25
 
 290 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 soul. It has not only followed the child of God to 
 the margin of the last river, and seen him plunge into 
 the stream of death, but, looking beyond the chilling 
 flood, the heart has contemplated the scenes of felicity 
 and grandeur which break upon the disembodied 
 spirit when it drops its earthly tabernacle in the dust. 
 The splendors of the New Jerusalem, its jeweled 
 gates, its walls of jasper, its streets of gold, the angels, 
 the companionship of saints, the songs of Moses and 
 the Lamb, the River of Life, the Son of God, are 
 visions which arise to the contemplation of the Chris- 
 tian ; but still, there " have not entered into the heart 
 of man the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love him." 
 
 He paused for a few moments, his eyes apparently 
 fixed upon some object of entrancing loveliness, and 
 then exclaimed, " Imagination leaps on lawless wing, 
 and goes out upon its errand of exploration. The 
 vast empire, of God is before it." 
 
 Turning away from earth, he began to go upward, 
 climbing the loftiest heights, until the spires upon the 
 temples in the celestial city were full in view. The 
 gates of heaven rolled back on golden hinges, and the 
 songs of the redeemed fell upon the ear. Paeans of 
 praise and shouts of triumph sounded through all the 
 groves of bliss. Entering the city, he beheld the 
 countless millions of the redeemed, whose " robes 
 were washed and made white in the blood of the 
 Lamb," as they reposed beneath the shade of the 
 tree of life, or wandered along the banks of the beau- 
 tiful river, or drank from the purling stream that 
 makes glad the city of God. " There was no night
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 291 
 
 there," but One, the brightness of whose countenance 
 exceeded the brilliancy of ten thousand suns, before 
 whom the hierarchies of heaven bowed, and to whom 
 angel and archangel paid homage, was ever attracting 
 toward him the redeemed, who cast their crowns at 
 his feet. 
 
 We have heard Henry Clay, that wonderful orator, 
 when in the zenith of his fame; we have listened to 
 Bascom, when every form bent forward to catch the 
 words of life as they fell from his burning" lips ; Maf- 
 fitt, too, has won and charmed us by the witchery of 
 his eloquence ; but never, either before or since, have 
 we witnessed such oratory. There was a stillness in 
 the audience that may be conceived of, but can not 
 be described. 
 
 We next meet with Mr. Kavanaugh in Shelbyville, 
 to which place he was appointed in 1844. 
 
 Shelbyville was one of the most beautiful towns 
 in the State, and in culture and refinement was not 
 exceeded by any. It offered educational facilities of 
 the highest order. Its academies for young men, and 
 Science Hill, a thing of beauty, were fountains of 
 blessing. 
 
 The Methodist Church, as we have seen, occupied 
 a commanding eminence, standing abreast with other 
 denominations. It was represented in the learned 
 professions and in all the walks of cultured life. 
 While the majority, however, were in full accord with 
 the Kentucky Conference on the questions that were 
 disrupting the Church there was a minority respect- 
 able for their talents and piety who dissented from 
 their views, and serious apprehensions were felt that
 
 292 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 there might be a division in the society. Nothing 
 could be more detrimental to its influence than a di- 
 vided congregation. If this calamity could be averted 
 no one was more competent to the task than Mr. 
 Kavanaugh. He addressed himself to this work with 
 the prudence that had distinguished him in every 
 duty upon which he had entered. In many portions 
 of the State minorities were found under the leader- 
 ship of Dr. Tomlinson, whose wonderful gifts gave 
 him a commanding influence in his opposition to the 
 action of the conference. 
 
 Several weeks passed and no reference on either 
 side was made to the questions at issue, and then occa- 
 sional fireside conversations gave some prominence to 
 the subject. The convention would meet in the city 
 of Louisville on the 1st of May, 1845, and the near 
 approach of this assemblage of learning and piety 
 brought things to a crisis in Shelbyville. On Mon- 
 day evening, the 28th of April, a meeting was called 
 at the Methodist Church for the purpose of adjusting 
 the differences, if possible, and thus present to the 
 Kentucky Methodism a united front. 
 
 The meeting was addressed by Mr. Kavanaugh, 
 representing the conference, and the majority of the 
 Church, and by Judge Martin D. McHenry, who was 
 the advocate for the minority. 
 
 In a clear, concise manner Mr. Kavanaugh re- , 
 viewed the entire ground, canvassing the action of the 
 General Conference in the case of Bishop Andrew 
 and showing that in opposing these extra-judicial pro- 
 ceedings the delegates from the Southern and South- 
 western States were supported by the law of the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 293 
 
 Church, and that to organize the conferences repre- 
 sented by the minority in the General Conference 
 would not be a secession nor a separation from the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, but only from the juris- 
 diction of the General Conference of said Church, as 
 then constituted. 
 
 The statements of Mr. Kavanaugh were not denied 
 by Judge McHenry, nor were his arguments answered. 
 He made only a brief response, urging adherence to 
 " the old Church." The restlessness that had existed 
 for several months was calmed, and the Church at 
 Shelbyville was prepared to accept whatever action 
 the convention might adopt in accordance with the 
 instructions of the Kentucky Annual Conference. 
 
 In company with Mr. Kavanaugh we left Shelby- 
 ville on the following morning by private conveyance 
 for Louisville. On the way we conversed freely on 
 the crisis that had befallen the Church, and in the 
 strongest terms he expressed it as his opinion that 
 there was no other way to protect the integrity of 
 Methodism and to perpetuate its existence, not only 
 in the South, but even in Kentucky, than by cutting 
 loose from the jurisdiction of the General Conference 
 of'the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 The convention met at the appointed time, and the 
 voice of no delegate was heard with greater effect 
 than that of H. H. Kavanaugh. 
 
 During the session addresses were delivered by 
 Dr. George F. Pierce, Judge Longstreet, and others 
 that thrilled the large assemblies that filled old Fourth 
 Street Church, but no one portrayed the future of 
 Methodism in the South in darker colors, or the relig-
 
 294 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ious condition of the negro, deprived of the Gospel, 
 if we bowed in silence to the impious demands of the 
 majority of the General Conference of 1844 than did 
 this favorite son of Kentucky. 
 
 The compromise law of the Church had been trod- 
 den down, the temple of fanaticism had been reared 
 upon its ruins, and he had no further compromise to 
 make. The salvation of the master and the slave had 
 been, under God, largely intrusted to the Methodist 
 Church, and he would not place himself nor aid in 
 placing his brethren in a position where they could 
 not proclaim the tidings of a Redeemer's love to both. 
 A tide of emotion such as is seldom seen swept over 
 the audience as he referred to the possibility of chang- 
 ing the map of the Church of Christ in the Southern 
 States, with Methodism blotted out. 
 
 Turning to the convention he exclaimed in the 
 beautiful words of Ruth to Naomi, " Whither thou 
 goest I will go ; and where thou lodgest I will lodge ; 
 thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; 
 where thou diest will I die, and there will I be bur- 
 ied; the Lord do so to me, and more, also, if aught 
 but death part thee and me." 
 
 After mature deliberation the METHODIST EPIS- 
 COPAL CHUECH, SOUTH, was organized, Mr. Kavan- 
 augh placing himself on record with the South in 
 every particular. 
 
 If in Shelbyville, after the adjournment* of the 
 convention, there was any friction, it was easily sub- 
 dued. His popularity in that community never 
 waned. 
 
 At the session of the Kentucky Conference, held
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGB. 295 
 
 in Frankfort, commencing September 10, 1845, Bishop 
 Soule presided. 
 
 Among the resolutions adopted by that body we 
 record the following: 
 
 Itesolved, That, as a conference, claiming all the 
 rights, powers, and privileges of an annual confer- 
 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, we adhere 
 to the Metliodist Episcopal Church, South, that all our 
 proceedings, records, and official acts hereafter be in 
 the name and style of the Kentucky Annual Confer- 
 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Churchy South, 
 
 The first General Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, was appointed for 1st of 
 May, 1846. The place, Petersburg, Virginia. The 
 delegates from the Kentucky Conference were H. B. 
 Bascom, H. H. Kavanangh, B. T. Crouch, J. Stam- 
 per, G. W. Brush, E. Stevenson, T. N. Ralston, N. B. 
 Lewis, C. B. Parsons, and J. C. Harrison. 
 
 The appointment for this year opened before Mr. 
 Kavanaugh a new and untried field. He was sent to 
 the Lexington District as presiding elder. This posi- 
 tion afforded him a larger territory for the exercise 
 of his extraordinary gifts, and it gave to a larger num- 
 ber of people the opportunity of hearing the Gospel 
 from his lips. 
 
 He was preceded by Benjamin T. Crouch, who had 
 presided for four years over that district, and was dis- 
 tinguished as one of the ablest preachers in the West. 
 
 But few men have entered the ministry in any age 
 of the Church, or prosecuted the duties of the sacred 
 office, with more unremitting ardor, than Benjamin 
 T. Crouch. As a preacher, no man was better known
 
 296 
 
 in Kentucky, and none was more beloved by the 
 Church. He was born in Newcastle County, Dela- 
 ware, July 1, 1796. His father, John Crouch, emi- 
 grated from Delaware to Cecil County, Maryland, and 
 in the Autumn of 1800 removed to the West, and set- 
 tled near Washington, Pennsylvania. His parents were 
 both Methodists, and distinguished for their piety and 
 devotion to the Church. When in the tenth year of 
 his age he was bereft of his pious father, who died in 
 triumph, leaving Mrs. Crouch with eight children, in 
 reduced circumstances. In referring to his widowed 
 mother, Mr. Crouch says : " My dear mother survived 
 my father thirty-six years; married a second husband; 
 was the mother of three additional children ; lived to 
 see her eleven children all grown and in the Church 
 with herself; and then having been fifty-six years a 
 devoted and useful member of the Methodist Church, 
 she closed the mortal scene in perfect peace, saying to 
 her family and friends, ' Meet me in heaven/ " * 
 
 The death of his father, and the destitute circum- 
 stances in which his mother was left, rendered it neces- 
 sary, as he was the eldest son, that as far as possible 
 he should contribute by his labor to lighten the bur- 
 dens of his widowed mother. Great as was the pleas- 
 ure he derived from this source, it nevertheless de- 
 prived him of the advantage of an early education. 
 
 Possessing much of martial spirit, he entered the 
 American army in the war of 1812, and though only 
 a youth of sixteen, bore himself gallantly, and ren- 
 dered himself a favorite with both his companions-in- 
 arms and the officers in command. 
 
 Manuscript of the llev. B. T. Crouch.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 297 
 
 His father's house had been a place of rest for the 
 weary itinerant from long before his birth. The ven- 
 erable Asbury, AVhatcoat, Fleming, and others, dis- 
 tinguished in the early history of the Church, were 
 often refreshed beneath his roof. Growing up amid 
 such associations, he could not remember when he was 
 first impressed on the subject of religion. It was not, 
 however, until he had nearly closed his twentieth year 
 that he became a member of the Church. It was in 
 the month of May, 1816, that he took this important 
 step, and at a camp-meeting held in Ohio, in August 
 following, " he obtained by faith the blessing of peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In the 
 dewy morn of childhood he had frequently thought 
 that the path of duty might some day lead him into 
 the ministry ; but now soundly converted to God, the 
 impression was deep and abiding " that God had called 
 him to the tremendous work of the Christian minis- 
 try."* Unwilling to enter upon a calling involving 
 such fearful responsibilities, he endeavored for three 
 years, by performing the duties of class-leader and ex- 
 horter, to divest himself of these impressions. " With- 
 out resources, not even a horse to ride, or money to 
 buy one with ; his education limited not only to the 
 English language, but almost to the spelling-book and 
 the Bible," he framed every excuse for refusing to 
 obey the behests of conscience. A severe attack of 
 sickness bringing him to the margin of the grave af- 
 forded him an opportunity for an examination of his 
 conduct, which resulted in the decision to oifer him- 
 self to the conference. He was licensed to preach on 
 
 * Manuscript of the Rev. B. T. Crouch.
 
 298 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the 10th of April, 1819, by the Rev. Moses Grume, 
 at a quarterly-meeting held for the White Water Cir- 
 cuit, near Conuersville, Indiana, and on the 15th of 
 the month, tinder the direction of the presiding elder, 
 entered upon the duties of a traveling preacher, on 
 the same circuit, as the colleague of the Rev. Allen 
 Wiley. He began his itinerant career "on foot, with 
 his saddle-bags on his arm, a part of a Bible, a hymn- 
 book, and a few articles of clothing." At the follow- 
 ing session of the Ohio Conference, Mr. Crouch was 
 admitted on trial, and appointed to the Oxford Cir- 
 cuit, with Mr. Wiley in charge, with whom he had 
 already been associated. In 1820 he was sent to the 
 Little Kanawha Circuit, which placed him in the Ken- 
 tucky Conference, which had be'en formed at the Gen- 
 eral Conference the May previous. In 1821 his field 
 of labor was the Sandy River Circuit, in the Jackson's 
 Purchase, embracing portions of Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee, with Lewis Parker as his colleague. With his 
 health greatly impaired by his excessive labor and 
 constant exposure, "swimming water-courses on horse- 
 back, sleeping in cold rooms, hard and irregular liv- 
 ing, preaching day and night, performing long and 
 fatiguing rides, and reading and studying under un- 
 favorable circumstances," he presented himself at the 
 conference of 1822. The report of the year's labor 
 through which he had passed was flattering alike to 
 himself and his colleague. "Several new societies had 
 been organized, classes established the previous year 
 revived and increased, two large circuits formed, and 
 the whole work left in a prosperous condition." At 
 the conference of 1822 he was sent to the Shelby Cir-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 299 
 
 cuit, then embracing Shelbyville, in a healthy portion 
 of the State, as the colleague of Simon Peter. His 
 appointment for this year was made in reference to 
 the recovery of his health. It was on this circuit 
 that he first exhibited the extraordinary ability as a 
 polemic, that distinguished him through all his fu- 
 ture life. 
 
 We have previously referred to the prominence oc- 
 cupied by the Baptist Church in Kentucky. In Shelby 
 County they held a high position in public confidence, 
 while their numerical strength was in excess of any 
 other denomination. Several ministers of that Church 
 who ranked among their ablest divines, some of whose 
 names have already been mentioned, were residents of 
 this county. With a jealous eye, and with unceasing 
 vigilance, they guarded the peculiar doctrines of their 
 own communion, and with equal anxiety watched the 
 increasing luster of Methodism. A presentation of 
 the doctrine of baptism, whether as to subjects or 
 mode, according to the tenets of the Methodist Church, 
 was regarded by them as an infringement on their 
 rights and privileges. On these questions Mr. Crouch 
 was irrefutable. He taught that sprinkling or pour- 
 ing is plainly set forth in the Holy Scripture as Chris- 
 tian baptism ; and by the same divine authority he 
 established the right of infants to membership in the 
 Church, and to baptism the ordinance of initiation. 
 The chain of his argument was so complete that no 
 man could successfully reply to him, and but few had 
 the presumption to attempt it. In every instance where 
 he was met in debate he was left master of the field, 
 until soou his oft-repeated invitations to Baptist min-
 
 300 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 isters to discuss the issues between the two respective 
 Churches passed unheeded. 
 
 On the 1st of July, 1823, he was married to Miss 
 Hannah V. W. Talbott, the daughter of Mr. Nathan- 
 iel Talbott, who resided near Shelbyville. Amid all 
 the vicissitudes incident to the life of an itinerant 
 Methodist preacher, she proved to be his stay and 
 help. His labors on this circuit were greatly blessed, 
 and many were added to the Church; and the next year 
 he was returned to the same charge, with Shelbyville 
 and Brick Chapel detached and formed into a station. 
 His ministry the second year was equally successful, 
 though his health continued feeble. At the conference 
 of 1824, he was so reduced in strength as to be unable 
 to receive an appointment. He says: "At this con- 
 ference my skeleton appearance procured for me the 
 commiseration of all the members, and their kindness, 
 with much persuasion, prevailed on me to take a su- 
 perannuated relation." He returned to the effective 
 ranks at the following conference, and was appointed 
 to the Lexington Circuit, a large and laborious field, 
 including Frankfort, Versailles, Georgetown, and 
 Nicholasville, besides many country places. In 1826 
 he was stationed in Frankfort and Newcastle, the 
 two towns being twenty-six miles apart, "having 
 some fruit at each place." At the conference of 1827 
 he was so completely worn down that he was once 
 more persuaded to accept a superannuated relation, in 
 which he continued for three years. He, however, 
 was not idle; he preached from one to three times a 
 week, traveled extensively, and lectured often in be- 
 half of the American Bible and Colonization Socie-
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 301 
 
 ties, agencies for each of which he had accepted at 
 different times. 
 
 When he was first placed on the superannuated 
 list, he removed to Newcastle, where his family lived 
 the most of the time for thirteen years. His Journal 
 abounds in kind and grateful references to the people 
 of that village. Under his auspices the first Method- 
 ist church edifice in Newcastle was built. Reporting 
 himself effective in 1830, he was sent to Frankfort, 
 and the next year, as presiding elder, to the Ohio 
 (afterward Louisville) District, on which he remained 
 for four years. The village of Shelbyville, in which 
 we were brought up, was embraced in his district at 
 this time; and at a quarterly-meeting which he held 
 for the Church in that place, we had the privilege, 
 on the 1st of September, 1833, of joining the Church 
 under his ministry. In 1835 he was appointed to 
 Shelbyville, Brick Chapel, and Christiansburg, with 
 Henry N. Vandyke as his colleague. Here our ac- 
 quaintance with him became intimate. Preparing, as 
 we were, for the ministry, and he sustaining to us the 
 endearing relation of pastor, we learned to love him 
 as we have loved but few men ; nor have we forgot- 
 ten the many and useful lessons he taught us. From 
 this charge we follow him to the city of Louisville, 
 and find him stationed, with John C. Harrison as his 
 colleague, at Fourth and Eighth Street Churches. 
 Unaccustomed to the confinement of a station, the 
 labors of Shelbyville and Louisville brought him 
 near the grave. Beloved, as he was, by the Church, 
 and anxious as they were for his return the second 
 year to the city, it was evident, long before the close
 
 302 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of the year, that his removal was necessary to the 
 protraction of his life. Weary and worn in the per- 
 formance of the oft-recurring duties of the pastorate, 
 he never ceased to work, but prosecuted with unre- 
 mitting energy his high and holy calling. He says : 
 "The labors of the city did not suit my state of 
 health ; I was wasting away ; with a large frame of 
 bones, one inch over six feet in stature; my weight 
 during most of the year was only one hundred and 
 twenty pounds." In his Diary he refers in touching 
 language to the kindness of the people, their anxiety 
 for his reappointment, his feeble health, and " skele- 
 ton appearance." It was during this year that a most 
 amusing incident occurred. The office of a physician 
 in the city was located on a principal street. He had 
 in his office a human skeleton that was concealed in a 
 case that was fastened to the wall. It was so ar- 
 ranged with springs that, by a person treading on a 
 plank in the floor in front of it, the door of the case 
 would fly open, and the arms of the skeleton would 
 encircle him. A young man, not accustomed to such 
 objects, early one morning entered the office of the 
 physician, and before he was aware, found himself in 
 the embrace of the skeleton. Violently tearing him- 
 self away, he rushed from the room in great alarm, 
 and reaching the street, ran at full speed for several 
 squares. Just as he imagined he was safe, he sud- 
 denly turned the corner of a square, when he was 
 confronted by Mr. Crouch. Stopping for a moment, 
 the horror-stricken youth looked upon the tall, pale 
 stranger, and exclaimed, "O ho! old fellow! you 
 can 't fool me, if you have got clothes on !" then leav-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 303 
 
 ing the preacher, equally surprised, he soon disap- 
 peared amid the passing crowd. 
 
 At the following conference, Mr. Crouch, " as a 
 life-preserving expedient," was placed on horseback 
 again, and returned to the Louisville District, from 
 which he had been absent two years. His labors on 
 this district were signally blessed. At no period, 
 before or since, has the Church within the territory 
 embraced in this field of labor at that time, enjoyed 
 such prosperity. At the expiration of four years a net 
 increase of more than two thousand members showed 
 how faithfully he and his associates performed their 
 duties. The unparalleled prosperity of Methodism in 
 that portion of the Green River country over which 
 he presided, induced the most violent opposition to its 
 advancement and success. The accomplishment of 
 good was the aim of his great and noble soul, and as 
 the leader of the hosts, he stood upon the watch-tower, 
 and now defended the doctrines peculiar to Methodism, 
 and then enforced the great practical teachings of 
 Christianity. Under his administration the Church 
 feared no enemy nor shunned any attack, but enjoyed 
 a feeling of security, though opposition in any form 
 should manifest itself. Christianity, in the southern 
 portion of his district, in many communities, was only 
 in its infancy, and Methodism was fast occupying the 
 ground. It was as late as the early part of this year 
 (1826) that the now flourishing and elegant town of 
 Owensboro was first placed on the plan of the Hart- 
 ford Circuit as a preach ing-place. Occasionally, pre- 
 vious to that time, Methodist preachers had passed 
 through the village, and preached to the people, but
 
 304 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 no arrangement had hitherto been made for regular 
 circuit-preaching. From the introduction of Method- 
 ism into that community, the message of salvation, 
 as delivered by the preachers, was not heartily em- 
 braced ; the preachers themselves, however, met with 
 a cordial reception, and the repetition of their visits 
 was most earnestly solicited. Previous to 1837 a 
 small but interesting society had been organized. The 
 Baptist Church had also established a small congre- 
 gation. There being no church edifice in the place, 
 each denomination worshiped in the Winter in the 
 seminary, and in the Summer in the court-house. In 
 the month of June, 1839, a union meeting was held in 
 the village, in which the Baptist, the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian, and the Methodist Churches partici- 
 pated. The pastor of the Methodist Church was 
 Daniel S. Barksdale, and his colleague was Richard 
 Holding, who sustained that year a supernumerary 
 relation, but who had been the pastor of the Church 
 the previous year. During the meeting an interview 
 was sought with Mr. Holding, and the ungenerous 
 proposition from a leading Baptist minister made, that 
 the Methodists and Baptists unite to break down the 
 Cumberland Presbyterians. This met with a prompt 
 resistance from Mr. Holding; his spirit was too cath- 
 olic to entertain any such suggestion. Difficulties, 
 however, resulted from the interview that not only 
 disturbed the harmony of the meeting, but destroyed, 
 to a great extent, its beneficial results in the commu- 
 nity. An unrelenting war from that period was 
 waged against Methodism. It was shown no quar- 
 ter it asked none. The several attacks that were
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 305 
 
 made upon Its doctrines and peculiarities demanded a 
 response. In the month of May, 1840, in accordance 
 with a previous announcement, Mr. Crouch proposed 
 to deliver a series of sermons on the subjects, the 
 mode, and the design of Christian baptism. Among 
 the ablest polemics in the Baptist Church in Ken- 
 tucky, no man occupied a position so prominent as 
 John L. Waller, of Louisville. He was not a minis- 
 ter of the Gospel, not having been licensed to preach 
 until a later date. He was the son of a distinguished 
 Baptist preacher, and was conducting at this time, 
 with signal ability, the Western Recorder, a paper pub- 
 lished in the interest of the Baptist Church. He was 
 in the habit of delivering what he styled lectures on 
 baptism wherever the interest of his denomination 
 might demand it. His public speeches were not only 
 distinguished for their force, but also for the bitterest 
 invective, in which he so freely indulged. On this 
 occasion he appeared in Owensboro, accompanied by 
 several Baptist ministers, for the purpose of replying 
 to the presiding elder of the Methodist Church. 
 
 Mr. Crouch held his quarterly-meeting on Satur- 
 day and Sunday, and on Monday commenced his lec- 
 tures on baptism. The assembly that attended was 
 vast. He occupied the court-house. Twice on each 
 day, for three successive days, and on each occasion for 
 three full hours, he appeared before the people, set- 
 ting forth the peculiar views of the Church of which 
 he was the representative, and defended those views 
 witli a force that carried conviction of their truth to 
 the hearts of hundreds. During all this time no as- 
 perities were indulged in, no words of bitterness fell
 
 306 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 from his tongue. With that Christian charity that 
 conceded to those from whom he differed the same 
 honesty he claimed for himself and his brethren, 
 every sentiment he uttered was invested. Finishing 
 the work he had undertaken, he left for another por- 
 tion of his district. His praise, however, was on 
 every lip, and his name became embalmed in the 
 hearts of the people, while the truths he so ably and 
 so fearlessly defended have in that community ever 
 since been respected. On the day following the de- 
 parture of Mr. Crouch, Mr. Waller began his reply. 
 He certainly discussed the points at issue with marked 
 ability. With every argument that can be adduced 
 in support of the theory of the Baptist Church, on 
 these subjects, he was perfectly familiar. For two 
 days he leveled his artillery against Methodism, but 
 like a giant, it remained unmoved at each successive 
 shock. Words of bitterness ever and anon fell from 
 his lips, and yet the truths against which he battled 
 stood forth in peerless beauty. The names of the 
 sainted dead, the heroes of Methodism, men who had 
 done so much for Christianity and the world, were 
 called up from their beds of dust to be the victims 
 of his abuse ; and yet the Church in which they had 
 labored, and upon whose altars they had sacrificed 
 their all, stood forth, "a thing of life," blessing and 
 being blessed. Himself chagrined, his brethren mor- 
 tified, he quit the field, only regretting that he had 
 been so rash. 
 
 In 1841 Mr. Crouch was appointed to the Lexing- 
 ton District, having spent eight years out of the ten 
 preceding on the Louisville. His next field of labor
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 307 
 
 was the Shelbyville District, on both of which he re- 
 mained four years. In 1849 he was appointed to the 
 Harrodsburg District. An attack of cholera near the 
 close of the year, and the loss of health resulting from 
 it, induced him to ask to be relieved from so heavy 
 a work at the ensuing conference, and hence the next 
 year we find him on the Newcastle Circuit, on which 
 he remains for two years. In 1852 he was stationed 
 in Carrollton, where he had been the chief instrument 
 in building up the Church thirty years before, where 
 he spent two years pleasantly to himself and profita- 
 bly to the Church. From Carrollton we follow him 
 to La Grange and Westport Circuit, to which he was 
 returned the second year. During all these years he 
 had " never been absent from an annual conference, 
 had never reached the session too late, or left too early ; 
 never was absent from conference business but once, 
 and then only fifteen minutes, to have a tooth ex- 
 tracted." Here his diary closes. 
 
 "At the ensuing conference he obtained a super- 
 annuated relation, and for the past two years had been 
 engaged in superintending a school at Goshen, Oldham 
 County, Kentucky. Only a few weeks since he -sold 
 this property, with the intention of entering again 
 upon the regular itinerant work, as announced by 
 himself in the Christian Advocate very recently. But 
 his work was done. For several days he had been 
 complaining of a pain in his head, but it had not in- 
 terfered with his business. He died on Monday, April 
 26, 1858, at 8 o'clock P. M. On the Sabbath pre- 
 ceding he had preached two sermons at Goshen ; was 
 in the school-room all of Monday; ate his supper as
 
 308 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 usual, and was unusually cheerful. After family wor- 
 ship he went to his room, having urged his wife to 
 spend the night with a sick neighbor. Soon after she 
 left, his little daughter, who was in the room with him, 
 says he arose and attempted to kneel, and in doing so 
 fell. Assistance was called, and as his son and wife 
 were endeavoring to raise him, he remarked, ' I be- 
 lieve my head will cause me to go distracted/ These 
 were his last words. In ten minutes after they laid 
 him on his bed he was dead. He was buried at 
 La Grange the funeral services conducted by the 
 Rev. William Holman. His history is identified with 
 the history of Methodism, Christianity, morals, and 
 education in Kentucky for thirty-seven years. His 
 character as a man and a minister is before the Church 
 and the world, ' known and read.' In his early ded- 
 ication to God, and in his unreserved consecration of 
 a long life to the service of God and his Church, we 
 have the earnest of a blissful immortality."* 
 
 We can not pass from the name of Benjamin T. 
 Crouch without a few additional thoughts. He was 
 a great man, and reached the proud eminence on which 
 he stood by the purity of his character, added to a 
 good native intellect and untiring industry. Enter- 
 ing upon the work of the ministry without a knowl- 
 edge of even the rudiments of education, he soon took 
 rank with the master-spirits of the Church. Although 
 the greater portion of his life was spent on extensive 
 districts, furnishing him but few facilities for study, 
 he became the most profound theologian in the West. 
 
 * General Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
 vol. ii, p. 5.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 
 
 As an able defender of the Church he had no peer in 
 the conference, and in every community in which he 
 lived and labored he left an impression for good. En- 
 joying the fullest confidence of his brethren in the 
 ministry, they awarded him the highest honors within 
 their gift. He was a member of every General Con- 
 ference from 1828, with the exception of a single ses- 
 sion, and also a member of the Convention that met 
 in Louisville in 1845. Without the advantage of ed- 
 ucation, he labored more intensely in behalf of the 
 educational interests of the Church in Kentucky than 
 any other man. 
 
 His death was sudden. The pain of dying lasted 
 only for a moment. He had suffered all his life, and 
 Heaven kindly granted him exemption from suffer- 
 ing now. 
 
 In 1845 George C. Light, of whom Mr. Kavan- 
 augh had often taken counsel, was transferred to the 
 Missouri Conference. His name appears in the Min- 
 utes as early as 1805. He was born in Westmoreland 
 County, Virginia, February 28, 1785. In 1791 his 
 father removed from Virginia to Kentucky, and set- 
 tled in Maysville then called Limestone where he 
 resided until January, 1799. The family then removed 
 to Clermont County, Ohio. His educational advan- 
 tages were confined to the period of his residence in 
 Maysville. 
 
 When George was in the eighteenth year of his 
 age his father made a profession of religion, and joined 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother had 
 been brought up a Presbyterian, and had for several 
 years been a member of that communion. In the
 
 310 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Autumn of 1804, at a meeting held in his father's 
 neighborhood, he was awakened to his condition as a 
 sinner, and at the "mourners' bench" was powerfully 
 converted. 
 
 Previous to his conversion, although a moral youth, 
 yet he was prominent in what were styled innocent so- 
 cial amusements. Regarding these as repugnant to the 
 genius and spirit of the religion he had professed, after 
 his conversion he at once displayed equal energy in 
 impressing upon the minds of his young associates 
 " the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." 
 His gifts were extraordinary in exhortation and prayer, 
 while his zeal, rendering him prominent in both the 
 class and prayer meeting, attracted the notice of the 
 Church. 
 
 William Burke was the presiding elder on the dis- 
 trict in which Mr. Light resided, and having been 
 present at the time of his conversion, had watched 
 with interest the buddings of promise presented by his 
 zeal and his gifts. Inviting him to attend one of his 
 quarterly-meetings, he called upon him to exhort, and 
 then to preach. Fully impressed with the belief that 
 it was his duty to preach the Gospel, Mr. Burke sent 
 him to the Muskingtim and Kanawha Circuit,* to as- 
 sist Jacob Young, then in charge of that field. Mr. 
 Young was in the bounds of his circuit, in feeble 
 health, when " some person rapped at the door. A 
 tall young man entered, dressed rather slovenly, but 
 of commanding countenance, noble eye, high forehead, 
 and manly tread. He took his seat by the fire. The 
 
 * Mr. Young, in his " Autobiography," calls it the Marietta 
 Circuit, but we prefer to follow the (jt-neral Minutes.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 311 
 
 man of the house, who was very inquisitive, said, 'Are 
 you traveling?' 'Yes, sir.' ' Where are you from?' 
 ' Clermont County, Ohio.' ' Where are you going to?' 
 'Marietta.' 'What is your business?' 'I am hunt- 
 ing for a Methodist preacher, by the name of Jacob 
 Young.' ' Well, here he is, at the table/ I asked 
 him his business with me. He replied, ' I am come 
 to help you preach. I am sent here by the Rev. Will- 
 iam Burke, presiding elder.' I inquired his name. 
 ' George C. Light.' " * 
 
 Mr. Light remained on this circuit until October, 
 when he was adpaitted on trial in the Western Con- 
 ference. He spent only three years as an itinerant, 
 when he married; the first two of which were on 
 Clinch Circuit, in the Western, and the third year on 
 the New River Circuit, in the Baltimore Conference. 
 
 To marry a wife at that early period was almost 
 equivalent to a location. The heroic Burke and the 
 zealous Page, with their wives, had, even at an ear- 
 lier day, withstood the tide, and, amid the sacrifices 
 and sufferings incident to the itinerancy, continued in 
 the work; but few men, however, could do so. At 
 the conference of 1808 Mr. Light located. 
 
 Methodism has everywhere taught the doctrines 
 of the agency of the Spirit in the salvation of the 
 sinner, and of a divine call to the Christian ministry. 
 It is true that a preacher of the Gospel, thus divinely 
 called, may sometimes be compelled, by his surround- 
 ings, to retire for awhile from the active duties of the 
 pastorate, and in some instances he may never be able 
 to assume this relation. There are men whose duty 
 
 * " Autobiography of the Rev. Jacob Young," p. 154.
 
 312 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 it is to preach the Gospel, but who are not required 
 to be pastors. We think, however, that no man can 
 be contented and happy whose obvious duty it is to 
 devote himself exclusively to this sacred work and who 
 declines the responsibility. Other paths, it is true, 
 may lead to ease, to fame, to fortune; he may engage 
 in other pursuits more congenial to his selfish nature ; 
 prosperity might mark his career; yet he is not satis- 
 fied. The voice of duty calls him into another field, 
 and until he obeys its summons he can not be con- 
 tented. The itinerant ministry, with its meager sup- 
 port, its abundant labors, its privatipns, its sacrifices, 
 its responsibilities, is dearer to the heart of the man 
 whom God has honored by putting him into the holy 
 office than all the trappings of wealth, the ease of 
 fortune, or the breath of fame. But few men have 
 ever been satisfied in a local sphere who had been 
 itinerant preachers, and but few instances have oc- 
 curred where, from any circumstances, they had been 
 compelled to ask for a location, that they did not if 
 they maintained their piety re-enter the field if pos- 
 sible to do so. 
 
 In 1821 we find the name of George C. Light on 
 the roll of the Kentucky Conference. In the years 
 that had intervened since we last met him, he had 
 maintained his Christian integrity and been useful as 
 a local preacher. 
 
 His first appointment in the Kentucky Conference 
 was to the Limestone Circuit, with Peter Akers and 
 Hezekiah Holland for his colleagues. We next follow 
 him to the Lexington Station, where he remains for 
 two years. His next appointment is as "Conference
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 313 
 
 Missionary." We afterward find him at Louisville, 
 Shelbyville, and Brick Chapel, Frankfort, and then 
 again at Shelbyville, and at Lexington. At a later 
 period he was appointed agent for the American Col- 
 onization Society, which position he filled for two 
 years. In 1833 he was stationed in Maysville. In 
 1834 he w r as transferred to the Missouri Conference 
 and appointed to the Palmyra Circuit. He remained 
 in Missouri until 1841, when he returned to Kentucky 
 and was again stationed in Louisville. From this 
 period until the Autumn of 1845 his name stands on 
 the Minutes of the Kentucky Conference in connec- 
 tion with the most important appointments in the 
 State. In 1845 he was again transferred to the Mis- 
 souri Conference and stationed at Booneville. Con- 
 tinuing in Missouri, he filled the Palmyra District, 
 the Hydesburg Circuit, and the Hannibal Satioh. 
 
 The feeble health of Mrs. Light, together with a 
 rheumatic affection from which he was suffering, in- 
 duced him, in the Autumn of 1849, to seek a milder 
 climate. The Mississippi Conference for that year 
 convened in Natchez. To that conference he was 
 transferred and continued a member until he closed 
 his pilgrimage. In the Mississippi Conference we find 
 him on the effective roll until 1859, filling the several 
 stations assigned him with marked acceptability and 
 usefulness. 
 
 He died suddenly in Vicksburg, February 28, 
 1860. 
 
 George C. Light entered the ministry at a period 
 when sacrifice and toil and privation were the heritage 
 of the itinerant preacher. When he first made his 
 
 27
 
 314 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 appearance in Kentucky as a member of the confer- 
 ence, in 1821, he was in the prime of his manhood, 
 and in the full strength of his intellect. Possessing 
 talents of a high order, with scarcely a rival in the 
 pulpit in the State, his ministry was sought for in all 
 the principal towns and cities of the commonwealth. 
 Whether as the fearless defender of the doctrines held 
 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, or as the oppo- 
 nent of "strange doctrines," his arguments were not 
 only commanding but irresistible. By nature an ora- 
 tor, and brought up amid the rugged scenes of West- 
 ern life, there was a boldness amid his strokes of 
 eloquence that invested his sermons with a beauty and 
 power that has seldom been equaled. Success attended 
 his ministry wherever he labored. Whether as the 
 colleague of Jacob Young, on the Marietta Circuit, or 
 laboring in East Tennessee, many were added to the 
 Church through his instrumentality. Following him 
 through Kentucky, in all the most populous and influ- 
 ential towns in the State, revivals of religion crowned 
 his labors. . In exhortation, with scarcely a peer 
 among his brethren, his word enforced with an energy 
 and a pathos that told the sincerity of his great heart, 
 he was eminently successful in winning souls to Christ. 
 On camp-meeting occasions, where hundreds would 
 meet to worship God, his very name Avas a tower of 
 strength. In Missouri and Mississippi, too, many 
 were the seals to his ministry. The last two years he 
 ever spent as an effective preacher "were very pros- 
 perous, and many were added to the Church." 
 ;- With very few of the old preachers have we ever 
 
 enjoyed a more intimate acquaintance than with Mr.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 315 
 
 Light. We remember well when he was stationed, 
 in 1828, at Shelbyville and Brick Chapel. Though 
 only nine years of age, we recollect the energy and 
 zeal with which he preached. His last year in Ken- 
 tucky was in the Maysville Station. Our field of 
 labor was on an adjoining circuit. The last sermon 
 we ever heard him preach was at Washington, Ken- 
 tucky, from the text, "Ye are of more value than 
 many sparrows." 
 
 It is often impossible to distinguish between the 
 results of the ministry of a presiding elder and the 
 preachers associated with him in his charge. The 
 Lexington District was supplied with pulpit talent 
 equal to any in the conference, men distinguished no 
 less for their zeal and success in winning souls to 
 Christ than for their influence and superior endow- 
 ments. Brush, Buckner, Bruce, Bascom, McCown, 
 Anderson, Stamper, and Ralston are names of which 
 the Church will always make honorable mention. 
 The association that always exists between a presid- 
 ing elder and the preachers of his district must be 
 intimate. In an eminent degree, this was true of the 
 presiding elder and the preachers of the Lexington 
 District. 
 
 The extreme modesty of Mr. Kavauaugh had 
 never allowed him to place upon his talents the high 
 estimate accorded by his brethren, always regarding 
 himself as overestimated; yet, like a flame of fire, he 
 j Kissed through this beautiful section of Kentucky, 
 dispensing the word of life to thousands. His quar- 
 terly-meetings were occasions of the deepest interest, 
 and were attended by hundreds unaccustomed to wor-
 
 316 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ship at a Methodist altar. The most influential gen- 
 tlemen in the State sought his ministry and his 
 companionship, and were among his warm personal 
 friends. Just at this period Henry Clay had retired 
 from public life, and was enjoying rest amid the se- 
 questered shades of Ashland. Between him and Mr. 
 Kavauaugh the closest social relations existed, while 
 the distinguished Robert Wickliffe was his admirer 
 and friend. Each of these gentlemen waited upon 
 his ministry whenever opportunity occurred, exchang- 
 ing with him at the same time the courtesies of so- 
 cial life. 
 
 At the close of the year the Minutes show a large 
 decrease in the membership in the district. This, 
 however, may be accounted for, not by any actual 
 falling off, but by the transfer of several charges from 
 this to other districts. 
 
 Mr. Kavanaugh was present at the General Con- 
 ference in Petersburg, where, both as a member of 
 that body and in the pulpit, he met the highest ex- 
 pectations of his friends. At this General Conference 
 the Kentucky Conference was divided, forming the 
 Kentucky and Louisville Conferences. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1846 he was returned to the 
 Lexington District, where, with unabated popularity 
 and success, he continued to prosecute his labors, ex- 
 traordinary revivals of religion blessing almost every 
 charge. 
 
 During the two years of his presiding eldership 
 he but seldom heard a sermon preached by any one 
 except himself. He generally commenced his quar- 
 terly-meetings on Friday evening, and preached the
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 317 
 
 opening sermon, and then preached, morning and 
 evening, as long as the meeting continued. It was 
 not because he did not wish to hear his brethren; 
 but he loved to preach, and in deference to the wishes 
 of the people, who desired to listen to no other preacher 
 while he was present, and to the persuasions of the 
 preachers themselves, he yielded to their solicitations. 
 
 In 1847 he was changed from the Lexington Dis- 
 trict to the city of Lexington. George W. Brush 
 had been for two years the pastor, and, by the law 
 of the Church, could remain no longer. The Church, 
 too, in that city, if compelled to give up Mr. Kav- 
 anaugh as their presiding elder, requested his ap- 
 pointment to the station. No appointment could have, 
 been more opportune. Transylvania University, since 
 1842, had been under the control of the Methodist 
 Church ; and to its halls of learning hundreds of 
 young men, not only from Kentucky, but from the 
 Southern States, were resorting, to receive the last 
 polish that a thorough education could give them. 
 Many of them were from Methodist homes, and, while 
 they would naturally worship at the Methodist Church, 
 yet they would be inclined to seek the best preachers; 
 hence the importance of filling the .Methodist pulpit 
 in Lexington with men of marked ability. While 
 other Churches in that refined city might boast of 
 the superior endowments of their clergymen, and 
 justly so, no one of them excelled, or even compared 
 with, Mr. Kavanaugh. 
 
 The year was one of marked prosperity. At no 
 period of his ministry, and in no charge that he had 
 filled, had his labors been more signally blessed.
 
 318 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Early after the session of the conference, a revival broke 
 out in his Church, that swept like a blaze through the 
 city, reaching the homes and hearts of the people. 
 Nor was this work of grace confined to the white 
 population, but, extending to the people of color, 
 more than a hundred of them drank from the river 
 of the water of life, and were healed. If before, the 
 community in Lexington admired this gifted son of 
 Kentucky, their admiration now greatly increased. 
 His praise was on every lip, his name in every home. 
 
 He felt greatly grieved at the- withdrawal, this 
 year, of B. H. McCown from the conference. 
 
 On the district, he was succeeded by Thomas N. 
 Ralston. Mr. Ralston was born in Bourbon County, 
 Ky., March 21, 1806. In November, 1826, he pro- 
 fessed religion, and in May, 1827, at Greer's Creek 
 Church, in Woodford County, Ky., he was received 
 into the Church by William Adams, and by the same 
 preacher was licensed to preach, the following August, 
 at a district conference in Lexington, Ky. In 1827 
 Mr. Ralston was admitted on trial into the Kentucky 
 Conference, and was appointed to the Mount Sterling 
 Circuit, with Milton Jamieson in charge. In 1828 he 
 was appointed to the Danville Circuit, with William 
 Atherton. In 1829 he located, in consequence of 
 feeble health, after having been admitted into full 
 connection. He remained local four years, a portion 
 of the time sustaining the relation of principal to the 
 Bethel Academy, in Nicholasville, yet preaching as 
 often as his health would permit. 
 
 In the mean time he removed to Illinois, where, 
 in 1833, he re-entered the itinerant ranks in the
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 31 9 
 
 Illinois Conference, and was appointed to the Rush- 
 ville Circuit, having for has colleague the young, elo- 
 quent, and sainted Peter Bowen. In the Spring of 
 1834 Hush ville was detached from the circuit and 
 formed into a station, to which Mr. Ralston was re- 
 turned in the Autumn. In 1835 he was transferred 
 to the Kentucky Conference, and appointed to the 
 "Versailles Circuit, having for his colleague George S. 
 Savage. The next year we find him in Frankfort. 
 Thence we follow him to Maysville, where he remained 
 two years. From Maysville he was sent to the city 
 of Louisville, and stationed at Fourth Street, the old- 
 est, and at that time the largest, Church in the city. 
 In 1840 he was appointed agent for Augusta College, 
 and in 1841 his field of labor was the Shelbyville 
 Station, to which he was returned in 1842. In 1843 
 he was placed on the list of the superannuated, but 
 took charge of the Lexington Female High School. 
 
 From the time that Thomas N. Ralston entered 
 the itinerant ranks he gave promise of great useful- 
 ness to the Church. Soundly converted, and divinely 
 called to the work of the ministry, he entered upon 
 the discharge of his high and holy office with com- 
 mendable zeal, and prosecuted its duties with energy 
 and success. Endowed with an intellect of a high 
 order, well improved by a liberal education and close 
 study, as a preacher he attracted attention, while in 
 the performance of his pastoral work he greatly en- 
 deared himself to the people he served. 
 
 In the Mount Sterling Circuit, where he won his 
 earliest trophies, revivals, like a flaming fire, spread 
 over the country, and more than six hundred persons
 
 320 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 were added to the Church. It is true the zealous 
 Milton Jamieson was in charge, and John Ray, Henry 
 McDaniel, John Craig, William C. Stribling, John 
 Sinclair, and Israel Lewis in the ministry, and in 'the 
 laity Caleb Caps, Isaac Redman, and Frank Owen, 
 contributed their influence to the advancement and 
 progress of the kingdom of the Redeemer; yet under 
 the ministry of the young itinerant hundreds were 
 brought to Christ. It Avas on this circuit, and during 
 this year, that the good Joseph Sewell, one of the 
 most useful local preachers in Kentucky, was licensed 
 to preach. He had just entered the Church, and was 
 impressed with the conviction that he ought to per- 
 suade sinners to be reconciled to God. Without ed- 
 ucation, he felt unwilling to enter on a work so 
 responsible, until his agony became so intense that it 
 was almost intolerable. Invited by Mr. Ralston, he 
 accompanied him around the circuit. His exhorta- 
 tions were overpowering. Congregations were melted 
 into tenderness under his warm appeals and earnest 
 prayers. 
 
 On the Danville Circuit the times were prosper- 
 ous. At a camp-meeting near Perryville many were 
 brought to Christ. William Hoi man was stationed 
 in Danville and Harrodsburg, and the gifted Henry 
 S. Duke in Lancaster and Stanford, from whom he 
 received valuable aid. The zealous Dr. Fleece, of 
 Danville a host in a revival and the good Benja- 
 min Durham and Carlin Tadlock, in the country, 
 held up his hands while he lifted " o'er the ranks the 
 prophet's rod." 
 
 While traveling on the Danville Circuit, on one
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 321 
 
 occasion he preached on the possibility of apostasy. 
 A lady, who was a member of a sister Church, be- 
 came offended at the sermon, and, passing from the 
 church in company with another lady at whose house 
 the young preacher was stopping, she was so excited 
 that, while standing on a log by the side of her horse, 
 preparatory to mounting him, just as she had repeated 
 in a raised voice the words, "He says a Christian 
 may fall and be lost ; he preached a falsehood, for I 
 know a Christian can not fall," she made a spring 
 for the saddle, but did so with such force that she 
 fell to the ground on the opposite side of the horse 
 not hurt, however. " Now," said the Methodist lady, 
 "that is to pay you for getting angry. I hope you 
 will admit hereafter that a Christian may fall." The 
 offended woman afterward became a Methodist, and 
 with great humor often related the incident. 
 
 The excessive labors of two years had so impaired 
 the health of Mr. Ralston that he was no longer able 
 to perform the duties of an itinerant, and at the sug- 
 gestion of brethren sought for rest in a local sphere. 
 During the four years in which he was a local preacher^ 
 he preached as often as his feeble health would permit, 
 and often beyond his strength. 
 
 Entering the itinerant field in Illinois, in 1833, he 
 had lost none of the zeal which had characterized his 
 early ministry, but with untiring energy continued to 
 persuade men to turn to God. In the town of Rush- 
 ville a meeting, which was protracted through more 
 than two months, resulted in the conversion of one 
 hundred persons. 
 
 On his return to Kentucky success still crowned
 
 322 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 his labors. On the Versailles Circuit he enjoyed a 
 year of prosperity; in Frankfort he had seals to his 
 ministry, and in Maysville many were converted and 
 added to the Church. 
 
 He was appointed to Louisville in 1839, immedi- 
 ately after the most extraordinary revival that had 
 ever occured in that city. John Newland Maffitt had 
 been eminently successful. A vast amount of work 
 had necessarily to be performed in taking care of 
 those who had entered the communion of the Church, 
 and most faithfully did Mr. Ralston address himself 
 to the task. 
 
 As agent for Augusta College he traveled exten- 
 sively, and labored faithfully to promote the interest 
 confided to his care. 
 
 In Shelbyville a gracious revival blessed the 
 Church. Worn down by excessive labor, he yields 
 to his wasting strength, and asks at the hands of his 
 brethren a superannuated relation. 
 
 In 1844, and the year following, he was in charge 
 of the Female High-school in Lexington, and in 1846 
 was the colleague of John C. Harrison, at Harrods- 
 burg and Danville, and then for three years was pre- 
 siding elder on Lexington District. 
 
 In 1850 he was editor of the Methodist Monthly, 
 and produced in its pages some of the finest sketches 
 of pioneer preachers in Kentucky ever written. In 
 1851 we find him at Oxford, and the two years fol- 
 lowing at Winchester and Ebeuezer. In 1854 he was 
 appointed to Harrodsburg District, and at the follow- 
 ing conference, his health having become impaired, 
 he asked for a supernumerary relation. After one
 
 -BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 323 
 
 year's rest, he was appointed to the Covington Dis- 
 trict, but finding his strength unequal to the duties of 
 the office of presiding elder, he retired at the close 
 of the year, and was then sent to Newport. 
 
