Ulysses S. Grant – Soldier, President, man of faith

American Minute with Bill Federer

Ulysses S. Grant was commissioned JULY 25, 1866, as General of the Army, the first ever to hold that rank and wear the four silver star insignia.

Popularity from Civil War victories resulted in him being chosen as Republican candidate for President in 1868.

Earlier, while farming in Missouri, Grant inherited a slave from his wife’s father, a 35-year-old man named William Jones. Though they were in a dire financial situation, Grant freed his slave in 1859 rather than sell him for badly needed money.

Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, limiting Democrat vigilante and lynching activity of freed slaves in the South.

Elected the 18th President, Grant supported ratification of the 15th Amendment guaranteeing freed slaves the right to vote.

Grant stated in his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1873:

“Under Providence I have been called a second time to act as Executive over this great nation…

The effects of the late civil strife have been to free the slave and make him a citizen. Yet he is not possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it. This is wrong, and should be corrected. To this correction I stand committed.”

Grant worked to stabilize the country’s currency by having it backed by gold, as during the Civil War the Federal Government printed an excess of paper money with no backing except ‘faith’ in the Federal Government.

In his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant stated:

“Every dollar of Government indebtedness should be paid in gold…

It looks as though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box in the precious metals locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, and which we are now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency that is now upon us.”

Of his Indian policy, Grant stated in his First Annual Message, December 6, 1869:

“The Society of Friends…succeeded in living in peace with the Indians in the early settlement of Pennsylvania…

These considerations induced me to give the management of a few reservations of Indians to them.”

President Grant stated in his 2nd Annual Message, December 5, 1870:

“Religious denominations as had established missionaries among the Indians…are expected to watch over them and aid them…to Christianize and civilize the Indians, and to train him in the arts of peace.”

President Grant wrote to Congress, January 1, 1871:

“Indians of the country should be encouraged…to adopt our form of government, and it is highly desirable that they become self-sustaining, self-relying, Christianized, and civilized.”

President Grant stated in his 3rd Annual Message, December 4, 1871:

“I recommend liberal appropriations to carry out the Indian peace policy, not only because it is humane and Christianlike…but because it is right.”

Grant, being the youngest President to that date, 46 years old, had a military training of trusting subordinates, leaving him ill-prepared for dealing with political intrigues, hidden motives and greed of Washington politicians.

As a result, a number of those in his Administration were involved in granting government favors and monopolies in exchange for bribes and insider deals.

Called the “Gilded Age” by Mark Twain, a friend of Grant’s, America saw:

-Immigrants arriving in record numbers;

-Railroads crossing the nation;

-Industry and manufacturing expanded;

-Iron, steel production rising dramatically;

-Western resources of lumber, gold and silver; and the

-Oil industry replacing the use of whale blubber oil, saving the whale.

Industrialists, called “Robber Barons,” amassed great wealth by providing more goods to people at cheaper prices, raising the country’s standard of living:

John Jacob Astor (real estate, fur);
Andrew Carnegie (steel);
James Fisk (finance);
Henry Flagler (railroads, oil);
Jay Gould (railroads);
Edward Harriman (railroads);
Andrew Mellon (finance, oil);
J.P. Morgan (finance, industrial);
John D. Rockefeller (oil);
Charles M. Schwab (steel); and
Cornelius Vanderbilt (water transport, railroads).

Ulysses S. Grant did not personally profit from being in office and even went bankrupt as a result of naively trusting investors.

Struggling financially, and suffering from throat cancer in his later years from cigar smoking, Grant was encouraged by Mark Twain to write his Memoirs of the Civil War in order to provide an income for his wife after his death.

Encouraged by the outpouring of support from people across the country, Ulysses S. Grant, who was a Methodist, wrote in 1884:

“I believe in the Holy Scriptures, and whoso lives by them will be benefited thereby. Men may differ as to the interpretation, which is human, but the Scriptures are man’s best guide…

I did not go riding yesterday, although invited and permitted by my physicians, because it was the Lord’s day, and because I felt that if a relapse should set in, the people who are praying for me would feel that I was not helping their faith by riding out on Sunday….

