The herald and news. (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, August 02, 1912, Page SIX, Image 6
Rev. J. A. Sligh, D. D.,
His Long Life of Service
Autobiography of One Who Served St. Paul's
Church As Pastor Continuously 46 Years.
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Rev. J. A. Sligh, D. D., completed his forty-sixth year as
pastor of Saint Paul's Lutheran Church in Newberry County,
on the 12th clay of November, 1911. Services appropriate to
the happy, and at the same time, solemn occasion were held in
the church and Dr. Sligh reviewed, as best his health would
permit, his services as pastor of this church during all these
years.
The members of the church and friends of Dr. Sligh, presented
him, as a slight testimonial, with a handsome silver of"
tering. At the request of the members of the church, the presentation
was made by Col. E. H. Aull.
It was the purpose of The Herald and News, and that purpose
will still be carried out, to print the proceedings of this
farewell service,'but it was delayed, in order to get together
.1 more complete history of the congregation, and also a more
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REV. J. A. SLIGH, D. D.,
complete sketch of the life and labors of Dr. Sligfli. At the reouest
of the editor of The Herald and News, Dr. Sligh has prepared
an autobiographical sketch, and that sketch is printed in
I
i this issue.
At the request of a number of the members of the congregation.
the address of Mr. AuU, in presenting the testimonial to
-Mr. Sligh, will be printed in a subsequent issue, as well as articles
by Mr. T. J. Wilson, Mr. J. B. O'Xeall Hollowav and
,Mr. A. H. Kohn. These three last articles will be practically
a re-print of articles printed in The Herald and 'News a few
\ears ago. when the South Carolina Synod met at .St. Paul's.
All of the articles will be printed subsequently in pamphlet
form, and request has been made of Rev. Y. von A. Riser, to
write an article to be used in connection with the other publications.
Mr. Riser is at present pastor of the church and -was
for some time associate pastor "with Dr. Sligh, before Dr. ^
SHgh's resignation.
As these articles are of historic value, it has been attempted
to have them as nearly accurate as possible, and for that reason
there has been delay in the publication of Dr. Sligh's sketch,
as well as other matters connected with his pastorate.
I>r. J. A. Sugh's Autobiography. i
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I was born on the 12th of December, 1835, in four miles of
Ihe City of Newberry, where Capt. H. H. Folk now lives and
owns. I am the youngest of five children of my father and moth- er.
My mother was a Griffith before her marriage to my father,
and her mother was a Spence betore iier marriage 10 mv
grandfather, Griffith. 'My father being of German descent and
my mother one-half Irish and the other half English, makes
me half German and one-fourth English and one-fourth Irish
descent. My father sold the place where I was born in a year
or two after that event, and bought a place within a mile of.
Beth Eden church, now known as the Geo. A. Sligh place,
where our familv lived until I was five vears old. Then mv
father sold that place and bought a place a mile beyond Beth
Eden church, towards Newberry, known as the Little Cork
place. where we lived about three or four years, when lie sold
that place, and bought another known as the Swan place, which
was only a mile east of the former place. At this place we
lived for two or three years, one of those years being 1845,
krown as the dry year. Then he sold this place and bought
back the Little Cork place. This brings us up to the year 1847,
when his property, including negroes, horses, cattle and everything
except a little kitchen and house-hold furniture was sold
This was at a time when there was no hiding atvay
LVX UWw. ?
piopertv in the name of a man's wife, or any other subterfuge.
This came very near breaking the hearts of my father and
mother, especially my mother, who had inherited from her
father's estate a considerable fortune in that day. My father,
up to that time, was a sober, hard-working, industrious man.
He was of an accommodating nature, like myself, and had gone
surety for many unworthy people. He never recovered from
the shock received from that calamity, only living two or three
years after that, dying at the age of 45.
The first school I attended was about t\v? miles from Little
Cork, taught by an educated Irishman by the name of Bulger,
who boarded at my father's house. This was in the year of
1842 or 1843. I remember very well a young man by the
name of Ben Paysinger; who boarded with 'my father and
went to this school. He is the father of Lawson and Ben
Paysinger, now living in the City of Newberry. This school
was located near the residence of an old gentleman by the
name of Reason Davis* who ran a distillery. The building
was made of logs with the cracks all open and a wooden chimney,
with a floor full of cracks, and with a writing desk in the
rear of the building. The students, with tljieir goose-quill pens,
would drop them and they would fall through cracks in the
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ST. PAUL'S LUTHERAN CHURCH.
floor to the ground. The floor being very near the ground,
and I being a little boy, they would get me to go under the
house and get their pens. This school was well attended during
the winter months, but in the busy season of the farmers it
was -poorly attended. I remember very well that during
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many days there would be no one present, but my Drotner, sam,
myself and the teacher. At such times Mr. Bulger would
teach 'til noontime and then go to the distillery, telling my
brother and me to stay there until he returned. We knew,
however from sad experience, as soon as he got the taste of
apple and peach brandy it meant a big drunk on his part, and
there was nothing else left for us to do but to gather up our
bucket and books and go home.