 From the time he entered the Kentucky Confer- 
 ence, in 1827, Mr. Ralston had been distinguished 
 for the purity of his life, for his fervent zeal, and for 
 the great success that attended his labors. Whether 
 on circuits, in stations, or as leader of the hosts on 
 districts, he was faithful to his trust, and enjoyed the 
 confidence of his brethren, both in the ministry and 
 laity, as an able and faithful minister of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In 1858 he withdrew from the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, South, and entered the communion of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, where he remained for 
 two years as rector of the Church in Covington, 
 Kentucky. 
 
 During the war Mr. Ralston was all the time in 
 membership with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 having previously gone to Illinois. He filled the 
 charge of Centralia Station, Illinois Conference, one 
 year. In South-east Indiana Conference he was two 
 years stationed in Madison, Indiana, and one year in 
 Brookville. After the close of the war, being in 
 feeble health, he received, at his own request, a su- 
 perannuated relation, and immediately returned to 
 Kentucky. 
 
 A vacancy in the presiding eldership having oc- 
 curred on the Shelbyville District, Bishop Kavanaugh 
 at once appointed him to it. He only had time to 
 make one round on the district before the meeting of 
 the conference of 1866, at which he was re-admitted
 
 324 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 into the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, South. 
 
 We were present at the time his name was pre- 
 sented, and could not but feel a pleasure at the cor- 
 dial reception given to this distinguished preacher 
 on his return to his first love. Many members of 
 the body wept, while all received him with open arms 
 and warm hearts. 
 
 In the transitions that Mr. Ralston had made there 
 was no vacillation or change of mind in regard to 
 faith or views of Church order. He preached and 
 maintained everywhere the doctrines of the Gospel as 
 taught by Wesley, Fletcher, and Watson. 
 
 Upon his return to the conference he was ap- 
 pointed to the Covington District, from which he was 
 transferred the year following to the Maysville Dis- 
 trict, where he remained two years. Too feeble to 
 take an appointment in 1869, he was placed on the 
 supernumerary list; but at the conference of 1870 
 returned to test his strength again in the effective 
 ranks. He was sent to the Shelbyville District, from 
 which, at the end of two years, he was transferred to 
 the Covington District, from which feeble health com- 
 pelled him to retire in 1873. At the conference of 
 that year he was appointed to Mt. Pleasant, and pro- 
 fessor of Biblical literature in the Kentucky Weslcyan 
 University, to which position he was returned in 1874. 
 From that time to 1879 he was professor in Kentucky 
 Wesleyan University, then at Mt. Pleasant and Berry 
 Chapel in 1879, and at Highland in 1880. He was 
 then retired to the supernumerary list, where he still 
 remains.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 325 
 
 We first saw and heard Mr. Ralston in 1835, at 
 which time the Kentucky Annual Conference met in 
 Shelbyville. Learning that a scholarly and gifted 
 young preacher would preach at the Methodist 
 Church, we went early that we might not be disap- 
 pointed in procuring a seat. His text was, " Return 
 unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt 
 bountifully with thee." The sermon was a master- 
 piece of composition, and produced a wonderful effect. 
 We have since often listened with thrilling interest to 
 the same distinguished divine; but on no occasion 
 have we heard him excel the sermon he preached at 
 that time. 
 
 The soul its immortality, and its capacity for suf- 
 fering or for bliss; a wanderer from God, its only 
 source of rest ; the exhortation to return, and the rich 
 provision made through the atonement of Jesus Christ 
 for its happiness here and hereafter were the themes 
 on which the preacher dwelt. In a whisper soft as 
 the evening zephyr he portrayed the sufferings of Christ 
 for the sins of mankind, and the rich inheritance pro- 
 vided for the world by the death of the Son of God. 
 He dipped his pencil in living light to paint the ag- 
 onies that Jesus bore, and to unfold the glittering 
 splendors of the heavenly state in which the soul should 
 bask forever and ever. Then, rising to the loftiest 
 heights of oratory, he pointed to the realms of night 
 unending night where the soul, invested*with immor- 
 tality, should roam amid darkness and gloom through 
 eternal ages lost, lost, forever lost! 
 
 From our entrance into the conference in 1837 we 
 have known Dr. Ralston intimately, and take pleasure
 
 326 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in bearing testimony to his great ability and earnest 
 devotion to the cause of Christ. 
 
 He was stationed in Shelbyville in 1842, and when 
 on a visit to that village, where we had been brought 
 up, we spent for several weeks a portion of each day 
 in his society. It was during this time that we learned 
 to love him and to appreciate his great worth. He 
 was then writing that remarkable book, " Elements 
 of Divinity," containing a body of theology which is 
 unsurpassed, if equaled, outside the pages of the Bible, 
 and which has given to the illustrious author an im- 
 mortality of fame. 
 
 He was elected to the General Conference of 1840, 
 and has been a member of several General Conferences 
 since, among them that held in Columbus, Georgia, in 
 1854, where he made the opening speech on the loca- 
 tion of the Publishing House, advocating Louisville 
 as the proper place. 
 
 If Dr. Ralston was Mr. Kavanaugh's presiding 
 elder, William H. Anderson was his colleague this 
 year in Lexington. 
 
 William H. Anderson was born in Wilmington, 
 North Carolina, September 17, 1817. In 1827 his 
 father removed from Wilmington to Richmond, Vir- 
 ginia. While a student at the Wesleyan University, 
 in Middletown, Connecticut, in the Autumn of 1833, 
 he was happily converted to God. In 1835 his father 
 removed from Richmond, Virginia, to Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky; and in 1837, at the close of his classical course 
 in the Wesleyan University, William H. Anderson fol- 
 lowed his father to the West. Dedicated to God in 
 baptism in infancy, and brought up in a pious home,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 327 
 
 we are not surprised that iu the dewy mom of life he 
 gave his heart to God. Fully impressed with the con- 
 viction that he ought to preach the Gospel, in the 
 Autumn of 1838 he received license from Benjamin 
 T. Crouch, and entered the conference the same Au- 
 tumn. His first appointment was to the Newcastle 
 Circuit, as the colleague of the zealous James D. Hol- 
 ding. His second year he was sent to La Grange, with 
 John Beatty. In 1840 he was appointed to Bowling 
 Green, where we still find him in 1841. In 1842 he 
 was appointed to the city of Frankfort, as pastor of 
 the Church and as agent for the Transylvania Uni- 
 versity. Before the close of the year he was called 
 away from the pastoral work, where 'his ministry had 
 been so greatly blessed, to fill the chair of English 
 literature in the Transylvania University, to which he 
 was officially appointed in 1843. 
 
 No young man who had entered the itinerant ranks 
 in Kentucky for many years had given greater prom- 
 ise of usefulness than did William H. Anderson. De- 
 scended from one of the most prominent and influential 
 families, his education thorough, his piety uniform and 
 consistent, his zeal uncompromising, his address win- 
 ning, courteous in his manners, devoted to the Church, 
 his style in the pulpit popular and attractive, and with 
 a voice soft and sweet, his entrance into the ministry 
 was looked to with more than ordinary interest. On 
 the Newcastle Circuit, his first field of labor, under 
 his burning words and warm appeals many hearts were 
 touched, and fell in love with the Savior. Wherever 
 he preached crowds hung in breathless silence on his 
 lips, and under his instrumentality hundreds were
 
 328 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 brought to Christ. On the La Grange Circuit the 
 same success distinguished his labors, and many were 
 the seals to his ministry. Before his appointment to 
 the Bowling Green Station he had taken rank with 
 the first preachers in the State. In that charge he 
 continued to be eminently useful in winning souls to 
 Christ. In the city of Frankfort, as a preacher, he 
 occupied a commanding eminence, which he continued 
 to maintain for three years amid the classic halls of 
 Transylvania with honor to himself and with satis- 
 faction to the curators and students. In 1846 he was 
 appointed with W. W. Hibben to Lexington, and in 
 
 1847 with H. H. Kavanaugh to the same city. In 
 
 1848 he was sent to Versailles and Nicholasville, 
 where he remained two years, and in 1850 was agent 
 for the American Bible Society. He was transferred 
 to the Louisville Conference in 1851 and appointed 
 to Brook Street Church in the city of Louisville, 
 to which he was returned the following year. His 
 next appointment was Third Street Church in the same 
 city, which he served one year, when he was trans- 
 ferred to Missouri Conference, where he remained un- 
 til 1863, spending six years as president of St. Charles 
 College, and the remainder of the time as president 
 of Central College. Upon the urgent request of the 
 members of the Brook Street Church in Louisville, 
 in 1863, he was returned to the Louisville Conference, 
 and stationed at that Church for two years. He was 
 then sent to Chestnut Street, where he remained three 
 years, when he was stationed in Henderson. 
 
 In 1869 he was transferred to the Tennessee Con- 
 ference, and appointed president of Florence Wesley an
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 329 
 
 University, located at Florence, Alabama. In 1870 
 the North Alabama Conference was formed, and he 
 became a member of that conference by virtue of his 
 connection with the university, which was located 
 within its bounds. In 1871 he was transferred to 
 Louisville Conference, and after serving Shelby Street 
 in Louisville one year, he was elected to the respon- 
 sible office of president of the University of Public 
 Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, in which capacity 
 he served three years. In 1875 he had charge of the 
 Seminary at Cloverport, in connection with the care 
 of the Church in that place. From 1876 to 1879 he 
 was the president of Kentucky Wesleyan College, and 
 the two years following of Brookville Seminary. He 
 was then stationed for two years in Nicholasville, from 
 which, in 1883, he was sent to Carlisle, his present 
 charge. 
 
 In 1850, when Dr. Bascom was elected to the epis- 
 copal office, Mr. Anderson was elected editor of the 
 Quarterly Review as his successor, which honor he 
 declined. 
 
 Dr. Anderson is a preacher of rare gifts, and we 
 have always regretted that he was ever called from 
 the pulpit into any institution of learning. There is 
 no office in the Church that he would not have 
 adorned ; nor do we think there is any that was not 
 within his reach. Most richly endowed by nature 
 his mind stored with the jeweled treasures of a thor- 
 ough education, a courteous gentleman, popular in his 
 manners, and an earnest Christian he is equal to any 
 station in life. He has been a member of four Gen- 
 eral Conferences, and was elected to the General Con- 
 
 28
 
 330 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ference which was to have met in 1862. The South- 
 ern University and Wofford College each conferred 
 on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1866, hon- 
 oring themselves in honoring him. He was twice 
 married; the first time on April 20, 1844, to Miss 
 Rosa Hardin Field, of Richmond, Kentucky, who died 
 in April, 1850. His second wife was Miss Helen 
 Richardson, of Louisville, Kentucky.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 331 
 
 ix. 
 
 FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE 
 OF 1848 TO THE CONFERENCE OF 1850. 
 
 OINCE the General Conference of 1844, the war 
 O on the border waged against the Church South, 
 had been carried on with great vigor. Through the un- 
 tiring energy and devotion of the preachers, who occu- 
 pied these perilous posts, the Kentucky border had 
 chiefly been brought under the influence of the Method- 
 ist Episcopal Church South, and in any wise to have re- 
 linquished their hold would have been suicidal to the 
 best interests of the people of Kentucky. We, how- 
 ever, had no Church organ, through which to state 
 the Southern side of the question. It is true, the 
 South-western Christian Advocate, published at Nash- 
 ville, Tennessee, opened its columns to the defense, 
 but it could not meet the demands of Kentucky 
 Methodism, accustomed, as it was, to look elsewhere 
 for information. 
 
 The destitution of Kentucky, in this regard, led 
 to the establishment, in the city of Cincinnati, of the 
 Methodist Expositor and True Issue. Its editor was 
 Dr. Samuel A. Latta, one of the most profound think- 
 ers and ablest writers in the Church. Dr. Latta ten- 
 dered the Expositor to the Kentucky Conference. 
 Although the conference did not accept 'its control,
 
 332 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 yet they pledged to it their support, and appointed 
 Mr. Kavanaugh corresponding editor. 
 
 It was always great labor with Mr. Kavanaugh to 
 write, yet he accepted the trust committed to him by 
 his brethren, and discharged the duties to their en- 
 tire satisfaction. Many of the ablest articles on the 
 troubles that agitated the Church were from his pen, 
 while his department of the paper abounded in spark- 
 ling wit and richest humor. In repartee he had no 
 superior and scarcely a peer. 
 
 In addition to this, he was stationed at Soule 
 Chapel, in the city of Cincinnati, as the successor of 
 Dr. Parsons, who followed Dr. Sehon, whose unri- 
 valed popularity in the Queen City of the West made 
 it no easy task to follow him. It was much less dif- 
 ficult to hold a congregation in connection with the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in Covington, where a 
 large number of the members were engaged in busi- 
 ness in Cincinnati, than to hold in Cincinnati a con- 
 gregation under the jurisdiction of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, where even business might 
 be affected by Church relations. 
 
 Mr. Kavanaugh, however, was equal to the posi- 
 tion in which he was placed. He preached a pure 
 Gospel, preaching the doctrines of the Bible in the 
 plainest manner, ignoring all questions that did not 
 belong to the pulpit, setting forth, both by precept 
 and example, the practical duties of Christian life. 
 If he did not increase the membership while stationed 
 in Cincinnati, he preached to large and appreciative 
 congregations, and sowed good seed whose harvest 
 will be seen in a coming eternity.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 333 
 
 The second General Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, would meet in May, 1850, 
 in St. Louis, Missouri. The delegates elected by the 
 Kentucky Conference were H. B. Bascom, B. T. 
 Crouch, H. H. Kavanaugh, T. N. Ralston, W. H. 
 Anderson, J. C. Harrison, and G. W. Brush. He 
 was returned to Cincinnati in 1849. 
 
 Mr. Kavanaugh was a man of most generous sym- 
 pathies and warmest friendship. His love for Burr 
 H. McCown was not exceeded by that of Jonathan 
 for David. Although two years had elapsed since 
 Mr. McCown had withdrawn from the ministry and 
 membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South, yet the wound in the heart of his friend was 
 not healed. 
 
 " I shall never be satisfied," we heard him once 
 say, " until Burr H. McCown returns to the Method- 
 ist Church, which I feel sure he will do." 
 
 Burr H. McCown was born October 29, 1806, in 
 Bardstown, Kentucky, and in 1818 was converted to 
 God. In 1824 he joined the Presbyterian Church ; 
 but, believing the doctrines of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church to accord more fully with the teachings 
 of the Bible, in 1826 he joined the Methodist Church, 
 under the ministry of Hubbard H. Kavanaugh. He 
 was educated at St. Joseph College, in Bardstown, 
 and took the highest honors of his class in both the 
 Latin and Greek languages. 
 
 From the time he became a member of the Pres- 
 byterian Church he had expected to enter the min- 
 istry in that denomination. We are not surprised, 
 therefore, to find him in the Methodist ministry. He
 
 334 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was licensed to preach by Marcus Lindsey, in 1826, 
 and in 1827 was admitted on trial into the Kentucky 
 Conference. His first appointment was to the Henry 
 Circuit, as the colleague of William Atherton. In 
 1828 he was appointed, with John James, to the Jef- 
 ferson Circuit. At the conference of 1829 he was 
 stationed in Russellville, and in 1830 in Louisville. 
 In 1831 he was elected to a professorship in Augusta 
 College, where he continued until 1842, when, with 
 Henry B. Bascom, he removed to Lexington, and 
 became a professor in Transylvania University. 
 
 He continued to occupy a chair in the university 
 until the conference of 1846, when he was left. " with- 
 out an appointment by consent of the conference in 
 view of peculiar circumstances." In 1847 he with- 
 drew from the connection. 
 
 During the four years that Mr. McCown was in 
 the pastoral work he was useful and beloved. As a 
 preacher he took high rank at an early period in his 
 ministry. With a sweet and gentle disposition, court- 
 eous to all, his address popular, and his personal ap- 
 pearance commanding, he exerted an influence for 
 good that could be claimed by but few young men of 
 his day. When we have seen him in the pulpit, and 
 heard him preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, 
 we have regretted that he was ever called from the 
 pastoral work, in which he was so happy, and where 
 he was so useful. In the halls of learning, however, 
 he lost none of the zeal that had distinguished him 
 as a pastor, and none of the love that had constrained 
 him to enter the ministry. As a teacher he acquired 
 an enviable reputation, and contributed much toward
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 335 
 
 the formation of the character of hundreds of young 
 men who, throughout the West and the South, adorn 
 the learned professions. 
 
 Soon after his withdrawal from the Methodist 
 Church, he entered the Presbyterian, and after exer- 
 cising the functions of a pastor for a brief period, he 
 settled in Jefferson County, near Anchorage, where 
 he established a school of high grade, over which he 
 presided with great ability and success until a few 
 years before his death, preaching almost every Sun- 
 day. From the time he severed his connection with 
 the Church, in which he had spent so many happy 
 years, he was not satisfied. The harness in his new 
 relation did not fit him. He was an Arminian of the 
 Wesleyan type, and could neither accept the teachings 
 nor preach the doctrines of the Westminster confes- 
 sion of faith. 
 
 In September, 1874, he returned to the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, and offered himself to the 
 Kentucky Conference, and was readmitted. The as- 
 sociates, however, of his early ministry had passed 
 away, and he seemed to be a stranger among his breth- 
 ren. He filled a few charges, and was much beloved by 
 the members of the conference. He lived until August 
 29, 1881, when, at his home near Anchorage, Ken- 
 tucky, in great peace he passed away. 
 
 In the Spring of 1838 a young preacher made his 
 appearance in Kentucky who was destined to bear a 
 prominent part in the history of the Church, and 
 to occupy a commanding eminence for more than a 
 generation. 
 
 John H. Linn was born in Lewisburg, Virginia,
 
 336 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 February 22, 1812. From his early childhood he was 
 impressed with the importance of religion, and was 
 deeply convicted of his own sinful condition. Having 
 been taught the fear of God from his infancy, it was 
 no difficult task for him to call upon the Lord and 
 plead for pardon. In the fourteenth year of his age 
 he was happily converted. Brought up under Pres- 
 byterian influence, he was naturally inclined to join 
 that Church; but, for reasons satisfactory to himself, 
 did not do so. In the fifteenth year of his age he 
 made the acquaintance of some Methodist preachers, 
 for whom he formed a warm attachment, and through 
 their influence became a member of the Methodist 
 Church. In 1836 he was admitted on trial into the 
 Baltimore Conference, and was appointed, with Fran- 
 cis M. Mills, to the Franklin Circuit, with Norval 
 Wilson as his presiding elder. In 1837 his field of 
 labor was the Lexington Circuit (with the same pre- 
 siding elder) as the colleague of George W. Humph- 
 reys. His wife was Ann Eliza Woodyard, daughter of 
 W. H. Woodyard, of Kentucky, a lady of superior in- 
 tellect, of fervent piety, and uncompromising devotion 
 to the Church. This influenced his transfer to Ken- 
 tucky in 1838. The death of the lamented Gibbons 
 made a vacancy on the Georgetown Circuit, and the 
 Church was so fortunate as to secure the appointment 
 of Mr. Linn for the remainder of the year. 
 
 He was an excellent preacher from the time he 
 entered the ministry. When the conference held its 
 session in Baltimore, in 1837, at the close of his first 
 year in the itinerant ministry, he was appointed to 
 preach in the First Presbyterian Church, then under
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH, 337 
 
 the pastoral care of Dr. Backus, the successor of Dr. 
 Nevins. He preached on Rom. viii, 38, 39 : " For I 
 am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
 nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from the- love of 
 God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." One who 
 was present on the occasion tells us that it was an 
 excellent sermon, and was so considered by the highly 
 intelligent congregation to which it was delivered. 
 It foreshadowed the high position which he was des- 
 tined to occupy in the ministry. 
 
 We remember his first appearance in the confer- 
 ence of 1838. He was young and buoyant the very 
 picture of health and promised to the Church many 
 years of labor and of usefulness. He came to the 
 West asking no other favor than to be recognized as 
 a brother and a fellow-laborer in the Master's vine- 
 yard to work wherever the interest of the Church 
 might demand. 
 
 During the brief period he had labored on the 
 Georgetown Circuit he not only won golden opinions 
 from the people, but he was successful in winning 
 souls to Christ. His commanding presence, his piety, 
 his zeal, his devotion to the cause of the Redeemer, 
 together with his extraordinary talents, not only ren- 
 dered him useful in a high degree, but indicated the 
 lofty eminence he would occupy in the coming years. 
 
 At the Kentucky Conference of 1838 he was re- 
 turned to the Georgetown Circuit, with George W. 
 Simcoe as his colleague, where he spent a happy and 
 prosperous year. 
 
 29
 
 338 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 In 1839 he preached during the session of the 
 conference in Russellville. It was on Thursday even- 
 ing. The Methodist Church was crowded to over- 
 flowing, while many stood at the doors and windows. 
 We saw him as he entered the house, and watched 
 him as. he walked down the aisle in that careless 
 manner which always characterized him, his large 
 gray eyes resting on the floor. He entered the pulpit 
 and knelt for a few minutes in silent prayer. The 
 hymn, the public prayer, the "voluntary," followed 
 each other in rapid succession. The text was, "Gather 
 my saints together unto me."* In the commence- 
 ment of the sermon the preacher was considerably 
 embarrassed. It was his first attempt to preach in 
 the presence of the Kentucky Conference, and his 
 words were tremblingly uttered. Bascom, Tomlinson, 
 Stamper, Crouch, and Kavanaugh were present. A 
 few introductory remarks were offered on the life and 
 character of the sweet singer of Israel, and then he 
 entered into a rigid examination of the word "saint," 
 and what constitutes a saint in the sight of God. To 
 become a saint requires, on the part of a sinner, re- 
 pentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 Christ; while God, on his part, introduces him into 
 his family by justification, regeneration, adoption, and 
 sanctification. With great clearness he presented the 
 difference between the justification and the regener- 
 ation of the sinner the former merely changing the 
 relation to God, while the latter changes his nature. 
 Regeneration, as he understood it to be taught in the 
 Bible, was a thorough and radical work of grace in 
 
 *Psalm 1, 5.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 339 
 
 the heart, affecting all the component parts of the 
 moral constitution; it was emphatically a new birth. 
 A religion that would not accomplish this fails i* its 
 grand design and is not of God. He, moreover, 
 affirmed that the regeneration of the penitent believer 
 is accompanied by the witness of the Holy Spirit, 
 bearing testimony with his spirit that he is born of 
 God. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath 
 the witness in himself."* "What is the witness?" he 
 inquired. "Let the apostle answer: ' The Spirit itself 
 beareth witness with our spirit that we are the chil- 
 dren of God.'f The necessity of such testimony can 
 not but be apparent to every thinking mind. With- 
 out it the Christian can not be happy, because he can 
 not know whether he is in God's favor or under con- 
 demnation." In touching language he referred to the 
 adoption of the regenerated person into the family of 
 God, and then showed that Christ demands of all his 
 followers that they "grow in grace,";}; and that they 
 add to their "faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 
 and to knowledge temperance ; and to temperance 
 patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness 
 brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness char- 
 ity; " and never stop until they have fathomed every 
 depth and ascended every height of religious life and 
 are sanctified of God. The life of a Christian is an 
 active life : " For we are laborers together with 
 God ;"|| not loiterers. No Christian, for a moment, 
 dares pause amid the conquests he has won. If suc- 
 cess has been achieved, if victories have been won, 
 
 1 John v, 10. t Rom. viii, 16. J 2 Pet. iii, 18. \ 2 Pet. i, 
 5-7. || 1 Cor. iii, 9.
 
 340 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 difficulties yet confront us in the great battle of life, 
 and we dare not rest on our arms until every foe is 
 conyuered. Then, and not until then, will our war- 
 fare be over and our victory complete. 
 
 The peroration was thrilling beyond description. 
 He had found man a sinner in the sight of God, ex- 
 posed to almighty wrath; he had watched him as the 
 Holy Spirit arrested him in his career to ruin ; he 
 had seen him as he resolved upon a better life, and 
 when he " tasted the good word of God, and the pow- 
 ers of the world to come;"* he had followed him 
 through every conflict in which he had been engaged 
 and beheld him when victory perched upon his ban- 
 ner; he watched his progress as he ascended the 
 mountain heights of religious life until he was sancti- 
 fied throughout spirit and soul and body and become 
 "pure even as He is pure;" and then, like a ripe 
 shock ready to be gathered, he saw him as he entered 
 the "valley of the shadow of death,"f and listened to 
 strains of rapture as they came back from the borders 
 of the spirit- world ; and he contemplated, too, the 
 joys that awaited him amid the resplendent glories 
 of the heavenly state. Time passes on; the world 
 becomes hoary with age, and its affairs are winding 
 to their close; the judgment-day is at hand, and the 
 nations are to be called from the sleep of ages to hear 
 their final sentence; but where are the saints of God? 
 Scattered throughout the world; buried, many of them, 
 in unknown graves, their names have perished from 
 the page of the world's memory; no hand of friend- 
 ship may plant over their graves the evergreen the 
 
 * Heb. vi. 6. t Psalm xxiii, 4.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 341 
 
 emblem of immortality nor the rose to throw its 
 fragrance on the balmy air; no tears of affection may 
 mingle with the dust that conceals them from human 
 view; but the ever- watchful eye of God has kept 
 vigils over them, and not one, however humble and 
 lowly in life, will be overlooked or forgotten. Hark! 
 an angel is summoned to the presence of God, and 
 Jehovah says to him: "Go, 'gather my saints together 
 unto me/ Let them be the first to be raised from, 
 the dead !" " Where shall I go ?" asks the angel. 
 "Go to the cave in the field of Machpelah ; call up 
 Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob 
 and Leah. Go to Mount Nebo, and find the grave of 
 Moses, and bid him come back to life. Go to the 
 city of David, and find the sepulcher of the son of 
 Jesse, whose dulcet strains have chased sorrow from 
 ten thousand hearts, and tell him 'I am the resurrec- 
 tion and the life.'* Go to the graves of the prophets 
 who foretold the advent of the woman's conquering 
 Seed and the splendors of his r^ign, and tell them, 
 ' Because I live, ye shall live also.'f Go to the im- 
 perial city, where Paul the apostle slumbers, and 
 awaken him from the sleep of centuries. Go to Ger- 
 many, and gather Luther and Melanchthon. Go to 
 England, and lift the stone from the grave of John 
 Wesley, and tell him to rise and throw off the fetters 
 of the tomb. Call Coke from his coral bed, where he 
 has slept so long. Go to Africa, and awaken Mellville 
 B. Cox. Go to America, and call Asbury from his 
 tomb in the Monumental City, and McKendree from 
 the forests of Tennessee. Wherever one of my saints 
 * John xi, 25. t John xiv, 19.
 
 342 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sleeps, go and awake him, and ( gather him unto me/ }) 
 The angel continues his search, and from ocean and 
 from earth the saints of God are rising; from every 
 continent, every island, and every isthmus they are 
 coming in obedience to the summons of God. In his 
 majestic flight through the world he overtakes Death, 
 who tries to escape from his presence, and asks him 
 whether a saint of God is confined within his empire. 
 "No," he replies; "I have captured thousands, and 
 carried them to my dominions and bound them with 
 fetters. I thought I had them secure, but they have 
 broken the massive bars, abandoned the graves where 
 they had slumbered long, and destroyed my power 
 forever." He meets the prince of darkness, and in- 
 quires whether one saint can be found within his 
 realm. "No, not one; but it is no fault of mine. I 
 followed them through every step of life; I offered 
 them the world, with all its pageantry and tinsel and 
 glare, if they would serve me ; I pledged them riches 
 and pleasure and fkme, but their ears were deaf to 
 my persuasions; I confronted them with difficulties, 
 but they overcame them; I placed snares in their 
 path, but they shunned them; I left no means unem- 
 ployed to destroy them, but they eluded my grasp. 
 No, not one is to be found in all the regions of woe." 
 The work is done, and the angel returns to God. 
 
 From the conference at Eussellville Mr. Linn was 
 appointed to Maysville, one of the most pleasant sta- 
 tions in the conference. He entered upon his work 
 as early after the close of the conference as was prac- 
 ticable, meeting with a cordial reception from the 
 Church and the community. During the Winter his
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 343 
 
 congregations were large and attentive, and consider- 
 able interest was manifested among the people on the 
 subject of religion. Early in February a meeting 
 was commenced, in which he was assisted by Mr. 
 Maffitt, during which one hundred and fifteen persons 
 were added to the Church, and more than that num- 
 ber happily converted. The influence of this meeting 
 extended through the entire community, leaving its 
 benedictions on many a heart. Other communions 
 realized blessings from it. Under the ministry of 
 Mr. Linn the white membership in Maysville in- 
 creased from one hundred and fifty to three hundred 
 and five, and the colored from eighty-two to one hun- 
 dred and sixty. 
 
 While Mr. Linn was stationed in Maysville he 
 made a visit to Georgetown, his former field of labor. 
 The Church he had served so faithfully and the com- 
 munity in which he had lived so pleasantly were glad 
 to see him again. He was met by them with a cor- 
 diality and warmth that thrilled him with emotions 
 he could not conceal. Among his numerous admirers 
 was an old colored member of the Church. The 
 preacher had left them the Autumn before, well but 
 plainly dressed. The warm hand and generous heart 
 of friendship, in Maysville, had dressed him hand- 
 somely. Wrapped in a fine and costly cloak, he was 
 met by the old man on the street, and accosted with : 
 "Well, well, you sorter looked like Brother Linn; 
 but you gotten to be so much like a gentleman that 
 I declare I did n't know you. I 's so glad to see you, 
 ef you is a gentleman." 
 
 From Maysville we follow Mr. Linn to Fourth
 
 344 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Street Church, in Louisville, where he was stationed 
 in 1840, and the year following to Harrodsburg and 
 Danville. The commanding talents of Mr. Linn be- 
 gan to attract attention abroad. In 1842 he was 
 transferred to Missouri Conference, and stationed at 
 Centenary Church, in the city of St. Louis, where he 
 continued two years. In 1844 he was agent for St. 
 Charles College, and in 1845 was stationed in Han- 
 nibal. In 1846 he was transferred to the St. Louis 
 Conference, and stationed in Jefferson City ; and in 
 1847 he was stationed at Fourth Street, St. Louis, 
 where he spent two years. 
 
 He returned to Kentucky in 1849, and was ap- 
 pointed to Fourth Street, then in the Louisville Con- 
 ference, where nine years before he had been emi- 
 nently useful. Here he was continued two years. In, 
 1851 he was transferred to the Kentucky Conference, 
 and stationed for two years at Soule Chapel, Cincin- 
 nati. In 1853 his appointment was to Frankfort, 
 to which he was returned the year following. In 
 1855 he was sent to Danville, and the two years fol- 
 lowing to Lexington, and then two years to Shel- 
 byville. 
 
 In 1860 he was transferred to the Louisville Con- 
 ference, and stationed at Walnut Street. He next 
 served the Brook Street Church two years. In 1863 
 he was stationed at Eighth Street, and then two years 
 at Chestnut, and then at Brook Street again two 
 years, and in 1867 and 1868 at Broadway the 
 Broadway and Chestnut Street churches both having 
 been erected under his supervision. 
 
 While at Broadway, in the Spring of 1869, he
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 345 
 
 was transferred to the Baltimore Conference, and sta- 
 tioned for two years at Central Church, in the city 
 of Baltimore. In 1871 he was transferred to the St. 
 Louis Conference, and stationed for two years at Cen- 
 tenary, in the city of St. Louis. 
 
 Dr. Linn was becoming feeble; and his brethren 
 of the Louisville Conference importuned him to return 
 to Kentucky, and die in their midst. In 1874 he was 
 transferred to the Louisville Conference, and stationed 
 for two years at Chestnut Street, in Louisville. His 
 last appointment was, in 1876, to the Louisville Dis- 
 trict, as presiding elder. It was evident that he 
 would not be able to discharge the duties of the 
 office; but both preachers and people were anxious 
 for his appointment to that position the former that 
 by their assistance they might lighten his work, and 
 the latter that they might have the care and support 
 of one who had contributed more to the success of 
 the Church in the city than any other preacher. 
 
 After his appointment to the Louisville District 
 he lived but a short time. He died in great peace, 
 December 7, 1876. 
 
 The inquiry may be made as to why he so fre- 
 quently changed his conference relations. It was not 
 from any wish of his that he did so, but because of 
 the pressing demand in all the principal cities for his 
 ministry. Under his own protest he was often trans- 
 ferred from one conference to another, yet cheerfully 
 submitting to the authorities of the Church. 
 
 He was a member of the General Conference 
 three times in 1846, 1858, and 1866. 
 
 He was twice married. His first wife was Miss
 
 346 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Woody ard, of Cynthiana, a lady of rare accomplish- 
 ments ; his second wife was Miss Tompkins, of Dan- 
 ville, who was eminently qualified for the responsible 
 position of a preacher's wife. 
 
 The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
 upon him in 1850. 
 
 " Dr. Linn was truly a converted and holy man. 
 He was called of God to the Christian ministry. He 
 was a sound theologian. He was an uncompromising 
 Methodist, both in doctrine and discipline; and at the 
 same time, and for this reason, he was a catholic 
 Christian, loving all the people of God, and associat- 
 ing with them upon the most intimate terms. He was 
 a faithful minister of Christ. He defended the truth, 
 he exposed error, he denounced sin among all classes. 
 Dr. Linn was a man of a very high order of genius. 
 While in the prime of life he possessed in a very 
 high degree the reproductive power, combined with 
 the comparative faculty, which invested him with the 
 highest degree of the creative imagination. All that 
 he had ever known in nature, in art, in science, in 
 philosophy, or history, he could reproduce and make 
 available to the illustration and enforcement of divine 
 truth. His discourses were often a combination of 
 the overwhelmingly sublime and of the transcend- 
 dently beautiful. Though possessing a princely pres- 
 ence, he was not in the highest sense an orator. His 
 voice was strong and masculine, but lacked flexibility 
 and music; it was, indeed, a deep bass monotone. 
 But, though he lacked most of the qualities of an 
 orator, he was, in a very high sense, 'an eloquent 
 man.' He spoke out of the heart, and reached the hearts
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 347 
 
 of his hearers, and so captivated them that, for the 
 time, he had complete control of them. He excelled 
 more as a rhetorician than a logician. He had just 
 enough of logic to open the way for his wonderful 
 rhetorical appeals. In the death of Dr. Linn 'a 
 prince and a great man is fallen among us.' But our 
 comfort is that, having fulfilled the ministry which 
 he had received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
 Gospel of the grace of God, he has finished his course 
 with joy, and has gone to receive his reward. ( Though 
 dead, he yet speaketh.'"* 
 
 The mention of another name in this chapter is 
 highly proper. 
 
 George W. Brush was born in Rockbridge County, 
 Va., October 28, 1805. His mother, whose maiden 
 name was Nancy Caven, was born in the North of 
 Ireland; his grandmother on his mother's side, Eliz- 
 abeth McCaw, was reared iii Scotland, and belonged 
 to the Kirk. Rockbridge County, Va., had been the 
 home of his paternal ancestry for several generations. 
 His father, John Brush, and Blakeley Brush, his grand- 
 father, were born in that county, and also his great- 
 grandfather, who was killed by the Indians. John 
 Brush removed to Kentucky in November, 1806, and 
 settled in Shelby County, where his son remained 
 until 1824, when we find him in Bullitt County, 
 teaching a small country school. His parents were 
 prominent and zealous members of the Presbyterian 
 Church; and, although their son was distinguished 
 rather for his wildness than for any adaptation to the 
 pulpit, it was their earnest desire that he should be- 
 
 *N. H. Lee, D. D., in Minutes Louisville Conference.
 
 348 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 come a minister in their Church. With but little or 
 no inclination toward a religious life, he, however, 
 attended preaching at the church of his parents, oc- 
 casionally visiting a Baptist or a. Methodist meeting 
 when there was no preaching in their church. His 
 mother, although prejudiced against the Methodists, 
 was a woman whose piety was deep and uniform. 
 On one occasion she attended a Methodist camp- 
 meeting on a week-day, hardly thinking it proper for 
 a Christian woman to be found at such a place on the 
 Sabbath; and in an account of the meeting she gave 
 in her family she said : " Some of the people were 
 cooking, some talking, some coming, some going, and 
 quite a number about the stand, where they were 
 singing, praying, shouting, and, after awhile, preach- 
 ing;" and she added: "But the one we heard spoke 
 well', indeed, and seemed to be a good man, and well 
 acquainted with the Scriptures." 
 
 Young Brush had heard one or two local preach- 
 ers in the Methodist Church, under whose ministry 
 he had been made to feel uneasy; and under a ser- 
 mon preached by Dr. Clellaud he had been greatly 
 alarmed, and in the church cried aloud for mercy. 
 His religious impressions, however, were soon effaced, 
 and in the society of wild associates he drowned the 
 voice of conscience and forgot the teachings of child- 
 hood. The first traveling preacher with whom he 
 ever met was Benjamin T. Crouch, for whom he en- 
 tertained feelings of the highest regard. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1826 Richard D. Neale, dis- 
 tinguished for his zeal, was appointed to the Jeffer- 
 son Circuit, which included Bullitt County, in which
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 349 
 
 George W. Brush resided. Sociable in his disposi- 
 tion and courteous in his manner, the zealous preacher 
 soon won upon the affections of the young school- 
 master, who, through his instrumentality, was brought 
 into the Methodist Church and soundly converted to 
 God. Feeling that he was called to preach the Gos- 
 pel, he reluctantly yielded to his convictions, and on 
 the 6th of October, 1828, he was licensed to preach 
 by Marcus Liudsey, and at once entered the itiner- 
 ant ranks. 
 
 The appointment of George W. Brush to the 
 Shelbyville and Brick Chapel Station was unexpected 
 alike to the preacher and the congregation. The 
 Church, however, received him kindly, and in the 
 spirit of the Master he entered upon his work. He 
 reached his new field in due time, and preached at 
 eleven o'clock, on the first Sunday, at the Brick 
 Chapel, to a crowded audience, several of whom re- 
 sided in Shelbyville. At night his appointment was 
 in the town, and not only the Methodists, but the 
 members of other Churches, were present to give him 
 a welcome. The church was densely packed. The 
 good John Tevis was sitting in the pulpit, and the 
 pious William Atherton in the altar. A slender 
 young man, with a pleasant countenance, nearly six 
 feet high, weighing about one hundred and fifty 
 pounds, with grayish-blue eyes and jet-black hair, 
 entered the church and walked into the pulpit. It 
 was George W. Brush, the new preacher.* He read 
 his hymn, after which the congregation sang; he 
 
 *We resided in Shelbyville, and had just joined the 
 Church, and were present on this occasion.
 
 350 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 then prayed, and another hymn was read and sung. 
 " Therefore let no man glory in men : for all things 
 are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or 
 the world, or life, or death, or things present, or 
 things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; 
 and Christ is God's," was announced as the text. 
 The sermon was brief, delivered in a plain, conversa- 
 tional style. In it there was nothing great, accord- 
 ing to the estimation of the world ; there was no 
 rhetorical display, no burst of eloquence, no flash of 
 lightning, no peal of thunder ; it was the message of 
 life and salvation, delivered, not in " enticing words of 
 man's wisdom," but in the simplicity of Gospel truth. 
 If in the pulpit Mr. Brush made a favorable im- 
 pression upon the Church he was appointed to serve, 
 in his social intercourse he made friends in every 
 circle. Sociable in his disposition, and pleasant in his 
 intercourse with the community, he won the hearts 
 of the people in other communions as well as in his 
 own. As a preacher he was not considered great, yet 
 crowds waited upon his ministry, and each person left 
 the house of God, after hearing him, resolved to be 
 better than ever before. His preaching was peculiar. 
 No one preached as he did, and he copied from no 
 other person. Short, pointed, practical sermons, from 
 week to week, fell from his lips, and urged his con- 
 gregation to a better, a holier, and a higher life. 
 Under his ministry a Bible-class was formed, of which 
 he was the leader ; the Sunday-school prospered ; the 
 prayer-meetings were well attended ; the class-room 
 was crowded, and prospects for a revival were more 
 promising than they had been for many years. Every
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 351 
 
 body knew the preacher, and every body loved him. 
 He visited the homes of wealth and influence, and 
 was the companion of the poor and the humble ; his 
 prayers went up from every family altar, and from 
 the bedside of the sick and the dying. 
 
 The Winter was over; gentle Spring, with its 
 sunshine and flowers, came and passed away. On the 
 3d of June the third quarterly-meeting commenced. 
 The Church had been looking to this occasion with 
 prayerful interest. In the class-room the quarterly- 
 meeting was talked of, and prayers were offered for a 
 revival of the work of God. On the street members 
 of the Church conversed freely on the subject of re- 
 ligion, and not only expressed the hope that souls 
 would be converted during the meeting, but that 
 much good would be done. From the commence- 
 ment of the meeting the signs of the times were 
 favorable for a general outpouring of the Spirit upon 
 the people. The first night penitents were invited to 
 the altar, and several persons presented themselves 
 for the prayers of the Church, and two or three pro- 
 fessed faith in Christ. As the meeting progressed the 
 interest increased, and before a week had elapsed the 
 altar was crowded with persons anxiously inquiring 
 the way of life and salvation, and many had "passed 
 from death unto life." In the Western Christian Ad- 
 vocate of June 20th, a letter from the pastor of the 
 Church was published, dated June llth, in which he 
 says: "Our third quarterly-meeting commenced eight 
 days since, and we are holding it still. Fifty-eight 
 whites and twenty-eight colored joined ; fifty con- 
 verted ; meeting yet going on."
 
 352 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 As the meeting was protracted from day to day, 
 and from week to week, its influence permeated the 
 entire community, extending to every class of soci- 
 ety, awakening the young and the old, embracing 
 many heads of families men and women of influ- 
 ence and reaching to those who had hitherto been 
 impervious to the claims of religion.* Some who 
 up to this time had discarded Christianity altogether, 
 and were distinguished for their wickedness, recog- 
 nized the claims of religion, bowed to the scepter of 
 Christ, and became burning and shining lights in the 
 Church of God, while many remembered "their Cre- 
 ator in the days of their youth," some of whom are 
 yet living to adorn the profession they made.f 
 
 During the entire meeting commendable zeal was 
 displayed by the membership of the Church, who 
 contributed largely to its success. They visited and 
 conversed freely on the subject of religion with such 
 as were serious, and bore an active part in the exer- 
 cises of the altar. 
 
 The entire community was aroused, and not only 
 
 *The author's father and mother, also his uncle -Samuel 
 Wise Topping, by whose charity he was brought up and edu- 
 cated joined the Church at this time. 
 
 T During the progress of the meeting Mr. Brush met on the 
 street Thomas P. Wilson, an eminent lawyer and Judge of the 
 Circuit Court, and said to him, "Judge Wilson, what would 
 you think of me if I were to remain here a year, and say 
 nothing to you about saving your soul?" " I would regard you 
 as a very unfaithful preacher," was the reply. " What does 
 Mrs. Wilson think on this subject?" he then asked. " Call and 
 see her, and inquire for yourself," replied the judge. On the 
 Friday following this conversation Judge Wilson, with his wife 
 and son and sister-in-law, joined the Church.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGII. 353 
 
 the village, but the surrounding country, was in a 
 blaze. From the rural districts the people came sev- 
 eral miles to Church, and many who were prompted 
 to attend these meetings through curiosity became 
 awakened and returned to their homes " clothed and 
 in their right mind." Indeed, so great was the 
 influence excited that a holy atmosphere seemed to 
 surround the place of worship.* When the meet- 
 ing closed nearly two hundred persons had been 
 converted. f 
 
 While the Methodist Church in Shelbyville was 
 being so greatly blessed, other denominations of Chris- 
 tians received valuable accessions to their Churches. 
 
 The influence of this extraordinary revival did 
 not stop with the close of the meeting. Two months 
 later a camp-meeting was held at Cardwell's Camp- 
 ground, three miles east of Shelbyville, and in the 
 vicinity of the Brick Chapel. The meeting was one 
 of great power. On one occasion during its progress 
 the heavens became black with angry clouds, fierce 
 lightnings leaped along the sky, and thunder muttered 
 solemn peals. The audience retired to the tents. The 
 rain fell in torrents it was eleven o'clock in the 
 forenoon and at nightfall there was no abatement; 
 
 * A gentleman said to the author, several years after this 
 meeting, that when lie entered the church-yard, during its 
 progress, he felt a religious influence he could not express. 
 
 t A young man professed religion during this meeting, and 
 joined the Methodist Church. His uncle and guardian, who 
 was a prominent memher of the Campbellite Church, was dis- 
 satisfied with this step on the part of his nephew, and re- 
 quired him to withdraw from the Methodist Church and to join 
 the Campbellite Church. This compulsion unsettled him in his 
 religious character, and In- soon became :i wreck in his morals.
 
 354 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the stars were still concealed, and the elements ap- 
 peared to be engaged in angry strife. Peace and joy, 
 however, reigned within the tents. Preaching, ex- 
 hortation, singing, prayer, followed in quick succes- 
 sion ; cries for mercy rent the air ; shouts of con- 
 verted souls pierced the heavens; the Church partook 
 of the joy. On that memorable night about forty 
 souls were converted.* Nearly one hundred persons 
 professed religion at that camp-meeting. 
 
 From this period Mr. Brush took a high rank in 
 the conference. He was returned to Shelbyville in 
 1834, where his labors continued to be blessed. In 
 1835 he was sent to Maysville, where he witnessed a 
 gracious revival of religion. After remaining at Mays- 
 ville two years, he was appointed in 1837 to Brook 
 Street, in the city of Louisville. The city this year 
 was favored with the most extraordinary revivals of 
 religion. 
 
 Francis A. Dighton, of the Erie Conference, agent 
 for the American Bible Society, this year visited Louis- 
 ville. The duties of the agency which he had accepted, 
 and which he was faithfully prosecuting, brought Mr. 
 Dighton to the city of Louisville, where he was des- 
 tined to gather many stars to deck the crown of his 
 rejoicing. Consumption, that sure destroyer, had 
 fastened its fangs in his system, and he was rapidly 
 hastening to the grave. He had a message, however, 
 from God to mankind, and he was delivering it with 
 an energy and ardor to which his wasting strength 
 was not equal. Easy in his manners, agreeable in 
 
 * Among them the mother of the author, who had joined 
 the Church in June preceding, as a seeker of religion.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 355 
 
 
 
 conversation, eloquent in the pulpit, and fervent in 
 his work, he was beloved wherever known. 
 
 The ministry of Mr. Dighton in the city of Louis- 
 ville was confined to Fourth Street Church, where 
 Richard Tydings was stationed, and resulted in an 
 extraordinary revival of religion, in which more than 
 one hundred persons were happily converted. 
 
 Mr. Dighton had come to Louisville a stranger, 
 almost unknown ; he left the city with the blessing 
 of hundreds.* 
 
 The notes of triumph at Fourth Street had not 
 died away before the Brook Street Church, in the 
 same city, also experienced a revival, which had no 
 parallel in Louisville in the past. The meeting com- 
 menced about the first of January, under the minis- 
 try of George W. Brush, the pastor of the Church ; 
 and soon showed indications of a good work. After 
 it had been in progress for five weeks, without any 
 cessation, Mr. Brush writes : " There is now going 
 forward in the Methodist Church, on Brook Street, 
 one of the most powerful revivals of the work of God 
 that has ever been seen here. It is now five weeks 
 since it began, but for seven days past it has swept 
 all before it. The crowd is so great every evening 
 that few pretend to keep their seats, and unless the 
 mourners take their place in the altar before preach- 
 ing, it is fruitless to attempt making their way thither 
 after the crowd has convened. We regularly dismiss 
 the people at 10 o'clock, but they do not leave until 
 12 and 1 o'clock. We are unable to give the num- 
 
 * Mr. Dighton's health rapidly declined after he left Louis- 
 ville. He died December 2(>, 1838.
 
 356 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 i 
 
 her of converts; we kept count for awhile, but the 
 battle grew so warm that no one could tell who or 
 how many were blessed. There were mourners in ev- 
 ery part of the house. One hundred and twenty-seven 
 have given in their names to join the Church. A great 
 many perhaps seventy -five have been converted; 
 and yet, on last evening, more than sixty were at the 
 altar for prayer and instruction. Among all the con- 
 verts, we know of only three or four who did not join 
 the Church before they found the blessing. The char- 
 acter of those who have joined gives good ground to 
 hope that this will prove to have been a sound and 
 genuine work of God. We have had comparatively 
 but little preaching. The sermons preached have sel- 
 dom been more than thirty minutes long, and often 
 we exhort and call the mourners at once. The mem- 
 bers of the Church were a little slow at first to go 
 into the work ; but when once they made a break, 
 they threw their whole souls into it. Many of the sis- 
 ters, too, have been ' our helpers in Christ Jesus.' " * 
 
 The meeting was still in progress when the above 
 letter was written. The interest continued to increase, 
 reaching in its influence every portion of the city. 
 At a later period another letter is published, from 
 the pen of the pastor, announcing that two hundred 
 and twenty persons had joined the Church, and about 
 the same number had been converted to God.f The 
 meeting continued forty days, and before its close 
 four hundred persons joined the Church. 
 