Yes, I know, and I feel very grateful to the Christian people of the land for their prayers in my behalf. There is no sect or religion, as shown in the Old or New Testament, to which this does not apply.”

Just days after delivering his final manuscript to the printer, Ulysses S. Grant died, July 23, 1885.

Nine years earlier, President Grant wrote to the Editor of the Sunday School Times in Philadelphia, June 6, 1876:

“Your favor of yesterday asking a message from me to the children and the youth of the United States, to accompany your Centennial number, is this morning received.

My advice to Sunday schools, no matter what their denomination, is: Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives.

To the influence of this Book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this must we look as our guide in the future.

‘Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.’ Yours respectfully, U.S. Grant.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

George Washington Carver was born July 12, 1865

American Minute with Bill Federer

George Washington Carver was born a slave during the Civil War, possibly around the date of JULY 12, 1865, but there are no records.

Within a few weeks, his father, who belonged to the next farm over, was killed in a log hauling accident.

Shortly after the Civil War, while still an infant, George, with his mother and sister, was kidnapped by bushwhackers.

Moses Carver sent friends to track down the thieves and trade his best horse to retrieve them.

The thieves left baby George lying on the ground, sick with the whooping cough. George never saw his mother and sister again.

Illness claimed the lives of his two other sisters and they were buried on the Carver farm.

George and his older brother, Jim, were raised in Diamond Grove, Missouri, by “Uncle” Moses and “Aunt” Sue Carver, a childless German immigrant couple.

In poor health as a child, George stayed near the house helping with chores, learning to cook, clean, sew, mend and wash laundry.

His recreation was to spend time in the woods.

George worked his way through school and eventually taught on staff at Iowa State College.

In the fall of 1896, George surprised the staff at Iowa State College by announcing his plans to give up his promising future there and join the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

The staff showed their appreciation by purchasing him a going away present, a microscope, which he used extensively throughout his career.

At Tuskegee, George assembled an Agricultural Department.

He visited nearby farmers and taught them farming techniques, such as crop rotation, fertilization and erosion prevention.

Carver noticed that the soil was depleted due to years of repeated cotton growth and produced very poorly.

Also, an insect called the boll weevil swept through the South, destroying cotton crops and leaving farmers devastated.

Farmers heeded Carver’s advice but soon had more peanuts than the market wanted, as peanuts were primarily used as animal feed.

George determined to increase the market for peanuts by discovering and popularizing hundreds of uses for them.

He did the same for the sweet potato, pecan, soybean, cowpea, wild plum, and okra.

George credited Divine inspiration for giving him ideas regarding how to perform experiments.

In the summer of 1920, the Young Men’s Christian Association of Blue Ridge, North Carolina, invited Professor Carver to speak at their summer school for the southern states.

Dr. Willis D. Weatherford, President of Blue Ridge, introduced him as the speaker. With his high voice surprising the audience, Dr. Carver exclaimed humorously:

“I always look forward to introductions as opportunities to learn something about myself…”

He continued:

“Years ago I went into my laboratory and said, ‘Dear Mr. Creator, please tell me what the universe was made for?’

The Great Creator answered, ‘You want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask for something more your size, little man.’

Then I asked, ‘Please, Mr. Creator, tell me what man was made for.’

Again the Great Creator replied, ‘You are still asking too much. Cut down on the extent and improve the intent.’

So then I asked, ‘Please, Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?’

‘That’s better, but even then it’s infinite. What do you want to know about the peanut?’

‘Mr. Creator, can I make milk out of the peanut?’

‘What kind of milk do you want? Good Jersey milk or just plain boarding house milk?’

‘Good Jersey milk.’