The next school that I attended was at the Swan and Dobson
academy, which was run by those gentlemen as a high school.
Thic hnilrlincr was a lar?-e frame buildinsr, which was some
thing- unusual at that time. It'was located about one and onehalf
miles from Beth Eden churchvnear the residence of Milton
Spence. At this time Messrs. Swan & Dobson had moved
away, and the school was taught by *a man by the name of
Henry Cappleman, who, in my opinion, was a very poor teacher.
The next school I attended was taught' in a building one
mile from Little Cork, the teacher beiqg Mrs. Eliza Wilson,
the wife of one Dr. Wilson, who was the step-son of Henry /
Weston, who lived near the Major John P. Kinard place. I
loved Mrs. Wilson as a teacher. The next school'I attended
was taught in the Swan & Dobson academy, taught by Rev. E.
A. Bowles, who was pastor at that time of Beth Eden church.
My father and mother took me from that school and sent me to
the old log school house near Mr-; Davis's, which w^s taught by
W. \Y. Hoaseal, the father of Dr. \Y. G. llouseal, of Newberry,
4 and I want to say right here that W. W. Houseal was one of the
best men and teachers I ever went to school to, and I love his
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memory to tins clay, i maKe mention ui me umcicm
I have lived and the different schools I have attended in order
to show that I was brought up mainly in the Beth Eden neighborhood,
which will more fully appear as we proceed with this
sketch.
' This brings us up to the year 1848, when I was 12 years old.
My father moved within a mile of the town of Xewberry.
When I attended a school in said town taught by Miss Eliza
Lorrick, who was a step-daughter of Vincent Pope, the same
school being taught in his residence, which is now on College
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ST. PAUL'S PARSOXAOE.
street. I want to say that Miss Lor rick was a very good
teacher. Among the larger boys that attended this school was
C. F. Boyd, Pickens Boyd, his brother, and Eldridge McSwain,
the father, if I mistake not, of our present townsman, W. A.
McSwain.
The next school I attended was taught at the old Aveleigh
church, near the town of Newberry. The teacher of this
school was Miss Eliza Montgomery, the step-daughter of
James Crawford, of the town of Newberry. I wish to say
here that I loved Miss Montgomery, as she was a good teacher
and a kind-hearted lady. Among the larger boys who attended
this school was Hamp Hunt, a brother of my old friends,
Col. Isaac Hunt and General Hunt, and uncle of- my younger
friends, Walter and Hamp Hunt. Hamp and myself were
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good friends when school boys together, and that friendship
holds good in our old age.
The next school I attended was taught in Beth Eden academy,
the teacher being Williams Wilson. And the next was t
taught in the same academy by a brother of the former teach- w
er, Henry Wilson. And the next was conducted in the same
fAorlipr Kpincr Enhraim Williams. All of these
UVUUviil^ J HIV CVUViiVl v..?.. ? - - gentlemen
were graduates of Erskine College, and were excellent
teachers.
This brings us u|) to the year 1855, when I was
deeply impressed that I should preach the gospel, when
that young Christian man, the Rev. J. D. Hungerpeler, opened
up the way for me, and Revs. J. D. and J. T. Bowles, to enter
the classical school at Lexington C. H., which we did in January,
1855. I left home for that school with $2.50 in my r
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pocKers, ana two uiuiiicn^ ^uil^ kji uvuuug) tivb ?..u..
where the next was to come from. Fortunately for us all we
were received upon the funds of the South Carolina synod,
which allowed $75.00 a year for each one of us. I wish to
say 'here that the whole amount of money received by myself'
a? a beneficiary student, .was only about $250.00, which I have
paid back to the synod eight or tenfold in contributions to the
\arious benevolent causes of said synod. I attended this
school for 18 months, and then finding myself destitute of
funds I taught my first school of nine months in a school building
near the residence of old Uncle Johnnie Wise, now deceas- '
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ed. Uncle oeorge wise,-uic idmu vi ^vxaj^i. ?,T1ov.,
and grandfather of Law^on and Allen Wise, opened wide his
door and boarded me free of charge. He and his good wife,
Aunt Mary, and the rest of the family, were as .kind to me
and attentive to all my wants as though I was one of the family?and
continued to be my good friends as long as they .
lived.