 The year following Mr. Brush remained at Brook 
 
 * Western Christian Advocate, March 9, 1838. 
 t Western Christian Advocate, March 23, 1838.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 357 
 
 Street, where his ministry continued to be blessed. 
 In 1839 he was sent to Lexington, where he remained 
 two years. Although the same success did not crown 
 his labors as in Louisville, yet the Church enjoyed 
 some prosperity. After spending one year as agent 
 of the Preachers' Aid Society, in 1842 he was re- 
 turned to Louisville and stationed two years at Fourth 
 Street. These two years required great labor on the 
 part of the pastor; and while the Church enjoyed 
 revival seasons, the health of Mr. Brush became 
 so impaired that his removal from the city became a 
 necessity, hence we find him the following year on the 
 Middletown Circuit. In 1845 he is stationed in Lex- 
 ington, from whence we follow him to Millersburg, to 
 wGich he was returned the following year, with the 
 beautiful town of Paris attached. He next spent two 
 years in Frankfort, the capital of the State, where he 
 was useful. In 1850 we meet with him again at 
 Shelbyville, where he had won a brilliant victory, 
 and where he remains two years. From thence he 
 returns to Frankfort, but after one year he travels the 
 Taylorsville Circuit, then the Simpson ville, and is 
 then for one year agent for the Tract Society of Ken- 
 tucky Conference. In 1856 his appointment was 
 La Grange and Westport, and the next year he was 
 returned to Simpsonville. 
 
 In 1858 he was transferred to the Louisville Con- 
 ference, and after serving the Middletown Circuit two 
 years, in 1860 he was appointed principal of Jefferson 
 Female Academy, located in Middletown. In 1861 
 and 1862 he had charge of Eighth Street, in Louis- 
 ville, and the next two years of Walnut Street, and
 
 358 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in 1865 was at Shelby Street. He traveled Jefferson- 
 town Circuit from 1866 to 1868, when he was appointed 
 to the Louisville District as presiding, elder, where he 
 was continued until 1871. He then served success- 
 ively Owensboro, Henderson, Lebanon, and Jefferson- 
 ville Stations. His last effective work was as agent for 
 the Widows' and Orphans' Home. He was placed on 
 the superannuated list at the conference of 1880, and 
 died on the 13th of November after. 
 
 But few preachers in Kentucky were ever more 
 useful or more successful in winning souls to Christ 
 than. George W. Brush. From 1828 to 1880, a 
 period of fifty-two years, he was in the itinerant 
 ranks, fifty-one of which he was effective. During 
 this period success followed his labors, and under his 
 ministry thousands were converted and brought into 
 the Church. 
 
 As a preacher he was not great, measured by the 
 standard of the world, yet he was great in the beau- 
 tiful simplicity of his style, and in his close adher- 
 ence to the teachings of the Bible. His sermons were 
 practical, and led men to a better and higher life. 
 
 As a pastor he excelled, and in social life by the 
 suavity of his manners and his fine conversational 
 powers, he accomplished great good. 
 
 He was twice married. His first wife was Miss 
 Finley, of Jefferson County ; his second, Mrs. Mix, 
 of Louisville. 
 
 He was a member of the General Conference of 
 of 1844, 1846, and of 1850.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 359 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FROM THE SESSION OF THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE 
 
 OF 1850 TO THE GENERAL CONFER- 
 
 ENCE OF 1854. 
 
 B. BASCOM, a member of the Kentucky 
 Conference, had been elected to the office of 
 bishop in May, 1850. No minister in the Church 
 had ever been invested with episcopal prerogatives 
 who promised greater usefulness than did this distin- 
 guished preacher of the Gospel. . His career, however, 
 as a bishop, was brief. He presided over but one 
 conference the St. Louis. A short time after the 
 adjournment of that conference he arrived in Louis- 
 ville, on his way to his home in Lexington, quite ill. 
 He was the guest of the Rev. Dr. Stevenson. Unable 
 to proceed on his journey, he remained at the home 
 of his friend for several weeks, continually growing 
 worse, until the 8th Of September, when, in full hope 
 of eternal life, he breathed his last. 
 
 Not only the Methodist Church mourned the death 
 of Bishop Bascom, but the nation felt the loss. A 
 great man in Israel had fallen, but the bereavement 
 was felt nowhere as in Kentucky. The members of 
 the Kentucky Conference had associated with him in 
 closest fellowship and Christian intercourse. They 
 knew him bettor and loved him more than any other 
 section of the Church. For nearly twenty years he
 
 360 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 had been their leader, answering to the roll call, but 
 now his silver notes are heard no more. The brill- 
 iant Bascom is dead. 
 
 On the first morning of the session a resolution 
 was adopted providing for the appointment of a com- 
 mittee whose duty it should be to make arrangements 
 with the Committee on Public Worship " to have the 
 funeral of Bishop Bascom preached at some suitable 
 time during the session of the conference." At the 
 Louisville Conference, which had just adjourned, sim- 
 ilar action had been taken, and the task of preaching 
 the sermon had devolved on his colleague, Bishop 
 Andrew. He performed the same duty at the Ken- 
 tucky Conference. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Kavanaugh was returned to Scott 
 Street Church, Covington, where he had labored the 
 year before. 
 
 George W. Merritt, his old friend, was his near 
 neighbor, being stationed in Newport, where a gra- 
 cious revival crowned his labors. 
 
 George W. Merritt was born in Fincastle, Bote- 
 tourt County, Virginia, April 17, 1807. Losing his 
 parents when he was quite young, he was placed under 
 the care of an elder brother, who resided in Staunton, 
 Virginia, where he was brought up and educated. In 
 the Autumn of 1827 he came to Kentucky and settled 
 in Winchester. During the same year, under the 
 ministry of Henry McDaniel, a good and pure man, 
 he was awakened to his condition as a sinner, and 
 was received into the Church as a seeker of religion 
 by Milton Jamieson. A short time afterward he 
 found the Pearl of great price. He was soon impressed
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 361 
 
 with the conviction that it was his duty to proclaim 
 the tidings of a Redeemer's love to perishing sinners, 
 yet felt reluctant to enter upon so responsible a work. 
 In the meantime he removed to Lexington, where, in 
 1833, he was licensed to preach by William Gunn, at 
 that time the presiding elder on the Lexington Dis- 
 trict. In the Spring of 1834 he was employed by 
 William Adams, who succeeded Mr. Gunn as presid- 
 ing elder, to travel on the Madison Circuit, with 
 James Ward, until the next conference should meet. 
 He entered the Kentucky Conference in 1834, and 
 was re-appointed to the Madison Circuit with Will- 
 iam B. Landrum. His next appointment was to the 
 Shelby Circuit, as the colleague of Richard Holding. 
 In 1836 he was placed in charge of the Mount Ster- 
 ling Circuit, and of the Fleming Circuit in 1837. At 
 the conference of 1838 he was appointed to the Dan- 
 ville Circuit, with William D. Matting, who remained 
 in the work but a short time, when Mr. Merritt was 
 placed in charge, with Matthew N. Lasley, who was 
 transferred from Pulaski Coal Mines, as his colleague. 
 In 1839 he was sent to Cynthiana. In 1840 we find 
 him on the Paris Circuit, one of the most pleasant 
 charges in the conference, to which he was returned 
 the year following. He was stationed at Carrollton 
 in 1842, and in Louisville, at Eighth Street, in 
 1843-44. In 1845 he was sent to Middletown, and 
 in 1846 to Fourth Street, Louisville. In 1847 he was 
 sent to Logan Circuit with the scholarly A. A. Mor- 
 rison as his colleague, and the year following to 
 Middletown. In 1849 he was sent to Louisville Cir- 
 cuit, to which he was re-appointed in 1850, but im- 
 
 31
 
 362 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 mediately after conference was transferred to the 
 Kentucky Conference and stationed in Newport. His 
 subsequent appointments were: Maysville, Simpson- 
 ville, two years; Taylorsville, Simpsonville, Taylors- 
 ville, Harrodsburg District, one year ; JDanville, two 
 years; Lexington, second charge; Harrodsburg, Per- 
 ryville and White Chapel; Shelbyville District, one 
 year; Frankfort, two years; Harrodsburg District, 
 two years; Lexington District, three years; Floyds- 
 burg, then on Shelbyville District, two years; and 
 three years on the Lexington District, sinee which 
 time he has sustained a supernumerary relation. 
 
 From his entrance into the ministry Dr. Merritt 
 gave promise of great usefulness in the Church. His 
 presence commanding, and popular in his address, he 
 was well calculated to make friends in every circle in 
 which he was thrown. Believing himself to be di- 
 vinely called to preach the Gospel of Christ, he pros- 
 ecuted the work of the ministry with unswerving 
 fidelity and zeal, and was instrumental in the accom- 
 plishment of great good. Acceptable as a preacher, 
 and highly gifted in exhortation, his warm appeals 
 were listened to with interest, while many were per- 
 suaded to abandon a life of sin and turn to God. 
 There is not a community in which he has labored 
 but success crowned his efforts to do good, and many 
 will be the stars that shall deck the crown of his 
 rejoicing in the last day. 
 
 Nothing of special interest occurred during the 
 second year of Mr. Kavanaugh's ministry in Cov- 
 ington. 
 
 The memory of Bishop Bascom was still green in.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 363 
 
 the hearts of the conference with which he had passed 
 so many pleasant years. In testimony of their high 
 appreciation of his memory and labors the Kentucky 
 Conference, at the session of 1851, adopted a reso- 
 lution expressive of their desire that "a suitable 
 biography of the bishop should be written," and 
 respectfully requested Bishop Andrew to prepare it. 
 During his last illness Bishop Bascom had ex- 
 pressed the wish that if his life should be written the 
 task should be committed to his colleague. Whether 
 Bishop Andrew responded favorably to the action of 
 the conference we are not advised. It is certainly to 
 be regretted that he did not perform the work. No 
 biographer could have had a more commanding sub- 
 ject. The life and labors of such a man, sketched by 
 the masterly pencil of his gifted colleague, would 
 have made a volume of rare merit and interest that 
 would have found a place in thousands of homes, 
 crowding them with recollections of one of the great- 
 est and best men that ever lived. It would have 
 fired the hearts of young men to higher aims, as they 
 would look upon the young drayman, toiling in his 
 daily task on the wharf at Maysville for his bread and 
 for the support of his parents, and then behold him," 
 without educational advantages, only such as the 
 cabins of the poor, by the aid of the pine-knot light 
 afforded ; chaplain in the lower House of Congress, 
 in eloquence the peer of Henry Clay, rivaling in the 
 pulpit the gifted Summerfield, president of Madison 
 College, the professor of Moral Science and Belles-let- 
 tres in Augusta College, the chancellor of Transylva- 
 nia University, and then elevated to the highest office
 
 364 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 within the gift of the Church, to which he had devoted 
 his energies and his life. 
 
 The noble life of Bascom closed in the home of 
 Dr. Stevenson. 
 
 Edward Stevenson was the son of Thomas and Sa- 
 rah Stevenson, of whom we have already made men- 
 tion. He was born in Mason County, Kentucky, on 
 the 3d of October, 1797. Blessed with a mother re- 
 markable for her deep and ardent piety, his memory 
 could not date the period when he was first "con- 
 scious of his lost condition as a sinner, and his great 
 need of a Savior." The warning voice of mercy, how- 
 ever, was not heeded by him until he had reached the 
 fifteenth year of his age. About this time he made 
 a profession of religion, and became a member of the 
 Church. He at once felt that it was his duty to call 
 sinners to repentance, and before he attained to man- 
 hood he received license to- preach. His first sermon 
 was preached in his father's house, where a prayer- 
 meeting had been appointed, to which many persons 
 including several of his associates were attracted by 
 the recent conversion and earnest zeal of young Ste- 
 venson. " By a singular circumstance, all the mem- 
 bers of the Church accustomed to participate in prayer- 
 meetings were absent ; whereupon an irreligious man 
 importuned Edward to preach for them." The oc- 
 casion was an embarrassing one. The audience was 
 large, and among them were his father and mother. 
 Believing that duty demanded that the cross should 
 be borne, "he arose, took the Bible and hymn-book, 
 sang and prayed, and then announced his text: 'Pre- 
 pare to meet thy God ; ' and preached with power and
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 365 
 
 great success. Seven persons were converted that 
 night, some of whom became shining lights in the 
 Church." 
 
 From this period he was recognized as a leader in 
 the community. A young man of fine personal ap- 
 pearance, soundly converted to God, divinely called 
 to the work of the ministry, remarkable for his zeal, 
 brought up in the lap of Methodism, a sweet singer, 
 gifted in exhortation and prayer, and with a voice 
 soft and plaintive, he seemed destined to occupy a 
 prominent place among his brethren. 
 
 Useful as he was in the community in which he 
 had been brought up, feeling that his energies and 
 talents should be devoted exclusively to the great 
 work to which he was called, at the conference of 
 1820 he was admitted on trial, and appointed to the 
 Lexington Circuit, with Samuel Demint and Nathan- 
 ael Harris. In 1821 he was sent to the Greenbrier 
 Circuit, in the Kanawha District, and the following 
 year to the Bowling Green Circuit, with Henry 
 Gregg as his colleague. The Bowling Green Circuit 
 at this time included the counties of Warren and 
 Simpson. 
 
 We have already referred to the fine personal ap- 
 pearance of Mr. Stevenson. He was little less than 
 six feet in height, and well formed. His eyes and 
 hair were black, while the latter hung carelessly in 
 curls around his neck ; his step was quick and elastic ; 
 besides, he declined to adopt the costume of the early 
 Methodist pulpit his coat was a frock, of black cloth, 
 instead of the round-breasted style. In one portion 
 of his circuit exceptions were taken to his dress by
 
 366 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 some of the old ladies of the Church, and they kindly 
 remonstrated with the young preacher, and endeavored 
 to dissuade " him from following the fashions of the 
 world." Yielding to their wishes, he replied, " Very 
 well, make me a new suit to please yourselves, and I 
 will wear it " hardly expecting them to do so. But 
 in his new suit he soon appeared, in regard to which 
 he says : " In a short time I found myself the owner 
 of an entire Summer suit of blue twilled cotton, which 
 fitted me much like the clothes of an overgrown boy, 
 each article having the appearance of being made for 
 a man a size smaller. The coat was short-waisted, 
 rounding off from the throat to the narrowest possi- 
 ble of swallow-tails behind. The vest was likewise 
 short, and too small to button ; while the pants might 
 have had their length increased six inches without 
 being pronounced too long. A hat was also furnished 
 me, made of plaits of round rye-straws, in shape like 
 the stove-pipe of the present day, only higher, and 
 having no lining except four pieces of tape across it, 
 to prevent it slipping down over my ears." 
 
 Thus clothed, it was only necessary to destroy his 
 "sinful curls" to make him an acceptable preacher, 
 which was quickly performed by one of the circle, 
 "by cutting his hair exceedingly short on the top of 
 his head, and leaving it long around his face and 
 neck." 
 
 Appearing in this condition at his next appoint- 
 ment which was at a private house a kind sister 
 said to him, "Why, Brother Stevenson, who has ruined 
 
 your hair?" To which he replied, "I let Sister 
 
 cut it off." Seizing the scissors, she exclaimed, " For
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 367 
 
 mercy's sake, let me make it a little more endurable!" 
 and soon the last curl was gone.* 
 
 The appearance of the preacher was by no means 
 prepossessing. In this strange dress he started for a 
 camp-meeting, to be held in the Fountain Head Cir- 
 cuit. Reaching the camp-ground, he met "William 
 Peter, the preacher in charge, who, with cold formal- 
 ity, told him he might sleep in the preachers' tent, 
 and directed him to a brother who would provide for 
 his horse. His strange appearance produced an un- 
 favorable impression on the man to whom he was re- 
 ferred, and by whom he was tendered the use of a 
 stable, with instructions to take care of his horse him- 
 self. Time glided on, the last day of the week ar- 
 rived, and Mr. Stevenson had not been invited to 
 preach, nor pray, nor even to ask a blessing at any 
 table ; nor had a word of welcome fallen from the 
 lips of any one, either among the ministry or mem- 
 bership. Depressed in spirits, he resolved to leave 
 the ground. The unexpected appearance, however, of 
 Henry Grider and James Hines, from Bowling Green, 
 at this moment, prevented his leaving. A hasty in- 
 terview between Mr. Grider and the preacher in charge 
 of the meeting, induced the latter to invite Mr. Ste- 
 venson to occupy the stand. Declining, at first, in 
 consequence of previous neglect, his objections were 
 overruled; and yielding to the persuasions of his two 
 friends from Bowling Green, he consented to preach 
 on the following morning which was Sabbath at 9 
 o'clock. Before the hour arrived, he retired to the 
 silent grove to spend some time in secret prayer, where 
 
 - Manuscript Autobiography of Rev. E. Stevenson, I). D.
 
 368 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 he remained until the trumpet announced the time 
 for worship. Approaching the encampment, and look- 
 ing into the pulpit, he saw that it was occupied by 
 another preacher, about to open the service. Unable 
 to comprehend this new phase of affairs, he was ap- 
 proached by Mr. Peter, who pleasantly said to him, 
 " We have changed your hour for preaching from 9 
 to 11 o'clock, when the congregation will be largest." 
 Again retiring to the place of secret prayer, he 
 awaited, on his knees, the shrill sound of the trumpet 
 announcing once more the hour of worship. Pressing 
 through the crowd he ascended the stand, and looked 
 around for his brethren in the ministry, not one of 
 whom was to be seen. Hardy Cryer and James Gwin, 
 with William Peter, and others, were on the ground 
 somewhere, but were not visible, either to the preacher 
 or the audience. 
 
 The assembly was vast. The entire encampment 
 was filled with the immense multitudes that, from all 
 the surrounding country, had come to the place of 
 worship. The hymn was read in a feeble, tremulous 
 voice; and the prayer that followed was disjointed 
 and incoherent. The service proceeded, he announced 
 his text : " For we must all appear before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ." The introduction to the ser- 
 mon was dull, and the manner of the preacher con- 
 fused. Unable to collect his thoughts, he felt the 
 crimson mantling his cheeks ; and losing the powers 
 of articulation and of sight, he stood trembling, and 
 held to the desk for support. His embarrassment for 
 the moment/was overwhelming. Again he rallied, but 
 not in his own strength, but trusting in Him who had
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 369 
 
 said, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
 of the world;" and his spirit was unchained, his vis- 
 ion became clear, and his full and mellow voice sent 
 forth its rich and plaintive peals over the vast assem- 
 bly ; and " the power of the Holy One " accompanied 
 his truth. Peter, Cryer, and Gwin no longer lay con- 
 cealed, but coming out from their hiding-places sood 
 erect by the side of the young minister of Christ, en- 
 couraging him by the hearty amens they uttered. The 
 congregation, at first careless and sportive, arose to 
 their feet, while those in the rear crowded nearer to 
 the stand. The judgment, its certainty, necessity, and 
 the results that will follow the scenes of the last day, 
 were the points brought in review on that occasion. 
 His voice, rising with the intensity of his theme, was 
 ringing like the full blast of a trumpet through that 
 crowd of ten thousand hearers. As he spoke of the 
 agonies of the lost, and urged the sinner to flee the 
 impending storm, groans and cries and prayers for 
 mercy like the noise of many waters rent the air, 
 and made the place most terrible. Then changing 
 his theme, he spoke of the love, goodness, and mercy 
 of God, until his voice was lost amid the commingled 
 shrieks of the sinner and the triumphant shouts of the 
 redeemed. The service closed, and many dated their 
 conviction and conversion from that hour. During the 
 few remaining weeks he spent on the Bowling Green 
 Circuit the pleasure of the Lord prospered in his hands. 
 At the conference of 1823 he Avas appointed to the 
 Bowling Green and Russellville Station, a new charge 
 just formed. Russellville was regarded as a difficult 
 appointment to fill, and had hitherto yielded to a
 
 370 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 very limited extent to the claims of the Gospel. As 
 early as 1808 a small class had been organized on the 
 corner of Spring and Center Streets, and previous to 
 that period Methodist preachers had visited and 
 preached in the village ; but whatever influences had 
 been brought to bear upon the community, the Church 
 exhibited no signs of prosperity, and was able to main- 
 tain nothing more than a feeble existence. Mr. Ste- 
 venson received his appointment with feelings of re- 
 gret. Subject at times to deep mental depression, and 
 yielding on this occasion to its influence, his first im- 
 pulses were to decline the field assigned him, and re- 
 tire to the walks of private life. Unwilling, however, 
 to assume such a responsibility, he entered upon his 
 work, feeling his " insufficiency " for the duties that 
 lay before him, but earnestly seeking help from on 
 high. His first sermon in Russellville was tame, in- 
 sipid, and incoherent exhibiting none of that gush 
 of enthusiasm which distinguished his ministry in later 
 years. Retiring from the pulpit mortified and dis- 
 couraged, he resolved to quit the field, and sought an 
 interview with Bishop George, for the purpose of com- 
 municating to him his intentions. The bishop encour- 
 aged him to prosecute his work in the name of his 
 divine Master, and not to decide adversely to what 
 seemed an obvious duty until he had fully tested his 
 ability to meet the responsibility of the position. With 
 words of tenderness the good bishop raised the droop- 
 ing spirits of the young evangelist, and impressed him 
 with the conviction that he dared not abandon his 
 post, however great and numerous the difficulties that 
 might confront him.
 
 BISHOP KA \ r A NA UGH. 371 
 
 Greatly encouraged by the advice of Bishop 
 George, as well as by the manner in which it was 
 given, he resolved, with renewed effort, to re-enter 
 the field from which he had well-nigh been driven, 
 and with untiring energy to discharge the duties that 
 devolved upon him. "We accordingly find him in his 
 place at his next appointment, but with feelings en- 
 tirely different from those under which he had labored 
 two weeks before. Then he felt sad, gloomy, and 
 hopeless; but now he expected success. He had 
 spent much of the interval in " study, meditation, and 
 prayer," and, armed " with the whole armor of God," 
 he resolved that success should crown his labors. His 
 mission divine, he delivered his message as in the 
 light of eternity. Man's guilty condition as a sinner 
 exposed to the wrath of God, and the atonement of 
 Jesus Christ as the only hope of the world, were the 
 themes he discussed. Powerful in exhortation, he 
 enforced the truths he had so ably presented until 
 the assembly were bathed in tears, and ever and anon 
 cries for mercy fell from troubled hearts. The meet- 
 ing was protracted through several weeks, and many 
 souls were happily converted to God. 
 
 From this period Methodism became prominent 
 in Russellville, not only embracing within its com- 
 munion many of the most intelligent and influential 
 citizens, but giving tone and character to the religious 
 sentiments of other denominations. In 1824 Russell- 
 ville was detached from Bowling Green, and Mr. 
 Stevenson was appointed to the station, which con- 
 tinued to prosper under his ministry. 
 
 From this date he took rank with the ablest min-
 
 372 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 isters in the conference, and was appointed to the 
 most important stations in Kentucky. From Russell- 
 ville we trace him to Lexington; thence to Frank- 
 fort, the capital of the State; and from there to 
 Shelbyville and Brick Chapel, to Maysville, and after- 
 ward to Louisville remaining for two years in sev- 
 eral of these charges. Wherever he labored he won 
 a warm place in the affections of the Church, and 
 was eminently successful in winning souls to Christ. 
 A severe attack of sickness in midsummer, during 
 his second year in the city of Louisville, so prostrated 
 him that he was unable to receive an appointment at 
 the conference of 1833; but, restored to health by a 
 year's rest, we find him, in 1834, again on the effect- 
 ive roll, and stationed in Mount Sterling. During 
 his pastorate in this station he evinced an aptitude 
 for religious controversy that he had not previously 
 developed. 
 
 Among the most eminent ministers of that period, 
 Alexander Campbell was prominent. He was an Irish- 
 man by birth, but in the fifteenth year of his age re- 
 moved to Scotland the home of his ancestry where 
 he completed his education for the ministry in the 
 Presbyterian Church. When about twenty-two years 
 of age he emigrated to America, and was soon re- 
 garded as a young man of more than ordinary prom- 
 ise. A bold and fearless thinker, he became dissatis- 
 fied with the tenets of the Presbyterian Church, and, 
 withdrawing from its fellowship, he entered the Bap- 
 tist communion, in which he attained to eminence as 
 a preacher of the Gospel. Naturally restless, he be- 
 came dissatisfied with some of the views held by the
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 373 
 
 Baptist Church, and in August, 1823, in a debate in 
 Mason County, Ky., with the Rev. Mr. McCalla, of 
 the Presbyterian Church, openly avowed the doctrine 
 of " baptism for the remission of sins." * The Chris- 
 tian Baptist, a monthly pamphlet, was soon after is- 
 sued by him, in which the same doctrine was ear- 
 nestly advocated; and in 1830 he commenced the 
 publication of the Millennial Harbinger, another, pe- 
 riodical devoted to the propagation and defense of 
 the same heresy. 
 
 The advocacy of this doctrine rendered the sepa- 
 ration of Mr. Campbell from the Baptist Church a 
 necessity. Although he agreed with them in refer- 
 ence both to the subjects and mode of baptism, yet 
 the views held by each in regard to the design were 
 so different as to admit of no compromise. It was, 
 moreover, impossible for Mr. Campbell to enter any 
 other communion. Evangelical Christians every- 
 where revolted at a doctrine which they regarded as 
 an infringement on the plan of salvation. The re- 
 sult, therefore, was a separate organization,! styling 
 themselves "Christians," or "Reformers," but known 
 under the style and title of Campbellites. The Bap- 
 tist Church was stronger in Kentucky than any other 
 
 *In his debate with McCalla, p. 137, he says: "He ap- 
 pointed baptism to be to all who believe the record he has 
 given of his Son a formal pledge, on his part, of that believer's 
 personal acquittal or pardon, so expressive and so significant 
 that when the baptized believer comes up out of the water, 
 is born of water, enters the world a second time, he enters it 
 as innocent, as clean, as unspotted as an angel." 
 
 t Other preachers taught the same doctrine about this time, 
 among whom Barton AV. Stone was prominent.
 
 374 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 denomination. The first planted upon its soil, it had 
 permeated every section of the State. In its ministry 
 were men of influence and of learning; but under 
 the teachings of Mr. Campbell many of them turned 
 away from the doctrines in which they had rejoiced, 
 and openly disavowed their belief in the divine in- 
 fluence in the salvation of the sinner, in a divine cull 
 to the ministry, and taught, with him, that the sinner 
 can not be pardoned except in baptism. 
 
 The effect upon the Church of such a secession 
 among the ministry may easily be imagined. In every 
 portion of the State Churches became disrupted 
 fragments broke off and in some instances whole 
 congregations followed the fortunes of Campbellism; 
 and for a while the very existence of the Baptist 
 Church in Kentucky seemed imperiled. 
 
 Emboldened by their success, their leaders turned 
 their batteries against the other evangelical denom- 
 inations. 
 
 Methodism, from the commencement of this dan- 
 gerous heresy, had boldly denounced it. Coming in 
 contact, as it does, with one of the dearest doctrines 
 of the Church the agency of the Spirit in the salva- 
 tion of the sinner, both in his conviction for sin and 
 his conversion to God its fallacy was exposed in the 
 light of revealed truth. Threatening, as Campbell- 
 ism did, to overflow the State, the Methodist pulpit 
 aided in arresting its onward tide, and checked its 
 devastating progress. Names that are mentioned in 
 the history of Methodism in Kentucky became im- 
 mortal in this controversy, in the exposure of error 
 and the defense of truth.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 375 
 
 At the time when Mr. Stevensou was appointed 
 to Mount Sterling Campbellism was in the zenith 
 of its power. One of the ablest and most popular 
 evangelists of that Church, beneath whose fostering 
 care it was nurtured and had flourished, resided in 
 the village. Methodism, too, was influential in the 
 community, numbering two hundred white commu- 
 nicants. Hardly had Mr. Stevenson entered upon 
 his work until Mr. Campbell in person visited Mount 
 Sterling, and with an unsparing hand dealt his heav- 
 iest blows against the Methodist Church. The fields 
 of labor hitherto occupied by Mr. Stevenson had 
 been exempt from this controversy, and hence he had 
 not previously been called upon to participate in the 
 struggle. But now the scene was changed, and it 
 became his duty to defend the doctrines he had 
 taught. Mr. Campbell was regarded as the ablest 
 polemic in the West. Mr. Stevenson invited him to 
 a discussion of the several points at issue between 
 them, but Mr. Campbell could not spare the time to 
 debate. Unable to persuade Mr. Campbell to an 
 oral discussion, he entered his own pulpit, and with 
 a master hand exhibited the errors and deformities 
 of Campbellism with inexpressible effect ; and then, 
 with a power that language can not describe, he por- 
 trayed the plan of salvation, as revealed in the Holy 
 Scriptures, adapted, as it is, to the woes and wants of 
 a fallen world. Day after day, and night after night, 
 he followed up the charge, until complete victory 
 crowned his labors, and under his ministry many 
 were added to the Church. 
 
 From Mount Sterling he returned to Lexington,
 
 376 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and from there to Danville and Harrodsburg, remain- 
 ing in each station two years. 
 
 Having labored extensively in the northern and 
 central portions of the State, at the conference of 
 1839 he was removed to Southern Kentucky, and 
 stationed at Hopkinsville, and the following year at 
 Russellville, in both of which charges his ministry 
 was greatly blessed. In 1841 he was placed in charge 
 of Hopkinsville District on which he labored for 
 four years extending from Franklin to the mouth 
 of the Cumberland, and from Madisonville to the 
 Tennessee line. His uncompromising integrity, his 
 fervent piety, his burning zeal, his devotion to the 
 Church, and the clearness and force with which he 
 presented the plan of salvation, combined to qualify 
 him for the office of presiding elder. To him the 
 position was a new one, but full of interest. He was 
 in the full strength of manhood, with his hair slightly 
 interspersed with gray ; his voice was clear and mu- 
 sical. His entrance upon the work was hailed with 
 delight.* The prominent stations he had filled, to- 
 gether with the great success that had marked his 
 ministry, had not only won for him a cordial wel- 
 come, but had greatly animated the hopes of the 
 Church. Extraordinary energy distinguished his en- 
 trance upon this new charge, and with commendable 
 zeal he prosecuted his labors during the entire period 
 of his office. Like a flame of fire he passed through 
 
 *It was our good fortune to be associated with him the 
 first two years he traveled this district the first as junior 
 preacher on Elkton and Logan Circuit, the second in charge of 
 Logan Circuit.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 377 
 
 his extensive field, preaching with all the animation 
 of youth and the pathos of an apostle. If error had 
 to be combated, in his hands " the truth was mighty, 
 through God, to the pulling down of strongholds." 
 To sinners he showed the " exceeding sinfuluess of 
 sin ;" to the humble penitent, the cross and a forgiv- 
 ing Savior; and to the believer, the rewards of the 
 blessed. In the pulpit, in the altar, in the family cir- 
 cle, wherever his services were needed, he was ready 
 to work, and never seemed to grow weary. During 
 the four years there was a net increase of more than 
 eleven hundred members in his district. 
 
 From the Hopkinsville District we follow him to 
 the Brook Street Station, in the city of Louisville, 
 where he finished his work as a pastor, if we may 
 except a single year that he spent as the presiding 
 elder on the East Louisville District, to which he was 
 appointed in the Autumn of 1853, and which he filled 
 in connection with the agency of the Book Depository 
 in Louisville. At the General Conference of 1846 
 he was elected secretary of the Missionary Society, 
 and also assistant book agent positions he filled with 
 credit to himself and with honor to the Church. 
 
 At the expiration of his term as missionary sec- 
 retary, he was re-elected assistant book agent, and 
 placed in charge of the infant institution in the 
 West, located in Louisville. In 1854, when the 
 Southern Methodist Publishing House was located 
 by the General Conference in the city of Nashville, 
 Tennessee, he was elected as the principal agent. 
 Although he had spent the prime of his life in the 
 pastoral work, and consequently was not educated to 
 
 32
 
 378 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 habits of business, yet the prudence and success with 
 which, in connection with his associates, he conducted 
 this important interest of the Church, showed that, 
 in the choice they had made, the General Conference 
 committed no error. The only capital he had with 
 which to open the depository in Louisville was his 
 high reputation as a man of probity and his untiring 
 energy. With no other prestige, in an incredibly 
 brief period he established a prosperous trade ; and 
 when, in 1854, the publishing house was transferred 
 to Nashville, the house in Louisville contributed 
 largely to its capital. His management at Nashville 
 met with the hearty approval of the Church. Ever 
 true to the interest confided to his trust, he guarded 
 with anxious care the charge he had received. The 
 duties and responsibilities of this trying position were 
 more than equal to his waning strength. At the 
 General Conference of 1858 he requested his brethren 
 from Kentucky not to allow him to be nominated for 
 re-election, that he was no longer able to serve the 
 Church in that capacity. 
 
 Immediately after the General Conference, he was 
 offered the presidency of the Russellville Collegiate In- 
 stitute, which he accepted. He presided over this in- 
 stitution with great satisfaction to the Church and 
 the community in which it is located for nearly six 
 years, when he was released by death. 
 
 He was elected to the General Conference of 1836 
 and then again in 1844; he was also a member of the 
 convention which met in Louisville in 1845, and of 
 the General Conference of 1846, and of every Gen- 
 eral Conference from that time until his death. He
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 379 
 
 was twice married. Each wife was worthy the posi- 
 tion she was called to fill. The first died in Harrods- 
 burg, in 1839, in the triumphs of a victorious faith; 
 the second in Russellville, Kentucky, February 2, 
 1882. He died in Russellville, Kentucky, on the 
 6th of July, 1864. 
 
 In 1851 Mr. Kavanaugh was sent to Winchester 
 and Ebenezer, in Clarke County, the place of his 
 birth. The land upon which Ebenezer Church was 
 built was chiefly the gift of his grandfather, Dr. 
 Hinde, and the society at that point was organized 
 by his father. He had relatives, occupying the high- 
 est social position, scattered through the county, while 
 among the people he was a universal favorite. In- 
 deed, every thing seemed to combine to render this a 
 happy year. 
 
 In 1852 he was appointed to Versailles, a town 
 that, for beauty and culture, has but few rivals in the 
 State of Kentucky. When he traveled on the Lex- 
 ington Circuit, Versailles was an appointment in that 
 charge, and when presiding over Lexington District, 
 Versailles was included in that pleasant field of labor. 
 It was the home, too, of Mrs. Kavanaugh. Every body 
 knew him, and every body loved him. Not only was 
 he the favorite of his Church, but admiring hundreds, 
 not connected with any branch of the Church of 
 Christ, waited upon his ministry and heard the 
 Gospel from his lips. 
 
 It was while in this station that the Hon. Thomas 
 F. Marshall perpetrated on him a piece of pleasantry 
 that was a source of amusement to him as long as he 
 lived. He was going to market one morning, quite
 
 380 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 early, and passing a stable, he heard a groan, and 
 opening the door beheld Mr. Marshall just recovering 
 from the effects of an evening's dissipation, his clothes 
 and hair all covered with the hay on which he had 
 slept. Before the bishop had time to speak the ex- 
 member of Congress said to him, "Well, bishop, you 
 and I both resemble the Savior; you, in that you 
 have no form nor comeliness, and I in that I have 
 nowhere to lay my head." The bishop kindly invited 
 him to his house, and entertained him as long as he 
 would remain. 
 
 The session of the Kentucky Conference for 1853 
 was remarkably pleasant. It met in Versailles the 
 home of Mr. Kavanaugh and it was here that Bishop 
 Capers made a fruitless effort to rule him down while 
 he was addressing the conference. The feeble health 
 of the bishop made him restless and impatient, and 
 his habit was, when he thought a speaker had occu- 
 pied sufficient time, to invite him to sit down, which 
 in every instance had been obeyed. A question of 
 importance was before the body, and an exciting and 
 interesting discussion ensued. Mr. Kavanaugh had 
 the floor and was approaching the subject with meas- 
 ured step when the bishop interrupted him with the 
 demand, " Brother Kavanaugh, you will please take 
 your seat." 
 
 " I must respectfully decline," answered the speaker. 
 
 " But I tell you to sit down," said Bishop Capers. 
 
 "For what?" replied Mr. Kavanaugh. 
 
 "You have spoken long enough," was the answer. 
 
 "I prefer to be the judge of that myself," was 
 Mr. Kavauaugh's prompt reply.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 381 
 
 "I command you to take your seat/' said the 
 bishop. 
 
 "Am I out of order ?" asked the speaker. 
 
 The bishop quite excitedly said : 
 
 " Nobody said you were out of order/' 
 
 "Then/' calmly answered Mr. Kavanaugh, with a 
 pleasant smile, " I will not sit down until I finish 
 what I intended to say." 
 
 "Then," replied Bishop Capers, "you will pro- 
 ceed and hurry through, for it will soon be time for 
 dinner." 
 
 " I am not in the habit of hurrying," said Mr. 
 Kavanaugh, "and do not propose to do so now." 
 
 Bishop Capers was conquered, and with a smile on 
 his benignant face said: 
 
 "Well, take your time, Brother Kavanaugh." 
 
 "That is what I was doing," said Mr. Kavan- 
 augh, "but you have taken so much of it that I do 
 not know where I left off, so I must commence again 
 at the beginning." 
 
 The bishop did not venture on a further inter- 
 ruption. 
 
 The General Conference for 1854 was to be hold 
 in Columbus, Georgia. The delegates elected from 
 the Kentucky Conference were H. H. Kavanaugh, T. 
 N. Ralston, J. C. Harrison, L. D. Huston, W. M. 
 Grubbs, and B. T. Crouch. 
 
 The reserves were J. G. Bruce and Carlisle Babbitt. 
 
 At this conference Mr. Kavanaugh received his 
 last appointment in the Kentucky Conference. He 
 was returned to Versailles.
 
 382 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1854 TO THE 
 GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1858. 
 
 LATE in April, 1854, quite a number of the del- 
 egates from the Kentucky and Louisville Con- 
 ferences to the General Conference, to meet in 
 Columbus, Ga., met by previous arrangement in the 
 city of Louisville, and embarked on a New Orleans 
 steamer for Southland, en route for Columbus, Ga. 
 At Smithland we exchanged boats, taking a small 
 stern-wheel boat, poorly officered, plying between 
 Smithlaud and Nashville. 
 
 We reached the City of Rocks, after being out 
 from Smithland about sixty hours, living on hard- 
 tack. We only had time to transfer our baggage and 
 ourselves to the Chattanooga Depot before the hour 
 for the departure of the train. 
 
 Previous to leaving Kentucky the subject of the 
 election of bishops, involving not only the number to 
 be elected, but the persons on whom this distinguished 
 honor might be conferred, was frequently canvassed 
 by both preachers and people, while between the del- 
 egates, on their way to Columbus, there was a free 
 interchange of sentiments. 
 
 There was no division of opinion as to the single 
 point that one of the" new bishops ought to be chosen 
 from the Border, and that if Kentucky had a preacher
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 383 
 
 who could be elected the delegations from the two 
 conferences, the Kentucky and Louisville, ought to 
 contribute as far as practicable to his election. 
 
 We reached Columbus in due time. 
 
 The session was opened on the 1st day of May, 
 Bishop Soule in the chair. 
 
 Upon reaching Columbus, it was quite perceptible 
 that the attention of other members of the General 
 Conference, besides those of the Kentucky and Lou- 
 isville Conferences, was fixed on Mr. Kavanaugh as a 
 suitable person to fill the office of bishop in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, South. 
 
 Several days previous to the election, when he was 
 advised that it was the wish of his brethren from 
 Kentucky to place him before the Church as their 
 choice, while expressing his pleasure at the high con- 
 fidence indicated by this preference, he courteously 
 declined their proffered assistance, and assured them 
 that he could not consent to his name coming before 
 the Church in any such connection ; that he knew him- 
 self better than they knew him, and was too well 
 aware of his want of qualification for such a respon- 
 sibility, even if his election was possible which he 
 did not believe to entertain the question for a mo- 
 ment; and he begged them to dismiss the subject 
 from their thoughts. Their resolution, however, was 
 fixed, and the greater his demurrer the more deter- 
 mined their purpose to adhere to him as their choice. 
 
 In the midst of their anxiety, he was appointed to 
 preach. The evening was exceedingly sultry. He 
 was serving on the Committee on the Book Concern, 
 and n afternoon of close work had been performed ;
 
 384 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and he left the committee-room much fatigued. The 
 congregation was large, the majority of the members 
 of the General Conference being present. He walked 
 into the church and down the aisle in rather a slug- 
 gish manner, and ascended the pulpit at no rapid 
 gait. After the introductory services he announced 
 his text, and, entering upon the investigation of his 
 subject, it soon became apparent to those who knew 
 him that his mind had refused to perform its task. 
 He divided his subject into three parts, and, after 
 spending fully an hour upon the first proposition, he 
 proceeded to the investigation of the second, handling 
 the laboring oar with great difficulty. Finding him- 
 self unable to proceed, wandering in every direction, 
 at the close of half an hour he closed the sermon his 
 brethren mortified, and the audience disappointed. 
 
 We had heard him fail on former occasions, but 
 never so signally as on that memorable evening; nor 
 was it difficult for any one to realize that he fell be- 
 low the standard where his reputation placed him. 
 Unsatisfactory as was his effort, it nevertheless con- 
 tained much that could have emanated only from a 
 masterly intellect. 
 
 The General Conference decided to elect three 
 additional bishops; and Friday, the 19th of May, 
 was fixed as the time when the election should take 
 place. George Foster Pierce, of Georgia; John 
 Early, of Virginia; and Hubbard Hinde Kavanaugh, 
 of Kentucky, were elected. 
 
 George Foster Pierce is among the brightest lights 
 of the American pulpit. He was born in Greene 
 County, Georgia, February 3, 1811. His father^ the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 385 
 
 Rev. Lovick Pierce, was at that time the presiding 
 elder on the Oconee District, South Carolina Confer- 
 ence. He not only impressed upon the mind and 
 heart of his son the importance of religious truth, but 
 made him familiar from early childhood with the 
 doctrines and polity of the Methodist Church as laid 
 down in the Book of Discipline. 
 
 In 1826, when only fifteen years of age, in Athens, 
 Georgia, he joined the Church around whose altars he 
 had been brought up, and on the fifth of October of 
 that year he was soundly converted to God. 
 
 In March, 1830, then nineteen years of age, he 
 was licensed to preach in Eatonton, Georgia, by the 
 Rev. William Arnold. 
 
 He was the grandson of George Foster, an excel- 
 lent citizen of Georgia, and the nephew of the Hon. 
 Thomas F. Foster, one of the most eminent lawyers in 
 the State. 
 
 At the age of eighteen he graduated with honor at 
 Franklin College, Georgia, and at once entered the 
 office of his distinguished uncle with the purpose of 
 studying law; but the conviction upon his mind that 
 it was his duty to bear the standard of the cross to 
 the perishing sons and daughters of sin induced him 
 to turn aside from a profession that offered him wealth 
 and fame, and in 1831 we find his name enrolled 
 among the preachers of the Georgia Conference. His 
 first appointment was to the Alcovi Circuit, in the 
 Milledgeville District, as the colleague of Jeremiah' 
 Freeman, and in 1832 we find him in the elegant 
 city of Augusta, as the junior preacher with James 
 O. Andrew, who was that year elected bishop, thus 
 
 33
 
 386 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 leaving his young colleague in charge of the station. 
 The following year the city of Savannah was the field 
 of his conflicts and triumphs. 
 
 In 1834 he was transferred to the South Carolina 
 Conference, and with W. M. Kennedy and C.- "W. 
 Martin was stationed in the city of Charleston. He 
 remained there but a single year, when he returned 
 to Georgia and was again appointed to Augusta, while 
 his gifted father had charge of the district as presid- 
 ing elder. 
 
 In 1836 he became the leader of the hosts on the 
 Augusta District, where for two years he carried the 
 tidings of a Redeemer's love to the homes of the rich 
 and to the cabins of the poor, to the master and the 
 slave, having associated with him in this blessed 
 work such men as AVilliam P. Arnold, "Whiteford 
 Smith, John P. Duncan, Isaac Boring, and Walter 
 P. Branham. 
 
 At the conference of 1838 he was placed in charge 
 of Georgia Female College as its president, over 
 which for two years he presided with distinguished 
 honor to himself and with blessing to the Church. 
 In 1840, to place this institution upon a firmer foun- 
 dation, he retired from the presidency and became 
 the agent. 
 
 Devoted to the pastoral work, in 1841 he had 
 charge of the Church in Macon, and the two years 
 following in his much-loved Augusta. In 1845 and 
 .1846 he was the presiding elder on the Augusta Dis- 
 trict, from which, in 1847, he retired, and was sta- 
 tioned in Columbus. The following year he became 
 the president of Emory College, located at Oxford,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 387 
 
 Georgia, over which he continued to preside until the 
 General Conference of 1854, when he was elevated to 
 the episcopal office, receiving his consecration at the 
 same altar where, a few years before he had minis- 
 tered as a pastor. 
 
 Since the organization of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church in the United States no man had been elected 
 a bishop who brought to the office talents of a higher 
 order or more varied for the responsible duties of 
 this position than George Foster Pierce. 
 
 From the time he entered the ministry he gave 
 great promise of usefulness. Whether upon the Alcovi 
 Circuit, where he won his earliest trophies for his 
 Master, or in the cities of Augusta, Charleston, and 
 Macon, where to listening hundreds he broke the 
 bread of life, or whether on the Augusta District, 
 where thousands hung in rapt silence on his lips, or 
 in the cabins of the negro or in the city of Columbus, 
 where he gathered his latest laurels as a pastor, or as 
 president of the Female College at Macon, or at 
 Emory College at Oxford, everywhere he made full 
 proof of his ministry and won souls to Christ. 
 
 In 1840 he made his first appearance in a General 
 Conference and served on the Committee on Cente- 
 nary Subscriptions. The session was held in Balti- 
 more, where, by his great modesty, no less than by 
 his extraordinary talents, he won golden opinions. 
 
 In 1844 he was again elected to the General Con- 
 ference, and, although bnly thirty-three years of age, 
 was the leader of the delegation, although that dele- 
 gation was composed of such men as William J. Parks, 
 Lovick Pierce, J. W. Glenn, James E. Evans, and
 
 388 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 A. B. Longstreet. The session Avas a protracted one, 
 and resulted in the disruption of the Church. His 
 speech on that occasion, in the case of Bishop Andrew, 
 whom he had known and loved from his childhood, 
 and whose colleague he had been in his youth, for 
 purity of thought and for richness and beauty of style, 
 delivered with all the force and power of the true 
 orator, has perhaps never been excelled. 
 
 From that moment he became known not only to 
 the Church, but to the country at large, as one of the 
 first orators, as well as one of the ablest divines, upon 
 the American continent. 
 
 It was during the session of this General Confer- 
 ence that the anniversary of the American Bible 
 Society was held in the city of New York. The 
 place of its meeting was Rev. Dr. Springer's Church, 
 known as the Broadway Tabernacle. The speakers 
 on the occasion were the most distinguished clergy- 
 men and laymen in the North. Boston, New Haven, 
 and Philadelphia were represented. Among the lay- 
 men who bore a prominent part on that occasion was 
 Theodore Frelinghuysen, then before the people of the 
 United States, an aspirant to the office of Vice-presi- 
 dent. Under the eloquent and thrilling speeches the 
 crowded audience had been wrought up to a state of 
 feeling beyond which it seemed impossible they could 
 be carried. Mr. Pierce was the youngest speaker, 
 and his speech would close the exercises of the even- 
 ing. His youthful appearance and his slender form, 
 together with the task of following the distinguished 
 speakers who had preceded him, at once won upon 
 the sympathy of the vast audience. But when they
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 389 
 
 listened for a few moments to his soft and pleasant 
 voice, whose dulcet strains in his own sunny land had 
 so often held thousands in rapt attention, and heard 
 words of burning eloquence such as they had never 
 heard before, every face became damp with tears, and 
 every heart was thrilled with joy. " For one hour," 
 said the eloquent Bascom to a friehd, "he held over 
 that polished and refined audience a control such as I 
 had never witnessed anywhere before." His vener- 
 able father was present, and was asked at the conclu- 
 sion by Mr. Kavanaugh if he had ever heard the like 
 before, to which he replied, "Yes; I hear George 
 frequently" 
 
 It was at the Louisville convention where we first 
 saw Mr. Pierce. Indeed, we had been so charmed 
 from what we had read of him and heard from Dr. 
 Bascom and others, that our anxiety to attend the con- 
 vention was more to see and hear him than for any 
 other purpose. We were present at every speech he 
 delivered, and on each occasion when he preached. We 
 will not forget while we live his earnest appeal to the 
 convention to protect the South from the encroach- 
 ments of fanaticism, when he said, " I beseech you to 
 interpose no let or barrier that will hinder me from 
 kneeling by the bedside of the dying negro, that I 
 may point his fading eyes to the land of immortality 
 and to his home beyond the grave." Nor will we ever 
 forget his sermon in Shelby Street Church, on taking 
 up and bearing the cross, preached during his stay in 
 Louisville. 
 
 As a bishop for thirty years he has been before 
 the Church in labors abundant, traveling extensively,
 
 390 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 not only through all the territory of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, but often into the Northern 
 States, everywhere proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, 
 offering hope to the despairing, salvation to the lost, 
 and life to the dead. 
 
 We have heard him preach often, and on occasions 
 of every kind. We have heard him when his voice 
 was persuasive and soft as the evening zephyr, touch- 
 ing the tenderest sympathies, and almost impercepti- 
 bly compelling resolutions to a better life. We have 
 heard him, too, when, as bends the forest before the 
 storm, so sinners fell before the mighty truths he 
 spoke. We have heard him tell of the agonies of the 
 lost until their wailings seemed to fall upon our ears, 
 and have listened to his descriptions of the forever 
 blessed until we could almost feel the soft brush of 
 angels' wings, and hear the songs of the redeemed and 
 saved. 
 