And then the Great Creator taught me to take the peanut apart and put it together again. And out of the process have come forth all these products!”

Among the numerous products displayed was a bottle of good Jersey milk. Three and-a-half ounces of peanuts produced one pint of rich milk or one quart of raw “skim” milk, called boarding house “blue john” milk.

On January 21, 1921, Carver addressed the United States House Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the United Peanut Growers Association on the use of peanuts to improve Southern economy.

George expounded on the many potential uses of the peanut as a means to improve the Southern economy.

Initially given only ten minutes to speak, George Carver so enthralled the committee that the Chairman said, “Go ahead Brother. Your time is unlimited!”

George spoke for one hour and forty-five minutes, explaining the many food products that could be derived from peanuts:

“If you go to the first chapter of Genesis, we can interpret very clearly, I think, what God intended when he said, ‘Behold, I have given you every herb that bears seed. To you it shall be meat.’

This is what He means about it. It shall be meat. There is everything there to strengthen and nourish and keep the body alive and healthy.”

The Committee Chairman asked Carver:

“Dr. Carver, how did you learn all of these things?”

Carver answered, “From an old book.”

“What book?” asked the Chairman.

Carver replied, “The Bible.”

The Chairman inquired, “Does the Bible tell about peanuts?”

“No, Sir” Carver replied, “But it tells about the God who made the
peanut. I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did.”

On November 19, 1924, Carver spoke to over 500 people at the Women’s Board of Domestic Missions:

“God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory.

The thing I am to do and the way are revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new.

Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless. Only alone can I draw close enough to God to discover His secrets.”

On March 24, 1925, Carver wrote to Robert Johnson, an employee of Chesley Enterprises of Ontario:

“Thank God I love humanity; complexion doesn’t interest me one single bit.”

On July 10, 1924, George Washington Carver wrote to James Hardwick:

“God cannot use you as He wishes until you come into the fullness of His Glory. Do not get alarmed, my friend, when doubts creep in. That is old Satan.

Pray, pray, pray. Oh, my friend, I am praying that God will come in and rid you entirely of self so you can go out after souls right, or rather have souls seek the Christ in you. This is my prayer for you always.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s bookshere.

Battle of Gettysburg ended July 3, 1863

 

American Minute with Bill Federer

 

Washington, D.C., was in a panic!

 

72,000 Confederate troops were just sixty miles away near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

 

After the Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee was under a time deadline.

 

Mounting casualties of the war were causing Lincoln’s popularity to fall, so if Lee could get a quick victory at Gettysburg, he could pressure Lincoln to a truce.

 

But this window of opportunity was fast closing, as Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was about to capture Vicksburg on the Mississippi, which would divide the Confederacy and free up thousands of Union troops to fight Lee in the east.

 

Unfortunately for Lee, his successful General, “Stonewall” Jackson had died two months earlier, having been mistakenly shot by his own men.

 

On the Union side, Lincoln replaced Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker with Maj. Gen. George Meade to command the 94,000 men of the Union Army of the Potomac.

 

The Battle of Gettysburg began July 1, 1863.

 

After two days of intense combat, with ammunition running low, General Robert E. Lee ordered “Pickett’s Charge.”

 

12,500 Confederate soldiers made a direct attack on the Union position at Cemetery Ridge.

 

After an hour of murderous fire and bloody hand-to-hand combat, the Confederates were pushed back and the Battle of Gettysburg ended JULY 3, 1863, with over 50,000 casualties.

 

The next day, Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant, giving the Union Army control of the Mississippi River.

 

When news reached London, all hopes of Europe recognizing the Confederacy were ended.

 

On July 5, 1863, President Lincoln and his son visited General Daniel E. Sickles, who had his leg blown off at Gettysburg.

 

General James F. Rusling recorded that when General Sickles asked Lincoln if was anxious before the Battle, Lincoln answered:

 

“No, I was not; some of my Cabinet and many others in Washington were, but I had no fears…

 

In the pinch of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going to happen,

 

oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one day, and I locked the door, and got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg.