After the close of my school in March, 1857, I return- t I
tn f-Vip "Rpth Eden neighborhood and boarded with my moth- f
*w er,
who had, after my father's death in 1850, moved back to f
her old settlement. I then went to school to Rev. Jacob Haw- 4
kins, who was then pastor of Beth Eden church. I continued ? '
as a student of this school to the close of that year, 1857. In
the beginning of 1858 I was offered a school near Jalapa. I
accepted the same and taught it for 10 months. My school
being out the last of October of that year, I was asked by the
Board of Trustees of Newberry College to assist Rev. Prof.
M. Whittle in-the preparatory department of the College. I
entered upon my duties as assistant teacher on November I, J
itnd taught for two months. In 1859, I became a student of ^
Newberry College, boarding with Capt. J. P. Aull. He and
his wife treated me as kindly as if I had been their own child.
In i860 I was asked by the board of trustees of Newberry College
to assist again in the preparatory department, giving one
and one-half hours in the forenoon and one hour in the after
f
noon in hearing the recitations of 40 boys, which composed
two classes. I accepted this position with the understanding
that I would be allowed to pursue my studies privately and
recite to one of the professors.
At the beginning of the next year I could have entered the
Junior class, but I had a. very urgent call in 1861 to teach a
school at Capt. Aull's steam mill, the patrons offering me a
stated salary for my services. To this I said no, that I prefer- i
ed to charge so much per day for each one in accordance with
+hr ?tnHiVs he or she nursiied. and if I could not sustain myself
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bv doing this I would close the school.
In August, 1861, of that year, I went to the Confederate
army as second sergeant of Company D, of the 13th Regiment,
which company I assisted in making up, and of which Col.
I. F. Hunt was elected Captain. In going to the army I left
a fine school, which was paying me an average of $5 per day.
I remember well a little red-haired, freckled-face boy coming % 1
to school to me. That same little boyv has become one of the
most successful farmers of the county, and is a thorough- ' *'
? r .... a ? ^ rsr->A nrArrrpccivfA 7Pn anrl rhnrrh mem- ' *
VVlUC'cHV anu i v vo.txvit v>4*u ???
ber, his name being John C. Neel.
I remained in the army until towards the last of April, 1862,
and then returned home and continued my studies in theology
under Dr. Smeltzer. In the following July or August t
commenced teaching school at St. Paul's church,/and continued
to teach the same up to 1866. A part of the time tfyat
I taught I boarded with Mr. John Riser, deceased. I never
was treated with more kindness than bv him and his family.
I think I owe it to myself, to my wife and children and to my
friends generally to tell why I left the Confederate army, especially
since my record as a soldier was severely attacked, when
I was a candidate for the senate. I will give here the very
words, as near as I can remember them, which I used in my
reply to said attack: "Yes, I left the army because I was sent
home by the surgeon and colonel of my regiment, with the ad_
T T Utint nr\A ninfp a rmrnbpr of mv
\ 1UC 1I1N ^apLctiii, X. X . xxuui) anu t^uikv ? j
friends in the company." Let me relate the circumstances %
connected with this discharge: I was sick nearly all the time
I was in the army. I was sent home several times on a furlough,
without asking for this favor. At'Iast Drs. Kennedy and -1^s
Kilgore offered me a discharge and urged me to accept it. I B
said to them I could not do that; that I had gone in the army H
of my own free will and accord, witn tne aetermmation or m
doing my duty as a soldier?that I still felt determined to S
give it a thorough trial and if after doing so in your opini6n ^
my various diseases would result in my death in a short time,
and if you will tell me so, and then give me a discharge I will
accept it with gratitude, but not until then. At two different ^
times I gave the same reason for not accepting as I have just
stated.
Finally Marion Boyd, who ?vas a most excellent church
ofi-prvv-arrU Ivramp the Rev. Marion Bovd. and v
ina.li, anu vy iiv^ ^
became Presiding Elder of his district of the M. E. Church
South, and had conferred upon him the degree of D. D.r who
was altogether worthy of these honors and even more than
these, came to me when I was lying sick in my tent, and said,
"Jeff, are you able to walk with me just a short distance. I ^
have something very important to tell you concerning you in- 1
dividually. Dr. Kennedy asked your friends in the company