 He is a faithful preacher. The sermon he preached 
 in the exposition building in Nashville, in May, 1875, 
 will not soon be forgotten by those who heard him. 
 Messrs. Whittle and Bliss had for several weeks held 
 religious service, and while they exalted faith, they 
 entirely ignored repentance, as well as the doctrine of 
 Christian assurance. It was Sunday evening, and the 
 weather inclement. The announcement that Bishop 
 Pierce would preach brought together a large aud- 
 ience. He was aware that the Gospel had been but 
 partially taught during the meeting, and "in thoughts 
 that breathe and words that burn" he brought to the 
 front these cardinal truths of the Word of God, and im- 
 bedded them into the minds and hearts of his hearers.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 391 
 
 There are, however, occasions, when worn down 
 with protracted pulpit labor, he fails to meet the ex- 
 pectations of his hearers. An instance of this kind 
 once occurred in Arkansas. Accompanied by his lit- 
 tle, grandson, a lad of perhaps twelve Summers, he 
 was traveling through that State, and preaching to 
 delighted audiences. In a small village, he had 
 preached with less than his usual power. Returning 
 from Church, a couple of gentlemen animadverted 
 freely on the preacher and the sermon. 
 
 "He is not the eloquent preacher I had hoped to 
 hear," said one of them. " Nor did he come up to 
 my expectations," replied the other. 
 
 His little grandson had fallen some distance be- 
 hind the bishop, and overheard what he regarded as 
 unjust criticisms, and unable to restrain his indigna- 
 tion, replied : " Grandpa does not always do his best 
 in .these one-horse towns." The gentlemen accepted 
 the situation, and said nothing more. 
 
 He has entered life's " sere and yellow leaf," and 
 although the rose is fading from his cheek, yet his 
 eye kindles with the same luster; while the same elo- 
 quent and burning words, inspired by the same holy 
 zeal, that fell from his lips in the long ago, still kin- 
 dle new rapture in the hearts of admiring thousands 
 who are favored with his ministry. 
 
 "John Early was born in Bedford County, Vir- 
 ginia, January 1, 1786, and died in the city of Lynch- 
 burg, Virginia, on the morning of November 5, 1873; 
 aged eighty-seven years, ten months, and four days. 
 He was converted April 22, 1804, under the ministry 
 of the Rev. Stith Mead. His parents were Baptists,
 
 392 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 but he united with the Methodists, and gave early 
 promise of his devotion to the Master's cause. ' In 
 1806 he was licensed to preach. Among those who 
 received the benefit of his first labors were the slaves 
 of President Jefferson. He began his ministry by 
 preaching the Gospel to the poor, and doing the duty 
 that lay next to him.' 
 
 " After a few rounds on the Bedford Circuit, under 
 the direction of the presiding elder, he was recom- 
 mended for the work of the itinerant ministry and 
 admitted on trial into the Virginia Conference, Feb- 
 ruary, 1807. The conference embraced at that time 
 a large portion of the State of North Carolina, and 
 its session was held in New Berne. Then and there, 
 with sixteen other young men, John Early was en- 
 rolled as a Methodist itinerant preacher. In 1809 he 
 was admitted into full connection into the conference 
 and ordained deacon ; after two years farther proba- 
 tion he was ordained elder. His appointments were: 
 1807, Cumberland Circuit, Richmond District, Archi- 
 bald Alexander, John Early; 1808, Camden Circuit, 
 Norfolk District, Benjamin Devany, John Early; 
 1809, Tar River Circuit, New Berne District; 1810, 
 Caswell Circuit, Raleigh District; 1811-12, Greens- 
 ville Circuit, Meherrin District. In each of the last 
 four appointments there were also two preachers, but 
 John Early 's name stands first, showing that from the 
 date of his deaconate he was put in charge of work. 
 
 " Bishop Asbury and Bishop McKendree perceived 
 his administrative ability, and in 1813-14 he appears 
 on the Minutes as presiding elder of the Meherrin 
 District, reaching from Richmond to Lynchburg.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 393 
 
 " In 1815 he located a step not uncommon in that 
 day, whenever the care of a family came upon the 
 preacher, and one necessitated by the inadequate sup- 
 port furnished by the Church. 
 
 " In 1821, however, he reappears as presiding elder 
 of his old district, and continued such for three years. 
 In this field of labor his zeal flamed out afresh, and 
 was crowned with abundant fruits. Great and gra- 
 cious revivals succeeded each other on the various cir- 
 cuits, and hundreds of souls were converted. He 
 describes it as ' a time of unction generally.' He was 
 ' like a general with his eye on the whole field, and 
 pushing the battle all along the line/ He not only 
 wrought himself, but he energized other workers. 
 He formed five branches of the Missionary Society, 
 and projected four others, thus kindling the mission- 
 ary spirit throughout his district. As a revelation of 
 his own interest in and appreciation of the missionary 
 work, we quote the following from his own language 
 of that period : ' Cold is the heart that takes no in- 
 terest in the missionary cause, especially if it be found 
 among the prophets. Let my right hand forget its 
 cunning if I forget thee, O Jerusalem ! Let my 
 tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer 
 not Jerusalem above my chief joy.' These words from 
 his own pen reveal his spirit, and furnish the clew to 
 his after zeal and wonderful success in the work of 
 the ministry. 
 
 "On the Greensville Circuit he received five hun- 
 dred members into the Church, and at the ever-mem- 
 orable camp-meeting held at Prospect, in Prince Ed- 
 ward County, Virginia, it is said one thousand persons
 
 394 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 were converted. Weeras, in his 'Life of Washington/ 
 and who was present at the camp-meeting, makes 
 special mention of its extraordinary power. 
 
 "From 1824 to 1826, inclusive, he was conference 
 missionary; in 1827 one of three preachers on Bed- 
 ford Circuit, and in 1828 he was left without appoint- 
 ment, at his own request. From 1829 to 1832 he was 
 again at work as presiding elder. From 1833 to 1840, 
 inclusive, he was agent for Randolph Macon College. 
 He was one of a committee, in 1825, who drew up a 
 report on education, out of which the college grew. 
 He was for many years the president of its board of 
 trustees. 
 
 " From 1841 to 1846 he again appears as presid- 
 ing elder on the Lyuchbtirg and Petersburg Districts. 
 This brought him down to the first General Confer- 
 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held 
 in Petersburg in 1846. 
 
 " In 1812, six years after his entrance into this 
 conference, he was sent as one of eleven delegates to 
 the first delegated General Conference, which con- 
 vened in the city of New York. He was a member 
 of the General Conferences of 1828-32-36-40-44. 
 To his practical wisdom we owe what has been aptly 
 termed * those time-saving and convenient institu- 
 tions ' standing committees. 
 
 "The first General Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, which convened in Peters- 
 burg in 1846, resolved to enterprise a book agency. 
 The Northern Book Concern not having paid us our 
 share, we were without money to start it. The de- 
 mands of the Church for our publications, however,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 395 
 
 required the enterprise, and its inauguration required 
 a man of superior tact, judgment, and capacity. At- 
 tention was at once directed to the Rev. John Early 
 as the man needed, and he was accordingly elected. 
 He opened his office in Richmond, and carried on the 
 work successfully until 1854, when the Publishing 
 House was established in Nashville. From this agency 
 he passed into the episcopacy." 
 
 Such were the men who were elevated to the epis- 
 copal office at the same time with Mr. Kavanaugh, 
 who was not the inferior of either of his distinguished 
 colleagues. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 25th of May, the- ordination took 
 place. George F. Pierce was presented by his father, 
 Dr. Lovick Pierce; John Early, by Dr. William Wi- 
 nans ; and Hubbard H. Kavanaugh, by Dr. Edward 
 Stevenson. 
 
 On the Sunday following the election of Mr. 
 Kavanaugh he preached the second time in Colum- 
 bus. The audience was large, attracted to the place 
 of worship by the fame of the preacher. From the 
 commencement to the close of the sermon the newly 
 elected bishop was at ease. His text was Romans 
 vi, 23: " For the wages of sin is death; but the gift 
 of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our 
 Lord." We had never seen him' more at ease than 
 on this occasion. When he spoke of "death" eter- 
 nal, the regions of the damned seemed exposed, and, 
 standing on the fire-crested .battlements of hell, he 
 pointed to the burning lake, in which the lost were 
 writhing in agony and woe. Then, when he told of 
 the " gift of God," eternal life, the gates of heaven
 
 396 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 appeared to open, and all its glories unfolding, while 
 in our imagination songs of triumph falling from the 
 lips of the redeemed filled the house with sweetest 
 melody, and an inspiration akin to that blessed world 
 thrilled every heart. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Dibrell, of Virginia, was sitting by our 
 side; and ever and anon, as the preacher ascended 
 higher and higher, he would touch us and ask, " Can 
 he do that again?" 
 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh had accompanied her husband to 
 Columbus, and several weeks elapsed before his re- 
 turn to his home. 
 
 In Kentucky his election was hailed with glad- 
 ness. It found an echo, not only in the Church of 
 which he was a member, but among all denomina- 
 tions of Christian people, while the secular press 
 throughout the State expressed the gratification of 
 those who had known him long and well. 
 
 The Western Recorder, a Baptist paper, said of him : 
 
 "This able and eloquent Methodist minister, so 
 well known and so much beloved and admired in 
 Kentucky, has been elected and consecrated bishop in 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. If such an 
 office can be filled with divine acceptance, and for the 
 advancement of vital godliness, we confidently predict 
 it will be so filled by Bishop Kavanaugh. 
 
 " We have been accustomed to hear him preach 
 from our boyhood; and few men have we ever heard 
 with so much pleasure and profit. We have always 
 regarded him as the strongest man in the Methodist 
 pulpit in Kentucky, not excepting Bishop Bascom, 
 who, out of the pulpit, as an orator sui generis, we
 
 BISHOP K A VAN AUGH. 397 
 
 admire above all men we ever heard or whose ora- 
 tions we ever read. Bishop Kavanaugh is a Gospel 
 preacher. Christ and his cross are prominent in all 
 his sermons. He is a man of less sectarian bigotry 
 than most of his brethren; indeed, he is always kind 
 and courteous in his intercourse with ministers and 
 individuals of other persuasions. He will elevate and 
 adorn his new office." 
 
 On his return to Kentucky he was greeted every- 
 where with a cordiality that would have taxed the 
 modesty of any sensitive man. 
 
 In the plan of episcopal visitation there were four 
 conferences assigned Bishop Kavanaugh the Mis- 
 souri, St. Louis, Indian Mission, and Wachita. 
 
 The Missouri Conference, the first he attended, 
 was to be held in Brunswick, Mo. the time, Octo- 
 ber llth. On his way to Brunswick he stopped in 
 St. Louis, with his brother, Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, 
 where he spent a week, preaching several times dur- 
 ing his stay. He was in the maturity of his man- 
 hood, full of life, full of health, full of the Holy 
 Ghost and power. Many persons called to see him, 
 and all left charmed with his fine social qualities and 
 extraordinary gifts. 
 
 He reached Brunswick in good time. Presiding 
 over an annual conference was to him something new, 
 and not without its embarrassments. He, however, 
 performed the duties of chairman, if not always as a 
 strict parliamentarian, yet with a reference to what 
 was right. 
 
 In the stationing room he was distinguished for 
 his tenderness, and had a proper regard, on one hand,
 
 398 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for the wants and demands of the Churcn, and, on 
 the other, for the preachers and their families. 
 
 After the close of the conference the St. Louis 
 Christian Advocate said of him : " This was Bishop 
 Kavanaugh's first conference. He acquitted himself 
 with credit to the Church and great satisfaction to 
 the conference. His pulpit labors were particularly 
 happy and successful ; while as a Christian gentle- 
 man, a faithful preacher of the Gospel, and a presid- 
 ing officer, he left the odor of a good name." 
 
 The St. Louis .Conference was held in Jefferson 
 City, commencing October 25th, where both the 
 preachers and the people were delighted with him. 
 
 From Jefferson City he went to the Cherokee 
 Nation, to attend the Indian Mission Conference, to 
 be held at Riley's Chapel, November 16th. All along 
 the route he preached to the people, leaving behind 
 him everywhere an impression for good ; and from 
 thence to the Wachita Conference, December 6th, at 
 "Washington, Ark., receiving at each place the unqual- 
 ified indorsement of his brethren. 
 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh accompanied him on this episco- 
 pal tour ; and by the suavity of her manners, her fine 
 conversational powers, and her love and zeal for the 
 Church, contributed much to the success of her 
 husband. 
 
 He had hitherto been confined in his ministerial 
 labors to a circumscribed field, but now his parish is 
 only bounded by the limits of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, South, extending from the Chesapeake 
 Bay to the city of. San Francisco, and from the or- 
 ange groves of Florida to the snow-capped mountains
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 399 
 
 of Montana. His childhood, his youth, his early and 
 mature manhood, together with his labors, whether in 
 rural places or in cities or as presiding elder, have 
 already passed in review before us. He has been 
 elevated to the highest office within the gift of 
 the Church, and whether he will meet the demands 
 and- expectations of his brethren is yet to be deter- 
 mined. 
 
 He has entered upon his episcopal work, and the 
 annual conferences he has attended plainly indicate 
 that no mistake was made in the preference expressed 
 by the General Conference. 
 
 In 1855 he was assigned to the Tennessee, Mem- 
 phis, Mississippi, and Louisiana Conferences. 
 
 In this tour Bishop Soule was associated with him, 
 although unable to perform episcopal labor. 
 
 The Tennessee Conference met in the city of Nash- 
 ville October 10th, and after a session of eight days 
 adjourned. Bishop JCavanaugh displayed as president 
 much patience and Christian meekness, and favor- 
 ably impressed the members of the conference and 
 spectators. 
 
 The Memphis Conference was appointed for Octo- 
 ber 31st, but in consequence of sickness in the city 
 of Memphis it was postponed to the 14th of Novem- 
 ber. The session was " a powerful and harmonious 
 one." The editor of the Memphis Advocate says: 
 "The impression produced by Bishop Kavanaugh on 
 the conference, the Church, and the community will 
 tell for the interests of Methodism for a long time to 
 come." His preaching while in Memphis left a good 
 impression.
 
 400 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 
 
 The Mississippi and Louisiana Conferences were 
 delighted with Bishop Kavanaugh. His labors were 
 not confined to the older conferences. California 
 shared largely in the benefits of his ministry. His first 
 visit to the Pacific coast was made in 1856. In the 
 Summer of that year, while in San Francisco, the Cali- 
 fornia Christian Advocate, published in that city, says : 
 
 "Bishop Kavanaugh, of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South, who has been spending some months 
 on this coast, passed the last Sabbath in this city. 
 He has now spent two Sabbaths in San Francisco, 
 and in each instance has occupied the pulpits of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Churches. His discourses have 
 been marked by purity of sentiment, felicity of ex- 
 pression, beauty and force of illustration, and a most 
 refreshing unction. His claim to the apostolical suc- 
 cession is valid, and his labors among us have height- 
 ened our estimate of ' Christianity in earnest/ as a 
 divinely instituted agency for the saving of men. 
 He is doing the work of an evangelist in the State ; 
 everywhere diifusing the savor of a kindly Christian 
 influence, tending to the harmony and consequent 
 efficiency of Methodism in the land." 
 
 While in California he was not idle. He traveled 
 extensively and preached constantly; not only in the 
 towns and cities, but in rural districts his voice was 
 heard in thunder tones calling sinners to repentance. 
 He attended several camp-meetings, one of which was 
 near Vallicita, where the camps were rudely con- 
 structed and scarcely covered at all, but where the 
 presence and power of God were manifested in the 
 awakening and conversion of souls.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 401 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh, from his early ministry, had 
 been accustomed to camp-meetings. In the primeval 
 forests of his native State camp-meetings had been 
 held, and much of his ministry had been given to 
 these occasions, and in California he was perfectly at 
 home in the rude tents pitched in the grove. Here 
 he could preach on his favorite themes the character 
 and attributes of God, the depravity of man, the 
 atonement, justification by faith, the witness of the 
 Spirit, and free grace in contradistinction to the Cal- 
 vinistic theory of election. Amid its hills and valleys 
 he could offer hope and happiness and heaven, and 
 riches more enduring than its mines contained. His 
 ministry in California was greatly blessed. In 1857 
 his work included the Arkansas and Texas Confer- 
 ences. He made the tour overland in his own barouche, 
 driven by Charlie Milward, his relative, with Howard 
 Henderson as his companion, who gives the following 
 account : 
 
 "The Arkansas Conference met at Jacksenport, 
 then a struggling frontier village, where primitive 
 simplicity had residence and pioneer hospitality hung 
 its latch-string, like the Percys of Northumberland, 
 their banners, on the outer walls." 
 
 On Sunday the bishop preached an able sermon, 
 two hours in length, in an immense cotton-shed, in 
 which " he developed the whole plan of salvation in 
 a close, analytical, and argumentative way, very satis- 
 factory to dogmatists and polemicists, but neither 
 with graphic, pathetic, nor rhetorical powers made an 
 impression." 
 
 On Tuesday evening following he preached again, 
 34
 
 402 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and almost from the first sentence captured every 
 heart, continuing to ascend in a series of thrilling 
 climaxes, piling Chimborazian peaks upon Himalayan 
 heights, Apennines upon Alps, until it seemed as if he 
 might have pushed ajar the gates of glory. His 
 answer to the inquiry, 'Who is God?' could scarcely 
 be excelled by an archangel ic Apollos. He portrayed 
 the Almighty as sublime in an infinite solitude; then 
 as creating the morning stars and the sons of the 
 morning to make a mighty orchestra and choir with 
 which to celebrate the stupendous work of creation. 
 The Almighty girded himself for the task and rolled 
 shining systems, rising and setting constellations, phos- 
 phorescent stars and incandescent comets from his 
 hand until the darkness of infinite space glowed with 
 suns, plowing furrows of light from flashing plow- 
 shares through a wilderness of night. Man came 
 fresh from his molding hand, and paradise grew ver- 
 dant and flowering as a divine breath of beauty blew 
 over the undulating landscape. Eve, blushing in 
 bridal loveliness, stood by the side of the lord of 
 Eden. Then came a grand description of the fall, the 
 promise, and its realization in the cradle, cross, and 
 crown of Christ; old mother earth rolled in the wild 
 delirium of its latter end, and earth and ocean became 
 prolific in resurrection power, as the trumpet of the 
 archangel pealed its waking thunders through the 
 grim caverns and catacombs of the dead. The ban- 
 ners of heaven were unfurled, the seraphic and cher- 
 ubic choirs were marshaled, and the Captain of 
 salvation, charioted on the clouds, and attended by 
 celestial cohorts, and the minstrelsy of harps and
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 403 
 
 harmonized halleluiahs concerted the mighty sym- 
 phony. From star to star spread the final conflagra- 
 tion, lighted by the incendiary suns, until the red 
 light of judgment-day glowered and made all space 
 crimson with the glare of penal fires; hurtling thun- 
 ders rolled and roared, and forked and flashing light- 
 nings ' painted hell on the sky.' The risen saints 
 joined the convoy ; the wicked were doomed and went 
 howling down to hell, scourged to their dungeon by 
 scorpion stings swung by avenging angels. The 
 pearly gates of heaven swung back on golden hinges; 
 the plains of light stood thickly ranked with the deep 
 files of the triumphant Church ; Israel chimed the 
 song of Moses, and concentric circles of glorified im- 
 mortals, redeemed by the blood of Christ, chanted 
 with seven-fold thunder of praise and adulation the 
 anthem, ' Worthy is the lamb that was slain.' The 
 building seemed to tremble as if shouldered and 
 shaken by an earthquake, as the glowing periods 
 leaped in living language from the lissom lips of the 
 inspired preacher. 
 
 "At this remote day it seems as though my pencil 
 would melt did I attempt to drive it to the task of 
 writing the ardent climaxes and peroration, the great- 
 est piece of eloquence I ever heard breathed in words. 
 I have never since, from any man in Senate, on hust- 
 ings, on platform, or in pulpit, heard such oratory. 
 It was more than Miltonic it was angelic. The 
 bishop never transcended this effort. The feeling was 
 too intense for utterance; all were silent and every 
 person seemed statuesque before this Niagara of elo- 
 quence. The pent-up emotions of the crowded con-
 
 404 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 gregation found vent in song which rolled iii ocean 
 surges. I would travel five hundred miles to hear 
 the like again. And when the good man returned to 
 his room he seemed as simple as a child, and perfectly 
 unconscious of the mighty spell with which he had 
 entranced his hearers. I have heard the bishop often 
 since, when he delighted vast congregations, but such 
 an effort can scarcely be possible to a man more than 
 once in a life-time. I saw him bend the knee, and 
 as he prayed I sat in silent awe as with mental peti- 
 tions he claimed and caught the ear of God. I would 
 not at that moment have been much surprised to 
 have seen the flaming chariot and fiery steeds that 
 alighted at Elijah's feet come sweeping down to claim 
 the great preacher as a passenger." 
 
 From Jacksonport he attended the East Texas 
 Conference, which met at Rusk. J. M. Binkley was 
 then a young man, just entering upon the labors of 
 an itinerant preacher. He had never seen a bishop 
 until he looked upon Bishop Kavanaugh. It is not 
 surprising that he was charmed with him at a single 
 glance. As he drew closer, and beheld him so gentle 
 in the chair, so pleasant in conversation, so accessible 
 to the humblest preacher, his heart was completely 
 won. He dined at Binkley's conference home. At 
 the table he was the center of attraction. 
 
 Addressing his conversation to two young preach- 
 ers who were present, he said : 
 
 " Well, my young brethren, are you here to take 
 work ?' ? 
 
 " Yes," was the prompt reply. 
 
 "Where are you going?" he asked.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 405 
 
 " We do not know/' answered one of them. 
 
 "Perhaps," said the bishop, "you are like a young 
 man in Arkansas, who, when his appointment was 
 read out, rose up and thanked God that there was 
 any place for him." 
 
 He gave them work. Mr. Binkley's circuit em- 
 braced twenty-three preaching places, and that of his 
 friend eighteen. 
 
 His first appearance in the pulpit at this confer- 
 ence was to conclude the service at the close of a 
 funeral sermon. The exhortation " was powerful, 
 grand, sublime," bearing the audience away to "fairer 
 worlds on high." 
 
 Thursday, the 25th of November, was Thanksgiv- 
 ing-day, appointed by the President of the United 
 States, as well as by the governor of Texas. Bishop 
 Kavanaugh preached. His text was Psalm Ixv, 9-11 : 
 "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou 
 greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is 
 full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou 
 hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges 
 thereof abundantly : thou settlest the furrows thereof: 
 thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the 
 springing thereof." 
 
 "This," writes Mr. Binkley, "was the most pow- 
 erful and overwhelming sermon I ever heard. He 
 carried all with him; nor have I ever on any other 
 occasion witnessed such an effect as was at that time 
 produced. The audience were completely overcome 
 by a power that was more than human. Some 
 laughed, others shouted or wept, while many rose to 
 their feet, and some fell as dead men fall in battle."
 
 406 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 He adds : " I was watching my presiding elder, who 
 was a strong man every way. For some time he was 
 calm, and seemed resolved not to yield to the tide 
 that was sweeping over the assembly; but unable to 
 hold out longer, he, too, yielded, and praised God 
 aloud. Twenty-seven years have come and gone since 
 then, but never have I heard that sermon surpassed 
 for its grand thoughts, its unction, and its power. 
 
 " In 1881 he was with us at Greenville, Texas, 
 for the last time, and preached on Sunday, at eleven 
 o'clock. His text was John i, 14: 'And the Word 
 was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld 
 his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
 Father, full of grace and truth.' For an hour and 
 twenty minutes the 'old man eloquent' held spell- 
 bound the vast assembly his imagination vivid, his 
 voice clear, his strength unimpaired. It was good to 
 be there. His peroration was thrilling. He lifted 
 us all in fancy to the fadeless glories of the heavenly 
 world, and concluded by exclaiming, 'When I reach 
 heaven I will shout, Alleluia.'"
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 407 
 
 xil. 
 
 FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1858 TO THE 
 GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1870. 
 
 THE General Conference of 1858 met in Nash- 
 ville, Tennessee. During the session Bishop 
 Kavanaugh was domiciled in the pleasant family of 
 William K. McCallister, by whom he has always 
 been held in kind remembrance. 
 
 In referring to the bishop as a preacher on that 
 occasion, the Rev. Josephus Anderson, D. D., writes: 
 
 " In 1858 the first Sunday of the General Confer- 
 ence found several delegates somewhat hesitating about 
 where to attend public worship, so many great men 
 preaching in the city. I decided to hear Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh, but my friend, Rev. S. P. Richardson, said I 
 had made a mistake. He thought the bishop could 
 not preach. He formed his opinion from the bishop's 
 looks, and ridiculed the idea that such a looking man 
 could succeed in the pulpit. But I went, and when 
 I returned and reported what a grand sermon I had 
 heard, my colleague said, ' O, Anderson ! I know how 
 it was. That man wound up with a talk about 
 heaven, which made you feel good, and you thought 
 it a great sermon. But he can 't preach.' The next 
 Sunday, Brother Richardson was induced to hear the 
 bishop, and he came back filled with wonder and en- 
 thusiasm. Bishop Kavanaugh completely captured
 
 408 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 him. He thought his sermon one of the grandest 
 displays of eloquence to which he ever listened. He 
 was indeed sublime in his best efforts. His mind 
 arose with the sweep of an eagle's wing. In tower- 
 ing majesty he soared aloft, and bore his hearers into 
 the dazzling heights of sunny radiance, far away from 
 the range of common thought. But he was great in 
 goodness, in transparent simplicity of pure goodness. 
 Where is his enemy? Who ever heard a word against 
 him? And yet he was brave and true. Thanks be 
 unto God that he lived in my time, and I had the 
 pleasure of his friendship." 
 
 The Kentucky Conference for this year met in 
 Millersburg, Kentucky, commencing September 1st. 
 Since his election Bishop Kavanaugh had not pre- 
 sided over the conference of which he had been a 
 member. His presence among his old comrades was 
 hailed with pleasure, and never, perhaps, had he felt 
 more perfectly at home. The business was dispatched 
 with ease, and every^ one regarded him as a brother 
 and a friend. In the pulpit he measured up to his 
 best efforts of former years, while in the social circle 
 he had lost none of that affability for which he had 
 always been distinguished. 
 
 From the Kentucky Conference he went to West- 
 ern Virginia, and from thence to the Louisville, where 
 the same welcome awaited him. If in the chair he 
 did not excel as a presiding officer, he made up the 
 difference by the suavity of his manners, and his gen- 
 tle and kind consideration of the members of the 
 body. 
 
 He attended the Virginia Conference, held in
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 409 
 
 Portsmouth, and was perfectly charmed with the 
 members, and afterwards said of them, " they are all 
 good debaters;" and from thence to North Carolina, 
 which closed his tour, preaching everywhere to the 
 delight and profit of both preachers and people. 
 
 In 1859 Bishop Kavanaugh was sick a great por- 
 tion of the year. He only attended the Georgia, the 
 Alabama, and the Florida Conferences, and was able 
 to preach but little. His health being restored the 
 following year, we find him presiding at the Missouri, 
 the St. Louis, Kansas Mission, Arkansas, and Indian 
 Mission Conferences, and preaching with his accus- 
 tomed frequency and power. 
 
 The year 1861 will long be memorable for the in- 
 auguration of the civil war that drenched our land 
 with blood, spreading ruin throughout the country, 
 desolating homes, making thousands of widows and or- 
 phans, and maiming hundreds of our fellow-citizens. 
 
 From the inauguration of President Lincoln the 
 signs looked to war between the two sections of the 
 government of the United States. The army and navy 
 establishments were ominously busy. President Lin- 
 coln, although silent sfs to his policy, yet was sending 
 war steamers with men and provisions South. Some 
 of the Southern States had already seceded. In the 
 meantime provisions and communications with the 
 government at Washington had been cut off from 
 Fort Sumter. 
 
 On the 8th of April, General Beauregard, from 
 Charleston, South Carolina, telegraphed L. P. Walker, 
 secretary of war, that " an authorized messenger from 
 President Lincoln had just informed Governor Pickens 
 
 35
 
 410 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and myself (himself) that provisions will be sent to 
 Fort Sumter peaceably, or otherwise by force." Upon 
 which the secretary of war instructed General Beau- 
 regard to demand the evacuation of the fort. On the 
 llth the demand was made. 
 
 Major Anderson, who was in command of Fort 
 Sumter, declined compliance. 
 
 On the morning of April 12th, at 4 o'clock, the 
 batteries of Sullivan's Island, Man's Island, and other 
 points were opened on Fort Sumter, while Fort Sum- 
 ter returned the fire. On the 13th, at 1.30 o'clock, 
 the flag of the Confederate States was floating over 
 the walls of Fort Sumter. 
 
 The excitement was not only intense throughout 
 the South, but the entire country was aroused, and 
 indications of a long and bloody war were apparent. 
 
 On Monday, the 15th of April, the bishops met in 
 the city of Nashville, and arranged the plan of epis- 
 copal visitation for the current year. 
 
 The episcopal district assigned to Bishop Kavan- 
 augh included the Wachita, Memphis, Georgia, and 
 Florida Conferences, but owing to the distracted state 
 of the country he could not attend either of these. 
 He confined his labors this year to Kentucky, while 
 Bishop Paine, who was to have presided at the Ken- 
 tucky and Louisville Conferences, remained in the 
 South. 
 
 The Kentucky Conference met in Paris, October 
 1st. Colonel Rousseau had organized in Indiana a 
 regiment of soldiers for the federal army, and Ken- 
 tucky had been invaded. The entire State was astir 
 with excitement, and men scarcely knew whom to
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH, 411 
 
 trust. The sentiment of the commonwealth was di- 
 vided, the feeling in favor of the South predominat- 
 ing, and the members of the Kentucky Conference 
 were far from being in harmony. 
 
 While Bishop Kavanaugh took no active part in 
 the controversy, his sympathies were with the South. 
 The conference session was an exciting one. The 
 bishop, however, presided so impartially, not only in 
 the chair, but in the stationing-room, that no one, not 
 even a partisan, could complain of any want of 
 fairness. 
 
 On one occasion a member of the body, well 
 known for his want of energy, was addressing the 
 conference in a very sluggish manner, when the 
 bishop, anxious to get the question fully before the 
 conference, said, " Brother, come to the point." " I 
 am coming to it, bishop," said the preacher; "but, 
 like yourself, I make haste slowly." No one enjoyed 
 the reply more than Bishop Kavanaugh. 
 
 The session of the Louisville Conference, which 
 met in the city of Louisville a few weeks later, was 
 a still more exciting one. Nearly one-half the body 
 was inside the Confederate lines, and could not be 
 present. Armed soldiers in large nu'^ers, together 
 with epauletted gentlemen, were in constant attend- 
 ance, ready to avail themselves of the least excuse 
 to create disturbance. To carry the business of the 
 conference through safely, required great prudence, 
 combined with dauntless courage. Bishop Kavanaugh 
 was not wanting in either. His level brain and sound 
 judgment were equal to the emergency. With marked 
 ability he defended the right of opinion and the right
 
 412 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of speech, and dared discharge the duties of his office 
 in the face of any interference that might confront him. 
 
 In its early history, Kentucky was styled the dark 
 and bloody ground, and so it was ; but no greater ca- 
 lamity could have befallen either the commonwealth 
 or the Church than the division at this period of the 
 Kentucky and Louisville^ Conferences on partisan plat- 
 forms, growing out of the sympathies of the members 
 with the North or the South. Bishop Kavanaugh en- 
 joyed the confidence of both parties, and with a firm 
 grasp and steady hand guided the ship amid the per- 
 ils of the storm to a safe harbor, yet never making 
 any compromise of the Church, nor submitting to any 
 infraction of its laws. 
 
 His labors, if not confined to Kentucky during 
 that bloody period, were largely spent in the State, 
 and to his skill, his inflexible integrity, and conciliatory 
 administration is the Church on the border indebted for 
 its elevated position and commanding influence to-day. 
 
 From 1861 to 1866, the period covering the civil 
 war, the confused state of the country frequently hin- 
 dered the meeting of the annual conferences; and, if 
 held, in many instances no minutes have been pre- 
 served. 4^ 
 
 In 1862, the General Conference, which was to 
 have met in the city of New Orleans, did not convene, 
 owing to the military occupancy of that city by fed- 
 eral troops ; nor have we any account of Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh attending any conference that year. But, in 
 1863, he presided over the Kentucky Conference, held 
 in Shelbyville, commencing September 16th. The 
 session was not harmonious. The war was still rag-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 413 
 
 ing, and Kentucky being a border State, sentiment 
 was still greatly divided, each party tenaciously hold- 
 ing to their opinions. 
 
 Never in all his life was Bishop Kavanaugh ealmer 
 or more composed than during these trying times. 
 Impregnable as the Rock of Gibraltar when convinced 
 that he was right, no power could move him. He 
 weighed well his purposes, and dared to act regardless 
 of frowns or threats, and no example is on record 
 showing the least vacillation on his part. 
 
 During the session of the conference, he and his 
 wife were the guests of Mrs. Julia A. Tevis, at Science 
 Hill Academy, their life-long friend. Between John 
 Tevis, who had died January 26, 1861, and Bishop 
 Kavanaugh there had existed for many years the 
 warmest friendship and the closest confidence, while 
 the same fond relations marked the intercourse of 
 Mrs. Tevis and Mrs. Kavanaugh. 
 
 The trials on the part of the bishop were greatly 
 increased by the illness of his wife. She was taken 
 sick during the session of the conference, and while 
 her disease at first seemed disposed to yield to medical 
 treatment, the symptoms soon became alarming, and 
 on the 7th of October she gently fell asleep in Jesus. 
 The bereavement was great the strong man was 
 bowed in grief. For thirty-five years she had been 
 the light of his home and the joy of his heart. He 
 had rested beneath the radiance of her smiles, and 
 been supported by her in his arduous work. She had 
 accompanied him on his episcopal tours, and been the 
 companion of his joys and his sorrows. But now he 
 is left to battle alone. His children had one by one
 
 414 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 passed away, and he must confront difficulties with no 
 guiding hand but that of his Heavenly Father. The 
 remains of Mrs. Kavanaugh were carried to Ver- 
 sailles, where she was buried. 
 
 When they laid her away, many wept. Among 
 the mourners, Hon. T. F. Marshall was conspicuous. 
 When all others had left the grave, he, with the 
 bishop, remained. Taking Bishop Kavauaugh by the 
 hand, Mr. Marshall said : " Here lies the best and 
 noblest woman that ever lived." And why not this 
 tribute from, this gifted yet erring son of Kentucky ? 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh had tried to win him back from a 
 life of dissipation. Noble woman ! graceful and ac- 
 complished, rarely gifted and deeply pious, she lent a 
 charm to every circle in which she moved. 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh remained in Kentucky after 
 the death of Mrs. Kavanaugh until the following 
 spring, when he was requested to visit California and 
 look after the interests of the Church in that State, 
 and to hold a session of the Pacific Conference. 
 
 While there, "he preached all over the land." 
 While attending the Calaveras Camp-meeting, in 
 July, 1864, he was suddenly confronted by a provost 
 guard and placed under arrest. In the archives of 
 Trinity Church, in San Francisco, may be found the 
 following lucid statement of the whole affair from his 
 own hand, as published in San Francisco at that date : 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 " It is well known to the public that I was re- 
 cently arrested by the military authorities on this 
 coast, and was required to answer to certain charges
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 415 
 
 preferred against me by persons even now unknown 
 to me. 
 
 " If I were but a private individual, holding no 
 official position in the Church with which I am con- 
 nected, I should perhaps deem it best to remain con- 
 tent with the vindication of my conduct, as estab- 
 lished by the investigation before Generals Mason and 
 McDowell; but claiming, as I do, to be a minister of 
 Christ, and clothed as I am with the high functions 
 of a bishop in the Church, whose duty it is, by pre- 
 cept and example, to inculcate the lessons taught by 
 my Divine Master, I owe it to the cause of religion 
 and truth, and to my high and sacred calling, to ex- 
 plain to the public frankly and in all humility the 
 circumstances connected with my arrest. The very 
 fact of my arrest implies a suspicion of improper con- 
 duct on my part, and it is due to the Church of which 
 I am a minister that I should explain the circum- 
 stances, that no reproach may rest upon the cause of 
 the religion which I profess to teach and practice. 
 In making this publication, I have no motive but to 
 vindicate myself from suspicion and my high office 
 from reproach ; and I do it with no feelings of queru- 
 lous complaint against the military authorities, by all 
 of whom I was treated with the utmost courtesy and 
 kindness. 
 
 " With this preliminary explanation, I now pro- 
 ceed to state that, while I was in attendance at a camp- 
 meeting, some thirty miles from Stockton, at the 
 ranch of Mr. Black, on the road to Copperopolis from 
 the city of Stockton, on the 19th day of July, and 
 shortly before I had an appointment to preach, I was
 
 416 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 approached by Capt. Jackson, provost marshal of the 
 Southern District of California, who took me aside, 
 with one of my brethren in the ministry (the Rev. 
 Mr. Burchard), and said he was ordered to arrest me, 
 and to take possession of my person and property and 
 take me to San Francisco. I told him I would go 
 with him. On being informed that I had an appoint- 
 ment to preach at the hour of 11 o'clock, he said I 
 could do so, and he would stay and hear me. After 
 the 11 o'clock services, we dined at Mr. Black's, after 
 which the captain asked me to meet him on the boat 
 for San Francisco at 4 o'clock on the next day at 
 Stockton, which I assured him I would do, and did 
 so accordingly. 
 
 " From the time of my arrest, the captain, for the 
 sake of quietude and peace, enjoined secrecy upon me 
 and my friends as to the arrest, until I should reach 
 Stockton. To this request I yielded my full consent, 
 as I neither wished to be the cause or tl>e occasion of 
 any trouble to the authorities or people of California, 
 and carefully observed the injunction. I accompanied 
 the provost marshal to this city. On parting on the 
 the boat in the morning, he requested me to meet 
 him at his office at twelve o'clock. I complied with 
 this request, when he told me he was required 
 to examine my baggage, my letters, etc., which 
 he did in the presence of the Rev. Mr. Brown, 
 of this city, and myself. He did this office with all 
 'the delicacy he could, to be faithful to his obligations. 
 He then accompanied me to Gen. Mason's headquar- 
 ters, the assistant provost general for this coast. I 
 now learned from Gen. Mason for the first time the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 417 
 
 charges that were made against me. He said it had 
 been stated of me in his office 
 
 " First That I was a citizen of the State of 
 Georgia. 
 
 " Secondly That I had crossed the military lines 
 with a pass from the Confederate authorities; and 
 
 " Thirdly That I was on this coast without any 
 visible business. 
 
 "These charges were verbally stated. I was not 
 furnished with any written charges or specifications, 
 nor with the names of my accuser or accusers. I did 
 not ask who preferred these charges. Indeed, I had 
 no desire to know the names of those who set on foot 
 such baseless accusations. I gave to Gen. Mason a 
 statement of the facts in the case, to which he replied 
 that he thought if I would commit the statements to 
 writing and present them to him, that they would be 
 satisfactory to Gen. McDowell. I did so; and pre- 
 sented him the following statement of facts: 
 
 " 'SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., July 20, 1864. 
 "'BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN S. MASON, Assistant Provost Marshal 
 
 General 
 
 " 'Dear Sir: I arrived in California a few weeks ago, on 
 business exclusively connected with the Church of which I 
 am a member, and am here on no political mission of any 
 character whatsoever. I am a native of Kentucky, in 
 which State I have resided all my life, with the exception 
 of about two years passed in the city of Cincinnati. The 
 printed minutes of our Church will show my whereabouts 
 from the year 1823 to 1854, when I was -elected to the 
 episcopacy. From that time to this, my residence has 
 been at Versailles, Kentucky. Since the commencement 
 of the war, I have never crossed the military lines, nor
 
 418 . LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 entered any State in rebellion, except on a visit to Nash- 
 ville, Tenn., then in possession of the Federal troops and 
 under their control, together with the whole line of road 
 from my residence to that city. I have never been a poli- 
 tician, nor in any manner participated actively in political 
 affairs, and have never preached politics, either before or 
 since the war. On the contrary, I have invariably dis- 
 couraged it in the ministry of the Church over which I had 
 in some sense the supervision. For the truth of this state- 
 ment, I appeal to all who have ever heard me, or know 
 my conduct on this. coast, or elsewhere. 
 
 " ' The particular occasion of my present visit to Cali- 
 fornia is as" follows : The Pacific Conference of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church, South, has been for four years with- 
 out the presence of a bishop. During this period, a number 
 of the members of the body were elected to the order of 
 deacons and elders in the Church, and for the want of 
 ordination could not administer the sacraments of the 
 Church. Their ordination became an imperative neces- 
 sity. The conference passed a resolution appointing the 
 Rev. A. M. Bailey to correspond with me on the subject 
 of a visit to this coast, to ordain these ministers. This re- 
 solution is on the records of the conference, and is men- 
 tioned in the correspondence between the Rev. Mr. Bailey 
 and myself. This correspondence with me was ordered 
 because I was the only accessible bishop able to travel so 
 far and perform the functions of the office. I came here 
 on this business alone, and on no mission, either directly 
 or indirectly, connected with politics or the war, and least 
 of all to stir up dissension or encourage opposition to the 
 government or laws. Residing, as I do, in Kentucky, 
 where great diversity of opinion prevails in regard to the 
 war, I have dejemed it my duty as a minister of the Gospel 
 not only to abstain from participating in political affairs, but, 
 on the contrary, to mitigate as far as practicable the as- 
 perity of feeling which prevails so widely in that State.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 419 
 
 I have deemed mine to be a mission of love and peace, 
 and have so acted, both there and here. So far as I 
 know, my conduct has never been questioned in Kentucky 
 by the military authorities (where I have lived so long 
 and am so widely known), notwithstanding the intense ex- 
 citement which has prevailed in that State. 
 
 " ' Under the circumstances, I find myself, compara- 
 tively a stranger on this coast and far from my home, sud- 
 denly arraigned before the military authorities on charges 
 preferred by persons wholly unknown to me. That I am 
 deeply pained by this proceeding, I candidly confess; not 
 so much because of any personal injury to myself, as be- 
 cause of the reproach it brings on my sacred calling and 
 on the Church with which I am connected. I acknowl- 
 edge, however, with pleasure, the courtesy which has been 
 extended to me by all the officers connected with the af- 
 fair, and trusting that this explanation of my conduct and 
 motives may prove satisfactory, I am, very respectfully, 
 "'Yours, H. H. KAVANAUGH.' 
 
 " I was called upon for no proofs, and submitted 
 none other than the foregoing statement ; nor do I 
 know what proofs, if any, were adduced against me. 
 
 "After submitting this statement, I called in per- 
 son upon General McDowell, who received me re- 
 spectfully, and expressed his satisfaction with my 
 explanation in reply to the charges preferred against 
 me. We then had some conversation in regard to 
 the name of the 'Methodist Episcopal Church, South.' 
 I explained to him that this name was adopted in 
 1844, at a time when a division, unfortunately, oc- 
 curred in the Methodist Church, and, of course, long 
 anterior to the war, and when the country was en- 
 tirely at peace; and that the term 'South' was ap-
 
 420 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 pended, not as indicating a political sentiment, but a 
 geographical division, and to designate the new 
 Church organization from the old, and that it was 
 intended to have no signification as applied to the 
 existing war which afflicts the country. The general, 
 however, thought in the present condition of the 
 country the term ' South,' as applied to a Church or- 
 ganization on this coast, was not only of questionable 
 propriety, but was liable to misconstruction. 
 
 " On leaving the general, I was most favorably 
 impressed with his soldierly bearing, and with his 
 evident desire to perform the delicate duties of his 
 high station in a just and impartial manner; and I 
 shall not soon forget the courtesy for which I am in- 
 debted to him and his associate officers concerned in 
 my arrest. And in this connection, it is proper to 
 say that neither I nor those of my friends conversant 
 with the character of the charges preferred against 
 me blame any of the military functionaries of the 
 Pacific Coast for calling me to an account for the 
 items alleged against me. The unscrupulous witness, 
 it is presumed, has rendered himself powerless for 
 evil with the officers of this post. 
 
 " I have deemed this explanation proper, not so 
 much to vindicate myself as to shield my sacred 
 office from the semblance of wrong. 
 
 "H. H. KAVANATJGH. 
 
 "SAN FRANCISCO, August 10, 1864." 
 
 This was the most unpleasant occurrence of his 
 life, and it certainly required intense partisan feeling 
 to have inflicted such a wound.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 421 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh returned from the Pacific 
 Coast in time to meet the Louisville Conference at 
 Henderson, October 19th. After the close of the 
 conference he traveled extensively through the State, 
 preaching in the principal towns and cities, casting 
 oil upon the troubled waters, and diffusing every- 
 where the light of a pure Christianity. 
 
 In 1865 the dark cloud of war began to disperse, 
 with now and then a spot upon the sky. Indica- 
 tions of returning peace gladdened many a heart 
 and home. 
 
 On the 7th of March of this year he was married, 
 in Cynthiana, Ky., to Mrs. Martha Lewis, the daugh- 
 ter of Captain Robert D. Richardson, of Louisiana 
 a lady well qualified for the responsible duties she 
 assumed. 
 
 His conferences began with the Missouri, held at 
 Hannibal, commencing August 16th. He next held 
 the Kentucky, at Covington. From thence he pro- 
 ceeded to Russellville, where, on the 20th of Septem- 
 ber, the Louisville Conference met, closing his round 
 with the Tennessee Conference, held in Edgefield, 
 October 4th to llth. 
 
 The internecine strife had been more bitter in 
 Missouri than in any other State. Cruelties at which 
 humanity shuddered had been perpetrated, not only 
 by irresponsible parties, but by plumed and epau- 
 letted officers. Peaceable citi/ens had been murdered 
 in their homes without cause, and anarchy had pre- 
 vailed throughout that commonwealth. Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh had presided over that body in 1860, since 
 which time no bishop ot the Methodist Episcopal
 
 422 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Church, South, had attended any session of the 
 conference. 
 
 That the Church should have prospered under 
 such a state of excitement as existed must excite not 
 only the wonder, but command the admiration, of 
 even the foes of Methodism for the brave men who 
 stood at their post during those perilous times. 
 
 No man possessed true courage in a higher degree 
 than Bishop Kavanaugh. From his early childhood, 
 for his bravery, he had been distinguished ; and yet 
 no man was more prudent and reserved. 
 
 The death list among the preachers was large, 
 among whom were Caples and Robinson and Kitson, 
 who would answer to the roll-call no more. 
 
 When he went to Missouri the elements were not 
 entirely calm, yet, true to duty, we find him at his 
 post, ready for whatever might befall him. 
 
 The Kentucky and Louisville Conferences were 
 occasions of interest. The stillness of peace had fol- 
 lowed the noise of war, and once more we "sat un- 
 der our vine and fig-tree," with none to make us 
 afraid. The Tennessee Conference, too, once more, 
 unmolested, worshiped the God of their fathers. 
 
 After the lapse of eight years, the General Con- 
 ference met, in New Orleans, on the first Wednesday 
 in April, 1866. Bishops Andrew, Paine, Pierce, 
 Early, and Kavanaugh were present. Bishop Soule, 
 the senior bishop, was confined at his home, near 
 Nashville, Tenn., while Bishops Andrew and Early 
 were both in feeble health. 
 
 Since the previous meeting of the body the 
 Church had passed through a trying ordeal, but, like
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 423 
 
 gold refined in the fire, only the dross had been 
 consumed. 
 
 A large amount of important legislation was en- 
 acted during this session, not the least of which was 
 the initiatory step towards lay representation in the 
 annual and general conferences. 
 
 Since 1854 no additional bishop had been elected, 
 and the health of three of the number, together with 
 the increase of the work to be performed, growing 
 out of the extension of the field and the adoption of 
 district conferences, induced the election of four ad- 
 ditional superintendents. The election took place on 
 Thursday, April 26th. On the first ballot, William 
 M. Wightman, of the Mobile Conference, and Enoch 
 M. Marvin, of the Missouri Conference, were elected ; 
 and on the third ballot, David S. Doggett, of the Vir- 
 ginia Conference, and Holland N. McTyeire, of the 
 Montgomery Conference, were elected. A divine hand 
 surely guided in the elevation of these men to this 
 holy office. 
 
 In the plan of episcopal visitation Bishop Kavan- 
 augh was assigned to the Pacific and Columbia Con- 
 ferences, the former to be held at Petaluma, California, 
 and the latter at Corvallis, Oregon. 
 
 It was no easy task on the part of the bishop to 
 undertake the work to which he was appointed. He 
 was sick in New Orleans when the General Confer- 
 ence adjourned, and continued ill for several weeks. 
 After leaving the city, on board the steamer W. R. 
 Arthur, he relapsed before reaching Memphis, where 
 he remained one week, and did not reach his home in 
 Kentucky until late in June. Soon after reaching
 
 424 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 home the illness of his wife's mother seemed to ren- 
 der it impossible for him to leave. He, however, made 
 arrangements for his long journey, and on the 25th of 
 August left home for the city of New York, to take 
 the steamer of the 1st of September for California. 
 