 

I told Him that this was His war, and our cause His cause, but we couldn’t stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville.

 

And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him…”

 

Lincoln continued:

 

“And He did stand by you boys, and I will stand by Him.

 

And after that (I don’t know how it was, and I can’t explain it), soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into his own hands and that things would go all right at Gettysburg.”

 

Twelve days after the Battle of Gettysburg, July 15, 1863, Lincoln proclaimed a Day of Prayer:

 

“It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows…

 

I invite the people of the United States to…render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation’s behalf and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion.”

 

In his Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln ended:

 

“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom –

 

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

 

At the Gettysburg Battlefield, May 30, 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt said:

 

“On these hills of Gettysburg two brave armies of Americans once met in contest…

 

Since those days, two subsequent wars, both with foreign Nations, have measurably…softened the ancient passions.

 

It has been left to us of this generation to see the healing made permanent.”

 

In his 3rd Inaugural Address, President Franklin Roosevelt said, January 20, 1941:

 

“The spirit of America…is the product of centuries….born in the multitudes of those who came from many lands…

 

The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history…

 

Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact, into the Declaration of Independence, into the Constitution of the United States, into the Gettysburg Address…

 

If the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation’s body…lived on, the America we know would have perished.”

 

Bill FedererThe Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

 

111 — April 21 – This Day in Baptist History Past

The Separation was amiable

1867 – Brother Billy Hariss, colored, was ordained into the gospel ministry according to the minutes of The Baptist Church of Christ at Kiokee, Georgia.  This is but a small example of the relationship between the races during the early development of our nation, both before and after the Civil War.  Dr. John Clarke organized the Baptist church in Newport, R.I. in 1639, and “Jack”, America’s first black Baptist was baptized in 1652 and added to the membership of the church, being a “free man.”  However, many among the slave population in the South came to know Christ and outnumbered whites in the membership of Baptist churches 6-to-one in ratio.  The First Baptist Church of Richmond, VA elected Black deacons to watch over free and slave Negro members.  They also licensed certain colored men to “exercise their spiritual gifts in public.”  At least fifteen years prior to Carey ‘s sailing for India, George Lisle, the first Black ordained Black Baptist in America, went to Jamaica as a missionary.  Lott Carey, a member of First Baptist of Richmond purchased his freedom for $850 in 1813 and with Colin Teague, sailed in 1821 for Liberia and established the first Baptist church in Monrovia.  Prior to the Civil War, Abraham Marshall, pastor at Kiokee, ordained Andrew Bryan in Savannah.  It was also prior to the Civil War that John Jasper was saved and sent by his “master” to preach the gospel.  After the war the blacks desired their own places of worship and the white churches either gave them the old church and built new ones or helped the blacks build new ones.  The separation was amiable.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, p. 161.
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81 – March – 22 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

W.B. Riley

He fought the modernists
1861 – William Bell Riley, was born on this date just prior to the Civil War.  His father, favorable toward the South moved to Kentucky where William received Christ at seventeen years of age.  He graduated from Hanover College in Indiana in 1885.  He considered the legal profession but surrendered to a call to preach and entered Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1888.  After serving several small churches he was called to the First Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he remained until he retired after forty-five years in 1942.  While there the congregation grew from over 500 to more than 3,500 in membership.  The church was a great soul-winning center of evangelism.  Riley was also an author, debater and social critic.  He spent four months in evangelism away form his own pulpit annually.  He founded the Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School which grew to more than 800.  In 1938 he added the Evangelical Seminary.  He became a leader in the Fundamentalist/ Modernist battles that waged from the 1920’s – 40s.  He participated in founding the World Christian Fundamentals Association in 1919 and was President.  He helped form the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship in Buffalo in 1920.  In 1923 he assisted in forming the Baptist Bible Union.  He wrested the Minnesota Baptist Convention from the Northern Baptist Convention while President of the state body in 1944-45, but he was never able to lead his own church out of the liberal ridden Northern Convention which later became the American Baptist Convention.  However seven months before his death, he did resign personally from the Convention in May of 1947.  Dr. Harry A. Irionsides gave a great tribute of him at his death.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 116.
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75 – March – 16 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

