Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-01-23
Staunt0n vindicat0r.
FRIDAY MORNING. JAN. %, 1891.
LOCAL.
DEAD AT NINETY-HHREE.
REV. A. A. EsKRIDGE. THE OLDEST
MEMBER OF BALTIMORE CON
FERENCE PASSES AWAY.

REV. A. A. E,SKRIDGE, THE OLDEST
MEMBER OF BALTIMORE CON
FERENCE PASSES AWAY.
A SKETCH OF HIS NINETY-THREE YEAR:
OF LIFE AND Ills sIXTY-ONE YEARS
AS A AIINISTER-THE EARLY DAYS
OF METHODIST IN AMERICA-A3 00-MILE
CIRCUIT AT A SALARYAoF 500 A YEAH
THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH-A
MINISTER WHO HAD RIDDEN THIRTY
CIRCUITS, INCLUDING ALL IN THE VAL
LEY-THE LAST HOURS OF GOOD LIFE.
&C, &C., &C.
Last Sunday morning as the hymn
''Asleep III Jesus" rose softly above the
heads of the dense audience, there was
borne up the aise of the Methodist
church the remains Of the Oldest men,
Der of Baltimore Conference, one who
had been minister of God for over half
century and who had attained to within
seven years of a century of life In this
community where the Rev. A. A. Eskridge
had lived since retiring from the active
ministry, his age, his gentle Christian cOur-
tesy and deeply religious Life had begotten
an affectionate reverence among the people,
and when it came to part with him forever,
the church was filled with people of all ages,
and all denominations were there to bid
him a mute farewell. All things were in
keeping-the garnered wheat borne by the
pail bearers; the coffin borne by his sons
who in childhood lare ba h,J in Il io
arms, and by the husbands Of the daughters
he had trained to womanhood; the sermon
preached by clergyman long since gray.
but to whom the dead minister had been as
a father in his younger days: and the clos
ing prayer, offered up by another gray
haired minister who all through his life
had found in this silent minister in the
coffin, friend and father
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.
Rev. Alfred Augustus Eskridge was
born at Centerville, Fairfax county. Va,
March LIST, 1898, and had he lived few
weeks longer would have completed his
ninety third year. He was the Oldest mem
Der Of the old Baltimore Conference of the
M. e. Church, unless the Rev. VIM. B.
Edwards, who at the division cast his lot
with the Church, North, is still living
these two being the Oldest members of that
body. He was the oldest member. without
exception, of the Baltimore Conference of
the M. E. Church, South. He was licens-
ed to exhort on the Goth Of November. 1929,
the license being signed by Chas. B. lip
petit, then the pastor at Leesburg. In a
few weeks from that time he was licensed
to preach, and in 1882 was ordained Dea-
con by Bishop McKendree. His certificate
of ordination which he kept to the day
of his death reads as follows:
'sKnow all men by these presents that l.
William McKendree, one of the Bishops of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in America
under the protection Of Almighty God and
with a single eye to His glory, by the impo-
stion of my hands, and prayer, have this
day set apart Alfred A. Eskridge for the office
of Deacon in the said Methodist Episcopal
Church, man whom judge to be well quail
flied for that work, and l do hereby recon-
mend him to all whom it may concern as a
proper person to administer the ordinance of
Baptism, Marriage, and the Burial of the
Dead in the absence of an Elder, and to feed
the flock of Christ, SO long as his spirit and
practice are such as become the gospel
SIN testimony whereof | have hereunto set
my hand and seal this 18th day of November,
1882 VIM. MCKENDREE,
Baltimore.
The document is stained with the yellow
of time, and on corner Of it, on little
spot of red sealing wax, the initials Of the
Bishops name are still discernible. On
the 10th Of March, 1884, MI. Eskridge was
ordained an Elder by Bishop J. o. Andrews.
THE DAYS OF HIS EARLY MINISTRY.
In that day Methodism lay chiefly along
the States of the Atlantic seaboard, except
in New England, where there was none to
tionalists having that ground. There
We're few stations in that day and the
Methodist ministers were nearly all on
circuits. The northumberland circuit was
Mr.. Eskridge's first. 1t extended from
the forks of the Susquehanna up to the
State of New Y Ork, and was about three
hundred miles around. There were but
five Oh six churches in the whole circuit,
and the preaching Of the Methodist minis
ters was chiefly done in farmhouses and
schoolhouses. He had twenty-four appoint
ments to fill on that circuit in four weeks
There were four hundred conversions in
that circuit during his first year. The
body of the people were either Presbyteri-
ans Oh Episcopalians and there had been but
few Methodists. To-day that circuit is
divided into three circuits, with two or
three stations in each. His annual salary
for riding that circuit was to be 800, but
he only got $65 of it. He rode it on horse
back and his saddlebags contained every
thing he had in the world.
His next circuit-he had thirty of them
in all during his active ministFy-was ST.
Mary in Maryland, and it extended away
out to Point Lookout. Another large cir
cult he had, extended into West Virginia
1t included a point then called Point
Lookup, on top Of the Warm Springs
Mountain. He had ridden every circuit in
the Valley Of Virginia from Winchester up
to Christiansburg. His first station was
at Ebenezer church in Washington city i'll
1874 There were but two Methodist congre-
cations at the National Capital then, he
having charge of the white one and Rev.
Solomon McMullen having charge of the
colGred. In 1857, the old Baltimore Con
ference was divided into Baltimore and
East Baltimore Conferences, and he was
4 s,,4a @,
his connection with it until the commence
ment of the civil war. His first appoint
ment in it was at Williamsburg. Pa. When
the war came on, being Virginian with
Sonthern nr0cIiYitieS he found himself nro