 The voyage to California was in many respects a 
 pleasant one. From a letter to the Christian Advocate 
 we copy the following interesting paragraph : 
 
 " It has generally been the habit of the Pacific 
 Mail Steamship Company to have preaching on the 
 ships every Sabbath when they have a minister aboard. 
 I had always preached for them in the passages I had 
 made on their ships, at the request of the captain of 
 the vessel. Leaving New York the present trip on 
 Saturday, the 1st of September, the next day being 
 the Sabbath, on Saturday evening the purser of the 
 ship asked me if I would read the Episcopal service 
 for them the next day. It occurred to me that the 
 service was well enough in itself, and that I had no 
 farther objection to the service than its general ten- 
 dency to a dead formality. This deadness may not be 
 a necessary, but is a very usual result. I pondered 
 in my mind the character of this request, and con- 
 cluded that it was a most singular request; that a 
 minister of more than forty years' standing in the 
 Church, and who by his Church had been placed in 
 the position I occupy, should be called upon to read 
 the service of another denomination. Well, I thought, 
 this is pretty cool. Will the officers of a ship only 
 accept the services of a single denomination ? On Sab- 
 bath morning, when called upon for the reading of the 
 service, I told the purser that I had concluded, that
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 425 
 
 if I held the services, to do so in my own way. He 
 seemed to drop me at once, and inquired if I thought 
 that either of the other clergymen would comply with 
 his request. I told him that I could not say he had 
 better inquire of them. After a little delay, I re- 
 ceived a message to please hold the services in my 
 own way, with which request I complied." 
 
 The day after reaching San Francisco he was in- 
 formed that he was expected at a camp-meeting near 
 San Jose, and by the next Sabbath a hundred miles 
 from there, at a basket-meeting near Petaluma. 
 
 In referring to these meetings, he writes: "I 
 preached for them that night, and the next morning 
 at 11 o'clock. There were three conversions in the 
 afternoon and seven at night. How many converts 
 during the meeting I do not know, but think some 
 twenty or thirty. The meeting at Macedonia, near 
 Petaluma, was also successful. It is in the work of 
 Brother S. Brown. Nine additions to the Church on 
 Sunday. How many during the meeting I have not 
 learned." 
 
 This was his third visit to the Pacific Coast, and 
 that it would not be one of leisure or ease was already 
 evident. 
 
 If we follow him in his travels we must accom- 
 pany him to Portland, Oregon, and from thence to 
 Corvallis, the seat of the Columbia Conference; and 
 from thence to Albany, Dallas, Salem, and Lafayette, 
 back to Portland ; and on until we land with him 
 again at San Francisco, everywhere preaching and 
 making full proof of his ministry. 
 
 Bishop Soule died near Nashville, Tennessee, March
 
 426 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 6, 1867, and a few weeks later the annual meeting of 
 the bishops was held. Bishop Kavanaugh was still in 
 California. He believed that by remaining for awhile 
 longer on the Pacific Coast he could serve the Church 
 to greater advantage, and hence it was decided that he 
 should spend there the period intervening previous 
 to the meeting of the Pacific and Columbia Con- 
 ferences. 
 
 He passed the time, as he did the previous year, 
 traveling extensively and preaching constantly, wit- 
 nessing the triumphs of the Cross in the awakening 
 and conversion of hundreds, until his name was known 
 in village and hamlet throughout that vast territory. 
 Not only was his praise gazetted in the denomina- 
 tional papers, but the religious press all over Cal- 
 ifornia and Oregon heralded his praise, while the 
 secular papers spoke of him in terms of the highest 
 commendation. 
 
 The Columbia Conference was appointed for Dal- 
 las, Oregon,* August 28th, and the Pacific at San 
 Jose, October 1st. 
 
 At no time did he pause to rest. In March he 
 preached in Yuba City and in Marysville, and through 
 the country surrounding, while the Church was quick- 
 ened- and many happily converted, while the Colusa 
 Sun says': "After preaching here every night for a 
 week, the bishop left us yesterday morning for Red 
 Bluff. There was a large attendance during the whole 
 time, and quite a number joined the Church. The 
 bishop is not only an eloquent speaker, but he is a 
 fine logician. Many will remember with pleasure 
 
 * The conference was held at Rickreall Camp-ground.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 427 
 
 and profit his visit to Colusa, after he shall have re- 
 ceived his reward in heaven for his labors among us." 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh was at this date sixty-five years 
 old, and yet after these immense labors June 15th he 
 was in the office of the Spectator, " looking well, and 
 in perfect health," having just "returned from his tour 
 in the southern portion of California," and ready to 
 start two days later " to Oregon, by the Oriflamme." 
 The Visalia and Mariposa papers, where he had 
 preached, speak very highly of his pulpit efforts. 
 
 We next meet with him in Oregon, Rickreall 
 Camp-ground, holding the Columbia Conference, 
 " preaching powerfully." We then follow him to the 
 Pacific Conference, where we find him, whether in 
 the chair or the pulpit, rendering entire satisfaction. 
 
 During the session, the Spectator says : 
 
 "Immediately after our approaching conference 
 session Bishop Kavanaugh will embark for his home 
 in Kentucky, if, indeed, it can be said that a bishop 
 of our Church has any home, when almost perpetual 
 toil and travel are his lot. Of Bishop Kavanaugh it 
 may be said that he is emphatically a workinff bishop. 
 If we had at hand the statistics showing the number 
 of miles he has traveled and the number of sermons 
 he has preached during the past year, an aggregate 
 would be presented that would perhaps astonish some 
 of our readers. He has been abundant in labors, and 
 as a chief pastor in the Church furnishes an example 
 worthy to be followed by all its ministers. The good 
 that has resulted and will result from his labors is 
 everywhere apparent, but can not be fully estimated 
 now. Through him God has strengthened the Church
 
 428 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and converted many sinners from the error of their 
 ways. In one or two instances his episcopal presence 
 and authority have adjusted the most complicated dif- 
 ficulties and (humanly speaking) averted impending 
 catastrophes to the Church. The experience of the 
 past year has confirmed our conviction of the neces- 
 sity of a resident bishop on the Pacific Coast. We 
 venture here to suggest to the episcopal board that 
 they remember our necessity at their next meeting, 
 and send us a bishop to remain with us until the next 
 General Conference. We will not indicate a choice. 
 Our choice is the man who will come. Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh has fully won the affection of our people. 
 They will accompany him in his homeward-bound 
 voyage by their prayers, and should he return to us 
 he will be welcomed joyfully by all." 
 
 He reached Kentucky in good time before Winter 
 set in, receiving the cordial greetings of friends in 
 every community he visited. 
 
 Early in 1868 he became so indisposed that it was 
 necessary for him to suspend preaching for awhile. 
 His excessive labors in California and Oregon had 
 well-nigh prostrated him. Yet it was more easy for 
 him to preach than to rest. His spirit chafed under 
 the deprivation of preaching the Gospel. A rest of a 
 few weeks, however, restored him and once more we 
 find him swaying the multitudes by the magic power 
 he possessed. 
 
 The annual meeting of the bishops this year was 
 in Louisville, commencing May 7th. Bishops Andrew, 
 Paine, and Early were absent, the others were present. 
 
 Bishop Kavauaugh's field of episcopal labor was
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 429 
 
 the Missouri, St. Louis, Mississippi, East Texas, and 
 Louisiana Conferences. 
 
 A few days after the adjournment of the bishops' 
 meeting we had the pleasure, in company with Bishop 
 Pierce, to spend a night with Bishop Kavanaugh and 
 family at Lexington. We were on our way to the 
 Lexington District Conference, at Nicholasville. The 
 next morning we reached Nicholasville, Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh coming over in the afternoon, and preaching 
 on Saturday night with his usual pathos and power. 
 Before the month of May closes we meet with him at 
 the Bardstown District Conference, held in Lebanon, 
 where he preached " with great fervor and success." 
 He spent the Summer in Kentucky, preaching with 
 all the vigor of his early" manhood, while success 
 crowned his labors. Late in August he passed through 
 St. Louis on his way to Weston, the seat of the Mis- 
 souri Conference. He closed his tour of conferences 
 late in December at New Iberia, Louisiana, where his 
 preaching was spoken of in the following words: 
 
 "Bishop' Kavanaugh presided at the conference 
 and endeared himself to the preachers by his exceed- 
 ing great ability and patience and cheerfulness. He 
 improved every occasion for giving godly counsel in 
 the conference, at the sacramental board, and else- 
 where. He preached on Sunday morning. It was 
 the mightiest sermon I ever listened to, though I have 
 heard great men on both sides of the Atlantic. There 
 was a power and unction in the discourse which so 
 overwhelmed the hearers that, convulsed and trans- 
 fixed, many of us did not know, for the time, whether 
 we were in the body or out of the body."
 
 430 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 In January, 1869, he is at home in Kentucky, 
 writing cheeringly to Dr. Summers in reference to the 
 portion of the Church he had visited, and while we 
 expect to find him yet resting, he is passing through 
 St. Louis en route to Western Missouri, on an extensive 
 tour of episcopal visitation. 
 
 The annual meeting of the bishops was held in 
 St. Louis in May, and the Kentucky, Western Vir- 
 ginia, Memphis, South Georgia, and South Carolina 
 Conferences all occupy his labors for the year. 
 
 After the adjournment of the meeting Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh remained for some time in Missouri, attending 
 District Conferences and preaching through the State. 
 
 The Kentucky Conference was held in Cynthiana, 
 commencing September 1st. The secretary writes: 
 " Bishop Kavanaugh was our president. Vigorous, 
 fresh, commanding, he sustained himself, and the ad- 
 miration we Kentuckians have always had for him." 
 
 At the close of the Kentucky Conference the bishop 
 was taken sick, and was unable to attend the Western 
 Virginia Conference, which met at Mount Pleasant, 
 September 15th. 
 
 In the meantime he held the Kentucky Colored 
 Conference, which met in Winchester, October 13th. 
 
 The Memphis Conference met November 3d", at 
 Holly Springs, Mississippi. Bishop Kavanaugh's 
 health was now fully restored, and he presided with 
 greater ease than we had ever known him,, while the 
 committee on public worship seemed disposed to tax 
 his strength to its utmost capacity. He preached 
 twice previous to the Sabbath, and on Sunday for an 
 hour and a half the audience hung in breathless
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 431 
 
 silence on his lips while words of life fell like gems 
 over the assembly. 
 
 We had seen him, we thought, in every position 
 in which a bishop could be placed. But no ; a new 
 role awaited him. A young preacher had been over- 
 taken in a fault, and the conference sentenced him to 
 a public reprimand. The delicate task was to be per- 
 formed by the bishop. The young preacher stood 
 before him, in the presence of his brethren, his face 
 suffused with tears. 
 
 " My young brother, I regret the misstep you 
 have taken, but I sympathize with you. The circum- 
 stances that surrounded you certainly palliate your 
 offense. Trust in God for help, and sin no more." 
 
 The broad face of Bishop Kavanaugh was damp 
 as he took the hand of the erring one in his. Every 
 heart was touched, and every eye wept. 
 
 He was able to reach and preside over the South 
 Georgia and South Carolina Conferences, and to per- 
 form his part of the pulpit and platform work. 
 
 He returned to Kentucky in time to dedicate the 
 new church on Rose Lane, in the city of Louisville, 
 which was called KAVANAUGH CHAPEL.
 
 432 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1870 TO THE 
 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BISHOPS IN 1875. 
 
 THE General Conference of 1870 was held in 
 Memphis, Tennessee, commencing May 4th. 
 
 On the sixteenth day of the session, and on the 
 21st day of May, John Christian Keener, of the Louis- 
 iana Conference was elected bishop. The ordination 
 took place on the following day in the Second Street 
 Methodist Church. The sermon was preached by 
 Rev. Lovick Pierce, D. D. ; the collect was read by 
 Bishop Andrew; the epistle by Bishop Pierce; and 
 the Gospel by Bishop Kavanaugh. Dr. Keener was 
 presented by Jefferson Hamilton and Nehemiah A. 
 Cravens. 
 
 In the plan of episcopal visitation Bishop Kavan- 
 augh was assigned to the Holston, North Alabama, 
 North Georgia, South Georgia, and Florida Con- 
 ferences. 
 
 ' Scarcely had the General Conference adjourned until 
 we find Bishop Kavanaugh in the field prosecuting 
 his work with untiring energy. 
 
 In a list of appointments published by himself he 
 says: 
 
 " I expect to attend the Maysville District Con- 
 ference, to include the second Sabbath iu June, at 
 Maysville, Kentucky.
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 433 
 
 "The Lexington District Conference, at Versailles, 
 including the fourth Sabbath in June. 
 
 "That of the Shelbyville District, at Christians- 
 burg, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the three 
 last days of June. 
 
 "That of the Covington District, at Petersburg, 
 Boone County, Kentucky, including the second Sab- 
 bath in July. 
 
 " I will also attend a meeting, of several days' con- 
 tinuance, at the Providence Church of the Richmond 
 Circuit, including the third Sabbath of July, in Mad- 
 ison County, Kentucky. 
 
 "And including the fifth Sunday in July, the 
 District Conference of the Harrodsburg District, at 
 Richmond, Kentucky. 
 
 "The month of August I propose spending in the 
 Western Virginia Conference, at points yet to be des- 
 ignated. H. H. KAVANAUGH. 
 
 "LEXINGTON, KY., June 7, 1870." 
 
 This was certainly work enough to occupy the 
 time and the energies of this venerable minister of 
 Christ during the period that would intervene before 
 he would enter upon his round of conferences, and 
 yet he announced that before leaving for Wytheville, 
 Virginia, where the Holston Conference would hold 
 its session, he would spend a few days with Bishop 
 Paine, at the Kentucky Conference. 
 
 During the Kentucky Conference Dr: Huston, of 
 Baltimore Conference, made his appearance and 
 briefly addressed the conference. He said that he 
 saw that many of his brethren with whom he had 
 
 been contemporary were growing gray, that his own 
 
 37
 
 434 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 head was silvering beneath the frost-touches of time's 
 unsparing hand ; but there were " two things that 
 did n't grow gray Bishop Kavanaugh's head and his 
 heart.' We had the pleasure of being with Bishop 
 Kavanaugh at Wy theville. His missionary address on 
 Saturday evening gave a fresh impulse to the cause 
 of missions, and quickened the zeal of the- members 
 of this conference, while the large collection showed 
 the feeling that had been awakened. In pleading for 
 the heathen he employed no strategy, but appealed to 
 the wants of the world lying in wickedness, and to 
 the duty of the Church blessed with the light of the 
 Gospel. He preached at Abingdon, Virginia, after 
 the close of the Holston Conference to the profit of 
 the people. 
 
 The Tennessee Conference, held at Pulaski, over 
 which Bishop Doggett presided, met the same day as 
 the Holston, and after the close of each Bishops Kav- 
 anaugh and Doggett met in Nashville, where they 
 spent the Sabbath. 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh was our guest, and Bishop 
 Doggett the guest of Mr. Jennings. In the forenoon, 
 on Sunday, the former preached at Elm Street, and 
 the latter at McKendree. In the afternoon Bishop 
 Kavanaugh preached for the colored people at Capers 
 Chapel. Bishop Doggett took tea with Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh on Sunday evening, and while at supper a 
 member of the McKendree Church called on the 
 bishops and requested one of them to preach in that 
 church that evening. 
 
 Bishop Doggett answered, "I preached there this 
 forenoon, and can not do so again this evening; while
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 435 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh stated that he had already preached 
 twice and could hardly be expected to preach a third 
 time. Both of them declined. 
 
 The member of the Church answered, "Our 
 preacher has not returned from conference, and a 
 large audience will be present and must not be dis- 
 appointed." Then, turning to another preacher, who 
 was present, he asked him if he would preach. 
 
 He answered, "Have the bell rung." 
 
 Both the bishops seemed to enjoy the dilemma in 
 which the preacher was placed. 
 
 Before they left the table and on their way to 
 Church they inquired of him as to the text from 
 which he would preach. 
 
 His reply was, " I am not in the habit of announc- 
 ing my text except from the pulpit." 
 
 When we entered the church it was crowded. 
 The camp-stools had been placed in the aisles so that 
 the pulpit was reached by a slow process. 
 
 The preacher invited the two bishops into the 
 pulpit. They knelt; and while on their knees he 
 walked quietly back into the congregation and took 
 a seat. 
 
 Bishop Doggett was the first to discover the ab- 
 sence of the preacher and saw the situation at once, 
 and, turning to Bishop Kavanaugh, inquired as to its 
 meaning. 
 
 "Will Dr. dare treat two bishops in this 
 
 way ?" 
 
 " He has already dared," was the reply of Bishop 
 Kavanaugh. "If you knew him as well as I do you 
 would not ask that question."
 
 436 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 They both looked over the audience, and, failing 
 to see the object of their search, put on a blank ap- 
 pearance. Bishop Doggett at length discovered him 
 near the center of the house and beckoned to him to 
 come to the pulpit, but no response was made. 
 
 The two bishops are whispering. " What shall we 
 do?" said Bishop Doggett, sadly. 
 
 "We are in for it," replied Bishop Kavanaugh, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " I think we are badly treated," was Bishop 
 Doggett's rejoinder. 
 
 " I think he served us right," answered Bishop 
 Kavanaugh, having difficulty to suppress laughter. 
 
 The result was, Bishop Kavanaugh preached. 
 The sermon was a wonderful array of truth, fresh 
 from the pages of God's Word. For more than an 
 hour he had over the audience an influence that lan- 
 guage can not describe. The first half-hour he was 
 argumentative; and then the wings of his imagination 
 were unfolded, and he soared aloft to the regions of 
 light and life and love. From the tree of life he 
 brought back golden fruit, and bade his hearers eat 
 and live forever ; he offered them water, fresh from 
 the river that makes glad the city of God, which if 
 they would drink, they should never thirst again;. he 
 offered them palms of victory, which they might 
 wave in time and through eternity ; and crowns 
 brighter far than ever decked a monarch's brow, that 
 they might wear after the world should be burned up. 
 Every eye rested on the preacher, and every form 
 leaned toward the pulpit, while all seemed uncon- 
 scious of the rapid flight of time.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 437 
 
 On our return home, he said, " Well, you played 
 us a pretty trick." 
 
 " I did the audience a great favor," was the reply. 
 
 " I think you served us right," he answered. And 
 then he entertained the family until after twelve 
 o'clock with anecdotes and incidents, and only retired 
 after he was told that it was past midnight. 
 
 Bishop Doggett was not so forgiving ; he held this 
 against us for a long time. 
 
 From Nashville, Bishop Kavanaugh returned to 
 his home in Lexington, Ky., " in excellent health, 
 and on Sunday, October 23d, preached two powerful 
 sermons in Paris, it being the occasion of the quar- 
 terly-meeting." 
 
 A few weeks later, we find him confined to his 
 room from an injury he had received, unable to meet 
 his pulpit engagements. 
 
 The affliction of the bishop continued, rendering 
 it impossible for him to meet the North Alabama, 
 North Georgia, and South Georgia Conferences. 
 
 In January, 1871, he was still suffering and un- 
 able to walk, or to meet an engagement to attend the 
 semi-centenary meeting in St. Louis. 
 
 On the 10th of February, he writes, from Lexing- 
 ton : " I have been confined now thirteen weeks ; my 
 present condition promises that my release is close at 
 hand, and I sigh to be active once more. I trust 
 that my confinement has been of considerable service 
 to me, in giving much more time for reading and re- 
 flection than I have enjoyed for full many a year." 
 
 When unable to do the will of God, he yet could 
 suffer it, improving even his hours of suffering, that
 
 438 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 he might achieve greater success in the cause of his 
 Master. 
 
 In March, we find him in the field, prosecuting 
 with vigor his high and holy calling. Another of 
 his colleagues had died ; Bishop Andrew had fallen. 
 At Mobile, Ala., March 2, 1871, he passed away, 
 with the word " Victory " on his lips. 
 
 Early in April, he announces the following ap- 
 pointments : 
 
 " Harrodsburg District Conference, at Stanford, 
 Ky., Thursday, April 27th, including the 5th Sabbath. 
 In the Holston Conference: Pikeville District, May 
 19th (Thursday), including Abingdon District, May 
 25th ; Jeffersonville District, Va., Thursday, April 1st, 
 including the first Sabbath of June, 1871 ; "YVytheville 
 District, at Dublin, Va., June 8th, including the sec- 
 ond Sabbath in June; Jonesboro District, East Ten- 
 nessee, June 15th, including the third Sabbath in 
 June ; Knoxville District, at Knoxville, June 22d, 
 including the fourth Sabbath in June; Athens Dis- 
 trict, at Athens, June 29th, including the first Sabbath 
 in July; Chattanooga District, at Cleveland, July 6th, 
 including the second Sabbath in July." 
 
 The annual meeting of the bishops took place 
 May 15th, in Nashville. On Sunday preceding, 
 he preached in Franklin, Tennessee, morning and 
 evening. 
 
 His episcopal district for this year embraced the 
 Illinois, Memphis, North Mississippi, Mississippi, and 
 Louisiana Conferences. 
 
 His labors at the district conferences began prior 
 to the bishops' meeting, and continued until after the
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 439 
 
 second Sunday in July. On the llth of July, he 
 passed through Nashville, en route for his home in 
 Kentucky, spending a night with our family in his 
 Nashville home. 
 
 After the immense labors he had just performed, 
 he will surely rest. Instead of resting, he traverses 
 his own loved Kentucky, mingling with the old laud- 
 marks that are left, and preaching the word of life 
 to their descendants. 
 
 He reached Ashley, the seat of the Illinois Con- 
 ference, in good time, " presided in his usual pleasant 
 manner," while "on Sunday the whole town and 
 country round about assembled in a grove, where a 
 stand and seats were prepared, and where for nearly 
 two hours they listened to one of Bishop Kavanaugh's 
 moving discourses." 
 
 At the Memphis Conference, we were with the 
 bishop, and occupied the same room. Here he won 
 the hearts of preachers and people, conducting the 
 business with energy, and preaching with his accus- 
 tomed zeal and power. 
 
 The North Mississippi Conference was held in 
 Columbus, where he left an impression for good that 
 can not be effaced in a generation. 
 
 At the Mississippi Conference, the secretary, Dr. 
 Andrews, says: "Bishop Kavanaugh preached at 11 
 A. M., at the Methodist Church, a grand sermon; and 
 when I inform you that he lost sight of one thing in 
 his sermon that in years he is an old man you can 
 then form an idea of the character of his discourse." 
 He was writing* to Dr. Summers, from Meridian, 
 where the conference was held.
 
 440 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 The same testimony comes from the Louisiana 
 Conference, which met in Monroe, when " the most 
 of the preaching was by Bishop Kavanaugh, and by 
 the eloquent-tongued Tudor, and the live-coal-lipped 
 Matthews, of New Orleans." 
 
 On his return home, in February, 1872, he lays 
 out his. work for such district conferences as he may 
 be able to attend. He proposes to devote three 
 months to this department, commencing with the Mis- 
 sissippi Conference early in April, and closing in Illi- 
 nois July 14th, attending in the meantime four in the 
 North Mississippi and three in the Memphis, preach- 
 ing not only on these occasions, but all along the route 
 of his travels, with the matchless power that had distin- 
 guished his earlier days. Why does he not rest? A 
 holy impulse seems to move him, and he can not 
 pause in his course. " Labor is rest," and only in the 
 performance of the glorious work to which God had 
 called him does he find repose. 
 
 In March, he dedicates Bascom Chapel in the city 
 of Louisville. His theme was, " The Church of God 
 the pillar and ground of the truth," and the sermon 
 was said to have been " one of his happiest efforts." 
 
 He attended the bishops' annual meeting in Nash- 
 ville, in May. The interest of the occasion was 
 heightened by the laying of the corner-stone of the 
 Publishing House, at which the prayer was offered 
 by Bishop Kavanaugh. 
 
 His episcopal district embraced the Western Vir- 
 ginia, Kentucky, North Mississippi, and Mississippi 
 Conferences; but hardly had the meeting adjourned 
 until we see him in the bounds of the North Missis-
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 441 
 
 sippi Conference, attending the Columbus District 
 Conference. 
 
 Before entering upon his annual conference work 
 he attended the St. Louis camp-meeting, and preached 
 on Sunday morning to the immense audience that 
 was present. In alluding to the sermon, a writer 
 said, "As a camp-meeting preacher, Bishop Kava- 
 naugh has scarcely an equal in the connection." 
 
 He met the Kentucky Conference September 4th, 
 where warm hearts awaited him, and the Western 
 Virginia on the 18th of the same month. We were 
 with him at both of these conferences, and witnessed 
 the aifectionate regard bestowed upon him. 
 
 We heard him preach at Harrodsburg, but were 
 denied the privilege at Parkersburg. The secretary 
 of the conference wrote : " Bishop Kavanaugh, on 
 the Sabbath, seemed to excel himself under the in- 
 spiration of the Spirit of truth, and proclaimed the 
 Gospel with a power that thrilled every heart in the 
 vast congregation." 
 
 He had presided over the North Mississippi and 
 the Mississippi Conferences the previous year, but his 
 return was gladly welcomed. At the North Missis- 
 sippi Conference he preached the Thanksgiving ser- 
 mon, which was well received; and at the Mississippi 
 he endeared himself more than ever by his genial 
 good-nature, while his eloquent flights in the pulpit 
 and on the platform won for him the title of " the 
 old man eloquent." 
 
 On the 7th of February, 1873, the Methodist 
 Church in Kentucky sustained a great loss in the 
 death of David Thornton. He was the intimate
 
 442 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 friend and brother-in-law of Bishop Kavanaugh, who 
 felt the bereavement most deeply. 
 
 Mr. Thornton was born in Milford, Del., January 
 4, 1796, and removed with his parents to Versailles, 
 Ky., when only eleven years of age. In 1820 he 
 made a profession of religion and joined the Meth- 
 odist Church, in which he lived a useful and an hon- 
 ored member until called to his home in the skies. 
 No man in Kentucky lived a purer life, and none 
 contributed more to the happiness of others, than 
 David Thornton. In his business relations lie was a 
 model, doing unto others as he would have them do 
 unto him, filling offices of honor and of trust with 
 fidelity; as a Christian, shedding a golden light upon 
 the circle in which he moved, blessing the commu- 
 nity where he lived, and leaving behind him the 
 savor of a good name. He was a delegate to the 
 only General Conference that met, before his death, 
 after lay delegation was introduced, and of every 
 annual and district conference held to which he was 
 eligible. He married Charlotte Railey, who is spoken 
 of elsewhere in this volume. His death was a be- 
 reavement to the entire community. 
 
 Visitors to the Methodist Church in Versailles 
 may see the memorial tower erected to his memory 
 by his family and friends, inside of which is a tablet 
 bearing the inscription: 
 
 DAVID THORNTON. 
 
 Born ijqb. Died 1873. 
 Bttng itali fit jet aptaketfi.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 443 
 
 In April of this year Bishop Kavanaugh was at 
 the Franklin District Conference, Tenn., previous to 
 the annual meeting of the bishops in Nashville. 
 
 In Nashville, he preached on Sunday morning at 
 Savvrie Chapel. His episcopal district for the year 
 embraced the four conferences lying in the State 
 of -Texas. 
 
 On the 12th of June he passed through New Or- 
 leans, en route to the Brookhaven District Conference 
 at Beauregard; and on the 21st we meet with him in 
 Memphis, accompanied by his wife, on his way to 
 Kentucky to attend the district conference in Elkton. 
 Between these two conferences, he preached at Love 
 Station, and dedicated the church, which had just 
 been completed. 
 
 The Kentucky Conference met at Lexington, Sep- 
 tember 3d. Bishop McTyeire presided. As Bishop 
 Kavanaugh's work did not begin until October 15th, 
 it was convenient .for him to be present. Fifty years 
 had passed since he had entered the itinerant ranks, 
 and it was appropriate that he should preach a semi- 
 centennial sermon before the body. In advance of 
 the conference he was invited to do so, and had ac- 
 cepted the invitation. 
 
 On his appearance in the conference room the 
 following paper was unanimously adopted : 
 
 " It is eminently proper that the Kentucky Con- 
 ference should give expression in a suitable manner 
 to their profound sense of the divine goodness, in 
 prolonging to so great a length the life and efficient 
 labors of our venerable brother, Bishop H. H. Kav- 
 anaugh. We rejoice in the grace of God, which has
 
 444 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sustained him in the arduous labors of a ministry which 
 has now reached its fiftieth year. Starting from the 
 humblest place in the Church, he has passed in reg- 
 ular gradation through every efficient station in the 
 Church exhorter, junior preacher, senior preacher, 
 stationed, presiding elder, agent for our educational 
 interests, and bishop. His great intellect and spot- 
 less life, ramifying themselves through all these de- 
 partments of labor, have been seen and felt in the 
 achievement of grand results. Upon his character 
 and career neither blot nor suspicion has ever rested. 
 It is the peculiar pride of the Kentucky Conference 
 that his life of uncomplaining toil, unswerving devo- 
 tion to duty, and of exemplary purity, constitutes so 
 large a portion of their heritage. We thank God for 
 the grace that is in him; and we recommend to the 
 conference the adoption of the following resolutions: 
 
 " Resolved, That it is always a sincere gratification 
 to have Bishop Kavanaugh present at the sessions of 
 this conference, in whatever capacity he may appear. 
 
 "Resolved, That wherever in the providence of 
 God he may be called in the discharge of his official 
 duties, he bears with him our filial regards, and our 
 earnest prayer for the preservation of his useful life." 
 
 The bishop in a most touching manner responded, 
 thanking the conference for their esteem, prayers, and 
 well-wishes, and hoped he would prove worthy of 
 their confidence. 
 
 On Sunday evening, September 7th, a large audi- 
 ence assembled to listen to the semi-centennial sermon. 
 Fifty years had come and gone. The men who had 
 joined the Kentucky Conference the same year that
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 445 
 
 he did had all crossed over the last river, and only 
 one who had preceded him in the conference, Isaac 
 Collard, was there to answer to the roll-call. With 
 the freshness and vigor of his earlier years, this ven- 
 erable man still went in and out among his brethren, 
 urging them to a higher life by his example, and to 
 the faithful prosecution of their work by his zeal. 
 The occasion was a grand one. Standing the con- 
 necting link between the present and the past, identi- 
 fied with the fortunes of Methodism for two genera- 
 tions, names long before passed away, but leaving a 
 sweet savor, crowded upon his memory. How bright 
 the constellation. Side by side, he had labored for 
 long years with Bascom, Lakin, Stamper, Lindsey, 
 Crouch, and others, who had gone where 
 
 " Everlasting Spring abides, 
 And never-withering flowers." 
 
 These would all pass in review before him, while 
 the conquests of the Church, in the achievements of 
 half a century, would re-animate his zeal, and kindle 
 afresh his ardor in his Master's service. The sermon 
 was written, crowded with ennobling thoughts. The 
 manuscript lay before him. Never before had he at- 
 tempted to read a sermon. The role was a new one, 
 the task difficult. As he proceeded he warmed with 
 his subject, and then unwritten recollections rushed 
 upon his mind, and turning away from his manu- 
 script, he bounded into a world of facts and of fancy, 
 and carried his audience to the summit of Pisgah, 
 from whence they might see the promised land. But 
 he could not dwell forever amid the beauties of the 
 heavenly Eden. He returned to the manuscript; but
 
 446 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 alas, he had forgotten where he had left off, or could 
 not find the place where he must begin again. The 
 situation was embarrassing the stillness was like 
 the hush of death. Recovering at length from the di- 
 lemma, once more he read ; and then thoughts grander 
 than he had penned forced themselves upon him, and 
 again he explored that world of beauty and of joy 
 whither so many of his fellow-laborers had gone, and 
 whose streets of gold they were then treading. And, 
 once more returning to his manuscript, his eyes re- 
 fused to see where he had stopped or where he should be- 
 gin. For a long time he plodded through the remain- 
 der of the sermon, fully aware of the disadvantage 
 under which both he and the audience had labored. 
 
 The Louisville Conference met in Russellville, 
 October 1st. Bishop Keener presided. Bishop Kav- 
 anangh still had time to attend the session and reach 
 Dallas, Texas, by the 29th of October. 
 
 He was requested to preach the semi-centennial 
 sermon in Russellville, and the appointment was an- 
 nounced for Sunday evening. 
 
 On Sunday morning, he sent word to a brother to 
 call immediately at his room. The summons was 
 promptly obeyed. The manuscript of the bishop was 
 placed in his hands, with the request to read it aloud. 
 The reading occupied one hour and five minutes. 
 
 " You will read that sermon to-night," said the 
 bishop. 
 
 "At the church ?" asked his friend. 
 
 " Yes, at the church," was the prompt answer. 
 
 " I can not ; the people expect you to preach, and 
 would be disappointed."
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 447 
 
 " But you will not refuse me. It took me two 
 hours and ten minutes to read it at Lexington, and you 
 have read it in half the time. Besides, I frequently 
 lost the place ; and you must not decline." 
 
 How could he interpose further objections? 
 
 Sunday evening came. The church was filled to 
 overflowing. The opening services were conducted 
 by the bishop, after which he said : 
 
 " I must avail myself of the aid of a brother to 
 stand in my place before you this evening. The ser- 
 mon you have come to hear is written, and must be 
 read in your presence. I am a poor reader. I at- 
 tempted to read it at Lexington, but I made a bung- 
 ling of it. It took me more than two hours to do 
 so ; but I will not regret any failure that attended it. 
 Some of the preachers of Kentucky have adopted 
 the terrible habit of reading their sermons, and I 
 think, after hearing me in that role, they have become 
 so disgusted that they will never attempt it again. 
 Dr. Redford will fill my place this evening." 
 
 It was certainly an embarrassing position to be 
 placed in, but the bishop assumed the responsibility 
 of the result. The sermon was so grand that the 
 preacher was forgotten. Nor was our embarrassment 
 relieved on the following morning, when Dr. Sohon, 
 our presiding elder in representing us in the confer- 
 ference, said : " Dr. Redford preached a very fine ser- 
 mon last evening, but the universal impression is 
 that it was not his own." 
 
 The bishop reached the Trinity Conference in due 
 time, and gave great satisfaction. " On Thursday 
 evening he preached to a packed house. The discourse
 
 448 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 was one of his great sermons, and occupied in its de- 
 livery one hour and a half. It is surprising with what 
 power the bishop wields his battle-ax. There seems 
 to be in the pulpit no diminution of his physical or 
 mental powers. His faith is strong, his love abounds, 
 and his zeal knows no abatement." 
 
 On Sunday he preached again. "The morning 
 opened with a heavy rain, yet the congregation was 
 large, and for nearly one hour and a half he enchained 
 the congregation." 
 
 During the session of the Trinity Conference he 
 received intelligence of the death of Bishop Early, 
 who died in great peace in Lynchburg, Virginia, No- 
 vember 5, 1873. 
 
 The East Texas Conference was held at Palestine. 
 "Jefferson Shook, Levi R. Dennis, Acton Young, and 
 N. W. Burks had died during the year. Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh, by request, preached a memorial sermon, when 
 the character and labors of these men were portrayed. 
 The sermon was able, and produced a very fine im- 
 pression." He was present at the three remaining 
 conferences in Texas at Waco, at Lockhart, and at 
 Austin everywhere winning upon the hearts of his 
 brethren. 
 
 At Waco he preached from the text, "The re- 
 demption of tneir soul is precious, and it ceaseth for- 
 ever." The rostrum of the chapel of the Female Col- 
 lege was the pulpit. The Rev. R. H. H. Bennett, in 
 a letter to us, says^ " My verdict at that time was that 
 in wondrous nights of eloquence he could soar higher 
 and remain up longer and descend more gracefully 
 than any man I had ever heard."
 
 BISHOP K A VAN A UGH. 449 
 
 He remained in Texas several weeks after the close 
 of the conference at Austin, the last on his round, 
 preaching and laboring in the cause of his Master. 
 
 Leaving Texas he spent a few days in the vicinity 
 of Thibodeaux, Louisiana, and was in New Orleans on 
 his way to Kentucky, on the 15th of February, " in 
 excellent health." 
 
 After his return home he spent the interim between 
 then and the General Conference in visiting Churches 
 convenient to him, and preaching almost every Sunday. 
 
 The General Conference met in Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky, May 1, 1874. The episcopal district of Bishop 
 Kavauangh for this year embraced the Arkansas, White 
 River, and Little Rock Conferences. During the Sum- 
 mer he attended several district conferences, among 
 them that of the Shelbyville District, which met in 
 the beautiful village of Lagrange, where he " did some 
 of his best preaching." In one of his sermons he al- 
 luded to the " old preachers who had gone from the 
 Kentucky Conference and entered heaven, how they 
 would make inquiry of every new arrival from the 
 State in reference to their brethren below, how they 
 are prospering, how the Church is prospering, and 
 how the kingdom of Satan is tottering." Every heart 
 was thrilled, while many a voice said, " Amen." He 
 was present also at Winchester, where the Lexington 
 District Conference was held, and at Shepherdsville, 
 the seat of Elizabethtown District Conference, preach- 
 ing at both places with great power. 
 
 He was in his seat October 28th, at Fort Smith, 
 Arkansas, and at Searcy, November llth, where the 
 White River Conference met. 
 
 38
 
 450 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 At the White River Conference, just before the 
 appointments were announced, he delivered to the 
 preachers an appropriate address. After alluding to 
 the noble calling of a preacher of the Gospel he said 
 to the class that had just entered the ranks, "My 
 young brethren, you are entering upon the highest 
 calling known to men; in it you may expect to meet 
 with many trials, yet you have the assurance that 
 Jesus is your refuge; then let him be your trust. 
 Trust him in every trial, and trust him to end of life. 
 Your calling is a hard one; difficulties lie along your 
 path, poverty and privation may await you, but [and 
 he smiled] an item right here I have never .since I 
 entered the ministry been entirely out of money, but 
 I have been reduced to a dime."* 
 
 The session of the Little Rock Conference was a 
 very pleasant one, and was frequently referred to by 
 Bishop Kavanaugh in later years. 
 
 * Letter from. Rev. J. F. Jernigan.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 451 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FROM THE MEETING OF THE BISHOPS IN MAT, 1875, 
 TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1878. 
 
 AT their meeting in May, 1875, the bishops made 
 a full survey of the work throughout the con- 
 nection, and laid their plans for the ensuing year. 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh was appointed to the Colum- 
 bia, Pacific, and Los Angeles Conferences. 
 
 The previous visit of Bishop Kavanaugh to the 
 Pacific Coast was in 1866, where he remained two 
 years. After an absence of eight years from that 
 interesting field, he will again climb its mountains 
 and traverse its valleys. 
 
 It had for several years been the wish of Bishop 
 Kavanaugh to establish a permanent camp-ground at 
 some suitable point in his native State, as a monu- 
 ment to the success that had been achieved through 
 this means, and as a standing testimony that the true 
 worship is not confined to "houses built with hands," 
 but that anywhere beneath the God-built sky prayer 
 and praise might reach His ear. Before leaving for 
 California, he addressed the following circular to the 
 preachers of the Kentucky and Louisville Conferences : 
 
 " LOUISVILLE, KY., July 28, 1875. 
 "DEAR BROTHER, I respectfully solicit the co- 
 operation of yourself and your congregation in the
 
 452 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 establishment of a permanent camp-meeting ground, 
 for the Kentucky and Louisville Annual Conferences 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. With 
 this view, before I leave for the Pacific Coast, you 
 are invited to attend a basket-meeting in the woods 
 on the west side of the turnpike road, between 
 Beard's Station and Floydsburg, seventeen miles east 
 of Louisville, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and 
 Monday, August 13, 14, 15, 16, 1875. 
 
 "Yours, truly, H. H. KAVANAUGH." 
 
 At this meeting there was opportunity for con- 
 sultation, and it was determined to establish a per- 
 manent camp-ground in Oldham County, Ky., near 
 Beard's Station, on the Short Line Railroad, seventeen 
 miles from the city of Louisville, on the line between 
 the Kentucky and Louisville Conferences. 
 
 In this labor of love the bishop was assisted by 
 several preachers and laymen, prominent among whom 
 were Revs. D. Welburn, T. F. \ 7 anmeter, T. B. Cooke, 
 J. F. Bedford, J. H. Linn, G. W. Brush, J. P. Good- 
 win, H. C. Morrison, T. J. McCoy, and Messrs. Levi, 
 Barnhill, Yaughan, and Oglesby. 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh purchased one-half of a tract 
 of land of about one hundred acres, and soon after 
 the remaining half was purchased by T. J. McCoy.* 
 
 *In this labor of love they soon had the assistance of 
 others. A part of this land was turned over by the preachers 
 to a board of trustees, who obtained a charter, and commenced 
 work under the name of the KAVANAUGH CAMP-MEETING AS- 
 SOCIATION. It was found inconvenient and expensive to get 
 this board together in the interims of the meetings, and hence 
 an executive committee was elected to attend to all the inter-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 453 
 
 It was certainly gratifying to have associated with 
 himself on the Committee Thomas F. Vanmeter and 
 Burd C. Levi. He had received Mr. Vanmeter into 
 the Church, and licensed him to exhort. But few 
 men so different in age were more familiar with each 
 other. Bishop Kavanaugh had been his beau ideal 
 of a Methodist preacher ever since he had known 
 him, and Mr. Vanmeter enjoyed the highest confidence 
 of the bishop. Burd C. Levi was a distinguished lay- 
 man in the Church, devoted to its welfare, and ready 
 to spend and be spent for his beloved Methodism. 
 The appointment of these brethren with the bishop 
 insured the success of the enterprise. 
 
 After maturing his plans for the camp-meeting, 
 on the 19th of August Bishop Kavanaugh and wife 
 left Louisville for California. Quite a number of 
 their friends met them at the depot, where a touching 
 
 ests of the association, and to prepare for the yearly gather- 
 ings. That committee was composed of Bishop Kavanaugh, Rev. 
 T. F. Vanmeter, and B. C. Levi ; and they have had control and 
 management of the same ever since, the board of trustees 
 meeting only once a year. 
 
 A pavilion was erected at a cost of eighteen hundred dol- 
 lars, paid for by donations. Mr. McCoy then erected, at his 
 personal expense, a chapel and hotel, and inclosed the grounds 
 by a good fence. He also built a dormitory, paying for this all 
 except six hundred dollars, which the association paid. He 
 and the bishop then gave to the association a deed for thirty 
 acres of land, all they needed, of the original tract purchased 
 by them. Since then the association has purchased fifteen 
 acres, to give them a better road from the depot to the ground. 
 From what has been given and made, the property is now 
 worth about ten thousand dollars, and is held for the good of 
 the Church and to improve the property, no dividends accru- 
 ing to any individual.
 
 454 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 address was delivered by Dr. Sehon, to which the 
 bishop responded very happily, after which an affec- 
 tionate farewell was taken of the bishop and Mrs. 
 Kavanaugh. 
 
 We hear nothing further from him until he reaches 
 the golden shore, when he appears at Woodbridge, on 
 the 29th of August, and dedicates a new church. " The 
 congregation was large, the sermon by the bishop mag- 
 nificent." On Sunday afternoon he went to Stockton, 
 and " preached to the great delight of the people at 
 night." 
 
 He entered upon his work in a spirit that indi- 
 cated that he intended to make " full proof of his 
 ministry." 
 
 After spending some time in California, he writes 
 to Dr. Summers, giving an account of his travels from 
 Omaha of the " grand and imposing scenery " on which 
 he looked, the "wide-spread Valleys," the "occasional 
 sight of deer and antelopes." The " Sierra Nevada 
 mountains, capped with eternal snow," excited his 
 wonder; and then, as though he had encountered no 
 obstacle, he exclaims, " O, how glorious is the climate 
 of California ! " 
 
 In referring to this trip to California, Mrs. Emma 
 Hardacre, now of Cincinnati, writes : 
 
 " Several years ago I traveled from St. Louis to 
 San Francisco in the same car with Bishop Kavan- 
 augh and wife. It was my first acquaintance with the 
 genial Southerner, one of the warmest, sweetest, gen- 
 tlest-uatured of men. In writing to the Courier- 
 Journal at that time, I said : ( My nearest car-neigh- 
 bor is a very stout, smooth-faced gentleman, with
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 455 
 
 grayish-brown hair, which is cut short and stands 
 like the quills of the fretful porcupine. He has a big 
 nose, small eyes, and heavy jaws. His small, hand- 
 some hands rest upon a gold-headed cane, and much 
 of the time he is apparently in deep thought. He is 
 very gentle and unassuming, and modest in his man- 
 ners. By his side is a tiny lady, with silvery curls 
 about her face. She is handsomely dressed, and has 
 a bright smile for every one ; but the big man at her 
 side is evidently her chief care and pride. She is 
 never still a moment. She brushes his coat with her 
 little gloved hand ; she pours cologne on a handker- 
 chief, and waves it about as if to fumigate him ; she 
 spies a sunbeam that is about to find its way to her 
 husband's thoughtful eyes, and instantly it is put out- 
 side the blind. When the little lunch-table is set up 
 in the sleeper she tucks a napkin about him, butters 
 his bread, puts jelly upon it, pats it gently with the 
 knife before she gives it to him. The whole repast 
 is in honor of her husband, and every delicacy is 
 heaped upon him. They make me think of a hum- 
 ming-bird and a pumpkin blossom. Large and open- 
 hearted and golden-hearted is the flower, and also the 
 bishop. The pumpkin blossom is not swayed, like the 
 frail morning-glory, with every passing breeze ; but 
 firm and very lowly, and almost hidden by the leaves 
 of its humility, it blooms close to our feet, uncon- 
 scious that it is the largest and most regal flower in 
 the garden.' 
 
 " Several months after this trip I saw the bishop 
 and Mrs. Kavanaugh in a carriage coming from the 
 steamer at Sautu Barbara. I w;is on the .sidewalk.
 
 456 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 When I advanced to the carriage which had halted, 
 the ponderous man looked at me sternly, and said, ' I 
 hear that you called me a pumpkin flower. I do not 
 know whether I ought to speak to you or not; but 
 another paper took it up and said that you were not 
 far from the truth, for every body acknowledged that 
 Bishop Kavanaugh was "some pumpkins," so I will 
 forgive you.' 
 
 " Then, how the lips wreathed in the girlish smile 
 that all his friends remember; how cordially his hands 
 reached out of the carriage to help me in ; how his 
 shoulders shook with the laughter that was as merry 
 as a child's! What a happy drive that was that the 
 little wife and the great preacher and I had that early 
 morning up State Street of Santa Barbara, while the 
 freshness of the surf was just back of us, the moun- 
 tains in front, and December fruit and flowers in the 
 gardens that we passed ! The bishop was at that time 
 engaged in his official duties on the Pacific Coast. The 
 thousands of miles that he traveled yearly never seemed 
 to fatigue him, neither did the scenery lose its beauty. 
 No one sooner noticed a gorgeous sky, a lichened rock, 
 or a wayside flower. I remember, in crossing the 
 plains, how every body else was tired and impatient 
 of the alkali stretches, while the veteran traveler sat 
 looking with happy eyes at the great expanse of arid 
 brightness, so harmoniously blended into the gray sage- 
 brush. I remember, also, a little drive we took to 
 see the famous big grape-vine of Monticello, which 
 covers an area of nine thousand square feet ; it is 
 supported on an arbor as big as a farm. Under its 
 branches I recall the bishop sitting, hat off, the shad-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUOH. 457 
 
 ows of the vine playing about him. I remember 
 his saying to us, as he loo.ked down the valley 
 of the Monticello off to the ocean, up to the en- 
 circling mountains, in a voice filled with emotion, 
 ' I have lived in this beautiful world for seventy-six 
 years ; it seems to me that I have never seen so 
 beautiful a landscape, or felt so balmy an air/ 
 Then dropping his voice to a cadence which I shall 
 never forget, Jie added, ' I have never felt so over- 
 poweringly the mercy and power and majesty of our 
 God.' 
 
 " At another time we were going to the Mountain 
 Hot Springs Hotel, which we saw plastered like a 
 wasp's nest to the side of the mountain wall above us. 
 The road was so steep that it seemed as if our wagon 
 would go backward in somersaults down the incline. 
 The bishop and myself were on the back seat of the 
 open vehicle, with Mrs. Kavanaugh facing us. The "* 
 four horses were going in a gallop up this fearful 
 place, urged on by voice and whip of the Spanish 
 driver. We all sank to our knees and held on to the 
 wagon for dear life, letting our umbrellas sway around 
 like anchored balloons. One lurch and we fell against 
 them, and only a rattling bunch of rattan and steel 
 remained. When the horses reached the hotel door, 
 the bishop's cane must be found, our hats straight- 
 ened, and a general toilet supervision made before we 
 could descend with propriety from the wagon. We 
 laughed until the tears ran down our cheeks, and our 
 shouts were echoed by the gray mountains that, al- 
 though they looked solemn, must have been merry 
 
 old fellows at heart, for they laughed as loud as any 
 
 30
 
 458 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of us, flinging back peal after peal to our demoralized 
 party. 
 
 " The acquaintance begun in the palace-car across 
 the continent ripened into the warmest friendship. 
 The man's simplicity and happiness were charming 
 in one aged and exalted as he. He never seemed to 
 think of himself, or to consider his claims as worth 
 considering, and the lack of stiffness or holy bigotry 
 was remarkable in a religious leader. 
 
 " At a class-meeting one time, where many had 
 given lengthy experiences, the bishop rose in his pro- 
 verbially meek way, saying, ' I love Jesus. He first 
 loved me.' That was all. But what more could have 
 been added? 
 
 " At another time he said, after a very tearful and 
 lugubrious session at a home Church, ' Sister, religion 
 appears to be such a hard thing for some people.' 
 
 " During all the time I have known Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh he never asked me to what Church I belonged. 
 He from the first called me ' sister,' with the natural- 
 ness that indicated we were all children of one Father. 
 He 1 did not have to stop and think whether he should 
 say ( sister,' whether I was really one of the elect 
 one saved by grace. It was ( sister' just the same, 
 said with an affection as sincere and hearty as if we 
 were really children of one father a parent whom 
 we mutually loved. I can but say now what I often 
 said to friends during the good man's life that he 
 was the most unostentatious, happy, beautiful Chris- 
 tian that I ever knew. 
 