First white woman to see Japan
1907 – Lucy Ann (St. John) Knowlton, the first white woman to see Japan died on this day.  Few in the little white frame building that housed the First Baptist Church of Napoleon, Michigan would have ever though that one of theirs would have such honor.  Lucy was the daughter of a deacon who married Miles J. Knowlton, a missionary to China, and saw the land of the “Rising Sun” as they were bound for that land, having sailed for Ningpo, China on Dec. 10, 1853.  The Knowlton’s arrived in China as the civil war was raging in that country and it lasted for many years.  Knowlton’s efforts in evangelism met with great success over the twenty-one years that they spent in Ningpo.  However, as the war swept into their area, Mrs. Knowlton saw things that literally shocked her to the point that her health collapsed and they had to return to America for restoration.  In two years her health was improved and they were able to return and they enjoyed a blessed spiritual harvest.  At the conclusion of fifteen years, and Lucy’s health deteriorating again they took another two year furlough in the States.  It was his only furlough and during this time he lectured in several colleges and seminaries where he also received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.  He was also able to preach in his home church in Vermont where he saw the joy of seeing converts baptized.  In 1872 the Knowlton’s sailed again for Ningpo from San Francisco and this time it was only a trip of four weeks since they didn’t have to sail around the Cape Horn.  However, after two years Dr. Knowlton died of exhaustion.    Lucy lived on for twenty more years and was invited often to speak to ladies groups concerning the challenges of China.  She went to be with her Lord from their daughter’s home in Chicago.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 107.
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61 – March – 02 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

A Baptist Warrior

 

1793 – Samuel (Sam) Houston was born on March 2, 1793.  After enlisting in the U.S. Army, he became a Lieutenant, lawyer, district attorney, adjutant general, congressman, and the governor of Tennessee.  He accomplished all of this before moving to Texas in 1832, where he arrived from Virginia.  Almost immediately he was elected major general of the Texas troops.  When war broke out with Mexico he dealt a crushing blow to Santa Anna and won Independence for the Republic of Texas.  He was elected governor of Texas in 1859.  Houston’s conversion was doubtless due primarily to his wife Maggie Lea prior to 1840 but didn’t make a public profession until 1854 when he was united with the Baptist Church of Independence, Texas and was baptized by Dr. R.C. Burleson on Nov. 19 of that year.  He regularly led in public prayer, was a regular attendant, even at prayer meeting service and when he lay dying at his home in Huntsville, he expressed to his family and friends his clear faith in his Savior.  After Texas was admitted to the Union he served for fourteen years in the U.S. Senate.  He was inaugurated governor of Texas on Dec. 21, 1859, and these became the most trying days for there was great ferment before the Civil War.  Houston was in the minority for secession but the majority of the people voted to secede on Feb. 23, 1861.  His office was declared vacant and he retired to his farm outside of Huntsville where he died on July 26, 1863.  Today Sam Houston is one of the most revered names in Texas and in the United States.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 86.

 

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357 – Dec. 24 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Nothing would stop him

 

 

 