 " He has left fewer unkind words and more gen- 
 tle deeds; has said less in praise of himself or in blame
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 459 
 
 of others ; has lived, no less than preached, the Gos- 
 pel of Christ. 
 
 " For three Summers I have gone down into Ken- 
 tucky, from wherever I chanced to be, to attend Bishop 
 Kavanaugh's camp-meeting. It is a little rest of a 
 few weeks which he has from conference work, and 
 which he devotes to an old-fashioned camp-meeting 
 on the Kavanaugh Camp-grounds, near Louisville. 
 Then he was not busy with executive business; then 
 we talked over our past journeys and adventures; 
 then in the woods, in the evening hour, before the 
 bell called to prayer, the little group about him heard 
 his reminiscences of noted preachers. 
 
 " I could go on with these remembrances of good 
 Bishop Kavanaugh. I love to talk of him the good, 
 kind man ! But I remember especially one lovely 
 day, the last on that beautiful camp-ground. The 
 congregation under the trees were singing, ' Sweet 
 fields, beyond the swelling flood.' The bishop had 
 just come from his prayerful ramble, and carried in. 
 his hand a great bunch of flowers that he had gath- 
 ered in the forest. The landscape above us was beau- 
 tiful. The white clouds drifted like snow-banks against 
 the violet background of the sky; the leaves of the 
 oak, the beech, the linn formed an inner pavilion un- 
 der the great sky. 
 
 " Are those ' sweet fields,' I thought, more exquisite 
 than this world's wide heather of the twilight sky, its 
 changeful arbors of sunset, wreathed with roses red 
 and yellow, or its midnight crocus-bed of stars? What 
 heavenly garland can be more exquisite than the velvet- 
 leaved vine that is hooped about the gray trunk of
 
 460 LJFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the lichened beech? If such exquisite finish be given 
 our earth-home, our camp but for a night, what the 
 splendor lavished upon the ( continuing city/ the ' eter- 
 nal home ! '' 
 
 " Last October I happened to meet Bishop and 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh, as they were starting on their South- 
 ern trip. They had purchased a beautiful place in 
 Anchorage, Kentucky, with fine forest trees surround- 
 ing, which was to be the bishop's home when age 
 forced him to give up work. ' I want a home for my 
 old age ; I am but eighty-two. I have traveled over 
 nine thousand miles this year, but still I have got my 
 home ready now to rest in when age overtakes me. 
 We shall be back m April. You have a room in our 
 new house hasn't she, wife? Say you will come in 
 April, when we return, and make us a visit; eh, wife?' 
 What kindly, happy words came back to me, as the 
 train bore them away ! I am glad to remember that 
 the little wife was with him to the last, careful and 
 devoted ; that he died in the harness, as he wished ; 
 that although there will be no visit to the beautiful 
 Southern home in April, God has given him ' a bet- 
 ter,' into which I, too, may come." 
 
 At the Columbia Conference, held in Albany, 
 Oregon, he preached three times, and delivered the 
 missionary address. 
 
 On Sunday morning he dedicated the new church 
 in Albany, " proving to his vast audience, who hung 
 with rapture on his burning words, that his bow still 
 abides in strength." The writer adds, " Though he 
 has reached the age of seventy-four, his eye is not 
 dimmed nor his natural force abated. His sermon
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGR. 461 
 
 was a masterpiece of logic, impassioned eloquence, 
 holy unction, and power." 
 
 From California he went to Oregon on a steamer 
 the same vessel that, twenty years before, had taken 
 him from Panama to San Francisco. The sea was 
 rough, and the voyage devoid of interest. 
 
 Upon landing at Portland, he had a cordial recep- 
 tion from the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, while in the prosecution of his journey he 
 met with many friends. Albany, the seat of the Co- 
 lumbia Conference, is "one of the several beautiful 
 towns that adorn the far-famed valley of the Willa- 
 mette River." 
 
 He was delighted with the conference; preachers 
 and people won his heart, while the future of the 
 Church he was so faithfully serving, as it opened be- 
 fore him, cheered him in his labors. He preached 
 often, not confining himself to his own branch of 
 Methodism going also into Presbyterian churches, 
 to proclaim the message of life. 
 
 After the close of the Columbia Conference, he 
 visited Corvallis, and then Portland, Oregon, then 
 Eugene City, preaching all along the route, and on to 
 Roseburg, where Stahl and Bell and Davies assisted him 
 in a meeting ; after which he went to Jacksonville Cir- 
 cuit, and preached two days and nights. Taking leave 
 of Roseburg, he journeyed to Canyonville, where he 
 preached. He at length entered Rogue River Valley, 
 where at the hotel he rested well for the night. 
 
 He held near Jacksonville what, he says, "we 
 called a camp-meeting;" after which he journeyed to 
 Ashland, and " preached in a -large school-house,"
 
 462 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 which was crowded by people eager to hear the 
 words of life. We next find him at Yreka, about 
 fifty miles from Roseburg. From Yreka he traveled 
 one hundred and twenty miles to Redding by stage, 
 and thence by rail to Sacramento. From Sacramento 
 he went to San Francisco, from which place he has- 
 tened to San Jose, that he might be present at a 
 camp-meeting near that place, where he could remain 
 but one Sabbath, having to return to San Jose on 
 Monday to be in time for the Pacific Conference. 
 
 The labors of Bishop Kavanaugh during his stay 
 on the Pacific Coast can hardly be estimated. They 
 were immense. He was expected to attend the an- 
 nual meeting of the bishops in May, 1876 ; but we re- 
 ceived a letter from him, dated at Petaluma, April llth, 
 informing us that he could not be present, but that 
 he would return to Kentucky in June. Grand old 
 man ! there was work to be done in that distant field, 
 and he was willing to forego the pleasure of meeting 
 with his colleagues to accomplish it. The Colusa 
 District Conference meets at Chico, and the bishop 
 presides; and whenever duty makes its levy on his 
 energies and his time, he pays the assessment. 
 
 At the meeting in May, his colleagues assign him 
 to the West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, 
 South Carolina, and Baltimore Conferences. 
 
 Late in June, we meet with him in St. Joseph, 
 Missouri, on his return to his home, where he was 
 resting a few days on account of the intense heat, 
 which had well-nigh prostrated his excellent wife. 
 While there he preached in Francis Street Church a 
 missionary sermon, raising a handsome collection;
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 463 
 
 and then at night he preached again, with great profit 
 to the people. 
 
 He makes his appearance in Kentucky in ample 
 time to arrange for a camp-meeting at Paroquet 
 Springs, twenty miles from Louisville, on the Nash- 
 ville Railroad, the Kavanaugh Camp-ground not yet 
 being ready. 
 
 The meeting was commenced August 10th, and 
 embraced two Sundays. Among the distinguished 
 preachers who were present, Bishop Kavanaugh was a 
 commanding figure, preaching and laboring as in the 
 past. 
 
 The Kentucky Conference, held in Nicholasville, 
 commenced on the 13th of September. Bishop 
 Keener presided. 
 
 Before leaving home for Western Virginia Confer- 
 ence, where his episcopal labors would begin, he called 
 by Nicholasville and spent a short time. Dr. Miller 
 writes : " Bishop Kavanaugh was present two days, and 
 gladdened our hearts with his genial spirit and godly 
 counsels. It is said that there are districts in North 
 Carolina that are still voting for Andrew Jackson for 
 the presidency. We can appreciate the generous de- 
 votion of the North Carolinians in this. It is not 
 a question of information with them. It is explain- 
 able upon precisely the same grounds as the fact that 
 the Kentucky Conference still believes that Bishop 
 Kavanaugh is ( a member at large ' of its body." 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh preached the first evening 
 after his arrival. The Methodist Church was crowded. 
 We had a seat on the steps of the pulpit. He was in 
 his happiest mood. Every eye was upon him, and
 
 464 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 every ear was strained to catch the words of living 
 truth as they fell from his lips, when 'a pallor seemed 
 to settle on many a face. The impression was general 
 that the pulpit would not contain him. He swayed 
 from right to left, each succeeding moment more in- 
 tensified with the grand theme he was presenting. Just 
 as he caught a glimpse of the promised land, and was 
 unfolding its glories, he stepped too near the edge of 
 the pulpit; but, while falling, strong arms caught him 
 and bore him back. During this incident, the 
 thread of the sermon was not broken. While all 
 were alarmed, he seemed unconscious of what was 
 passing. 
 
 On the 20th of September, we were with him at 
 Charleston, West Virginia, where he presided over 
 that conference, at the close of which T. S. Wade, the 
 secretary, wrote : " Our beloved Bishop Kavanaugh 
 was with us, in good health, and presided with his 
 usual dignity and acceptability, and preached with 
 all the power and eloquence of his earlier days." 
 
 On the first day of October, we find him at Belle- 
 ville, West Virginia, engaged in the dedication of a 
 church. 
 
 At the Virginia, North Carolina, and South Caro- 
 lina Conferences, he was equally abundant in labors. 
 At the North Carolina Conference, he preached on 
 Thanksgiving Day " a great Gospel sermon, full of the 
 Holy Ghost such a sermon as becomes a bishop." 
 
 From South Carolina he returned home, his health 
 somewhat impaired by the immense labors he had 
 performed. He was confined to- his room for several 
 weeks; but as soon as he was able he was again in
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 465 
 
 the field, zealously promoting the collections for the 
 Publishing House, contributing largely himself. 
 
 The Baltimore Conference was held at Alexan- 
 dria, Va., commencing March 7th. Bishop Kava- 
 naugh had not fully recovered his strength, and 
 cheerfully availed himself of the assistance of Bishop 
 Doggett during the session. We had not the pleasure of 
 hearing him preach on Sunday, as we were serving 
 at another church. 
 
 Early in May, in speaking of Bishop Kavanaugh, 
 the Lebanon (Ky.) Herald says: "This venerable and 
 distinguished prelate preached at the Methodist 
 church on Sunday morning and evening, to immense 
 audiences. His sermons produced a deep impression. 
 They were earnest, logical, profound, and eloquent 
 two specimens of pulpit oratory such as are not often 
 heard within twenty-four hours." 
 
 He was present with the bishops in May in Nash- 
 ville, but subsequently to the meeting he attended the 
 conference for the Gallatin District, Tennessee Con- 
 ference; and at the laying of the corner-stone of the 
 McKcndree Church he delivered an appropriate and 
 eloquent discourse. 
 
 His episcopal work for 1877 embraced the Illi- 
 nois, Louisville, Arkansas, White River, and Little 
 Rock Conferences. 
 
 We had the pleasure of being with him at the 
 sessions of the Illinois Conference, held in Nashville, 
 111., and the Louisville Conference, in Henderson, 
 Ky., and listened with pleasure to the high enco- 
 mium passed upon him in both places. 
 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh accompanied him to his confer-
 
 466 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ences in Arkansas, and won golden opinions from the 
 preachers and people everywhere by the suavity and 
 gentleness of her manners, her bright and cheerful 
 face, and her fine conversational powers; while the 
 bishop continued to occupy the high eminence to 
 which he had attained in his former visits. 
 
 This year will ever occupy a prominent place in 
 Southern Methodism as the year in which Bishop 
 Marvin died. He had visited the Church in China, 
 and just returned from his trip around the world. 
 We were with him at the Missouri Conference, Sep- 
 tember 12th, when he received the sad intelligence 
 by telegram, while in the chair, of the death of a 
 brother. Inviting Dr. Rush to the chair, he retired 
 to his room, asking us to accompany him. We spent 
 the afternoon with him in close Christian fellowship. 
 His conversation was in reference to the sustaining 
 power of religion amid the bereavements of life, and 
 the rich reward that awaits the Christian after death. 
 
 On the 26th of November he died, at his home in 
 St. Louis, of pleuro-pneumonia. The Church through- 
 out its borders mourned his death, and in China tears 
 were shed for the loss of one so useful and so beloved.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 467 
 
 xv. 
 
 FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1878 TO THE 
 LEA TH OF BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 
 
 r I A HE eighth session of the General Conference 
 JL of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, began 
 its session in Atlanta, Georgia, May 1, 1878. 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh was present, and bore well his 
 part as a bishop during the session. 
 
 After the close of the conference, he came to 
 Nashville, spending a few days in our family. He 
 preached by previous invitation on Sunday, the 26th, 
 in the afternoon, at Vanderbilt University, a sermon 
 before the Biblical class, on Acts xx, 24. A minister 
 who was present* said : "The venerable bishop seemed 
 to emulate the great apostle in testifying the gospel 
 of the grace of God, which he charged the young di- 
 vines to preach in all its purity, grandeur, and power." 
 
 In the plan of episcopal visitation for 1878, his field 
 of labor embraced the Illinois, Tennessee, Holston, 
 Florida, North Alabama, and Alabama Conferences. 
 Before the time for his conferences to begin, he held 
 a basket-meeting" at Kavanaugh Camp-ground, and a 
 few weeks later he held a camp-meeting at the same 
 place, where he labored with untiring energy. 
 
 In the meantime, he attended several district con- 
 ferences, among them the one held at Allensvillc, 
 
 *Kev. T. O. Summers, D.D.
 
 468 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Ky., for the Russellville District, where he preached 
 twice. " His sermon on the office of Christ was re- 
 plete with intelligent thought and soul-encouraging 
 doctrine." Speaking of the final chorus of the re- 
 deemed, he said : " I never could carry a tune here ; 
 but when I join the general assembly and Church of 
 the first-born in the skies, tune or no tune, I'll try 
 to sing." 
 
 Before leaving Southern Kentucky, he visited his 
 old friend, Hugh Barclay, in Russellville, who was in 
 feeble health, remaining two days, and preaching one 
 evening to a large congregation. 
 
 He was also present at. the Louisville District 
 Conference, which held its session in the Walnut 
 Street Church, where "he preached with extraordi- 
 nary power." 
 
 Never was Bishop Kavanaugh more in his element 
 than in charge of a camp-meeting. Bishop McTyeire 
 was in attendance, as was also Bishop Wiley, of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, whose sermons were 
 spoken of in the highest terms. He entered upon his 
 episcopal work at Pana, Illinois, September llth, 
 and closed the round at Mobile, Alabama, December 
 17th, presiding with acceptability, and preaching with 
 power, at the several conferences he attended. 
 
 At the Holston Conference, the testimony was 
 that, " Bishop Kavanaugh, as he does everywhere, 
 sustained himself as one of the most gifted of Ameri- 
 can preachers." An eminent physician in Knoxville 
 said : "I do not believe he has a superior in the 
 pulpit." His sermon in Church Street Church, 
 Knoxville, on Sunday, " was a model of sublime and
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 469 
 
 eloquent thought, delivered with remarkable fervor 
 and effect." 
 
 At the Alabama Conference, Dr. Summers, who 
 was present, said of him : " In the chair, on the plat- 
 form, and in social intercourse, he won golden opin- 
 ions of preachers and people." 
 
 He did not reach home from the Alabama Con- 
 ference until late in February, 1879, and after resting 
 for a few weeks, entered upon a round of district 
 conferences. 
 
 The first was held for Ashley District, Illinois Con- 
 ference, March 20th to 23d ; the second at Lewisport, 
 Ky., for the Owensboro District, Louisville Confer- 
 ence, April llth to 13th. We next follow him to Mt. 
 Sterling, Ky., April 26th to 27th, the seat of the Lex- 
 ington District Conference. From there he proceeded 
 to Tennessee, and held the Clarksville District Con- 
 ference at Ashland, May 1st to 4th. 
 
 Soon after the conference at Ashland, the annual 
 meeting of the bishops was held, after which he at- 
 tends the conference for McMinnville District, at 
 MeMinnville, May 22d to 25th. 
 
 From the Tennessee he goes to the Holston Con- 
 ference, and is present at the conferences for the 
 Chattanooga, the Athens, the Wytheville, and the 
 Jefferson Districts, closing this* department of his 
 work on the 22d of June. 
 
 Early in July, he passes through Nashville, en 
 route to his home in Louisville. 
 
 His camp-meeting was appointed to begin July 
 17th, in which it was expected that he would bear a 
 prominent part, and he did so. Dr. Alpheus W.
 
 470 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Wilson, now Bishop Wilson, preached the opening 
 sermon. The text was Eph. i, 15-23. The effect 
 produced was excellent. 
 
 He visited the Kentucky Conference, held in 
 Richmond, where Bishop Doggett presided, and then 
 attended the Indiana, the first in his round for the 
 present year. It was held in Gosport. He was the 
 guest of Dr. Smith, a Kentuckian, at whose house we 
 had the pleasure of being entertained with the bishop. 
 He preached several times with great profit to the 
 people, and on Sunday afternoon addressed the Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 On his return to Kentucky, on the fourth Sunday 
 in October, he dedicated the new Methodist Church 
 in Caverna, and after a most remarkable sermon sev- 
 eral hundred dollars were collected to pay the debt 
 that rested upon it. 
 
 He met the Memphis Conference at Mayfield, 
 November 19th, and the North Mississippi at Water 
 Valley, December 3d, at both of which he enjoyed 
 "times of refreshing." His lecture in December, 1879, 
 at Greenville, Miss., for the benefit of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, was a grand success. 
 His theme was man, his origin, nature, relations, obli- 
 gations, and destiny. The impression made is not yet 
 obliterated. 
 
 His last conference on the round was the Missis- 
 sippi, held at Meridian, commencing December 17th, 
 where "the bishop won every heart to him." 
 
 The early part of the year 1880 he spent the most 
 of his time in attending district conferences in Indi- 
 ana, Memphis, and Mississippi Conferences, preaching
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 471 
 
 the commencement sermon for Whitworth Female 
 College, in Mississippi, June 27th, having been pres- 
 ent at the annual meeting of the bishops in May. In 
 July he dedicated a church in Cave City, Kentucky, 
 and August 5th entered upon the labors of the camp- 
 meeting at Kavanaugh Camp-ground, bearing an 
 equal part in pulpit and altar with the younger 
 preachers. 
 
 To Bishop Doggett the conferences on the Pacific 
 Coast were assigned, but his feeble health indicated 
 that he would not be able to attend them. On Bishop 
 Kavanaugh devolved the necessity of supplying his 
 place. Before doing so he attended the Illinois Con- 
 ference at Marion, the Indiana at Nashville, preach- 
 ing at the latter place a funeral sermon in memory 
 of Rev. T. A. Feltner, and then the Louisville at 
 Glasgow, leaving his work in Texas to be supplied 
 by some other bishop. 
 
 After holding the Louisville Conference he made 
 his arrangements to leave for California, and with 
 Mrs. Kavanaugh was soon on his long journey. 
 
 Bishop Kavanaugh was now in his seventy-ninth 
 year, and had visited this distant field four times pre- 
 vious. On reaching the Occident he was never more 
 gladly welcomed. His popularity and influence had 
 increased with eac"h successive visit. 
 
 Bishop Doggett, whose place Bishop Kavanaugh 
 was going to fill, died at Richmond, Virginia, Octo- 
 ber 27, 1880, just about the time Bishop Kavanaugh 
 left for California. Bishop Doggett had but few 
 peers in the American pulpit. Pure in life, his death 
 was triumphant.
 
 472 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 After attending the Pacific and Los Angeles Con- 
 ferences, " he spent a month in visiting different local- 
 ities where his services had been solicited." He then 
 visited Santa Rosa, then Sacramento, whose " Public 
 Library and Art Gallery are interesting resorts to the 
 visitor," and where Bishop Kavanaugh spent his sev- 
 enty-ninth birthday. Colusa was the next point that 
 shared the labors of this extraordinary man. 
 
 He was not present at the meeting of his col- 
 leagues in May, preferring to remain in California and 
 Oregon until after the sessions of the conferences in 
 1881, making his last foot-prints on the Pacific Coast, 
 and where his marks were deep and distinct. "He 
 is preaching through that vast territory the pure 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ with the vigor of a man of 
 forty, and the wisdom of a man of twice that number 
 of years." His health and the power of his pulpit 
 work, and the contagion of his cheerful faith in God 
 and the Gospel, told happily upon the Church in 
 that field. 
 
 On the 25th of August he was at Corvallis, Oregon, 
 holding the Columbia Conference, and at the Angeles, 
 held in Carpenteria, California, September 15th. On 
 the 28th of September we find him in Petaluma, 
 holding the Pacific Conference. 
 
 Soon after the adjournment of tne Pacific Confer- 
 ence he turns his face towards his home, from which 
 he had been so long absent. His labors in California 
 and Oregon would make a large volume, and if we 
 take into consideration his affection for the Church in 
 those States, its size would be greatly augmented. 
 Many of the best years of his life had been passed on
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 473 
 
 these beautiful plains and majestic mountains; but now 
 he had completed his work, and was looking on the 
 vine-clad hills of California and the snow-capped 
 mountains of Oregon for the last time. 
 
 On his way home he stops at Helena and holds 
 the session of the Montana Conference, and thirteen 
 days later, on the 27th of October, we find him at 
 Denver, Colorado, presiding over the Denver Confer- 
 ence. Before reaching Kentucky, duty calls him to 
 Texas, where he holds the North-west Texas, the 
 North Texas, and East Texas Conferences, preaching 
 all along the route with matchless power, winning 
 golden opinions from the people, and gathering fruit- 
 age for his Master. 
 
 The account of his labors in the pulpit and on the 
 platform in Helena, given by a member of the Mon- 
 tana Conference, is a fair sample of his work every- 
 where on his route from Petaluma to his Kentucky 
 home. He says: "Bishop Kavanaugh fully sustained 
 his reputation as one of the leading pulpit orators of 
 the day. He was greeted at both Butte and Helena 
 with immense audiences, and held them spell-bound 
 for an hour and a half or more at each service. I 
 feel thankful for the message of this ancient servant 
 of God. I believe that his sermon on Sunday will 
 bear fruit in eternity. In his audiences were the lite 
 of Helena, and they were held in rapt attention for 
 nearly two hours, while the speaker discoursed upon 
 repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. It was a most faithful and powerful 
 presentation of the cardinal truths of the Gospel. I 
 thought I never heard the enormity of sin and its 
 
 40
 
 474 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 results so forcibly presented. Then the love of God 
 in the gift of his Son, the atonement, repentance, jus- 
 tification by faith, regeneration, and the witness of 
 the Spirit were clearly and powerfully illustrated. 
 Thank God for this visit to Montana, and the testi- 
 mony of Bishop Kavanaugh to the truth as it is in 
 Jesus !" 
 
 On Saturday evening, " he gave us a grand mis- 
 sionary speech." 
 
 On the 14th of January, 1882, the bishop was 
 eighty years of age. The Methodist preachers in the 
 city of Louisville, on the 9th of the mouth, mistak- 
 ing that day for the anniversary of his birthday, 
 called on him and tendered their good wishes, to 
 which he responded in touching language. 
 
 A letter from Louisville, dated January 23, 1882, 
 says: "Our dear Bishop Kavanaugh, Kentucky's 
 favorite preacher, is at home again, enjoying a short 
 rest, except on Sundays." 
 
 He reached home in time to attend the funeral of 
 his sister-in-law, Mrs. Charlotte Thornton, a woman 
 no less distinguished for her high culture than for 
 her beautiful Christian life. She died in Versailles, 
 Ky., January 31, 1882. 
 
 She was the wife of David Thornton, of whom 
 mention has already been made in this volume, shed- 
 ding happiness upon her home, while for nearly sixty 
 years she "walked with God." 
 
 The following beautiful tribute to her memory, 
 from the pen of her pastor, Rev. E. H. Pearce, de- 
 serves to be placed in a permanent form : 
 
 "Mrs. Charlotte Thornton died January 31, 1882,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 475 
 
 at her residence in Versailles, Ky., one of the noblest 
 of earth, a name written as in the caption, and also 
 in the Lamb's Book of Life. For some accidental 
 delay in this notice since the time of her departure, 
 to myself, at least, there is the compensation of a rec- 
 ollection rising at once with such strength and ten- 
 derness that I am reminded that time can never 
 efface the memory of one of the most exalted women 
 I have ever known in this life. The pilgrimage had 
 been close to the fourscore of years nearly or quite 
 sixty of these walking close with God. In young 
 womanhood she sought earnestly at the altar the for- 
 giveness of sins, and was powerfully converted. It 
 was a change ; she knew it she testified to it con- 
 tinually with devoted remembrance. Only a few 
 hours previous to her departing breath she told me 
 it was 'difficult to tell when Christ seemed nearer 
 in the hour of conversion or then, in the valley and 
 shadow, when the everlasting arms were about her/ 
 United in early womanhood to the late and lamented 
 David Thornton, she found in him a noble compan- 
 ionship in the love and service of Christ Jesus. 
 Many a weary itinerant Methodist preacher, long be- 
 fore the day of turnpikes and railroads, found a 
 welcome home at the house of David and Charlotte 
 Thornton. Through the long years of their union, 
 how firmly they stood as pillars in the Church of 
 God! Children came and were taken, but Christ 
 was all in all. Business success and adversity came, 
 but neither the tide of the one nor the storm of the 
 other removed the anchor from the rock. SOILS and 
 daughters grew to honored manhood and useful
 
 476 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 womanhood, but vows of consecration were breathed 
 upon them, and they went forth as loving laborers 
 and devoted workers in the vineyard of God. At 
 last the bereaved wife and aged mother stood alone 
 as the head of the home. Rarer and more radiant 
 than the sublimest scenes of earth was the moral sub- 
 limity of this heroine of faith, as she calmly but 
 courageously dwelt, waiting for God, and yet watch- 
 ing and working for him until he should say, ( It is 
 finished.' When Bishop Kavanaugh, as her kinsman 
 and life-long associate, spoke the last words of her 
 memorial to the great congregation, the light of her 
 life seemed resting on every heart, lingering as a 
 beam from the great white throne. 
 
 " " Sudden our pathway turned from night ; 
 The hills swung open to the light ; 
 Through their green gates the sunshine showed, 
 A long slant splendor downward flowed. 
 Down glade, and glen, and bank it rolled ; 
 It bridged the shaded stream with gold, 
 And, borne on piers of mist, allied 
 The shadowy with the sunlit side ! 
 ' So,' prayed we, ' when our feet draw near 
 The river dark with mortal fear, 
 And the night cometh chill with dew, 
 O Father ! let thy light break through ! 
 So let the hills of doubt divide, 
 So bridge with faith the sunless tide !' " 
 
 On the 15th of February, 1882, the intelligence 
 of the death of Bishop "VVightman, which occurred 
 that morning, flashed over the wires. His sickness 
 was protracted, but borne with sweet resignation to 
 the will of his Heavenly Father. Although his death 
 was not unexpected, yet there was mourning through-
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGB. 477 
 
 out the Church. A good and great man had fallen, 
 but he fell at his post. 
 
 On the last Sabbath in February Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh was in Nashville, and preached at West End 
 an excellent sermon. 
 
 The General Conference was fast approaching. It 
 met in the city of Nashville, May 3d, and at the re- 
 quest of Bishop Paine, the senior bishop, the confer- 
 ence was opened by Bishop Kavanaugh. During the 
 session he presided alternately with the other bishops, 
 and performed his portion of the work, in the pulpit 
 as well as in the conference room. 
 
 In the distribution of episcopal labor he had as- 
 signed to him, for this year, only two conferences, the 
 South Georgia and the Florida. 
 
 The episcopal college had been strengthened by 
 the election of four additional bishops, and, as he had 
 reached his fourscore years, it was deemed expedient 
 to lighten the burden he had borne so willingly and 
 so long. Although his mental vigor remained unim- 
 paired, yet it could not but be evident that his phys- 
 ical force was yielding to the heavy tax which had 
 been imposed upon it. His gait was less steady, and 
 there was less elasticity in his motive powers. He 
 did not, however, perceive the situation, or, if so, did 
 not accept it. He continued to labor as in the 
 strength of his mature manhood. He preached the 
 commencement sermon for Howard College, Mo., at- 
 tended district conferences, and conducted the Kav- 
 anaugh Camp-meeting, which continued several weeks, 
 performing his part of the pulpit labor with the 
 preachers who assisted him.
 
 478 LIFE ANb TIMES OF 
 
 The following invitation to attend the laying of 
 the corner-stone of the Battle Monument, at Blue 
 Lick Springs, was sent him ; but whether he accepted 
 or not we are not advised : 
 
 " OFFICE OF ' BLUE LICK BATTLE MONUMENT ASSOCIATION,' ) 
 CARLISLE, KY., July 20, 1882. J 
 
 " REV. H. H. KAVANAUGH : 
 
 "Dear Sir, The undersigned Committee of Cor- 
 respondence and Invitation beg leave to tender you, 
 in behalf of the 'Battle Monument Association/ a 
 special and earnest invitation to be present at the 
 solemn ceremonies of the laying of the corner-stone 
 of the ' Battle Monument/ at the ' Blue Lick Springs/ 
 August 19, 1882. It is the earnest wish of the Com- 
 mittee that you should offer the prayer to Almighty 
 God for his blessing upon the work begun by the 
 Committee, to honor and perpetuate the names and 
 sacrifices of the heroic pioneers who fell a victim upon 
 that bloody field one hundred years ago, in defense 
 of home, honor, and country. The Committee beg 
 to assure you that, as the head of a great body of 
 Christians, and still more as a loved father in Israel, 
 honored by all people of every creed, it is their ear- 
 nest wish that you will accept this trust, and thereby 
 gratify the Committee, as well as the great body of 
 people who will be present on that occasion. 
 
 "Awaiting your prompt and favorable reply, we 
 have the honor to be, very truly, yours, etc., 
 
 "W. P. Ross, W. A. MOERIS, 
 
 "J. H. PIPER, J. A. CHAPPELL, 
 
 "B. F. REYNOLDS, 
 
 " Committee.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 479 
 
 " The Committee will beg you to consider your- 
 self as their guest, and will assure you safe and com- 
 fortable private conveyance to and from Carlisle to 
 the Springs." 
 
 Before he entered upon his tour of conferences 
 another of his colleagues in the episcopal office passed 
 from labor to reward. Bishop Robert Paine died at 
 his residence in Aberdeen, Miss., October 18, 1882. 
 Since Bishop Kavanaugh's elevation to the office 
 of bishop six members of the episcopal college had 
 crossed over the last river and entered upon eternal 
 life. 
 
 The South Georgia Conference met in Albany, 
 Ga., December 13th; and, after presiding over that 
 body, Bishop Kavanaugh proceeded to Jacksonville, 
 Fla., where on the 3d of January he met the Florida 
 Conference. The session, as had been that of the 
 South Georgia Conference, was remarkably pleasant. 
 He remained in that sunny land for several weeks 
 after the adjournment of the conference, preaching 
 the Gospel and inviting sinners to Christ. Mrs. 
 Kavanaugh .was with him. February llth, he ded- 
 icated the church in Leesburg, preaching " with 
 marked ability and power," with no abatement of zeal 
 or intellectual force. 
 
 On his return home he preached at nearly every 
 point he passed to admiring crowds. He was present at 
 the annual meeting of the bishops in Nashville, May 
 1, 1883, and was assigned to the Virginia, Mississippi, 
 and Louisiana Conferences. He spent the Summer 
 in visiting Churches and preaching, holding several
 
 480 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 district conferences, scarcely a Sunday passing with- 
 out finding him in the pulpit, and generally both 
 morning and evening. 
 
 He conducted his annual camp-meeting, which 
 continued over two Sabbaths. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1883 he made his last visit to 
 Versailles, a place he loved well, where his first wife 
 and all his children were buried. The occasion was 
 the re-dedication or reopening of the Methodist church, 
 which had undergone a thorough renovation. He was 
 the pastor of the Church in that beautiful town at 
 the time of his elevation to the episcopal office. He 
 had preached there oftener, perhaps, than at any other 
 place in Kentucky, but was never more happy in de- 
 livering his message than on this occasion. 
 
 We had written to him, and invited him to spend 
 a Sabbath in Bowling Green and preach to the peo- 
 ple of our charge. He had not preached there since 
 1844, and we felt desirous that his voice should be 
 heard, especially by the younger people, proclaiming 
 the tidings of a Redeemer's love, before he closed his 
 labors and his life. We met him at the depot, and 
 conducted him to the pleasant home of. Dr. T. B. 
 Wright, where he was elegantly entertained. 
 
 His visit to Bowling Green embraced the first 
 Sabbath in September. He preached morning and 
 evening, to large audiences, and with great power, 
 and to the delight and profit of the people. If he 
 was the first preacher from whom we heard the Gos- 
 pel, nearly sixty years before, it seems to have been 
 appropriate that in the pulpit of which we had charge 
 his last sermon in Kentucky .should be preached.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 481 
 
 The Virginia Conference, the first in his round, 
 was to meet in Richmond, November 14th. On the 
 first of November, accompanied by Mrs. Kavanaugh, 
 he left home for Virginia. 
 
 He first stopped in Lynchburg, where he preached 
 one sermon. He next went to Petersburg, to which 
 city he was invited to address the Woman's Mission- 
 ary Society. From thence he went to Richmond, 
 where he preached, on the Sabbath preceding the 
 conference, at Union Church. 
 
 In Richmond he met Bishop Pierce, whom he had 
 invited to be with him and assist him in the duties 
 of the occasion. Bishop Hargrove was also present, 
 and aided in lightening his work. During the con- 
 ference, he preached on Sunday at Broad Street; and 
 after the close of the session he spent a Sabbath and 
 preached at Centenary. 
 
 Referring to his visits to the Virginia Conference, 
 a member of that body writes : " His preaching on 
 these occasions made the deepest impressions, and will 
 never be forgotten by those who chanced to hear him. 
 Fortunately for me, I had the pleasure of entertain- 
 ing him and his excellent wife at my bouse in Dan- 
 ville, in last November, soon after the close of our 
 last conference at Richmond, Va., and heard him 
 preach a sermon in my pulpit on the text, 'Bless the 
 Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his 
 holy name/ which was seldom, if ever, equaled by 
 himself or any living preacher of the Gospel in the 
 elements of pulpit power and effectiveness. It is 
 hard to realize that he who preached with such elo- 
 quence, showing no signs of mental or physical 
 41
 
 482 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 decline, has passed away under the weight of more 
 than eighty -two years."* 
 
 From Richmond he went to Danville; and from 
 thence to Augusta, Ga., fifteen miles from which city 
 he dedicated Kavanaugh Chapel. From Augusta he 
 went to Jackson, Miss., where he spent a few days, 
 and preached on the Sabbath ; and from thence to 
 Natchez, the seat of the Mississippi Conference, over 
 which he presided " without any manifestation of im- 
 patience, which is so common with men of his age. 
 As to his spiritual power in his talk, there was no 
 diminution. His talk to the young preachers received 
 into full connection was the most impressive and in- 
 structive I ever listened to. I see from your pub- 
 lished notice that you claim that Bishop Kavanaugh 
 was the favorite preacher of Kentucky. You might 
 have added, of the entire Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South." f 
 
 After leaving Natchez he spent a Sabbath at Vicks- 
 burg, where, in the morning, he preached in the Meth- 
 odist church, and in the evening at the Presbyterian. 
 From Vicksburg he went to Monroe, La., on a brief 
 visit to Judge Richardson, the brother of Mrs. Kav- 
 anaugh, on which occasion he dedicated a church, 
 fifteen miles from Monroe. He also preached in 
 Monroe during the week. 
 
 The Louisiana Conference was to be held in Min- 
 den, but was changed to New Orleans. Quite a num- 
 ber of preachers were on the same boat with the 
 bishop on his way from Monroe to the seat of the 
 
 * Letter from Rev. Alex. G. Brown, dated March 27, 1884. 
 t Extract from letter from Rev. W. Spillman.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 483 
 
 conference. Bishop Kavanaugh preached on the boat 
 on the 6th of January. The text was Hebrews ii, 
 14, 15 : " Forasmuch then as the children are par- 
 takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise 
 took part of the same, that through death he might 
 destroy him that had the power of death, that is the 
 devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death 
 were all their lifetime subject to bondage." "The 
 bishop's theme was just such an one as God would 
 direct the mind to as the Christian nears the top of 
 Pisgah the trials and triumph of faith" 
 
 "By some strange combination, this was the first 
 and only sermon I ever heard Bishop Kavanaugh 
 preach, though I had been a traveling preacher for 
 twenty-three years. I knew his fame, which had 
 spread through all the Church, but was astonished 
 above measure at the vigor, spiritual, intellectual, and 
 physical, which the Bishop manifested on that oc- 
 casion. 
 
 "As he followed the Christian's struggling faith 
 through the suffering and bondage of sinful wander- 
 ings, he literally held in sympathizing fellowship the 
 incarnate God close by his side. It was inspiring as 
 life given anew to the dead ; while the bishop 
 preached he was not old nor feeble. His mind worked 
 like the trained intellect of a vigorous student in the 
 prime of life. His motion was quick and smooth, like 
 that of an athlete. His voice was round and full. 
 At times he seemed to be under the Shekinah, his face 
 glowed, there was about him a halo of glory."* 
 
 The conference met January 9th. He presided 
 
 'Letter to Mrs. Kuvanaugh from Rev. J. A. Parker.
 
 484 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 over the conference with grace and ease, by his ur- 
 banity and gentleness winning the hearts of the 
 preachers and the audience. His birthday, the 14th 
 of January, occurred during the session. On the 
 BISHOP'S BIRTHDAY, after the conference had re- 
 sumed regular business, the Rev. J. B. Walker, D. D., 
 advanced to the platform, accompanied by little Miss 
 Phala McTyeire Lyons, who carried a basket of beau- 
 tiful flowers and evergreens, which she handed to 
 Bishop Kavanaugh. Dr. Walker remarked that, in 
 commemoration of his eighty-second birthday, the 
 conference had requested him to present, as a token 
 of their regard, affection, and esteem, these lovely 
 flowers, also an elegant gold-headed ebony cane. Dr. 
 Walker, with his peculiar grace and eloquence, ex- 
 pressed the gratitude of the conference to God in 
 granting them the pleasure of enjoy ing Bishop Kavan- 
 augh's presence among them. 
 
 He had hardly concluded when the Rev. James 
 A. Ivy presented to the bishop an elegantly bound 
 copy of the New Testament, printed in pica type, and 
 in a most happy manner expressed his joy at seeing 
 him so well and hearty at his advanced age. Bishop 
 Kavanaugh received his birthday presents with great 
 feeling. During the utterance of his words of thanks, 
 the pretty little girl of six Summers, who had pre- 
 sented the flowers, turned her bright face up to the 
 bishop, and he, with gentle courtesy, stooped and 
 kissed her. This act brought tears to many a manly 
 face in the audience. 
 
 After the close of the conference, he lingered in 
 New Orleans for several weeks, that he might for
 
 BISHOP KA VANA UGH. 485 
 
 awhile enjoy that pleasant climate before he started 
 homeward. After preaching in several of the Meth- 
 odist churches in the city, he spent his last Sabbath in 
 that city with his friend, Rev. Dr. Markham, the 
 pastor of Lafayette Presbyterian Church. In speak- 
 ing of this occasion, Dr. Markham wrote under the 
 caption of " The Old Man Eloquent," the following 
 tribute: 
 
 " The congregation of the Lafayette Presbyterian 
 Church, New Orleans (Rev. Dr. Markham, pastor), 
 enjoyed, Sabbath, February 10th, one of those rare 
 pleasures esteemed by all lovers of truth and of the 
 Word. It was their privilege to listen to an expo- 
 sition of Scripture from the lips of a preacher who, 
 for threescore years, had been proclaiming its un- 
 searchable riches. 
 
 "Short of stature, and round and full in person, 
 the embodiment of sturdy strength, this veteran of 
 sixty campaigns wielded his weapons with the vigor 
 and force of a warrior in his prime, striking blows 
 that divided asunder the joints of the harness of doubt 
 and error. 
 
 "Speaking from John xvi, 20, ' Verily, verily I say 
 unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the 
 world shall rejoice ; and ye shall be sorrowful, but 
 your sorrow shall be turned into joy,' he reviewed in 
 graphic presentation the hopes excited on the one side, 
 and the fears aroused on the other, by the life and 
 character, the words and works of Jesus ; the disap- 
 pointment and chagrin of his disciples at his death, 
 with their overwhelming mortification, as their ene- 
 mies, taunting and jeering, asked, * Where now is
 
 486 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 your God?' and the reaction, as their sorrow was 
 turned into joy in the triumphant vindication wrought 
 by his resurrection and ascension, in the destruction 
 of that ' last enemy,' under whose power he had been 
 permitted, for a time, to lie. So that, with point and 
 power, Peter could pen those glowing words in the 
 opening of his first epistle, in which he blesses 'the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for their 
 lively hope begotten by the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ from the dead.' 
 
 " The writer would not venture beyond this sug- 
 gestive outline of a discussion, begun with a deliber- 
 ation of speech and a quiet of manner that made the 
 outset seem subdued and slow, but which soon rose 
 into a glow, which, sustained through an hour and a 
 quarter of earnest utterance and animated movement 
 (unhelped by manuscript or note), arrested and fixed 
 the attention of the well-filled house, in which young 
 and old sat interested, instructed, and refreshed; the 
 thoughts so clear and the words so plain that the 
 young in their teens easily apprehended all that 
 was said; while the rich, fresh matter, the simple, 
 chaste style, and the direct and pointed manner, made 
 the matured and aged listen with profit and delight. 
 
 " The Methodist Church is to be congratulated in 
 that, through the thirty years of his itinerancy and 
 the thirty of his episcopate his labors covering her 
 extended territory, from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 (including five episcopal visits to California) her 
 people have had the benefit and'blessing of the teach- 
 ings of one so manifestly 'anointed and set apart;' to 
 whom the Spirit has revealed the deep things, open-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGIL 487 
 
 ing his understanding and warming his heart to set 
 forth with power the mysteries of the kingdom of 
 grace and the anticipations of the kingdom of glory. 
 
 " In appearance and action, twenty years younger 
 than the age which time has 'set to his score,' his 
 bow ' abides in strength.' And, save in a slowness of 
 step, due, doubtless, in no small measure to an un- 
 usual weight of body, scarce a trace of the f labor and 
 sorrow of the fourscore ' can be seen. So that he 
 1 still brings forth fruit in old age.' 
 
 " The venerable brother of whom I write is Rev. 
 Hubbard Hinde Kavanaugh, D. D., Bishop of the 
 .Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who, after the 
 close of the Louisiana Conference, remained a month 
 in our city. 
 
 " Ministering three Sabbaths in churches of his own. 
 ' faith and order,' and speaking on a week evening for 
 Dr. Witherspoon, in the Bethel, his last Sabbath was 
 with us in this morning service, followed by a partici- 
 pation, in the evening, in the First Presbyterian 
 Church (Dr. Palmer's) in the services held by the 
 Sunday League of Louisiana. 
 
 " Leaving our city last week, he bears with him to 
 his home in Anchorage, Ky., the thanks of a sister 
 Church for ' a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees 
 well refined.' His message, so fitly spoken, will be 
 held in grateful remembrance a message set in 
 words that were ' as nails fastened by a master of as- 
 semblies,' that proved to them ' a word in season,' 
 strengthening their faith and brightening their hope." 5 
 
 *Dr. Markhnm in South-western Presbyterian of February 
 21, 1884.
 
 488 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that Bishop Kavanaugh 
 preached his last sermon in a Presbyterian Church. 
 We have seen that he owed much in his early relig- 
 ious life to the influence and instrumentality of Rev. 
 Mr. Lyle, a Presbyterian preacher; and that his last 
 message should be delivered to a congregation of that 
 denomination shows how well he maintained his kindly 
 relations to that people during the more than three- 
 score years since he first tasted " the good word of 
 God, and the powers of the world to come." 
 
 T\vo days later he left New Orleans for Ocean 
 Springs, to which place he had been invited, and 
 where he had promised to preach on the following 
 Sabbath. He was restless Saturday night, and spent 
 the hours quite uncomfortably, and although Mrs. 
 Kavanaugh advised him to remain in bed Sunday 
 morning, and decline any attempt to preach, he would 
 not listen to the suggestion, but arose and prepared 
 for the service. 
 
 He was promptly in the pulpit at 11 o'clock, and 
 after the opening service announced his text, " For our 
 light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for 
 us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 
 (2 Cor. iv, 17.) As was his habit, he read the text a 
 second time. He then paused a few moments and 
 asked for a glass of water, referring at the same time 
 to the restless night he had passed, and to his present 
 exhausted condition. After drinking the water, he 
 read his text the third time. Unable to proceed he 
 took his seat, at the same time requesting a preacher 
 who was present to close the services. He was ac- 
 companied to Colonel Stuart's, whose guest he was, by
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 489 
 
 a kind physician, who immediately prescribed for him 
 and attended him constantly for ten days, until he was 
 able to travel. He had accepted an invitation to spend 
 a short time in Columbus, Mississippi, on his way to 
 Kentucky, but before leaving Ocean Springs hesitated 
 as to whether he had not better proceed at once to 
 his home. He, however, decided on stopping at Co- 
 lumbus. He left Ocean Springs February 26th, and 
 reached Columbus the following morning, in a feeble 
 condition. He was for several days the guest of Cap- 
 tain C. A. Johnston, but on the urgent solicitation of 
 Rev. J. H. Scruggs he was removed to the parsonage, 
 where he might have the undivided attention of the 
 pastor of the Church. The ablest medical assistance 
 was promptly called to his bedside. He could not be 
 saved. No remedies could reach the disease that was 
 to take him from us. He soon became unconscious, 
 and on Wednesday morning, the 19th of March, at 3 
 o'clock, he breathed his last. 
 
 The following letter from Rev. J. H. Scruggs, at 
 whose house he died, will be read with interest : 
 
 " COLUMBUS, MISSISSIPPI, March 31, 1884. 
 " DEAR DR. REDFORD, You requested me when we 
 parted in Louisville to write you, on my return home, the 
 particulars of Bishop Kavanaugh's last illness aud death. 
 I now comply with that request. When I was in Kentucky 
 last August, attending the Kavanaugh Camp-meeting, I 
 spent on that ground a delightful week with the bishop. 
 When we parted I invited him to make us a visit in Co- 
 lumbus, Mississippi, on his return home from the Louisiana 
 Conference, which was to convene the following January. 
 He partially promised to do so, provided his engagements
 
 490 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 at the time would allow him. I remembered his remark, 
 and, with the view of reminding him of it, I wrote him a 
 letter renewing the invitation during the session of the 
 Louisiana Conference, over which he presided, at New Or- 
 leans. In reply to my letter he wrote me of his intention 
 to come, but stated that he would remain about a month in 
 New Orleans after the adjournment of the conference, make 
 one or two stops on the way, and then reach Columbus by 
 the last of February. On the 9th of February I received 
 the following note from him, the last, I suppose, he ever 
 
 wrote : 
 
 " ' NEW ORLEANS, February 9, 1884. 
 "'REV. J. H. SCRUGGS: 
 
 " ' My Dear Brother, I think it proper that I should 
 advise you of our purposed course of travel when we leave 
 here to go to you. I spend next Sabbath (to-morrow) in 
 this city. On Tuesday we leave for Ocean Springs. We 
 propose spending one Sabbath there, and from thence we go 
 to Columbus to your service. You will please drop us a 
 note to Ocean Springs, and say at what time you would pre- 
 fer that we should come to your assistance ; whether your 
 wife will be at home. What is the state of her mother's 
 health? Should it be necessary we can spend two Sab- 
 baths with you, and then move for home. 
 
 " ' Very truly yours, H. H. KAVANAUGH.' 
 
 ' ' He left New Orleans for Ocean Springs on Tuesday, 
 the 12th of February, to spend a week with his old friend, 
 W. R. Stuart. The following Sabbath, the 17th, he at- 
 tempted to preach, but was too feeble to do so. He had 
 suffered greatly the previous night. Accompanied by a phy- 
 sician, he returned to the home of his old friend. The fol- 
 lowing Wednesday or Thursday I expected him to reach 
 Columbus. On the morning of the 20th of February I re- 
 ceived a card from Sister Kavanaugh stating that the bishop 
 was not well, and had decided to remain over another Sab- 
 bath at Ocean Springs. This he did. On the evening of
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 491 
 
 the 26th of February he took leave of Ocean Springs, and 
 arrived in Columbus at 10 o'clock A. M. the following 
 morning. 
 
 " In company with Mrs. C. A. Johnston I met him and 
 his wife at the depot, and accompanied them to the residence 
 of Captain C. A. Johnston, where they were to be enter- 
 taiued until the following Monday. When we arrived at 
 the residence of the above-named geutlemau, the bishop re- 
 marked to me that he was suffering very much, and took 
 from his vest pocket two prescriptions, handed them to me, 
 and requested that they should be filled as soon as convenient. 
 On inquiry, I found him suffering greatly. I proceeded at 
 once to the drug-store, had the medicine prepared, and on 
 my return administered the first dose according to directions. 
 His suffering was at times intense, the paroxysms recurring 
 after intervals of thirty minutes, sometimes more severe, 
 however, than at others. The prescribed treatment was kept 
 up closely for twenty-four hours. At the expiration of that 
 time he had received no relief, and I advised him to call a 
 physician. It was decided in a few moments that I should 
 go for Dr. W. L. Lipscomb, which I did. This was in the 
 afternoon of the 28th of February. The physician was soon 
 at his bedside, and began a different course of treatment. 
 He gave him internal remedies until Sunday morning; find- 
 ing these would not relieve him, he resorted to the use of the 
 catheter, and in this way relieved him of his suffering. 
 
 " I had announced the good bishop for the pulpit on the 
 following Sabbath after his arrival, and up to Friday morn- 
 ing he thought he would be able to preach ; but at that time 
 he remarked to me, in his characteristic way, ' You had 
 better pick your flint for the Sabbath, my brother.' The 
 following day I inquired of his physician if I could depend 
 on his preaching at least once on Sunday. He replied, ' You 
 can not ; his effective work is done. He may live six months, 
 or possibly longer with careful attention, but I do not think 
 he will ever be able to preach again.'
 