1867 – Josiah Ripley Goddard and his wife Eliza Cushing Barker sailed for Ningpo, China. The 131 day journey was arduous, and the couple experienced much seasickness, but Josiah’s goal of serving in China was fulfilled. On Sept. 30, 1868 a baby boy was born, but Josiah’s lovely bride died the next day and the baby was soon to follow. This was the second wife that he had buried. His first wife, Emma Tripp, had died right after he had fought in the Civil War. He had enlisted soon after he had graduated from Brown University, his father’s alma mater. Josiah was the first born in the family of Josiah and Eliza Goddard, missionaries to Bangkok and Ningpo. He was born in Singapore on Sept. 7, 1840 as his parents were enroute to Bangkok. When Josiah Ripley was thirteen he was sent to America by his parents to live with a missionary widow, Maria Brown, but before the ship arrived she married Dr. William Dean, and they had moved away, and Worchester College where he was to train had closed its doors, and the young traveler was adrift on his own. It was not long before he received word of the death of his father in Ningpo, and then three years later his mother died, so he and his sister had to fend for themselves. They lived on corn meal mush for a long period of time. After Eliza died in Ningpo, Dr. William Dean and his daughter Fanny arrived for a visit from Bangkok. That visit culminated in the marriage of Josiah and Fanny. For more than thirty years he and Fanny labored in Ningpo. His crowning achievement was completing the work of his father in the translation of the Old Testament into the dialect of the area.  [This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 703-04. Francis Wayland Garland, Called to Cathay (New York: Baptist Literature Bureau, 1948), p. 67.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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85 – March 26 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

Joshua Brown Hutson was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia to Methodist parents.  Soon after his conversion to Christ he was immersed on Feb. 3, 1858, and it was said that he was the first Baptist in the Hutson family.  He was educated in country schools, but the Civil war made College impossible.  Following the war, the Byrne Street Baptist Church in Petersburg licensed him to preach in 1869.  They ordained him on Dec. 14, 1871.  Joshua married Miss Leonora J. Baugh on March 26, 1874 and became pastor of the Belvidere Baptist Church in Richmond which later relocated and changed its name to Pine Street Baptist.  At that time the church had 162 members.  By 1890 the church had grown to 1,110, and by the time of Pastor Hutson’s retirement it had grown to 1901 members.  During his lengthy ministry he had baptized 2,799 people, an average of one per Sunday.  He had made 50,605 pastoral calls, married 1,764 couples and conducted 2,202 funerals.  He had pastored Pine Street Baptist Church for forty-five years and six months.  He was asked by a gentlemen on the street how long his sermons were, he answered that on hot Sundays they were nineteen or twenty-minutes.  Although honors and titles came to him, he always remained to his flock, ‘Brother Hutson.’  It has been well said, “A home going preacher makes church going people.”

Dr. Greg J. Dixon, adapted from: This Day in Baptist History III (David L. Cummins), pp. 176-178.

 

08 – Jan. 08 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

It was printed posthumously
J.M. Carroll was born into extreme poverty on Jan. 08, 1852, in Monticello, AK to his Baptist preacher father, Benajah and wife Mary Carroll.  When J.M. was only six, the family moved on to Burleson County, TX.  Because of the Civil War and the freeing of their slaves which was all the estate they had, the family was impoverished.  Mr. Carroll died during the war and in 1868 his mother followed him in death when J.M. was 16 and he had to shift for himself.  At age 19 he married Sudie Wamble who was 16 and settled down to farming on rented land.  Early on he was called to preach and was licensed by the Liberty Baptist Church in Burleson, County.  Realizing the limitations of his education, having only gone to the 7th grade he entered Baylor University, and in five years, by doubling up, graduated with a Master of Arts degree.  Mary also entered Baylor College.  He received many honors having mastered Latin, Greek and Hebrew.  He was the pastor of several Baptist churches in Texas, including the cities of Anderson, Corpus Christi, Lampsas, and Taylor.  He resigned for a while to devote his time to the cause of prohibition.   He also served in various high offices of the Texas Southern Baptist Convention including the agent for Foreign Mission work.  He then was the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Waco until he resigned to do work for the endowment of Baylor.  However possibly most will remember him because he is the author of a little booklet – The Trail of Blood.  It was printed posthumously and as of March 2011 there have been more than 2, 400,700 printed.  His life surely shows what prayer, hard work, determination and grit can accomplish.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. IIII: Cummins /, pp. 15-17.