 492 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 " His disease was what is denominated in the medical 
 profession cystitis, and resulted in blood-poison. He grad- 
 ually grew worse from day to day. Under the direction 
 of the physician, we arranged to leave with him for his 
 home at Anchorage, on Monday, the 10th of March ; but 
 as the time approached for his departure, we found he was 
 too feeble to bear the fatigue of the trip, and I decided at 
 once to remove him to the parsonage, where I could give 
 him my individual attention. This was done. 
 
 " From Monday until Thursday, the 13th, he improved 
 very much in strength, but there was no improvement in 
 the disease which was destined to put him in his grave. 
 Thursday night he sat up until ten o'clock, and related 
 some amusing incidents in connection with his first circuit 
 and early ministry. He then kneeled down and prayed in 
 a weak, tremulous tone one of the sweetest prayers I ever 
 heard. At its close, I assisted him from his knees and to 
 his room, undressed him, and put him to bed. Friday 
 morning he was worse slept the greater part of the day ; 
 Saturday, still worse. The physician administered mor- 
 phine about eleven o'clock in the morning, and when he 
 went under its influence, he was never fully conscious 
 again. 
 
 " The paroxysms grew worse as the hours passed away, 
 and his suffering at times was more severe than any I had 
 ever witnessed ; but not one word of impatience did he ut- 
 ter. When he had moments of rest from these severe at- 
 tacks, which came like flashes of lightning before he 
 became insensible, he was serene, and would frequently 
 indulge in remarks pointed with the purest wit and enliv- 
 ened with the richest humor. 
 
 " From Saturday noon until his death, which occurred 
 at three o'clock Wednesday morning, the 19th of March, 
 1884, he rapidly grew worse, and the stubborn disease 
 baffled the skill of the physicians who had attended him 
 for days in consultation. When it was discovered that his
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 493 
 
 sickness was not yielding to treatment, Dr. Vaughn was 
 called as counsel, and all that could be done was done to 
 relieve him, as far as possible, from the severe torture 
 through which he had passed from the time he was at- 
 tacked at Ocean Springs. 
 
 "Day and night I stood by his bedside lifted him up 
 and laid him down, did all in my power to help him bear 
 the suffering through which he was passing, and felt grate- 
 ful to God for the privilege of administering to so great 
 and good a man in the last hours of his mortal life. True 
 to God, true to his country, and true to the best interests 
 of humanity for sixty-two years, he laid down his life in 
 peace ; and I closed his eyes in death, ' to sleep the sleep 
 that knows no waking,' until God shall bid him rise to 
 share in the full triumph of that redemption purchased for 
 the pure and the good through the death of Jesus Christ, 
 his Son. May we meet again in heaven ! 
 
 "Yours, fraternally, JNO. H. SCRUGGS." 
 
 Many who knew Bishop Kavanaugh expected his 
 death to be sudden. We had for many years thought 
 he would die in the pulpit. It was in the pulpit, 
 however, that God gave him his discharge from the 
 labors and the duties of the ministry, which he had 
 received of the Lord Jesus. He had finished his 
 work before he left New Orleans; but, as "Moses 
 went up from the plains of Moab to the top of Pis- 
 gab," from whence he might view the promised land, 
 so Bishop Kavanaugh was permitted, from the little 
 church at Ocean Springs, to ascend the mount, and 
 from its lofty crest take a view of the inheritance 
 upon which he was so soon to enter. 
 
 In the selection of the text, which he thrice read, 
 but whose truths he was not permitted to discuss, he
 
 494 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 doubtless thought of his own afflictions, so fast wearing 
 away his noble life, and then of the glory that 
 awaited him when he would pass through the golden 
 gate. We may not be able to form any conception 
 of the "glory" that met his vision when he descried 
 the celestial hills on which the sun of heaven rested 
 day and night. But, more than this, the apostle 
 dipped his pen in living light, and threw upon the 
 canvas before his eye the weight of glory far more 
 exceeding and eternal than his brilliant imagination 
 had ever dreamed of. And as Moses, after descend- 
 ing from the mount of observation, laid him down to 
 die and then entered upon rest, so this scarred veteran 
 of the cross left the pulpit with an honorable discharge 
 from his captain, from the toils of the battle-field, to 
 lie down in death's embrace, and then to ascend to the 
 glittering splendors of heaven, and bask in its fadeless 
 glories forever. 
 
 As soon as the news of his illness reached the city 
 of Louisville, a resolution was adopted by a meeting 
 of ministers and members of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, at the residence of Gen. Ekin, 
 as follows : 
 
 "Resolved, That we have read in the paper of this after- 
 noon, with feelings of profound sorrow, the sad announce- 
 ment of the alarming illness of the Rev. Hubbard Hinde 
 Kavanaugh, D. D., a beloved bishop of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, who for upwards of sixty years 
 has gone in and out before the people, proclaiming the 
 glorious Gospel of the blessed God, and whose fame is co- 
 extensive with our entire country ; and we, the officers and 
 members of the Young Men's Christian Association of the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 495 
 
 city of Louisville, composed of different religious denomi- 
 nations, assembled together at this time, desire very ear- 
 nestly and tenderly to convey to the family and friends of 
 Bishop Kavanaugh, and to the Church of which he is such 
 a distinguished leader, our heartfelt, sympathy in this hour 
 of trial and sorrow, and we earnestly pray that, if it is the 
 will of our Heavenly Father, he may be raised up from 
 the gates of death, and restored to his family and friends 
 and the Christian world." 
 
 On the morning of his death, we received a tele- 
 gram from Mrs. Kavanaugh announcing the sad intel- 
 ligence, and her purpose to return with his remains to 
 Kentucky at once. 
 
 On March 21st we joined, at Bowling Green, Ken- 
 tucky, Mrs. Kavanaugh, accompanied by Rev. J. H. 
 Scruggs and Rev. Warner Moore, in charge of the 
 bishop's remains. We reached Louisville that after- 
 noon too late to arrange for the interment. 
 
 On the 22d, at 11.30, appropriate religious services 
 were held in Broadway Methodist Church, which 
 Church was selected because it was the successor of 
 the old Brook Street Church, which was the bishop's 
 last Church charge in this city. 
 
 The pulpit was draped in black. In front were 
 arranged many significant floral offerings, among 
 which anchors, crosses, crowns, and sheaft of wheat 
 predominated. With Bishop McTyeire in the pulpit 
 sat Drs. Dearing, Lawson, Messick, Morrison, Red- 
 ford, and Rivers. In the congregation were Drs. 
 Weaver, Baptist; Humphrey, Presbyterian; Hobbs 
 and Walk, Christian ; Bingham, Browder, and Emer- 
 son, Methodists.
 
 496 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 The service began by Dr.' Rivers reading Mont- 
 gomery's hymn : 
 
 " Servant of God, well done, 
 
 Rest from thy loved employ ; 
 The battle-fought, the victory won, 
 Enter thy Master's joy." 
 
 After the singing, Dr. Dearing prayed, and Dr. 
 Bedford read the Ninetieth Psalm : " Lord, thou hast 
 been our dwelling-place in all generations ; " and Dr. 
 Lawson read the fifteenth chapter of First Corin- 
 thians, beginning at the twentieth verse: "But now is 
 Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits 
 of them that slept." 
 
 Dr. Morrison read Muhlenberg's song: 
 
 " I would not live alway, I ask not to stay 
 Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way." 
 
 When the song ended Bishop McTyeire spoke, 
 saying : 
 
 " The Acts of the Apostles (chapter xi, verse 24) reads: 
 ' For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and 
 of faith; and much people was added unto the Lord.' 
 Our text is a description of Barnabas, the son of Consolation. 
 I read the context, which explains the occasion : ' Then 
 tidings of these things came unto the ears of the Church 
 which was iu Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that 
 he should go as far as Autioch ; who, when he came and 
 had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them 
 all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the 
 Lord ; for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost.' 
 The Bible never indulges in flattery, but it does use gen- 
 erous words of praise. ' He was a good man.' That is 
 better and more than to say he was a good physician, a 
 good merchant, or even a good preacher. Those are par- 
 tial. ' He was a good man ' is complete. Good is more
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 497 
 
 than righteous or just. St. Paul says : ' Scarcely for a 
 righteous man would one die, but, peradventure, for a good 
 man one would even dare to die.' A man may be just and 
 not merciful ; may be true and not benevolent. He may 
 owe no man any thing, and yet no man may owe him 
 aught. He may be without kindness. One of the delight- 
 ful features of the New Jerusalem will be that we shall 
 enjoy the companionship of just men made perfect. Many 
 just men of earth have unhappy homes. Selfishness and 
 vanity intrude. But when made perfect, sweetened with 
 love arid softened with gentleness, they shall be fit for eter- 
 nal company. ' He was a good man.' Language can go 
 no higher. Barnabas was a Levite, but benevolent. The 
 infant Church was in need ; Barnabas sold his land and 
 laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet for general charity. 
 Beloved, you anticipate me ; in your hearts and minds you 
 are saying all this was true of our beloved Bishop Kavan- 
 augh. Yes, he was a good man, and full of the Holy 
 Ghost. What is it to be thus filled? In the first place, 
 this receiving of the Spirit is seen in the man. The world 
 sees it. Bitterness and malice are put away. How justly 
 this is spoken of Barnabas ! When the disciples were dis- 
 trustful of the apostle, it was Barnabas who presented Paul 
 to them and stood by him. He saw the door open for use- 
 fulness greater than he could supply, and he brings Paul 
 from Tarsus to his aid. He wanted good done, not caring 
 who did it. I think if ever I knew a man who in this 
 most thoroughly agreed with Barnabas, it was our beloved 
 bishop. I knew him well. I have seen him in the Col- 
 lege of Bishops, have seen him presiding, seen him in many 
 positions, but never knew a man whose heart was freer 
 from malice. His heart and life were full of the fruits of 
 the Spirit, gentleness, meekness, etc. And, like Barnabas, 
 he was full of the Holy Ghost. That last promise of the 
 Savior to send the baptism of the Spirit was fulfilled in 
 him. O, how he was thu.s maided to bless the Church! 
 
 41'
 
 498 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 We call it the unction of the Spirit that opens the hearts 
 of hearers. How often in city churches, in country churches, 
 in camp-meeting sheds, in woods and on plains have listen- 
 ing multitudes heard him preach the Gospel with the Holy 
 Spirit sent down from heaven! Beautifully, constantly, 
 and thoroughly was Christian joy illustrated in him whom 
 we are to bury to-day. He had a religion that made him 
 happy. He loved God, his Church, and his fellow-man. 
 ' Full of the Holy Ghost and faith.' His spiritual life be- 
 gan in faith, and grew in grace faith in Christ, the Son, 
 and in God, the Ruler. He laid his hand on the head of 
 the divine victim; every moment he said, ' I need thy blood, 
 O, Lord!' He was thoroughly Arminian. As he once 
 told me, he had worked it out and found himself a Meth- 
 odist in the Arminian creed. I never knew a man so free 
 from bigotry. He loved all good men, and I believe all 
 good men loved him. He said, ' Both by nature and grace 
 I am formed opposed to bigotry. My father was a Prot- 
 estant Episcopal, my mother was a Methodist. I was awak- 
 ened to a sense of sin under a Baptist and converted under 
 a Presbyterian, and hence I am connected with the entire 
 household of faith.' The last sermon he preached was in a 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 "Now, having looked at these points, what is the re- 
 sult? 'And much people was added unto the Lord.' That 
 is always the result. I now call your attention to him not 
 only as a good man. but as a bishop building up the Church. 
 Let me say in the beginning, be not ambitious of number. 
 God forbid that you should hurry people into the Church 
 or keep those in who do not belong ! In such is folly and 
 sin. Death is thinning our ranks. Unless multitudes be 
 added, the Church will fall behind. You must reach and 
 convert the masses. 
 
 "What of our brother's work? When H. H. Kavan- 
 augh was admitted, in 1823, the Kentucky Conference 
 numbered twenty-one thousand five hundred. This was
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUG1L 499 
 
 all of Kentucky, and portions of Ohio and Tennessee. 
 Perhaps there were fourteen thousand in Kentucky proper. 
 When he died, Kentucky had one hundred and three thou- 
 sand. When he entered the ministry, there were ninety- 
 two ministers; at his death there were four hundred and 
 ninety-eight, and five hundred local preachers. Truly much 
 people was added. You know he was chiefly instrumental 
 m bringing about these results. In his ministry of sixty- 
 one years he preached in every city, town, and village in 
 the commonwealth of Kentucky. There is hardly a prom- 
 inent country Church in which he has not preached. We 
 estimate that he preached between fifteen thousand and 
 seventeen thousand sermons. You know they were sermons, 
 not sermonettes. He began with his first appointment at 
 Big Sandy ['Little Sandy' a voice]. Yes, Little Sandy, 
 and preached nearly every day and twice on Sunday. His 
 district was large. His field was always large. After he 
 became bishop his territory was from Maryland to Califor- 
 nia, from Oregon to Florida. He went everywhere preach- 
 ing the Gospel. In his thirty years' life as a bishop he 
 gave fifteen thousand preaching appointments to ministers. 
 He ordained between eight hundred and nine hundred dea- 
 cons, and six hundred and seven hundred elders. These 
 are parts of his services. 
 
 " He was born in Clark County, January 4, 1802, and 
 died at Columbus, Mississippi, March 19, 1884, just as he 
 was entering his eighty-third year. A brother said, ' What 
 a pity he could not have died at home ! ' It was better for 
 him to have died abroad ; died in active service. He was 
 licensed in 1822. When Peter Akers and Edward Steven- 
 son were ordained deacons, and Wm. Gunn was ordained 
 elder, H. H. Kavanaugh entered the ministry; Barnabas 
 McHenry, Benjamin Lakin, and Leroy Cole were super- 
 annuated, thus beautifully illustrating the words of the 
 opening prayer of to-day's service God removes his work- 
 men, but carries on his work.
 
 500 
 
 "Our brother was twice married. Each time he took 
 a helpmate. They comforted and consoled him in all his 
 labors and long journeys. 
 
 " Brethren, Kentucky has had many great statesmen, 
 men of wonderful reputation, great scientists, great citizens. 
 I hesitate not to say, we bury to-day the most eminent and 
 useful citizen that God ever blessed this commonwealth 
 with. Think of this holy, devotional life, running through 
 sixty-one years a light in darkness, sweetening bitter- 
 ness, leading men to God! Kentucky had this light for 
 sixty years. No man can put a finger on a single spot 
 of his record and say it is faulty. You will feel your loss 
 more to-morrow than to-day, and more next month, and in 
 the time to come your full loss will be known. It seems 
 to me our brother could have fitly spoken the words of 
 Samuel's farewell speech, and, when he had spoken those 
 words, had you answered you would have to answer as the 
 children of Israel did. 
 
 ' ' His last appearance in the pulpit was when he 
 stopped at Ocean Springs, February 17th, where he found 
 an appointment for him to preach. He entered the pulpit, 
 announced his text, ' For our light affliction, which is but 
 for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory.' The congregation waited ; he 
 pronounced the text a second time, and paused. A third 
 time he spoke the text, sat down, and calling a local preacher, 
 asked him to preach the sermon for him. He died almost 
 in the act of preaching and he has now that exceeding 
 weight of glory. He continued his journey from New Or- 
 leans to Columbus, Miss. There he died. Let me say for 
 your comfort that he could not have fallen into kinder hands. 
 I know those people. I have been their pastor. If I do 
 not die at home, I would ask to die in such a place. 
 
 " We desired at the University to bury our brother by 
 the side of McKendree and Soule, but he had long ago said 
 that Kentucky was his place for his body to rest; and it
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 501 
 
 is fitting. You want to hear liis dying testimony? The 
 great Whitefield once said : ' I have borne testimony so 
 often in life that I don't think the Master will call on me 
 to speak in death.' He died saying nothing. That was 
 the case with our brother, Bishop Kavauaugh. 
 
 " ' Servant of God, well done, 
 
 Rest from thy loved employ ; 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 Enter thy Master's joy.' " 
 
 Dr. Messick read the hymn 
 
 " Coind let us join our friends above, 
 That have obtained the prize." 
 
 After the singing, Dr. Messick prayed, and Bishop 
 McTyeire announced : 
 
 " It was not possible to have the remains in the 
 church ; they await us at the vault in Cave Hill. 
 We will take carriages, proceed thither, and deposit 
 the body in the grave. We will go from here with- 
 out the benediction, as the service will conclude at 
 the grave." 
 
 When the vault at Cave Hill was reached, the 
 hearse with the casket was waiting. After three 
 hacks had passed, the hearse entered the procession, 
 and all hastened to the grave, which is located near 
 the new western portion of the cemetery, a few feet 
 from Capt. D. G. Parr's tall monument. Mrs. Kav- 
 anatigh sat in a carriage near the grave. Rev. Dr. 
 Kavanaugh and relatives stood near by, while Bishop 
 McTyeire read the simple Methodist burial service. 
 Moss was gently laid on top of the coffin case to 
 deaden the sound of the falling clods, and the grave 
 was quickly filled. Loving hands covered it with 
 costly floral offerings.
 
 502 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Bishop McTyeire said : " We have now done all 
 that Christian hands can do. This body is sown in 
 corruption ; it shall be raised in glory. We hasten to 
 that day." And the sad assemblage moved away. 
 
 Hon. James S. Lithgow, who forty years ago was 
 received into the old Brook Street Church by Bishop 
 Kavanaugh, was the careful manager of the funeral 
 services. 
 
 Bishop McTyeire, with much force, refers to the fact 
 that he left no words of cheer in his dying moments. 
 Far more than this, he left a long life devoted to 
 Christ. Upon a thousand hills and a thousand 
 plains, in frescoed and in log churches, in palaces of 
 wealth and in the cabins of the poor, he had borne 
 testimony to the truth and saving power of the Gos- 
 pel, and now he had only to enter into the rest that 
 awaited him. He had thrown aside his armor and 
 surrendered the sword he had never dishonored, and 
 then passed away to the bright and beautiful world 
 he had so often described !
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 503 
 
 xvi. 
 
 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 
 
 AT the memorial service held in Nashville, Ten- 
 nessee, on Sunday, March 30th, Bishop George 
 F. Pierce delivered the following tribute to his 
 memory : 
 
 " My acquaintance with our departed colleague 
 stretches over forty years or more, and yet our inter- 
 course has been partial and at long intervals. We 
 have mingled at our annual meetings, and occasion- 
 ally in conference sessions, but rarely meeting in pri- 
 vate life. My materials for sketch and comment are 
 comparatively scanty. But I am not here to deliver 
 a eulogy, nor can you expect a very delicate or thor- 
 ough tracery of character. General statements, au- 
 thenticated by a uniform observation and the common 
 judgment of the Church, must suffice for this occa- 
 sion, leaving the fuller delineation to his future biog- 
 rapher. Bishop Kavanaugh was born in Clark County, 
 Kentucky, January 14, 1802. His early advantages 
 of education and culture were limited. While quite 
 a boy he was put into a printing-office and learned 
 the art of type-setting. In this business he remained 
 till near the time of his admission on trial as a trav- 
 eling preacher in the Kentucky Conference. At six- 
 teen years of age he was converted to God. Drifting 
 about as an p>han boy among different families of
 
 504 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 his kindred, lie was much perplexed by varied theo- 
 logical teachings. In seeking religion he was much 
 embarrassed by conflicting ideas ; but this was turned 
 to good account, in that the mental and moral troubles 
 through which he passed made him apt to teach oth- 
 ers similarly perplexed expounding to them more 
 perfectly the way of God as he learned it out of his 
 own experience. His heart taught him to interpret 
 Scripture, and doctrine was illumined by the light 
 struck out by temptation and trial. The terror of his 
 awakening, the bitterness of sin, the anguish of, re- 
 pentance, and all the struggles of a mind under deep 
 conviction characterized the process by which he was 
 brought to Christ. His conversion was clear. It 
 brought him spiritual comfort, composure of con- 
 science, satisfaction of heart. He was happy, rejoiced 
 in God. Religion was in him a well of water spring- 
 ing up to everlasting life. Fresh and full, a gushing 
 fountain, it never failed nor knew when drought 
 came. He rose rapidly as a preacher. The Church 
 recognized his gifts, and his profiting was apparent to 
 all. He has filled every grade of work from a mount- 
 ain missionary (that means hard work, privation, and 
 poor pay) to the episcopacy. Until he became one 
 of the general superintendents his ministry was con- 
 fined almost exclusively to his native State. There 
 the chief appointments were the beneficiaries of his 
 labors. He was distinguished alike as preacher and 
 pastor, counselor, friend, and guide to the people. 
 
 "Bishop Kavanaugh loved the itinerancy the 
 little discomforts connected with it were too insigni- 
 ficant, in his view, to mar the real an^superior en-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 505 
 
 joyments to be found in it. He believed in it as the 
 Scriptural and most efficient method for propagating 
 the Gospel. He realized in his personal ministry the 
 benefits of occasional change. He enjoyed the sys- 
 tem because it brought him into contact, acquaintance, 
 and fellowship with so many good people scattered 
 over our vast territory. His genial nature basked 
 with delight in the sympathy and confidence and 
 brotherly love of the Church and her friends. He 
 was no imperious prelate, lording it over God's herit- 
 age, repelling with magisterial air the poor and the 
 humble. Simple as a child, affectionate as a woman, 
 he was accessible to all, sympathized with the weak 
 and the sad and the tempted, and was tender even 
 with the erring. I do not think I ever knew a more 
 guileless, transparent, artless man. He was generous, 
 broad-minded, large-hearted, self-forgetful. He was 
 a saintly man. He entered the kingdom of God 
 through the strait and narrow gate. He dug deep, 
 and built his house upon a rock, and it survived the 
 stormy winds of time and all the surging billows of 
 temptation and sorrow. God's people everywhere in 
 the Scriptures are called saints. He was not perfectly 
 holy, perhaps, but he was really so. Living beyond 
 four-score years, he has left an unblemished name. 
 He illustrated the religion of Christ in its self-denial, 
 humility, and zeal. Labor was rest, and pain was 
 sweet to him, if thereby Christ might be honored. 
 He carried the Church in his heart gave to her the 
 first-fruits of his life, the strength and glory of his 
 manhood ; and the last days of a green old age were 
 laid lovingly and without stint upon her altar. His 
 
 43
 
 506 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Christian life is one of the gems of purest ray serene 
 belonging to American Methodism. He was a wit- 
 ness for Jesus, whose credibility commanded the con- 
 fidence of all who knew him. Talk about the evi- 
 dences of Christianity, external and internal: I do 
 not disparage them; but here they are incarnated in 
 this good man focalized a radiant demonstration. 
 A long, spotless Christian life is an unanswerable 
 argument for the truth and divinity of our holy re- 
 ligion. I thank God Methodism has been piling 
 them up for the last hundred years, like pyramids. 
 The tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar, whose 
 top was to reach to heaven, was a wild, daring, im- 
 practicable adventure; but our pyramid will pierce 
 the skies, and outlast the sun, moon, and stars. Its 
 basis broad, and built of living stones, it rises higher 
 and higher, and will be a monument of the Gospel 
 when the earth is ashes and the heavens fled and 
 gone. 
 
 "It never was my privilege to hear Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh preach often indeed, only a few times, and 
 never under favorable circumstances. I must judge 
 him largely from the report of others. He had a pas- 
 sion for preaching ; he was at home in the pulpit. It 
 was the inspiration of his mind, the joy of his heart. 
 It was not ambition, the love of applause, or the hope 
 of gain that moved him; it was the love of Christ, 
 of souls, of the Church. This was the motive power, 
 the animating principle. His mind was saturated 
 with divine truth. His subjects absorbed him. Sal- 
 vation by faith in Christ, and the doctrines which re- 
 volved around this proposition as a nucleus these
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 507 
 
 were his favorite themes. Very few, if any, preached 
 more Gospel than Bishop Kavanaugh. 
 
 "Almost any one of his discourses, if heard and 
 understood by a heathen, would have expounded to 
 him the way of salvation. His own countrymen, who 
 heard him often, he left without excuse. He held fast 
 to what Paul calls 'the form of sound words/ No 
 novelties, no speculations nor metaphysical subtleties 
 diluted his sermons. He preached a pure Gospel. 
 No empirical decoctions gathered from the fields of 
 philosophy and science were ever offered by him to a 
 sin-sick soul, or furnished as a tonic for an invalid 
 Church. His materia medica was limited to the leaves 
 of the tree of life which God gave for the healing of 
 the nations. 
 
 " His intellect in repose was like his body, heavy 
 slow to move. Hence his long sermons. It took 
 him awhile to get the wheels in revolution. The 
 motion was not automatic, but for a time mechanical. 
 The fire had to be stirred, the fuel put in, the power 
 generated; but when the machinery was well lubri- 
 cated, the vessel under headway, the steam on, the 
 sails up, the momentum was tremendous. As we have 
 gone round to the conferences where he had been, we 
 have heard wonderful things of his prowess in the 
 pulpit. He was in no sense a dull man. The power 
 was in him, but. latent like fire on flint. The flash 
 seldom failed to follow the. stroke. The normal state 
 of his mind was one of repose; but he needed the rev- 
 elations of faith, the enthusiasm of love, and the in- 
 spiration of hope, the transport of Christian joy, to 
 lift him up and out of himself; then old things passed
 
 508 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 away and all things became new. He was a new man ; 
 his face glowed his eye flashed his mind grew 
 imaginative, poetic, and he swept through the world 
 of thought on imperial wing. He will take high rank 
 as a preacher, if not in the biographies of Methodism, 
 certainly in the memory of living people. The truth 
 is, he was a grand old man. But, above all, he was a 
 good man, and, like Barnabas, full of the Holy Ghost 
 and faith. He was soundly converted. He never, I 
 think, professed sanctifi cation, not because he was not 
 holy for he was a deeply consecrated man but be- 
 cause he did not think a verbal profession the better 
 way. His religion was a principle and a passion a 
 habit of life and an ornament of character. He en- 
 joyed religion made daily use of it as a guide and 
 support. His experience was remarkably uniform. 
 He was capable of strong emotion, of intense excite- 
 ment, but his constitution and temperament were so 
 adjusted that he did not swing between depression 
 and exultation. After the most ecstatic enjoyment, 
 the reaction never fell below the level of conscious 
 peace and the tranquilizing assurance of divine ap- 
 proval. With him the work of righteousness was 
 peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and 
 assurance forever. 
 
 " I met Bishop Kavanaugh at the Virginia Con- 
 ference about the middle of last No^&eniber. He was 
 then hearty and vigorous. He presided without 
 fatigue, and preached with his wonted power. Con- 
 ference over, he started southward, preaching as he 
 went, working his way to New Orleans. There he 
 held his last conference. Before he turned his
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 509 
 
 steps homeward, he lingered for weeks, preaching in 
 the various churches to the delight and profit of the 
 people. After he left the city, on his way to Ken- 
 tucky, he stopped at Columbus, Miss. There he was 
 stricken with his fatal sickness. The symptoms were 
 not alarming. Nothing serious was apprehended. 
 A few nights before his death he sat up, talked cheer- 
 fully with the family, and finally, complaining of 
 fatigue, he was asked to have prayer before retiring. 
 He did so. This was his last service on earth. 
 Growing worse during the night, he lapsed into un- 
 consciousness. He died, and made no sign. But no 
 anxious doubt shadows his departure. No fear of his 
 future disturbs our resignation. He died in peace; 
 he rests in hope. Our brother shall rise again. 
 
 "Since our separate organization, in 1845, a period 
 of thirty-nine years, ten of our bishops have passed 
 away Bascom, Soule, Capers, Andrew, Early, Marvin, 
 "VVightman, Doggett, Paine, Kavanaugh. A noble 
 catalogue of honored, useful men, worthy to be canon- 
 ized among the great and good of earth. They lived 
 long and well. Two, I believe, had reached their 
 sixtieth year; four had passed three-score and ten; 
 four, by reason of strength, had overgone their four- 
 score years. Venerable men ! the fragrance of their 
 memory still lingers with us. Their names are as 
 ointment poured forth. The Church honored them, 
 and they honored the Church. They have left us a 
 priceless heritage of character and example, of in- 
 struction and service, of holy living, official fidelity, 
 and death-bed testimony. Our tears become us, and 
 our grief is just; but, thank God, we have nothing to
 
 510 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 bewail. These beloved brethren filled their provi- 
 dential places wisely and well served their genera- 
 tion by the will of God ; they died in the Lord, and 
 now they rest from their labors, and their works do 
 follow them. . 
 
 "And now, my beloved colleagues, who next? 
 We are all going. 
 
 ' Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 
 Bears all its sons away.' 
 
 Labor, exposure, the care of all the Churches these 
 will wear and exhaust us. Sickness, too, will come, 
 perhaps far from home and wife and children. Age, 
 death's nearest neighbor, is creeping upon us. Al- 
 ready the days of our youth 3nd strength are gone. 
 The almond-tree flourishes. Erelong the strong men 
 will bow themselves, and those that look out of the 
 windows will be darkened, and the last enemy will 
 take us captive. The grave will be our house, and 
 the worm our companion. But over all this decay 
 and solitude and imprisonment Christianity bends her 
 bow of hope, radiant with all the hues of heaven. 
 We know in whom we have trusted. We believe in 
 the Gospel we preach. We have committed our- 
 selves, our families, the Church we love, into the 
 hands of our blessed Redeemer. Whatever betide 
 us, we shall find all safe in that day. Our parents 
 have gone before us; our children are dropping into 
 the tomb; we are to the margin come; the dews of 
 the evening are falling upon us. When the night 
 comes, may we, like our brethren, lie down in hope 
 of a glorious resurrection! In 'that day' we shall
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 511 
 
 all meet again, and, I trust, be forever with the Lord 
 whom we have believed and preached and served." 
 
 Memorial services were held in many of the prin- 
 cipal cities and towns throughout the connection, 
 expressive of the felt loss of the Church. 
 
 At the preachers' meeting, held in the city of 
 Louisville March 31st, the following tribute was paid 
 to his memory: 
 
 "After a long, eventful, and honorable life, Bishop 
 Kavanaugh sleeps well. No citizen has served the 
 State more faithfully, no preacher has served the 
 Church more successfully ; and he dies honored by 
 Church and State, if not the first citizen of the com- 
 monwealth for half a century, assuredly its first 
 preacher. And be it 
 
 " Resolved, That, in our judgment, Methodism has 
 not produced a more typical and representative 
 preacher or bishop since the days of Asbury Asbury 
 worthily opening the centenary of American Method- 
 ism that Bishop Kavanaugh closes so well. 
 
 " 2. That we Kentucky preachers mourn his loss, 
 not only as bishop and fellow-preacher, but also, and 
 especially, as brother and friend. 
 
 "3. That we tender our sympathy to his widow, 
 and to the bereaved and widowed Church. 
 
 " H. C. SETTLE, Chairman. 
 " B. M. MESSICK, Secretary. 
 
 " LOUISVILLE, March 31, 1884." 
 
 Similar meetings were held throughout the con- 
 nection, while district conferences gave vent to their 
 sorrow in most beautiful and touching words. The
 
 512 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 entire Church felt the bereavement, and mourned 
 his death. 
 
 On no previous occasion had the Methodist press 
 expressed greater sorrow over the death of any of 
 their chief pastors than on the present. 
 
 The Christian Advocate, published at Nashville, 
 said of him : 
 
 " His sun went down full-orbed and cloudless. 
 From the pulpit where he made his last essay to 
 preach the Gospel he went to his bed, and lay down 
 to die. The mighty brain and great, loving heart 
 only ceased their vigorous functions a little while be- 
 fore he was called up to clearer light and larger life 
 and fuller love. 
 
 " The Church sorrows and rejoices for him sor- 
 rows that his face shall be seen no more among us, 
 rejoices that his life was, by the grace of God, so 
 pure, so truly grand, so fruitful, so completely 
 rounded. His individuality was so marked, his per- 
 sonality so powerful, that his departure leaves a vac- 
 uum that will not be filled, an aching void in the 
 heart of the Church. 
 
 "As a Christian, he was of the highest type. 
 Godward, he was trustful, obedient, reverent, ador- 
 ing. Manward, he was faithful, gentle, loving, wise, 
 and winning. 
 
 "As a preacher, he will rank among the greatest 
 of his contemporaries. His greatest efforts were 
 marvels of inspired eloquence. The musical voice, 
 with its great compass and variety of tone, the grace- 
 ful gesture, the cumulative power of thought, the 
 flash of playful wit, the daring flights of imagination,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 513 
 
 the majesty of his impassioned periods when in full 
 thunder, the glowing face, the dilating form, and the 
 magnetism that drew and held the eager, tearful, and 
 often shouting multitudes, who can forget? He was 
 a great preacher, according to every right standard. 
 That he was unequal in the pulpit, was the natural 
 result of his temperament. He was not an elocu- 
 tionist, but an orator: the mere elocutionist maintains 
 a respectable dead-level at all times; the orator has 
 flood and ebb tides, on which he rises and falls. He 
 usually preached on great subjects the fundamental 
 facts and principles of the Gospel. His thought was 
 massive, his logic steel-linked; but with these there 
 was always the glow of the great heart that yearned 
 over human woe and peril, and the persuasiveness of 
 the preacher who had been taught of God and made 
 wise to win souls. And he Avon many how many 
 will not be known until 'the day' shall reveal all 
 things. His crown will glitter with many stars. If 
 all, living and dead, who have been touched benefi- 
 cially by his ministry could be heard in testimony of 
 the fact, how vividly would we realize the success 
 of his lalx>r of sixty-one years, and how poor would 
 seem the highest triumphs of human achievement on 
 the arena of mere worldly ambition ! 
 
 "As a bishop, he was blameless not infallible, 
 but blameless. Not beyond the imputation of mis- 
 judgment, but beyond the suspicion of wrong'motive. 
 This is strong language; but we use it deliberately, 
 knowing the man, and having his record before our 
 mind. He made no claim to expertncss in the tech- 
 nicalities of ecclesiastical law; but his strong sense
 
 514 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 of right, his unfailing patience and good temper, and 
 his exquisite tact, made him a safe and successful ad- 
 ministrator. He cared little for the intricacies and 
 niceties of parliamentary law; but his good sense 
 and magnetic power were adequate to the discharge 
 of the weighty functions of a presiding officer. The 
 conferences in which he presided wished him to come 
 again, and the love and esteem of the brethren in- 
 creased with every successive visit. Loved and ven- 
 erated as he was by the whole Church, that love 
 and veneration were strongest where he was best 
 known. Kentucky his own loved Kentucky is 
 the chief mourner at his grave, but we all sorrow 
 together." 
 
 The gifted editor of the New Orleans Christian 
 Advocate said : 
 
 " But a few weeks ago Bishop Kavanaugh left this 
 city, after a delightful sojourn with us of a month, in 
 robust health that promised many more years of 
 vigorous service. His strength of voice and limb 
 was indeed remarkable, when we consider his length 
 of days. But in the ripe, rich fullness of an hon- 
 ored, glorious life he has fallen on sleep. 
 
 " Thus passes to his reward one of the purest and 
 noblest of God's heroes. Guileless, transparent, gen- 
 erous, gentle, large-hearted, and saintly, he illustrated 
 the graces of our holy religion, going in and out 
 among his brethren for over fourscore years without 
 a blur on his name or a stain on his shield, and at 
 last has gone up to the rich reward of a dauntless, 
 tireless apostolic chieftain. No knightlier soul ever 
 wielded with braver arm
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 515 
 
 'A two-edged sword, 
 Of heavenly temper keen.' 
 
 " He seemed to court and covet hard places de- 
 serted and untried fields where only phenomenal 
 faith and courage would dare to go. Every nook 
 and corner of a pioneer Methodist preacher's experi- 
 ence he had explored, from the poorest mission to 
 the high office of a bishop. And into each work he 
 carried the same spirit of self-forgetful ness. It was 
 not with the mere words of feigned modesty, but 
 genuine humility, that he shrank from the responsi- 
 bilities of the episcopacy. He had a passion for 
 preaching, not for its applause or stipend, but as a 
 means of saving souls. And the pulpit was his 
 throne of power. There he reigned and reveled, at 
 times, with scarcely a peer in the entire Church. 
 Even within the past few weeks he has preached 
 twice in a Sabbath, exhibiting the greater power in 
 the second service. Thus he has ceased at once to 
 work and live. 
 
 We copy the following from the Christian Advocate, 
 published at Raleigh, N. C. : 
 
 " Bishop Kavanaugh was a grand preacher. The 
 pulpit was his strongest forte. He seemed to delight 
 in preaching, and he did it grandly. One of the most 
 powerful sermons we ever heard was preached by 
 Bishop Kavanaugh. He seemed to get almost up into 
 heaven himself, and carried his audience along with 
 him. When he reached the climax, he clapped his 
 hands and shouted ' Hallelujah !' and his audience would 
 have shouted too, but for the fact that he seemed to 
 have them perfectly entranced and intensely silent, as
 
 516 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 they sat lost in admiration of his wonderful oratory. 
 The Wilmington Star says: 
 
 " ' Bishop Kavanaugh, of Kentucky, was one of the 
 most remarkable preachers in the whole land. He was a 
 man of very marked powers. Said the gifted Philemon 
 Archer to us once: "Did you ever hear Bishop Kavan- 
 augh preach ?" Upon replying in the negative, he added : 
 " Well, you ought to hear him. The first half-hour you 
 will wish he had never begun, and the last half-hour you 
 will wish that he would never end." This explains his 
 manner. Like a great ship he moved slowly at first, hut 
 when he got out into the deep waters and had thrown 
 every sail to the breeze, he moved then with celerity and 
 stateliness and splendor. He was an orator. He was a 
 good man, very devoted and full of fruit. His life was a 
 blessing to thousands, and at the advanced age of eighty- 
 two he passed away. He was able almost to the last to 
 speak with marked effect for an hour and a half or two 
 hours. There are few such men left behind him in the 
 world.'" 
 
 From the Central Methodist, published at Catletts- 
 burg, Ky., we take the following: 
 
 " There was not, at the time of his death, a man 
 in the American pulpit more universally known or 
 loved than Bishop Kavanaugh. Sixty-one years an 
 efficient Methodist preacher, and thirty years of that 
 time a bishop, traveling from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
 cific, and traversing almost every thoroughfare in the 
 whole South, made his name a household word, pro- 
 nounced with reverence by all the people. 
 
 " But above all this was his consistent life, warm, 
 genial disposition, and unsurpassed eloquence in the 
 pulpit. During his whole life, there was not the 
 breath of slander breathed against him. His very
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 517 
 
 presence disarmed the opposition of enemies of the 
 Church, aiid awed them into silence. While not 
 light in his conversation or given to jesting, yet his 
 very presence brought sunshine and happiness. A 
 man of purer speech we have never known. He was 
 emphatically a man of clean lips. His goodness 
 and greatness, however, were most conspicuous in 
 the pulpit, of which he was a shining ornament. No 
 American preacher, we suppose, excelled him in the 
 number of sermons preached during his life. 'As he 
 went,' he { preached.' And the people heard him 
 gladly. He was so clear in his statements, so careful 
 in his arguments, and so eloquent in his appeals, that 
 for hours the people would sit in breathless stillness 
 while he discoursed to them. 
 
 " On one memorable occasion we heard him preach 
 two hours and twenty minutes, and no one seemed to 
 think he had preached a long sermon. When his 
 eloquence caught fire, flashing from planet to planet 
 and from earth to heaven, his audiences were charmed 
 by his power and thrilled by his wonderful flow of 
 language, as well as the beautiful imagery painted by 
 his matchless speech." 
 
 The Wesley an Christian Advocate said of him: 
 
 "Amiable, kind, generous, good, he loved with 
 great heartiness, gave his money liberally to good 
 causes, forgave injuries with promptness and fullness, 
 and kept his spirit pure and sweet. 
 
 " He was a bishop, not merely in the ecclesiastical 
 sense for the exercise of a few peculiar functions, but 
 in the evangelical sense; he cared for souls. He al- 
 ways stood in his lot for episcopal work, whether in 
 the old conferences or in the far West ; but we fancy
 
 518 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 he preferred the pulpit and the altar crowded with 
 mourners to the platform of the General Conference, or 
 the president's chair and the ordination services of our 
 annual conferences. He was a preacher ; he never 
 tired of the one work. To preach the Word, to as- 
 sure the Church of its connection with Christ and its 
 interest in His resurrection, was his ' loved employ.' " 
 
 The Episcopal Methodist, published in Baltimore, 
 says : 
 
 "At the time he was stricken with his fatal illness, 
 he was slowly returning to his home in Louisville 
 from New Orleans, where he had presided over a con- 
 ference in January. He gave but little evidence of 
 his great age. He was stalwart in frame, with a pa- 
 triarchal bearing, full habit, small, piercing eyes, and 
 pleasant countenance. He was not only greatly and 
 justly admired and esteemed, but loved- with warm 
 personal affection by all who knew him." 
 
 Dr. Lafferty, of the Richmond Christian Advocate, 
 in his own emphatic style, says : 
 
 "At our recent conference, he presided ; but it was 
 evident to many that he had well-nigh ' finished his 
 course/ and that his demise might be looked for at 
 almost any time. 
 
 "Looking back at his long and useful career, re- 
 calling his fidelity, bravery, simplicity of heart and 
 aim, his eloquence, and his transparent integrity and 
 lofty Christian virtues, we may say with more than 
 usual fervor 
 
 'Servant of God, well done, 
 
 Eest from thy loved employ ; 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 Enter thy Master's joy !'
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 519 
 
 "As a preacher he excelled. There was a natural, 
 easy, and powerful action about his mind in the pul- 
 pit ; and a strong, pleasant voice and natural gestures 
 carried the hearer along charmed, till a grand rush of 
 feeling carried all before it. He was no sermonette 
 man ; he needed a good hour and a half or two hours. 
 Accordingly, he rejoiced in camp-meeting services, in 
 the open air, with 'the great congregation' before 
 him, and no trammels of any sort ; there he was in 
 his element and glory. Many will be the souls to 
 rise up in eternity and call him blessed. 
 
 " Full of honors well earned ; full of years, having 
 outlived nearly all his contemporaries; full of peace 
 and a holy trust in Jesus, mellowed by the experience 
 of a long and varied life, in the early part of the 
 centenary year of American Methodism, beholding the 
 glory of its progress with eyes not yet dim, nor a 
 heart too old to feel the thrill of pleasure in such a 
 review, he has laid down his body and charge, and 
 joined the company of the redeemed, and gone to 
 salute with a holy rapture the sainted Paine, and 
 others lately his colleagues in our episcopacy." 
 
 The Southern Christian Advocate says: 
 
 "Our beloved and now sainted brother was an Is- 
 raelite indeed, in whom there was no guile. He rests 
 literally rents after a well-filled day of hard work 
 and consecrated toil." 
 
 The Colorado Methodist, published at Pueblo, says 
 of him : 
 
 " In the life of Bishop Kavanaugh we have an il- 
 lustration of the very best elements of a Methodist 
 preacher. Simplicity, singleness of aim, purity of pur-
 
 520 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 pose were conspicuous in him. ' He offered himself 
 willingly unto the Lord/ and allowed no selfish mo- 
 tive to divert him from his Master's work. He sought 
 no promotion to place or power, and when his breth- 
 ren put him forward, he was surprised that they put 
 such estimate upon him. He never suspected that he 
 was talented till he was told of it, and then his feeling 
 was not elation, but surprise at the common stand- 
 ard by which he was measured. We have heard him 
 so express himself. 
 
 " He was a devout Christian. He was a genial, 
 sweet-spirited man. He was an earnest and eloquent 
 preacher. His life, running parallel with a long 
 stretch of our Church history, shaped that history no 
 little, and, when it is drawn out in detail by his biog- 
 grapher, will be found full of fruit and full of inspi- 
 ration to those who come after him. May his influ- 
 ence reproduce his character in many a student of 
 his life." 
 
 The Pacific Methodist says : 
 
 " His long life was filled with sunshine. Contact 
 with him was a benediction which thousands have en- 
 joyed. His joyous spirit, his tender heart, his devout 
 and holy life, and his matchless eloquence made him 
 a model preacher of the glorious Gospel of Christ. 
 On the Pacific Coast he was known in almost every 
 hamlet." 
 
 His praise, however, is not confined to the press, 
 but individual tributes are bestowed from every por- 
 tion of the country. 
 
 Bishop Keener recently said : " Bishop Kavan- 
 augh possessed the rare gift of the rhythm of prose, 
 and a wonderful use of words. He was one of a num-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 521 
 
 ber of very great orators of Kentucky, such as Jona- 
 than Stamper, Marcus Lindsey, Win. Guun, and Henry 
 Bascom. Not long since, while preaching in Arkan- 
 sas, the audience were so carried away by his elo- 
 quence, that they rose and stood on the tops of the 
 pews. He was a great theologian, and discussed his 
 subjects with great perspicuity before permitting his 
 theme to lift him into the realm of eloquence." 
 
 Rev. C. G. Andrews, D. D., of the Mississippi Con- 
 ference, writes : 
 
 " Bishop Kavanaugh has presided over the Mis- 
 sissippi Conference five times during the last twenty- 
 six years : first at Vicksburg, in 1868 ; then at Merid- 
 ian, in 1871; at Brandon, in 1872; again at Merid- 
 ian, in 1873; and last at Natchez, in 1883, just a few 
 months before his death. 
 
 " I might say that the impression which he made 
 at the first conference was confirmed and strength- 
 ened by each succeeding one. He was of so trans- 
 parent a character that all could readily see through 
 it. An utter absence of duplicity prevented him from 
 concealing any thing, even if there had been any thing 
 to conceal. It would have had to come out, no mat- 
 ter whom or what it damaged, as he did not know 
 how to take counsel of policy or cunning. He was 
 so unambitious, that I really believe he was just as 
 self-possessed on one occasion as another, no matter 
 how occasions might differ in importance or magni- 
 tude. If there was any difference, he seemed to be 
 more unconcerned upon occasions where he had reason 
 to believe that great things were expected of him 
 
 than ordinarily, when the salvation of souls was more 
 
 44
 
 522 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 directly dependent upon the proper presentation of 
 the truth. 
 
 "Bishop Kavauungh was as guileless and as simple 
 as a little child. I have seen him in the social circle, 
 when he would bring himself down to the level of 
 little children, entering into their enjoyments with a 
 freshness and forgetfulness of self that could not be 
 aifected, but could come from nature only. There 
 was no stiffness or formality about him. The very 
 same freedom of manner that characterized him in the 
 company of little children, seemed to belong to him 
 when associated with the learned and the elders. 
 
 "He had an inexhaustible fund of anecdote. 
 There was an appropriateness and a pertinency in his 
 anecdotes that made you think he originated some of 
 them for the occasion. He had that rare quality of 
 enjoying a joke at his own expense. This kind he 
 seemed to narrate with peculiar relish. He did not 
 consider his features very handsome nor his person 
 very graceful, and any humorous reflection he hap- 
 pened to hear made upon either, he treasured up and 
 would often relate to friends with irresistible humor. 
 An illustration of this occurred at the late session of 
 the Mississippi Conference, during one of the sessions 
 of his cabinet. Some reference had been made to his 
 figure. l That reminds me,' said he, f of a remark the 
 gifted and erratic Tom Marshall, of Kentucky, made 
 about me. Tom and I grew up together, and were 
 quite intimate. I used to admire his genius and la- 
 ment his wanderings. He got down so low at one 
 time that he had no home, got his meals just where 
 he could, and would fall down and sleep wherever
 
 BISHOP KAVANAVGH. 523 
 
 sleep overtook him, even though it was in a stable or 
 a hay-loft. I was walking down street early one 
 morning, and felt my sorrow stirred at seeing Tom 
 coming out of one of his sleeping-places, with, the hay 
 still sticking in his hair and to his clothes. He called 
 out to me while I was yet-at some distance from him : 
 ' Kavanaugh, you and I resemble our blessed Savior, 
 but in different particulars: I, in that I have not 
 where to lay my head ; and you, in that you have no 
 form or comeliness.' It was impossible to resist the 
 inimitable gusto with which he related this, and the 
 presiding elders forgot all about the knotty cases they 
 were trying to dispose of, and laughed in uncontroll- 
 able merriment. 
 
 " His features in repose were rather homely, and 
 his body was very large and unwieldy ; yet, when in 
 preaching he warmed to the subject, and would begin 
 to indulge in quick succession his enrapturing flights 
 of eloquence, his face would be lighted up with a cap- 
 tivating radiance, and every movement of his body 
 would seem to be so responsive to the glowing senti- 
 ments as to make the impression that it was the very 
 vehicle, of all others, in which to convey impassioned 
 eloquence. A physician, who entertained the bishop 
 during one of our district conferences, and who was 
 quite captivated by him, expressed his admiration for 
 his guest in the following extravagant and yet char- 
 acteristic words: 'Why/ said he, 'he reminds me of 
 a great big hogshead with its hoops ready to burst off 
 with genial humor, with goodness of heart, and with 
 glorious eloquence/ 
 
 "There was never any friction in the bishop's
 
 524 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 presidency over our conference ; no one stood in awe 
 of the rap of his gavel nor dreaded a rigid ruling. 
 He allowed the broadest latitude, and appeared as a 
 father ready to encourage all his sons rather than as 
 an officer whose stern regard for law and rigid enact- 
 ment of order knew no sympathy nor relaxation. His 
 decisions of law were made up not so much from the 
 strict letter nor from close analytical construction as 
 from the practical bearing of the question and its re- 
 lation to life and morals. 
 
 " Every one who writes or speaks, or even thinks 
 of Bishop Kavanaugh, will indorse the opinion that 
 his chief characteristic, his crowning glory, was his 
 unsurpassed not to say peculiar talent for preach- 
 ing the Gospel of Christ. There is one adjective that 
 always seemed to suggest itself whenever I would 
 undertake to characterize his preaching an adjective, 
 by the way, which I associate with the preaching of 
 no one else that is, 'grand/ He was emphatically a 
 grand preacher when at himself. He was noted for a 
 peculiarly clear and concise statement of doctrine; 
 but many others excelled in this as well as he. He 
 had a rare use and richness of illustration ; but in this 
 he had equals, though not many. But there was a 
 sphere in which he was unrivaled, a domain of pul- 
 pit power which they who were familiar with his 
 preaching awarded to him alone. It was when the 
 divine afflatus furnished him with a fullness and rich- 
 ness of expression that drew forth at will the most fit- 
 ting words from the treasuries of language ; when with 
 thoughts coruscating with true poetic fire ; when with 
 life-like images some glowing with ecstatic beauty,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 525 
 
 others reeking with the odors of perdition as, look- 
 ing down into the clear depths of revelation, he 
 evoked them from the regions of glory or from the 
 realms of despair ; and, above all, when, with the air 
 of authority belonging to one who has received his 
 commission from Heavan, he himself appeared as 
 transported with the everlasting Gospel, and by his 
 magic power lifted up his willing hearers to the same 
 enrapturing heights. Nothing but inspiration could 
 have given such power. No matter how richly an 
 orator may be endowed by nature, no matter how 
 diligently he may prepare himself, the most faultless 
 productions of the most accomplished artists would be 
 tame in comparison. The true Gospel of the transfig- 
 uration can be preached only when there is the bright 
 cloud overshadowing, and the voice out of the cloud 
 attesting the presence and inspiration of Heaven. 
 Here was the secret of the wonderful pulpit power of 
 Bishop Kavanangh. He was fond of preaching from 
 the text, ' But there is a spirit in man, and the in- 
 spiration of the Almighty giveth them understand- 
 ing,' and his own preaching was at once a demonstra- 
 tion of its truth and a grand illustration of its power. 
 "Our last association with Bishop Kavanaugh was 
 on Christmas eve, 1883. We had invited a few con- 
 genial spirits to meet him and Mrs. Kavanaugh in 
 the 'hired house' which we were using as a presiding 
 elder's parsonage. (The very next night the dwelling 
 was consumed, with our entire stock of personal ef- 
 fects, including the ministerial labors of twenty-six 
 years, together with the manuscript records of the 
 Mississippi Conference since 1813.) The bishop was
 
 526 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in his happiest mood, playfully abandoning himself to 
 the enjoyment of the hour, showing a deep interest 
 in all that was going on, and delighting the company 
 by his sparkling conversation and entertaining anec- 
 dote. One of the guests who had sat under his min- 
 istry, but had never seen him in the social circle, was 
 so charmed by the bishop's entertaining and genial 
 manners as to say that the experiences of such an 
 evening would rarely occur again even in a lifetime. 
 The music, both vocal and instrumental, seemed to 
 give him unfeigned joy. Particularly was he inter- 
 ested in the song of ' The Bridge/ by Longfellow. 
 Were its weird melody and sad sentiments prophetic 
 to him of the calamity about to befall us, and of the 
 translation soon to come to him? 
 
 'And forever and forever, 
 
 As long as the river flows, 
 As long as the heart has passions, 
 
 As long as life has woes, 
 The moon and its broken reflection 
 
 And its shadows shall appear 
 As the symbol of love in heaven 
 
 And its wavering image here.' 
 
 "He conducted worship before leaving us with a 
 fervid simplicity, with impressive earnestness, and 
 with tearful pathos. The memory of Bishop Kav- 
 anaugh to me and mine will be an experience of ben- 
 efit, a joy forever." 
 
 Rev. T. N. Ralston, D. D., of the Kentucky Con- 
 ference, furnishes us the following memorial sketch of 
 
 "BISHOP HUBBARD H. KAVANAUGH. 
 
 "I have been requested, from a source which I can 
 not disregard, to write a tribute to the memory of our re-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 527 
 
 cently deceased Bishop Hubbard H. Kavanaugh. Never 
 did I attempt to write on a theme on which I felt more 
 deeply my inadequacy to the task of rendering what my 
 heart would dictate, as but the meed which truth and jus- 
 tice would require. It strikes me as presumptuous for any 
 one feeling himself so unequal to the task to essay to pre- 
 sent a proper portraiture of the moral worth and intellect- 
 ual powers of Bishop Kavanaugh. It is clear to my mind 
 that what I may write will be more from the heart than 
 from any other source. I loved him much. I have known 
 him long and intimately. I had the happiness to form his 
 acquaintance at the first conference I ever attended, and 
 at which I was admitted on trial. This conference con- 
 vened at Versailles, Kentucky, October 10, 1827; Bishops 
 Soule and Roberts in attendance. As I well remember, 
 Bishop Roberts preached an excellent Gospel sermon from 
 Isaiah ix, 6. Brother Kavaiiaugh had then been in con- 
 ference but four years. Thus he was four years my senior, 
 both in conference and in natural life; he having been 
 born in Clark County in 1802, and I in Bourbon in 
 1806. We have both dwelt in Kentucky nearly all the 
 time since. We have always been associated on terms of 
 the most confidential intimacy. We both lived for several 
 years in Lexington at the same time ; he as presiding 
 elder on the district, I in charge of the Female Collegiate 
 High-school. This necessarily threw us much together. 
 Neither of us kept any secret from the other. What one 
 knew, both knew; and, so far as I cau remember, what 
 one approved, both approved. This applies, with little 
 exception, to our entire connection with the Church and 
 conference. But how shall I proceed in my attempt of 
 an analysis of his character? It would seem superfluous 
 to aim to describe his personal appearance ; for who in all 
 this region, from California to Florida, has not looked 
 upon his form? A stranger, scrutinizing him closely, would 
 l>e apt to pronounce him a quiet, honest, candid, and
 
 528 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 agreeable gentleman ; in temperament kind, and inclined 
 to be jovial and urbane, rather than austere; one to be 
 relied on as a friend, to stick closer to you than a brother. 
 His countenance indicated strongly developed moral pow- 
 ers. A purer heart I never knew than that which glowed 
 in his warm bosom. He was incapable, in word or deed, 
 of any thing inconsistent with the moral principles of the 
 Gospel of Christ. A heart of kinder impulses never 
 throbbed in human bosom. His social qualities were ex- 
 cellent. Whether with young or old, with male or female, 
 he was genial, pleasant, respectful, and agreeable in the 
 highest degree. Even when I first knew him, though he 
 was quite a young man, having been but four years in the 
 conference, yet he had gained a reputation for pulpit elo- 
 quence which no one among us, except Bascom, had ever 
 reached. Hence his society was much courted and enjoyed 
 by a numerous circle of admiriug friends. His course was 
 onward and upward all the time, occupying successively 
 the best stations with approval and success. He was ordi- 
 narily, in appearance, not remarkably noteworthy; yet his 
 cast indicated that he possessed immense power, and in- 
 domitable force and energy, when by occasion aroused. 
 He was not composed of a bundle of negations compacted 
 together, but of independent, distinct, and positive convic- 
 tions, and deeply considered and firmly settled principles. 
 
 "As a preacher, he combined several of the most es- 
 sential qualities of an excellent and useful Gospel minister 
 in so high a degree that it is not easy to decide in which 
 he most excelled. His mind worked deliberately and cau- 
 tiously. Such composition, generally requiring some stim- 
 ulus to stir its peculiar energies, must sometimes not ex- 
 hibit its usual force. But though I have so often heard 
 him preach, I never knew him to fail but once, when, 
 after speaking perhaps about ten minutes, he stopped, 
 stood a minute or so, and with child-like simplicity re- 
 marked, ' Brethren, it seems my mind will not work to-
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 
 
 night,' and calling some one to the pulpit, he sat down. 
 He laughed heartily about it afterwards, and seemed to 
 mind it less than a less famous man would have done. 
 Bishop Kavanaugh never jumped rapidly to hap-hazard 
 conclusions. I think he had adopted as life-maxims these 
 two: Deliberate and decide with calmness and caution; 
 then execute with firmness and perseverance. He was not 
 readily excited to enter in any contest ; but when brought 
 to the point of onset, he was to be conquered with the ut- 
 most difficulty. To surrender he knew not how. When 
 important principle was involved he was immovable. If 
 Martin Luther and John Kuox possessed the spirit of mar- 
 tyrdom, rather than to deviate from truth and righteousness, 
 even so did Hubbard H. Kavauaugh. In his firmly glued 
 lips, had the occasion demanded, might have been read 
 these words, ' You may kill me, but you can not move me 
 from my conscientious convictions.' Pulpit eloquence was 
 far from being his sole excellence. He was a deeply stud- 
 ied and a Scripturally and Methodistically orthodox theo- 
 logian of the Wesley, Fletcher, and Watson stamp. I 
 have evidence to know that no one witnessed with more 
 regret than he the tendency in some comparatively young 
 paeachers to desire to ' amend our rules ' and the doctrines 
 of our Church, so clearly set forth and so ably defended 
 and established in the hearts of almost the entire Method- 
 ist family. 
 
 "As to his method in the pulpit, he generally occu- 
 pied about twenty minutes, in the first part of his dis- 
 course, in calmly reasoning, as a philosophical divine, on 
 the great principles underlying his subject. Here the more 
 thoughtful portion of his hearers were edified and entertained ; 
 but the general mass were resting till the time came for 
 him to soar aloft on the wing of his sparkling imagination. 
 As an impulsive descriptive orator, he could scarcely be 
 excelled. He was an eloquent and sublime describer of 
 the important topics of Gospel s:ilv:ition : of sin, and its 
 
 45
 
 530 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 dire issues; of the atonement, and its wondrous display 
 of the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; of the 
 measures of grace and love portrayed by the Triune God- 
 head to save the ruined world. Who that has ever heard 
 him, at camp-meetings and large and important occasions, 
 when rising to a lofty stage of rapture, and climbing from 
 one degree to another, still higher and higher, till he 
 seemed to lift our gaze to the opening arcana of the lofti- 
 est home of angels and of all the shining ranks of the 
 ransomed hosts; till even the sublime effulgence of the 
 Triune Godhead, in all its ineffable glory, seemed bursting 
 upon human vision, while all hearts in the vast assembly 
 were almost ready to shout aloud, ' Is this heaven brought 
 down to earth, or is it earth lifted up to heaven?' who 
 has ever been present on such an occasion without beiug 
 filled with the most thrilling emotion ? Indeed, when once 
 he would cut loose from his logical argument, I have heard 
 him when climbing in climacteric heights of eloquence, 
 until the sublimity of his language came near the verge 
 of being unlawful for human utterance. 
 
 "In speaking of his character as a preacher, we must 
 accord to him the meed of possessing a happy combination 
 of the best traits of a useful and successful Gospel minis- 
 ter to a degree excelled by none of his contemporary asso- 
 ciates. To a few of these we here make a brief reference. 
 
 "First rises to view that peerless orator, once desig- 
 nated by Henry Clay as the ' lion of the West,' Henry B. 
 Bascom. As an eloquent and far-seeing statesman and 
 patriotic orator, I have ever considered Henry Clay ' head 
 and shoulders above' all who have ever risen in America. 
 Even so I place Henry B. Bascom at the head of the list 
 of the pulpit orators of whom America has ever had reason 
 to be proud. There was also Marcus Lindsey, a real, stal- 
 wart Hercules. In hard, logical reasoning on theological 
 questions, and sound, convincing arguments, he could bring 
 down his arm and hand on the breast-board with the most
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 531 
 
 conducing, the most stunning force, against the principles 
 of au. opponent, I ever heard iu ray life. When I once 
 heard him preach against Calvinism, I thought if all the 
 Calviuists in the world had listened to his arguments, for 
 very shame they never could have had the hardihood, 
 thereafter, to acknowledge their creed. There was George 
 C. Light. When once, in Danville, I heard him deliver 
 a sermon against Unitarianism, I thought that ism was the 
 last pill of heterodoxy I could ever be induced to swallow. 
 There was the plain, but eccentric, Josiah Whitaker. I 
 heard him preach a sermon about four hours long, 
 more than fifty years ago, against the new but full-blown 
 system of Campbellism logical, witty, and Scriptural 
 giving book, chapter, and verse, which, in real strength 
 and convincing power, I think I have never since heard 
 excelled. All that he lacked, it seemed to me, in excell- 
 ing even Campbell, was culture. 
 
 " In revival and evangelical force, there were Absalom 
 Hunt, Henry McDauiel, William Holman, Richard D. 
 Neale, Milton Jamison, John Fisk, Edwin Roberts, and 
 some others. If there be any evangelists of the present 
 day excelling these, I know them not. 
 
 " These are only a small portion of the class of men 
 with whom our recently glorified and much-loved bishop co- 
 operated in the earlier years of his ministry. But in moral 
 worth, in abundance of labor, in purity of life, and influence 
 of his example, by whom among them was he excelled ? 
 
 " Shall we ever see his like again? In his death I feel 
 that the best ministerial friend God ever gave me is gone up 
 higher. I gazed upon him in his youth, when the bursting 
 flowers of fame and usefulness were freshly circling his 
 brow with fragrance and charm. I have viewed him with 
 pleasure and profit in his ever-increasing influence and use- 
 fulness, till, like a ripe shock of grain, he has been lifted 
 to the heavenly garner. May those whom he "baa left be- 
 hind follow him, as he followed Christ!"
 
 532 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 FROM REV. WM. M. GRUBBS, OF INDIANA. 
 
 " WALDRON, SHELBY Co., INC., April 10, 1884. 
 " REV. A. H. REDFORD, D. D. : 
 
 "Dear Brother, As upon you devolves the love- 
 labor of writing the life of our old friend, may I not 
 submit a few recollections, not only from my personal as- 
 sociations with him, but because of the long and unbroken 
 friendship that existed between Bishop Kavanaugh and 
 my father-in-law, the late Rev. Jonathan Stamper, and 
 their families? They were natives of the same county in 
 Kentucky, and by the intermarriages of those well-known 
 Methodist families of Central Kentucky, the Raileys, the 
 Tuckers, and the Rowlands, there was something, also, of 
 kinship. Their early training for the life-work in which 
 they became distinguished was singularly alike, while their 
 views of Church policy and their action, not only during the 
 years of peace, but even when one went from Kentucky 
 and the other from Illinois as delegates to the General 
 Conference of 1844, were in substantial harmony. I have 
 been searching for a long letter the bishop wrote Mrs. 
 Grubbs upon the death of her mother, reciting these long 
 friendships, and when found it will be at your service. 
 
 "Upon invitation to assist in the dedication of a beau- 
 tiful country church we had erected in Clarke County, 
 ImK, in February, 1877, he spent a pleasant night with us 
 at the cozy parsonage ; and until past midnight those long 
 years of intimate association were reviewed by him, with 
 that pleasing by-play of wit and anecdote that made him 
 the delight of the social circle. The sum of it all was 
 that there had not been a break in their friendship of 
 fifty years. 
 
 "The first time that I remember to have seen Bishop 
 Kavanaugh was in the Summer of 1829, when he was sta- 
 tioned in Russellville, Ky. The house of your old friend, 
 and my uncle, the late Rev. Thos. G. Gooch, was the church
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 533 
 
 home of the little Methodist society in our neighborhood. 
 While, as a mere school-boy, I recollect nothing of the ser- 
 mon, I recall the stubby, well-dressed, and graceful young 
 preacher, as standing in the door of my uncle's house, on 
 a week-day, he preached to as large a congregation as the 
 dismissed school and our neighborhood could then furnish. 
 I wished he would come again, as it would not only give us 
 a longer recess from school, but would give me a chance 
 at the extra fare provided at my uncle's table on preach- 
 ing-day. It will not be strange to you, when I state that I 
 was three years in the conference before I made his ac- 
 quaintance; for you and I were of those callow novitiates, 
 that, as a rule, kept clear of the more than half-dozen 
 pulpit magnates for which our conference was then dis- 
 tinguished. If Drs. Tomlinson and Bascom were excep- 
 tions, in any case, a couple of yellowed essays, now before 
 me, bearing their friendly criticisms and autographs, show 
 that I had to form their acquaintance as committeemeu. 
 My acquaintance proper began with the bishop in the 
 fall of 1837, when we were thrown together at Bardstown, 
 to which station he was returned for the second year, with 
 J. Stamper on the district, and myself on Salt River circuit. 
 His boarding-place was near the large hired house we oc- 
 cupied, and where for four years Mrs. Grubbs conducted a 
 female school. It was a year of great excitement and 
 friction, in some respects. Dr. N. L. Rice and the Cath- 
 olics were at war. J. N. Maffitt held a meeting of sev- 
 eral weeks' continuance, and the situation called for just 
 such qualities, prudential and social, as the pastor of our 
 society possessed. My circuit had eighteen appointments, 
 and swept through portions of four counties. It had been 
 one of the early charges of the bishop, and he was always 
 ready to help in our work. Among the best camp-meet- 
 ings ever held at the old historic Beech Fork Camp-ground 
 was that of August, 1838. For a week the presiding 
 elder and the Bardstown pastor alternated in preaching to
 
 534 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the crowds that always gathered there. It was pleasing to 
 hear the old Methodists of that county discussing, in the 
 quiet of their homes, for months afterwards, the relative 
 merits of these favorite camp-meeting preachers, and it re- 
 mained with them an open question which of the two was 
 the greater, and which they loved the best. 
 
 "Though in 1845-46 you and I were close neighbors, 
 it was my lot to undergo the greater trouble. During the 
 time the Maysville church suit, that settled the property 
 question, was hanging fire, we were knocked about from 
 pillar to post. During this Winter brother Kavauaugh, 
 with brother W. H. Anderson, came from Lexington, and 
 they preached alternately during the week we had the 
 church. While his position was well understood, that 
 visit as their old pastor had a mollifying effect upon a so- 
 ciety so equally divided that it took ten days of legal 
 overhauling to fix the question of majority. Even when 
 settled in our favor, an old Kentucky statute so befogged 
 old Judge Reed that he divided the time equally. 
 
 "My next and longest association with our deceased 
 friend was during the four years, from 1848 to 1852, when 
 I filled the Covington District, and he served full terms at 
 Soule Chapel, Cincinnati, and Scott Street, Covington. 
 The district stretched from the Ohio border to Paris, with 
 not a mile of railroad and but few turnpikes. I will not 
 attempt a list of the effective men who passed in and out 
 of the district during these four years. They ranged from 
 Kavanaugh, Bruce, Linn, Merritt, the Deering brothers, 
 to Robert Hiner and Joseph Rand, who were then making 
 their first essays in what has proved a long and success- 
 ful itinerancy. We had the largest list of superannuates of 
 any other district, and I must linger lovingly over these 
 venerable men. There was William Burke, the old war- 
 horse and block-house preacher ; Samuel A. Latta, the 
 massive, and George W. Maley, the inimitable, who came 
 to us from Ohio with E. W. Sehon, but, unlike him, they
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH, 535 
 
 were not able for duty. There was Isaac Collord, the sage, 
 who gave me license to preach ; and John James, the ar- 
 dent, who was retired by mistake, and for whom I found 
 work. We had Josiah Whitaker just like himself with 
 old Buck, carrying the documents furnishing material for 
 a five hours' sermon on Baptism, and for push in any thing 
 he undertook. My recollections of this unique man are 
 very tender. I visited him on his dying-bed in the Spring 
 of 1850. His last words to me were: ' Billy, tell the breth- 
 ren at conference it is all right with their old servant; my 
 way to heaven is just as clear as the road to Cynthiana, 
 that I have been traveling for fifty years.' 
 
 "There was Samuel Veach, feeble in body, but always 
 welcome to the people, and noted for his short and incisive 
 sermons. Thomas R. Malone, my class-mate, was the 
 worst case of chronic rheumatism, and yet the most cheer- 
 ful man in affliction I ever saw. The only survivor of this 
 worthy and venerable list is that sturdy man, James C. 
 Crow, ready for the hardest work, or to abide with his large 
 family as his brethren might deem best. 
 
 " If I retained the good-will of these men, so greatly the 
 junior of nearly all of them, and \vorked in harmony with 
 those able for duty, it was largely owing to the advice and 
 confidential relations that I sustained to him who was cen- 
 tral to all. He never proffered advice, and yet always 
 stood ready to impart it, and in no instance did he mislead. 
 The only embarrassment I felt in all these years was the 
 deference he paid to one so much younger. 
 
 " Very truly yours, WM. M. GRUBBS, 
 
 "South-east Indiana Conference." 
 
 Rev. \V. H. Anderson, D. D., of the Kentucky 
 Conference, writes: 
 
 " DEAR DOCTOR, I have all confidence in your ability 
 to present to the Church and the world a life-like picture 
 of our departed Bishop Kavanaugh, especially as the larger
 
 536 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 part of his Life was prepared and approved by him but a 
 short period before his death. At your request, I present 
 this short sketch, a humble tribute to his purity of charac- 
 ter and a long life of honored usefulness in the Church 
 of God. 
 
 "It is not the language of eulogy, but of severe truth, 
 to say that H. H. Kavanaugh was one of the best, the 
 purest men that ever illustrated the saving power of grace 
 and left their impress upon their race and time. He was 
 the first preacher I heard when in boyhood I moved to 
 Kentucky ; he was my parents' pastor, and preached my 
 mother's funeral sermon. I was honored with being once 
 a co-pastor with him, and enjoyed his paternal advice and 
 affection to the day of his death. 
 
 " His character was marked with simplicity, modesty, 
 goodness, transparency, but resting on strong convictions 
 and fixed principles. His intellectual powers were of the 
 highest order, developed in well-balanced symmetry and 
 strength, and all elevated by piety and consecrated to 
 God. He had a chaste, active imagination, a wonderful 
 variety of imagery, and wealth and adaptation of language, 
 and a superior ready memory. As a speaker, he very hap- 
 pily combined fervid, melting oratory with keenest logic 
 and masterly reasoning. Early converted to God when a 
 printer's boy, he was led by a mother's influence to study, 
 accept, and appreciate Methodism in its doctrines, usages, 
 and polity. His mind, in its thorough and hearty ac- 
 quaintance with those giant thinkers, Wesley and Fletcher, 
 Watson and Benson, saw the harmony of their teachings 
 with the Word of God, human wants, and noblest Christian 
 experience. These mighty and pure men, raised up 'of 
 God for a special period and work, were the theological 
 teachers, divinity doctors, who developed Kavanaugh's 
 forming mind and heart, opened up to him the rich treas- 
 ures of redemption, and in connection with his own effort 
 and the grace of God, made our departed bishop one of the
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 537 
 
 prominent pulpit kings of his time. In reviewing his life, 
 we find that, like John Wesley, a mother's superior intel- 
 lect and devoted piety impressed themselves on the mind 
 and heart of her noble son, and God permitted her to live 
 long enough to see the blessed ripe fruits of her early care 
 and labors and prayers. Bishop Kavauaugh was a self- 
 made man, and by his intense application made himself 
 master of a large and varied and extended amount of 
 knowledge. He would often astonish you with the excel- 
 lence of his attainments in natural science and in the phi- 
 losophy of mind. He was a profound thinker, a close 
 student of nature and art, of men and of books ; but he 
 made every thing miuister to his one great work and joy 
 the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion and the 
 ministry, the cause and kingdom of Christ, were the all- 
 controlling topics of thought and labor. Nothing with him 
 was valuable, only as he could hang it on the cross for the 
 glory of Him who stained the tree with his blood. 
 
 " Bishop Kavanaugh was descended from the North 
 Irish Protestants a noble ancestry, to whom he was 
 largely indebted for the continued sunshine in his spirit, 
 his genial, spicy humor, his remarkable anecdotical power, 
 and his ardent, true friendship. It was the Irish blood, 
 made to glow with the truth and grace of God, that 
 caused his brain to flash with genius and his tongue to 
 melt with eloquence. Few men seemed so completely un- 
 conscious of their pulpit power and greatness when out of 
 the sacred desk. In the social circle his manner \vas 
 genial, attractive; his presence was like a glad sunbeam ; 
 lie was the light and joy of the fireside, the home circle. 
 His Christianity had no asceticism in it; he was all sunshine 
 and love, humble and trustful as a child, yet as fixed in his 
 convictions of truth and duty and privilege as the everlast- 
 ing hills. The Christian gentleman impressed all with 
 whom he associated. There was never any show of self- 
 importance or assumed dignity. He was the true friend,
 
 538 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 who seemed to lay aside all considerations of self in his 
 efforts to aid others. 
 
 " The pulpit was his throne, redemption his tireless 
 theme; Jesus, the cross and eternal life, the character 
 and government and glory of God in. provisions for human 
 happiness, the inspiring topics of his natural, sublime, over- 
 whelming eloquence. To preach like himself he required 
 a grand theme, unlimited liberty of range, indefinite period, 
 and the uuction from on high. And though his failures 
 were stupendous, incalculable, yet for continued lofty flight 
 of grandest thought in most appropriate language, all fused 
 and overpowering by the presence of the Holy Spirit, at 
 times our departed friend was the prince of preachers. 
 He would take an old, trite theme from others' lips, and 
 dress it with beauty and inspire it with music, and wreathe 
 it with poetry, or enrich it with masterly carved logic, so 
 as to attract and impress with all the charm of novelty. 
 He never wandered outside of our pure and consistent and 
 lovely Wesleyan theology to find themes. At home in his 
 own faith, he ever found something new, beautiful, grand, 
 soul-inspiring. He had no desire for a false experimental 
 philosophy that forsakes the old, the tried, the true, the 
 good, for the newly discovered theories in theology and re- 
 ligion. His religious views had on them the stamp of the 
 strictest Wesleyan type. There was a beauty, concordance, 
 symmetry, divine loveliness, and an adaptation to man's 
 necessities, that charmed his mind and heart, and wedded 
 him in thought, soul, and pulpit expression. Our bishop 
 had thoroughly digested and absorbed our grand Method- 
 ism. It was no longer, after an examination and experi- 
 ence of more than threescore years of ministerial life, a 
 question to be solved ; that was settled and fixed with him 
 by Bible truth and Christian experience and largest obser- 
 vation. 
 
 "What a friend he was! So true, so dear! There 
 was not a particle of deceit or concealment about him.
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 539 
 
 He was as transparent as a sunbeam, and as bright and 
 cheering too. It was a luxury with him to do an act of 
 kindness for Christ's sake. 
 
 " His intellect of giant mold was usually concealed by 
 his gentle, loving simplicity of manner and spirit. In the 
 family circle our departed bishop's religion shone out in 
 genial attractive loveliness, such as we may suppose the 
 Master exhibited at the marriage of Cana of Galilee. In 
 his presence you were attracted towards him by the mag- 
 netic force of unselfish goodness that loved to make others 
 happy. 
 
 " Born in Kentucky, his grave, crowned by grace, will 
 be with Bascom's in Kentucky soil. Not only was he 
 prized, loved, and honored by our own Southern Method- 
 ism in Kentucky, and from the Gulf to the Pacific, but by 
 Christian men of all denominations, and by multiplied 
 thousands in no Church. His personal purity of charac- 
 ter; his simple-hearted, unselfish, broad-souled piety; his 
 cordial, cheerful, companionable spirit, endeared him most 
 tenderly to all who knew him. Slander never dared to 
 whisper a word or point a sneering finger at his good name. 
 
 " Our Kavanaugh was a commentary on what true re- 
 ligion is in spirit and purpose, effort and result. It was in 
 the pulpit or on the platform that the usually concealed 
 giant thinker, the rapt natural poet, the apparently in- 
 spired logician, the sublime orator appeared, moving and 
 melting all hearts before him. There was at times in the 
 lava-flow of thought a most marked religious influence on 
 his hearers, a true specimen of ' the demonstration of the 
 Spirit,' a fulfillment of the promise, ' Lo, I am with you 
 always.' In listening to his representations of the glories 
 of redemption, the supreme bliss of heaven, the completion 
 of human folly in the fearful ' damnation of hell,' you were 
 astonished at the variety of his remarkable figures and the 
 language in which they were dressed, while your whole be- 
 ing was thrilled by the JMMVIT of mighty creative genius,
 
 540 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sanctified by the truth and grace of God. Paine, and Kav- 
 auaugh, the classic thinker, the superior presiding officer, 
 the grand Christian philosopher, and now the close rea- 
 souer, the mighty pulpit orator, the devoted servant of 
 God, God spared these to live more than fourscore years 
 to bless the Church and the world. What a blessed meet- 
 ing of such minds in the presence of Jesus, angels, and 
 redeemed ones ! What a triumphal march of glorified in- 
 tellect amid the truth, full orbed, as it is in Jesus! 
 
 "As a presiding officer, any deficiency in parliamentary 
 law or usage was more than made up in the spirit of justice 
 and kindness ever present. His decisions were on the side 
 of right, and love made even their errors to magnify rever- 
 ence for the man. 
 
 " It is to be regretted that our loved bishop did not em- 
 ploy his pen power more for the edification of the Church, 
 and as the source of contributions to the future benefit and 
 history of the Church. The itinerancy is not favorable 
 in some regards to practice and excellence in the use of the 
 pen. Itinerancy is full of valuable incident, instruction, 
 philosophy, pictures of human character, art studies in hu- 
 man nature and divine grace, which ought to be placed on 
 record for instruction and edification, as well as elements of 
 future history. 
 
 " Our sketch is merely a sprig of evergreen thrown on 
 his honored grave. God has shown us not only his excel- 
 lent providence, but a marked peculiarity of Methodism in 
 the history of Kavanaugh, Durbin, and Bascom. Bascom 
 was called from the hard work of farm life, splitting rails 
 to help support his poor parents ; Durbin left his tools in 
 the cabinet-maker's shop ; Kavanaugh had the printer's ink 
 on his hands when God called him to the ministry. These 
 three self-made men, with many others in the school of the 
 itinerancy, developed a noble manhood, and made themselves 
 a living name on human record. Methodism takes the 
 rude ashler from the quarry, and by the aid of divine
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 541 
 
 grace, carves statues of spiritual beauty and grace, the ad- 
 miration of the angels and men. 
 
 " We give all honor to every instrumentality for train- 
 ing our ministry ; but the best theological diploma is direct 
 from Jesus himself. The true call to the ministry, the 
 regular development in mind and heart in religious letters 
 and in practical, profitable theology, are best found in the 
 genuine old-time itinerant life. Four weeks' circuits, with 
 plenty of hard work and abundance of common sense and 
 of religious experience, try the genuineness of the call, 
 shake the self-conceit out, and develop the manly man. 
 
 " No death has made a deeper, sadder impression on 
 the public mind, no name will live in deeper, greener, 
 holier memory, than that of our Kavanaugh. May we 
 not, amid our falling tears, rejoice that, in giving back to 
 our Father our own loved bishop, we have erected one of 
 the grandest of centennial memories and monuments? 
 This will be the year when our Kavanaugh went up to 
 heaven to live with God forever. We have his grave, 
 and angels guard his sacred dust his soul is with the 
 Lord. 
 
 "Our kind, true friend and devoted father has gone. 
 Amid our tears, falling on his new-made grave in the State 
 where he was born and labored and was honored of God 
 and man, we rejoice that, after so pure and useful and 
 noble a life, God in his love took our bishop home before 
 his mind began to show sympathy with decay of physical 
 powers under the weight of years. No sadder sight than 
 that of the giant whose intellectual tread shook the world, 
 now returned to childhood again sin's fearful, temporary 
 triumph over the grand purposes and plans of heaven. 
 Bishop Kavanaugh died ripe with years and laden with 
 honors ready for his crown. He fell with the harness on. 
 It seems like a dream that never again will we see his 
 genial smile or loving tears, or hear his loving tones in the 
 social circle or his eloquent voice in the pulpit, as he
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 talked of Jesus and heaven. Now he lives with that Jesus 
 whom he loved and preached. Now he knows, as never 
 before, the beauty and grandeur and glory of that heaven, 
 whose hope stirred his own soul and glowed on his lips and 
 kindled the hearts of his hearers. He is helping the angels 
 and the redeemed sing ' the song of Moses and the Lamb.' 
 May God sanctify our loss, and raise up another Elisha 
 worthy to catch and to wear the mantle of our departed 
 Elijah ! W. H. ANDERSON, D. D." 
 
 LINES TO BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 
 
 injmfteir to JHrs. Jfcabaiiaujjb ty f)jr 
 
 REV. JOSEPEIUS ANDERSON, D. D. 
 1. 
 
 BISHOP! thou of eagle wing, 
 In the realm of preaching, king! 
 Upward, in thy lofty flights, 
 Thou didst rise to glorious heights; 
 Training minds and hearts to soar, 
 Grander fields of truth explore, 
 In the higher life to grow, 
 More of heav'n on earth to know. 
 Lo! thy laurel'd head dost bow; 
 Thy eagle wing is folded now; 
 From thy work, in sweet release, 
 Wondrous preacher, rest in peace! 
 
 2. 
 
 Vet'ran of the sacred cross, 
 Yielding not to gain or loss, 
 Hero of the dauntless brow, 
 Sixty years a leader, thou ! 
 Pressing on, through lauds of snow, 
 On, where orange blossoms blow,
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 543 
 
 On, to western golden shores, 
 On, where old Atlantic roars. 
 Lo! thy battles all are o'er; 
 Thou hast vanquished thy last foe! 
 Now, from war's dread conflicts cease, 
 Vet'ran leader, rest in peace! 
 
 3. 
 
 Brother ! thou of tender heart ! 
 Ever true to friendship's part; 
 Great in goodness, tow'ring high 
 Into pure love's sunny sky; 
 Full of wit in sparkling flow, 
 Charming in its stingless blow; 
 Old in years, but young in soul, 
 Fresh and bright as burnished gold: 
 Lo ! we give thee up in tears 
 To the friends of other years, 
 And in this, thy soul's release, 
 Sadly whisper, Rest in peace! 
 
 4. 
 
 Rest in peace with God above, 
 Blest with his eternal love! 
 In exchange for sword and shield, 
 Thou a harp and palm shalt wield ! 
 For thy heavy armor here, 
 Robed in white shalt thou appear! 
 For thy helmet, now cast down, 
 Thou shalt wear the victor's crown! 
 For thy life of faith below, 
 Thou the life of hcav'n shalt know! 
 Lo! we wait the time to come, 
 When we'll meet in that blest home!
 
 544 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 It will always be a source of pleasure to the 
 Church that, notwithstanding the great age to which 
 Bishop Kavanaugh attained, yet his intellect was not 
 impaired, and that to the last he preached and wrote 
 with all the vigor of his early manhood. 
 
 He died in the centennial year of the Church he 
 loved so well, having lived to witness its grand 
 achievements and its glorious triumphs. 
 
 Among the last traces of his pen are the follow- 
 ing stirring words : 
 
 " The glorious march of Methodism, through the 
 past century of her organic existence in America, is, 
 a theme that inspires my soul. I congratulate my- 
 self that I have been permitted for more than four- 
 fifths of this glorious period to witness the great 
 triumphs of the Church, through the direction of 
 God's Spirit. I bear joyful testimony to the fact 
 of the genuineness of the wonderful work wrought, 
 and of the mighty results accomplished. The track 
 of this century is emblazoned with the shining marks 
 of God's outpouring Spirit. There are towering mon- 
 uments of his love and care all along its backward 
 track. What an inspiration they should be to us 
 to-day! Brethren, how they encourage us to press 
 forward to the mark for the prize of our high calling 
 as it is in Christ Jesus \ What a grand theme to dwell 
 upon! This centenary year we should, as a Church, 
 not prove recreant to the noble history our fathers 
 have made, but should add to it pages of heroism and 
 devotion worthy a place in the records of American 
 Methodism. O for a revival of the old days of Gospel 
 power and triumph ! What glorious opportunities are
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 545 
 
 offered us to make this year memorable ! Let us meas- 
 ure up to our responsibilities and privileges. We can 
 make this year a monumental one. The great objects, 
 Missions, Church Extension, and Education, appeal to 
 our liberality, and should not appeal in vain. We can 
 discharge every obligation we, as a Church, owe to 
 these worthy aids in our grand work "of evangelizing 
 the world, and not be weakened by the outlay. 
 Brethren, let us go forward, and fail not." 
 
 We approach the close of this volume with the fol- 
 lowing letter from the bereaved wife of our glorified 
 bishop: 
 
 "OUR LAST TRIP. 
 
 "LOUISVILLE, KY., April 5, 1884. 
 
 " As the gloom and sadness of a deserted hearth comes 
 up before me, I naturally revert to a few past weeks in 
 my checkered life ; but it is not only to indulge in retro- 
 spection in speaking of myself that I take up my pen, but 
 the thought wells up from the perusal of so many kind 
 letters of condolence and sympathy, coming from anxious, 
 inquiring friends, that it will be a mournful pleasure to 
 them to read of the last trip taken by one so dear to their 
 hearts, and associated with many scenes and occasions- in 
 the past. 
 
 " When our dear bishop (for that is his familiar appel- 
 lation), accompanied by myself, left our home on the 
 Kavanaugh Camp-ground, the last day of October, for an 
 extended tour through Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and 
 Louisiana, how far from our thoughts was the idea that it 
 was our last trip! 
 
 " We journeyed from Kentucky first to Lynchburp:, 
 Va. , where we passed a pleasant few days in the home of 
 one of the representative ministers of that <-<>nfrmirr and 
 his interesting family, mingling with others in social inter- 
 
 46
 
 546 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 coiyse in their pleasant, hospitable homes. From thence 
 we went by invitation to Petersburg, where we made the 
 acquaintance for the first time with intelligence and refine- 
 ment of high order in the homes of the best of our Church. 
 Then we proceeded to Richmond, where Bishop Kavanaugh 
 had been appointed to hold the Virginia Conference. We 
 never enjoyed a conference more. The kind family who 
 had entertained us on a former occasion received us now, 
 and, if possible, redoubled their efforts to give us a wel- 
 come reception. The same genial, pleasant faces, not 
 looking one bit older than seven years back, the same 
 sunny, bright room for our resting-place, welcomed us 
 again, with the invitation, and then the bright hope, that 
 we would meet there at the next General Conference. 
 
 " Leaving there, we were invited to Danville, and there 
 were received most cordially into the family of one of the 
 prominent ministers of the Virginia Conference. The en- 
 tire family, consisting of wife, the aged and venerable 
 mother, with sons and daughters in the Church, all ex- 
 tended their cordial, graceful attentions to their bishop 
 and his wife. Never did we enjoy a more pleasant few 
 days in minister's family. We were forcibly reminded 
 that these were the pleasant spots in the journey of life. 
 
 "Leaving Danville, we went to Augusta, Ga., and, 
 though much fatigued with that long trip, we were glad 
 that we had gone ; for we met many, though for the first 
 time, very agreeable people, and seeing Augusta, though 
 in the sere and 'yellow leaf, we felt impelled to say it was 
 a beautiful spot. My reflections here induce me to say 
 that it has been the crowning pleasure of my life to have 
 been permitted to take these trips with my honored husband. 
 To be Avelcomed by genial faces, Avith almost outstretched 
 arms, into the comfortable homes of our ministers and 
 members, was a joy far outweighing any fatigue or little 
 inconvenience of our trips. 
 
 "From Augusta we proceeded to Jackson, Miss., on
 
 BISHOP KA VAN A UGH. 547 
 
 invitation from our much-prized editor of the Neiv Orleans 
 Christian Advocate. Here, too, we were met aud taken to 
 the hospitable homes of some of our choicest Christian 
 people. 
 
 "From Jackson we went direct to Natchez, the seat 
 of the Mississippi Conference. To me this was a visit of 
 great interest ; for it was my first return to a city I had 
 passed through in the year 1827, on my way to Washing- 
 ton, six miles from Natchez, where I spent some years at 
 school whilst Brother B. M. Drake was president of that 
 academy. At this conference I was permitted to meet the 
 venerable wife of that sainted man to whom I am indebted 
 for most of the Christian character that has been my safe- 
 guard through life. I love his memory, and I prize most 
 highly the long, fervent letter of Christian sympathy and 
 condolence coming so recently from dear Sister Drake. Our 
 dear bishop presided 'over this conference with great ease 
 and satisfaction to himself, and, I believe, made but few 
 mistakes in his appointments. 
 
 "From Natchez we proceeded to Vicksburg, Miss., 
 spending several very pleasant days with the kind families 
 of that choice circle of friends, mingling alike with Pres- 
 byterians and Methodists, the bishop preaching in the pul- 
 pits of each. 
 
 "From Vicksburg we proceeded to Monroe, La., the 
 residence of my only surviving brother, Judge R. W. 
 Richardson. We passed about ten days in the bosom of 
 my dear brother's interesting family, the bishop preaching in 
 Monroe twice at night, and devoting the only Sabbath at 
 his command in going to the country, fifteen miles distant, 
 to dedicate a church. 
 
 "Leaving Monroe on the morning of the 6th, we took 
 passage on the steamboat for New Orleans, as the seat of 
 the conference had been clmnjrcd from Mindi-n t<> NV\v 
 Orleans. We met quite a number of preachers on their 
 way to the conference, and, as was always the case, the
 
 548 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 bishop enjoyed the companionship of the preachers in a 
 high degree. He seemed to be perfectly happy in their 
 presence, conversing with them on different poiuts of Scrip- 
 ture, and in communion with them generally. On this 
 trip he preached a soul-stirring sermon on the Sabbath. 
 
 "We reached New Orleans on the 8th of January, 
 conference convening on the 9th. We were kindly cared 
 for by the preachers in charge of the city churches by 
 placing us with Mrs. Moss, whose comfortable home was 
 immediately opposite the Carondelet Street Church. We 
 had every comfort and kindness which could contribute to 
 our well-being, the presiding elder of the New Orleans 
 District, Brother Walker, attending the bishop both to and 
 from the church during the entire session. 
 
 " He was assisted in his conference session by the regu- 
 lar attendance of our esteemed friend, Bishop Parker, who 
 relieved him of all possible duty; and though my own 
 health at that time prevented my being present but a few 
 days, yet I saw that our dear bishop was not only enduring 
 but enjoying the week's labors well, so that the entire con- 
 ference week passed off most harmoniously. And I say it in 
 gratitude to my heavenly Father, that if it was his will that 
 our dear bishop should die away from his own home, the 
 State of Louisiana, the home of my childhood, the scene 
 of my early school-days, would have been my choice. 
 And this conference most beautifully commemorated his 
 closing labors by a touching tribute on his eighty-second 
 anniversary. 
 
 " We left New Orleans for Ocean Springs on the 12th 
 of February. From invitation from Colonel R. W. Stuart, 
 we had promised a visit to that most interesting couple, 
 Colonel Stuart and his precious wife. We were welcomed 
 as in the bosom of near and dear relations ; a reserved room 
 given us, with every comfort we could ask. And coming 
 from the busy throng of a New Orleans visit, we felt our- 
 selves to be exceedingly fortunate hi coming into such a
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 549 
 
 home. We passed the first four days delightfully ; but un- 
 fortunately our bishop was unmindful of a cold, drizzling, 
 damp Saturday, and exposed himself as he had no need 
 to do. Upon my remonstrance, he promised to be more 
 careful ; but that night, Saturday, February 16th, he suf- 
 fered intensely all night with pains in his back and limbs, 
 and passed a most restless night of suffering. He fell 
 asleep about daylight, aud, as was my habit when he had 
 been disturbed the night before, I usually let him sleep in 
 the moruing until he was fully rested. He had often told 
 me that this thoughtful indulgence, which he would not 
 allow himself, had done a great deal toward preserving his 
 services to the Church. 
 
 ' ' I was making my toilet as quietly as possible, to get 
 out to breakfast without rousing him, when he unexpectedly 
 asked me what was the hour. Telling him it was breakfast 
 time, I immediately urged him not to attempt to rise, but 
 full asleep if he could, and I would go and report his un- 
 comfortable night, and advise with the family that it would 
 be better for the bishop not to keep his appointment to preach 
 that day at 11 o'clock. But no; he would not listen to 
 my advice, and immediately rose and said he felt refreshed 
 from his morning sleep, and thought he could keep his en- 
 gagement. We went to the little church in Ocean Springs, 
 and he took for his text, ' For this light affliction, which 
 is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory.' I knew that was 
 his selected text; for, as was my frequent habit, I had 
 asked him what subject he intended to preach from, know- 
 ing that in all probability he would preach but once in 
 that place. I made an objection to his selection, simply 
 upon the ground that, as he would preach there but once, 
 I thought he had subjects or texts that would be more in- 
 spiring to the people, and might be more interesting. He 
 replied that he had selected that text for a pnrlicular ob- 
 ject, or, in other words, he had a particular olijci-t in view
 
 550 LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in selecting that text. He made no further remark, and 
 we dropped the subject. 
 
 "Arriving at the church, he rested a few moments in 
 the pulpit, awaiting the arrival of the carriage which had 
 returned to bring Sister Stuart a distance of about a mile. 
 He arose and read his text, paused, as was his habit, and 
 read it a second time. Then looking around over the congre- 
 gation, he asked if any one present would bring him a glass 
 of water, saying, whilst waiting, that he had passed a rest- 
 less night, and felt much more exhausted than he thought 
 he was. The water being brought him, he partook of it 
 quite heartily, and read his text a third time. This at- 
 tracted my particular attention, as I had never known him 
 to read his text a third time. At this moment a lady, sit- 
 ting in front of me, turned and said to me, ' Sister Kav- 
 anaugh, do n't let the bishop preach ; he is not able.' I 
 replied to her that he knew his own strength, and if he 
 felt unable he would sit down, which he did, requesting 
 Brother Nicholson to close the services in any way he 
 thought best, remarking, as he took his seat, it was the 
 third time in his life he had been forced to stop from 
 preaching from inability. After a short service, we re- 
 turned to our home, a physician kindly offering to accom- 
 pany the bishop to Colonel Stuart's. He immediately pre- 
 scribed for him, and attended him faithfully for ten days, 
 after which time we left for Columbus, Mississippi. We 
 hesitated before leaving for Columbus whether we had not 
 better return to Kentucky ; but after consulting the phy- 
 sician, he advised us to continue our stay in Mississippi un- 
 til the season was farther advanced. Hence we accepted 
 the invitation, having been given in January, to spend a 
 few weeks in Columbus. Our bishop stood the trip very 
 well, and we were most kindly received and made very 
 comfortable ; but, alas ! "in a few days his disease attacked 
 him again, and for two weeks it was alternately excruciat- 
 ing pain, and then relapse into heavy sleep. But I must
 
 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 551 
 
 draw a veil over the closing hours of his life. It was so 
 unlike our dear, patieut bishop, naturally so genial, so 
 kindly, so interesting in his character, that we so longed 
 to have a word, or even a look of recognition ; but it was 
 not permitted that we should be so gratified. There were 
 moments when I could have him talk to me ; but he 
 seemed so inclined to sleep when not suffering that my 
 ruling impulse was to let him rest. For many days before 
 he breathed his last he did not recognize any of the kind 
 friends who stood around his bedside or waited in the house 
 ready to be called on for any purpose. 
 
 " O, I can never cease to remember the kindness of the 
 good people of Columbus! Every thing which could be 
 thought of to administer to his recovery or comfort was 
 offered. But it could not keep him with us. He breathed 
 his last at the parsonage, where he was so kindly cared for 
 by Brother and Sister Scruggs and others, at 3 A. M., on 
 the 19th of March. We left Columbus on the morning of 
 the 20th, and brought his precious remains to his dear 
 State, his chosen city of residence, and placed them in a 
 beautiful lot in Cave Hill Cemetery. His body rests there, 
 but his glorified spirit is free and at large in those realms 
 above, the anticipation of which formed so grand and ex- 
 alted a theme in his ministry on earth." 
 
 When he left Kentucky, on the last day of October, 
 we little thought that we should see his face no more 
 in the flesh. Although his gait \vas less steady, we 
 hoped he would return in improved health and strength ; 
 but God ordained otherwise. He laid him down to 
 rest in the beautiful city of Columbus, far away from 
 home, yet among those who ministered t<? his wants, 
 :;n<l as far as possible alleviated his Bufferings. 
 
 The last letter we received from him was written 
 from New Orleans, and dated January the 25th, in
 
 552 BISHOP KAVANAUGH. 
 
 which he furnished us with a list of names that he 
 desired should be associated with his in the labor of 
 love he had committed to our hands. 
 
 For more than forty years between him and the 
 author the warmest friendship existed, and but few 
 persons felt the bereavement more than we. 
 
 With sword never dishonored, a Christian hero 
 has fallen in the midst of the battle with his armor 
 on, after witnessing the work of an ^hundred years 
 crowned with victory. 
 
 In his centennial address, delivered before the 
 Bowling Green District Conference, June 7th, Rev. 
 Dr. Messick said : " We look back through an hun- 
 dred years over the valley of death, covered with 
 Methodist graves preachers and laymen. At the 
 head of the valley a memorial stone rises, inscribed, 
 
 FRANCIS ASBURY, 1784. 
 
 At the foot of the valley a memorial stone rises, in- 
 scribed, 
 
 HUBBARD HINDE KAVANAUGH, 1884. 
 
 Brutus said of Cassius, on the fatal field of Philippi, 
 when Cassius fell, ' The last of the Romans;' and may 
 not Kentucky preachers say of Bishop Kavanaugh, 
 ' The last of the Romans,' AND ' THE NOBLEST ROMAN 
 
 OF THEM ALL ! ' " 
 
 THE END.
 
 <>v (X^ tyyti\ tc-o flu- 
 Uc
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 Series 9482